Author Archives: Debra Kolah

After a slow start due to Harvey, the UX Office is up to speed this Fall.

Survey of All Students:

The Survey of All Students is the primary (and in some cases only) survey that captures Rice students’ feedback each year, with close to a 100% response rate. More information on the survey can be found here: https://registrar.rice.edu/students/sas

For the past three years (2015-17), the UX Office has worked with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (OIE) on Fondren Library’s section of this survey. In the interest of transparency, we have uploaded this year’s report to the Wiki (login required): https://wiki.rice.edu/confluence/display/FONDREN/Reports+-+Library-wide

We hope that you will read the report, and contact us if you would like clarification or more information on any of the topics.

In the coming weeks, we will be working with selected stakeholders to address some 2017 survey comments. Our goal is to crowdsource ideas and feedback on these subjects. We plan to report back with any changes made as a result of the survey by the end of the semester.

Fondren Library Student Ambassadors: 

The Fondren Library Ambassadors have their first lunch meeting this Friday, October 6th. We are welcoming new ambassadors from Weiss and Duncan Colleges and we have five ambassadors that were with us last year. We are still looking for a graduate student representative, and representatives for Baker, Hanszen, Martel, McMurtry. If you know of a student that might be interested, please encourage them to fill out the form: http://library.rice.edu/~fondren/news/we-are-looking-fondren-library-student-ambassadors 

The first ambassador meeting will include discussion about library wifi, color printing, and collect feedback on how students perceive library social media. Future meetings for the year include: continuing renovation discussions for the area outside of Room 156 and the 4th floor alcoves, e-books access and usage, a tour of the Digital Curation lab, a look at archives recovery help during hurricane Harvey, a field trip to the Library Service center, and the Research Awards and Fondren Fellows. If you have a topic or issue you would like brought up with the Ambassadors, please contact: Debra Kolah (dkolah@rice.edu), Norie Guthrie (slg4@rice.edu) or Amanda Thomas (althomas@rice.edu).

Some initiatives driven by the ambassadors were featured in the the September 20th issue of the Thresher: http://www.ricethresher.org/article/2017/09/new-fondren-equipment-revamps-experience

Many thanks to the Access Services team who helped put together supplies, and rolled out to the new supplies area located by the first floor area printers!

New supply area! (Veronica Huitrado)

New Whiteboards! (Mauricio Prado and Andrew Vieira)

New markers and eraser kit for the study rooms! (Michael Chiles)

Modern paper cutters, hole punch and more supplies!

New supplies signage. (Michael Chiles)

UX Question of the Week

The UX Question of the Week will start back up this week-this is always fun to watch as the students fill up the whiteboard with their thoughts and suggestions. If you would like to contribute a question, please contact Amanda Thomas (althomas@rice.edu).

The Social Media team has been hard at work engaging our users via Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube.

A huge thank you to all of the team that makes our social media continue to grow, and be a vibrant community. The social media team promotes events that live on the Fondren Event calendar: http://library.rice.edu/calendar, as well as, other content that is of interest to our users.

Jeanette Sewell has joined the social media group. Jeanette will be working on a twitter bot with Ted the bookworm as the mascot. The bot will tweet general things such as search tips and links to LibGuides.

Norie Guthrie has taken on an expanded role for Twitter, monitoring any questions that need answered, and adding content as needed, Monday through Friday.

DeAndrea Smither has developed several themes for different days of the week for Snapchat. Our followers have really grown in this communication channel, enjoying the content provided.

DeAndrea displays her Snapchat schedule.

Additionally, we have new emergency social media communications procedures developed in collaboration with Kerry Keck. In the event of an emergency,  such as a hurricane or tropical storm, Kerry Keck will be the primary contact person on Twitter and Facebook. She will post content from the university regarding the emergency. All previously scheduled posts will be put on pause, and will resume after the emergency has passed. We hope this will provide a clear source of information to our users about Fondren Library. We had a trial run this past week, and all seemed to work well!

Twitter (972 Followers) https://twitter.com/fondrenlibrary:

• Monday: Shannon Kipphut-Smith
• Tuesday: Debra Kolah
• Wednesday: Kathy Weimer
• Thursday: Scott Carlson
• Friday: Norie Guthrie

Facebook (1,235 Followers) https://www.facebook.com/ricefondren/:

• Monday: UX Monday (Amanda Thomas)
• Tuesday: Information Literacy/Reference Events (Joe Goetz)
• Wednesday: Summer posts: Light library information  Fall: News from Fondren highlight (Melinda Flannery)
• Thursday: Archives/#TBT item from the Woodson Archive
• Friday: Rotates with focus on library humor/light reading (Jeanette Sewell)

Instagram (511 Followers): (Michael Chiles/DaVian Smith/Norie Guthrie) (3 x week) https://www.instagram.com/fondrenlibrary/

Snapchat: (DeAndrea Smither)

We have room on the Social Media group for you! If you would like to participate in Fondren Library’s social media efforts, email Debra Kolah (dkolah@rice.edu) and we will get you signed up!

The Fondren Library Ambassadors wrapped up the year with a final meeting in April. Several student ambassadors will be continuing for 2017-2018:

*Meghana Gaur (Lovett), Rakesh Vijayakumar (Brown), Kseniya Anishchenko (Sid Rich), Reagan Hahn (Will Rice), and Anirudh Kunaparaju (Jones). The Fondren Library Ambassador facilitators, Debra Kolah, Norie Guthrie and Amanda Thomas, are actively recruiting for students that can represent the remaining colleges: Weiss, Martell, Duncan, McMurtry, Hanzen, and the Graduate Student Association.

This past year the students helped to market and promote multiple events, including study breaks, pet therapy, the research awards, and Fondren 101. One big project for the year involved compiling a photo diary–students were given 20 prompts, and asked to photograph areas in the library that answered the prompt. (Your favorite place to study in Fondren Library. A place in the library where you feel lost. Where you go in the library to ask questions?) The UX Office will present the photo diaries for interested library staff in mid-June in the Collaboration space.

Another important Ambassador project was getting student input into how some of the KRTU funds could be spent. When KTRU was sold, an endowment was set up for the following purpose “To support student-centered improvements in Fondren Library as determined by the University Librarian.”   In the past,  the fund was used to supplement technology in the study rooms, purchase the portable charging stations, and purchase lounge furniture on the 4th floor. The students had a spreadsheet that they contributed ideas to all year, and they solicited feedback from students across campus. They were encouraged to identify needs which included: collections support, furniture, or technology.

A report was prepared and presented to Sara in April, and after discussions of feasibility, the following improvements will be made over the summer:

The area outside of Room 156 will be made into a casual, beverage allowed area, with improved lighting and innovative seating/furniture that includes standing tables.

(First floor area outside of Room 156 will be improved this summer, with new seating, lamps, and standing desks.)

4th floor cubicle areas will be repainted and improved with new seating and cafe-style tables.

Attention will be given to the 4th floor study cubicles along the West side of the building, especially paint, electrical improvements, new chairs, and cafe style seating.

Improved access and more office supplies near printers on the first floor, in the basement, and at the Access Services desk, including: staplers, paper cutters, paper.

More rolling white boards will be purchased.

Ambassadors suggested a few different variations on the theme of standing/active desks. It is clear that Rice students are interested in staying active and healthy while they study, and would like their furniture in the library to reflect that need. Specific items requested include: standing desks, stationary bike desks, cycling chairs, and treadmill desks.

We will experiment with having a few computer monitors that allow for a laptop to be plugged in directly.

A subscription to the New York Times online will be acquired.  

A full-length white board wall will be provided  in several study rooms.

Additionally, we are exploring ways to accommodate longer borrowing times for lockers;  increased signage (inside and outside the library);  providing color printing in the library; new window film/coverings for the study carrels, increased access to several computer programs, including MATLAB; and better options in the vending machine.

A special thank you to Sara Lowman for her support of the Library Ambassadors, and to Jeff Koffler for the design work that will improve the spaces identified by the students.

When the UX Office was created at Fondren Library in December 2010, some of the departmental goals were to do ethnographic and observational studies, and conduct usability studies on our digital tools. The UX Office submits paperwork, including the study design, through an online system in collaboration with the Rice Office of Institutional Effectiveness that is submitted to the Institutional Review Board “IRB”  at Rice. Research involving human subjects, including usability testing, generally needs to go through the IRB process, unless one is not going to publish or write about the results. If the results are only used to improve the business process, it generally doesn’t need IRB. When approval is granted, then the research can start!

We have mentored multiple staff members on various aspects of the research process at Rice, including CITI training (a required online IRB training course), and designing effective research protocols. Please let us know if we can be of assistance to you!

Rice rolled out a new online system last Fall, named Cayuse, that helps store and manage the many IRB’s maintained by departments on campus. Currently the UX Office has approved IRB’s for the following studies:

• Institutional Repository Usability and Ethnographic Study (Stakeholder: Digital Scholarship Services)(ongoing study from 2012-current)
• Understanding Researcher Needs for Finding Aids and Testing Usability of ArchivesSpace (Collaboration with University of Houston and Amanda Focke)
• Fondren Library Website Usability Testing (ongoing study from 2011-current)
• Research Support Services for the Field of Religious Studies (Amanda Thomas and Elka Tenner)

Past studies include:  Ithaka S+R Survey for Fondren Library, Understanding Desired Usage of BRC Library Space, Understanding Research Flow: An Ethnographic Study of Humanities Researchers, Discovering Discovery: How Rice Researchers Find the Sources They Need, and  Survey and Usability Studies on Fondren Library’s Mobile Website.

The Fondren Library Ambassadors were featured in the latest issue of News from Fondren: http://library.rice.edu/sites/default/files/library-news-images/NFF-Fall2016.pdf on page 2. There are several opportunities for you or your department to become involved with the ambassadors! Every Tuesday we send out a newsletter to the ambassadors. You are very welcome to suggest items for that newsletter, or provide photographs, etc. Past newsletters are available online: http://ow.ly/JPx7307YpcJ

Additionally, every Wednesday, we have folders that they pick up with flyers. Bring your flyers to the UX Office and we will make sure it gets distributed. This week’s folders included flyers and bookmarks about the upcoming Fondren 101 classes, and bookmarks about Interlibrary Loan. The students are enthusiastic about sharing the great services of Fondren!

We wanted to let you know about a project the Ambassadors are working on over the next couple of weeks. They are creating a photo diary from some supplied prompts, such as:

1. Your favorite study area in Fondren library.
2. Your favorite place at Rice University.
3. Something you can’t imagine the library without.
4. Your favorite place to study with a group.

So, you may see the Ambassadors taking photographs, and you might even get asked to be photographed by a student! We will be sharing these photo diaries with stakeholders, and working with them to develop services and spaces.

The Ambassadors will continue to have a monthly lunch meeting, and the spring will have them learning more about collection development, binding, e-resources, and remote access to Fondren.

We will send out the call for next year’s Ambassadors in the next couple of weeks. The webpage is currently at: https://library.rice.edu/ambassador 

We are especially looking for representation from Duncan, Martell, Wiess, Hanszen, Baker, McMurtry. Please let us know if you have any student workers from those colleges, or serve as an associate. Encourage students you encounter to apply to be an Ambassador!

Please contact Debra Kolah, Norie Guthrie, or Amanda Thomas for questions, suggestions, or to submit material for the newsletter or folders!

Fondren Ambassadors, 2016-2017. (pictured from left to right: Pauline Chen, Meghana Gaur, Debra Kolah, Reagan Hahn, Rakesh Vijayakumar, Anirudh Kunaparaju, Kseniya Anishchenko) (photo by Jeff Fitlow)