I like to take on a lot of projects. I love seeing projects come to fruition, and I want to provide the best possible services for my campus community. I think the work we do as librarians is important work. As I’ve taken on more responsibilities in my current job though I’ve learned I can’t do everything. I have had to reevaluate the number of things I can accomplish and projects I can support. Libraries come in all different shapes and sizes. I happen to work at a small library. We are a small staff—3 professional librarians including the director, 2 full-time staff, 1 part-time staff member, and around 10 student workers. I think we do amazing things at my place of employment, but I know we can’t do everything. I would love to be able to do some of the projects I see staff at larger universities working on,…
Author: Lauren Hays
If You Build It They Might Not Come
I’ve felt lately that I am trying to row upstream when getting faculty and students to use our research guides. They have great content, we discuss them in instruction sessions, and we prominently feature them on our webpage. In spite of this though they are not used nearly as much as I think they should be. This summer, I spent time brainstorming ways to market the guides to increase usage and it hit me that maybe I’m going about the process all wrong. I’m trying to promote a resource to students that is outside the typical resources they use. Our students use the university’s learning management system, Moodle, extensively. It is the way they access courses and communicate with their professors and fellow classmates. We have integrated links in Moodle directly to the library, but based on our Google Analytics students go directly from the library homepage to the databases….
Letting Theory Influence Practice
This spring, I taught a technology course for pre-service teachers. In addition to my MLS, I have a master’s degree in educational technology, a graduated certificate in online teaching and learning, and an undergraduate degree in education. My own schooling had taught me the importance of making pedagogically sound decisions and never using technology for only the sake of using technology. I quickly learned though that making those pedagogically sound decisions when looking into the eyes of students was a bit more challenging than I had originally thought. As I reflected on my teaching after every class, I asked myself many questions including: How do we learn? How can I incorporate technology in a way that is beneficial for my students? How can I use technology in a seamless manner where the learning is not interrupted by inclusion of technology? Once the spring semester ended and I was able to…
Amazon Echo Update
I wrote about Amazon Echo a few months back. At the time, I did not have it, but was looking forward to using it. Now, that I have had Echo for a while I have a better idea of its strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t pick up every word I say, but its voice recognition is much better than I anticipated. The app works nicely on my phone and iPad and I found it easy to link Pandora, my music, and to indicate what news channels I want to hear from. I enjoy getting the weather report, listening to a flash news briefing, adding items to my shopping list, listening to music, and being informed of the best route to work to avoid traffic. My favorite feature is that it is hands-free. I’m constantly running around my house juggling a lot of things. Often I need an answer to a…
A Second Collaborative Technology
In September, I wrote a post about new collaborative technology from Crestron. We installed AirMedia in our library, and we are now looking at AirTame as a possible next generation version of collaborative technology. It works on all mobile devices. AirMedia does this too, but the tablet features have been less than ideal. Airtame was able to raise more money than expected and is currently working to scale its production. My university is also considering how collaborative technologies can be used in the classroom. This type of technology will allow for enhanced group work, enhanced presentations, and the instructor being able to move around the classroom to work with different students instead of being tied to the front of the classroom. As technology continues to move toward mobile and wearable, the ability to show a group what is on a small screen will become more important in both education and…
Desk Set – A Critical Response
A Provocative Documentary At the LITA Blog, we know you look to us as a source for what’s going on in technology and librarianship. When we discovered Desk Set, a recent documentary that takes the viewer through the process of one library’s struggle to integrate a new technology, we knew you would want to know our responses. Never fear: the LITA bloggers are here with the kind of hard-hitting commentary you’ve come to expect from us. Not a Bunny Watson Lauren H. Office romance, machines, corporate mergers, and job security, what tiresome topics for a documentary. Desk Set should represent the good work librarians do every day, but instead the writers and directors choose to represent a view of librarianship that no longer exists in the modern world. Librarians are smart, intelligent workers who deserve respect and for a documentary to show them conducting intellectual work. Furthermore, why are the…
Plan Before You Code a Website
When working on a new website it is so easy to want to jump right in and start coding, or at least start storyboarding. I have been working on a new website with the marketing department at my university, and before we could start any work they asked me to first define my audience. Once I clearly articulated who I was trying to reach I was asked to provide information for specific pages. As a team we decided to include the following pages: Landing Page Supplemental Pages About Resources Events Contact us Event Slider Calendar Then, I was asked to identify the sub-groups of my broadly defined audience that each page should target. We only started writing once each page had a specified population. The words used for each page needed to align with both the broad audience and the targeted sub-group. The process of planning a website before creating…
The Internet of Things
Intel announced in January that they are developing a new chip called Curie that will be the size of a button and it is bound to push The Internet of Things (IoT) forward quickly. The IoT is a concept where everyday items (refrigerators, clothes, cars, kitchen devices, etc.) will be connected to the internet. The first time I heard of IoT was in the 2014 Horizon Report for K-12. Yes, I’m a little slow sometimes… There is also a new book out that was shared with me by one of the fellow LITA Bloggers, Erik Sandall, by David Rose titled Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things. If you want an interesting read on this topic I recommend checking it out (a little library humor). When I first heard of IoT, I thought it was really interesting, but wasn’t sure how quickly it would fully arrive….
Amazon Echo
Have you read about Amazon Echo? It is a new consumer product from Amazon that users can ask it questions and receive answers, tell it to play music, request it to add items to your shopping/to do list, etc. I first saw a video about it in October and quickly signed up to receive an invitation to purchase the product. I received my invitation this month and Echo should arrive at my house in May. I’m pretty excited about it for a few reasons. First, Amazon is letting people develop for it. I’m already brainstorming ways the product can be used in both my home and office. Second, I can’t wait to be able to talk to a device without having to push a button. The reviews for the voice recognition aren’t perfect, but they seem really good for a first launch. Finally, I’m also really interested in it as…
Essential Tools for the Essentialist Life
At this time of year, I’m always feeling rushed and a bit worn down. I recently read the book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. While some of the essentialist lifestyle seems a bit impossible in this day and age I was challenged to think about the essentialsin my life. I love technology (I blog for LITA!), but that doesn’t mean I want to be or should be using technology all the time. It is amazing how technology use can creep into all areas of my life, causing me to work weird hours, look at my Twitter account instead of talking to the people I am with, etc. I work hard to create a buffer in my life to allow time for sleep, leisure, and to minimize stress. To create this buffer, I have discovered that there are tools to assist me in both my professional and…