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LITA Guides: Call for Proposals

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LITA is looking to expand its popular LITA Guide series. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers would like to offer a $250 gift card for the best LITA book proposal.  Proposals must be submitted by DECEMBER 15th, 2017. Topics for consideration include: Tools for big data Developing in-house technology expertise Budgeting for technology Writing a technology plan K-12 technology Applications of agile development for libraries Grant writing for library technology Security for library systems Questions or comments can be sent to Marta Deyrup, LITA Acquisitions Editor. Proposals can be submitted to the Acquisitions editor using this link.

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Developing An OER Platform: Tips And Lessons Learned

Most campuses are knee-deep in OER efforts, whether this means managing stipend programs, passing OER policies or simply advocating for faculty awareness. OSU is no different, and we were lucky to be able to start our pilot OER program thanks to a generous donor. To date, we have 7 courses represented as part of our program and they are each in different stages of completion. More information about the program itself is available here: http://info.library.okstate.edu/wiseinitiative. We were surprised to learn that most of the faculty were interested in writing a text from scratch, which meant that we would have to develop a way for us to take their manuscripts written in Word and publish them. While this may sound simple, we suddenly found ourselves acting as copyeditors, “typesetters”, and publishers in one fell swoop. We had to very quickly develop workflows and determine how we would host and present each…

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Technology Roadmapping: A Tool for Planning

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As I look towards the end of the semester, I can’t help but think about what’s ahead. It’s time for us to dust off our strategic plan and think about activities for Fall even as the echoes of unfinished projects and initiatives that seemed like a good idea a few months ago still linger. We’ve recently been on a technology shopping spree where we’ve steadily been adding new toys and gadgets to our ever increasing stash of Go Pro’s, 3D printers, HTC Vive, and a myriad of chargers, microphones, and accessories. We’ve offered both internal and external training, and most of our equipment is well used thanks to our outreach efforts. But there is still the sense that we don’t have a great plan for how to deploy these tools and we deal with requests for assistance on an ad hoc basis at best. In reading about strategic planning for…

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LITA Forum Assessment Report

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Re-envisioning LITA Forum In 2016, the Library and Information Technology Association charged a Forum Assessment & Alternatives Task Force with assessing the impact of LITA Forum; evaluating its position within the library technology conference landscape; and recommending next steps. The goal of this work is to ensure that the time and resources spent on Forum are highly beneficial to both the membership and the division. Timeline Over the course of 2016, the Forum Assessment Task Force explored the impact and perceptions of the LITA Forum among LITA members and library technologists in general. The Task Force combined existing data already gathered from surveys, as well as conducted its own survey, a matrix mapping exercise, and a series of focus groups, to understand how the LITA Forum is perceived, identify strengths and weaknesses, and make recommendations for the Forum’s continued success. Summary of Findings Generally, more than 40% of LITA members…

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There’s A (Digital) Outcome For That!

The more I work with faculty and students on integrating new technologies such as 3D printing and virtual reality into the curriculum, the more I think about ways we can measure learning for non-Information Literacy related competencies. How do we know that students know how to use a 3D printer successfully? How can we measure the learning that occurred when they designed a file for upload into a visualization software package? While the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) has taken the lead on delineating national standards for Information Literacy, and more recently updated them to the Framework for Information Literacy, there isn’t quite as much information available about designing and assessing assignments that are less traditional than the ubiquitous 3-5 page research paper. I’m not sure that we will find one set of competencies to rule them all, simply because there are so many dimensions to these areas….

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Are You For Real? Exploring Virtual Reality Within The Academic Setting

Virtual reality is all the rage these days, with options ranging from complete virtual worlds real or imagined, to new programs that allow users to conduct surgery on digital patients. According to Educause, VR “uses visual, auditory, and sometimes other sensory inputs to create an immersive, computer-generated environment. VR headsets fully cover users’ eyes and often ears, immersing the user in the digital experience” (Please see Educause article #1 below). It’s one thing to think about the technology itself, which mostly comprises of a gaming quality computer equipped with an operating system of Windows 7 or higher, a minimum of 32 gigabytes of memory, a 5 or 7-core processor, and a high-end graphics card such as Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 as well as an accompanying set of peripherals which offer options from the very cheap and low-tech such as Google Cardboard, to some higher-end headsets such as HTC Vive: Google…

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Demonstrating Value…Visually!

Recent postings from ACRL indicate that the library world is paying more attention than ever to demonstrating the impact we have on student learning, faculty productivity, serving our communities, and the overall missions of our institutions. Megan Oakleaf has written extensively on this issue, and her work revolves around the way we can try to make connections between assessment efforts and student learning, among other things. Blame shrinking budgets, clueless campus administrators, or just a lack of sharing the great work we do, but we are all faced with the reality of validating our role on our respective campuses in one way or another. I don’t want to get into the merits of such an argument, but rather to offer a possible solution to this issue-one of many options, to be sure. Setting annual reports aside, which are at best long-winded and most likely end up in a forgotten file-folder,…

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LITA Forum Assessment Task Force Survey

Dear Colleagues, The LITA Forum Assessment Task Force wants your opinions about the impact of LITA Forum and how it fits within the library technology conference landscape. We invite everyone who works in the overlapping space between libraries and technology, whether or not you belong to LITA or have attended the LITA Forum recently (or at all), to take a short survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/litaforumassess We anticipate this survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. Participation is anonymous unless you provide your email address for potential follow-up questions. The survey closes on Friday, May 27th, 2016, so don’t delay! We will summarize what we learn from this survey on the LITA Blog after July 1st. If you have any questions or are having problems completing the survey, please feel free to contact: Jenny Taylor (emanuelj@uic.edu) or Ken Varnum (varnum@umich.edu). We thank you in advance for taking the time to provide us…

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Design Thinking: One Process, Unlimited Applications

I’ve taught and written quite a bit about a favorite methodology of mine called design thinking. It applies to virtually any service design context, and it even mirrors the new Framework for Information Literacy beautifully! At OSU, we’ve used it from everything to helping us re-design our instruction program to helping us work through a recent data needs assessment project. I’ll talk a little more about how you could use design thinking, but for those of you who might not be familiar with this process, here are the basics. Design thinking is a creative process focused on the generation of solutions stemming from end user needs and wants. This process has several stages: define, ideate, prototype, and learn. Design thinking is championed by IDEO CEO Tim Brown and is an integral part of the curriculum at the Stanford D School.

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Look who’s talking: Conducting a needs assessment project to inform your service design

If you can’t tell, I’m on a research data services kick of late, mostly because we’re in the throes of trying to define our service model and move some of our initiatives forward all while building new partnerships. What I didn’t mention in my previous post is all the lead-up work we’re doing to lay the groundwork for those awesome services I discussed. And there is quite a bit to do in that regard, so I thought it would be helpful to provide some tips on what you can do to set the stage for a successful launch of these types of services. Here goes! If you have a specific population/audience in mind for your services, getting feedback from them is essential. This can take many forms, although we tend to rely on the tried and true (and often dreaded survey). Which is great if you want to collect a…