Discovery layers and the distance student Online search habits of students Rosie Croft, University Librarian Jessica Mussell, Instruction & Public Services Librarian Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Memphis, TN, April 2012

Learning outcomes 0 To provide a greater understanding of: 0 How the implementation of discovery layers has affected students use of research tools 0 What this means for a Library’s return on investment 0 How this informs electronic pathways to information and impacts information literacy instruction

Royal Roads University Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Small, primarily graduate-level university 2,000 FTE

Why discovery layers? 0 Fiscal responsibility 0 Service to our user community

Our research Methods Results

RRU Library website

RRU Library mobile site

Methods 0 Mixed-method approach: 0 Combination of electronic survey and empirical data 0 Data collected from: 0 All students registered in for-credit courses invited to participate in the survey (Survey Monkey) 0 Summon usage statistics 0 Serials Solutions 360 link statistics 0 individual database usage statistics 0 Library website 0 LibGuides usage statistics

Results survey responses of those students let us know which library resources they had used in the past 0 66% had used Summon 0 67% reported using proxied Google Scholar 0 75% had used what we defined as “publisher research databases” 0 51% had used Refworks 0 Less than 50% response rate on resources like the catalogue, subject guides, Infoquest tutorial

“What online research resource did you *start* with? 0 42% said Google/Google Scholar 0 26% said Library databases 0 22% said Summon 0 3% said Library catalogue 0 1.9% said the subject guides 0 1.7% said Wikipedia 0 1.1% said contacted a librarian 0 0.6% said Infoquest

“Why there?” 0 Google – ease of use, broad overview two most highly cited reasons 0 Summon – ease of use, good overview, credible resources 0 Library databases – academic quality of results, focused results set, recommended, and habit 0 Ease of use mentioned but was one of the least noted reasons 81% of students said that they used other online research resources as well as their first choice

How helpful were the results? Not useful Marginally useful HelpfulEssentialDid not use Response count Google23 (3.1%)165 (22.6%)291 (39.8%)187 (25.6%)65 (8.9%)731 Google Scholar7 (0.9%)75 (10.2%)291 (39.4%)261 (35.4%)104 (14.1%)738 Wikipedia55 (8.0%)201 (29.2%)238 (34.5%)52 (7.5%)143 (20.8%)689 Summon™ (search box on the library homepage) 17 (2.4%)61 (8.6%)206 (29.0%)280 (39.4%)146 (20.6%)710 Publisher research databases (e.g. EBSCOhost, etc.) 10 (1.3%)22 (2.95)152 (20.1%)484 (64.1%)87 (11.5%)755 Library catalogue15 (2.2%)57 (8.3%)215 (31.3%)128 (18.6%)273 (39.7%)688 Resources by subject guides 20 (2.9%)64 (9.4%)174 (25.6%)85 (12.5%)337 (49.6%)680 Answered question Skipped question

Did Summon improve your ability to research effectively? % said yes % said no % said they hadn’t used Summon

How important are the following features in any online research resource? Not useful Marginally useful ImportantEssential Response count Advanced search option13 (1.7%)114 (14.9%)381 (49.8%)257 (33.6%)765 Folder or marked list feature98 (13.7%)288 (40.3%)251 (35.2%)77 (10.8%)714 Ability to limit or sort by date19 (2.5%)149 (19.7%)383 (50.5%)207 (27.3%)758 Ability to limit to scholarly articles only 9 (1.2%)79 (10.4%)333 (43.7%)341 (44.8%)762 Ability to sort by relevance5 (0.7%)92 (12.2%)373 (49.3%)287 (37.9%)757 Auto-generated search refinements tips (e.g. “did you mean…”) 39 (5.2%)269 (36.0%)325 (43.5%)114 (15.3%)747 Ability to export to a citation manager 43 (5.8%)165 (22.1%)304 (40.8%)234 (31.4%)746 Ability to search by subject headings 14 (1.9%)114 (15.2%)389 (51.8%)234 (31.2%)751 Answered question Skipped question

Where did you start vs has Summon helped? Think about your most recent assignment for which you had to do research. What online resource did you start with? (Please select just one) Has the Summon™ search service on the library website improved your ability to research effectively? YesNo Have not used Summon™ Response count Google67 (13.8%)23 (28.6%)65 (29%)155 (19.7%) Google Scholar106 (21.9%)18 (22.5%)46 (20.5%)170 (21.6%) Wikipedia6 (1.2%)0 (0%)8 (3.6%)14 (1.8%) Summon™ (primary search box on the library homepage) 171 (35.3%)7 (8.8%)0 (0%)178 (22.6%) Publisher research database (e.g. EBSCOhost, etc.) 101 (20.9%)28 (35.0%)79 (35.3%)208 (26.4%) Library catalogue15 (3.1%)0 (0%)11 (4.9%)26 (3.3%) Contacted a librarian for help4 (0.8%)2 (2.5%)3 (1.3%)9 (1.1%) ‘Resources by Program’ guides8 (1.7%)0 (0%)7 (3.1%)15 (1.9%) Infoquest Tutorial2 (0.4%)2 (2.5%)1 (0.4%)5 (0.6%) Other (please specify)4 (0.8%)0 (0%)4 (1.8%)8 (1.0%) Answered question

Non-survey data 0 Pulled stats from Summon admin, key databases, website stats 0 Overall database use remained consistent 0 Big increase in Serials Solutions “click through” stats, likely indicating that students are increasingly avoiding the native interfaces 0 Libguide use is about 11% or less of the visits to the library website 0 Where do we go from here?

Impact on information literacy instruction

Changes to instruction 0 “[a]ccessibility is likely (rightly or wrongly) to be favoured over quality as a determinant of choice by the student users….” Brophy, J., & Bawden, D. (2005). Is Google enough? Comparison of an Internet search engine with academic library resources. Aslib Proceedings, 57(6), 498. doi: /

Changes to instruction 0 Less focus on using the library catalogue and specialized databases (at least initially) 0 More focus on using Summon and Google Scholar via RRU, with strategies to narrow searches

Changes to instruction Broad, interdisciplinary search engines Google Google Scholar Summon Specialized databases More focused, subject- specific search engines

Changes to instruction 0 Database ‘hackfest’ 0 Sample research question 0 Talk about strengths & weaknesses of search tools 0 Search features for narrowing results 0 Search features for broadening results 0 Barriers encountered

Online instruction materials 0 7% of students reported using LibGuides 0 4% of students reported using the Infoquest Tutorial

Conclusion Return on investment 81% of students search more than one resource when researching Importance of regular feedback

Thank-you! Questions? Comments? Rosie Croft Jessica Mussell