e-learning librarian’s toolbox

Librarians with the Ontario public service are breaking stereotypes and embracing social media to deliver information within their departments and beyond. Librarians at the Legislative Assembly and the Fire Marshall’s Office are using RSS feeds and Twitter to stay relevant.

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=54695

Simon Brown, a TAFE QLD Stonemasonry teacher, is doing some interesting things with spycam glasses.

Check out
http://cafechat.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/recording-pov-video-in-the-training-workshop-3/

Internet filtering is a hot issue at the moment. Site blocking in QLD TAFE has been bad for a while.

I especially like some of the comments, especially the second one:

“The education of students MUST include training on how to make a decision based on their moral compass and community expectations.

The more we “shield ” our children – the less likely they will be able to make considered and appropriate decisons in adult life.

We need to “teach” them how to identify right from wrong / how to identify good from bad / what to do when they don’t know an answer. “

I thought our new Spydus (Civica) system was good in that students and staff can pre-book computers and equipment from anywhere via the internet, but UQ students can use a visual display to quickly see what computers are available before they go to the lab. Maybe this is something we can work on for a future version of Spydus?

I also love the sound of the Innovations Lab. We definitely need one of those at our library!

“The library has launched a new Innovation Lab to work on projects that will … provide opportunities for collaboration with research groups from all over the University. “The aim of the Innovation Lab is to give library staff time and space away from their usual jobs to work on great ideas and make them a reality.” “

This blog post confirms my experiences with my e-learning project that rapid e-learning development tools are a life-saver, especially for quickly knocking up prototype systems.

“A current project of ours has us collecting PowerPoint slides and voice narrations from doctors in a particular specialty. They’re submitting their presentations to a small panel who will choose the best ones, which will be presented live before an audience of doctors in the same specialty.

With 12 submissions total, we’ve ended up with 78 minutes of  what could be argued is elearning content for doctors. Total production time? 11.9 hours. Run the math and it comes to 9.15 hours’ development time per hour of finished “seat time,” roughly 9:1. Compare this to high production value, interactive elearning, which generally takes 200-300 hours per hour (200:1 to 300:1).

So you could argue this rapid elearning takes less than 5% as much effort as “regular” elearning.”

This looks like it might be worth watching out for. Wish I could get to ALA Midwinter 2009 to have a peak. I’ll have to see if my boss will pay for the air fares and accomodation… Dream on Robyn!

“POMONA, Calif. – (Business Wire) Auto-Graphics, Inc… , a technology innovator providing library automation solutions for over 36 years, today announced the development of AGent Iluminar™, a next generation Web Services application for the company’s library automation platform.”

More here.

This podcast is very interesting, especially since I’ve worked in both fields.

http://chronicle.com/media/audio/v55/i07/techtherapy/

If you can’t spare 13 minutes, here is a summary:

Differences between libraries and IT:

• Different cultures and issues
• Some colleges trying to get them to work better together, but it’s not easy
• Seems to be a culture clash: “she’s from Mars, he’s from Venus” – i.e. libraries are stereotypically a female profession and IT jobs are stereotypically male (I can vouch for this - I definitely felt a little ostracised at times when I was a computer programmer, especially when I started managing others)
• Libraries have a long tradition of different practices and different values, whereas IT is the (relative) new kid on the block
• Libraries are very mission-oriented; IT departments are more task-oriented
• IT is all about access (connections to technology); libraries are about bringing meaning to access
• Libraries have a faculty (or education) orientation; IT staff don’t

Similarities between libraries and IT:

• Both refer to clients as “users”: term used by IT, libraries & drug dealers (I disagree with this – I used to call them “users” when I was a computer programmer, but now I’m a librarian I call them clients or customers)
• Both not so great in the people skills department (e.g. librarians have been called experts for so long they don’t like to admit when they don’t know something) (that’s because we know if we don’t know something we’re sure we can find the answer somewhere) 
• Both have changing work environments due to the nature of technology
• Both have uncertainty about the future (undermining factor) (e.g. libraries are uncertain about their future role (too much reliance on online database subscriptions?))
• Both resistant to change
• Both think they know what is best for the user
• Neither care about best practice but just keep doing what they’ve been doing (where did they get these results from? I don’t think so!)
• Both groups are throwing things out there and experimenting without planning (Mmmm???)
• Both feel like they are second-class citizens (e.g. librarians often don’t feel like they are considered an important part of the faculty)
• Both are passionate about information

Why is there such a rift? There is no choice, but IT and libraries are going to have to work together more.

How can things get better over time? Communicate, communicate, communicate

What are some of the solutions? Did I mention communicate?

Can libraries live without IT, and can IT live without libraries? 

Comments anyone?

Happy new year!!!

Here is an interesting viewpoint that counters the argument that the younger generation are the main group affected by the prolific use of computers and the internet.

“Earlier this year, researchers at University College London dispelled the myth that young people are qualitatively different – in aptitudes, attitudes and expectations – from the rest of us when it comes to mining the Internet for information. The study found that the ease and familiarity with computers, often associated with younger users, is culturally pervasive. So is intolerance for anything less than an immediate answer to research questions. “

Read more at
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opwal275979132dec28,0,2466157.story

Cloud computing, one of the latest technology buzzwords, is so hard to explain that Google drove a bus from campus to campus to walk students through the company’s vision of it.

More at http://chronicle.com/free/2008/10/5611n.htm

“He is urging young entrepreneurs and engineers to stop making some of the sillier software that lets Facebook users throw virtual sheep at their friends or download virtual beer on iPhones, and to start making a real difference in the world.”

More at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/
businesstechnology/2008286602_btoreilly20.html