The 2015 STS Continuing Education Survey: A New Name for Continuing Education
Kavita Mundle
Electronic Resources Librarian and Clinical Associate Professor
Resource Acquisition and Management
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
kavita@uic.edu
Margaret Bean
Head Librarian for Reference and Instruction
Wentworth Institute of Technology
Boston, Massachusetts
beanm1@wit.edu
Abstract
To keep current with the professional development needs of ACRL Science and Technology Section (STS) members, the STS Professional Development committee administers a survey approximately every two years. Surveys are sent to all section members as well as to members of the STS-L mailing list. For each survey questions are revised to reflect current topics of possible interest to section members. This article reports on the results of the 2015 survey.
Introduction
The ACRL Science and Technology Section (STS) Professional Development Committee (formerly the Continuing Education Committee) conducted a survey in the spring of 2015 to identify the continuing education needs of its membership. The survey was distributed through the discussion list of the Science and Technology Section (STS) of ACRL, STS-L.
The survey was designed and prepared by the members of the STS Professional Development Committee. Committee Co-Chair Cristina Caminita administered the survey and compiled the results. This report was prepared by Kavita Mundle and Margaret Bean, former Committee Co-Chair. Questions about the 2015 survey may be directed to Kavita Mundle, kavita@uic.edu or to Margaret Bean, beanm1@wit.edu. The results of the survey are presented below.
Methods
The 2015 survey was based upon the 2009 survey. Questions from the 2009 survey were reviewed by Continuing Education committee members and were revised, deleted, or expanded to reflect current interests of section members. The survey was distributed via a Qualtrix form from early May 2015 to May 26, 2015. A total of 137 responses were received which was slightly more than 111 responses received in the 2009 survey.
Results and Discussion
A vast majority of the 2015 survey respondents (93%) were academic librarians, 55% of them mid-career librarians with over 10 years of work experience. A low response rate of 14% by new librarians with experience less than three years was found concerning. Committee members recognized that the name "Continuing Education Committee" might have dissuaded librarians who were recently out of school to participate in the survey. As a result, the committee proposed to the STS Executive Board that the name of the committee be changed from the "Continuing Education Committee" to the "Professional Development Committee." This request was accepted.
Although 59% of the respondents indicated having an undergraduate science degree, 61% librarians showed that they have gained experience as science librarians by working in academic libraries. Most librarians (83%) showed a preference toward receiving continuing education via webinars and teleconferences, followed by a preference towards receiving continuing education at conferences or pre-conferences (72%). Other suggested preferences included STS chats, journal articles, science librarian boot camps, and MOOCs (massive open online courses). These methods are preferred as they do not involve travel-related costs. Only 25% respondents were interested in taking credit courses. When asked what types of credit coursed would be preferred, librarians voted for distance education (53%), MOOC (38%), and post-MLS/MLIS certification program (37%).
Pre-Selected Topics
The survey presented a list of 33 pre-selected topics to gauge the interest of science librarians on the scale of 1 to 5, 1 being "least interested" to 5 being "most interested." Three topics ranked at the top of the survey. The first was "consultation and collaboration with faculty" with a score of 4.43. The other two topics, "embedded library services" and "library instruction" tied at a score of 4.08. Initiating and sustaining faculty-librarian collaboration is clearly a challenging activity for librarians and embedding library services at the campus level closely ties in with improving literacy and research skills of the students leading to student success. Interestingly, "managing approval plans" and "working with consortia" received the lowest scores. This is not surprising considering that these roles are mostly undertaken by acquisitions and e-resources librarians at many institutions. Other ranked topics in which respondents showed interest included marketing, specific subject areas, developing a research agenda, budgeting, makerspaces, leadership, and assessment.
Open-Ended Question
While pre-defined topics made a clear deliberation for the topics of interest to science librarians, the survey did ask if there were any other topics that could be of possible interests to science librarians. The final question on the survey was open ended to determine if there are areas of interest which were not captured by the pre-selected topics. A total of 25 responses were received. Topics which scored at the top of the list include "Altmetrics/metrics/assessment," "learning data management tools with associated technologies," and "gaining knowledge in specific subject areas/STEM librarianship." See Appendix 1 for a detailed list of suggested topics arranged under broad headings.
Comparison to Previous Surveys
Two questions were removed from this survey because it was felt that they were not relevant: gender and "which professional organization do you belong to." The survey was updated to include new and emerging trends in STEM librarianship such discovery services and linked/open data.
Implementation and Use of Survey
Survey recommendations can be used by STS Hot Topics or Programming Committees, as well as by STS in proactively planning pre-conferences during ALA meetings, virtual pre-conferences, webinars, online discussions, or joint programs with ALCTS Committees.
Recommendations for Future Surveys
We recommend that future surveys reflect new and emerging trends in STEM librarianship. Also, it might be useful to include in the e-mail that goes out to STS-L linking to the survey a note specifically to new members. The note could encourage newer librarians to fill out the survey, reminding them that the committee is interested in learning the needs of librarians in all stages of their careers.
Recommendations for Future Continuing Education Programs
There seems to be a great interest among science librarians in learning about assessment techniques, metrics, or data mining tools. Offering webinars, creating video tutorials, or offering virtual pre-conferences will benefit science libraries to stay atop of these trends, especially at the time when library budgets are depleting and faculty-librarian collaborations are influencing student learning.
Suggested Web Sites:
2009 Continuing Education Survey Results
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/aboutacrl/acrlsections/sciencetech/stscommittees/2009%20STS%20Continuing%20Ed%20Survey%20Report.pdf
2007 Continuing Education Survey Results
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/sts/stswebsite/committees/continuingedresults2007.pdf
2005 Continuing Education Survey Results
http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/sts/stswebsite/continuinged/continuingedsurvey2005
References
Calzonetti, J. & Crook, L. 2009. The 2007 STS continuing education survey: continuing education needs of science/technology librarians. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. DOI: 10.5062/F4ST7MRG
Spackman, E., et al. 2006. The 2005 continuing education survey: what science librarians want to know. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. DOI: 10.5062/F4V9860G
Appendix 1
Open-Ended Question
Specific Subject Area Librarianship/STEM Librarianship:
- How to be a science liaison with no science background
- Explore the future of academic library services to STEM disciplines, philosophical/trends/predictions, classes in evidence based practice and STEM teaching
- How do academic libraries, of all sizes, address the needs of STEM disciplines?
- Conference learning opportunities
- Online courses to become better liaisons
Impact factors, citation metrics, Altmetrics, Unique IDs:
- How provide Altmetrics or other assessment methods to faculty if the library does not have access to Scopus/web of science
- How to do research using metrics
- Courses designed with prerequisite background knowledge so that people up on the topic can learn more advanced techniques/features or whatever the course or webinar is about
- Implementing unique identifiers/helping faculty promote their scholarly work
- Discussing the different assessment platforms
Research/Scholarly Publishing:
- Research ethics
- How to publish your research in your journals
- How to publish your research after presenting at conferences
- Avoiding predatory journals and publishers
Text mining/Data mining/Data management/programming:
- Text mining tools
- Coding
- Javascript, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, ... anything that will help me to work with data that one can manipulate or crunch
- Maker space technologies - Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, data repositories
Leadership/Administration:
- How to operate in a library that has a dwindling budget - to the bone budget
- Leadership and influencing others
- How library staff are dealing with pressures to reduce on-site physical collections and what strategies are being used to deliver services given the challenges of the changes forced on library staff
- What to do with incompetent admins
Others/Miscellaneous:
- Instructional support for Open Ed Resources
- What's new?
Appendix 2
2015 STS Continuing Education Survey
Detailed Results
Q.1 Where do you work?
| Answer Options | Response | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Academic library Corporate library Government library Public library Other type of library or library organization Do not work in a library | 128 1 2 0 1 5 | 93% 1% 1% 0% 1% 4% |
| Total | 137 | 100% |
Q.2 How many years since receiving Master's degree in library science?
| Answer Options | Response | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 3 years 3-5 years 6-10 years More than 10 years Degree in progress | 19 15 25 75 2 | 14% 11% 18% 55% 1% |
| Total | 136 | 100% |
Q.3 What is your background in the Sciences, Applied Sciences, or Engineering? (Mark all that apply)
| Answer Options | Response | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| No educational background Some undergraduate study Undergraduate degree Some graduate study Master's Degree PhD Continuing education Library work experience Non-librarian work experience Others (please specify) | 12 25 66 15 32 8 28 82 35 6 | 9% 19% 49% 11% 24% 6% 21% 61% 26% 4% |
| Total | 135 | 100% |
| Other (please specify) MS in Computer Science, I don't know if that counts Masters in Library SCIENCE IT, Health services research, health policy, nonprofit management, archives, teaching NIH Fellowship; Woods Hole Biomedical Informatics Fellowship DVM Academic/medical research |
Q.4 How would you prefer to receive continuing education? (Mark all that apply)
| Answer Options | Response | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Credit course Conference or pre-conference workshop Other workshops Consulting with mentor Webinars or teleconferences Web-based information Other (please specify) | 33 96 66 24 111 75 10 | 25% 72% 50% 18% 83% 56% 8% |
| Other (please specify) The STS chats are great too! journal format articles journal articles Books or other publications Boot camps Conference presentations; also, information through emails Recognition for completion of open online courses (Coursera, EdX, etc.) CANNOT AFFORD Credit Courses or Conference or Pre-Conference Workshops local conference or workshop |
Q.5 What types of credit courses would you consider taking to further your education? (Mark all that apply)
| Answer Options | Responses | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Classroom-based course Distance education MOOC Within an ALA approved MLS/MLIS program Within a post-MLS/MLIS certification program Undergraduate or Continuing Education course in assigned subject areas Undergraduate or Continuing Education technology skills course Not interested in credit coursework | 32 70 51 14 49 32 33 44 | 24% 53% 38% 10% 37% 24% 25% 33% |
| Total | 132 | 100% |
Q.6 On a scale of 1-5 with 1 being "least interested" and 5 being "very interested," please indicate how interested you are in learning more about the following continuing education topics
| Question | Scale (1-Least interested to 5-very interested) | Total Responses | Mean | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |||
| Evaluating existing services/developing new services | 6 | 10 | 25 | 46 | 39 | 126 | 3.81 |
| Managing and utilizing usage statistics | 7 | 15 | 40 | 28 | 36 | 126 | 3.56 |
| Approval Plans | 33 | 31 | 30 | 17 | 8 | 119 | 2.46 |
| Collection development in specific subject areas | 13 | 17 | 28 | 39 | 25 | 122 | 3.38 |
| Managing e-Books: purchasing, subscribing, platform/license issues | 21 | 25 | 31 | 23 | 21 | 121 | 2.98 |
| Managing archival rights | 25 | 31 | 33 | 20 | 9 | 118 | 2.64 |
| Managing electronic journals: purchasing, subscribing, platform/license issues | 18 | 31 | 35 | 18 | 17 | 119 | 2.87 |
| Patent and trademark sources, searching, etc. | 21 | 22 | 23 | 29 | 27 | 122 | 3.16 |
| Patron-driven acquisition | 24 | 30 | 32 | 27 | 10 | 123 | 2.75 |
| Working with consortia | 25 | 30 | 35 | 23 | 6 | 119 | 2.62 |
| Embedded library services | 4 | 8 | 16 | 41 | 54 | 123 | 4.08 |
| Library instruction | 4 | 9 | 15 | 38 | 55 | 121 | 4.08 |
| Marketing library resources and services | 6 | 7 | 23 | 36 | 51 | 123 | 3.97 |
| Specific subject area librarianship | 4 | 5 | 17 | 33 | 61 | 120 | 4.18 |
| Developing a research agenda | 5 | 14 | 29 | 36 | 35 | 119 | 3.69 |
| Grant writing | 6 | 14 | 39 | 33 | 31 | 123 | 3.56 |
| Developing management skills (budgeting, supervision, personnel recruiting, training, performance evaluation, etc.) | 11 | 22 | 28 | 28 | 33 | 122 | 3.41 |
| Professional advancement | 9 | 15 | 40 | 33 | 27 | 124 | 3.44 |
| Consultation and collaboration with faculty and students | 2 | 3 | 12 | 28 | 77 | 122 | 4.43 |
| Copyright issues | 11 | 14 | 23 | 44 | 33 | 125 | 3.59 |
| Impact factors, citation metrics, alt metrics | 6 | 11 | 18 | 42 | 46 | 123 | 3.9 |
| Institutional repositories | 8 | 18 | 37 | 32 | 30 | 125 | 3.46 |
| Open access publishing models | 5 | 9 | 32 | 36 | 41 | 123 | 3.8 |
| Research data management | 3 | 13 | 21 | 41 | 46 | 124 | 3.92 |
| Data visualization labs and services | 6 | 7 | 25 | 41 | 44 | 123 | 3.89 |
| Discovery services | 13 | 21 | 33 | 36 | 20 | 123 | 3.24 |
| Informatics | 10 | 10 | 42 | 40 | 22 | 124 | 3.44 |
| Libguides | 19 | 23 | 31 | 30 | 22 | 125 | 3.1 |
| Linked/open data | 8 | 17 | 35 | 36 | 28 | 124 | 3.48 |
| Mobile apps | 14 | 29 | 38 | 30 | 13 | 124 | 2.99 |
| Video tutorial applications | 14 | 17 | 31 | 35 | 27 | 124 | 3.35 |
| Web page design | 19 | 22 | 31 | 31 | 17 | 120 | 3.04 |
| Visualized data | 10 | 10 | 25 | 34 | 42 | 121 | 3.73 |
Q.7 Are there topics not listed in the previous question that you would like to learn about? Please list them here
Total responses received were 25. The topics suggested were as follows that are grouped under broad headings:
Specific Subject Area Librarianship/STEM Librarianship:
- How to be a science liaison with no science background
- Explore the future of academic library services to STEM disciplines, philosophical/trends/predictions, classes in evidence based practice and STEM teaching
- How do academic libraries, of all sizes, address the needs of STEM disciplines?
- Conference learning opportunities
- Online courses to become better liaisons
Impact factors, citation metrics, Altmetrics, Unique IDs:
- How provide Altmetrics or other assessment methods to faculty if the library does not have access to Scopus/web of science
- How to do research using metrics
- Courses designed with prerequisite background knowledge so that people up on the topic can learn more advanced techniques/features or whatever the course or webinar is about
- Implementing unique identifiers/helping faculty promote their scholarly work
- Discussing the different assessment platforms
Research/Scholarly Publishing:
- Research ethics
- How to publish your research in your journals
- How to publish your research after presenting at conferences
- Avoiding predatory journals and publishers
Text mining/Data mining/Data management/programming:
- Text mining tools
- Coding
- Javascript, PHP, Python, Perl, Ruby, ... anything that will help me to work with data that one can manipulate or crunch
- Maker space technologies - Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3D printing, data repositories
Leadership/Administration:
- How to operate in a library that has a dwindling budget - to the bone budget
- Leadership and influencing others
- How library staff are dealing with pressures to reduce on-site physical collections and what strategies are being used to deliver services given the challenges of the changes forced on library staff
- What to do with incompetent admins
Others/Miscellaneous:
- Instructional support for Open Ed Resources
- What's new?
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