As more and more institutions hire Instructional Technology Librarians, there are different descriptions, roles, and duties that these librarians fill. For a long time, instructional technology resided within an Information Technology Services department, or even through a Faculty Development program. But how does the role of instructional technologist and librarian overlap? How have librarians adopted the role of instructional technologist (making them instructional technology librarians), and how will this evolve as more and more librarians, faculty, students, and staff incorporate technology into their teaching and learning? As an Instructional Technology and Information Literacy Librarian, the lines between what is solely instructional technology and information literacy no longer exists, and are two critical components of job descriptions-but how do librarians define where their roles end and campus or library IT takes over? This session will explore these questions and look to discuss some of the challenges associated with walking the line between technologist and librarian.
Processing, providing access, and preserving digital objects is an expensive and complicated task, especially when limited budgets and staff time is being pulled in varying directions. The Northern State University Beulah Williams Library has developed and maintained a digital collection of archival objects with the goal of providing electronic access to a wealth of institutional, and local histories that may not otherwise be accessible to the general public. Through grants, online training, open source, or free software; the library has acquired the necessary software, hardware, technical expertise, and workflows to ensure these collections will be accessible for current and future patrons.
Reference and Instruction Librarian, Northern State University
Lynn Klundt is a reference and instruction librarian who manages the electronic resources and provides reference services and information literacy instruction for Williams Library. She is the library's liaison to the School of Education and coordinator for the library's creation... Read More →
It has been well documented that web users do not read the majority of text on a page, preferring to scan the contents. Visuals can aid users substantially--or they can be confusing or ignored outright. And yet, working with the visual presentation of guide content often requires a knowledge of CSS and some ability with design principles. Beyond this, with guide contents often contributed by an assortment of people, libraries can feel forced to choose between an ad hoc approach or an enforced boilerplate design. In this presentation, we will discuss an approach to LibGuides 2 guide content that is guided by usability thinking and testing; built on recognizable branding; uses built-in, ready-made CSS classes that all guide creators with basic HTML knowledge can use; and provides uniformity that can be applied creatively by each individual guide creator. This session seeks to blend discussion of usable design with practical, easy-to-implement suggestions. Participants in the session will have opportunity to discuss their own problems and solutions working with content in LibGuides 2.
Renee Ponzio, from L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin will discuss how to get started on the digitization process. Guidance will be given on finding community partners, selecting items to digitize, adding metadata, and choosing a vendor for access and hosting. Renee will highlight problems encountered along the way in their digitization process, and what the library has planned for putting their digitized collections to use. Examples of what has been digitized will be shared.
Do you find it difficult to spend sufficient time with patrons and their technology questions? L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has adopted a program called “Tech Tuesdays” that allows staff to spend more time with patron’s technology questions. We offer informal walk-in hours to answer patron’s questions about their personal devices, such as e-readers, tablets, laptops and smartphones. Topics include how to load e-books, apps and music onto devices and basic computer and internet search skills. We don’t claim to have all the answers, but we offer the time and resources to work with patrons to solve their technology issues. This lightning session will address branding, marketing, promotion of the program and service models seen at other public libraries such as workshops, appointments and working with partners to provide technology instruction outside of the library. We will also share our challenges, successes and the immediate response we've received from our patrons.
How do we create the library of the future? Throughout my library career I've attempted to make the library of the future a reality. Starting with Holorith cards to Dialog and BRS AfterDark, to COMCats and Online catalogs, to CD-ROM database networks, to Gopher, InfoTrac 2000, and the Web; from paper to media to bits; from preservation to digital curation; from owning and storing to licensing and accessing to creating and collaborating, I learned that we're always creating the library of the future, that it's always just beyond our reach. While everything is new, much remains and some returns.
