Can collection management improve information literacy? 

Lessons on how we can engage students with

Scholarly Communication and the Business-side of Librarianship

Scott Warren (and Kim Duckett)Bibliographer for the Sciences and TechnologyCharleston ConferenceNovember 8, 2010

What I’ll Cover

Why economics of information & scholarly communication?

Teaching scenarios

Collection knowledge – instructional strategies

Assessment efforts & feedback

Follow-up work

Main idea

the primary focus of our work has been teaching students about peer-reviewed journal literature by harnessing the high pedagogical value of viewing subscription-based resources and how they function through an economic lens.

Why Information Economics?

“If students really knew how much they were paying for all the info in the library I bet they would definitely be using the library and all of its available resources much more.”

“Gravenewworld” (anonymous grad student). Physics Forums (2007 September 10). Message posted to http://www.physicsforums.com

Why Scholarly Communication?

“Unfortunately, students are too often asked to use the tools of a discipline without being able to adopt its culture.”

Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher, 18(1), 32-42.

Relevance for Information Literacy

ACRL Info Lit Standard Five

The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally.

“Before we train students to use search tools, before we send them to books, periodicals, or websites, we need to teach them about information. What is it? How is it created? Where is it stored?”

Swanson, T. (2004). A radical step: Implementing a critical information literacy model. Portal, 4(2), 259-273.

“…how often do our instruction programs treat information as a socially-mediated phenomenon? More often we act as if it’s inert stuff that you find and use to create ‘products’ without actually interacting with it or considering where it came from and why – other than whether it’s scholarly or not.”

Fister, B. (2006, March 21). Making information literacy critical. Message posted to http://acrlog.org/2006/03/21/making-information-literacy-critical

Teaching Scenarios

Sandbox

Communication for Science and Research (ENG 333)

Junior / senior science majors

Required course for some students

Many desire to go to grad school

On campus and online sections

Additional Groups

Undergrads—Engineering, communication, ESL composition—Honors seminar

Grad students—textiles management, computer science, electrical

engineering, textiles engineering—education, and communications and rhetoric in digital

media

Collection knowledge

What Collection Managers Know Online does NOT equal free

Resources cost money

Infrastructures cost money

While students care about articles, libraries deal (mostly) with journals

Journals are commodities —even if knowledge is a public good

OpenURL resolvers answer an economic question—Access, not publication

Scholarly Information is a Business

How much do you think

this journal costs?

What you get:

Online access

How often is it used?

Scholarly Information is a Business

Sticker Shock!

Vanderbilt University Libraries

Cornell University Libraries

University of California San Francisco Libraries

Ask Probing Questions

Why do you think publishers can charge so much money?

Why are libraries willing to pay so much money?

Information Business “Players”

Academic Information is a BIG BUSINESS

The players:

Researchers Writing

Publishers Selling Access & Packaging

Database (index/abstract) companies Selling Discovery

Libraries Buying Discovery & Access

Invisible / Deep Web Metaphor

If peer reviewed articles cost money, do you think publishers would give them away for FREE?

“Silo” nature of the Web

“Free” vs. “costs money”

Compare to consumer behavior

Discovery vs. access

Distinguish Between Discovery and Access

Use examples of consumer behavior

to highlight distinction

between

“searching for it”

and

“getting it.”

Balance Context with Hands-On

Pure Context

Pure “How-To”

Our Project

Assessment

Prior Knowledge Probes

Trying to get students’ mental models of how the Web and scholarly publishing “work”

Quizzes

Can students explain what they learned?

How does an article database like CAB Abstracts differ from Google or Google Scholar (consider things such as content, costs, who can access content, etc.)?

Why do people sometimes see a message to buy an article from a publisher when they are using Google Scholar?

Post-workshop discussions by instructor

What is your reaction to the cost of journals and databases? What was most shocking to you about the economics of scientific information? Comment on the issue of scientists having to pay journals to publish their work.

Has your appreciation for our library grown based on what you learned about the costs of journals and databases? Why or why not?

Listen to the students

“I thought the most interesting parts of the forum last night were the statistics. For example, I knew that the university spent tons of money of journal subscriptions, but I didn't know high it was! The same goes for the number of journals out there, I knew there are a lot but 10,000 was it? That's amazing!”

“I learned the reason Google fails me so often...I wish this presentation was offered earlier in my college career.”

“Being a college student = access to a lot of expensive material.”

“Best library presentation I’ve been to.”

I think I appreciate the library and what it provides for students and staff more so [sic] now that we've been shown where their money goes. I would have never thought that scientific journals could cost so much money and I appreciate the fact that the library knows how valuable journals are as resources for everyone on campus and has them available for us to use in and out of the library.

—Junior, Meteorology

Where is the basic law of economics here? I don't understand why there is not more competition if the publishing companies are truly making that much profit. To increase subscription costs 215% between 1986 and 2003 is ludicrous!! Why wouldn't more entrepreneurs enter this business?

—Senior, Animal Science

Developing the idea further

Expanding Learning modules about:

—Peer review, http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/pr—Costs of journals— The Invisible Web and Google Scholar

Sharing ideas and teaching materials with colleagues – UCLA, University of Vermont

ASEE, LOEX, Charleston, etc.

Article

Warren, S. & Duckett, K. (2010)

“Why Does Google Scholar Sometimes Ask for Money?” Engaging Science Students in Scholarly Communication and the Economics of Information.

Journal of Library Administration, 50(4) 349-372.

doi: 10.1080/01930821003667021

Recap – what we’re trying to do

1. At the point of need, teach students skills for discovering and then accessing information is the priority. — the forces that shape discovery and access provides a

contextual understanding that transfers across any kind of information platform.

2. Show why the Library matters. Information comes at a price

3. Big picture - expose students to structural considerations and power dynamics that underlie contemporary academia and the associated industries that aid its massive production and consumption of information – i.e. get them thinking

Or, more simply

We want them to ‘value’ our resources, so let’s assign some ‘value’ to them!

Your Thoughts?

Contact

Scott WarrenBibliographer for the Sciences and Technology

Syracuse University Library

sawarr01@syr.edu

Kim DuckettPrincipal Librarian for Digital Technologies & Learning

NCSU Libraries

kim_duckett@ncsu.edu