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Evaluating the Impact of IPL Membership on SILS Teaching and Research

The SILS faculty's trial membership with the Internet Public Library (IPL) began in January 2007, allowing faculty and students to leverage IPL resources at a discounted rate. This initiative aimed to enhance teaching methods and research opportunities in digital reference services. Evaluation criteria focus on the integration of IPL in courses, research projects, and potential for grant funding. Ongoing analysis of user data seeks to identify trends and characteristics of the IPL community, informing future resource development and educational opportunities.

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Evaluating the Impact of IPL Membership on SILS Teaching and Research

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  1. The Internet Public Library …and SILS’ membership therein

  2. Refresher • In Sept 2007 the SILS faculty voted to join the IPL Consortium on a trial basis. • The IPL gave us a ½-year membership Jan-June for ½-price, $2500. • I agreed to train faculty & students in IPL use, & evaluate our membership. • “The IRB has determined that this submission does not constitute human subjects research as defined under federal regulations [45 CFR 46.102 (d or f)] and does not require IRB approval.”

  3. Evaluation criteria • Number of courses teaching with the IPL • Number of research projects using IPL data • Publications by faculty & students • Use of the IPL as a resource that may be leveraged to obtain grant funding

  4. Membership has its privileges • Support from IPL staff for integrating IPL-related projects into teaching • Ask a Question service • Collection development, Management, etc. • Access to IPL’s data • Google Analytics • Pre-GA webstats • Archive of answered questions • Access to the IPL Learning Community

  5. Current teaching • 501: training & answering dig ref questions • 740: DL evaluation assignment • 513 in Fall?: building IPL collections

  6. Current research • Lauren Perry’s project • Identifying Reusable Resources in Digital Reference Answers

  7. Lauren’s project • RQ: Are there socioeconomic trends in IPL usage stats? • Data: • IPL stats from NC, 1/1/07 to 3/7/08 • 2000 Census • 2006 SAT scores • Hypothesis: Users from more wealthy, educated areas would be the primary users of the IPL & other online reference sites. • Apparently is not the case • Exploratory: What are the characteristics of the IPL’s user community? Compare IPL use to some other online tool (dictionary.com, some other online encyclopedia).

  8. Identifying Reusable Resources in Digital Reference Answers RQs: • What resources are provided in answers to digital reference questions? With what frequency are these resources used in answers to different topics and types of questions? • To what extent are the resources provided in answers reusable for future answers? What factors affect their reusability? • What is the useful lifespan of a resource provided in an answer to a past digital reference question? To what extent is time a factor in a resource’s reusability?

  9. Work to date • Eliah Hecht wrote a crawler to download all records in the QA archive as of Jan 2008 (n=60,393). • We developed DC-based XML tags for fielded & structural data in the records. • Eliah wrote a parser to mark up all records. • I’m doing exploratory data analysis. • Stephanie is contemplating how to apply NLP methods.

  10. What resources are provided?

  11. What resources are provided? IPL

  12. What resources are provided? IPL

  13. Implications • Reference expert systems are a pipe dream. • Or, as Karen Spärck Jones would say, question answering is not a rational task. • Teaching reference requires apprenticeship.

  14. Notes from 4/7 IPL Fellows Meeting • Possible merger with LII • Revision of mission & vision statements to incorporate LII mission & vision • Revisions to Ask a Question webforms • Tracking question traffic to better plan for assignments in Reference courses

  15. Agenda for 5/5 Fellows Meeting • Mission/Vision Statement finalization • Review by IPL Deans scheduled for May 1 • Review and feedback on IPL Ask a Question form drafts • KidSpace Question Form • Adult Question Form • Library locator database or dataset for IPL site • Timeline for IPL site

  16. Teaching opportunities • 513 in Fall?: building IPL collections • 382: Systems Analysis • 509: IR • 510: NLP • 534: Children & Tech • 585: Management • 697: Emerging Topics • 760: Web Databases • 788: User Education • 890-096: Evidence-based Librarianship • Probably others • Drexel’s & FSU’s IPL course

  17. Research opportunities • Development of special collections; how collections evolve over time • Management of online services; management of virtual organizations • Webmetrics • NLP, text mining • How communities of interest can be developed & sustained • Professional development needs • Probably others

  18. Evaluation criteria, redux • Number of courses teaching with the IPL • Number of research projects using IPL data • Publications by faculty & students • Use of the IPL as a resource that may be leveraged to obtain grant funding

  19. The IPL as a resource for SILS • Needs the IPL data can address: • Provides a data set with which to do pilot tests, test hypotheses, etc. • Provides students a data set for Masters papers, other research projects. • Revenue neutral

  20. Conclusion • Evaluation of the usefulness of the IPL’s resources for SILS will take >1 semester. • Breaking news: University Research Council grant for $5000.

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