Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

As 'the anthropologist in the stacks', I have gotten used to questions from librarians about students and faculty. They are familiar, and occasionally vexing, questions: “What do they think?” “How do they know?” “How do we know?” and “Do they care about libraries at all?” I am also asked “Where are the students?” “Where are the faculty?” “Where is the work?” and “Why am I here?” These questions and many others are often framed around concerns about value – how do we demonstrate, argue for, prove the value of libraries? And of course this need to 'prove value' is often in response to external drivers or politics.

A case study about the wrong turns taken during a redesign project and the impact of design-by-committee on team morale.

UX (or User Experience) incorporating usability studies, ethnographic research, and service design, is now being actively embraced by librarians. This presentation details this definition and briefly traces the history of ethnography and its relevance to, and adoption by, libraries.

This presentation was given at the Business Librarians Association conference in Leicester in July 2014.