Time to start up the FIMS Mentorship Program again!


Peer Mentorship
New to the MLIS program and looking for someone to talk to about what to expect re: courses, co-op, job-shadowing, and other issues? Why not sign up to connect with a peer student mentor also in the MLIS program here at Western?
The CLA student group’s peer mentorship program is geared to first-term students interested in exchanging information with other students with more experience with the program. Mentees are matched with volunteer peer mentors (other MLIS students who have completed at least 3 courses).
The due date for applying to the Peer Mentorship program is Friday, September 27, 2013.
If you would like to participate in the mentorship program or have any other questions about it, please contact Annick Lapalme and Megan Cook, Co-Peer and Mentorship Coordinators, at westernmentorship@gmail.com.

Meagan Berry on Social Media



The UWO-CLA blog regularly publishes writings of its student members in order to allow our them to express their thoughts and opinions on issues in library and information science. These writings are not meant to represent the views of the UWO-CLA itself or the greater CLA organisation. Your comments and questions are encouraged on this blog. If you wish to contact the UWO-CLA directly please email claatuwo@gmail.com.

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I would first like to welcome all the new and returned students at UWO and I hope everyone has a great term! I volunteered to write a blog post for the CLA blog for two reasons. First, I’m very excited to be apart of the UWO’s student chapter as well as serving on the executive this term and thought this would be a great opportunity. Secondly, I’ve been assigned to create a personal blog for one of my classes and this seemed like a great way to ease my way into the blogging world. Until this week I did not imagine myself to be a blog writer; however, I see enormous benefits to keeping up on all areas of the social media world. Especially when it comes to librarians. We have an ENORMOUS presence across all forms of social media. Whether you prefer quick 140 character tweets, or getting into the nitty-gritty details of the information world through blogs, WE ARE EVERYWHERE. Before starting my MLIS I subscribed to several librarian blogger sites and Twitter accounts, and read as much as I could about what was happening in the field. I didn't always understand the issues being discussed (and I still don't), but it's a great starting point. And if serious information issues aren't your thing, then there are plenty of other ways that librarians get involved online. There are hilarious librarian blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr pages...you name it and we're there covering the world of books. We also cover exciting topics such as what we're reading, funny and inspiring library stories, and pictures of our cats. I encourage anyone interested in the profession, working on their MLIS, or already working in the field to get online and see what librarians are posting. It's a great way to make connections, stay up to date on issues, and stay ahead of the game by finding job postings almost as soon as their made public. So I encourage you to explore the librarian presence on the web, and hey if you’re brave enough, maybe start your own blog. Happy social media-ing!

Meagan Berry

Carl Sack on Feedback


The UWO-CLA blog regularly publishes writings of its student members in order to allow our them to express their thoughts and opinions on issues in library and information science. These writings are not meant to represent the views of the UWO-CLA itself or the greater CLA organisation. Your comments and questions are encouraged on this blog. If you wish to contact the UWO-CLA directly please email claatuwo@gmail.com.
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Feedback
By: Carl Sack
 
Carl Sack is in his third term of Western's MLIS program.  He has previously received a BA in History from UBC.  He neither likes nor dislikes long walks on the beach.   He considers it perfectly natural to have a favourite type of history, and even more so for that type to be social history.
 
Disclaimer: I have done no formal research on this topic, nor have I seen the results of any of these types of surveys.  This piece merely represents my personal opinions on the subject.

It has become increasingly common for libraries to solicit feedback from their patrons using optional online surveys sent out by mass email.  In the eight months I have spent living in London, I have received surveys of this nature from the public library, from Western's general library services, and from our own Graduate Resource Centre.  And while this form of gathering information about the needs of patrons has some definite points in its favour, there are also certain limitations.  It therefore seems appropriate to look at some of the issues associated with this method of research.

The main advantage in using an online survey to gauge the needs of one's patrons is that it casts a very wide net.  Libraries – academic ones in particular, but also public ones – are increasingly becoming repositories of digitally stored information rather than physical items.  As such, there will be a large portion of the population serviced by the library whose main connection to its resources is through a computer.  Online surveys are a quick, convenient (and, it must be said, cheap) way to reach a wide swath of patrons in a way that directly approaching them cannot do. 

But simply casting a wide net does not mean that it will capture all the things within its reach. The patrons who end up responding to the survey will most likely be patrons of a certain type.  Optional online surveys tend to garner responses from people who have the time, inclination, and resources to answer them.  And if there's one thing I've learned from my time in post-secondary education, it's that there is no shortage of busy and/or apathetic students in any given institution.  Similarly, a public library's low-income patrons (to pick one example) may lack the resources to respond to an email requesting their thoughts on library services.  If our job as librarians is public service – and it is – then we must reach out to all members of the community we serve, not just the ones who conform to a certain profile.  Relying excessively on online surveys will only yield data from a portion of patrons, and if we are to address patron needs to make our institutions better we must endeavour to reach as large a percentage of this population as possible.

This is not to say that online surveys have no place in this kind of research.  As I mentioned above, they are a good way of quickly gaining a large amount of information from quarters that might not otherwise be reachable.  And of course, other methods of data collection all have significant flaws (particularly with selection bias).  I am merely arguing that while they are a useful tool in gauging patron needs, they should be used as a supplement to other kinds of data, such as focus groups.  If we become overly reliant on any one perspective, it will inevitably cloud our judgment.