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Improving and Promoting Library Guides as OER Resources

This library guide is for a presentation at the Florida OER Summit 2024 Technology & Trends.

Introduction

This page will define the terms pathfinder and libguides, list traditionally designed library guides, inform on vetted design tools for instructional designers, and provide explanation for proposing the library guide quality assurance rubric named Library Guide Assessment Standards (LGAS) for Quality-Checked Review Rubric. 

Backstory

Library Guides "clearly and concisely point users to ways to begin the research process and call their attention to information sources that users might not otherwise find. They have the added benefit for libraries of highlighting underutilized resources (Glassman & Sorensen, 2010, p. 281)."

Modern pathfinders may provide lists of reference materials, books, e-books, research tools, and/ or databases. 

Picture of a library pathfinder. This example shows the UNF Library intro page for the pathfinder on biology.

Moukhliss, S (n. d. ) Screenshot of UNF Biology library guide. 

 

Reference

Glassman, N. R. & Sorensen, K. (2010). From pathfinders to subject guides: One library's experience with LibGuides. Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries, 7(4), 281-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/15424065.2010.529767

QM Reviewer

As an online learning librarian, part of my job entails being a QM Reviewer and conducting QM reviews for UNF online courses. I follow a set of standards based on Quality Matters rubric. You can learn more here by watching a brief introduction to QM by Kirkwood Community College:

 

T4LT Kirkwood (n. d.). Quality Matters. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1I5sAjTteA

 

Meeting with CEO of QM

Here is a resource that I shared with the CEO of a National Quality Review assessment program to make an argument for a peer review quality assurance process for library pathfinders. Note that the term Library Guide was used instead of the term pathfinder:

 

Library Guides Pros
  • According to springshare (n. d.), library guides are widely used by academic, school, and public libraries (130,000 librarians worldwide).
  • Library guides integrate into a variety of LMS Systems including Canvas (Daniel, 2016).

 

Library Guides Challenges
  • Library guides are underused.
  • Students do not know what they are nor how to find them (Bagshaw & Yorke-Barber, 2018; Ouellette, 2011).
  • A majority of students Google or use faculty-suggested resources when they begin their research (Liu, 2020).
  • I argue that library guide content and design may be weak as Krasulski (2014) discovered that library graduate programs do not provide ample training to MLS students on teaching others how to research and discover information.
  • Library guides can be difficult for students to maneuver, include unnecessary content, and too much library speak (Sonsteby & DeJonghe, 2013).
  • Library guide information may not always follow rules for cognitive overload but should (Liu, 2020).
  • Library guides are under-promoted to faculty and staff (Dupuis, 2011).
  • Library guides were developed as pathfinders for information (Stevens et al., 1973) and I argue they have been slow to evolve from pathfinders to stand-alone instructional materials.
  • Furthermore, I argue that the majority of library guides have not evolved to reflect what they are today--integrated course content.
  • Per Lauseng et al. (2021), library guide users discover library guides in a variety of ways (homepage; Internet searching, etc.) but as noted through my personal research, authors of library guides do not always introduce the term "library guide" to the external users who come across them when Googling for research help.

 

How can a Quality Assurance Tool and a Peer Review Process Help?
  • Endorse a rubric of standards for library guide design.
  • Educate librarians on best practices for developing and designing library guides.
  • Build a team of peer-reviewers that are librarians.
  • Host workshops and trainings that educate librarians, faculty, and staff on how to best teach with library resources.
  • Be the missing piece to help grow librarians to become better pedagogists and teachers.

 

References

Bagshaw, A. & Yorke-Barber, P. (2018). Guiding librarians: Rethinking library guides as a staff development toolLinks to an external site. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 67(1), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2017.1410629

Daniel, D. (2016). Embedded library guides in learning management systems help students get started on research assignments. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 11(1), 76–78. https://doi.org/10.18438/B8J32H

Dupuis, J. (2011, February 10). A stealth librarianship manifesto [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://confessions.scientopia.org/?s=A+stealth+librarianship+manifesto+ [Google Scholar]

Krasulski, M. J. (2014). “Where do they come from, and how are they trained?” Professional education and training of access services librarians in academic libraries. Journal of Access Services, 11(1), 14–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/15367967.2014.867728

Lauseng, D. L., Howard, C., Scoulas, J. M., & Berry, A. (2021). Assessing Online Library Guide Use and Open Educational Resource (OER) Potential: An Evidence-Based Decision-Making Approach. Journal of Web Librarianship, 15(3), 128–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2021.1935396

Liu, W. (2020). Knowledge map: a creative visual path to library guides and resources. Electronic Library, 38(5/6), 943–962. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-03-2020-0055

Ouellette, D. (2011). Subject guides in academic libraries: A user-centred study of uses and perceptions. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 35(4), 436–451.10.1353/ils.2011.0024 

Sonsteby, A. & DeJonghe, J. (2013). Usability testing, user-centered design, and LibGuides subject guides: A case study. Journal of Web Librarianship, 7(1), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/19322909.2013.747366

springshare (n. d.). LibGuides. https://springshare.com/libguides/

Stevens, C., Canfield, M., & Gardner, J. (1973). Library pathfinders: A new possibility for cooperative reference service. College and Research Libraries, 34(1), 40–46.10.5860/crl_34_01_40

A LibGuide is a proprietary tool for building library pathfinders offered by the Company Springshare. 

 

Screenshot of a Library Guide Template borrowed from Springshare's website.

Springshare (n. d.). LibGuides by Springshare. https://springshare.com/libguides/

 

Next, watch a brief video regarding UNF's Library Guides:

 

Moukhliss, S. (n. d.) What are library guides? Canvas Studio.

Quality Matters

Quality Matters is an internationally recognized vetted tool for quality course design and assessment. However, universities may choose to work with the proprietary organization Quality Matters or they may choose to use a course assessment rubric such as the SUNY Online Course Quality Review Rubric OSCQR or SUNY-OSCR for short. 

SUNY OSCQR

One benefit for working with SUNY OSCQR is that it holds a Creative Commons License that allow people to remake and/or remix the original rubric. 

For this project, I used the SUNY OSCQR assessment rubric and remixed it to meet the unique needs for building a library guide. I scoured the literature to understand the weaknesses of library guides and I created standards to solve these problems.

Example: Many students don't know what a library guide is, so I created a standard for the author of a library guide to define the term.

Another Example: Students are disoriented and confuse using a library guide to being on a library website, so I added a standard to link to the library website to lessen the confusion. 

For context, here is a list of what a traditional pathfinder/library guide may look like:

Case Western Reserve University Art & Art History Library Guide

Kent State University Issues in Law & Society Library Guide

Wooster Theatre and Dance Library guide