Context:
Recent publications have identified as many as 81 ethnographic studies aimed at improving academic library services and facilities; findings from these studies are being published at an increasing rate (Khoo, 2012). Professional organizations have subsidized an increase in trained practitioners who continue to expand this body of literature. These trends are in direct acknowledgement of underlying forces in academic libraries:
- Unprecedented changes in publishing and technology
- Intensive disintermediation and personalization, driven by powerful technology and entertainment companies and delivered on a variety of mobile devices
- The most intensive economic dislocation since the Great Depression, and with it, unprecedented budgetary pressure on higher educational institutions
- The conundrum of the book: Printed books are at risk of being dismissed as obsolete; electronic books are still poorly designed and little-used.
The cumulative effects of all of these factors on our users’ preferences and expectations are complex and unpredictable. The risk of miscalculating resource allocation decisions, which translate into staffing, service, and facility designs, is very great. There is concern about a winnowing of less competitive institutions; understanding our users has become a matter of survival.
Experience, education, subject expertise, and other attributes we prize in academic librarianship do not bestow an ability to read minds. Our assumptions about users’ abilities, needs and preferences are often misguided (ERIAL Project, 2012). Statistics used to calculate the value of collections, facilities and services are essentially flat; they tell us nothing about why users do what they do. Deeper understanding can only come through direct interface with our users.
Mission:
We aim to harness the unique potential of ethnographic methodology to investigate the “thorny problem” of academic library users’ misgivings about electronic book collections and interfaces.
We embrace inter-institutional collaboration by design. We will run an ethnographic study in parallel at our three institutions. Doing so will bring out the unique aspects of our local conditions and populations. It may also reveal commonalities and themes that shed light on broader library challenges and opportunities.
We expect to assemble a toolkit that other local, regional or national library organizations can employ to address their own critical questions. One aspect of this work will be to synthesize design thinking with principles of Evidence Based Librarianship (Howard and Davis, 2011). Doing so will maximize benefits to the entire library community.
Goals:
Refine our problem statement [by mid-March]
Pilot some questions for an ethnographic study, and practice analyzing the preliminary data [by early April]
Frame our initiative in terms of creating a reusable toolkit, attached to a business plan, with particular emphasis on inter-institutional collaboration [through and immediately following the Symposium in mid-April]
Identify appropriate technologies for the toolkit [through prototype development/testing in May]
Consider financial/sustainability issues and refine concepts for demonstration [through end of the Studio in August]
Composition and Roles:
The prototype team will be comprised of three NITLE Innovative Scholars who have varying backgrounds in information technology and libraries at liberal arts institutions. This range in background will facilitate the team’s understanding and actions as to how to best address specific (unplanned) issues emanating from the study and develop solutions to any problems encountered during the study. Team leadership will rotate on a monthly basis.
Jeff Rosedale – Designer, Team Leader in March & June
- Will assist in building the ethnographic study design.
- Will contribute experience in running inter-institutional projects
- Will work at customizing pitch language and approaches to various purposes and audiences
Diane Klare – Researcher, Designer, Business Plan expert, Team Leader in April & July
- Will synthesize existing ethnographic studies at undergraduate institutions thematically in order to inform NITLE team members of applicable research-based practices/methods that fit needed criteria for current project objective
- Will assist in building the ethnographic study design.
- Will assist other team members in developing a standard methodology/template for use during the prototype study that can ultimately be applied to multiple liberal arts institutions
- Will be responsible for assisting in issues related to addressing Institutional Research Board requirements at all institutions involved in the study
- Manage budget [if any]
Beth Du Pont – Technologist, Designer, Team Leader in May & August
- Will assist in building the ethnographic study design.
- Will provide direction on information technology resources used to facilitate the ethnographic study.
- Will be responsible for determining the appropriate software and hardware to use in the interview portion of the ethnographic phase based on costs and determined needs.
- Will investigate and recommend feasible technology methods for sharing information across institutions based on budgetary considerations.
Resources and Support:
- Budget- To be determined. Free tools and resources will be used at every opportunity.
- Team members will work with appropriate colleagues at their respective institutions to authorize and launch prototype studies
Operations:
- Team meetings will occur each Thursday at 4pm Eastern Time using Oovoo video conferencing software.
- Team members will notify each other if presence at regularly scheduled meeting is not possible well in advance of an upcoming meeting.
- Each member will be expected to present a status report pertaining to his/her responsibilities at the regularly scheduled meetings.
- A summary of meeting results will be provided/posted to facilitate communication. Responsibility of providing summaries will fall to the team leader.
- In addition to regularly scheduled virtual meetings, team members will communicate to each other asynchronously using appropriate technologies. RSS and other means of automating communication tracking will be employed when possible.
- Each member will actively participate in ethnographic work on their own campus based on the methodology developed by Diane Klare and approved by all team members in advance of both the pilot study and prototype development.