Really Simple Syndication? A study on health sciences faculty and medical residents’ adoption of a new technology following an instruction session on RSS Thane Chambers, Dale Storie and Sandy Campbell*
Abstract Information seeking behaviour studies of professionals in the health sciences have shown that being aware of the latest research is a crucial component of patient care. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) has been described in both library and computing science literature as a simple and effective technology for maintaining current awareness. However, little research evidence exists on whether or not health sciences professionals are aware of or make use of RSS feeds. This session presents the findings of a study that explores the current awareness habits of health sciences faculty and medical residents at the University of Alberta in Canada. Specifically, it looks at how participants keep up with new information, whether they are familiar with RSS feeds, what benefits or barriers they encounter in using RSS feeds, and whether instructional sessions provided by librarians would change their awareness and use of this technology. An initial survey was sent to all health sciences faculty and medical residents to determine how they stay current with new information and to measure their familiarity with RSS. An instructional session was then offered to faculty and medical residents, teaching them how to use RSS feeds to manage information. Following the class, participants completed an evaluative survey of the class. This survey determined whether they found the class to be useful, whether their learning goals were met, and if they expected to use RSS feeds in the future. Participants who required further instruction were encouraged to ask for one-onone training. Approximately two months following the course, participants completed another survey that explored whether the instruction they received had changed how they stayed current with new information and whether they believed RSS was a valuable tool for current awareness. Background The John W. Scott Health Sciences Library at the University of Alberta in Edmonton serves five health sciences faculties: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Nursing and the School of Public Health. These faculties offer undergraduate and graduate education. The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry also supports a medical resident training program. All of the faculties have robust research programs. The research and teaching program is closely integrated with the local hospitals, including the University of Alberta Hospital, which is a teaching hospital adjacent to the campus. The JW Scott Library is physically connected to the hospital and academic buildings. It is imperative that workers in the health sciences stay current with advances in their fields. Many find themselves pressed for time and struggle with the volume of information available to them (1,2). RSS (Really Simple Syndication) offers a relatively simple approach to managing the flow of new information that is published on the web.
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This study grew out of anecdotal observations that health sciences faculty members and medical residents are exceptionally busy and that few were using RSS technologies to manage information. We speculated that these people were simply too busy to learn on their own how to use RSS feeds, but if taught, would find the technology useful. RSS is a web-based syndication format that allows information feeds from multiple websites to be sent directly to a user’s desktop via a feed reader (also known as an aggregator). Whenever a website is updated the user receives the new information immediately. From a technological perspective, the RSS data format is fairly simple for information services to produce and for end-users to use. With the rise of Web 2.0, many librarians have identified RSS as a beneficial technology for current awareness. Librarians have traditionally been involved with the provision of current awareness services. Historically, these services (commonly referred to as Selective Dissemination of Information or SDI) have taken on a variety of forms, from creating specialized publications that identify new literature to setting up electronic database alerts (3,4). RSS feeds are especially valuable for academic settings because they make use of a single interface (the feed reader) to manage information from new kinds of sources, such as websites and blogs, as well as from traditional information sources such as journals articles (5-7). Much of the literature on RSS is purely descriptive, focusing on what the technology is and how it can be used in libraries (8-11). In library implementations, RSS has been used to promote new resources, deliver library news, and provide database alerts (12-14). Health sciences librarians, in particular, have discussed the technology explicitly in terms of providing current awareness services to clients (7,15,16). However, as Neilson (16) points out, little literature exists that evaluates client uptake of RSS-based library services. Within the broader population, data suggests that only a minority of those who are Web-connected use feeds. Although the orange RSS button is ubiquitous on the Web, a number of surveys on online media show that, overall, fewer than 15% of Internet users actually use RSS feeds. According to surveys of regular Internet users, the rate of adoption has gone from 5% in 2005 to a range of 8%-12% in 2008 (17-20). Acknowledgement of this slow rate of adoption is partially recognized in evaluative articles by Broun (21), Neilson (16), and Johnson et al. (22). At the National Cancer Institute, Broun realized that few clients were using RSS, and opted instead to provide a service that compiled RSS feeds from various sources into an email digest. Neilson, meanwhile, heavily promoted an RSS service at the Health Quality Council, and although many of her users expressed interest in RSS, some still found that email fit into their workflow better. Finally, Johnson et al., arguing that RSS feeds for subscription services which require authentication can “frustrate and overwhelm even the savviest user” (52), introduced a current awareness service that attempts to address technological hurdles by pre-bundling journal feeds together by subject. Researchers are then able to easily upload a package of relevant journal feeds into their aggregator. There is emerging recognition, then, that RSS may be as not as straightforward as many early adopters expected. It may be relatively easy to use and there are plenty of online tutorials to assist new users, but finding the time to learn the details of a new technology is difficult. The library literature indicates that there is a need for offering training to faculty and professionals on new information technology (23-25), but as far as
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the authors are aware, nothing has been published on teaching RSS to faculty or health professionals, including residents.
Methods Ethics approval for this research study was granted by the University of Alberta Education, Extension, Augustana Research Ethics Board. This study began with a broad survey of the health sciences faculty members and medical residents at the University of Alberta, asking questions about their use of RSS feeds and current awareness in general. Respondents were also given the opportunity to indicate interest in an instructional session on how to use RSS feeds. Respondents who had indicated an interest in the sessions were then invited to participate in one of four classes. These classes were also available to people in the original target group who had not responded to the survey. Four classes entitled “Current Awareness Using RSS Feeds” were offered over two months. Classes were offered on various week days and at varying times of the day. The classes were advertised on the Library’s homepage, on posters and flyers handed out at the desk and through e-mail to people who had expressed interest. Participants in the classes were surveyed before the class about their use of RSS feeds. This allowed the authors to compare the current awareness practices and familiarity with RSS feeds of the people who chose to attend the class with those of the people who had responded to the general survey. Following the classes, participants completed an evaluative questionnaire. This questionnaire determined whether they found the class to be useful, whether their learning goals were met, and if they expected to use RSS feeds in the future. Participants were also invited to sign up for a one-on-one session with a librarian on RSS feeds, if they felt they need one. This was done to ensure that people who felt they needed more instruction or instruction in a non-classroom environment would have another opportunity to learn. Two months after the class participants were again surveyed to determine if there had been any change in their use of RSS feeds. Results Initial Survey The invitation to respond to the initial survey, together with information explaining the research project, was sent to 3194 participants through email. Liaison librarians for each of the faculties sent the invitation and the information on the project. The authors believed that using existing relationships between librarians and faculty and residents would encourage participants to respond. The survey was administered through Survey Monkey software. The participants were medical residents and faculty members, including clinical instructors, in the five health sciences faculties at the University of Alberta: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical
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Sciences, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, Faculty of Nursing and the School of Public Health. Of this population, 164 (5.1%) responded to the survey. Respondents were from all five faculties: Medicine and Dentistry (65.3%), Nursing (27.4%), Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (4.0%), Rehabilitation Medicine (2.4%) and School of Public Health (0.8%). Of the respondents, 52.4% had never heard of RSS feeds and a further 41.4%had some awareness or had tried to use them. Only 6.1% (10 people) were checking RSS feeds on a regular basis. Of these 7 were checking feeds daily, 2 were checking feeds weekly, and 1 respondent was checking feeds on a monthly basis. Respondents were asked if they perceived any benefits or barriers to using RSS feeds for current awareness. Most of the comments related to barriers. Three main themes emerged from these: lack of time, lack of knowledge, and fear of being overwhelmed by information. These themes were embodied in comments such as: “Just my lack of time to understand it” “Don’t know enough about them to use them” “Worried I will be flooded with more information than I can deal with”. Among the few comments related to benefits, the most common themes related to “time savings” and “keeping current”. Most of the respondents (89.9%) indicated that they were interested in attending an instructional session. This encouraged the research team to proceed with offering classes designed to introduce our constituency to RSS feeds. Pre-Instruction Questionnaire There was no requirement that participants in the classes had completed the original survey. In order to understand their knowledge about RSS feeds they were asked to complete a pre-instruction questionnaire, similar to the original survey. Results from these questionnaires were similar to those from the original survey. All 23 participants in the classes completed the questionnaires. The five faculties were represented in similar proportions: Medicine and Dentistry (69.6%), Nursing (21.7%), Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (0.0%), Rehabilitation Medicine (4.3%) and School of Public Health (4.3%). The respondents’ familiarity with RSS feeds was also similar. 60.9% had never heard of it, 34.8% had were aware of RSS feeds, but hadn’t tried them and 4.3% had set up feeds, but weren’t checking them or had had problems. None of the 23 people who attended the classes were using RSS feeds regularly. The participants in the class were also asked what kinds of content they wanted to receive through RSS feeds. 90.9% wanted to receive new professional or academic articles in their fields. 45% wanted to be alerted when a particular article was cited. 31.8% wanted to receive personal current interest information such as weather, news, sports or stock information. 18.2% wanted alerts when something was posted to a blog or list serve or when there was a change to a web-site. All of these topics were covered during the instructional sessions. Instruction
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Each of the four classes was conducted in a computer lab to allow hands-on learning. A librarian gave a brief PowerPoint presentation which included an overview of the concepts involved in RSS. She then led the class through the process of signing up for RSS feeds from several different kinds of services. These included a Medline search alert, a news alert, a professional journal table of contents alert and a citation alert. The instructor demonstrated Google Reader TM as an example of a web-based RSS reader and showed participants how to use Microsoft FeedsTM as an example of a browser based reader. This part of the session highlighted the pros and cons of each type of browser. Drawing from research that suggests that professional development training is successful when it incorporates active learning components (26, 27); participants were encouraged to follow the instructor along during the class. In addition to the live demonstration, participants were given a detailed handout that described the procedures for the class so that they could follow along and make notes. Two additional librarians were available throughout each class to work individually with participants to ensure that they were able to accomplish each step. At the end of the class all the participants had actively participated in creating an account with an RSS aggregator and had subscribed to several feeds. Post Instruction Questionnaire Following each session, participants were asked to complete an evaluative questionnaire, which queried whether or not they had found the session useful. All 23 participants in the classes returned the questionnaire, but not all answered every question. Of those who answered (n=22), 100% found the session “useful” or “sort of useful”. 100% (n=23) said they would recommend it to a friend. Satisfaction with the session was also reflected in such comments as: “I need something and this is great!” “Will definitely use them to capture more current awareness/update info than I’m covering now. “ “It’s time to have the feeds so as to keep current on the latest information.” Nine of the twenty-three comments referred to the value of the hands-on part of the class.
Follow-up Survey Two Months After Instruction Approximately two months after the last instructional session, an invitation was emailed to each class participant, asking them to complete a survey, administered through Survey Monkey, which explored their current activities with RSS feeds. Fifteen participants responded to the survey. Participants could respond in more than one category. 66.7% had become more aware of RSS feeds. 46.7% had talked with someone about RSS feeds while and 53.3% had recommended RSS feeds to someone. 46.7% had used their RSS feed to receive information. While 46.7% had done nothing with their RSS feeds, 6.7% had set up feeds, but were not using them. 20.0% were getting too much information. No one had tried unsuccessfully to set up another feed.
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Participants were also given the opportunity to comment on their use of RSS feeds. Several themes emerged explaining why some of participants had not used RSS feeds. One person noted “some of the sites I use regularly don’t offer RSS feeds”. Several respondents had not found the time to fully integrate RSS into their work. This was expressed in such phrases as: “I have not had time to fully implement it” “Not yet [implemented], due to time constraints/priorities”. Several also expressed a need to fine-tune their use. For example: “Still trying to figure out the best way to organize” “It can take a while to get your RSS feed to perform like you want it to”. The problem of receiving too much information was also articulated in the comments. One respondent wrote, “A bit overwhelming having so much information coming in every day.” Many comments also reflected themes of success with RSS feeds. The most prominent were ease of keeping up to date and the ability control the flow of information. “I was able to keep up to date on new papers.” “I can control what I want to see.” “You don’t have to go looking for information.” “[The class] made me aware and more comfortable with using this feature.” Analysis In our initial survey we observed a high interest in RSS feeds, but relatively low usage and familiarity with use of them. The most prevalent themes in the comments led us to the conclusion that lack of time, lack of knowledge and fear of being overwhelmed by information were barriers to the faculty and residents’ use of RSS technology and that formal instruction would be useful. Following instruction, we found that almost half of the participants who responded to the follow-up survey had moved from non-use to being users of RSS feeds. Two-thirds of the participants also had a greater overall awareness of the technology. Users of RSS feeds described saving time and having greater control over the flow of information coming to them. Among those participants who still perceived barriers, the themes of lack of time, need for more knowledge and getting too much information were still present. However, much of the commentary had changed to being positive about moving beyond those barriers. For example, “I need to do more work on setting them up”. We also observed a multiplier effect fanning out from the instruction sessions. One of the participants noted “I have done nothing personally with RSS feeds, but have passed on the benefit to others working in my research group.” We subsequently noted several referrals that came to us from people who attended one of the sessions. Content from our session has also been used in a training program for rural doctors. Conclusions and Future Research
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As a result of this study, we can draw several conclusions. First, while RSS is fairly simple technology, some people just do not have the time, inclination, or resources to learn it on their own. Therefore benefit from receiving instruction in a more formal and participatory way than working through online tutorials or reading instructions. Participants in the class had many questions that the librarian-instructors could answer on the spot. Face-to-face contact with the instructor was clearly beneficial to these participants. Second, teaching RSS to faculty members and residents in the health sciences is a good investment of the Library’s resources. We have observed that almost half of the classroom participants moved from non-use of RSS feeds to continued use of RSS feeds and that the users were finding efficiencies in using them. Third, many participants still had questions and problems. The need for more knowledge may mitigate itself with further use, but a series of laddered sessions on RSS feeds may be another option for libraries. Users could have an introductory session, have a chance to use and explore feeds on their own, and then return for a follow up session where questions or problems could be addressed. In terms of future research, we recognize two areas in which more study should needs to be done. First, it is obvious that RSS is not a cure-all for helping this population control the flow of information. In particular, some people were clearly getting too much information. Further study could be done to determine if the users need more training to solve the high-volume problem or if it is the result of RSS services not having the sophisticated options that would allow the users to fine-tune the content that they receive. Second we would like to do further research to determine whether or not the changes in behaviour that we observed in some of our participants are long-lasting. We plan to resurvey participants who adopted RSS feeds one year after the instruction sessions to determine whether or not they are still using the RSS feeds and if they have found ways to make efficient use of them.
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23. Mackenzie A, Makin L. Beyond student instruction: Information skills for staff. New Review of Academic Librarianship 2003;9:113-30. 24. Quigley BD, Church GM, Peterson A. Defining the need for information technology instruction among science faculty. Science and Technology Libraries 2001;20(1):5-42. 25. Akers C, Martin N, Summey T. Teaching the teachers: Library instruction through professional development courses. Research Strategies 2000;17(2/3):215-21. 26. Armstrong EG, Barsion SJ. Using an outcomes-logic-model approach to evaluate a faculty development program for medical educators. Academic Medicine. 2006;81(5):483-8. 27. Knox AB. Building on abilities. J Contin Educ Health Prof.;23(3):141-5. Author’s Affiliations *Sandy Campbell, MLS,AALIA (CP)
[email protected], Public Services Librarian, J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library, University of Alberta, 2K4.07 Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2R7 Thane Chambers, MLIS,
[email protected] Faculty of Nursing Librarian, J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library, University of Alberta, 2K4.02 Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2R7 Dale Storie, MLIS,
[email protected] Research Librarian, Alliance for Canadian Health Outcomes Research in Diabetes. J.W. Scott Health Sciences Library, University of Alberta, 2K4.07 Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2R7
* indicates presenter
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