With the growing size of academic library Web sites, constant updating, authentication issues, and organization are increasingly difficult for libraries to maintain user-friendly sites. This usability study examines how students use electronic research libraries such as Questia, which has been designed to replace traditional libraries and compare it with large university library Web sites. Students were asked to perform tasks at two electronic research library sites and then at two large university library Web sites. Major implications of this study are that design features incorporated by Web site designers can drastically affect the success of students doing research. nyone who has worked in an academic library over the past few years has agonized over the library home page and how best to present library resources to students. Professional Web designers have developed guidelines that work well for companies that have robust resources to implement extensive user studies and to hire specialists. However, for most librarians, the Web design principles and access to digital resources are still the "librarians know best model," where users are expected to know how information is organized and to know the meaning of library terminology. The "librarians know best model" is advantageous only for the library with a limited amount of digital resources that can be attractively organized and displayed and easy to understand. Yet, many times, libraries acquire more and more electronic and digital databases and products, which makes constant updating, authentication issues, and organization, while keeping things user friendly, a constant challenge.To answer this challenge, a new generation of one-stop electronic research libraries is cropping up with direct marketing designed to cut out libraries completely and target university students. Do these for-profit research centers provide students easier access to online materials? Do these sites entice students to use their resources more readily than do library home pages? That is the question this article addresses.
Traditional reference service, where the librarian gives the patron the right or wrong answer to a question, has slowly begun to change. With the emergence of electronic resources, digitalization, Web resources, and full text, many students need more of a consultation on where to get started than on which option is correct. Librarians at the University of Arizona Libraries strive to help students gain user sufficiency and infor mation literacy. When on the reference desk, they tend to teach rather than do the work for the students. As the libraries are customer cen tered, it was decided to conduct an evaluation of its reference services. The evaluation involved using a combination of surveys, focus groups, and unobtrusive observation worksheets with a small sample of stu dents. The results were very meaningful.
The Creative Genius o f Community Sherman Alexie, award-winning author, poet, screenwriter, and Spokane/Coeur d'Alene Indian from Washington state, celebrates the collaborative relationship of the community, the historical record, and the storyteller. His books, poetry, and films consistently tell the story that needs to be told-that all communities are enriched through the sharing of our lives. The library, as a house of stories preserving the past, providing a home for the present, and forging partnerships with the community, is essential to our democratic society.
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