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Emerging Technologies

March 1, 2013
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The NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition recognizes six new technologies that will have an impact on colleges and universities in the near future. This report is a product of the partnership of NMC (New Media Corporation, “an international community of experts in educational technology”) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). It outlines the results of the NMC Horizon Project, which has been collecting data since 2002.

Emerging technologies were chosen by an Advisory Board comprised of fifty-one members from across the globe. This group selected six emerging technologies, which they then subdivided into three categories by time. The experts see the escalation of massively open online courses (MOOCs) and tablet computing within the next year. They note, “…the competition in the tablet computing market is a significant driver of innovation.” In the 2-3 year time frame, higher education will see an increase in games and gamification and learning analytics. Analytics software is being used in the advising process by some schools. And, 4-5 years from now 3D printing and wearable technology will become much more prevalent. Six key trends were noted: openness, massively open online courses, informal learning experiences, personalizing the learning experience and measuring performance, the changing role of educators, and shifting education paradigms. Six challenges to adopting new technology were also identified, the number one challenge being digital media literacy. How will librarians respond to this challenge?

For more information or to download the report, go to the NMC website.

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from → Academic Libraries, Technology

E-books & Academic Libraries

February 20, 2013
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by Amy Deuink, Tom Reinsfelder, & Christina Steffy
Glowing Book Test 4

image: jasoneppink at flickr

In case you haven’t heard, libraries are changing. Electronic books currently represent one of the most significant changes facing librarians. This change presents both opportunities and challenges. Additionally, e-books raise several important questions for librarians to consider as we build and maintain our collections both for today’s users as well as the researchers of the future.

What do we like about E-books?

As with online journals, e-books can be acquired in large packages allowing access to a greater volume of material at a more affordable price than if purchased individually. E-books also offer:

  • Minimal delays for delivery and processing after library’s initial purchase.
  • Immediate access to an expanded collection of materials, regardless of patron location.
  • No need to wait for ILL.
  • Multiple readers may use the same text concurrently.
  • The ability to read on e-readers (iPad, Android, Kindle Fire). Some even allow unrestricted downloading, saving, and printing.
  • The ability to bookmark pages and make electronic notes within a text.

What don’t we like about E-books?

While e-books have many pros that make them attractive to schools, libraries, and students, there are also many cons both for e-book users and for those institutions that wish to implement widespread e-book adoption.

  • Users still prefer “real” books: Not all users want or even enjoy using e-books; some may prefer “real” books that they can touch, highlight, and page through. Although e-book technology is improving the ability to “page through” books and annotate them, these features are still developing.
  • Technology infrastructure: You need a robust wireless network for everyone to be plugged into it constantly. While you can access e-books without a wireless connection once the books are downloaded, there may be value added features such as searches, linking to web content, etc., that you cannot use without wireless connectivity.
  • Price: E-books are not cheap; sure they may be cheap in comparison to print books, but ultimately you have to buy a reader and may still pay a hefty price for a book that you as the user or you as the library are only licensing rather than purchasing.
  • No book sales: Users and libraries cannot sell used e-books, so they may pay money for a book and have no chance of being able to sell it to anyone.
  • Licensing/DRM restrictions: Not all e-books are available to patrons who are not matriculated or on staff at your school. Also, you may not be able to lend an e-book like you can lend a print book. Finally, e-books provided by library databases may have other restrictions such as the number of users who can view a book at one time.
  • E-reader displays and compatibility: Graphics are not always rendered clearly. Not all e-books display page numbers and those that do may have different page numbers than other e-books and print books. Not all e-books are compatible with different e-readers.

What do patrons want? Online vs. Offline Use

All libraries are missioned to serve the needs of our users. Academic libraries primarily collect literature and scholarly works complimenting the fields of study at their university, while public libraries more often serve the needs of users through popular works for education and entertainment. Given this, one might expect how our populations use e-books would vary—more cover-to-cover reading or skimming of popular titles versus careful and selective study of scholarly works. But is this really the case?

Some users are looking for the convenience of digital loans of coveted titles for download to a personal device, while others harness the power of search and discovery in vast libraries of digital texts. Many public libraries use Overdrive to deliver popular titles, while academic libraries are contracting with services like Ebrary, EBL, EBSCO, Springer, or Project MUSE that concentrate on scholarly works. Each publisher or provider offers different content, features, search interfaces, and access methods—and therein lies the rub. Different rules for use varying from database to database (or even from one title to the next in the same database) and a host of interfaces to untangle are making it difficult for libraries to effectively promote the e-books they do have.

Compelling reasons for figuring this all out are the rapid rises in e-book reading and tablet/e-book reader ownership, as reported in a December 2012 Pew Internet report, “E-Book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines.” According the to the Pew report, e-book reading is quickly on the rise among high school students (16-17 years old) (p. 4) and tablet/e-book reader ownership among all ages rose from 18% to 33% between 2011 and 2012 (p. 2).

Questions to Consider

How can we make e-books easier to use?

How do e-books impact:
 – Users who are not affiliated with your college/university (visitors, public, alumni)?
 – Interlibrary Loan?
 – Long term access.  Do you really own it?
Should academic libraries be providing e-book collections of popular fiction and and other non-academic works topics?
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from → Academic Libraries

Questions of Free Access to Information

February 15, 2013
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On Feb. 11, in a post to the ACRL- TechConnect Blog, Kim Bohyun asked a serious question of academic libraries.  Should we be working actively to promote truly free access to information or should we be content with a status quo that limits access to those who can afford it?

This is also the uncomfortable question posed by open access champion, the late Aaron Swartz. Musing on the suicide of Swartz earlier this year, Bohyun speculates on the passing of the Internet as a model of free access to and free exchange of information and wonders if academic librarians have become “too comfortable” with the encroaching Internet censorship and particularly with the licensing e-journals and other resources, especially since this model contradicts the tradition of free access to physical library resources regardless of the user’s affiliation or lack thereof. Granted, Bohyun’s informal survey found that many libraries do provide at least some access to e-resources to walk-ins; but there is no doubting that others do not and that even some Federal Depository Libraries make it difficult for the public to read the free government information placed in their trust.

Bohyun notes the role of tax-supported public libraries in serving the information needs of the general public and the value of digital library initiatives; but I do not think many would contend that either of these gives our society much to cheer about . As long as access to critical information is limited to “authorized users” by licensing agreements, there will be information “haves” and “have nots.” By virtual of our employment, we, of course, will be comfortably in the former category.

Aaron Swartz was clearly not comfortable with this state of affairs. He advocated and committed civil disobedience in pursuit of open access to information. His suicide at age twenty-six came while awaiting trial for the mass downloading of resources from JSTOR. Some of our colleagues have already resorted to the guerilla tactics advocated by Swartz, and many libraries could do more in terms of expanding guest access to their computers and e-resources. There are problems with both approaches. Civil disobedience raises ethical issues, at least if one chooses to take the ALA Code of Ethics seriously. Expanding guest access seems little more than a palliative. Bohyun asserts that we can—somehow—go beyond these alternatives and provide free access to all library resources while accepting that authors and others in the information chain deserve compensation. This brings us back to the issue of “how,” to which I will add another, “how long.” What are your thoughts?

Post By—>James T. Maccaferri

Image Credit: Burton, Gideon. “Open Access: Dawning of a New Day.” 01 Jan 2009. Flickr.

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from → Academic Libraries, Outreach

New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing

February 8, 2013
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This week, the Chronicle of Education asked its readers a powerful question – “Can a small college library fix what’s wrong with scholarly publishing?”

As the cost of access to and acquisition of information continues to rise, many libraries are beginning to re-imagine their role in scholarly communication. Moving beyond an institutional repository, this week’s article demonstrates that the academic library may have the potential to significantly influence the direction of scholarly publication. Although we may not be there quite yet,”For New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing, Look to the Library,” is a testament not only to the fact that academic libraries are generating creative solutions to the issues in scholarly publication, but also that the world of higher education is beginning to take notice.

Article Information: Howard, Jennifer. “For New Ideas in Scholarly Publishing, Look to the Library.” Chronicle of Higher Education 4 Feb. 2013: http://chronicle.com/article/Hot-Off-the-Library-Press/136973/.

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from → Academic Libraries, Writing/Research

Congratulations to Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library

January 30, 2013
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The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) recently announced the recipient of the 2013 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Awards.  Congratulations to the library staff at Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University for being recognized for what they do!  Falvey Memorial Library was recognized in the university category for their collaborative and team approach to providing services in support of Villanova’s mission.  Other recipients include The Walla Walla Community College (WWCC) Library in the community college category and Olin Library of Rollins Collegein the college category.

To read more about the award and the recipients, visit the ACRL website:

http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/archives/6601

Librarians continuously strive to offer the best for their communities and it is nice to be recognized for the innovative ways in which they achieve this.

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from → Academic Libraries, ACRL
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