Reordering Ranganathan: Shifting User Behaviors, Shifting Priorities

Megan Pinheiro da Silva

Connaway, Lynn Silipigni, and Ixchel M. Faniel. 2014. Reordering Ranganathan: Shifting User Behaviors, Shifting Priorities. Dublin, OH: OCLC Research.  http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/library/2014/oclcresearch-reordering-ranganathan-2014.pdf

Summary

Connaway and Faniel’s OCLC Research Report is written for academic librarians who face unique challenges and opportunities in working with university researchers—faculty and students—who need different kinds of library services, particularly in the area of data collection and management. The authors devote a chapter to each of S. R. Ranganathan’s 5 Laws of Library Science. The introduction, “Same Laws, New Lens.” gives the historical context of the laws and posit that the laws are still very much relevant today. Each proceeding chapter focuses on one law giving its background context, their interpretation of the law, and its application in today’s information services. Connaway and Faniel place the 4^th law—save the time of the reader—1^st as they argue that time is the most precious commodity for the user today. Connaway and Faniel interpret save time of the reader to mean, “embed library systems and services into users’ existing workflows” (p. 105). The reason given for this interpretation is that users have relocated their information activity to the Internet. Convenience is included in saving time. The 2^nd law--every person his or her book the authors reinterpret as to be “know your community and its needs”. The 2^nd law is about accessing the content; if you cannot find what you need, saving time is useless. The 3^rd and 4^th laws-–books are for use and every book its reader—are about developing the infrastructure to deliver the materials and increasing the discoverability/use of those resources within the users’ workflow. The 5^th law—a library is a growing organism—is the only law that is not reinterpreted, as it remains true in a literal and figurative sense. The ultimate goal of this resource is to help libraries and librarians “as they think about making changes in practice and developing an agenda for future research” (p. 105).

Evaluation

This report is well worth the time it takes to read it. It has helped me to understand collection/connection development in the context of the current shift in user behavior to Web-based information services. It also confirms my belief that librarians who acknowledge users’ information preferences, reach out to patrons to better understand their needs and frustrations, and who are willing to bring resources to where it is most convenient for the user, are needed more than ever. Librarianship is growing more and more complex and time continues to become scarcer and scarcer it seems. Connaway and Faniel address complexities in the field that I had never imagined—such as library systems that are complicated even for researchers to use—with an authority and compassion that comes from understanding library systems, research, and user needs. But the icing on the cake is their reinterpretation of Ranganathan’s 5 Laws of Library Science (1931) which bring all the complexity back to the basics: all our services, systems, collections, should facilitate the access and use of information for our patrons.

Oyzon, Joanna

Zaleski, A. (2018, February 10). The CD is dead? Not so fast. Salon. Retrieved from: https://www.salon.com/2018/02/10/the-cd-is-dead-not-so-fast/

Two huge retailers, Target and Best Buy, are reevaluating their compact disc sales strategies. Target wants to pay music labels only for what is sold (instead of buying CDs upfront and then returning them for credit). Best Buy, in an even bigger move, has decided to stop selling CDs as of July 1. CD sales have been slipping for years (as vinyl record sales have increased). However, streaming still dominates. As Zaleski states, "On-demand audio and video streams sales increased 43% to 618 billion. Physical and digital album sales, meanwhile, decreased 17.7 percent, to 169.15 million, " (2018). However, she believes compact discs will still be used by those without a solid internet connection and people who prefer stability in their music collection.

I am not surprised that CDs are decreasing in popularity. I don't remember the last time I bought a physical CD, and I have been using streaming services (Google Play, Spotify and now Amazon) for years now.  But... I've also got a library of my own music from my decades-long music buying days that I have digitized back when the iPod was popular. When I listen to new music I like, I'm able to listen to it for while... until it disappears from the streaming catalog, then I buy it digitally. Hoopla is a streaming service that is in use by libraries, but it doesn't have everything. For example, I just searched for Radiohead. There where no albums. So unless you want to hear a karaoke or a piano tribute to Radiohead, you're out of luck. In the future, when digital and streaming are much more dependable than they are now, I see libraries no longer having physical CD collections. Currently though, if having a stable music collection with breadth that is usable by people without a solid internet collection is important to a library, then physical CDs are the way to go.

Reaching Out to the Latino Community via Public and School Libraries

Bradley, Rebecca
INFO 266
Fall 2016

Naidoo, J. C. (2010). Developing and enriching comunidad: reaching out to Latino communities via public and school libraries. In J. C. Naidoo (Ed), Celebrating cuentos: promoting Latino children’s literature and literacy in classrooms and libraries (pp. 239-257). Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Jaime Naidoo’s essay presents much to think about when considering library materials and services for the Latino community. In the first part, he talks about how public and school librarians must work with leaders and others in the Latino community to provide services that are relevant to their needs. Activities such as bilingual storytime, visits from Latino authors, Latino holiday celebrations, basic literacy classes, and English classes are all mentioned as possible ways to increase patronage by both Latino adults and their children. Naidoo goes on to caution that the librarian must look very carefully at the Latinos he or she is serving, because Naidoo believes that it is a common flaw to think that all of them are poor, illegal, immigrants from Mexico when in fact they could be third generation Cubans who speak only English.

In the middle section of the essay, Naidoo focuses on how to properly select high-quality books written in Spanish. He provides an evaluation sheet with questions such as “Is the author Latino, Non-Latino, Don’t Know?” and “Do the Latino characters need the help of Anglos to solve their problems in the story?” Although I appreciate the evaluation sheet very much, I am left wondering about where to actually find high-quality books that meet the best criteria recommended by Naidoo. In our school library, there are many Spanish books that are written by Latino authors, but often times they are not checked out by the children due to their unappealing illustrations. In any case, Naidoo’s evaluation sheet does have merit and can be a very helpful tool for librarians purchasing Spanish language books for their collections.


The remainder of the essay is devoted to providing librarians with articles, reports, websites and other resources to better enhance their outreach to the Latino community. Many of the resources Naidoo mentions are well-known such as the Colorín Colorado website, el día de los libros annual campaign, and the work being done by REFORMA, which is a branch of the American Library Association dedicated to serving the Latino community. To conclude, although this essay is a very broad overview of the topic, it does give librarian professionals many ideas about how to improve their Spanish book collections and increase their outreach to the Latino population in their areas.

(Generation 1.5) Latino Students and the Library: A Case Study

Bradley, Rebecca
INFO 266
Fall 2016

Haras, C, Lopez, E. & Ferry, K. (2008). (Generation 1.5) Latino students and the library: a case study.  The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 34(5), 425-433.

This fascinating article studies the past, present, and future perception and use of library services among U.S.-educated first-year Latino undergraduate students. Using focus groups and an electronic survey, the authors conclude that the research skills among the Latino Freshman studied were underdeveloped due to low levels of K-12 library use. The authors further suggest that the under-utilization of K-12 library resources leads to lower levels of information literacy development within this student population, which could be one cause of the high rate of drop out among Latino students after their first year of college. The authors note that previous studies have focused on early literacy and numeric development as a predictor of future academic success or failure of Latino students, but not on the specific impact of library use and information literacy development.

As a Spanish-bilingual teacher-librarian, some of the information noted in this study as well as the findings were frankly alarming. On the positive side, 83.5% of the participants said that their first visit to the library happened before sixth grade with their mothers or a teacher. Many students also stated that they had fond memories of their visits and remembered the library as a “safe place.” In addition, 72% of these Latino students reported doing some research in high school and 76% said that they felt familiar with scholarly databases.

However, on the negative side, the authors noted that many “Generation 1.5” students stuck between their home language of Spanish and the English-dominant school environment were placed in low-track ESL classes in poor urban high schools lacking in adequate technology and library collections, which meant they were ill-prepared for the academic load in college. More shocking was the fact that according to a report by the California Department of Education in 2004, only 23% of our state schools had credentialed library media teachers and ranked last among all 50 states with librarian to student ratio (1:5,965). In one particularly shocking study on library use by undergraduates based on race, Ethelene Whitmire (2003) found that only 40% of Latino respondents had ever borrowed a book from a public library. The sad result of this lack of preparation and contact with libraries led to only 40.9% of Latino students surveyed in the study presented in this article to state that they felt “good” at doing research. Many of the participants felt that their former teachers did not prepare them adequately on how to use the library and its resources, which led to frustrating attempts in academic libraries.

After reading this article, I am even more concerned about the Latino students at my school. Clearly, the information literacy and research skills taught by me and the other teachers at my elementary school as well as the positive connection to be built between our students and the library are essential to their future academic success.