After lunch at ECIL : Pam blogs from #ECIL2017

There was a packed program in the first session after lunch so I'm going to briefly summarise a few papers in this post

. Implementing Library Strategies and Values as a Part of the Workplace Information Literacy

Marja Anneli Hjelt and Jarmo Kyösti Saarti

The presentation was based on Marja's PhD research looking at the adoption of e-books in public libraries. The research aimed to understand the role of the librarian as innovator. Marja conducted interviews with librarians in 6 libraries. Ebooks were considered to be complementary and supplementary to the library's other services. Librarians thought that non fiction ebooks were more heavily used than fiction ebooks, however the usage statistics contradicted this view. Ultimately librarian knowledge about ebooks is based on public external information rather than library strategies or data therefore this disconnect between perception and reality is an issue to do with IL in the workplace. 

Enhancing the Quality of the Library Processes – Benchmarking Workplace Information Literacy, Numeracy and Communication Practices in Two European University Libraries

Jarmo Saarti and Nora Balagué
This research study looks at the use of communication and management tools to support information literacy and numeracy in academic librarians in 2 universities, in Finland and in Spain. The researchers used the PDCA (plan, do, check, act) to investigate the situation. They found that library staff make a lot of use of internal data, but are not great users of generic management resources to improve management.

Information Literacy of Croatian Subject Indexers

Kristina Feldvari, Kornelija Petr Balog

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Osijek, Croatia

This presentation reported on PhD research using a cognitive work analysis framework to understand workplace information literacy of subject indexers. Subject indexing is unpredictable, changeable and interpretive, it is also highly contextual. The study aimed to understand the process and procedures of these subject indexers. 10 highly experienced subject indexers from 5 large libraries formed the purposive sample for the study. A comparative qualitative case study methodology was adopted using semi structured interviews as the data collection method. Each interview featured a subject indexing task and used a think aloud method to record the process. The interviews were then compared with the actual practice displayed by the indexers. Indexers preferred to use existing subject headings rather than create new ones. Searching for new appropriate headings was a barrier, particularly as there is no national subject indexing manual. 

Subject indexers were not familiar with the search capabilities of internal databases, OPACs and the internet, their search capabilities were poor. Suggestions derived from the project were to have information literacy training sessions for the subject indexers.