Competency  C: Demographics

recognize the social, cultural and economic dimensions of information use;

 

Introduction

As Christie Koontz (2008) noted, libraries have been offering services, programs, and activities for different segments of the populations for a very long time.  By the turn of the 20th century, many libraries had Children’s sections for young readers, and later reference sections for students, and popular periodicals for the general public.  What is different, now, however, is the acknowledgement that patron communities may differ by social factors, cultural heritage, and/or economic status, and those differences affect what they look for in a library, and how they use information.  Just as cereal companies, pen manufacturers, and motion picture producers have acknowledged, groups with different social structures, cultural factors, and economic situations approach the “product” differently, and meeting these differing needs improves use of information and facilities.

While demographic information can be gathered from general studies such as census data, community surveys, etc., libraries may need to do their own research as well.  This can be quantitative or qualitative research.  The first would likely focus on the collection rather than the patrons:  how many, where, when, why.  The latter will likely require formal and/or informal research directly with the patrons.  It may also involve studying the librarians, to determine the level and success of the services they directly provide.  These studies may be obtrusive, in which the librarians (or whoever is being studied) are aware of the research, or they may be unobtrusive, in which the research is conducted without their knowledge.

Research is needed because assumptions about a group may be wrong.  Even a group which “should be” very familiar with library procedures, may not know how to access/use information.  Hansen (2010) noted that college students who needed the services of the university library reference desk did not always state their questions directly.  Some asked a general question when they really had a specific question in mind; some asked for “sources” instead of the specific information (they thought) would be in those sources; and some asked what the librarians considered “throw-away” questions as a means of introducing their topic (p. Personal Reflections).

The social dimension of how we access and use information is affected by our friend and acquaintance groups, by those people we surround ourselves with.  Factors might include age, gender, education level, political affiliation, school, or club.  For example, if our friends love to borrow current novels from the library for pleasure-reading, it’s more likely we’ll do the same.  If our circle of friends includes fellow students with whom we’re spending crazy evenings trying to write long papers in short deadlines, it’s likely we’ll be right there with them.  If our social group loves the cars and sports magazine subscriptions, we’re probably reading the same.  This is partially because we form friendships and social circles based on common interests, and partially because we add new activities or habits because of the people we spend time with.  Libraries that discover these use patterns by way of studies, analysis, or research, will be able to adjust policies to meet those needs better, which will in turn, increase library use among those groups. Making provision for the above-mentioned college students “burning the midnight oil” as well as for the “every-Thursday-morning-seniors’-book-club” will mean adding different materials to the collection for each group, perhaps adjusting operating hours, and perhaps modifying behavior policies (allowing the students to get a bit louder at night).

The cultural dimension is less of a personal choice than the social dimension.  While we deliberately choose our friends, we are usually born into our cultural heritage, and share it with both family members and others in our local community.  Whether we go to church every Sunday, have a weekly Friday night Shabbat dinner at home, or celebrate life-cycle events in a particular way (quinceaneras and bat mitzvahs), our cultural heritage shapes our activities and preferences.  For libraries to meet their mission statement and serve their specific communities, they need to acknowledge these differences, and offer materials and services to meet those needs.  Which areas or sections are busiest, and would a section of foreign-language reading material would be well-received?  If so, which subjects would be most popular and worth investing in?  Would music downloads be more successful than video DVDs if the budget doesn’t permit both?

The economic dimension is reflected by the income levels of each patron community, in several ways.  While communities reflecting higher family income may be more comfortable with general use of the library (which was the traditional user group in the later 19th century (Rubin, 2004, p. 288-289)), the addition of publicly-available computers to today’s libraries has provided lower-income community members with strong reasons to visit their library.  Communities in higher-income areas might expect more books on how to prepare for college, while those in poorer areas might get more use from books on home and car repair.

Regardless of which aspect of demographics is considered, they affect many aspects of collection development policies and operating policy:  hours open, programs and services offered, and reference desk services and abilities.  A librarian positioned to work at a reference desk and answer patron questions needs to understand the underlying demographics, in order to have the best chance of giving the patrons the best answers to their questions.

 

Evidence

For this competency, I chose several examples of my understanding of how demographics can affect how patrons use and access information.  These include a research paper on how students do online searching, two descriptions of user groups relevant to program creation, and a description of a patron community for which a collection is being created.  Links within the prose will open in new tabs/windows.

 

Evidence #1 – 244 Paper – How college students do online searching

My first evidence is my final research paper for LIBR 244, Online Searching.  Our assignment required us to choose a topic related in some way to online searching, and if possible use the subscription databases and other tools from class for some of our research.  I chose to research how college students were doing their own online searching.  I reviewed several studies which demonstrated that these students weren’t using the tools very successfully, and in some cases provided possible ways to increase their search skills.   The studies all involved university students, but were conducted in different states and countries.  Contrary to the supposition that because these students were “born digital” they’d know how to use search terms and options, generally the opposite was found.

This paper focused on one specific demographic group, and how they used and accessed information available online.  Some of the libraries who conducted the studies, and others who will have read this literature, have adjusted their teaching methods by providing tutorials, classes, demonstrations, and hand-outs to enable the students to use the many online tools available.  My review of these studies and of the student behaviours demonstrates that I recognize the social and cultural dimensions of information usage, and the importance of providing services based on research.

 

Evidence #2 – 202 Database Design

My second evidence is a paper I wrote for 202 – Information Retrieval.  As a three-person team, we were to create a database of fifteen articles on information retrieval, selected from our class readings.  The requirements for the assignment included the following: 

“Decide who your user group will be -- perhaps students in a beginning information retrieval course and other students in an MLIS program with an interest in information retrieval.  The database should be designed so that your users can search to meet their particular information needs in this subject area.  This means you need to give careful thought to what their information needs will be.  What kinds of subjects will they need to search for?  Identify some searches that your users might be likely to do in your database (Weedman, 2009. Part A).”

In Part A, we described who the intended user of our database would likely be, and provided searching guidelines for those users.  We also provided detailed explanations of each of our database fields, so our users would understand how to use the information.
In Part B, we evaluated the database by performing several test searches, based on whether our users would access the information sufficiently to meet their needs and provide desired results.  We also devised the scenarios from which we tested the database.

This paper was designed around a hypothetical group of college students, but the same process could be used in the creation of any database, or collection of information, based on the needs of that particular community group or subgroup. This evidence demonstrates that I understand how to accommodate the needs of different user groups depending on their social, cultural, or economic status in designing a database.  Understanding the process, I would be able to analyze demographic research to offer suggestions to meet the needs of different groups.

 

Evidence #3 – 240 Proposal for website

My third evidence is the proposal for my website for LIBR 240 – Information Technology Tools and Applications.  While our final project was to design a small website, one interim project was to write an official proposal.  One component of this proposal was to describe the intended audience for the website.  This evidence, in conjunction with the final website itself, reflects another way to provide library services, information, and programs designed to meet the needs of different demographic groups.  My demographic knowledge of this community of users (genealogy is my avocation) enabled me to create a website which would meet their social demographic needs.

 

Evidence #4 – 266 Demographics for Opening Day Collection

My fourth evidence is my final paper for LIBR 266 – Collection Development.  For this assignment, we were to design a new collection for a real or imagined library.  Since selection of materials for a collection should be based on the needs of the particular community affected, we were to preface the paper with a description of the community we chose.  Although for this paper I chose an imagined library and community, I still had to describe the demographics of that community, in order to justify the creation of that collection, and the selection of the materials to populate it.  My selection of materials based on the composition of that community demonstrates my understanding of this competency.

 

Conclusion

Given “the need to utilize diminishing public funds more efficiently (Koontz, in Haycock, 208, p. 77),” and similar restrictions in libraries and information centers, libraries must choose materials, programs, services, and activities which will be of use to their specific communities.  They can’t do this without understanding how social, cultural, and economic factors affect these communities, and drive their use of information.  Doing otherwise will not only fail to build attendance and use, but could create negative impressions that the library doesn’t have what they need, or doesn’t have anything for them.  The several papers I’ve included here are evidence that I understand how social, cultural, and economic dimensions affect how patrons use information and information centers, and how libraries can accommodate those differences.

 

References

Koontz, C., (2008).  Marketing – The driving force of your library.  In K. Haycock & B. Sheldon (Eds.), The Portable MLIS:  Insights from the experts, pp. 87-97).  Connecticut, Libraries Unlimited.

Hansen, D. (2010)  Lecture-Reference_Evaluation.S10 (LIBR 200, Spring 2010)

Rubin, R. (2000). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Weedman, J. (2009)  Instructions for assignment 2 (LIBR 202, Fall 2009)

 

Evidence

1. 244 Research Paper – How college students do online searching

2. 202 Database Design Group Project

3. 240 Proposal for website (deleted for privacy reasons; please contact me if you'd like to read this document.)

4. 266 Demographics for Opening Day Collection