Newman Library Idea Lab

Eric Frierson, a librarian at UT Arlington, mentioned in a blog post recently his library’s efforts to augment databases with sidebars offering assistance. The help provided on the side of this version of ERIC includes an embedded video from Frierson, who, as the education librarian, asks anyone who needs help to contact him or to contact a librarian using the embedded chat widget below the video. The sidebar also provides links to relevant videos:

• “Bad results?” This video teaches you basics of Boolean searching.
• “Where’s the PDF?” Shows you how to use the link resolver button (SFX).
• “I need peer-reviewed.” Demonstrates how to limit results for peer-reviewed articles.
• “How do I cite it?” Explains citation styles.

It’s not clear to me where on the library website you can find these “assisted databases” (as Frierson calls them) or how many augmented interfaces they’ve done for other databases. Still, it’s a very intriguing way to provide instruction at the point of need (on the same page as the search boxes).

Frierson, Eric. “Are We Marketing Well?” live wire librarian, 20 October 2009. Web.