InfoViews has roped in Jane Burke, ProQuest Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, as a guest blogger. The information industry veteran will explore the latest developments in discovery and their impact on academic libraries in a six-part series that debuts this week. Her first post regarding user perceptions of the library can be found at http://mhdiaz.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/user-perceptions-of-the-library.
The new series is seen to add a new dimension to InfoViews, which seeks to explore the intersection of libraries, research, technology and learning.
Librarians tend to see the library as 'evolving' from the print model to the electronic, an initial post from the series points out. But users, especially students, don't see the library as electronic, it says. The post further notes that the library brand continues to be 'books'. Given all of the academic library investment in electronic resources, this user perception must be (another) wakeup call. According to Burke, 60 percent of students consider Google to be the easiest place to start research, compared to less than 20 percent who find library databases the easiest starting point.
Burke's next installment will explore the steps libraries need to take to reclaim the library as the starting place for research.
InfoViews, a blog run by Mike Diaz, seeks to bring together fresh insights about libraries, research and learning, and to provide some context and commentary on the the latest trends.
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