Use service concepts, principles and techniques that facilitate information access, relevance, and accuracy for individuals or groups of users.
The quality collections and services that a library might provide mean nothing without the provision of access. Steve Krug notes that a website’s points of access “should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory” (2005, 11). This view is one that can be applied to all aspects of library programs and services, not merely to the library’s web presence. Access and its cousin usability are the goals of service that facilitate use by the service population. Without accessible collections and services use is driven down, which in its own way makes the institution less publicly and politically viable. Accessibility is the gateway through which users measure the value of the institution because no materials or services can be utilized without this entryway.
On the other side of the coin, however, lies the more controversial side of providing access; equal access to materials. Uncontextualized the idea seems decidedly non-radical, in line with the basic tenets of our constitutional privileges, but when we consider the variety of individuals and organizations that make it their crusade to restrict information access in one form or another, the full impact of this idea becomes more palpable. These attempts to restrict access can take many forms; parental groups seeking to protect children, nativist groups advocating for the use of “English only” in public institutions and individuals who believe that certain materials they object to should be available to no one. Contending with and rebuffing these attempts to deny equal and open access and ensuring that a person’s right to use the library “not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views” exists as a core value within librarianship (ALA, 1996). Moreover, in many cases there is the need to extend equitable access to groups that have been historically underserved.
Increasingly access may entail points of entry for non-English speakers. In this case too there is a deeply important usability component. Global e-commerce researcher He notes “users spend more time and come back more often to the web sites that are in their native language and appeal to their cultural sensitivities” (He as cited in Herther, 2012, 21). This concept, though seemingly obvious, is too often waylaid by cultural insensitivity and the inflexibility of whatever may have been the status quo. In an increasingly multilingual library and information environment providing services in minority languages present within the community is as equally important as, say, providing a Children’s Library scaled to children. In both cases providing the proper degree of access and usability is both a responsibility and an opportunity. In either case those constituents are often the very users who will guarantee a future for the institution because they represent the growth constituency. While at a glance providing due access to any group seems like a given, but often an organization's inertia or lack of understanding can prevent the real world application of this ideal.
Evidence
In my library career thus far my efforts toward improving and facilitating access to user groups can be divided into two categories; tasks which facilitated access through technology and tasks which facilitated access through language. In maintaining library computer hardware, software and networks I have provided access to the web and all its manifold resources to users who might not otherwise been able to use those resources for economic or other reasons. Currently at my Library I am instrumental in providing services and materials in Spanish. This has allowed me to aid an underserved population in having access to the information necessary to fulfill their needs. This has often meant providing a link between a Spanish speaking user and other services they may require within the community including, ordering vital documents, making claims against employers and finding affordable health services. Another aspect of this work can be seen in the library's Spanish language newsletter, which I was instrumental in launching and contribute content to. The newsletter offers access to library news and developments that would otherwise be unavailable in that language.
A method of facilitating access that combines both of these focuses can be found in Cross Language Information Retrieval (CLIR). For my final paper for LIBR 202, Information Retrieval, I looked at the strengths and weaknesses of current CLIR services available on the web, analyzing their translation capabilities, results, and looking at the history of developments within this field. CLIR tools have the potential to facilitate access across language boundaries. In practice many of the best free services offered in this field are something I use on a day to day basis, especially in the case of Google Translate, which allows for both term and document translation in a way that adds to the access points available to monolingual speakers in a language other than English.
Looking more strictly at the technology side of access, in LIBR 210, I created a presentation looking at the offerings of one of San Jose Sate’s online subject guides, known as LibGuides. I later used what I had learned in analyzing the form and offerings of this style of subject guide to create a comparable guide to student tools for writing research papers, showing my understanding of the form and ability to utilize it within my profession. This and other similar guides offer important access points to users, facilitating ease of use by representing resources thematically.
In LIBR 285, Research Methods, I used a number of the required research analysis assignments to analyze research concerned with offering access through online catalogs to Spanish speakers. In studying thematically research that looked at Spanish language subject access, I was able to understand many of the cataloging, and therefore user access problems inherent to foreign language collection. These problems hinder both the usability of the online catalog and diminish the number of viable access points for users. The status quo of allowing poor records to pass into the online catalog where Spanish language materials are concerned constitutes an impingement of access that should be corrected.
- Library Spanish Language Newsletter
- Survey of Cross-Language Information Retrieval
- Writing Research Papers LibGuide
- Spanish Language Subject Access Qualitative Research Critique
References
Herther, N. (2012). Language Translation in the Internet Age. Searcher, 20 (1). 20-27.
Krug, S. (2005). Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Berkeley: New Riders Press
