Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Libraries Across The Sea: Using A Virtual Presence And Skilled Student Assistants To Serve Students Abroad, Kimberly Posin Chan, Jaimie Beth Colvin, Marc Vinyard, Claire Leach, Mary Ann Naumann, Paul Stenis

Pepperdine University Libraries

The authors discuss methods and challenges of supporting branch academic libraries overseas that are not staffed onsite by librarians or permanent staff. The authors present their two-pronged approach of creating a virtual presence carefully customized to the needs of the students studying abroad along with specially and highly trained student workers. The new program, grounded partly in theories from education and business management, is shown to have substantially improved both library services for our study abroad students as well as library student workers’ performance.

Power To The People: A Comprehensive Look At Crowdsourcing Initiatives In Cultural Institutions, Danielle Pace

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Today, crowdsourcing has become an integrative approach to completing projects using the help of the general populous. These projects aid museum staff by processing large quantities of data, which otherwise could not be completed due to time and/or staff restraints. Through crowdsourcing, cultural institutions have the ability to outsource these tasks to volunteers, who can complete them at much faster rates. Although staff members are needed to validate and supervise these projects, crowdsourcing remains a useful tool in increasing public interactions and project efficiency.

This thesis presents a thorough outline of what crowdsourcing is, how it is being utilized, and …