Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz?: An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University Presented by Angela Horne, Cornell University and Steve Adams, Princeton University

Research Team Cornell University: Michael Cook, mnc2@cornell.edu Lance Heidig, ljh5@cornell.edu Angela Horne, akh8@cornell.edu Chris Miller, cjm267@cornell.edu Princeton University: Steve Adams, smadams@princeton.edu Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Cornell University:

Michael Cook, mnc2@cornell.edu

Lance Heidig, ljh5@cornell.edu

Angela Horne, akh8@cornell.edu

Chris Miller, cjm267@cornell.edu

Princeton University:

Steve Adams, smadams@princeton.edu

This Session Tiny bit of history Methodology Results Future areas of research Discussion! Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Tiny bit of history

Methodology

Results

Future areas of research

Discussion!

What are LibGuides? Developed and promoted by Springshare.com: “ Web 2.0 library knowledge sharing system” “ Facebook, Widgets, RSS feeds, Podcasts, etc. – these are all available thru LibGuides” “ Best thing since sliced bread” (subscriber quote) Do we believe Springshare’s hype that: “ Libraries are “cool again” – with LibGuides!”? Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Developed and promoted by Springshare.com:

“ Web 2.0 library knowledge sharing system”

“ Facebook, Widgets, RSS feeds, Podcasts, etc. – these are all available thru LibGuides”

“ Best thing since sliced bread” (subscriber quote)

Do we believe Springshare’s hype that:

“ Libraries are “cool again” – with LibGuides!”?

Tiny Launch History Cornell University: Trial begins: October 2007 Purchase: January 2008 Soft launch: Summer session 2008 Official launch: Fall semester 2008 Princeton University: Trial begins: September 2007 Purchase and launch: December 2007 Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Cornell University:

Trial begins: October 2007

Purchase: January 2008

Soft launch: Summer session 2008

Official launch: Fall semester 2008

Princeton University:

Trial begins: September 2007

Purchase and launch: December 2007

Methodology Surveyed in Fall 2008: Faculty Library guide authors Students Seven to nine questions per target group Likert scale with some open-ended questions (including demographic) Data from Springshare analysed with Stata and MS Excel Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Surveyed in Fall 2008:

Faculty

Library guide authors

Students

Seven to nine questions per target group

Likert scale with some open-ended questions (including demographic)

Data from Springshare analysed with Stata and MS Excel

Reponse Rate Surveyed a sub-set of all LibGuide authors and users Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University *E-mailed to 15 in the target segment. Segment Cornell Princeton Faculty* 18 9 Library staff* 12 6 Students 38 44

Surveyed a sub-set of all LibGuide authors and users

Top Findings - Faculty 100% - guide was valuable for class 96% - increased faculty awareness of class resources 85% - perceive improved student assignments 81% - encouraged usage of guide to class 67% - interested in creating/co-creating guides Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

100% - guide was valuable for class

96% - increased faculty awareness of class resources

85% - perceive improved student assignments

81% - encouraged usage of guide to class

67% - interested in creating/co-creating guides

Top Findings - Students Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University 94% - guide was valuable for class 95% - increased student awareness of class resources 90% - perceive helped with student assignments 90% - would like LibGuides for more courses 83% - liked Web 2.0 features

94% - guide was valuable for class

95% - increased student awareness of class resources

90% - perceive helped with student assignments

90% - would like LibGuides for more courses

83% - liked Web 2.0 features

Top Findings - Staff 94% - better authoring tool 83% - saves time 72% - Web 2.0 value 53% - created more guides 50% - co-create w/faculty and/or students Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

94% - better authoring tool

83% - saves time

72% - Web 2.0 value

53% - created more guides

50% - co-create w/faculty and/or students

And How Do They Really Feel? “ [I’d like a] guide on negotating with librarians for curently [sic] unavailable resources, ie, how to convince librarians to spend lots of money on new subscriptions for to things the school doesn't yet have access to.” (Princeton student) “ It seems like a complete waste of time and money for the library system and library staff.” (Cornell staff) “ In hindsight, it would have been helpful to have more fully integrated / referred students back to [sic] libguide material. Also, we have a lot of access to librarians and get a lot of help from them. With less contact, libguide would have been more needed.“ (Princeton faculty) Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

“ [I’d like a] guide on negotating with librarians for curently [sic] unavailable resources, ie, how to convince librarians to spend lots of money on new subscriptions for to things the school doesn't yet have access to.” (Princeton student)

“ It seems like a complete waste of time and money for the library system and library staff.” (Cornell staff)

“ In hindsight, it would have been helpful to have more fully integrated / referred students back to [sic] libguide material. Also, we have a lot of access to librarians and get a lot of help from them. With less contact, libguide would have been more needed.“ (Princeton faculty)

Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University Springshare Data We would like to acknowledge Slaven Zivkovic and Marc Bertone for the custom dataset that they provided.

Guide Type Frequency Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University The content of each guide was evaluated to determine the guide type. Guide Type Cornell Princeton Course Guides 168 (63.40%) 92 (63.45%) Subject Guides 81 (30.57%) 38 (26.21%) Technology Guides 9 (3.40%) 8 (5.52%) Custom Guides 7 (2.64%) 7 (4.83) Total 265 (100%) 145 (100%) Key: Frequency (Percentage)

Use Data By Guide Type Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University All data ranges from the beginning of each institution's LibGuides subscription to March 1, 2009. Cornell Princeton Guide Type Mean Hits/Guide Mean Guide Hits/Day Mean Hits/Guide Mean Guide Hits/Day Course 428.09 4.51* 316.67 1.52 Subject 396 2.24 935.74 3.73 Custom 619.86* 3.23 1102.43* 6.463* Technology 599.44 2.88 583.50 4.30 All 429 3.73 532 2.49

Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University So Some of the Buzz is Justified… Overall we are satisfied with the product and recommend it.

Are LibGuides Subscribers Tapping the Potential of the “2.0" Features? Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University But there are more issues to explore…

Participatory Culture? Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University All data ranges from the beginning of each institution's LibGuides subscription to March 1, 2009. Institution Mean Comments/Guide Guides With Comments Tags Assigned per guide Guides with tags Cornell 3.75 47 of 265 (17.8%) 1.96 162 of 265 (61%) Princeton 0.12 11 of 145 (7.6%) 0.75 28 of 145 (19%)

Number of Guides that Use Each Box Type Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University Institution Linked Boxes (Reuse) Del.ico.us Tag Cloud Books From Catalog User Submitted Links Remote Script Google Search Feedback Google Books Search Google Scholar Search Cornell 49 1 68 81 1 4 8 4 8 Princeton 45 1 7 1 2 1 2 8 10 Institution Total # of Guides Rich Text Simple Links Links & Lists Files And Documents RSS Events Videos Podcasts Poll Cornell 265 259 91 144 11 47 3 107 146 119 Princeton 145 140 34 75 12 19 0 5 0 0

Next Steps Share results with colleagues Offer additional training and sharing of best practices/lessons learned at both institutions Encourage our peers to embrace LibGuides’ Web 2.0 potential while rethinking our expectations of Web 2.0 Encourage Springshare to offer more refined statistical options for guide authors Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Share results with colleagues

Offer additional training and sharing of best practices/lessons learned at both institutions

Encourage our peers to embrace LibGuides’ Web 2.0 potential while rethinking our expectations of Web 2.0

Encourage Springshare to offer more refined statistical options for guide authors

Future Research Areas Increase # participating libraries More robust survey methodology Deeper statistical analysis of Springshare data Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Increase # participating libraries

More robust survey methodology

Deeper statistical analysis of Springshare data

Questions? Do the Outcomes Justify the Buzz? An Assessment of LibGuides at Cornell University and Princeton University

Questions?