“Can I Find It Again?” Difficulties First Year Student’s Face when Managing Their “Digital Stuff”

Virginia Bach, Lois Hendrickson, Lisa Johnston, Jody Kempf, Amy Neeser, Scott Spicer – University Libraries

As we collect and produce a variety of digital materials, organizing

them becomes a growing challenge. To better understand how the

University Library can support these needs, we asked 500 first year

students how they perceive their personal digital archiving needs

during Welcome Week 2012. It revealed concern about managing

music, photos, digital notes, e-books, and videos.

How can the Libraries help students build the skills to manage their

“digital stuff”?

Personal Archiving: At the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Digital Preservation Personal Archiving Initiative

Results of our First Year Student Survey In the summer of 2012, library staff handed out a survey during Welcome Week. We

asked students three questions what their biggest challenges were (Chart 1 and 2)

and received 485 responses. As an incentive, we held a drawing for 20 gift cards for

campus UDS services ($10 each).

In the third and final question, we asked the incoming students how they liked to learn

new things. The following information will be used to inform our educational

programming:

• Hands-on activity (44%)

• Just Google it (28%)

• Watch a video (19%)

Next Steps

The Libraries plan to address the needs of the entire University community, in addition

to first year students, by:

• Educating Library Staff

• Creating Educational Opportunities for Students

o online resources

o providing in-person workshops

o course integrated tools

• Providing Outreach to the UMN Community

o to better enable them to manage personal collections that are growing in

size and complexity.

o to make them aware of tools and solutions for their challenges

http://z.umn.edu/personalarchiving

What “Digital stuff” is the hardest to keep track of?

What are your biggest challenges?

The 485 students we surveyed have problems keeping track of their

photos/images (33%) and digital notes (30%).

The most common challenge that first year students face when managing

digital information (n=485) were multiple locations and multiple devices.

Case Study: Anthropology

Problem: Students taking a freshman seminar on

Anthropology and Photography collect and manage

large collections of photos.

Strategy: Librarian leads a discussion on how to

manage their visual data to bring them into shape for

academic and professional use.

Why Personal Archiving?

Personal Archiving teaches information management skills that students can continue

to use throughout their careers. Teaching students how to manage their digital photos

today will translate into skills that will help them manage their class notes and

research data tomorrow.

• Read a website or blog (15%)

• Attend a presentation (14%)

• Ask a friend (12%)