Education Commons^™

Digital Repository Concierge @ Your Service, Anne Marie Casey, Chip Wolfe, Debra Rodensky, Cassandra R. Konz, Jesper M. Jensen

Publications

Libraries often develop and implement new services for the public. Sometimes they succeed; other times they fail. Expecting community members to understand the benefits of a great new idea on their own may not always work. But, taking a concierge approach to the implementation and maintenance of an innovative service may make all the difference to its success. Using a case study from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) library as a backdrop, this presentation will highlight the effectiveness of taking a concierge approach to implementing a new service in any type of library. In 2013, ERAU launched Scholarly Commons to …

Collaboration Between Library, Faculty, And Instructional Design To Increase All Open Educational Resources For Curriculum Development And Delivery, Kelly Whealan-George, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

Students at universities spend an average of $1,250 yearly on textbooks and course materials. Can a collaboration between the Library and the Instructional Design Department create value for student populations by incorporating OER into the course development process? This is a case study of one University with a large online and distributed network with controls over the course design, timeline and curriculum delivered by the faculty. This University’s team tested whether the entire course could be designed in a scalable format using OERs collaborating with a librarian to organize the resources so students will have ready access to OER every …

Piecing Together Summon Over Alma Documentation, James M. Day

Publications

Ex Libris provides some useful documentation for “Alma-Summon Integration” but it is not complete. Most Alma documentation and online help pages assume you are using Primo. Sometimes the Alma configurations for Primo apply to Summon, but mostly they do not. The ELUNA Summon Product Working Group members using Summon over Alma started a project to identify existing documentation, consolidate it, and create supplemental documentation where necessary. We hope this will help Ex Libris provide better support for Summon over Alma.

Measuring Person–Job Fit And Career Paths Of Distance Learning Librarians, Jennifer J. Rundels, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

While person–job fit has been used to determine satisfaction in many professions, no research has been done among distance learning librarians. This study investigates person–job fit among librarians with primary distance learning responsibility compared to librarians with some distance learning responsibility and examines whether a common career path exists among the two groups. Responses indicate that librarians who work primarily in distance learning perceive a slightly better fit with their positions and the work itself while those with some distance learning responsibility experience a slightly better fit within their library organizations. Career advancement is a common motivator for both groups.

Code For Every Librarian: Css - Html - Javascript, James Day, Cheryl Wolfe

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Code For Every Librarian: CSS - HTML - JAVASCRIPT

Strategic Priorities: A Roadmap Through Change For Library Leaders, Anne M. Casey

Publications

Twenty-first century academic libraries need to adapt on a regular basis because external forces such as increased pressures from the institution and accreditation organizations, emerging technologies, or budget reductions create new conditions. In a twenty-year period ending in 2008, academic library spending shifted substantially from physical to electronic resources and from staff and student salary lines to professionals, signaling profound changes in the way libraries do business. “Then just as academic … libraries were settling into these new behaviors, the worst recession in seventy-five years occurred, forcing many … to concern themselves with survival and making difficult decisions based on …

The Triple Bottom Line: Portable Applications And Best Practices For Sustainability In Academic Libraries, Anne M. Casey, Jon E. Cawthorne, Kathleen Delong, Irene M.H. Herold, Adriene Lim

Staff Works - Hunt Library

Triple Bottom Line Accounting (TBLA) refers to a method of measuring the economic, environmental, and community service impacts of an organization rather than the traditional practice of measuring just the financial bottom line. This chapter explores TBLA from a historical point-of-view; offers examples in higher education and discusses the implications for academic libraries. It concludes with ideas for the implementation of TBLA in libraries.

Onboard From The Beginning: A Successful Library Partnership With A Distance Learning Phd Program, Anne Marie Casey

Staff Works - Hunt Library

This presentation described the development of a distance education PhD program that included a librarian in the planning from the start. Beginning its fifth year, the PhD in Aviation Science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) considers the library an integral part of its success. The presentation covered funding, ongoing library participation, and tips for involvement in planning.

Product Review: Goodreader Or Pdf Reader Pro: Which Is Better For Reading And Annotating?, Laura Pope Robbins

Publications

Laura Pope Robbins is an advisor for The Charleston Advisor, and the comparative review below is included in Scholarly Commons with the permission of the publisher.

Today’s researchers are extremely mobile and are looking for ways to read and annotate documents when not in their offices. GoodReader and PDF Reader Pro are two apps that provide that capability for iPad users. Both apps can read multiple file formats and provide file management tools like rename, move, and delete. As well, they can both be linked to multiple cloud services to upload and download files. Neither app is integrated with an …

The Knowledge Base As An Extension Of Distance Learning Reference Service, Anne Marie Casey

Staff Works - Hunt Library

This study explores knowledge bases as extension of reference services for distance learners. Through a survey and follow-up interviews with distance learning librarians, this paper discusses their interest in creating and maintaining a knowledge base as a resource for reference services to distance learners. It also investigates their perceptions about the feasibility and practicality of a reference knowledge base. Primary findings indicate that the majority of participants view a knowledge base as an extension of distance learning reference services positively but see issues related to workload and quality control, in particular, which might hinder the development and maintenance of this …

Untapped Potential: Seeking Library Donors Among Alumni Of Distance Learning Programs, Anne Marie Casey, Michael Lorenzen

Staff Works - Hunt Library

In recent years, decreases in higher education budgets have forced academic libraries to rely more heavily on philanthropy in order to operate or expand collections. Alumni are the most obvious potential donors to an academic library. Many alumni recognize the library as part of their higher education experience and are happy to give to the library. For many institutions with distance learning programs, a growing number of alumni have never been to campus or have rarely visited but they may use and appreciate library services. However, few academic libraries have attempted to tap this source of potential donors. This paper …

Delivery To The Sharp End Of The Spear: Responding To The Need For Library Support To The Deployed And Downrange Military Community, Edward Murphy

Staff Works - Hunt Library

Libraries that support military patrons often face unique challenges. One of the most traumatic is the temporary transfer, or sudden deployment of members of the university community, often in the middle of an academic term, sometimes without notice or adequate preparation time. Not too long ago such an event would almost certainly have interrupted if not altogether halted students’ academic progress until they could return to the parent institution. Technology now in place has allowed many of these students to continue their education regardless of their physical locations, and libraries will have to improvise with regard to the delivery of …

What A User Wants: Redesigning A Library's Web Site Based On A Card-Sort Analysis, Laura Pope Robbins, Lisa Esposito, Christ Kretz, Michael Aloi

Publications

Web site usability concerns anyone with a web site to maintain. Libraries, however, are often the biggest offenders in terms of usability. In our efforts to provide users with everything they need to do research, we often overwhelm them with sites that are confusing in structure, difficult to navigate, and weighed down with jargon. Dowling College Library recently completed a redesign of its web site based upon the concept of usability. For smaller libraries in particular, this can be a challenge. The web site is often maintained by one or two people and finding the time and resources to conduct …

Keeping Your Eye On The Prize: Remaining Focused On The End User When Everything Around You Appears Chaotic, Edward W. Murphy

Staff Works - Hunt Library

Digital library services have become integral components of 21st century educational institutions. Librarians have been quick to adopt new technologies to serve their new remotely located patrons. This eagerness to adopt new technology, along with a willingness to adapt to new working environments and a continuing emphasis on the end users of our services have enabled success with regards to serving the distance education patron. This paper will review and discuss the evolution of Embry Riddle Aeronautical University’s (ERAU) Extended Campus Library Services (ECLS), and how a conscious effort to focus on the end users of Embry-Riddle’s ECLS has helped …

A Historical Overview Of Internet Reference Services For Distance Learners, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

The advent of library services and collections on the Internet revolutionized reference services to students enrolled in distance learning programs. Prior to the Internet, reference librarians who supported distance learning programs had few methods, and many of them costly, to provide the equivalent library services advocated by the ACRL Guidelines. Through the Internet, these librarians were able to approximate the services and resources that had always been available to students who came into the library. This article describes the development of reference services on the Internet in a variety of libraries that support distance learners.

Research Readiness Self-Assessment: Assessing Students' Research Skills And Attitudes, Lana Ivanitskaya, Ryan Laus, Anne Marie Casey

Publications

Librarians and learning researchers at Central Michigan University collaboratively developed an online tool that assesses how student research attitudes and perceptions correlate to their actual research skills in order to educate them about state-of-the-art library resources and prepare them to write high-quality research papers. This article describes the reasons for developing the assessment as well as the design process and technical characteristics.