Odum Library Blog

Many of our comic books and graphic novels are located on the third floor in the PN 6728 call numbers.

Tags: (Almost) Daily Photo by lbwright
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For those with the morbid fascination of watching a pandemic unfold, check out the real-time progression of Swine Flu (H1N1) in a convenient Google Map (via Gizmodo):

View 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1) Outbreak Map in a larger map

Want to avoid contamination and learn more? Check out these websites:

CDC – Swine Influenza
WHO – Swine Influenza

Or just scare yourself silly with our online books:

• The threat of pandemic influenza: are we ready?
• The great influenza: the epic story of the deadliest plague in history

Tags: Odum Library by Cliff Landis
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Need a quiet area to study for finals? Odum Library has designated Quiet Study Zones.

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On April 17, 2009 approximately 150 Pre-K students from three local schools visited Odum Library for Read Fest 2009, held in honor of National Library Week. Our goal is to promote a life-long love of reading through a variety of fun reading-related activities.

We had read-a-louds

Some read-a-louds include dancing

We had two puppet shows, with ice cream (yum!)

Students could get their faces painted

with great results

or scary results (spiders are the scariest!)

snakes are scary too!

or not on their faces after all

Students could color

or make bookmarks

Students had fun hula hooping

so did librarians

Students could spin the Chick-fil-A Wheel to win a prize

There was jump roping too.

Eventually the students had to go back to school.

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This week we can offer you several books about comics or writing comics, for instance Dangerous Drawings: Interviews with Comix & Grafix Artists, or Anime Interviews: the First Five Years of Animerica, Anime & Manga Monthly (1992-97).

From Scott McCloud we have Reinventing Comics, Understanding Comics, and Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels.

Also, from three veteran authors– Alan Moore’s Writing for Comics, Will Eisner’s Comics & Sequential Art and Stan Lee’s How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way.

Lastly, Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers! Writers on Comics, is a literary take on comic books from Brad Meltzer, Myla Goldberg (author of Bee Season) and the like.

You can find books about comics in GIL (the online catalog) or ask a librarian for help.

A page from Will Eisner's sketchbooks.

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The Information School at the University of Washington is conducting a multi-year study to find out how college and university students do research– as they put it, “how early adults conceptualize and operationalize research activities for course work and ‘everyday use’ and especially how they resolve issues of credibility, authority, relevance, and currency in the digital age.”

Check out Project Information Literacy’s Web site for a list of publications, videos and progress reports.

Their exploratory research with students at Saint Mary’s College of California found “the majority of students (87%) did not go to Google’s search engine first when conducting research as many previous studies have suggested.”

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Odum Library’s Public Fax

Number:  229-219-1362

Located at the main Circulation Desk, on the second floor.

Rates

• Free to recieve
• $0.25 per page to send local or long distance
• $1.00 per page to send international

Tags: (Almost) Daily Photo, Odum Library, Services by lbwright
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The second Reference Satisfaction Study was performed for two weeks during Spring Semester 2009 (2/24/2009-3/10/2009).

We asked Reference Services users to rate us on a scale from 1-5 (1 being “strongly disagree, 5 being “strongly agree”) for each of the following statements:

1. I got the information I needed.
2. I have a better understanding of how to find information.
3. I have a better understanding of how to evaluate information.
4. I am satisfied with the service I received.

The results showed that users are very satisfied with the service they received:

Spring 2009 User Satisfaction

Users’ comments reflected this satisfaction as well:

• My help was great and fell well informed
• The reference desk is always helpful and will help as much as possible
• Wanted to schedule research consultation
• The desk helper was very helpful with the information I needed.
• The library & librarians are always helpful going beyond measures
• always helpful!

Again, undergraduates made up the majority of respondents (80.95%), followed by graduate students (9.52%) and Faculty and Other (both 4.76%).

But that’s not all — we also evaluated ourselves, rating our service for each of the following statements:

1. The user got the information he or she needed.
2. The user has a better understanding of how to find information.
3. The user has a better understanding of how to evaluate information.
4. Overall, I was satisfied with this reference transaction.

Reference service providers continued to strictly evaluate their service:

Spring 2009 Provider Satisfaction

Reference service providers also gave comments on their interactions:

• need more information on hunter safety
• Search on race & criminal justice resulted in Gov Docs print materials did take patron to print docs because sudocs are tricky to find
• Q: How to find books/articles about origins of different types of music

We use this information to purchase new resources, based on the needs of our users.

Again, approximately eighty percent of self-assessment surveys were completed by Librarians, and 20% by Peer Reference Counselors.

Summary:

A comparison of the Fall and Spring studies shows that users had a large increase in satisfaction from Fall to Spring semesters, whereas providers had a small increase in satisfaction.

2008-2009 User Satisfaction

2008-2009 Provider Satisfaction

It looks like we’re continuing to offer excellent service while still keeping our standards high!

But you don’t have to wait until we do a survey to tell us how we’re doing–just leave a comment on the blog!

Keep your eyes open for more ways in which we’re assessing and improving our service to you, our users!

Tags: Odum Library by Cliff Landis
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