ACRL 2017: Academic Libraries, Filtering, & the Tyranny of Choice
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Choices abound in all aspects of life, from where we shop, to what we shop for, to how we obtain and consume media, food and information. Variety is ubiquitous and expected. Likewise, academic libraries are also providing users with an array of choices: different sources, formats, search tools and even study spaces and service points. Research has found, paradoxically, that more choice often leads to less satisfaction. Libraries have introduced various filters (relevance algorithms, advanced search forms, format limiters, etc.) to help users navigate the abundance of choices being presented to them. By filters we mean mechanisms for narrowing, customizing, or even expanding options, depending on the parameters of the need at hand. Filters are also implemented behind the scenes (approval plans, short term loans, etc.) to help streamline library workflow and productivity. This paper presents the results of a mixed method study aimed at gaining a better understanding of the impact of “filters” on library workflows, collections, services and users. We will explore the potential for automated filters to have unintended consequences and will present recommendations for how filters might be adapted and harnessed to enhance the overall library user experience.
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ACRL 2017: Academic Libraries, Filtering, & the Tyranny of Choice
- 1. Caroline Muglia University of Southern California Beth Namei The Claremont Colleges March 25, 2017 ACRL Conference Academic Libraries, Filtering, and the “Tyranny of Choice” #tyrannyofchoice
- 2. Overview of what we’ll cover today 1. Background and inspiration for our study 2. Our Study 3. Results & Findings 4. Recommendations & Conclusions
- 5. “What we are dealing with now is not information overload, because we are always dealing with information overload, the problem is filter failure.” - Clay Shirky (2008)
- 6. Human filters Search filters Workflow filters
- 7. Expansion-of-Choice Mechanisms in Libraries Demand Driven Acquisitions Discovery Systems
- 8. Filtering as curation/curation as filtering Project Information Literacy (PIL) found, after a 5 year study of undergraduate research behavior (2013), that: “students think librarians are going to give them more stuff, more resources, more information. That’s not what they need. They are overwhelmed with that already. The last thing they need is more sources.”
- 9. User Study Interviews - Search, Ebooks & DDA • Usability testing • 5 USC Undergraduates • 5 USC Graduate students • 17 Librarians (Claremont: 9; USC: 8) • 6 early-career (1-6 years experience) • 5 mid-career (7-17 years experience) • 6 senior (18+ years experience) Google Analytics • Use of facets in both institutions discovery systems for 18 month period (July 2015 - December 2016)
- 10. Results
- 14. Pre-Filtering approaches “If you put the word ‘movie’ in your search it should know that you are looking for the movie!" - Junior majoring in International Relations “Advanced search is old school. Students don't use it, but librarians want to use that. Students don't want to spend a lot of time. This whole, ‘let me stop and strategize’ approach doesn't work with students. Their life is not about search strategies, it's about the work.” - Early-career librarian
- 15. Post-filtering
- 20. A junior described ebooks as “cheaper and faster and easier to carry around one iPad with multiple textbooks with multiple books for different classes.” Ebooks as workflow filters
- 21. Acceptance of DDA (as a workflow filter) “Initially I saw DDA as taking librarians jobs away….But I have found, in the past few years, and starting with accepting higher managerial positions, that I like DDA more and rely on it. Time is different; the way to manage the collection is different.” - Mid-career Librarian DDA means that “there are fewer books to order. Instruction, reference and helping faculty and students take priority over collection development.” - Senior librarian
- 23. Beware of Filtering out the Margins “Who feels empowered to make requests and what publishers are available….What about the people not using the library? Are we narrowing the collection too much, then how do we encourage new users?” – Mid-career librarian
- 24. Trust issues Searching Summon “went the way I expected it, which is why I never use Summon [over the catalog]. Because I don’t use it, then I am not as experienced in the nuances of how to use it as effectively as I should be.” - Senior Librarian
- 26. Critical Algorithmic Literacy & Activism “The world right now is in a post-truth crisis that threatens to have truly earth-shattering impacts. What Google returns on a search result can truly change the fate of the entire world. What Google returns can literally lead to the end of humanity as we know it, through climate change, nuclear war, or disease. Not immediately, but as it shapes public perception one result at a time….I’m asking them to emulate science in designing a process that privileges returning good information over bad.” Mike Caulfield, March 9, 2017 blog post, “Google Should Be a Librarian, not a Family Feud Contestant.”
- 28. Image credits Slide 1: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bztraining/25568612721/in/photostream/ Slide 3: https://www.bigquestionsonline.com/2013/07/16/how-can-science-help-make-better-choices/ Slide 4: https://media.frankwatching.com/app/uploads/2016/10/Te-veel-keus.jpg Slide 5: http://abdooss.blogspot.com/2014/01/first-or-last-day-at-school.html Slide 6: Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral-density_filter Slide 7: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwid8PCmzd7SAhVIxlQKHbDLCgwQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fw artburgcircuit.org%2Fvogel-library-upgrades-discovery- system%2F&bvm=bv.149760088,d.cGw&psig=AFQjCNEWxsriOQL2rsfmhDfW5sYR8a_Kew&ust=1489876501474191 and http://michaelhyatt.com/why-do- ebooks-cost-so-much.html Slide 9: http://readingcraze.com/index.php/understanding-mixed-method-research-design/ Slide 10: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/02/23/467712481/academic-medical-centers-get-an-f-in-sharing-research-results Slide 15: http://todaysdoodle.com/then-iterate/ Slide 19: http://bedsdigital.blogspot.com/2015/06/ebooks-on-demand-2015-finish-line.html Slide 20: http://www.radicalparenting.com/2008/02/29/6-steps-to-lighten-your-student%E2%80%99s-backpack/ Slide 22: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bztraining/25542483272/in/photostream/ Slide 23: http://www.jamesclar.com/portfolio_page/square-eclipse-2003-2006/ Slide 24: https://www.songsforyourspirit.com/holding-on/trust-fall/ Slide 25: http://biz.surveylocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/bottomline.png Slide 27: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjY8vPgxuHSAhWf14MKHYGXApwQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2F 52.20.157.128%2Ftrust-issues%2F&bvm=bv.149760088,d.amc&psig=AFQjCNGnvRcUbsWC42YF39O8c8jN7JNPOQ&ust=1489977337418764 Slide 28: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bztraining/25568567641/in/photostream/
Editor's Notes
- What this chart doesn’t show you is that 78% (7/9) of the students who used a facet at least once struggled with them, either due to confusion about labels, lack of familiarity with facets, or because they failed to click the APPLY button after selecting a facet. So yes, they used filters, but not always successfully. One example of this facet confusion involved task #4: finding the video, Brazil. 56% (5/9) of the students who used a facet tried several times to find the right facet to narrow their search to video, but struggled with the multiple options that looked viable: film, microfilm, streaming video, and video recording. Interestingly, two undergraduate students thought that videos might be in the Digital Library, a link on USC libraries’ homepage.
- Our study asked eBook specific questions to all students and librarians. And we asked questions about Demand driven acquisitions of eBooks to librarians only.
- The 10 students surveyed were not enthusiastic users of ebooks. 7/10 (70%) of the students used ebooks as their own workflow filters, a shortcut in terms of time spent paying or carrying heavy books around. They can search for specific content using CTL+F and filter out the rest of the content. Several students alluded to these exact points raised in this quote: ebooks are cheaper than physical textbooks and much easier to carry around with them.
- Discovery systems also offer librarians workflow filters, so we can focus on higher level skills such as evaluation and critical thinking. What we saw among librarians when they spoke about DDA was an evolution in terms of their understanding and acceptance of this acquisitions mechanism. Some started by thinking DDA would replace them as subject experts. Every single librarian in this study found value in DDA both as a tool of collection development and as a mechanism that allowed them to return to, as the bottom quote suggests, instruction, reference, and other outreach.
- We learned a lot from this short study and we’d like to mention a few of the higher level conclusions and offer recommendations. Each of these recommendations is interconnected-they are difficult to accomplish without the other recommendations. Which speaks to the relationship of these filter mechanisms at play in libraries.
- DDA, if overly relied upon, has the potential to filter out certain groups of people or perspectives, which perpetuates the marginalization of groups who do not see themselves represented in our collections. There are implications to narrowing our searches or our collections too much.
- Lack of trust in discovery systems lead some librarians to pre-filter, which then leads to over-filtering, which can lead to failed results. We can build trust by keeping reference and instruction librarians informed about the latest updates and improvements and encourage them to make enhancement recommendations. Trust also comes with education and understanding. This new education will entail a measure of “UNLEARNING” on the part of librarians. We have an arsenal of advanced search strategies on hand, yet, in the discovery environment, many of these strategies simply get in the way, leading to wasted time at best, and failed searches at worst. Many librarians (and some grad students) are relying on pre-discovery search strategies. The first step in un-learning is to practice flexible searching
- We need to lobby for our users in for-profit environment - Lobbying corporations to provide a better user experience – which means frontline, user-facing librarians, not just e-resource librarians. The reality is that we interact all the time with systems that are built in research and development departments that we adopt often without much question. Let’s be aware of this.
- CAROLINE Related The cloud based nature of discovery systems means that they are updated regularly and so they’re a moving target. Reference and Instruction librarians need to better understand how these black boxes work so that we can in turn teach students how to critically and effectively approach them. This connects to lobbying corporations to better understand the black boxes and to expose biases (filter bubbles) Time permitting In reference to Google snippets: the “cards” that pop up at the top of Google results for some searches, giving the user what appears to be the “one true answer”.
- CAROLINE Thank everyone for choosing our session