Office Hours

As we contemplate our upcoming relocation and remodel, we are attempting to find spaces around campus for our faculty and staff. One obvious solution has been that the subject liaisons could have offices in the building where their faculty and student constituents are located. I was interested to read this post on the ACRLog about an experience with this. It seems there could be some benefit to this arrangement.

http://acrlog.org/2008/05/31/office-hours/

Hoping we can avoid janitor’s closets -

Rhonda

OCLC Buys EZProxy

In case you hadn’t heard, OCLC has bought EZProxy: http://liblogs.albany.edu/library20/2008/01/oclc_the_google_of_the_library.html . I’m probably the last one in the world to find out. Read more about it at the Library 2.0 blog which, incidentally, is going away. I’m so sad. This was one of my favorite blogs.

Library Remodel - Latest

Hi Everyone,

We are making some progress in planning our remodel. As we move through the process, we will be sharing all the information we have with you via our website: http://library.colostate-pueblo.edu

Incidentally, our website itself will be changing in early July. You can check out the beta site at http://staging.colostate-pueblo.edu/devLibrary/index.asp. Look in the top right hand corner for the latest information about the remodel!

For now, I can tell you that:

1. We are close to hiring the Project Manager who will then help with all the rest of the planning. (Thank goodness)

2. We are planning to vacate the building by December if all goes well.

3. We will likely have to store the print collection off-site and will be looking for your input about how best to minimize the inconvenience this may cause.

4. We should move back into the new space in spring 2011!

Here we go!

Rhonda

Alice Robison Keynote Address at CALC2008

On Friday, I attended the 3rd Colorado Academic Library Consortium Summit (CALC200 in Denver. Our morning keynote speaker, Alice Robison, is a post-doctoral fellow at MIT, researching gaming and learning theory. Her talk was very engaging. What I most enjoyed about it was that it was not, strictly speaking, about libraries. It was interesting to hear an outside perspective. She talked about how various structural features of games contribute to learning. For example, games provide participants with lots of visual stimuli, the goals of the game are made clear from the beginning, instant feedback is provided, and gamers enjoy the ability to learn by doing (and failing). My two biggest light bulb reactions to her talk were:

1) It’s ok to fail and that we should expect students to fail the first time we give them a new task; they will learn by repeating the task until they get it right.

2) “Cheats” are not only fun in gaming but they are encouraged.

My colleagues and I talked about the idea that the library itself might be viewed as a “game” and that if we applied the above criteria, students might be more engaged in the research process. Imagine that you walk in to the library to work on a project. There are lots of visual signs to make it clear where you should start. Your instructor has made it clear what your goals are for research. The environment is non-threatening, so you don’t mind starting from scratch and learning as you go. The process is fun (or at least mentally challenging <gr>). Finally, you figure out that there is a “cheat” you can use. It’s the librarian. He or she will actually tell you where to look, so you can move to the next level!

Have fun!

Rhonda

We’re Renovating

Believe it or not, it’s a reality. Over a year of hard work and campaigning has paid off. The Governor has authorized our request of approximately $22,000,000 to renovate and expand our library! To see the concept drawings and read the program plan, check our website: http://library.colostate-pueblo.edu/foundation.asp

As we go through the process, i will let you know how it’s going and post photos, etc. on this blog.

Here we go!!

Wiki as Catalog

Here’s a university library that is using a Wiki as a major part of its library website:

http://aurlibrary.wetpaint.com/

They are also using Koha open source library catalog.  The site could use a little polishing, but I highly applaud the ingenuity and resourcefulness in creating this site!

Rhonda

WorldCat Beta versus WorldCat Identities

On closer inspection, it seems that WorldCat identities is a more Web 2.0 gateway into the WorldCat Beta site. It arranges materials by “identities” which include authors, named subjects, and more. But once you whittle down to a “work”, you are linked into WorldCat.org Beta.

WorldCat Beta

In an earlier post I mentioned the OCLC test site called WorldCat Identities. Today while searching Google Scholar, I found myself in the free worldcat.org beta site. If you haven’t searched this free site lately, you should take a look. To compare it with my earlier post, here’s a link to the page for Tolkien’s The Hobbit. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/50894.
The beta search seems to incorporate many of the features I liked in WorldCat Identities.

Nice features include the link to all the different editions of this book, the ability to search my library’s embedded search tools, the ability to create or add to a personal list of topics, the ability to export the citation in a particular bibliographic format, and the ability to add content. Here’s a screenshot.

What does worldcat.org say about local libraries? Here’s an excerpt from their What is Worldcat? page:

“Your library may let you search WorldCat from the online catalog on its Web site. (Again, you may have to log in with a valid library membership.) When you are physically at the library, you can search WorldCat using the FirstSearch reference service. Although the basic identifying information you’ll find on this Web site can fulfill most needs, WorldCat at your library includes extra features such as advanced search,”find similar items”, and links to published reviews and excerpts. “

In addition to features listd above, it seems to me that some of the entries I looked at were lacking some MARC fields. I don’t know if the project is complete or still under test, but I would like to see the subject and author links more extensive. Still, this project is definitely of setting the standard for the future.

Commons 2.0 - Where’s the Writing Room?

The latest edition of EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY (Number 4, 2007) includes an article called Commons 2.0: Library Spaces Designed for Collaborative Learning. The article is valuable because it reinforces for the higher ed community what librarians have been saying for a decade now about space planning for the library.  It talks about human-centered design and the shift towards problem-based learning. The article does a good job of defining the Information Commons of the future, outlining five guiding principles: open, free, comfortable, inspiring, and practical.

What I missed seeing here was the expansion of this concept to include the addition of learning support services such as tutoring that would have transformed the envisioned space into a true Learning Commons as defined in previous posts. Canadian libraries are at the forefront of this trend, which I find very promising. For an example of a Learning Commons 2.0, take a look at this one at McMaster University.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all have a good and well-deserved break.