Research Proposal on "Academic Reference Services Information Science Information Commons"

Research Proposal 15 pages (4610 words) Sources: 20

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Academic Reference Services

Information Science

Information commons is a system of information similar to an online community or a physical library that exists to provide, conserve and produce information for current and future generations. Information commons provide an environment, which differs from traditional libraries, as they provide diversity in technology, services and content of their reference materials. Information commons have perverse network information than traditional academic libraries. The purpose of this research proposal is to determine the impact of learning and information commons on academic reference services, from the users' perspective. Information commons is steadily growing, especially in academic libraries due to technological changes in society.

Significance of the problem and identification

The idea of information commons has forced the traditional libraries to change the conceptualization of their libraries in terms of services, space and resources provided in the libraries. It also demands that libraries become more flexible, and students should be involved in the planning stages information commons meet their needs. The number of internet users and their expectations is on the rise and, therefore, demands that libraries are upgraded to meet their rising needs. Academic libraries have a challenge of remaining relevant in the emergent needs of students; hence they have to rethink on how they provide services, collections, and resources. The research proposal will discuss on the historical background of information commons, methods used for the research, recommendations and conclusions. It provides an overview of the reference interaction in digital environments, in face-to-face with traditional environments.

The diverse and continuous changing technology poses a danger to information common systems. People are diverse too, and adapting to the new changes, brought about by technology, can prove to be hard, strenuous, and time consuming. Librarians come up with new technical ways of advancing references from the library, with easy access to the references.

Feasibility

The ability of something to be put in use for a beneficial purpose is referred to as feasible. Changing technology proofs to be feasible. In that, the changing needs of the society in information common system is catered for by changing the system according to the new technical system. Transformation of society, societal transformation, is a key role in the advancing of learning through technology. New ideas, references systems, and experiments are incorporated to the learning systems via advanced technology. Academic libraries' main aim is to improve the society's way of learning with improved methods and postmodernism. The future viewpoint for references gives an anticipated void since libraries continue to be in the forefront to be early adopters and of innovation of emerging technology and social networking applications.

Historical background

The term information commons was developed in the 1980s to refer to technological information sharing, across cultural and physical boundaries. It was first used globally for communication of academic knowledge in internetworking. Introduction of World Wide Web (www) in the 1990s led to decline of usage of traditional libraries.16 million people used the internet services in 1965, and by 2011, 2 billion people were using the internet services. This shows that the number of internet users have raised from 1% to 30% by 2011. This has seen many academic libraries transform drastically to accommodate the changing demands, which also include 24 hours access to the internet in the 1990s up-to-date. It was established as a library model to be used in service delivery. This shows an enormous transformation which demands a drastic change in the traditional libraries in order to cope with the upcoming demands of the modern learner. Therefore, this has led to traditional libraries upgrading their services to keep up with students and also to remain relevant, hence emergence of information libraries. New technology and societal education, with an aim of society improvement, is a core theory to be focused o in the research.

Since the development of World Wide Web, libraries have attempted to improve creation, dissemination and access to information. These transitions have forced the libraries to implement services that will assist and facilitate faculty students with these changes. To support the changes of students study habits and information access, information commons was developed. The information commons concept was a solution to implementing resources and services in the new collaborative environment. As changes continued in the field of academy, commons expanded to implement more learning centered services and technologies (Whitchurch, M.J 2010).

There was common core standards (CCS) which the librarians were required to comply with, and by 2010, it was adopted by 37 states. These common core standards were developed in 2009 and were completed in 2010. These standards were meant to unify the expectations of the learning students in the United States and also globally. The standards help to prepare students to compete globally. These standards offer appendices, term glossaries, and comments about student writing. This has forced academic libraries to share their responsibility with students where the CCS develop skills and learn ways that advance the students understanding of their education.

Current research findings

Reference services in academic libraries have changed rapidly and profoundly since 1990. The rapid change is brought about by sophistication of library users in how they use retrieval information technology, and information sources and systems. The most significant change in reference services of the academic libraries is the expanded variety and, reach of services offered by the libraries. Users in the library building and remote users can access the virtual services at any time, be it during the day or night. The theme of this research is to understand the complex reference environment and to improving services to users.

The findings in this research show that some library users value interpersonal skills more than acquiring information. Some librarians value relationship qualities to ensure success in providing services. Library users highly value the significance of attitude and personal qualities of librarian who is giving the service. The ways reference services are provided to students help them to be independent and confident seekers of information. Interpersonal interaction between students and librarians is a complex process and the virtual reference services have added complexity to the situation.

Librarians, who have not advanced in technical service provision of references, may find the project incompatible and hence, do not undertake the project. A research broadens a librarian's knowledge of understanding of the subject matter. It also helps the librarian to understand the increasing societal needs, using the existing technology. It is the duty of librarians to ensure proper services to the academicians in the society. Customer's satisfaction should play a key role in ensuring the service provision of the librarians is quality. Constant review of services with society education fills the gap amid the technically literate and the illiterate.

From early 1980's, modern technology was incorporated especially when the total quality management theory was introduced to provide quality services. From then, services are customer based as opposed to product base. This ensures all provisions of customers are met. Gaps model is a theory explaining the nature of quality services that should be rendered to the customers. Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry proposed the model in 1985 approaching the customer's satisfaction model. The model postulates four gaps that ought to be distinguished to efficiate comprehension of gaps between customer's expectations and the service perception of the customer. The first gap is to know what the customer wants, second is to select the right service designs and standards, third is to deliver standard services, and lastly is to match performance to promises (Rernenyi, D., 2004, pg. 262). Library researchers and scientist emphasizes more on the fourth gap, for effective service delivery. Customer's expectations are also used as a blueprint on what to offer them, although such expectations vary from time to time.

Frequency of use of current services

Daily (%)

Weekly (%)

Monthly (%)

Quarterly (%)

Very infrequently / not at all (%)

Undergraduates

OPAC

5.8

37.2

18.2

8.8

29.9

Databases

2.9

25.5

24.8

8.8

38.0

e-journals

0.0

11.7

12.4

8.8

67.2

e-mail reference

3.6

12.4

6.7

2.2

75.2

Other selected Internet sources

3.6

11.7

17.5

6.6

60.6

Online request forms

0.0

5.1

4.4

6.6

83.9

Postgraduates

OPAC

20.0

56.0

14.7

2.7

6.7

Databases

13.3

41.3

20.0

5.3

20.0

e-journals

5.3

18.7

22.7

16.0

37.3

e-mail reference

4.0

4.0

9.3

1.3

81.3

Other selected Internet sources

5.3

10.7

9.3

9.3

65.3

Online request forms

0.0

13.3

17.3

9.3

60.0

Academic staff

OPAC

15.8

73.7

0.0

5.3

5.3

Databases

15.8

47.4

5.3

10.5

21.1

e-journals

10.5

31.6

26.3

5.3

26.3

e-mail reference

5.3

5.3

0.0

0.0

89.5

Other selected Internet sources

0.0

21.1

0.0

0.0

78.9

Online request forms

0.0

10.5

10.5

10.5

68.4

Theory of research

Academic libraries have evolved, an attribution to the changing learning methods by learners and advancement in technology; leading to information of commons. Other research topics include traditional libraries, librarians view on the impacts brought about by learners and information of commons.

Methodology

Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to research all aspects of information commons and the impacts on the users. Liquid survey shows results from… READ MORE

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