Friday 17 April 2015

Sixth rung - INF506 -Module 4: ASU Libraries

Module 4: ASU Libraries

The fifth law of Ranganathan’s five laws of library science states “The Library Is a Growing Organism”, transforming and constantly adapting to new social conditions, technological developments, and the changing needs of our clientele (Mitchell, 2007).
Arazona State University (ASU) have adapted their service to met these needs through the use of a diversity of platforms including blogging, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube.
By presenting a casual, personalised approach to their Library Minute series, the host Librarian intimates an availabilty to provide support as they take the viewer through an abundance of material concerning the library, its services and how these services can be accessed. By utilizing the available Web 2.0 tools ASU has endevoured to provide service to their clients both within and without the physicall boundries of the University (Miller, 2005). This use of Web 2.0 mobile technology makes full use of the four C’s of social media, content, conversation, community and connections in the search to provide point-of-need service.
The majority of the social networking tools that ACU provide to their clients can be easily replicated by almost any library, with the resources and an understanding administration. The ‘Ask a Librarian Chat 24/7’ would be difficult to fulfill in most libraries, given the 9 to 5 staffing arrangements currently in place, however substituting or utilizing an existing “Ask the Librarian’ email system would service, albeit not providing the ‘instant’ responses our I-generation clients are use to.
Library instruction and information tutorials must evolve to encompass all the mediums that are used by their students in order to be relevant and achieve results. The term transliteracy embraces the use of all the developing information Medias, Libraries and librarians need to expand into these mediums and not rely on limiting their client information to demonstrating skills in using Teats, journals and databases (Newman, 2010). To this point the ASU library website is an admirable model of the future of libraries as they adjust to the information environments that are emerging and their willingness to adapt their activities to accommodate these environments.
 Miller, P. (2005).  Web2.0: Building the New Library.  Ariadne 45.
Mitchell, W. B. (2007). Reflections on Academic Libraries in the 21st
Century. Journal of Access Services. 5(1/2), 1-9. Retrieved from; Doi: 10.1080/15367960802197509
Newman, B. L. (2010). The role of libraries in a transliterate world. Retrieved from;

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