Nora Gaskin Copyright (c) 2012 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin Recent documents in Nora Gaskin en-us Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:45:45 PST 3600 The "Fun Factor": Developing an Information Literacy Tutorial for First Year University Students http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/4 http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/4 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:49:56 PST DOT@MAC (Digital Online Tutorial at McMaster) is a web-based interactive information literacy tutorial developed at McMaster University Library in 2000/01. Its purpose was to teach transferrable info lit skills in a fun, interactive, self-paced format.

The tutorial was aimed at first-year students, and introduced information competencies such as how to recognize and choose appropriate scholarly databases, how to formulate a good keyword search, etc. Another primary goal was to keep the tutorial informal and lighthearted, and in tune with its target market.

]]> Nora Gaskin Information Literacy Considering New Discovery Layers http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/3 http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/3 Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:32:35 PST Academic libraries have numerous options for new discovery layers designed to improve our users. experience of searching our catalogues and other information sources. Explore the factors considered by several university libraries in arriving at their decisions, and what was learned from user research and the implementation process. The discussion will be of interest to anyone selecting or implementing a discovery layer system or next generation catalogue.

]]> Martha Whitehead et al. Next Generation Library Catalogues Reducing the Reference Collection by 75% in 75 Days: Can it be Done? http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/2 http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/2 Fri, 19 Nov 2010 09:13:29 PST When liaison librarians at McMaster heard in summer of 2009 that we had to reduce 14,000 reference titles by 75% by December, we took a proactive approach and formed a steering committee to draft guidelines and procedures. With inspiration from a 2009 ACRL poster session by Dickinson College, we formed a plan. Could twenty very busy liaison librarians accomplish the impossible?

]]> Nora Gaskin et al. Weeding Collection Management Implementing Endeca When You're HIP http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/1 http://works.bepress.com/nora_gaskin/1 Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:02:28 PST Gives a user interface perspective on how McMaster University Library implemented an Endeca "front end", or discovery layer, for its Horizon-based catalogue -- from a cold start in October 2006 to a "soft launch" in March 2007, and beyond. Describes some of the decisions, issues and tradeoffs we had to consider, what worked and what we'd do differently, and how our users responded to the new interface.

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