Archive for the ‘Academic Library’ Category

John K. Waters writes about the learning commons in his article The Library Morphs in the latest issue of Campus Technology. He concentrates on Ohio State University’s Thompson Library renovation which aims to transform the library into “a library for the 21st century”.

“When people describe what they are going to do with a learning commons,” Bennett observes, “they often talk about integrating the services delivered by librarians and information technologists. Sometimes, they even bring in student tutoring services. The result can be a useful space that integrates these services, but it’s still a space in which the service providers call the shots. We’re very slow to break away from that model and admit that what these spaces should be about is the students taking responsibility for their own educations.”

Also in this issue: Wikis, Blogs & More, Oh My! discusses the adoption of new Web technologies by colleges and universities.

Judith Tabron at the Chronicle of Higher Education talks about technology and its place in learning environments in her How to Find What Clicks in the Classroom.

“Our students live online. They fall in love, they shop, they order pizza on the Web. Their iPods, TV’s, and Xboxes are sophisticated technologies. They instant-message their blogs from their cellphones, and they can’t picture college having a place in any of this, because we haven’t shown them that it can.

It will be a dismal future if the only thing our graduates cannot do online is learn.”

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Ed discusses an ethnographic study conducted by the University of Rochester Library which explores the study schedules and research habits of undergrads. The library hired an anthropologist who used various research methods including videotaping students at work on their computers to collect information. The study has had a significant impact on library marketing, website design, and library renovation. The results of this study will be published in September 2007 by the ACRL in the upcoming “Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester“.

Bart Strong, Executive Director of the Learning Technologies Resource Centre at McMaster University provides a roadmap for the strategic planning process in the latest issue of Educause Quarterly. This must-read article offers tips on anticipating technological change and presents a framework for establishing a strategic vision and mission for your organization.

“How is your institution coping with accelerating change? Have you reached the point where you feel a coin toss will give you the same chance of success as a well-thought-out strategic plan?”

Although this article is aimed at academic institutions, the advice within is relevant and applicable for any environment.

“The Journal of Library Metadata is a peer-reviewed journal publishing articles on all aspects of metadata applications in libraries. The journal is published quarterly by The Haworth Press, Inc.

Previously titled the Journal of Internet Cataloging, after a change in title and editorship, JLM will now focus on metadata, an exciting, timely subject of importance to all libraries. The journal will publish three categories of articles: standard, peer-reviewed articles; shorter, scholarly, non-peer reviewed articles; and short viewpoint articles”

[From: Peter Scott’s Library Blog]

Much is written these days about Second Life and 3D virtual worlds. Every day there is a new story about online worlds providing new learning environments. Articles and books are describing how a generation raised on video games is invading the workplace and demanding new online learning environments. Unfortunately, for those not on the bleeding edge of game technologies, all this talk of virtual worlds, avatars, MMORPGs, metaverses, and microworlds seems right out of a science fiction novel and, in some cases, it is. Karl Kapp’s article Defining and Understanding Virtual Worlds very deftly puts Second Life into the broader context of online virtual worlds.

By knowing more about this broader context, it becomes even easier to see and understand the potential of Second Life, and the pressing need for some of our libraries to ‘get into’ the metaverse.

In fact, Wade Roush from Technology Review at MIT suggests that the Second Earth will be the World Wide Web absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an environment combining elements of Second Life and Google Earth. A very complex and challenging article that pushes the possibilities of the metaverse into the future.

Meanwhile we continue to explore the world of Second Life. According to Erika Smith many academics are using it for research and in the classroom. About 2,000 to 3,000 educators from universities and colleges around the world have a presence in Second Life.

At present, there are over 40 libraries in Second Life. And the list is growing. Most can be found in a place called Cybrary City on Second Life’s Info Island - a purpose built space where libraries can establish their own virtual library presence to showcase their local resources, and where they can provide their services and learn new skills associated with 21st century librarianship.

So I was interested to read that University College Dublin has extended the boundaries of traditional library services with the UCD James Joyce Library being established as the first Irish library in Second Life. At the Second Life branch of the UCD Library you can search web resources using a virtual PC, consult several e-books, view library presentations, complete a visitor survey, leave comments and suggestions, and even watch Sky News.

It is hoped that over time the virtual library branch will develop further to perhaps include a regular staff presence that would teach visitors new skills and ways of availing of the services offered by the UCD Library.

A fascinating article by Michael Jensen from Chronicle Review, the Chronicle of Higher education, The New Metrics of Scholarly Authority ( June 15, 2007), discusses scholarly communication now in the abundance of Web 2.0 information, and in a Web 3.0 era. Engaged participation online challenges the authority frameworks of print publishing processes, and opens the doors to authority mechanisms in Web 3.0 based on heavily computed reputation-and-authority metrics, using many of the kinds of elements now used, as well as on elements that can be computed only in an information-rich, user-engaged environment.

For universities, the challenge will be ensuring that scholars who are making more and more of their material available online will be fairly judged in hiring and promotion decisions. It will mean being open to the widening context in which scholarship is published, and it will mean that faculty members will have to take the time to learn about — and give credit for — the new authority metrics, instead of relying on scholarly publishers to establish the importance of material for them.

[From: Michael Habib]

Keith Stanger must be a great Library Guy!! But seriously, it is well worth visiting Keith’s ‘home port’ at Information Advocate: Your Guide to Navigating Information Clutter.

What I particularly like about Keith’s approach is the way he provides access to information sources with visual mapping. Visit any of the Resources:Suggested Indexes at Halle Library and you will see exactly what I mean.

Fantastic combination of information literacy with a mind-mapping approach to information services.

You can often find great examples of libraries who have already redesigned and reformulated themselves for the digital world. However there is not always a lot written about the processes involved in undertaking this change.

An excellent Australian paper A Prototype 21st Century University Library: a case study of change at the University of New South Wales focuses on the organizational change involved in a library involved in constructing a new future for itself. It has added relevance for our [school] libraries as it focuses on an academic library that needs to support teaching and learning activities much in the same way that we need to.

[From: Bibliosphere News]

Question: How do I start researching?
Answer: Treat research as a lifestyle not an assignment.

Here is a great approach to lifelong learning …. built around the following key points at Question: How do I Start Researching:

Read widely and often. Yes, this means print as well as online resources.
Read for background. So you think you know everything? Prove it.
Journal. Write short observations about life around you.
Collaborate: talk with your friends and colleagues about subjects.
Schedule a consultation with your reference librarians.
Consider the papers you do in classes as training for your lifelong habit.

Whether you are conducting research along scientific, literary, or historical principles, these steps, known as the Invisible College, will help develop passions and interest.

[From: Reference Points]

I was glad to read that RMIT has put ‘creativity’ first in exploring Second Life as a virtual campus. RMIT launches Second Life Island, but unlike many other universities using Second Life, the RMIT island is not used as an online campus, but as a creative space for students to learn in.

The Island features a variety of creative projects, but in one project the students designed a “library of performance”, in collaboration with RMIT Library, which explored the future possibilities of library spaces within Second Life.

[From: Openline: the Online news magazine of RMIT]

I like the idea of preparing short videos as explanatory guides. Here is one on
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals from Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University. They have others available via their YouTube Channel.

Nice presentation! Nice concept! Nice Library 2.0!