Author: Karen Doster-Greenleaf

General information

Interview with Ken Varnum, Editor of “New Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know”

| Karen Doster-Greenleaf
Ken Varnum as Editor book covers

For over the past two decades Ken Varnum has become a leading expert in library technology, focusing his research on discovery systems and library analytics.  He has lent this expertise once again as editor to two recently released titles from ALA publishers, the new LITA Guide New Top Technologies Every Librarian Needs to Know and Beyond Reality: Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality in the Library. He is the Senior Program Manager at the University of Michigan and the editor of Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL). In our interview he provides his insights on the landscape of library technology, future challenges, and what he hopes his reader’s take away from his books.  What technology/technologies will have the largest impact on libraries in the upcoming decade? I think there are several intersecting trends that will continue to have an impact in the coming decade. The first is consolidation of metadata into increasingly…

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Instruction and online learning

Tutorial Magic

| Karen Doster-Greenleaf|1 Comment

Tutorial Magic: Using Springshare’s LibWizard to create an online performance based assessment tool In my current role as Student Success Librarian I am constantly on the lookout for new ways that provide evidence of our instruction efforts. The challenge in this is the need to produce and manage data that highlights students’ understanding and application of the information literacy concepts we are teaching. Given the current shift in assessment methods in library instruction performance based assessments are our best bet. Performance based assessments, “reinforce the concept that what students learn in class should be usable outside the classroom,” and provide students the opportunity to “make sense” of the how the research process and library resources work together (Oakleaf 2008). The trick is identifying useful ways to turn these assessments into trackable data. That is where online tutorials, specifically Springshare’s LibWizard platform have been extremely beneficial. LibWizard LibWizard  is a “feedback…

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