Publications
2022
Conducting Effective Online Interviews in an Academic Library
In this column, we share in the brief literature review video interviewing trends that work in the corporate world to make the interview process in an academic library as smooth and consistent as possible.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2022). Conducting Effective Online Interviews in an Academic Library. Journal of Library Administration, 62(1), 101-109.
2021
Marketing professional development online streaming videos to faculty via email during Covid-19
In this edition of the column, we describe how we are marketing professional development streaming videos to faculty, including which strategies we employed and the extent to which we recognized success with these new efforts.
Rysavy, M. D., & Michalak, R. (2021). Marketing Professional Development Online Streaming Videos to Faculty via Email During COVID-19. Journal of Library Administration, 61(7), 869-877.
2021
Keeping library staff safe: Using Zoom TVs to bridge the gap between in-& virtual service consultations during COVID-19
In this column, we share how academic libraries have used video conferencing software pre- and post-pandemic, how we provided socially distanced virtual research consultations via a Zoom TV, promoted in-person support via the Zoom TVs, setting up the Zoom TV, Zoom TV tips, results from using Zoom TV during the Spring 2021 Semester, and finally our next steps.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2021). Keeping Library Staff Safe: Using Zoom TVs to Bridge the Gap Between In-Person and Virtual Service Consultations During COVID-19. Journal of Library Administration, 61(5), 588-596.
2021
Library marketing: Sending text messages and emails to online library users during COVID-19
In this edition of the column, we describe how our marketing efforts have changed due to the pandemic, including which strategies we employed, and the extent to which we recognized success with these new efforts.
Rysavy, M. D., Michalak, R., & Daly, B. (2021). Library marketing: Sending text messages and emails to online library users during COVID-19. Journal of Library Administration, 61(3), 358-365.
2021
Students’ perceived plagiaristic behaviors: Librarians’ role
In this chapter, Monica D. T. Rysavy and Russell Michalak, Directors at Goldey-Beacom College and partners at Rysavy & Michalak Consultants, discuss how the Office of Institutional Research & Training and the Library and Learning Center’s Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) program teaches students how to cite, and to write. The authors, who appended a survey to the ILA program, asked students to provide their definition of plagiarism and rate their perceptions of their peers’ plagiaristic behaviors at Goldey-Beacom College.
Rysavy, M. & Michalak, R. (2021). Students’ perceived plagiaristic behaviors: Librarians’ role. In Academic Plagiarism: Librarians’ solo and collaborative efforts to curb academic plagiarism. Nova Publishers.
2021
Academic plagiarism: Librarians’ solo and collaborative efforts to curb academic plagiarism
This edited collection is a compilation of practical case studies from academic libraries and librarians working with other college departments, faculty, and/or students. It chronicles their efforts to combat ongoing concerns related to intended and accidental student plagiarism due to the variety of definitions of plagiarism.
Michalak, R. & Rysavy, M. (2021). Academic plagiarism: Librarians’ solo and collaborative efforts to curb academic plagiarism. Nova Publishers. Editors.
2021
Building a #nocode academic portfolio in Notion
In this column, we will share with you our readers a brief literature review, how and why we built our electronic academic portfolio in Notion, and finally a summary of our experiences using Notion for our electronic academic portfolio as our academic portfolio in Notion.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2021). Building a# Nocode Academic Portfolio in Notion. Journal of Library Administration, 61(1), 86-113.
2020
Managing remote projects effectively with an action dashboard
in this column we share with you a follow-up to our previous column, specifically what worked and didn’t work in regards to the techniques and tools we continue to use to manage our staff remotely with communication tools (Slack, Zoom Calls, FlipGrid) and a project management tool (Notion) during the early stages of the pandemic. We added a new technique to the mix since our last publication—an Action Dashboard in Notion, and describe how we built it, and our plans for next steps using Notion as a comprehensive project management tool moving forward.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2020). Managing remote projects effectively with an action dashboard. Journal of Library Administration, 60(7), 800-811.
2020
Working from home: How we managed our team remotely with technology
This column shares examples from the literature regarding experiences and lessons learned from both the corporate world and academic libraries’ experiences managing teams remotely with technology.
Rysavy, M. D., & Michalak, R. (2020). Working from home: How we managed our team remotely with technology. Journal of Library Administration, 60(5), 532-542.
2020
What collaboration means to us: Trust, laughter, & scholarly productivity
This essay examines how collaboration is key to a successful scholarly partnership over an extended period. We firmly believe successful collaboration only works by trusting your colleague. Part of the balancing act of working on major projects and publications is deciding who will take the lead or take on the majority of the work, while the other person takes on a more supportive role. We share three successful ongoing projects (our information literacy assessment program, onboarding program, and inventory of the book collection with Agile methodologies) that could not have been completed without each other’s knowledge and skills.
Rysavy, M., & Michalak, R. (2020). What Collaboration Means to Us: Trust, Laughter, & Scholarly Productivity. Collaborative Librarianship, 12(1), 2.
2020
Assessing the accessibility of library tools & services when you aren’t an accessibility expert: Part 2
There are a few studies in library literature that explore accessibility issues from the perspective of students who use assistive technologies for accessibility. As we shared in part one of this two-part series in our column, librarians have extensively explored through usability studies with WAVE and other audit tools how accessible library websites and databases are when using assistive technologies like JAWS. In this column, we asked our blind student worker to journal his experiences navigating our library’s databases. We found this student navigated the databases better than we anticipated. While his experiences regarding the accessibility of the libraries’ electronic services varied, common issues he experienced included navigational issues from menus with expanding capabilities, documents that were not scanned with OCR, and images without alternative text.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2020). Assessing the accessibility of library tools & services when you aren’t an accessibility expert: part 2. Journal of Library Administration, 60(3), 295-300.
2020
Data privacy and information literacy assessment
Collecting Personal Identifiable Information (PII), in the context of services and programs academic libraries offer is a topic that continues to be of interest to the library and greater academic community. Patron data, specifically those data points associated with use of services, programs, systems, and library instructional / training efforts has the potential to show academic libraries’ value as these data points can assist with illustrating “student success in the form of outcomes attainment, retention to completion or graduation, and post-graduation career placement and earnings” (Oakleaf, Whyte, Lynema, & Brown, 2017).
Michalak, R. & Rysavy, M. (2020). Data privacy and information literacy assessment. Against the Grain. 32(1), Available at: https://www.against-the-grain.com/2020/04/v321-data-privacy-and-information-literacy-assessment-a-case-study/
2020
Assessing the accessibility of library tools & services when you aren’t an Accessibility Expert: Part 1
In 2019, the Goldey-Beacom College library served its first 100% blind student. To become more familiar with accessibility efforts at other colleges and universities, the authors compiled a brief literature review that discusses state statutes for accessibility, university policies on accessibility, and librarians’ audits on web accessibility and vendor supplied databases. To determine the accessibility of the library’s subscribed tools and services, the director of the office of institutional research & training and the director of the library, archives, and learning center used the WAVE online accessibility checker to audit the main library electronic resources: Gale Power Search, ProQuest, Yewno, EBSCO, LibGuides, SpringShare A–Z Database List, JSTOR, Adam Matthew, SAGE Research Methods, and Encyclopedia Britannica. WAVE results indicate that there are errors with 9 out of 10 electronic resources reviewed and alerts with 10 out of 10 of the audited electronic resources.
Rysavy, M. D., & Michalak, R. (2020). Assessing the accessibility of library tools & services when you aren’t an accessibility expert: Part 1. Journal of Library Administration, 60(1), 71-79.
2020
Data privacy and academic libraries: Non-PII, PII, and librarians’ reflections (Part 2)
Collecting Personal Identifiable Information (PII), in the context of services and programs academic libraries offer is a topic that continues to be of interest to the library and greater academic community. Patron data, specifically those data points associated with use of services, programs, systems, and library instructional / training efforts has the potential to show academic libraries’ value as these data points can assist with illustrating “student success in the form of outcomes attainment, retention to completion or graduation, and post-graduation career placement and earnings” (Oakleaf, Whyte, Lynema, & Brown, 2017).
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2019). Data privacy and academic libraries: Non-PII, PII, and librarians’ reflections (part 2). Journal of Library Administration, 59(7), 768-785.
2020
What degree is necessary to lead?
ARL directors’ perceptions
In 2018, after a failed search for the Executive Director of the American Library Association (ALA), ALA members put forth a ballot initiative to determine whether the educational requirements for the position should be modified, in part, to expand the potential applicant pool. With this research, the authors examined if current ARL administrators hold an MLS/MLIS and whether current ARL administrators felt it was necessary for library administrators to hold an MLS/MLIS. Additionally, the researchers examined ARL administrators’ perspectives regarding whether it was necessary for them to earn additional degrees to achieve their highest library administrative position, and whether they felt their degrees prepared them to be successful in the position that they currently hold.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M. D., & Dawes, T. A. (2019). What Degree Is Necessary to Lead? ARL Directors’ Perceptions. College & Research Libraries, 80(6), 752.
2019
Data privacy and academic libraries: Non-PII, PII, and librarians’ reflections (Part 1)
In this editorial, we discuss the benefits and challenges of working with library data that contains non-Personally Identifiable Information. Despite not containing identifiable information, non-PII data can still be analyzed and used to inform decision making. We are presently using several non-PII data points to inform decision-making in our library: Gate Count, Book Checkouts, Customer Searches, Search Terms Reports, Article and Abstract Downloads, Customer Service Interactions, and One Question Surveys. While non-PII data can inform decision-making in libraries, we have found this type of data to be limited in the ways we outline in this editorial.
Rysavy, M. D., & Michalak, R. (2019). Data privacy and academic libraries: Non-PII, PII, and librarians’ reflections (Part 1). Journal of Library Administration, 59(5), 532-547.
2019
Building community, fostering collaboration, and engaging bridge program students with a college’s historical archives
Similar to smaller archives, this college’s archives have not been traditionally accessible online. Two instructors sought to teach summer bridge program (Boot Camp) students basic archival practices and quantitatively measure their information literacy skills through using the Information Literacy Skills (ILA) and Students’ Perceptions of their Information Skills-Questionnaire (SPIL-Q) instruments (cite). Boot Camp students’ average perceived confidence with IL skills as assessed by the SPIL-Q instrument increased from 4.00 to 4.77 (+19.2%) on the post-training SPIL-Q. By adding the ILA and SPIL-Q instruments to the course curriculum, combined with end of course reflection questions, the instructors were able to quantitatively determine if the students’ comprehension of evaluating information improved after handling, processing, and digitizing primary source documents. This study demonstrates the opportunities for community building and collaboration afforded by archivists and librarians engaging faculty and students with primary source exploration through college archives.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M. D., & Thompson, G. C. (2019). Building community, fostering collaboration, and engaging bridge program students with a college’s historical archives. Journal of Western Archives, 10(2), 4.
2019
Learning What They Want: Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Electronic Library Services
Many studies have explored why and how college students have utilized academic libraries’ physical and electronic services. With increased enrollment of international students world- wide in the past 12 years, a greater number of studies have explored how and why interna- tional students have utilized academic libraries’ physical and/or electronic services, but few studies analyzed their responses as one homogeneous group in regard to services provided to them as distance learners. The international Chinese business students (n=54) who responded to this study reported that the most important library service to them was Personal Study Area (4.41).
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2019). Learning What They Want: Chinese Students’ Perceptions of Electronic Library Services. ACRL 2019 Conference Proceedings.
2019
Assessing library customer interactions and staff satisfaction
In 2016, two service departments–the office of information technology (OIT) and the academic resource center (ARC) at the college–physically relocated into the library. To ensure consistent customer service and staffing for the ARC, OIT, and library, the departments collaborated to discuss the implications for their new shared space. They decided to use a common online customer service form in Qualtrics to track and assess library customer interactions and staff satisfaction.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2019). Assessing library customer interactions and staff satisfaction. Journal of Library Administration, 59(3), 314-324.
2019
Leveraging library technology: Non-library uses of library technology
The library has experienced many conversations with colleagues at the college in different departments lately related to the library tools and services it offers. Some of these conversations have included senior administrators, who have at some point directly supervised the library. In order for senior administrators to advocate for the library, librarians must educate them on the tools and services the library offers to its customers. Springshare’s LibApps is one such tool that has been integral to library operations. In the few years since the library has subscribed to Springshare’s LibApps’ suite of tools, Office of Institutional Research & Training (OIRT) has successfully utilized this library-specific tool, which has justified the annual renewal of this software tool by senior administration. For more departments at the college to adopt these tools and integrate them into their day-to-day tasks, librarians must educate customers (student, staff, and faculty) as well as administration about this and other library-specific tools. Since Springshare markets to and for librarians and as more librarians write about how this tool can be used for a variety of different applications, then other departments college-wide will become aware of and then adopt Springshare’s LibApps’ suite of tools.
Rysavy, M. D., & Michalak, R. (2019). Leveraging Library Technology: Non-Library Uses of Library Technology. Journal of Library Administration, 59(1), 59-73.
2019
Onboarding 2.0: Methods of Designing and Deploying Effective Onboarding Training for Academic Libraries
This book provides a comprehensive overview of onboarding library staff, paraprofessionals, and student workers in academic libraries. This book details examples of current literature regarding onboarding and libraries, and highlights the use of cases concerning institutions’ efforts creating onboarding programs for library staff. The chapters in this collection focus on a variety of onboarding practices geared towards training new hires within academic libraries. The use of cases provided emphasizes practical suggestions to improve processes and are often applicable to both library staff and student workers. This book is a must read for all administrators, trainers, and instructional designers as tips, best practices, and lessons learned are applicable to any academic department seeking innovative ways to onboard their staff. The contributors to this collection are associated with colleges and universities from around the United States. The authors have a broad range of educational and professional experience and offer unique insights into the wide variety of methods utilized to design and provide onboarding in academic libraries. This book fills in the gap concerning the current literature for academic administrators, library staff, instructional designers, and trainers.
Rysavy, M. & Michalak, R. (2019). Onboarding 2.0: Methods of designing and deploying effective onboarding training for academic libraries. In Nova Science Publishers.
2019
Emerging technologies, evolving professionals: Change management practices for library systems and technologies
Our case study appeared in “Change Management for Library Technologists: A LITA Guide”.
Rysavy, M. & Michalak, R. (2019). Emerging technologies, evolving professionals. In Change Management for Library Technologists: A LITA Guide.
2019
Academic libraries in 2018: A comparison of Makerspaces within academic research libraries
This chapter reports the results of a survey deployed to 113 of the 124 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members on the current role makerspaces play in academic libraries. Nearly one-quarter of ARL institutions (n = 26; 23%) indicated they have a makerspace. This research analyzes ARL institutions who have established makerspaces within their physical library spaces. This chapter describes the physical aspects of makerspaces, programs and marketing, and demographic details (Bagley, 2014). According to the respondents, what constitutes a makerspace depends on the patrons ARL institutions serve.
Michalak, R. & Rysavy, M. (2019). Academic libraries in 2018: A comparison of makerspaces within academic research libraries (ARLs). In Advances in Library Administration and Organization. Emerald.
2019
Library-supported scholarship: Increasing faculty scholarly reach with author services.
The researchers’ primary goal when working with faculty on the research and publication process is to empower them to independently write literature reviews, deploy surveys, collect data, analyze data, and submit manuscripts to peer-review journals and edited book collections. The authors coach faculty in doing so in a variety of ways, from one-on-one trainings to small group workshops. For faculty who have recently earned their PhD, librarians have worked with them to narrow their dissertation topic into a publishable product. As part of the publishing process, the authors have shown them how to select potential publication outlets by reviewing the journals most cited by those the faculty are citing through using Web of Science and by reviewing journal SJR index scores. To assist faculty with marketing their publications, we surveyed the college’s faculty to determine their awareness of authors so that the library can assist them to increase their scholarly reach. Overall, with the exception of Google Scholar Author Profiles and LinkedIn, more than 50% of the college’s faculty indicated that they were unaware of the remaining author services. This indicates there is need for librarians or educational technologists to train faculty on the benefits author services provides faculty.
Michalak, R. & Rysavy, M. (2019). Library-supported scholarship: Increasing faculty scholarly reach with author services. Charleston Library Conference Proceedings.
2019
Amazon. com vs. EBSCO’s GOBI Library Solutions: Evaluating New and Used Book Vendors While Building a Diverse Collection
This article will share a small college’s comparison of the benefits and challenges that occurred when ordering a curated list of new and used print books from EBSCO’s GOBI Library Solutions, a traditional book jobber, instead of Amazon.com, a book retailer. The researchers analyzed the acquisition process, final purchase cost, and reconciliation workflow between the two vendors. Results from this study revealed a 3.1% final cost difference between the two vendors. Additionally, this case study addressed the workflow undertaken to build a curated list of new and used LGBTQ and Title IX print books. This research contributed to the literature as scholarship that compared titles in academic libraries between one subject area, gender studies, in combination with an assessment of the collection development, acquisition, and ordering software tools provided to academic libraries from a traditional book jobber and a book retailer was scant.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M. D., & Dawes, T. A. (2019). Amazon. com vs. EBSCO’s GOBI Library Solutions: Evaluating New and Used Book Vendors While Building a Diverse Collection. Technical Services Quarterly, 36(1), 18-43.
2018
Faculty perceptions of plagiarism: Insight for librarians’ information literacy programs
Using a survey modified from The Plagiarism Handbook (Harris, 2001, p. 39), the research team surveyed all undergraduate and graduate faculty (n=79) teaching during the Fall 2016 semester at a small private college in the United States. With a final survey response rate of 59.5% (n=47), the researchers learned that while the faculty’s definitions of plagiarism fluctuated, overall faculty definitions paralleled the official definition of plagiarism at this institution. Furthermore, the researchers learned that the vast majority of faculty, 74% (n=35), do not currently invite library staff into their classrooms to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Given this finding, this study indicates that there was an opportunity for librarians to collaborate with faculty to develop new information literacy and plagiarism deterrent resources. These were intended to support faculty teaching and to additionally market the existing online information literacy training modules, previously developed as part of the authors’ Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) program.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M., Hunt, K., Smith, B., & Worden, J. (2018). Faculty perceptions of plagiarism: Insight for librarians’ information literacy programs. College & Research Libraries, 79(6), 747.
2018
Mapping points of interest: An analysis of students’ engagement with digital primary sources
The Digital Archival Advertisements Survey Process (DAASP) model is a collaborative active learning exercise designed to aid students in evaluating primary source documents of print-based advertisements. By deploying DAASP, the researchers were able to assess the students’ ability to evaluate their biases of the advertisements in a first-year composition course. This research attempts to answer the following research question: Do students perceive heatmap-centered collaboration as helpful with their evaluation of library-licensed digital primary sources? This research explored students’ experiences interacting with and reflecting on archival advertisements (mid-twentieth century) in a first-year composition class in Fall 2017 utilizing the DAASP model.
Rysavy, M. D., Michalak, R., & Hunt, K. (2018). Mapping points of interest: An analysis of students’ engagement with digital primary sources. American Journal of Distance Education, 32(3), 202-216.
2018
Faculty perceptions of plagiarism: Insight for librarians’ information literacy programs
Using a survey modified from The Plagiarism Handbook (Harris, 2001, p. 39), the research team surveyed all undergraduate and graduate faculty (n=79) teaching during the Fall 2016 semester at a small private college in the United States. With a final survey response rate of 59.5% (n=47), the researchers learned that while the faculty’s definitions of plagiarism fluctuated, overall faculty definitions paralleled the official definition of plagiarism at this institution. Furthermore, the researchers learned that the vast majority of faculty, 74% (n=35), do not currently invite library staff into their classrooms to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Given this finding, this study indicates that there was an opportunity for librarians to collaborate with faculty to develop new information literacy and plagiarism deterrent resources. These were intended to support faculty teaching and to additionally market the existing online information literacy training modules, previously developed as part of the authors’ Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) program.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M., Hunt, K., Smith, B., & Worden, J. (2018). Faculty perceptions of plagiarism: Insight for librarians’ information literacy programs. College & Research Libraries, 79(6), 747.
2018
Information literacy assessment for 1st year composition students: A case study of three deployment modes
This chapter describes how the researchers at a small private Master’s level college examined how different delivery modes—face-to-face (F2F), hybrid, and online instruction—may impact first-year students’ perceptions of their information literacy (IL) skills compared to their test-assessed information literacy skills using the students perception of information literacy-questionnaire (SPIL-Q) and information literacy assessment (ILA) instruments. These instruments were developed and deployed to international graduate business students in two previous studies: Michalak and Rysavy and Michalak, Rysavy, and Wessel. The students (n=161) in this study were enrolled in a first-year English composition course in the Spring 2017 semester. This iteration achieved an overall response rate of 87.04% (n=141). Overall, results demonstrated the greatest achievement were demonstrated by students in hybrid course sections.
Rysavy, M. D., Michalak, R., & Hunt, K. (2018). Information literacy assessment for 1st year composition students: A case study of three deployment modes. Handbook of Research on Learner Experience and Usability in Online Education, 100-04.
2018
Online Onboarding: Library Workplace Training in a Trilingual Interactive Online Asynchronous Environment
Using a survey modified from The Plagiarism Handbook (Harris, 2001, p. 39), the research team surveyed all undergraduate and graduate faculty (n=79) teaching during the Fall 2016 semester at a small private college in the United States. With a final survey response rate of 59.5% (n=47), the researchers learned that while the faculty’s definitions of plagiarism fluctuated, overall faculty definitions paralleled the official definition of plagiarism at this institution. Furthermore, the researchers learned that the vast majority of faculty, 74% (n=35), do not currently invite library staff into their classrooms to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Given this finding, this study indicates that there was an opportunity for librarians to collaborate with faculty to develop new information literacy and plagiarism deterrent resources. These were intended to support faculty teaching and to additionally market the existing online information literacy training modules, previously developed as part of the authors’ Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) program.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2018). Online Onboarding: Library Workplace Training in a Trilingual Interactive Online Asynchronous Environment. In Digital Workplace Learning(pp. 291-306). Springer, Cham.
2018
Twelve years later: comparing international business students’ perceived use of physical and electronic library services in 2004 and 2016
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Song’s 2004 survey to assess this institution’s international business students’ perceptions and expectations of library services to improve the quality of services provided.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors of this study deployed Song’s 2004 survey, with his permission, to 775 international undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the Fall 2016 semester using the online survey tool Qualtrics.
Findings
The current study compared Song’s 2004 survey results (n = 143) with the researchers’ results (n = 149). The response rate of the current survey deployment was 19.2%. This research focused on the comparison of this institution’s Chinese business students’ (n = 71) perceptions of library use and services in 2016 with Song’s Chinese students’ perceptions (n = 24) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne (UIUC) in 2004. The researchers asked the international business students (UG and GR) to rate their perceived importance of five topics of library services: personal study area, public computers, electronic resources, group meeting space and virtual reference. Overall students (n = 149) rated personal study area as being the most important library service (4.34; moderately important) and virtual reference as being the least important library service (3.33; neutral).
Originality/value
Overall the library literature is limited with respect to studies that compare the perceptions and expectations of library services of international students from China, who are studying business at universities or colleges in the USA.
Michalak, R. S., & Rysavy, M. D. (2018). Twelve years later: comparing international business students’ perceived use of physical and electronic library services in 2004 and 2016. Reference Services Review.
2017
8 Years of institutional assessment feedback: students’ satisfaction with library services
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine eight years of quantitative and qualitative student feedback on library services collected through an institution-wide student satisfaction survey.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper utilizes data collected during an eight-year period from the college’s student satisfaction survey. This survey contained 40 questions which addressed topics concerning the college’s 13 major departments. Six of the questions were devoted to library services.
Findings
Over the eight years surveyed, across all divisions surveyed (undergraduate students, graduate students and graduate Saturday students), students on average tended to select “agree” or “strongly agree” with the following six questions asked: The materials in the library meet my course requirements. The library has enough laptop computers for student use. The instructional materials for using the online databases are helpful. The library hours match my schedule and needs. The library equipment is in good working order. The library is generally quiet and suitable for study.
Originality/value
This institutionally crafted, mixed methods survey was deployed over an eight-year period at a relatively minimal cost (in-house staff hours were used to analyze the data gathered and paper Scantron sheets were used to deploy). Furthermore, rich data were gathered from a relatively simple instrument and this information was used to make institution-wide decisions.
Rysavy, M. D., Michalak, R., & Wessel, A. (2017). 8 Years of institutional assessment feedback: students’ satisfaction with library services. Reference Services Review.
2017
Students’ perceptions of their information literacy skills: the confidence gap between male and female international graduate students
In the 2015 Summer Session I, the information literacy team combined two instruments, the Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) and the Students’ Perceptions of Their Information Literacy Skills Questionnaire (SPIL-Q), into one survey and distributed it to the college’s international graduate students through a Google Form. It was distributed to 932 international graduate students, and 172 valid respondents completed the survey. The purpose of this research was to compare the confidence gap in information literacy skills between men and women, particularly in international graduate students. Data collected illustrated that female international business students (n = 70) tended to be slightly more confident than their male counterparts (n = 102) regarding their perceived information literacy skills as evidenced by their SPIL-Q average score across all six IL topics, 3.78, vs. male student’s average score of 3.58.
Michalak, R., Rysavy, M. D., & Wessel, A. (2017). Students’ perceptions of their information literacy skills: the confidence gap between male and female international graduate students. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 43(2), 100-104.
2016
Information literacy in 2015: International graduate business students’ perceptions of information literacy skills compared to test-assessed skills
In 2015, the information literacy (IL) team designed an instrument to determine international graduate business students’ perceptions of their IL skills and their actual test-assessed IL skills. The purpose of this research was to compare international graduate students’ perceptions of their IL skills versus their test-assessed competencies, with the aim of creating training modules to improve test-identified deficiencies. Results demonstrate that wide discrepancies exist between students’ perceptions of their own skills and their actual skills on all six ILA-topic areas assessed by the internally developed test instruments, with students overestimating their abilities in all areas.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. (2016). Information literacy in 2015: International graduate business students’ perceptions of information literacy skills compared to test-assessed skills. Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, 21(2), 152-174.
2015
Achievement goal orientation and its implications for workplace goal setting programs, Supervisory/subordinate relationships, and training
Previous research on achievement goal orientation theory has considered the influence of an individual’s performance or learning goal orientation on goal setting, motivation to continue working towards a goal, and ultimate goal attainment. However, in many environments, including school and the workplace, there is a good chance that an individual is influenced or coerced to establish goals that are approved by another (e.g., individual’s teacher or manager) that may be congruent or incongruent with their own individual goal orientation. This investigation considers a broad question, what is the influence of an authority figure’s goal orientation on an individual’s established goals? The annual performance review discussion, and in particular, the annual goal review and discussion are potentially revealing or personal conversations between managers and employees. Through the lens of goal orientation theory, this investigation will use managers’ attitudes and perceptions, along with their stated goal preferences to determine if a manager’s goal orientation could have a positive or negative impact on the goals that he or she supports in his or her employees. This study explores middle management’s support of employee goals that are set as part of the Staff Review and Development process (SRDP) within the Information Technology department at a large research university and how this support may be influenced by manager’s individual goal orientations. Results of this study indicate that there was no significant difference between a manger’s goal orientation and the manager’s preference for type of employee goal (learning or performance), nor between a manager’s goal orientation and the manager’s goal discussion or goal support behaviors.
Rysavy, M. D. (2015). Achievement Goal Orientation and Its Implications for Workplace Goal Setting Programs, Supervisory/Subordinate Relationships and Training. The Pennsylvania State University.
2015
Text signals influence team artifacts
This exploratory quasi-experimental investigation describes the influence of text signals on team visual map artifacts. In two course sections, four-member teams were given one of two print-based text passage versions on the course-related topic “Social influence in groups” downloaded from Wikipedia; this text had two paragraphs, each with a prominent heading. Teams in one section (10 teams, 40 participants) were given the version that included the original hyperlinks (HTS) displayed as underlining, while teams in the other section (nine teams, 36 participants) were given an alternate version with the hyperlinks removed but with the same number of important text topics underlined (TTS). Participants worked during class time to create team visual maps of this passage using large sheets of newsprint. Both headings and text topic terms predominated in the TTS team maps, but only hyperlink terms and not headings predominated in the HTS team maps. The team visual map forms, as measured by vector pattern matching and by graph centrality, were also significantly different. Relative to the HTS team maps, on average the TTS team map forms were more complex and more like the expert’s map, while the HTS team map forms were more linear, showing a primacy effect. Further, the HTS team maps were substantially more alike. These results indicate that text signals in these print-based readings strongly influenced team collaboration artifacts.
Clariana, R. B., Rysavy, M. D., & Taricani, E. (2015). Text signals influence team artifacts. Educational Technology Research and Development, 63(1), 35-52.
2013
Professional business or personal?
A high school computer teacher has her plans accepted for updating her computer lab. While the funding has been approved, the refurbishment cost is large enough to necessitate competitive bids for a contract. However, there is a way to get around that requirement so the new computer lab can be ready for the start of the school year.
Rysavy, M. (2013). Professional Business or Personal?. TechTrends, 3(57), 6-7.
2008
A an action plan for the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District to improve teachers’ integration of technology into the classroom
The New Castle County Vocational Technical School District (NCCVT) is comprised of four high schools throughout New Castle County—Delcastle Technical High School, Howard Technical High School, Paul M. Hodgson Vocational Technical High School, and St. Georges Technical High School. The NCCVT School District is one of three vocational technical school districts in the State of Delaware.
Recent trends in the K-12 educational arena promote increasing technology integration in schools. The Delaware Center for Educational Technology has adopted Dr. Christopher Moersch’s Level of Technology Implementation Framework (LoTi) Survey as its accepted tool for analyzing to what extent K-12 educators are integrating technology in Delaware schools.
This executive position paper examines ex post facto data from LoTi Surveys taken in the NCCVT School district during the 2004-2005 and 2006-2007 school years. Survey data were accessed through the secure LoTi Lounge web site. This paper also examines LoTi Survey data collected from a six-week pilot program conducted by this researcher. The program involved pre and post LoTi testing and was taken by 14 staff members at St. Georges Technical High School. The objective of this paper is to determine if a hybrid model of technology professional development, to include face-to-face and online learning through Blackboard, is an effective method of increasing staff members LoTi scores.
The findings of this study demonstrate an increase in the pilot program’s LoTi scores when compared to the Pre-Pilot program LoTi survey. The Mode LoTi score increased from the Pre-Survey, where participants scored a LoTi Level 1, to the Post-Survey, where participants scored a LoTi Level 3.
Rysavy, M. D. (2008). A an action plan for the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District to improve teachers’ integration of technology into the classroom (pp. 1-111). Wilmington University.