Scholarship & Research
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Item Bridging the Digital Divide: Wi-Fi Hot Spots as a Means of Digital Equity(2022-01) Salsbury, Meghan; Hansen, Mary AnneMany areas of the United States still fall short of digital equity and inclusion, defined as the ability of individuals to access and use information and communication technologies to participate fully in society, democracy, and the economy.1 This is especially true in Montana, the authors’ rural state. Only 63.6 percent of Montana citizens have broadband access, and the average cost of the Internet is $91.54 per month—the third highest in the nation.2 The seven American Indian reservations in the state face even more barriers to access, with some having as low as 23 percent of the population with access to broadband.3 The lack of high-speed Internet coupled with the increase of remote learning (and remote work) added stress to many college and university students’ lives as they struggled to complete their coursework during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though no campus entity gathers information about student Internet access, the Montana State University Office of Planning & Analysis reports that 61 percent of the university’s students are Montana residents, and so many face access challenges similar to the rest of the state’s population.4 To ease the digital divide and improve students’ academic success, two Montana State University librarians wrote a successful grant proposal to purchase Wi-Fi hot spots to loan to students with poor or no Internet access. The hot spots were offered to students with high need on medium to long-term checkouts and were initially marketed to programs and services on campus that work closely with underrepresented students.Item Final Performance Report Narrative: Getting Found(2014-11) Arlitsch, Kenning; OBrien, Patrick; Godby, Jean; Mixter, Jeff; Clark, Jason A.; Young, Scott W. H.; Smith, Devon; Rossmann, Doralyn; Sterman, Leila B.; Tate, Angela; Hansen, Mary AnneThe research we proposed to IMLS in 2011 was prompted by a realization that the digital library at the University of Utah was suffering from low visitation and use. We knew that we had a problem with low visibility on the Web because search engines such as Google were not harvesting and indexing our digitized objects, but we had only a limited understanding of the reasons. We had also done enough quantitative surveys of other digital libraries to know that many libraries were suffering from this problem. IMLS funding helped us understand the reasons why library digital repositories weren’t being harvested and indexed. Thanks to IMLS funding of considerable research and application of better practices we were able to dramatically improve the indexing ratios of Utah’s digital objects in Google, and consequently the numbers of visitors to the digital collections increased. In presentations and publications we shared the practices that led to our accomplishments at Utah. The first year of the grant focused on what the research team has come to call “traditional search engine optimization,” and most of this work was carried out at the University of Utah. The final two years of the grant were conducted at Montana State University after the PI was appointed as dean of the library there. These latter two years moved more toward “Semantic Web optimization,” which includes areas of research in semantic identity, data modeling, analytics and social media optimizationItem All Aboard! The Party's Starting: Setting a Course for Social Media Success(2013-08) Hansen, Mary Anne; Rossmann, Doralyn; Tate, Angela; Young, Scott W. H.Social media is more than a way to inform users; social media is a powerful way to build community online. In this webinar hosted by the Library and Information Technology Association, presenters from Montana State University Library will go beyond the basics by demonstrating how to create a social media guide for developing communities on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. We will explore data tracking and assessment tools such as ThinkUp, HootSuite, Google Analytics, focus group data, and survey methods. We will also discuss strategies for integrating social media efforts into your organization’s strategic plan and educating peer organizations about best practices.Item Embedded Librarians: Delivering Synchronous Library Instruction and Research Assistance to Meet Needs of Distance Students and Faculty(IGI Global, 2012) Bonnand, Sheila; Hansen, Mary AnneThis chapter reports on one academic library’s experiences with expanding instructional services by adding synchronous library instruction to better serve its online students and faculty located across the globe. Web conferencing software allows librarians to provide interactive, high-touch library instruction for online students equivalent to the experience of students in traditional face-to-face courses. While providing this real-time instruction on library resources and research skills, librarians are embedding themselves in online programs, becoming more readily accessible to online and distance students. By meeting the changing needs of academic library users wherever they are, librarians are reaffirming their integral role and relevance as partners in the educational endeavor.Item Library Commons Assessment Report(2013-01) Frank, Jacqueline; Hansen, Mary Anne; Hodges, Mike; Strittmatter, Connie; Zauha, JanelleThe focus of this report is to assess how the summer 2011 renovation of the first floor of Renne Library into a Library Commons has impacted users, library staff, and library services, and, when possible, to gather information about further needs and directions for the area. The Commons opened in late August 2011 and data gathering took place between April and December of 2012 but focused on use of the Library from August 2011 through August 2012.Item From Two Dot to Turkey: Reaching Online Library Users via Web Conferencing(City University of New York, 2012) Bonnand, Sheila; Hansen, Mary AnneLibrarians at Montana State University (MSU) find themselves in a dual role with respect to urban versus rural distance students. MSU librarians serve students at a distance in both metropolitan communities much larger than MSU’s home, Bozeman, and in tiny rural towns of a couple hundred people or fewer, such as Two Dot, Montana. Regardless of where they reside, students and faculty want access to the full spectrum of the institution’s resources and services, including the library, and MSU librarians strive to provide equivalent services to all. For the past two and a half years, librarians at MSU have utilized Adobe Connect web conferencing software to teach research skills to online students in real–time. This article will describe the MSU library’s services to all library users including the successful implementation of synchronous library instruction. The discovery of best practices, the use of assessment involving both students and faculty, and institutional support were integral components of this project. After several years of using web conferencing, MSU librarians realized the need for marketing to grow support for the program.