If you’re like most of us, you’ve been watching the proliferation of data or research data services spread like weeds at institutions big and small and in staggering permutations. To begin with, let’s establish a working definition (or at least MY working definition) of data services. To me, they comprise a wide swath of programming and infrastructure related to all things data: management, storage, curation, discoverability, use, visualization, and access with a dash of impact and a pinch of attribution. And by data I mean anything that is textual, numeric, visual…you get the point. This is a good thing-so many models to choose from! Now your library wants to start a program-this is a bad thing! If you’re also like most of us, you really don’t have the luxury of hiring more people or adding yet another duty under the “Other duties as assigned” category of your job description. But…
Author: Cinthya Ippoliti
Flexing your instructional muscles: using technology to extend your reach beyond the classroom
We’re in the midst of re-thinking our entire Information Literacy curriculum, and I’ve been waxing philosophical on the role technology will play into this new and uncharted land. The new Framework for Information Literacy has thrown the instructional library world into a tizzy. We are all grappling with everything from understanding the threshold concepts themselves to determining how to best teach them. We’ve done this all along of course with the previous Standards for Information Literacy, but there’s something about this new incarnation that seems to perplex and challenge at the same time.
Gimme a B! Gimme an A! Gimme a D! Gimme a G! Gimme an E! Gimme an S! What’s That Spell? Learning!
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently released an entire report on credentialing. The Educause Learning Initiative has published several articles on the subject. Similarly, ACRL held a forum in September to discuss its role in a growing national conversation about badges and credentials. So what are they and how can you begin the conversation at your own institution? Credentials refer to a general body of certifications that are typically awarded outside of traditional degree programs. They include continuing education credits, certificates of achievements, and more recently, digital badges. More specifically, badges are digital tokens that appear as icons or logos on a web page or other online venue. Awarded by institutions, organizations, groups, or even individuals, badges signify accomplishments such as completion of a project, mastery of a skill, or marks of experience. Learners fulfill the issuer-specific criteria to earn the badge by attending classes, passing a quiz or exam, or…
3D Printing Partnerships: Tales Of Collaboration, Prototyping, And Just Plain Panic
*Photo taken from Flickr w/Attribution CC License: http://bit.ly/1UnoxIN Many institutions have seen the rise of makerspaces within their libraries, but it’s still difficult to get a sense of how embedded they truly are within the academic fabric of their campuses and how they contribute to student learning. Libraries have undergone significant changes in the last five years, shifting from repositories to learning spaces, from places to experiences. It is within these new directions that the makerspace movement has risen to the forefront and begun to pave the way for truly transformative thinking and doing. Educause defines a makerspace as “a physical location where people gather to share resources and knowledge, work on projects, network, and build” (ELI 2013). These types of spaces are being embraced by the arts as well as the sciences and are quickly being adopted by the academic community because “much of the value of a…
Creating Campus-wide Technology Partnerships: Mission Impossible?
Libraries have undergone significant changes in the last five years, shifting from repositories to learning spaces, from places to experiences. Much of this is due to our growing relationships with our IT, instructional technology, and research colleagues as the lines between technology and library-related work become continually more blurred. But it’s not always easy to establish these types of partnerships, especially if there haven’t been any connections to build on. So how can you approach outreach to your IT campus departments and individuals? There are typically two types of partnerships that you can initiate: 1. There is a program already established, and you would like the library to be involved where it wasn’t involved before 2. You are proposing something completely new All you have to do is convince the coordinator or director of the project or department that having the library become a part of that initiative is a…