Blending Large Scale Syllabi Text Analysis with Qualitative Instructor Preferences Data to Help Inform Directions for Media Collections Development and Outreach

Blending Large Scale Syllabi Text Analysis with Qualitative Instructor Preferences Data to Help Inform Directions for Media Collections Development and Outreach

A primary challenge of effectively promoting the instructional use of library materials and determining investments in collection development is gaining a deep understanding of how these resources are used within disciplinary and course contexts. This presentation will describe an ongoing pilot project in UMN Library Media Services that blends the mining of large corpora of departmental syllabi (using NVIVO text analysis software) coupled with instructor survey and correspondence data sources to better understand contextualized media resource use (and integration of student media projects). Though this pilot has been limited to a few select media intensive disciplines, these reviews have already helped inform some directions for the Libraries' instructional media collections (such as investments in streaming video), further development of media services, and collaborative efforts between the Media Outreach Librarian and subject specialists for potential instructor outreach.