The research guide is a common tool librarians use to communicate with and instruct their audiences. Despite their prevalence and value to users, research guides remain underused. There are many examples of efforts encouraging guide use, but few studies have measured the effectiveness of that promotion. Academic Outreach librarians at Virginia…

This cross-sectional survey focused on faculty use and knowledge of author identifiers and researcher networking systems, and professional use of social media, at a large state university. Results from 296 completed faculty surveys representing all disciplines (9.3% response rate) show low levels of awareness and variable resource preferences. The…

Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) are tools that help researchers to develop qualitative research projects. These software packages help the users with tasks such as transcription analysis, coding and text interpretation, writing and annotation, content search and analysis, recursive abstraction, grounded theory…

A rubric for research theses was developed, based on the manual of the American Psychological Association, to be used as an assessment tool for teachers and students. The aim was to make students aware of what is expected, get familiar with criteria, and interpret teacher and peer feedback. In two studies, it was examined whether students use and…

Natural language processing (NLP) is a field of computer science and linguistics devoted to creating computer systems that use human (natural) language as input and/or output. The authors propose that NLP can also be used for game studies research. In this article, the authors provide an overview of NLP and describe some research possibilities…

This article details an open card sort study administered to undergraduate students, graduate students, and librarians at the University of Colorado at Boulder in order to reveal perceptions of library research guides. The study identifies user group preferences for organization and content of research guides, as well as themes emerging from the…

This article describes how York University analyzed the results from its 2010-11 implementation of the Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services for Libraries survey to measure value of investments in e-resources. The results were assessed through two variables: e-resources used by faculty when carrying out funded and non-funded…

The interactions that students have with each other, with the instructors, and with educational resources are valuable indicators of the effectiveness of a learning experience. The increasing use of information and communication technology allows these interactions to be recorded so that analytic or mining techniques are used to gain a deeper…

A number of academic, public, regional, and state libraries use WorldCat Local (WCL) as a resource location tool that enables users to search, find, and gain access to a range of print and electronic resources. This article describes a study undertaken to assess a Research I university's implementation of WCL. The study sought to understand the…

Purpose: To overcome the high manual effort of assessments for teaching personnel, e-assessment systems are used to assess students using information systems (IS). The purpose of this paper is to propose an extension of EASy, a system for e-assessment of exercises that require higher-order cognitive skills. The latest module allows assessing…

Two surveys were carried out to help increase knowledge of current graph usage in science. A detailed analysis of all graphs in one volume of the journal "Science" revealed that 30 percent had errors. Graphs are used more in some disciplines than in others; a survey of 57 journals revealed natural science journals use far more graphs…

Reports the results of a survey that examined social science researchers' preferred sources of information and the homogeneity of the group in their use of information sources. Information sources discussed include citation, abstracts, and indexes; journals; consults and conferences; book reviews; library staff, tools, and services; and private…

A questionnaire was distributed to a population of science education doctoral students to collect data about the role of the library in providing information resources needed by doctoral students in science education (both Ed.D. and Ph.D.) at the University of Georgia. Doctoral students were selected for the study because they will eventually…

Based on the premise that editorial page writers do not have what they consider sufficient time to adequately research their topics, a study surveyed newspaper librarians and writers to determine the extent of database system use by editorial page writers. Circulations of the participating newspapers were included as a variable to determine if…

The Colorado Council for Library Development commissioned a state survey to facilitate long range library planning. A survey was designed by Colorado Market Research Services, Inc. and directed to adults throughout the state to ascertain the information needs of the sample population. Citizens were queried as to the frequency of their library use,…