OEDB.org

A Librarian’s Guide to Space Tourism – 32 Resources

Ellyssa Kroski — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:47:12 +0000

There has been a lot in the news this year about the burgeoning space tourism industry. Much of what used to be purely science fiction has now become a reality and today everyday citizens can take a trip to outer space…for a price.

And that price has come down substantially since Dennis Tito, the world’s first space tourist coughed up $20 million for an eight-day trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001. Today, a Virgin Galactic ticket for a seat on board SpaceShipTwo will set you back $250,000 for a suborbital flight. So far nearly 600 people have put down deposits. Alternatively, XCor is offering suborbital flights aboard the Lynx for $95,000 per flight, including medical screening and G-Force training. And if you’re looking for something more long-lasting, you might apply to become one of the first inhabitants of the Red Planet within a permanent human settlement on Mars planned for 2023.

The first thing I thought about when I started reading about all of this was…do they need librarians?!

If you’re just getting caught up on the latest in space tourism, here are 32 resources to get you started:

General

How Space Tourism Works – HowStuffWorks
Space tourism industry seeks new heights – Daily Breeze
How Space Tourism Could Help Save Planet Earth – Space.com
Virgin Galactic Pulls Off First Successful Rocket-Powered Flight – Gawker
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Makes First Powered Test Flight – Huffington Post
Justin Bieber Is Going to Space – Mashable
Private Spaceships for Space Tourists to Launch Big Test Flights – Space.com
Millionaire Space Tourist Reportedly Planning Mars Trip – Mashable
The Engadget Interview: Sir Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic and space tourism for the everyman – Engadget
Space tourism industry faces safety concerns – CBC News
Private Moon Travel Startup Launches Crowdfunding Campaign – Mashable
Space industry gears up crew training – AOPA
Axe Body Spray Will Send 22 People to Space – Mashable
Way, Way, Way Over the Rainbow: Space Travel - Huffington Post
Space Tourism Society
Space Tourism News

Infographics

The Evolution of Space Tourism
Space Toursim Pinterest Board

Space Tourism Pioneers

The Colonization of Mars

Mars One
Private Mars colony won’t seek life on Red Planet – Fox News
Life on Mars to become a reality in 2023, Dutch firm claims – The Guardian
78,000 Apply for Private Mars Colony Project In 2 Weeks – Space.com
The Call of Mars (by Buzz Aldrin) – The New York Times
Buzz Aldrin calls for US colony on Mars – France 24
Mars is no place for children – yet – Science
Colonization of Mars – Wikipedia
The Mars Foundation

The post A Librarian’s Guide to Space Tourism – 32 Resources appeared first on OEDB.org.

10 Treehouse, Dollhouse, and other Truly Unique Libraries – Part II

Ellyssa Kroski — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:09:52 +0000

This is a continuation of my post from earlier this week titled 10 Treehouse, Dollhouse, and other Truly Unique Libraries – Part I

6) Royal Grammar School Chained Library

This unique library in Guildford, England was built in the early 1500’s and is one of the few original chained libraries where books were bound to their shelves allowing for added security for valuable books. The library is now the Headmaster’s study but still contains books dating back to the 1400s including two early editions of Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia. More coverage here.

7) BiebBus – A Recycled Shipping Container Children’s Library

This expanding mobile library made from an old shipping container travels from school to school in the Netherlands providing 7,000 books and a reading room which holds 35-40 children. The brainchild of architect Jord den Hollander, the vehicle was specifically designed to navigate narrow streets and not take up much parking space. More coverage here.

8) Open Air Library

This is an outdoor library in Madgeburg, Germany was made out of beer crates and materials from an old warehouse. Created by KARO Architecten in 2005 on the site of the previous district library, this was started as a temporary art project which local residents took over. The library now offers over 20,000 books. More coverage here and here.

9) Picture Book Library

A library designed for pre-schoolers, the Picture Book Library in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture in Japan makes every book cover visible to patrons. The beautifully designed library holds 1,300 picture books and is open to the public. The library received 6,000 visitors in its first 10 months. More coverage here.

10) Reading Club 2000

This is an informal library in Manila, Philippines which was started by Hernando Guanlao 12 years ago by placing books outside his home for others to borrow. The collection is now up to 2,000 – 3,000 and Guanlao provides a book bike service to deliver books to the poorest communities in Manila. More coverage here.

The post 10 Treehouse, Dollhouse, and other Truly Unique Libraries – Part II appeared first on OEDB.org.

10 Treehouse, Dollhouse, and other Truly Unique Libraries – Part I

Ellyssa Kroski — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 20:25:31 +0000

I’ve been very interested in the use of library space lately as well as the design of libraries be they traditional, mobile, pop-up or other types and in my research I’ve come across some truly unique and interesting libraries. Here are five with five more coming up later this week.

1) Ecological Children’s Activity and Education Center

The Soneva Kiri resort in Koh Kood, an island in the Gulf of Thailand, has built a Children Activity and Learning Centre with a library space. Shaped like a giant manta ray, this unique library structure is built into a rocky slope near the sea and provides an Auditorium/Cinema for films, lectures and plays, a library with books on permaculture and local traditions, an Art room, a Music room and Fashion room. More coverage here.

2) Queen Mary’s Dollhouse Library

Queen Mary’s Dollhouse is the largest and most famous dollhouse in the world. It has working elevators and toilets as well as a 171-volume library containing some short works which were authored specifically for the dollhouse. The miniature tomes have been bound in leather by the well-known bookbinders Sangorski & Sutcliffe. More coverage here and here.

3) Weapons of Mass Instruction Mobile Library

This mobile library shaped like a tank contains approximately 900 books and wanders the streets of Buenos Aires “attacking its people with knowledge”. The brainchild of artist Raul Lemesoff, the vehicle is actually made out of a 1979 Ford Falcon which Lemesoff regularly restocks to provide people with free books. More coverage here.

4) |CON|Temporary Library Installation

In October of 2012, the Center for Contemporary Art located in an ancient abandoned Turkish Bath in Plovdiv, Bulgaria had a temporary library designed in the largest and main room. The library held books of contemporary art in and was shaped like a spiral ladder climbing toward the top of the dome because “Art and books is what raise us up spiritually”. More coverage here.

5) The Tree House Gallery Library

This temporary library was set-up in London’s Regent’s Park as part of the Royal Parks summer events programme in 2012. The work was led by artists and designers Claudia Moseley and Steph Smith and based on the design of architects Henry Adams and Oliver Oglivie of OO Architects. More coverage here.

The post 10 Treehouse, Dollhouse, and other Truly Unique Libraries – Part I appeared first on OEDB.org.

10 Fun Ways to Feed Your Mind this Summer

Ellyssa Kroski — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:43:21 +0000

1. Learn a new language

Summer is a great time to learn new things, why not study a new language? There are plenty of free online tools to help you such as Duolingo that will guide you through learning Spanish, English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese. Once you’ve got some phrases down, check out a language learning meetup group in your area and test them out such as the French Language Meetup Group where local French language and culture lovers meet up for conversation and fun. For more online resources for language learning check out 10 Good Sites & Apps for Learning a New Language.

2. Register for a MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses

Through free online courses offered by universities and educational programs you can study anything from the philosophy of the ancients to fashion and pop culture! Check out this easy to use directory of over 10,000 free online classes here at the OEDb, or see a listing of 375 free MOOCs from great universities from Open Culture.

3. Watch Videos from Recent Conferences

Whatever your field there will be major conferences and events in which the latest and most cutting-edge developments and projects are discussed. Much of these sessions can be found online either through YouTube or directly on the conference website. Here are over 650 videos from the SXSW conference – the annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin. And here’s over 1,500 TED Talks, a global set of conferences presenting the most innovative ideas in the research and practice of technology, science, and culture.

4. Create an Awesome Summer Reading List

The Goodreads application is chock-full of recommended reading lists including both Fiction and Non-Fiction book lists as well as lists for particular genres such as teen and horror, etc. You can also create our own. You can also check out the Amazon Best Sellers as well as the ALA’s Recommended Reading page which includes links to ALA’s literature award winners and various notable reading lists for all ages. But some of my favorite reading lists have been spotlighted in ALDirect such as 22 Pandemic Books to Read Before the H7N9 Virus Kills Us All , 20 Books for the End of the World, and Top 10 YA Books that Buffy fans will want to read .

5. Play an Educational Game

Remember Highlights? The hidden picture game that was strangely addictive and could almost always be found at the dentist’s office? Well, now it’s online and available as an iPad app along with many other brain-tingling educational games such as Math Ninja, Monster Physics, Civilization Revolution, and more. Online eduational games are available for all age ranges from kids to adults. To find some check out 30 of the Best Educational iPad Games, 50 Free Online Educational Games That Are More Fun Than You’d Think, and 50 Great Sites for Serious, Educational Games.

6. Learn how to play an instrument

With all of today’s online resources is easier than ever to take up a musical instrument and learn to play it for free, or nearly free. There is a surplus of tutorial apps available for both iPhone and Android devices for nearly any instrument. For example if you wanted to learn the violin you could check out the Learn Violin app for iPhone, the Magic Fiddle iPad app, the Violin Lesson Tutor for Android, or FiddlerMan on your desktop. There’s also a wealth of free YouTube videos offering instruction on the violin and other instruments.

7. Listen to Some Smart Podcasts

Feed your brain some educational podcasts from academics, researchers, and experts that you can listen to on the way to work, school, or at the gym. Here’s a giant list of University & College Podcasts – Free Educational Podcasts to keep you busy. And if that’s not enough check out 13 Smart Podcasts That Will Feed Your Hunger for Knowledge and Ideas and the The Top 5 Podcasts for Smart People.

8. Download Free Audiobooks

The leading provider of audiobooks is Audible which offers over 100,000 downloadable audiobooks, but there are also plenty of apps and websites which provide audiobooks for free. More than 3,000 public domain audiobooks and eBooks are available at Books Should Be Free. There are also several mobile apps available with packages of audiobooks contained within such as the Free Audiobooks app for .99 cents which has nearly 5,000. Here’s a great list from Open Culture: 525 Free Audio Books: Download Great Books for Free, and an article discussing the best websites for free audiobooks.

9. Install Educational Apps on Your Tablet

Thousands of educational apps such as the Khan Academy library of over 3000 free videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice, Shakespeare in Bits, Star Walk, Monster Anatomy and more. Check out Apple’s Education Apps section, 48 Free Education Apps Sorted By Grade Level, and the Next Web’s 12 of the best educational apps of 2012.

10. Read Free eBooks

There are so many ways to download free eBooks for your iPad, Android tablet or other mobile device, why ever pay for an eBook? You can easily search for your local library on OverDrive to see if they are offering free e-Books via their subscription service. You can also check out this post I wrote in November linking to 5 e-Book Collections with Over 100,000 Free e-Books. And if that’s not enough, check out: 225 Free eBooks: Download Great Classics for Free and the 20 Best Websites To Download Free EBooks.

The post 10 Fun Ways to Feed Your Mind this Summer appeared first on OEDB.org.

16 Free Live Webinars for Librarians in June

Ellyssa Kroski — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:07:59 +0000

There are plenty of free learning opportunities for librarians online, and this post will list many, but this upcoming webinar titled “Why aren’t they reading quietly?! Messing around at the library” was particularly intriguing to me, and I caught up with one of the presenters to ask him a few questions!

Featured Webinar: Why aren’t they reading quietly?! Messing around at the library

Presented by the Colorado State Library
Wednesday, June 12
2:30-3:30 pm (Eastern)
http://cslinsession.cvlsites.org/upcoming/why-arent-they-reading-quietly
Do you seek ideas on how to turn your library from a grocery store to a kitchen? Are you looking for ways to engage folks in your library? Come hang out, mess around and geek out with us. Get inspiration from others about letting creation and HOMAGO happen in your library.

Q.) Tell us about yourself in 140 characters or less
A.) Kieran Hixon is passionate about rural libraries. His focus has low cost tech solutions for small rural libraries. He is a proud member of ARSL.

Q.) What types of libraries/librarians is your webinar aimed at?
A.) The webinar is aimed to help all sorts and sizes of libraries.

Q.) What is HOMAGO and why should librarians know about it?
A.) HOMAGO is short for Hanging out, Messing around, Geeking out. It comes from the book Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. by Mizuko Itō.

HoMaGo can help librarians engage teens and change the way teen programs are run and how the physical space of the library is set up. In this webinar we are considering not just teens but also adults. We will also be looking at creation spaces in libraries and thinking about ways to take a library from just a place to find information to a place where information can be transformed…. we are aiming high. We believe that the 21st century library is no longer a conduit to bring information to people, but also a way to bring our communities to the world.

Q.) What are some learning points that participants will learn from attending this webinar?
A.) We are hoping in this highly interactive session that folks get a sense of what is possible in the realms of physical space, policy and activities. We will be covering HoMaGo, expectations of a library, and physical space. Aaron Bock from Anythink Libraries will be joining Sharon Morris and me.

And here’s a monthly roundup of other great-looking online webinars and free educational opportunities for librarians in June.

Friday, June 7
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
Why Google? (OCLC)
http://www.oclc.org/research/events/2013/06-07b.html
In this webinar, Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway will discuss results of multiple user behavior studies and recommendations for promoting user engagement with library services, sources, and systems.
Wednesday, June 12
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
Tech Talk with Michael Sauers: Working with Wikipedia (Nebraska Library Commission)
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/scripts/calendar/eventshow.asp?ProgID=12285
Next to Google, Wikipedia is the major source of information used by people today. But libraries also own much content that isn’t available on Wikipedia, so how should we make sure users don’t stop there? In this session, Aaron Tay, Senior Librarian & eServices Facilitator at National University of Singapore, will cover ideas on how to link resources from Wikipedia to library resources using various tools including John Mark Ockerbloom’s Forward to Libraries service. In the opposite direction, libraries can also move in and use Wikipedia entries to enhance findability of their collections.
Wednesday, June 12
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
Uncovering Free and Low Cost Legal Resources (Wyoming State Law Library)
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/908186494
There are an abundance of free legal research resources available. Some resources provide all of their content for free while others provide a mixture of free and fee-based information. We will review a variety of electronic resources including university and nonprofit organization sites, government sites, and more. As with any resource, we will discover that one legal resource is more valuable than another for particular types of research.
Wednesday, June 12
2:00-3:00 pm (Eastern)
Support Patron Learning in Small Spaces with Small Budgets (WebJunction)
https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/Support_Patron_Learning_in_Small_Spaces_with_Small_Budgets.html
In small communities, libraries can often be the only provider of free public access to technology and the internet. And as more people turn to their library to learn technology skills, even the tiniest of libraries are faced with the challenge of providing training to patrons with limited staff, resources, and space. Learn from small and rural libraries who are making training a reality for their patrons, using volunteers, leveraging partnerships and integrating learning into everyday interactions. Whether the technology training you do (or want to do) is one-to-one, on-the-fly or a more formal program, this session will include tips and suggestions for improving the effectiveness of the training you provide.
Wednesday, June 12
2:30-3:30 pm (Eastern)
Data-Driven Libraries Part 2: Understanding Customers Through Segmentation Analytics (Library Journal)
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/category/webcasts/
Customer segmentation studies and data analytics combines demographic data with lifestyle information to help public libraries better understand who their customers are and what services best meet the community’s need, whether school-aged children or empty-nester couples. This type of GIS-based market segmentation can also help inform strategies around such initiatives as a levy ballot and also eliminate inefficient marketing efforts.
Wednesday, June 12
2:30-3:30 pm (Eastern)
Why aren’t they reading quietly?! Messing around at the library (Colorado State Library)
http://cslinsession.cvlsites.org/upcoming/why-arent-they-reading-quietly
Do you seek ideas on how to turn your library from a grocery store to a kitchen? Are you looking for ways to engage folks in your library? Come hang out, mess around and geek out with us. Get inspiration from others about letting creation and HOMAGO happen in your library.
Wednesday, June 12
3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern)
Community Led Library Service Development (InfoPeople)
http://infopeople.org/training/view/webinar
Instead of adding projects or tasks to library staff in an effort to promote library services, the community-led approach establishes the library staff as trained listeners and brokers of awareness to provide service development for both marginalized and comfortable community sectors. The community-led approach helps the library to identify which traditional library roles are now redundant, and thus of little worth to the community, allowing both professional library staff and support staff to concentrate on those services that are meaningful to the public. Community-led service development allows both the community and its library staff to grow, become engaged in the civic sphere they share and find the best venues for individuals to pursue their aspirations for their primary needs of health and welfare, as well as life-long learning and the support of personal values.
Thursday, June 13
2:00-3:00 pm (Eastern)
Web and IT Accessibility Policies in Higher Education (AT Coalition)
http://atcoalition.org/training/web-and-it-accessibility-policies-higher-education
How many higher education institutions in the United States have web or technology accessibility policies? What do these policies look like? Are they effective? What constitutes a good accessibility policy? Presenters in this session will be exploring these questions with results from their recent research project on this topic, and by sharing their own experiences with policy development and accessibility-related planning.
Monday, June 17
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
Digital Content Creation and Collection Development (LYRASIS)
http://www.lyrasis.org/Pages/EventDetail.aspx?Eid=750EB35E-2890-E211-8D82-002219586F0D
Join us for a one hour free webinar that briefly introduces the critical components of digital content creation and collection development.
Tuesday, June 18
2:00-3:00 pm (Eastern)
New Kids on the Block (Booklist)
http://www.booklistonline.com/webinars
While there won’t be any serenading from the beloved boy band, this hour-long, free webinar is sure to be almost as swoon-worthy! Hear from Algonquin Young Readers, Blink/Zondervan, Soho Teen, and Sourcebooks Fire as they present middle grade and YA titles from their new imprints hip to all things tween and teen. Moderated by Booklist’s Books for Youth associate editor Annie Kelley.
Tuesday, June 18
2:00-3:00 pm (Eastern)
Public Libraries: Become a Community Publishing Portal (PLA)
http://www.ala.org/pla/onlinelearning/webinars/publishingportal
Last year Los Gatos (Calif.) Library began a partnership with e-book self-publishing company Smashwords to offer a three-part series of e-book self-publishing seminars. This partnership has grown to include a co-branded publishing portal managed by Smashwords. Linked from the library website, the portal enables local authors to publish and distribute e-books at no cost and allows them to “Publish to the Library” if the library chooses to purchase their work. Find out how Los Gatos Library developed this partnership and how your library can easily do the same.
Wednesday, June 19
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
eBooks – The Changing Landscape in South Dakota Schools (NCompass Live)
http://gla.georgialibraries.org/mediawiki/index.php/Carterette_Series_Webinars
25% of schools nationally have access to downloadable eBooks and audiobooks. What’s the scene at your school? Attend this session to hear more about your options and learn where to look to bring eBooks into your student’s lives. Content covered will include popular eBook models, platform choices and things to consider when looking at adding eBooks to your library’s options. Speakers: Joan Upell, School Library Coordinator and Julie Erickson, Electronic Resources Coordinator, South Dakota State Library.
Wednesday, June 19
2:00-3:00 pm (Eastern)
RDA Essentials for Public Services (Carterette Series)
http://gla.georgialibraries.org/mediawiki/index.php/Carterette_Series_Webinars
After years of buzz, the Library of Congress implemented the new cataloging standard RDA (Resource Description and Access) on March 31, 2013. What is RDA and why should I care? RDA is part of the ongoing transformation of library data with an objective of responsiveness to user needs. Susan Wynne will discuss the major differences between AACR2 practices and RDA, focusing on how RDA affects user displays and navigation in local catalogs, WorldCat, and elsewhere.
Thursday, June 20
2:30-4:00 pm (Eastern)
How to Deliver Great Library Customer Service (ALA Editions)
https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/workshops/webinars/index.html/
Drawing on 20 years’ experience as a trainer and coach, Laurie Brown will show you how to create a welcoming, friendly experience for patrons, students, and other library users. Satisfied customers mean good vibes, and happy library users are part of a strong library. In addition to learning how to fulfill the expectations of the people who use your library, you will also get pointers on listening and communications skills to help your conversations with angry, chatty, or overly demanding patrons as gracefully as possible.
Tuesday, June 25
3:00-4:00 pm (Eastern)
Data-Driven Libraries Part 3: Decoding Data to Plan for the Future (Library Journal)
http://lj.libraryjournal.com/category/webcasts/
Data-driven decision making is creating large pools of data around which public libraries are trying to define everything from overarching strategies to granular collection development strategies. Although the analysis of this data is often left to third-parties, some libraries are taking the step of hiring their own data analysts to help administrators decide what the data means, why it matters, and how best to present it to other stakeholders.
Thursday, June 27
11:00am-12:00 pm (Eastern)
MOOCs and More! (Wyoming State Library)
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/364302014
What’s a MOOC? It’s a Massive Open Online Course — higher-level learning coming from top universities, all online, all free. Join Susan Mark to learn how to put your patrons in touch with MOOCs and other quality learning interests that suit their needs.

The post 16 Free Live Webinars for Librarians in June appeared first on OEDB.org.

Worldwide National Library Catalogs

Staff Writers — Thu, 30 May 2013 11:00:24 +0000

At the heart of a national library, you’ll find a country’s most important documents: rare books, significant works, and other priceless treasures. National libraries are tasked with the centuries-long responsibility of preserving books and documents that keep a country’s history and heritage safe through war, disaster, and the passage of time. They’re also responsible for sharing these vast and valuable documents with citizens of the country, and the world.

National libraries are the absolute best resource for finding publications within any given country. This is thanks to legal deposit, legislation in many countries that requires publishers to provide the national library with a copy of each publication. In some countries, this even includes digital publications.

Through national library catalogs, you can search all of the publications within a country. Many national libraries also offer extensive digital collections, offering online researchers access to documents of historical importance, official publications, even images and video.

Using Online National Libraries

Many national libraries, like the U.S. Library of Congress or the National Library of Australia boast incredible online collections complete with historic newspapers, sound recordings, photographs, and more. You can browse online catalogs by subject, type, or collection. You also have the option to search collections by keyword, title, author, and more.

Some libraries may require you to register for a card online, and you may need to be a citizen of the country to qualify for a card. This can give you access to licensed digital resources. But often, you’ll find that libraries offer full text resources online to any user, especially historic and public domain works.

Libraries may offer their websites and resources in multiple languages, and we’ve included English pages when available. Still, many national libraries are provided exclusively in the country’s native language. For translation assistance, we recommend using Google’s Translation Browser Buttons.

Finding information for your assignment

What exactly are you looking for in national library catalogs? The University of Illinois library recommends that students search for sources that support your argument, offer background information, share contrary views you can counter, or offer reliable data. These sources can include books, articles, web pages, journals, and other materials.

Your best bet for finding sources within a national library is to use the library’s search function. Using the library’s search, you can find sources that match what you’re looking for in catalogs, databases, and more. Identify and use key words and phrases, including synonyms, as well as broad and narrow terms that may connect you with the resources you need. You may want to utilize more advanced search options, including author name, peer-reviewed materials, publication date, and subject. Additionally, the use of Boolean operators (and, or, not) will allow you to combine or exclude search terms.

If you’re having trouble finding information or searching library databases, don’t hesitate to ask a librarian.

U.S. National Libraries

Worldwide National Libraries

With national library catalogs from Albania to Zimbabwe online, the knowledge of the world is at your fingertips. What treasures can you find?

The post Worldwide National Library Catalogs appeared first on OEDB.org.

5 Free and Open Source Tools for Creating Digital Exhibitions

Ellyssa Kroski — Tue, 28 May 2013 17:34:13 +0000

What are digital exhibitions?

Many libraries and museums have taken their special collections such as rare books, manuscripts, photographs, pamphlets, news clippings, musical scores and more and have digitized them to create collections of digital assets that can be displayed online through a digital exhibition. Digital exhibits such as these offer unprecedented access to organizational treasures that might never be seen otherwise except by those with local physical access to the museum or library. A new breed of open-source and free software tools has recently emerged making it possible to catalog and manage digital collections and create robust narratives and layouts for display online.

Major Software Tools

These are the main software applications which are used by libraries and museums to create digital exhibits and for digital asset management. The industry leader in this space is a proprietary application called Contentdm (http://www.contentdm.org/) created by OCLC. Contenddm is a digital collection management software that allows for the upload, description, management and access of digital collections. This application offers robust cataloging features and an easy-to-use interface but is cost-prohibitive for many non-profit organizations. Entry level CONTENTdm options start at $4,300 annually with mid-size Licenses that start at a $10,000 one-time fee with ongoing annual maintenance starting at $2,000.

A Contentdm Digital Collection

Free and Open Source Tools

However, there are many free and open source alternatives to Contentdm for creating online interactive digital exhibits.

Omeka
http://omeka.org/
Omeka is a free, open source web publishing system for online digital archives. Its main focus/strength is producing websites and online exhibitions. Both the Web interface and back end cataloging system are one unified application. Users can build attractive websites and exhibits using templates and page layouts, without having to adjust code, although more robust displays can be created by customizing the CSS and HTML files, and moving around some PHP snippets. Omeka has a plugin available for OAI support to make collections harvestable by major search engines. Although Omeka is a bit more limited than some other applications such as Collective Access (see below) in terms of cataloging & metadata capabilities, it allows fast/easy creation of online exhibits through a Web interface, a low learning curve, many plugins with added functionality, and a large developer community.

Metadata Supported: Omeka uses Dublin Core and MODS metadata, and offers customizable item type cataloging. There are many templates and plugins which offer added functionality such as displaying items on Google Maps, providing LCSH for cataloging

Hosted Version and/or Downloadable Code Available? Omeka offers both a hosted, Web-based version or the downloadable application which can be installed and hosted on-site by the organization.

Recommended for: Libraries, Museums

Collective Access
http://collectiveaccess.org/
Collective Access is a free, open source cataloging tool and web-based application for museums, archives and digital collections. Its main focus/strength is on cataloging and metadata. You can create very robust cataloging records, create relationships between items, create profiles of creators and subjects of items and link them to objects, etc. Collective Access offers multiple metadata schemas. The Web component, called Pawtucket, is a separate installation, and necessitates editing php files in order to build/adjust websites. A front-end PHP programmer would be necessary with this solution, and quite possibly one to set up the back-end templates as well.

Hosted Version and/or Downloadable Code Available? The application is downloadable and must be hosted by the organization, no hosted version is available.

Metadata Supported: DublinCore, VRA, CDWA/CCO, MARC (planned), others, plus the ability to create in house standards and to customize existing standards. Ability to access external data sources and services such as LCSH, Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus, and GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth or GeoNames for geospatial cataloguing.

Recommended for: Libraries, Museums

CollectionSpace
http://www.collectionspace.org/
ColectionSpace is a free, open-source collections management application for museums, libraries, historical societies, and other organizations with special collections. The application is administered by Museum of the Moving Image, but it’s a joint partners with the division of Information Services and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley and the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies at the University of Cambridge. The software is made up of a suite of modules and services for managing your collections of digital assets, however it doesn’t have any native ability to create digital exhibits. Instead, it enables users to connect with other open-source applications already in use by the cultural sector for online exhibition creation. The application allows for the creation of a customized controlled vocabulary for describing collections.

Hosted Version and/or Downloadable Code Available? The application is downloadable and must be hosted by the organization, no hosted version is available.

Metadata Supported: CollectionSpace supports multiple metadata schemas including DublinCore and customized schemas.

Recommended for: Libraries, Museums

Open Exhibits
http://openexhibits.org/
Open Exhibits is a multitouch, multi-user tool kit that allows you to create custom interactive exhibits. The strength of this application has less to do with cataloging collections of digital assets, but developing online and interactive exhibits with digital objects. The multi-touch piece comes into play with the ability to specify that certain types of user behaviors will result in various outcomes, e.g. if a user drags a certain section of an image, the entire image will move and readjust along with the movement. Users without technical expertise can work with pre-existing templates and modules, while developers can create their own with the SDK kit. The application uses a combination of its own markup languages – Creative Mark-up Language (CML) and Gesture Mark-up Language (GML) along with CSS libraries.

Hosted Version and/or Downloadable Code Available? The application is downloadable and must be hosted by the organization, no hosted version is available.

Metadata Supported: Not applicable.

Recommended for: Museums

Pachyderm
http://pachyderm.nmc.org
Pachyderm is a free, open-source and easy-to-use multimedia authoring tool created by the New Media Consortium (NMC). It’s been designed for people with little technology or multimedia experience and involves little more than filling out a web form. Authors place their digital assets (images, audio clips, and short video segments) into pre-designed templates, which can play video and audio, link to other templates, zoom in on images, and more. Completed templates result in interactive, Flash-based presentations that can include images, sounds, video, and text that can be downloaded and displayed on websites or can be kept on the Pachyderm server and linked directly from there.

Hosted Version and/or Downloadable Code Available? The NMC has stated that they are no longer offering hosted accounts at this time so the application must be downloaded and hosted by the organization or individual.

Metadata Supported: Not applicable.

Recommended for: Libraries, Museums, Educators, Individuals

The post 5 Free and Open Source Tools for Creating Digital Exhibitions appeared first on OEDB.org.

10 Ways to Use IFTTT To Automate Your Social Media Branding

Ellyssa Kroski — Fri, 24 May 2013 10:58:35 +0000

IFFT is a new service that stands for If This, Then That. It’s an incredibly easy to use website that lets you set up or copy recipes for automating just about anything. I’ve written about this handy tool before, however in a nutshell it works with 60 different applications including most of the major social media channels, and necessitates filling out simple online forms.

Alternatively, you can use pre-existing recipes that others have put together to automate a wide variety of tasks. For example, how would you like to get a text message every time your organization’s Facebook Page had new activity? Or have a Facebook status update automatically generated every time your library or organization was about to hold an event?

If you’re handling the social media marketing for your organization’s brand, or just for yourself, you’ll want to check out these IFTTT recipes to get you started automating those efforts:

1. If there’s new activity on my Facebook brand’s Page, send me a text.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/8643

Grab the RSS feed for your brand Page on Facebook by clicking into ‘Notifications’ at the top right of the page and selecting “Get notifications via: RSS”. Then use this RSS to SMS recipe to simply plug in the feed and have all notifications turn into text messages sent to your phone.

2. When I post to my blog, send the post to LinkedIn

https://ifttt.com/recipes/4993

If you are using the hosted version of WordPress.com for your blog, you can use this recipe to automatically post your blog articles to LinkedIn. If you’re hosting your own WordPress blog, simply use the RSS to LinkedIn recipe here: https://ifttt.com/recipes/20880

3. If there’s a new Twitter Search result for my brand, add it to a spreadsheet in Google docs.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/86577
Using this recipe, you can set up a Twitter search variable for your brand’s hashtag and have all mentions be recorded on a spreadsheet in Google Drive. For just a keyword search for the brand name and not a hashtag, simply adjust the feed url that the author provides so that you remove everything after the = sign where you can plug in your search term. For example, a Twitter search for me would be http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=ellyssa

4. When my Facebook profile picture changes, update my Twitter profile picture.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/8981

Use this recipe to automatically change your Twitter profile photo every time you update your Facebook profile pic.

5. Every time I’m tagged in a photo on Facebook, it will be sent to Dropbox.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/1760

This is one of my personal favorites because I love to be tagged in photos on Facebook, but I oftentimes forget to make a copy of the image for myself. This recipe will automatically create backups of those images you’re tagged in and send them to your Dropbox account.

6. If a Google Calendar event starts, post it to my Facebook Page.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/14247
If you’re using Google Calendar to keep track of your brand events you can use IFTTT to automatically create a Facebook status update 15 minutes before the event starts with the location and name of event.

7. Tweet my Facebook status updates

https://ifttt.com/recipes/1789

Set up IFTTT to automatically tweet for you whenever you post a status update on Facebook, saving you time to post more updates!

8. Tweet my Blog Posts

https://ifttt.com/recipes/599

Automatically create tweets out of your blog posts, linking back to your WordPress blog. There are also recipes for other types of blogs besides WordPress as well as straight RSS to Twitter recipes.

9. When I’m notified about a new Twitter follower, tweet them a welcome message

https://ifttt.com/recipes/76862
Gmail and HootSuite users can use this automation to greet new followers on Twitter. This recipe will automatically access the Gmail email mentioning your new follower and will create a tweet via HootSuite with a thanks message that you customize.

10. If I Pin a Photo on Pinterest, post the photo to Facebook

https://ifttt.com/recipes/12312
If you’re using the Pinterest, digital pinboard application, you can automatically post the same photos to Facebook as you pin to Pinterest by following this recipe.

The post 10 Ways to Use IFTTT To Automate Your Social Media Branding appeared first on OEDB.org.

McGraw-Hill and Blackboard: Partnering to Create the Learning Experience of the Future

Staff Writers — Thu, 23 May 2013 11:00:03 +0000

With new digital learning options come new digital demands. Educators and students demand faster, more user-friendly textbooks to match their faster, more user-friendly learning management systems (LMS); the large, awkward textbooks of old just do not work in a more digitized, immediate environment. And with online education growing by 150% between 1998 and 2008, viable solutions are absolutely necessary. Free external options such as websites and Wikis have been trickling in and providing open resources featuring the latest research. But other innovators reach out right where consumers need them — within the LMS platforms themselves.

Blackboard and McGraw-Hill Higher Education apply that same approach to a bold and successful partnership. Their cloud-based providences directly address the mounting need for uniquely 21st century classroom materials.

“McGraw-Hill Connect is integrated into Blackboard Learn,” says Stacey Fontenot, vice president of marketing at Blackboard.”McGraw-Hill Connect is an eLearning system that includes the core textbook, assignments, and assessments. It is important to note that this is not just an e-textbook solution; it is essentially a ‘whole course solution.’ ”

How It Works

McGraw-Hill and Blackboard organized their collaboration as a direct result of educators’ demands. As online classes increased in popularity over the past decade, it makes sense that teachers and students would gravitate towards an equally convenient textbook option.

“The relationship was inspired by a market need defined through research and delving into problems faced in online instruction. For several years, instructors have been asking for content inside their learning management systems,” says Fontenot. “In combining the two technologies, the companies increase instructor efficiencies: a single sign-on into one system and one gradebook instead of two for all grades.”

Available all over the world, save for China and India, the partnership between the two higher education juggernauts yields two tempting options — McGraw-Hill Connect and McGraw-Hill Create.

Connect offers up an immersive, multimedia textbook experience. Most major academic subjects are covered, updated regularly, and illustrate major points with engaging graphics, video, audio, and more. McGraw-Hill offers webinars and other instructional resources to help educators get the most out of the tool.

As the name implies, Create provides a higher degree of customizing than Connect. Instructors browse thousands of different resources — mostly textbooks — and add excerpts, articles, and other learning materials for a personalized classroom resource. Unlike traditional textbooks, the content only reflects the courses’ unique needs, jettisoning anything irrelevant. They can even upload and share their own media for further personalization.

No matter which route teachers take, the partnership between the two companies provides a simple, friendly interface.

“Users simply log into Blackboard — with that single sign-on, they can directly access all of their course tools and content from McGraw-Hill Education right within the Learn environment,” says Brian Sylvester, executive marketing manager of digital integration at McGraw-Hill Higher Education. “As students submit assignments, their scores are automatically synchronized with the Blackboard gradebook. All course resources and performance data are accessible in a single online environment.”

Fontenot explains that many instructors use the printed textbook as primary and supplement with digital. “It is clear that there is an appetite for going digital and that it is getting closer to reaching a critical mass, but the level of engagement in an online course solution is still in its early phases,” she says.

Who Benefits — and Why

Digital textbooks have yet to fully overtake their print predecessors. But the ease and convenience of direct integration into learning platforms might very well lead to a complete, not-so-hostile takeover in the near future.

Teachers and Students

Because the McGraw-Hill and Blackboard partnership is cloud-based, teachers and students constantly access the must updated research and information. Rather than waiting on new textbook editions to finally see print, they need only log in to learn the latest.

“With vetted and peer-reviewed content available, faculty [members] don’t need to spend as much time building core content; instead they can focus on how to add to their course based on an incident that happened in the class or a current event. Instructors can easily adapt to student needs,” says Fontenot.

This immediacy also increases an online course’s scalability. “Using pre-packaged content helps an instructor go from teaching 50 to 300 students without the time commitment of creating another course shell,” she says.

Enhanced convenience leads to enhanced grades. Not only do students receive the most current data available in any given field, the easy logistics of integrated digital textbooks frees up their time for more important matters — like tackling challenging coursework requiring additional attention, which has actually led to greater classroom performance.

“The result [of tools, like McGrawhill Connect and LearnSmart, integrated with Blackboard] is a more efficient education for all parties involved — instructors save time designing, delivering and reporting their courses; students become more effective learners; and administrators enjoy lowered support costs and higher completion rates.”

Best of all, these perks come at no additional cost to either the teacher or the student: “As neither McGraw-Hill Education nor Blackboard charge for the integration itself, the service truly is a win-win,” he says.

The Companies Themselves

Blackboard and McGraw-Hill also mutually gain from the partnership. They maintained their status as industry leaders in their respective higher education sectors by considering consumer demands and meeting them. In this instance, a need for instant resources congruent to the immediate nature of online learning.

“[Blackboard and McGraw-Hill] have mutual goals in moving educators from print to digital solutions,” Fontenot notes. “McGraw-Hill can reach more instructors through the required campus-wide LMS, and Blackboard can offer high-quality, trusted, and proven content to its end users.”

As both companies grow, they learn how to best approach shifting needs regarding digital textbooks. Though the McGraw-Hill and Blackboard partnership is not the only one of its kind, it remains one of the most notable and popular — and one whose tenets could easily inspire future collaboration among other companies.

Similar Collaborations and Open Ed

Neither Blackboard nor McGraw-Hill work exclusively with one another. They both experiment with different integrated textbook techniques in order to establish some semblance of best practices. And, of course, advance the cause of online, collaborative, and open education.

Blackboard also partners with WileyPLUS, Cengage Learning’s Mindtap, Macmillan, Pearson’s MyLab, and, starting this summer, VitalSource. Each arrangement boasts its own unique features, offering schools different options suitable for different needs. Some allow for customization, others full digital versions of print textbooks along with instant updates when new research materializes.

But it isn’t just Blackboard stepping out and enjoying a few partnerships on the side. McGraw-Hill provides its own opportunities for learning platforms to integrate their textbooks.

“In addition to our partnership with Blackboard, McGraw-Hill Education also offers an LMS agnostic integration service, MH Campus, that enables single sign-on access and gradebook integration with more than 90% of the LMS in use at higher ed institutions today,” Sylvester says.

“The underpinnings of this integration are standards-based, leveraging Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) from the IMS Global Learning Consortium,” he continues. “These standards have provided a FERPA-compliant framework for many content, tools, and platform providers to securely integrate their offerings in an efficient and consistent manner.”

All these initiatives not only revolutionize online education by meeting the consumers’ need for convenient, integrated textbooks, but they further promote the concept of open ed as well. Though they require schools to subscribe, their structures reflect major characteristics of the open education movement — collaboration and customization.

The Future

Textbooks fully interwoven with learning platforms illustrate more of a permanent trend than an experimental fad. They make perfect sense within the context of online education. Because arrangements such as the one between Blackboard and McGraw-Hill are convenient, time-saving, come at no additional cost, and improve student performance, it is not a stretch to say they occupy an integral spot in open and online education.

“As all digital tools and content are becoming increasingly interoperable, educators and students are demanding a similar experience from their learning resources,” says Sylvester. “The partnership gives our joint customers the freedom to select the content items and assessments they wish to assign to students and deploy them directly within the Blackboard Learn environment — tearing down the walled gardens that existed previously between systems.”

Sylvester notes how the increasing number of academics taking advantage of the McGraw-Hill and Blackboard collaboration bodes positive for online and open education’s future: “This shift is further evidenced by the sizable portion of our customer base accessing course materials via these channels today and the number of other providers working to develop similar capabilities for their offerings.”

Only one major concern compromises integrated digital textbooks’ survival. Academia’s notorious hesitance to experiment with new technological innovations prevents it from fully implementing integrated textbooks.

After dismantling this final roadblock, partnerships such as Blackboard and McGraw-Hill’s will likely transition from a major niche to mainstream success. Their advantages fit snugly into a higher education environment valuing open, collaborative, and digital learning options. Shunting integrated textbooks to the sidelines does teachers and students a major disservice, wasting their time and maybe even lowering grades. The future of higher education should involve integrated technology, even if it means using it to initially supplement instruction rather than to completely replace older methods. If schools truly hope to further the cause of online and open options, these virtual publications absolutely need to be available.

The post McGraw-Hill and Blackboard: Partnering to Create the Learning Experience of the Future appeared first on OEDB.org.

How to Create a Social Media Posting Hub with HootSuite

Ellyssa Kroski — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:18:58 +0000

Instead of visiting every social network every day and posting separate status updates, why not set up a social media hub where you can access your customized dashboard and monitor and post to them all at once?

HootSuite

HootSuite is a powerful social media manager with over 6 million users.

It will let you monitor and post to multiple social networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, WordPress, etc. You can schedule and deploy status updates and tweets in advance, track mentions of your name, and view reports analyzing social media traffic. The application offers the Ow.ly url shortener for quickly making short urls to post on Twitter. And there are mobile apps available for nearly every type of device.

Here’s what you can do with some of the major social media applications:

Twitter

Use HootSuite to send and schedule Tweets, search what others are tweeting, organize your tweets by list or keyword, as well as monitor Mentions, Direct Messages, Sent Tweets, Favorited Tweets, and more in dedicated streams.

Facebook

Post updates, add images, monitor feeds, and more.

HootSuite allows you to post directly to your Company Pages, Groups and Profiles, as well as create job search streams.

Google+ Pages

Share and comment on posts, search public posts and updates, see recent user activity, as well as view comments and +1s.

WordPress

schedule and cross-post content to multiple WordPress accounts. The publishing platform integration also allows you to reblog noteworthy posts and create a stream for blogs you’re following.

Create Your Own!

Start by signing up for a HootSuite account here: https://hootsuite.com

You will then be brought to your dashboard page and you’ll see that you haven’t set up any tabs or added any social networks yet.

Set up Your Profile

You can start by filling out your profile by clicking on the default owl avatar in the upper left corner. This will lead you to your profile page where you can edit your info and start adding social networks.

Add Social Networks

Once you’re done with your profile, click to start adding your networks. You can add up to 5 with the free account. You will be prompted to login to your social networks as you choose each one. HootSuite will then be authorized to access those applications and feed in your info and enable you to post to your accounts from within HootSuite.

View Tabs

Once you’re done adding your social networks, click on the Home icon on the left navigation. This will bring you to your main dashboard where you will see that HootSuite has set up tabs for you displaying different feeds from each of your networks. You can organize any of these by dragging and dropping them with the mouse. Now you can easily monitor what’s happening on all of your social networks in one interface.

Post Status Updates and Tweets

You’re now ready to start posting to your social networks. Click into the “Compose message” box at the top and you will see that it expands. Here is where you can write your status update or tweet, include a link to a website in the “add a link” box to be automatically shortened, and choose which of your social networks to send the update/tweet/message to. Also, if you click on the calendar icon, a scheduling interface appears and you can choose the time and date that your update will be deployed to your networks of choice!

View Reports

There are basic reports that are available with the free account of HootSuite. Click on the analytics icon on the left navigation and choose either: Twitter Overview, Ow.ly Click Summary, or URL Click Stats – Ow.ly.

Success!

Congrats! Now you know how to create your own social media posting dashboard, monitor your networks, schedule and post to multiple networks at once and view analytical reports.

The post How to Create a Social Media Posting Hub with HootSuite appeared first on OEDB.org.