IM Public Lecture

We never see each other anymore: Communicating with science users in the virtual library

Sarah Stevenson

Date: 17 March 2010
Time: 3:00-4:00pm
Location: Room 3089, Rowe Building

Abstract

The information landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade with increased availability and usage of online materials. Faculty and students who used to frequent the physical library are now rare personal visitors, understandably preferring the convenience of electronic access from the offices and laboratories. This has had a significant impact on communication between members of the Faculty of Science and the Science librarians. This lack of face-to-face interaction has resulted in the librarians being less aware of the scientists’ needs, and I hypothesize that the scientists’ awareness of library services is similarly deficient. Through the course of interviews of a small sample of research groups in 3 Dalhousie Faculty of Science departments, I seek to find out how scientists are meeting their academic/research information needs, and how the libraries can be of assistance with their information-seeking and management.

Speaker Information

[log in to unmask]" align=right hspace=5 vspace=5 alt="http://sim.management.dal.ca/Images/people_photos/Sarah_Stevenson.JPG" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_2">Sarah Stevenson is the Physical Sciences Librarian at the Killam Library of Dalhousie University where she is the subject liaison for Chemistry, Physics & Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics & Statistics and the History of Science & Technology. A second-career librarian, she holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of New Brunswick and spent her first career life as production and quality control chemist with Diagnostic Chemicals Limited in Charlottetown PEI. After nearly 10 years with DCL, she traded in analytical chemistry for librarianship, graduating from Dal's MLIS programme in 2001. She has been with the Dalhousie University Libraries since July 2001.