J. Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University launched a web-scale discovery service, branded as OneSearch in 2013. Before that, Leonard library had been using Google Scholar since 2006. This study gathered usage data on OneSearch and Google Scholar from the library OpenURL link resolver, SFX, and the interlibrary loan server, ILLiad,…

Universities have been spending money on the acquisition of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enable online library research support platforms. Such acquisitions can be justified if they are effectively utilized for what they are intended for. A quantitative research approach was employed in the study to investigate the use of…

Despite the widespread adoption of streaming video by academic libraries, there has been little discussion about how video content is discovered and accessed through the library catalog as compared to vendor platforms. This article explores the current status of video resources in the library catalog to better understand how users find and access…

Systematic reviews, and other forms of knowledge synthesis, are an increasingly popular research methodology being used in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Librarians are being called upon to support this work through consultation, instruction, and/or performing the systematic search on behalf of the research team. Professional…

Libraries have adopted web scale discovery services with the goal of providing their users with a streamlined research experience. However, the single search box that characterizes web scale discovery is one option among many that libraries continue to provide, including subject databases and other legacy tools. Libraries lack evidence regarding…

Today's student must be able to work in an online environment. This often presents unique challenges for elementary students as they develop and extend fundamental literacy skills to various media. Many text features such as titles, headings, authors, and copyrights are easily transferable from paper to an online format; however, orientation and…

Creating information literate students and future employees is an expected outcome of a tertiary education. This paper shares insights from a successful collaboration between an academic and three university librarians to create an online learning module designed to develop students' professional information literacy capability: identifying…

The Digital Archival Advertisements Survey Process (DAASP) model is a collaborative active learning exercise designed to aid students in evaluating primary source documents of print-based advertisements. By deploying DAASP, the researchers were able to assess the students' ability to evaluate their biases of the advertisements in a first-year…

This journey-mapping pilot study was designed to determine whether journey mapping is an effective method to enhance the student experience of using the library by assessing our services from their point of view. Journey mapping plots a process or service to produce a visual representation of a library transaction--from the point at which the…

An increasing number of students are studying abroad requiring that they interact with information in languages other than their mother tongue. The UK in particular has seen a large growth in international students within Higher Education. These nonnative English speaking students present a distinct user group for university information services,…

With the diversification of information and the rapid development of information technology, and the arrival of the era of big data, information literacy has become one of the basic qualities that everyone must possess (Galvin and Jeanne 2006). This paper presents information literacy and review writing, data access autonomy and academic exchange…

For the past several years academic libraries have been adopting discovery systems to provide a search experience that reflects user expectations and improves access to electronic resources. University of Houston Libraries has kept pace with this evolving trend by pursuing various discovery options; these include an open-source tool, a federated…

For nearly a decade now, librarians have discussed and deliberated ways, for the sake of convenience, to integrate internet-like searching into their own catalogs to mimic what academic library patrons have been using outside the library. Discovery tools and web-scale discovery services (WSDS) attempt to provide users with a similar one-stop shop…

This study assesses and compares the quality of sources found by undergraduate students when doing research using both Google and a library (federated) search tool. Thirty undergraduates were asked to find four sources (one book, two articles, and one additional source of their choosing) related to a selected research topic. Students used both…

Google is currently recognized as the world's most powerful search engine. Google is so powerful and intuitive that one does not need to possess many skills to use it. However, Google is more than just simple search. For those who have special search skills and know Google's superior search features, it becomes an extraordinary tool. To understand…