Student Services in the 21st Century: Evolution and Innovation in Discovering Student Needs, Teaching Information Literacy, and Designing Library 2.0-Based Services
51 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2008
Date Written: 2008
Abstract
In this article the authors discuss the changing library needs of law students as computers technology and legal publishing evolve. As students discover new ways to access legal information, libraries must create new services that meet their students' shifting expectations. In order to track the evolving needs of students, the authors discuss new ways that librarians can survey students and explain how focus groups and usability tests can provide further insights regarding students' research skills and information needs. The authors also review the studies concerning the research skills law students posses, both when they start law school and throughout their law school careers. The article also examines the literature regarding information literacy and suggests minimum standards for legal information literacy upon graduation. Next, the authors suggest new services that law librarians could create for law students. First the authors discuss how to design effective legal research tutorials. Next the authors examine the recent literature about Library 2.0 services. Two significant aspects of Library 2.0 services are that they foster participatory and collaborative sharing of knowledge, often through online discussions, and they enable libraries to deliver information and other library services to the patrons' venue of choice rather than require patrons to seek the services in the library. Examples of participatory Library 2.0 services include blogs, wikis and social reference management services. Library 2.0 services that libraries deliver to patrons include the availability of reference via a patron's own instant messaging account, social networking service, course management software, or online virtual reality world.
Keywords: Student Surveys, Focus Groups, Usage Tests, Information Literacy, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Participatory Networking, Blogs, Wikis, RSS Feed, Social Reference Managers, Social Bookmarking, Collaborating Tagging, Del.icio.us, Library Thing, Citeulike, Connotea, Instant Messaging, Social Networking, Couse
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