Advanced Info – post 1 – Digital Natives, Grown Up Digital – due Sunday January 13th @ 11:59pm
Read Prensky’s “Digital Natives” article and the excerpt from Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital. How does the concept of digital natives effect the services and programming and staffing in the library’s reference department/information services department?
dig·it·al na·tive
noun
noun: digital native; plural noun: digital natives
a person born or brought up during the age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the Internet from an early age.
“the digital tools that are reshaping our economy make more sense to young digital natives than to members of older generations
When you picture a “Digital Native” what do you picture? Maybe it’s a teenage boy sitting in front of a gaming console, yelling aimlessly about the lag in his favorite online game. Or maybe it’s a young woman on the train speaking so loudly on her mobile device that everyone around her are annoyed to no end.
Well, what if I toldyou that a Digital Native is a highly motivated student who is struggling because the technologies used in the classroom are old and outdated, or that their “Digital Immigrant” professor can’t get the software in the classroom to work? Or what if I told you that it’s the young patient at a mental health facility who wants information from the library, but they have a hard time focusing on the typical medical document and there is no digital access to helpful materials? Digital Natives are all around us, and they are us(at least me anyways)
As a future LIT I can tell you what I see when I encounter other Digital Natives. I see an opportunity to educate on internet best practices, which means designing and maintaining up-to-date policies and procedures for the public library world. In the private library area, law firms for example, I see the opportunity for wide spread usage of our digitally licensed products, which we all know are very expensive. In a medical library a digital native patient may request digital information, a video tutorial or an interactive infographic.
What all of this means is that libraries have a responsibility to provide technology forward, and innovative programming to be able to interact with the current generation of digital natives and the generations to come. In order to meet that demand, libraries need to continue transforming and moving from the old text versions of learning/teaching and move in a steady and consistent motion into the future. A lot of what this means is going back to the drawing board, looking at our software’s, database’s, and most importantly or policies, procedures, and views on what information services look like, and how can we make sure we are keeping things approachable for the Digital Immigrant.
Advanced Info – #2 – Modes and Models of Service Delivery – Assigned in class on Tuesday January 15th, Due in-class on Tuesday January 15th or by 4:10pm Tuesday January 22nd
Part A: Model of Service Delivery. Read or view the Delivery Models of Reference Services Activity document’s web-links posted in DC Connect, which describe a service desk model at a specific academic library. Identify the pros and cons of various models.
On a piece of paper, draw your own ideal service desk model for the UOIT/DC Campus Library – one that has as many pros and as few cons as possible. CITE the criteria you used when designing the ideal service desk model. You may cite, “from class discussion” or “from the webpage/article , as listed on the Delivery Models of Reference Services Activity document posted in DC Connect”. You do NOT need to include an APA or MLA formatted citation.
Part B: VR transcript. If you missed class, please open the Chatzy VR practice activity document posted in DC Connect. Follow the instructions on the document. Ask a friend to take the role of client. Ask your friend to select any question on the document. Select the appropriate chat room. Conduct a virtual reference interview. Be sure to be in a location where you cannot see or hear your friend so you have an authentic experience of the challenges of delivering virtual reference. Copy the transcript from your interview. Paste it into a MS Word document. Submit the document for grading.
I believe that the Organizational Structure of my placement is a Funtional(simple) structure.
Ontario Shores is a small health research library. There are very limited positions, the Librarian works by herself with the assistance of some volunteers. The volunteers are not qualified to do much more than basic shelving and watching over patrons.
All tech services and public services tasks fall into the lap of the Librarian. The Librarian only answers to one higher level regularly and that is the Director. I am unsure of the chain of command above the Director, but there has to be a library board. That could be maybe CHLA or some sort of hybrid with the hospital. I am not sure.
Advanced Info – #3a – Open Access – due Sunday 20 January @ 11:59pm
Watch the video:
In your own words, define and describe Open Access. How does it impact the services at an academic library? Identify both points of view about an issue mentioned in the video. Which point of view reflects your opinion on the issue? Why?
Open Access
In your own words,
Define: Open Access is the timely and affordable access to online research materials which lends its availability with full re-use privileges for scientific advancement. It is the removal of barriers that slow down the progress of knowledge distribution.
Describe: Open Access can be described as world changing. A post Open Access world would look like medical advancements, scientific break throughs, environmental impact studies with better understanding of topics like global warming, cancer, and space travel.
How does it impact the services at an academic library?
Open Access has an impact on academic libraries in the following ways:
- Substantially increases the amount of journal literature available for teaching materials
- Substantially increases the amount of journal literature available to students who are conducting research
- Creates opportunity for professors and students to collaborate and improve materials together as key stone projects or final thesis papers, etc.…
- Costs are huge for all libraries and Open Access would save an academic library thousand upon thousands of dollars of their budget. This leaves more budgeting for reference services, technology, and more programming/services.
Identify both points of view about an issue mentioned in the video.
$$$Costs$$$
| Academic Library | Publishing Company |
| · The library point of view is that increases in prices of journals are braking the bank.
· Professors and students are making more and more demands for the most recent updates. · Profs. And students are wanting big quantities of materials, bigger selections, and faster return times. · In the world of paper journals, the demand for largely accessible and manipulable online journals needs to be answered. · Universities are in essence buying back the research that is being founded by their own professors and students by having to purchase their own studies from the publishing companies. |
· The system has been working for years, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
· Let’s instead blame students for being too needy and requiring instant gratification · If we drive up prices and don’t give them access anywhere else, they will have no choice but to pay. · There is a worry that paper journals could become obsolete meaning publishing companies in that industry will suffer… |
Which point of view reflects your opinion on the issue?
As a future LIT I believe in fair access to materials. Fair being that if you’re going to be the one using it to make medical, legal, economic break throughs then the information should be available to do so.
Why?
I don’t believe in monopolizing tax payer monies, but I especially don’t believe in the rights of a publishing company to take information, manipulate the formats and graphics, and then charge the content creator to access and view the journal. Students already pay A LOT of money, and the libraries spend a ton of money and all in the name of access to materials to create new materials that will in turn be charged once again to the library……..
The second part of this post – 3b – will be assigned next week.
Discovery Layer Activity
You work on the information services team at an academic or research library. Your library is considering the possibility of buying a discovery layer, which is a tool that allows users to search both the catalogue and databases at the same time. You’ve been asked to test two discovery layers being used at other institutions and provide feedback.
Explore and compare two discovery layers:
- Queen’s University → http://library.queensu.ca/
- Wilfrid Laurier University (“Primo Search”) → http://library.wlu.ca/
Try some test searches:
- How easy is it to use these search interfaces?
I used both search interfaces with ease, both are more than capable of being used by an inexperienced student, and also by a professional. The interfaces were both attractive, but I feel that Primo has more of a classic look, where Summons is a little more fluid.
- Which features do you like the best?
My favorite feature of the Primo interface was the “browse search” option. The browse search option is a simple search bar that will return results on a author, title, subject, or call number. It returns results with sub division/ narrower subject headings.
Evaluate the Options:
- Use the criteria in the chart to evaluate and compare the two discovery layers.
| Criteria | Queen’s/Summon | Wilfrid Laurier/Primo |
| Ease of use |
Easy |
Easy |
| Accessibility | Easy | Very easy |
| Features | Search resulted in more then 4 different literature formats.
Doesn’t have this awesome feature ——————–> Visually attractive for students because of it’s use of colour and easier “readability” and seems fluid. |
Search resulted in 3 different types of literature formats.
Has a great “browse search” option that returns results subdivided by narrower subject analysis(I loved this). visually attractive for professionals, but maybe not the best option for students, it’s primitive and boxy. |
Expand on the evaluations entered in the chart. Be specific when applying the criteria and making comparisons between the two products.
I found Primo to be superior when it came to searching because it gave more options for literature types, and has an added feature for browsing your search term by narrow subdivisions. I find the Primo interface to be more “professional”. The Summons would be great for students who aren’t used to using a database for research, or for a public library for it’s easy usability and colour schemes.
- Will you recommend the purchase of a discovery layer for your library? Why or why not?
I would recommend that you should look at more than two interfaces. If I had looked at quite a few and I didn’t find anything that matched or was better than Primo, then Primo would be my decision…
Part one:
What is the Public Lending Right Program?
The Public Lending Rights Program is a program that gives the rights to authors to receive payment for free public use of their works in libraries.
Why was it established?
This program was established to help support authors whose works are circulated in public libraries to receive some sort of compensations, despite having already received royalties on the original purchase of the piece of work.
Post your answers on your website.
Read: Toronto Public Library sadly embraces ‘culture of free‘ (By: Noah Richler Published on Sat Dec 20 2014).
What is TPL’s policy now?
TPL current policy on donations is that they do not add donations to the stacks, that they must meet the requirements posted on the TPL website. After an item has been accepted by TPL for sale, it’s then sold in the Book Ends books store.
What are the issues presented by Richler?
- His first issue in that he doesn’t understand the importance of “culture of free”, and refers to it in a distasteful manner.
- Individuals and companies used to paying nothing for artists’ work now do so without compunction
- Authors aren’t getting royalties from the library on donated/backdoor purchased materials.
- The materials being collected were top titles, by top authors and are high demand books.
What do YOU think?
- I think the “culture of free” is important to this generation, especially with my personal interest in Little Free Libraries. Getting things for free, or finding ways to get a discount price to me, isn’t about ripping off a creator, it’s about doing what you can with what little you have.
- As true as it is that the authors aren’t getting royalties for these items, it’s also true that they never get royalties whenever an item passes from hand to hand. BUT, the fact that the library WAS paying $5 per item, meant that they weren’t getting it for free, and maybe something should have been going to the author (on top of the Public Lending Rights Program).
Why?
- Because ultimately, the library will always need materials, and awful governments will always cut funding. Libraries will find ways around budget cuts to find and acquire resources for their patrons.
Part two: Go to Flikr (or other source). Find an image with a CC BY 2.0 licence/CC BY 4.0 licence. Create a citation for the image using the citation format used in class this week. Post the image and your citation on your website.
Image by State Farm. CC by 2.0
Advanced Info – post 5 – programming with Blockly, Scratch and Twine activity – due Sunday March 24th @ 11:59pm (Note that we will do the Twine activity in class the week that we explore Arts and Humanities.)
-Beat Sue’s score at Blockly.
-Create a game like Pong using the instructions on the Scratch site. You might need an account to save your game and copy and paste the code to your website.
-Use the instructions provided or others that you find to share a Twine Story with at least two decisions and two pictures. Can you figure out how to insert a Creative Commons picture using the code that’s posted in Flikr?
Here’s my story: Once Upon A Time
ANSWER
Here’s my story on Twine: Jessica’s Story
Advanced Info – post 6a/b/c – data and statistics – due Sunday 31 March @ 11:59pm
6a: Open table from the Families and Households survey into Excel. Manipulate the data. Download it into Excel. Make sure your information is presented in an informative, CLEAR manner. Post an image of the Excel table on your WordPress website on the Advanced Info page.
Topic :Income and Housing
The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) provides information on the Canadian population for various levels of geography and for numerous common topics (e.g., demography, marital status, family and language) including characteristics associated to these topics.
Release date: September 11, 2013
6b: Upload the baby names <gender> data set into Google Fusion tables and filter it by your name. Insert a snip of the table on your website.
6c: Upload the parks data set into Google Fusion tables. Display two variables summarized as a bar graph. Insert a snip of the table on your website.
Advanced Info – post 7 – maps – due Sunday 7 April @ 11:59pm
In-class practise activity: embed the code for a Google map:
ANSWER:
https://tourbuilder.withgoogle.com/tour/ahJzfmd3ZWItdG91cmJ1aWxkZXJyEQsSBFRvdXIYgICgk6ncjwgM
Activities 1, 2 and 3 (detailed, specific instructions postedin DC Connect): Create a map using data from a KML file. Create a map using data you input to an Excel file. Create a tour.
Meet Me In The Stacks 