Introduction When we were approached about a presenting at the OALT conference, we our session was titled “technology tour bus”. BUT, as we worked and started to plan, the emerging technologies that we’ve been using in our workplace, covered three themes: Create Collaborate Communicate During the next hour we are going to take you on a tour of some of the tools that we use to create, communicate and collaborate with staff, students, faculty. We’ll tell you about some of the tools we have used in the past, how we have replaced those tools with new technologies and some of the challenges we encountered along the way. Now I’m going to hand it over to Christine who’s going to start with an overview of the Mohawk campus libraries.
To start, we’d like to give you a brief overview of Mohawk College and the four campus libraries. 107 full-time programs19 apprenticeship programs,Number of Part-time Courses over 1,000 Cooperative Education 32 programsDistance education enrolment has increased 28% in the past 2 years.
WHY?Initially…. To assist students with using our resources: library website, databases, citations tools, our new evergreen catalogue, and a room booking system. In the summer of 2009, just when we thought things would slow down with the students gone…We initiated several projects using emerging technologies to create online content.
The tutorials covered topics such as:DatabasesSearching the catalogueFormatting bibliographiesBooking study roomsSince then, our list of tutorials has grown
Great tool for chat reference. Why?How?Easy to create quick videos, save to Screencast.com, and paste the URL into the chat box or email to a student.
If you don’t want to install software, there are two browser-basedscreencast tools that you might want to try are ScreenToaster and screenr.ScreenToasterCan slow down and accelerate sectionsScreenr, you can create screencasts for your followers as easily as you tweet. We tried this but the screencasts can only be saved to Twitter. Might be useful as a way to promote your twitter page.
as library professionals we don’t realize how overwhelming the library can be for patrons who are not familiar with the resources and services we offer. Well thought out subject guides can be very useful tools for helping patrons successfully navigate through your library’s resources.Subject guides have been around since the 70s but have changed names and formats over the years. Pathfinders, subject guides, We looked at some of the new technologies available to easily create and edit subject guides and decided on LibGuides.
1. created through a web interface and require no html, java script, or other code knowledge to create.2. hosted server-side (meaning there is no server or upkeep or installation on our end). They back up the pages regularly3. You can 'brand' the pages fairly effectively, making them look like they belong to your library homepage.4. use statistics for individual pages (are they being used?)5. link-checker, which will check and find all broken links for you.6. URL replacer – so if a database URL changes, it will find and replace the URL in all your libguides.7. various 'levels' of editors - which means that you can allow faculty to help contribute to their subject page or course guide.8. Widgets google scholar, polls, suggest a new resource, rss feeds, video, meebo, etc.Four levels of guides: - Program Level: Overview of resources specific to the discipline or subject area.- Course Level: Brief overview and specific to the course.- Assignment/Task Level: Specific to assignment. - Library and Information Resources Level: Cite Your Sources, Career Resources, etc.
We are also using new technologies we are using is streaming video technologies? Why?Students- Math videos – produced by the math learning centrecould only take a max of 3 math videos out at a time, and for only 3 daysFaculty
We move the file to a microsoft media server: MMS:
paid about $11,500 US dollars in 2008. s a series of about 17 modules - and it's a lifetime license- so a onetime fee. There is another set of Mosby's dvd's (nursing) that we pay $2000 US per year.Licensing- bit of a gray area.
Technologies that help us communicate with students and internally. VAL- Seneca, George Brown, Algonquin, St. Clair and Mohawk
Requirements for new software:Works well on all computers without using a lot of system resources, and disrupting workflow (runs in background)Intuitive to useAllows for video/audio and text chatsReferenceAllows transferring between callsSimultaneous operatorsCost-effectiveEasy to market to students (widget & branding)Could be integrated into college LMS
A queue is online to receive chats from patrons if at least one user assigned to the queue is available. Users can be assigned to queues based on their department or area of expertise. You can create as many users and queues as you wish. Users can be assigned to more than one queue.
DEMO NOW!
Another social networking tool that we are looking at is Skype.
Emerging technologies, Web 2.0, Learning 3.0 or social networking, collaborative tools….. the number of new digital tools available is mind-boggling. These are just a few of the tools that we use in our Library. At the reception last night, in just a few conversations, I had already heard of a few more tools that I’d like to try. Conferences are a great place to learn how other libraries are using emerging technologies. At the Library@Mohawk our use of emerging technologies leads to student success. As Library technicians, knowledge of these technologies help you to build partnerships in your workplace, or strengthen your skills for a new career path.