Author Archives: Jess Isler

About Jess Isler

http://go.middlebury.edu/askus Liaison to Dance, Theatre, and Studio Art, Music Cataloger, LIS Website Team Leader.

Default All things LIS category

Following a long and lively discussion at our meeting today, we agreed that our team members would vote on the following terms to set as the default category name for our one blog. (This default term is intended to fill the “external” category role. We decided making this the default would encourage posters to be proactive in selecting categories.)

  • Bringing knowledge to you
  • Good to know
  • Need to know
  • The essentials
  • Tuned in

Voting will end at close of business Friday, 9/18. (Please, no additional suggestions…)

Questions from primary contact meetings

I thought I’d share with the team some questions my primary contacts had (or I had) after our initial meetings. Some of these questions are easily answered, and some raise other questions. I just thought I’d get them out to see what other people have been thinking about and discussing in their meetings. Maybe I’ll put a new section in the Wiki for LIS primary contact meetings FAQs…

  1. Will a link to my department/content exist on the LIS landing page?
  2. Will there be a “featured departments/events/exhibits/goings-on” spot on the LIS landing page?
  3. If I have an exhibit or event or online project being launched, can I advertize it on the LIS landing page?
  4. Can I name my part of the LIS site whatever I want? (What if I want to name it something other than what my department is called?) Can I separate out parts of my site as I see fit?
  5. Is creating my content in a Drupal page the best way to display and organize my department’s dynamic content (video, images, audio, etc.)?
  6. What if I want to use blogging tools than WordPress as part of my department’s web presence?
  7. How can I use MiddLabs, and other tools of the new College website to best communicate my department’s services and collaborative activities?

Meeting agenda for 8/12

Agenda for Wed 8/12:

  • Liz will moderate meeting
  • Ian will give an overview of the AD meeting and reactions
  • More discussion of meetings with primary contacts/working with them if needed
  • Finalizing recommendations on the wiki; we want buy-in by the meeting, so please contribute on the wiki!
  • Going over student employee survey feedback

Survey for LIS student employees

This is a quick and dirty attempt at a survey… Let’s see if we can get feedback from LIS student employees staffing Circulation, Helpdesk, Tech processing, P&P, Stacks, ILL (and at least some representation from branches).

Email intro something like:

Dear student employee,

To go along with the College web makover, we are creating a new LIS website and we would love your feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and what you would like to see on the site.

Please try to answer these questions from your perspective as a student!

  • What do you use most often on the LIS website? [we could give options or leave it wide open]
  • What features of the LIS website work or could be improved? [same as LIS staff version]
  • Is there anything missing from the LIS website?
  • Rate your level of comfort with these technologies [same as LIS staff version]
  • Is there anything else we should know?

Creating effective surveys

Summarizing Markless on surveys:
A major pitfall of surveys is that they “often project designers’ preconceptions out to potential respondents” and thereby dilute the value of the responses. General tips: Give clear instructions for answering the questions! Don’t use library/technology jargon! Some types of questions we can use:

Closed questions: Questions with several answer choices (with check boxes), and with a catch-all at the end.
e.g. I will use the LIS website to:
Find resources X
Get technology help X (etc….)
Anything else? Please say what! X (with space for answer)
Open questions: May best follow closed questions, i.e. “Why is this?”
Simple checklists (with check boxes), and a catch-all at the end:
e.g. Why did you use the website today? Check all that apply
Find resources X
Look for information X
Get help from a librarian X (etc…)
Other, please say what! (with space for reply) X
Likert scales: Highly likely/highly desired with boxes to highly unlikely/highly undesired
e.g. I will return to use the website in the future to do X
select one box
Highly likely  X  X  X  X  X  X  Highly unlikely
Thurlstone scale: tracks agreement or disagreement with the question
e.g. I found what I needed on the website today X yes X no
Semantic differential: quantitative measures of topics usually addressed through qualitative means
e.g. The library website is
select one box
Good  X  X  X  X  X  Bad
Guttman scales: statements arranged in sequence to gauge strength of respondents’ view
e.g. Shifting LIS communications to web based tools:
select one box
Web based commun. will catch on quickly/completely replace current tools X
Web based commun. will require some adjustment, but will mostly work X
Web based commun. will be hard to sell, may or may not work X
Web based commun. will never work for our organization X

Team Vision Statement

To fulfill the LIS vision, “We bring knowledge to you,” we are creating a stronger presence for LIS within the College website. With intuitive navigation and inviting interfaces, and a workflow that allows simple maintenance, we will provide easy access to our resources and services. The community will gain a dynamic website that enables interaction, knowledge sharing, and communication about the great work we do.