Category: Publications

Marta M. Deyrup of Seton Hall University Libraries is the recipient of the 2013 Distinguished Service Award, granted by the New Jersey Library Association’s College and University Section / Association of College and Research Libraries New Jersey chapter. This honor is awarded annually to an individual who, by his or her outstanding contributions, has directly enriched the profession of librarianship in New Jersey. This award honors Marta’s excellent, energetic, prolific, and long-standing contributions to New Jersey librarianship both in information literacy instruction and as an international educator, editor and writer in information science. Marta has twice received the prestigious Researcher of the Year Award at Seton Hall University Libraries. She has long been an active participant in NJLA CUS/ACRL-NJ. She was a member of the team that won the first NJLA CUS/Technology Innovation Award in 2002 for “Information Literacy in the Wired University.” She has served the VALE Committee on…

I’m pleased to announce the publication of the March issue of Information Technology and Libraries. Issue contents are listed below. To receive automatic notifications of future issues, please subscribe to ITAL. Suggestions and feedback are always welcome, please send to: Bob Gerrity ITAL Editor gerrityr (at) gmail.com Information Technology and Libraries Volume 32, Number 1 (March 2013) CONTENTS Editorials Bob Gerrity Editor’s Comments Patrick “Tod” Colegrove Editorial Board Thoughts: Libraries as Makerspace? Articles Danielle Becker and Lauren Yannotta Modeling a library web site redesign process: developing a user-centered web site through usability testing  This article presents a model for creating a strong, user-centered web presence by pairing usability testing and the design process. Four rounds of usability testing were conducted throughout the process of building a new academic library web site. Participants were asked to perform tasks using a talk-aloud protocol. Tasks were based on guiding principles of web usability that served as a framework for…

Recent OCLC surveys show that less than 2 percent of library users begin their search on a library website, which is why search engine optimization (SEO) is so crucial. And though a survey of faculty researchers at four major universities showed that most consider Google and Google Scholar amazingly effective for their research, low Google Scholar indexing ratios for library institutional repositories is widespread because it ignores common library metadata. Kenning Arlitsch and Patrick OBrien, who have presented and published widely on the topic, show how to ensure that high-value content is visible to researchers in their new book “Improving the Visibility and Use of Digital Repositories through SEO: A LITA Guide,” published by ALA TechSource. Drawing on their expertise in digital libraries and corporate marketing, they show how to mount a successful SEO strategy, including: Recommended dashboards for increasing participation by sharing data; Avoiding the four most common crawler…

Social Web technologies present an often confusing array of options for answering library users’ reference questions. In “Implementing Virtual Reference Services: A LITA Guide,” published by ALA TechSource, editor Beth C. Thomsett-Scott applies 20 years’ experience as a reference librarian to sort through the clutter of tools and technologies in the industry. Contributors from across the field lay out how libraries are using vendor services such as LibraryH3lp, LibAnswers and Text a Librarian, as well as free tools like Twitter and Google Voice, for their reference needs. Practitioners offer details on virtual reference services such as Twitter Search, instant messaging (IM) services such as Google Voice and Chat and collaborative services such as My Info Quest. Thomsett-Scott is currently the engineering librarian at the University of North Texas Libraries. In her previous role as reference unit manager, she assisted with establishing the libraries’ Meebo service, as well as their chat…