Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Tablet Technology In Support Of Professional Productivity, Barbara Lewis, Drew Smith

Barbara Lewis

In 1987, Apple Computer, as it was then known, produced a five-minute video about potential human-computer interaction, set in a time approximately 25 years in the future (coincidentally, about the time in which these words are being written). The video depicted a university professor interacting with a touch-activated tablet-like device and a voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI) agent, communicating with students and colleagues, reviewing his daily agenda, and preparing a presentation for later delivery. It appears that the hypothetical “Knowledge Navigator” tablet device was imagined as a great aid to professional productivity.

In 2012, our reality involves the existence of touch-activated …

Oral History Curation In An Academic Library, Barbara Lewis, Mary Beth Isaacson, Kimberly Nordon, Alexandra Curran

Barbara Lewis

This four-person roundtable will discuss the different methods and applications that are currently being used by the University of South Florida’s (USF) Oral History Program to curate, present, and promote oral histories. This program, which is based out of the USF Tampa Library, has explored several different delivery models, both traditional and nontraditional. We will examine the digital platforms used by the oral history program, Omeka, LibGuides, and an internally developed media player, and their accessibility and usability for research and teaching. These two platforms provide different structural and organizational models, thus allowing for different levels of curation. In 2009, …

Data-Driven Decision Making: A Holistic Approach To Assessment In Special Collections Repositories, Melanie Griffin, Barbara Lewis, Mark I. Greenberg

Barbara Lewis

Faced with shrinking budgets and reduced staffing, the University of South Florida Libraries Special & Digital Collections Department (SDC) implemented a comprehensive, integrated assessment program to better focus its diminished resources within clear strategic goals. Department faculty sought to answer the following inter-related questions: 1) What are the Department’s staffing needs? 2) What staff skill sets and training are required to meet researchers’ expectations, and what personnel skills and functions are most needed by the Department in the future? 3) Where should the Department target its outreach efforts? 4) How can the Department streamline and prioritize technical services to support …

Making Decisions: Using Electronic Data Collection To Re-Envision Reference Services At The Usf Tampa Libraries, Lily Todorinova, Andy Huse, Barbara Lewis, Matt Torrence

Barbara Lewis

Declining reference statistics, diminishing human resources, and the desire to be more proactive and embedded in academic departments, prompted the University of South Florida Library to create a taskforce for re-envisioning reference services. The taskforce was charged with examining the staffing patterns at the desk and developing recommendations to give librarians greater flexibility and to better respond to the information-seeking needs of users. These recommendations were based on statistics of desk usage, collected with the newly adapted online tool Desk Tracker, and structured interviews with library administrators. The taskforce was interested in how these stakeholders use quantitative data in decision-making.