Users Speak Event

OUR USERS SPEAK
An event sponsored by the LAUC-B Public Service Task Force

Friday, October 23, 1998

Note: A tape of this event is available this semester at the Media Resources Center, 1st floor of Moffitt Library. There are two tapes totaling approx. 1 1/2 hours in length. Introductory comments by Chris Lunde, Aviva Cushner (read by Alison Brandt) and the last minute of Alan Dundes' introductory comments are missing from the tape. The acoustics of the Lipman Room are not ideal but the tape should be audible. (Ask for PSTF 1 and 2 on COURSE RESERVE at the Media Resources Center.)

MODERATOR: Deborah Sommer, Environmental Design Library

PANELISTS:
*Prof. George Chang, Nutritional Sciences
*Jamie Beckman, Undergraduate Student, Political Science and Student Library Employee
*Theresa Whitener, Graduate Student and Graduate Student Instructor, History
*Prof. Alan Dundes, Anthropology and Folklore
*Aviva Cushner, Undergraduate Student, Sociology and Social Welfare
*Chris Lunde, Graduate Student, Research Assistant and former Graduate Student Instructor, Comparative Biochemistry

Debby Sommer's Introduction:
Debby introduced the PSTF series of events on public service, noting that as a library we want to provide the best service to our students and faculty and we're proud of our successes. We're faced with the challenge of how to sustain that excellence in an increasingly complex and dynamic library research environment -- and with decreased staff. We need to ask ourselves, what exactly *is* "best service" in our current environment, and what should public service look like in the next 10 years?

Part I: Panelist's self-introductions as library users. (Panelists were asked to speak for 5 minutes about what role the libraries play or don't play in their teaching and research).

Prof. George Chang
Prof. Chang described his library use as falling into two categories: "work" and "fun". Using the library for work includes his teaching activities (giving students library assignments which require them to browse journals, surf the web and critique the literature), cold searching on a topic, which he mainly does from his office, and talking with reference librarians and others as a part of research. He emphasized that human beings are an amazing resource, and librarians have referred him to other researchers who are working on similar topics.

Prof. Chang also views the library as a place of fun because he makes a habit of coming in to browse the new journals, and this can be an opportunity for serendipity and a social event as well. He runs into friends and colleagues and makes new friends. He also met his wife while browsing. (Several panelists commented on the value of the library as a community center).

Jamie Beckman
Ms. Beckman found her first experience with the UCB library to be frustrating. She found that when she searched Gladis by subject, she retrieved mostly old and outdated materials. She thought that Melvyl would be too difficult to use, and so didn't take advantage of its features until later on in her career as a Berkeley student.

Students and student library employees alike complain about the ineffectiveness of checking patrons bags when they leave the library; they also dislike the invasion of privacy.

Ms. Beckman has observed that most undergraduates don't use the library for research, which explains why many of them don't know about circulation services and electronic resources. Students are much more focused on issues of comfort and accessibility--study space and hours of availability. Ms. Beckman concluded by saying that the library has a lot to offer undergraduates, but that better pointers are needed to direct students to these services.

Theresa Whitener
Ms. Whitener has had extensive experience with the UCB library and its services, beginning when she was an undergraduate with a double major in History and Art History. During that time, between 1994 and 1995, she did four large research projects and describes the experience she had with the library as a joy. However, over the past two years as a graduate student, she has observed a deterioration in service and access to collections which has been devastating to her work at Berkeley, to the extent that she considers it unfeasible to do her dissertation research here, and regrets having begun her graduate studies at UC.

Most significantly, the closing of the Reference Room and the dismantling of Moffitt Reference have negatively impacted her research, as so much is now inaccessible in the old Reference Room. This has also had a negative effect on her teaching activities. Her approach has been to send undergraduate students to the Info Center to browse, but she has observed a lack of knowledge in some of the reference staff, who have directed students to online searching rather than the reference materials they need to get their initial ideas. She attributes this to under-staffing and lack of training.

Ms. Whitener described her browsing activities, emphasizing the importance of browsing through physical materials and the serendipity that occurs while doing this, which she finds does not occur in online searches. Browsing is an important part of both deciding on and starting most research projects. She said that the configuration of the Main Stacks collection, the use of compact shelving, and the fact that an increasing proportion of materials are in storage has made browsing "generally impossible".

Prof. Alan Dundes
Prof. Dundes first praised the library's ILL services, which he uses heavily and described as excellent. He talked about the value of branches, stating that the Library should never consider closing branches. He never uses BAKER or Graduate Student Researchers because of the importance in his research of browsingits the book next to the book hes looking at that often ends up being most useful. He described a few of his "pet peeves", which included the fact that the Main Library doesn't leave runs of journals intact (sending older issues to storage), recent cancellations of journals, and the fact that Faculty can't check out books from the Law Library.

Aviva Cushner
Ms. Cushner could not be present on the panel, but she sent her notes which were read by Alison Brandt.

Ms. Cushner is a 4th year double major in Sociology & Social Welfare, and she transferred to Berkeley from USCB. She took a "Library Skills" (interdisciplinary studies 14) class while at UCSB, which was a one unit, one hour per week P/NP course on using the library. The information from this course has proven to be invaluable in her college career. She feels that as a result of the class she possesses the knowledge and skills to maximize the resources available to her, to lessen the time wasted trying to figure out systems. She is less intimidated by the overwhelming amounts of information and the tools used to find it than she might have been with out the class, feels comfortable experimenting and figuring out what she needs, and is able to ask for help when she needs to.

Ms. Cushner would like to see more comfortable seating in the less trafficked areas of the library. She is a user of reference services and has found Berkeley librarians to be "helpful, friendly, and inspiring".

Chris Lunde
Chris described three ways that he uses the library:
-when exploring a new topic area (finding review articles, books, research articles)
-continued topical use (finding new research articles)
-as a comfortable study space

For Mr. Lunde, the most important issues are speed and access. He does his online research from his lab. He uses telnet systems when available (web is too slow and involves too much clicking), and has found Web of Science to be the best new available tool, especially for Chemistry topics which are not in Biosis/Medline, and since it includes abstracts. He uses online journals when they are available, and would like to see more of them in the future, as they represent an 80% time savings over going to the library. Gladis is useless to him because of its rigidity.

Part II/III: Moderator's questions and questions from the audience. (Not all are included here).

Q: What would a perfect moment in the library be for you?

TW: To go to a reference room with all of the needed materials there, knowing for certain that there would be an experienced reference librarian there. To have a librarian in the Periodical Room who is knowledgeable about the hard copy indexes, and to have microform readers that all work. To continue to get great service from ILL and NRLF.

Ms. Whitner told of a devastating experience she had on her first use of the carrel system in the Main Stacks. After several months of preparatory work, her research materials simply disappeared from the carrel and could not be found. She had to start entirely over with a new project, and has never been able to compensate for the gap this left in what she was working on. She cannot ever trust the carrel system again in its present state, and therefore has no way to use large materials that cannot practically be moved somewhere else. She and a number of other graduate students feel unable to conduct research confidently in this environment that is open to the public. The availability of a secure carrel would be part of a perfect moment in the library.

CL: Over all pretty good now. Perfect moment would include reference help in the Chemistry Library, (although hiring Mary Ann as the Chemistry librarian has partially alleviated this problem). Better computer performance.

GC: "Bioscience Library is pretty close to a perfect moment already". He attributes this to user-conscious librarians and other library staff (he noted the vigilant student workers there).

JB: A big sign that says "The library is here", more clear marking of databases (the distinction between Gladis and Melvyl, NRLF records that tell patrons what to do to get items from storage, computers with printers, library open 24 hours, more signage in the Main Stacks (carrels, call numbers).

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Q: What is a representative reference encounter for you?

GC: Library staff are great networking contacts--they know what is going on across campus and have good memories!

CL: Consults reference staff for searching tips.

JB: Experience is limited (had heard there were long lines).

TW: Has found that for her History 7b students, the individual research appointments offered by the library are helpful.

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Q: What is your assessment of library services, both good and bad?

TW: Good: low tech yet reliable Gladis & Melvyl systems, ILL. Bad: Arrangement of Main Stacks. Lots of tiny obstacles that contribute to lost opportunities. (People won't do things if they take too long). An example: Book Review Index in Moffitt shelved in the stacks on a low shelf (one needs to be able to look through many of the large volumes in tandem).

GC & CL: Would like to see email notices.

CL: Likes Encyclopedia Britannica, would like free access to Chemical Abstracts, would like to get materials faster through ILL.

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Q: If the choice is between use of compact shelving or NRLF, (due to lack of space), which should the library choose?

TW & CL: Get more faculty input on what to send to shelving. Be more thoughtful about how to allocate the compact shelving.

JB: It seems that architectural considerations dominated over books and users.

TW: This choice represents a failure in planning, management, and overall understanding of user requirements in such an enormous space. While the new space has plenty of air and light, unfortunately,
it utterly fails in its primary function for researchers in the humanities and social sciences. (Theresa noted: I am only one graduate student. But I can assure anyone who is interested that my experiences are exemplary and that students in History are leaving because of problems such as I tried to describe).

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Q: We are moving to more and more use of electronic resources. How does this affect your teaching & research?

GC: When you move to online, you lose some of the best (social) aspects of the human activity of browsing.

CL: Access in the online world needs to be similar to physical--look at quality issues! There is a big variation in quality among PDF files, for example. Note: Mr. Lunde made some additional comments about online materials after the forum. They are included below.

AD: Don't forget about the Humanities & Social Sciences! Some smaller, less well funded research areas such as Folklore will never move completely online.

-------Themes & Issues that emerged from this session:-------
*User-centered design principles are clearly evident in physical layout of Bioscience library, including configuration of collections, service points, study space, etc. Could this approach be better applied in Main/Moffitt?
*Browsing & serendipity are very important activities for our users, whether in the social sciences, humanities, or sciences. They are the *primary* way in which many projects get started. These user activities need to be seriously considered in library planning.

-------User's suggestions that emerged from this session (possible action items):-------
*Allow people under 18 into the stacks. Make the library & stacks more "welcoming".
*Offer a 1 unit P/NP course on library skills ("Bib 1").
*Have GLADIS/Pathfinder screens explain more clearly what NRLF means and what patrons options are re books that are checked out.
*Obtain more faculty and graduate student input on what goes to NRLF and what is on compact shelving; re-organize the Main Stacks so higher use items are on fixed shelves.
*More outreach generally (and via departmental e-mail lists).
*Patron-initiated NRLF requests.
*Establish secure carrels close to the Main Stacks.
*Improve computer performance (public access PCs).
*Printers in the library.
*Make clearer the distinctions between GLADIS and MELVYL (on the opening screens?)
*More signage in the Main Stacks (i.e. trouble areas where it is hard to tell where call numbers continue).
*E-mail reminders re due dates.

If you would like to add to the list of issues/possible action items raised in this forum, send to abrandt@library.berkeley.edu.

Addendum
Chris Lundes additional comments about digital library materials:

I wanted to clarify and broaden comments I made during the Library User Panel on Friday Oct. 23. Obviously, I am a favorable to digital library materials. However, I realize there are a couple of key issues which may not have been clear.

I tried to make a distinction in my own work between continuing research and new research. Most of my comments about online materials were in the context of continuing research. For new research, the ability to browse many journals is critical for coming up with new ideas. Nothing beats print materials for this, particularly since computer screens are more tiring to the eyes than print. Until screen technology improves dramatically, very few people would want to migrate to online materials only. With print you also have the freedom to move about the library, while the computer anchors you to one place.

Younger people are inherently more open to new technologies and tend to incorporate them into their work. However, this is not universal and some younger and many older library users do not know how to use computers efficiently and would not find online offerings useful. As online materials become more prevalent, there will be a definite need to teach people how to use them, which will require library staff to intelligently setup and maintain computer systems as well as teach and provide technical assistance to a large number of users. Fundamentally, this requires a commitment to technological advances I have not seen from the library most computers are still running Windows 3.11, which is absurd and one reason they are slow to the point of being nonfunctional.

The primary user benefits from online materials are speed and quality: I can obtain full text anytime, so I am not limited to library hours; I dont have to leave my lab and can print articles immediately after deciding I want them; well-produced PDF make for high quality printing, equal to what you see in the actual journal. Each of these require that I have access to the journal from my lab. If I have to travel to the library, then there is no benefit except maybe printing vs copying, but library printing has excessive costs and cannot be done at all locations. Therefore, when negotiating with publishers for online access it is crucial to have accessibility from any UCB IP address. Finally, the publishers server speed should be acceptable.