by Shinichi Evans
In bringing up that libraries are essential to student success, especially academic libraries, the response can easily be “Of course libraries are essential to student success. They have books, computers, WIFI, and lots of space to study.” While all these things help student success, there are services school libraries provide such as creating LibGuides. Often, this is a webpage that allows the student to see this helpful info anywhere with their phone or laptop. The question is, how helpful are these resources librarians create for student success?
If the Libguides exist to help students with their research, does its design matter? Is the design of the LibGuide “library-centric” or “student-centric,” even when the design of the guides seems to be well-built and accessible? (Birchfield and Possinger 2023). When it comes to student usage, how likely are they to come to a LibGuide as a step in their research? Do students even know that their college library may have LibGuides for their research topic? Regarding Dana Oullette’s study on LibGuides, “Reasons provided for non-use included not knowing that they existed, preferring to search the open web, and not perceiving a need to use them, preferring instead to search for information rather than browsing a guide” or that they may not even consider using it unless told by their instructors to use it (Conrad and Stevens 2019). Even though the LibGuide is a resource constructed to ensure student success, these are issues to consider in creating them and designing their usability.
References
Citation
Burchfield, J., & Possinger, M. (2023). Managing Your Library’s LibGuides: Conducting A Usability Study to Determine Student Preference for LibGuide Design. Information Technology & Libraries, 42(4), 1–18. https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.5860/ital.v42i4.16473
Conrad, S., & Stevens, C. (2019). “Am I on the library website?”: A LibGuides Usability Study. Information Technology & Libraries, 38(3), 49–81. https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.6017/ital.v38i3.10977
Madison College Libraries. (2023). Lib Guides [video]. YouTube, https://youtu.be/DBTYat1CxDo?si=b_ITHvkiXjhFikl9
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