How Library Science Students use Digital Libraries

Nicholas C Jackson

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Problem Statement

• How do Pratt SILS students use digital libraries?– The objective of our study is to investigate the use

of digital libraries by Pratt SILS students, including their opinions on how they feel about digital libraries, and their definition of what digital libraries are.

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Literature • Saracevic (2000) determined that not unlike traditional libraries, the

evaluation process for digital libraries must consider relevance, purpose, design, and reliability among other factors.

• According to Kibirge and DePalo (2001), the literature of information and library science has categorized the concept of a digital library in a myriad of ways.

• Toms, Dufour, and Hesemier (2004) found that digital library users opinions of successful digital libraries included values such as visual appeal, entertainment, escapism, intrinsic enjoyment, excellence, site preference, novelty, and future patronage.

• According to Xie (2006), there is little in regards to user studies and “digital libraries.”

• Tsakonas and Papatheodorou (2008) found what dissatisfied DL users (difficult navigation, too many clicks, zero- hit results, etc.)

• We know what users like and dislike about DL’s, and what criteria should be used to evaluate DL’s, but there is a lack of literature concerning how and why users, specifically students, are turning to digital libraries.

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Research Methodology

• 10 question online survey (8 multiple choice, 2 open ended)

• All questions required an answer • Conducted through Survey Monkey• Emailed an invitation on Pratt SILS Listserv and

posted to the SISSA Facebook Group page• Survey was open for one week (Monday, 4/13-

Monday, 4/20/2009), with a reminder message sent out 48 hours before survey was closed

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Results

• 57 students responded, and offered highly valuable data both through their multiple choice answers, and short answer questions…

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Results of Question 1How often do you use digital libraries?

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Results of Question 2For what purposes do you use digital libraries ?

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Results of Question 3During your last experience using a digital library, how much time did

you spend using it?

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Results of Question 4During your last experience using a digital library, how useful was the

information you found?

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Results of Question 5During your last experience using a digital library, how satisfied

were you with what you found?

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Results of Question 6What sites or portal do you use to access digital libraries?

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Results of Question 7What are the advantages or disadvantages of using a digital library

over a traditional library? (open-ended)

• Popular Advantages of DLs: Information is remotely accessible and convenient; Information is likely to be current; instantaneous results

• Popular Disadvantages of DLs: Information may not be current; Information can be shallow, and/or not accurate; Lack of help or guidance from trained, professional librarians; copyright issues; difficult to browse

Sample Responses• “Advantages: amount and type(s) of material in collection, speed of access, ability to

instantly save material of interest Disadvantages: difficult impossible to get help in self-directed search; finding unexpected but valuable results through browsing doesn't happen; evaluating large numbers of results can be overwhelming”

• “there is no one to help you”• “I can get it from home”• “No face- to face interaction”• “Ability to access information remotely is the greatest advantage. The disadvantage is

searching correctly to get the right results.”• “I like having text I can highlight, mark up, etc.”• “multiple access points through metadata”• “the weather is irrelevant”

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Results of Question 8What is a digital library? (open-ended)

• “A digital library is like a traditional library, except it's online. It's a collection or collections of resources with a particular scope and focus and possibly tied to an institution or a collaborative group of organizations/institutions.”

• “An electronically accessible digital collection of materials organized in a way that is searchable and promotes retrieval from a computer.”

• “A library where the content is stored digitally and is accessible by computers.”• “Collection of articles/information available on the Internet.”• “Digital libraries are collections of digitally available information-- the material

might have been born digital or has been digitized for use in the library.”• “Data made available to patrons in a digital format. Can be composed of books,

audio files, photos, images, and more.”• “A digitized, organized repository of data and information.”• “A digital library is a collection of documents that are available online. Oftentimes,

they are made up of special collections. They should be encoded with metadata and cataloged in a similar fashion to print materials.”

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Results of Question 9What areas of library and information science are you interested in?

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Results of Question 10Age & Gender

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Conclusions• Participants typically used DL’s less than twice week (44%), and usually for

academic purposes (79%)• About half (49%) of the participants felt DL’s were of great use, and felt satisfied

(42%) with what they found while using DL’s • More direct questions, and possibly a definition of digital libraries may have been

helpful in designing the survey… but may have biased the answers. • We did not find user studies specifically on the topics of LIS students and their

thoughts on/ definitions of digital libraries, but our findings were consistent with the notion that DLs are favorable for their convenience.

• A universal definition of a digital library has not yet truly been written, and people have many different ideas of what a digital library is.

• Future studies could focus on the issue of what content LIS students are using DLs for.

• Our study suggests that perhaps the Pratt SLIS program needs to focus more on digital library training, so that students can learn to be more successful, confident patrons and eventually instructors in digital library use.

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References• Bryan-Kinns, N and Blandford, A. (2000). “A survey of users studies for digital libraries.”

RIDL working paper, London pp. 1-12.

• Kibirge, H. M. and Depalo L. (2001). “The education functions in a digital library environment: a challenge for college and research libraries.” The Electronic Library. Vol. 19, No. 5. pp. 283-295.

• Matusiak, K. K. (2006). “Information Seeking Behavior in Digital Image Collections: A Cognitive Approach.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship. Vol 32. N. 5 pp. 479-488.

• Schwartz, C. (2000) “Digital libraries: an overview.” The Journal of Academic LibrarianshipVol. 26, No. 6, (November), pp. 385-393.

• Xie, H. I. (2006) “Evaluation of digital libraries: Criteria and problems from users' perspectives.” Library & Information Science Research. Vol. 28, No. 3, (Autumn), pp. 433-452.

• Xie, H. I. (2007) “Users’ evaluation of digital libraries (DLs): Their uses, their criteria, and their assessment.” Information Processing & Management. Vol. 44, No. 3, (May), pp. 1346-1373.

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