The Distant Librarian

HardPlay - Game-based Learning for Information Seekers

Hot on the heels of the McMaster announcement about the appointment of their Immersive Learning (Gaming) Librarian comes word from two of my U of C colleagues about a related research project.  Jerremie Clyde and Chris Thomas are putting together a website called HardPlay to document a study that "seeks to examine the potential of digital game-based learning to enable students to be successful information seekers."  They're going to "look at the effectiveness of Digital Game Based Learning (or Hardplay) as a tool for library instruction.  The game they're building is a first person action adventure game called Benevolent Blue (using the same game engine as the popular commercial game HalfLife-2)."  Looks like the bulk of the info is currently here.

I mention that they're "putting together" a website because there's not a lot of information there yet, and though they're using Drupal, they haven't got an RSS feed up for you to follow along, but it'll come, and I'll let you know when it's ready :-)  Shouldn't be long as they're presenting at the end of May at the 2007 CANHEIT (Canadian Higher Education and Information Technology) conference in Waterloo (where McMaster is!)

Not sure how I feel about all this, not having seen a working example of how this type of learning could work.  There seems to be a dedicated group looking at the topic though - see the Bibliographic Gaming Blog.  Definitely going to watch though.

As an aside, I noticed late last week when the McMaster announcement was made that someone, presumably a student, left a comment to the effect that a Gaming Librarian wasn't going to do anything about getting books back on the shelf, or something to that effect.  It was a little sarcastic, but I was all set to congratulate McMaster for leaving up both the congratulatory and disparaging comments.  'Cept when I went back to the posting today that comment had been removed :-(  Maybe there was more to it, but that doesn't seem fair to paint such an appointment with only glowing colours, IMHO.

RSS Alerts in EBSCO Databases

Earlier this week I got a mailing from EBSCO in which they claimed they were re-launching RSS alerts for searches.  I tried to follow their instructions but had no success, and assumed this must be a feature we had to manually enable in our admin module, but Ken Varnum at RSS4Lib pointed out that the feature was accessed from a different location entirely.

Here's a blurry 3-minute screencast on how to activate this feature:

And here's a link to a nicer-quality version of the screencast.

Technorati Tags: RSS, EBSCO, search_alerts

Yugma for screen-sharing

Another link from Sarah at LiB (this one via the lo-fi librarian): Yugma.  I haven't tried it, but it looks to be a solid option if you're considering tools to share the desktop (co-browsing).  The basic service is free and cross platform.  It doesn't offer voice over IP, so you're stuck texting with whoever's on the other end, though they do offer a built-in audioconference option; for that you'd both be paying long distance charges to Minnesota(!).  Might want to check it out if you're in need of such a tool.


Technorati Tags: Yugma, co-browsing

LiB on how to talk to IT about Instant Messaging (IM) and security issues

Sarah at Librarian in Black has a good post that will help you arm yourself against IT folk who claim allowing IM in a library is too dangerous.  Sarah's had a lot of experience in this area, and provides links to the two articles security people always seem to quote, along with links to three additional (more up-to-date) articles you should read before doing battle with IT.  I added a link to Sarah's article in the relevant section of the Library Success Wiki, and noticed that she seems to have become the expert in the area of IM Reference...


Technorati Tags: IM, Reference, Libraries, Security

How well do you communicate as a distance librarian?

Probably pretty well, since you're constantly dealing with people via email and on the phone, but it doesn't hurt to take a step back to see.  I'm regularly surprised  at the poor voicemails some students leave, blowing through their long name and contact info (if they even leave any).  I get emails from cc-workers that simply contain a link, with no context.  Why do you want me to click on that link?  Would it kill you to give me a single sentence to set it up?

Chad at Library Voice points to a Business Week article that has suggestions for making a good first impression, and almost all of them translate to good overall communication practices.  Take a peek and use the opportunity to remind yourself to follow these practices when dealing with your students and colleagues.


Technorati Tags: Service, Communication

Olive Software ActiveMagazine

I received email from two of my U of C colleagues about the inaugural issue of Blogger and Podcaster magazine. Personally, I wasn't terribly impressed with the content - doesn't seem like a needed publication, but if there's a market I guess why not? 

What I was impressed with is the Olive Software used to deliver the publication.  The name's vaguely familiar to me, so I suspect it's already made some inroads into the library world.  What's neat to me is the level of interactivity it provides.  You're able to easily access content from anywhere in the publication or link out to the web, and the advertisements can play multimedia within the page.  In order to print or copy/paste you'll have to use the View menu, then choose Text Mode, but then you can get a nice clean print.

Subscription model for this publication seems to be as it should be too: Print: $79/year, Podcast (listen to the publication): Free, Digital Edition (Olive ActiveMagazine): Free.

I'm sure the whole thing has some issues with ADA, but it's the first online reader that made me think "Hmm, this is different!".

With Spring on the calendar (if not outside my window) you might be more interested in this example: Winding Road.

Technorati Tags: Olive_Software, Magazines

Instruction via chat reference: does co-browse help?

The answer appears to be no, which surprised me.  The authors, from Southern Illinois University, do caution that it's a pretty small sample and not to draw many conclusions, but the evidence of their transcript logs seems to indicate that providing a co-browsing option along with chat reference doesn't really add much instruction to the transaction, compared to a similar number of sessions where co-browse wasn't an option.  In exploring options for providing IM reference here at the U of C (finally!) I happened to be chatting earlier today with a librarian at an institution that offers both IM and commercial chat with co-browse, and was told that IM pretty much gets the job done and that they rarely feel the need to co-browse, so there's some anecdotal evidence to go along with the article.

Title: Instruction via chat reference: does co-browse help?
Author(s): Stephanie J. Graves, Christina M. Desai
Journal: Reference Services Review
ISSN: 0090-7324
Year: 2006 Volume: 34 Issue: 3 Page: 340 - 357
DOI: 10.1108/00907320610685300

Technorati Tags: IM, chat, reference, co-browsing

Alberta Distance Education & Training Association (ADETA) Newsletters

Yeah, I know you're not in Alberta, but the resources discussed in the monthly ADETA newsletter will still be of interest to you if you have anything to do with distance education.  The newsletters are published through Google Docs, and once you're a member of ADETA (free) you can contribute to future newsletters via the ADETA wiki.


Technorati Tags: ADETA, distance_education

ACRL - Getting Started with Screencasting

ACRL is offering a 2-hour webcast on Thursday, April 26, 2:00 EDT: Getting Started with Screencasting. From the site:

Webcast Description:
This two hour session will explore screencasting—delivering screen captures via RSS—and its potential applications in the academic library. Participants will be provided with examples of screencasts, information on various software applications used to create screencasts, and tips for choosing content, preparing, recording and delivering a screencast.

This Webcast will last approximately two hours.

Not quite sure what they mean about delivering screen captures via RSS - someone who attends let me know, ok?

Not free.
 


Technorati Tags: Screencasting, ACRL

Gaim renamed Pidgin

While more people seem to use Trillian, Gaim was a nice open-source alternative IM aggregator, and had the advantage of being able to incorporate Google Talk alongside AIM, MSN and Yahoo chat.  Seems that after a long battle with AOL, Gaim has had to change its name to Pidgin.  You can read about it at http://www.pidgin.im/ (or at http://gaim.sourceforge.net/).  On the plus side, there should be a new release of the software later this week.

Technorati Tags: IM, Gaim, Pidgin, AOL

ACRL's top ten assumptions for the future

At their recent annual meeting, the ACRL Research Committee released a list of their top ten assumptions for the future of academic and research libraries.  Coming in at #8: "Distance Learning will be an increasingly common option in higher education, and will co-exist but not threaten the traditional bricks-and-mortar model." If you visit that link in IE you can listen to an mp3 of a discussion of this list.  If you're on Firefox, the recording is here.


Technorati Tags: ACRL, Future, Distance_Education

New York TimesSelect - Do Over! (may not be free for YOU!)

Following up on last month's announcement that the New York TimesSelect service was opened up to all educational institutions, The Chronicle of Higher Education is now reporting that NYT is backtracking and now "says that Times Select archives will be available only to students of colleges that subscribe to database companies that carry Times content."  Why?  'Cause librarians complained that they had already paid for access to the archives through ProQuest and other aggregators.

I think I have to agree with the early commenters to the Chronicle post; it stinks that librarians would be blamed for shutting down the flow of free information.  Yeah, we paid for it, and we get it in a better and more useful interface - let the schools that couldn't afford it get the content for free!  If we don't want to pay next year we won't.  Hmmm, maybe it wasn't the librarians who complained, maybe it was the vendors who sold it to us?  Just a thought.


Technorati Tags: NYTimesSelect, Librarians

CFP extended: Special Issue of Journal of Access Services

For a forthcoming double issue of the Journal of Access Services, a recent call for papers has been extended  until  May 15.  The theme is Best Practices in Access Services, and the full details are as follows:

The Journal of Access Services is currently accepting manuscripts for consideration of publication in a special issue on Best Practices in Access Services. Papers are sought on the following topics, but are not limited to:

•    telephone-based circulation transactions (renewal, notification, etc.)
•    unique payment options (PayPal, declining balance, volunteering)
•    drive-through library service
•    mini book trucks for patron use
•    kiosks
•    shelving activities of student workers
•    printing & photocopying solutions
•    student/staff training
•    student scheduling
•    motivating staff (in general or on special projects)
•    combined service point (circulation & reference)
•    retrieval services
•    mentoring Access Services librarians
•    shelving reserve items (owned vs. instructor copies used in multiple classes)
•    DVD and other equipment management
•    study facilities
•    security
•    laptop checkout
•    storage—digitization, automated retrieval, processing, cooperative collection management
•    patron privacy
•    using LibQual+ data to improve services
•    E-Reserves administration/copyright issues
•    use of “Social Software” to communicate internally or externally (Blogs, RSS, Wikis, social networking software)

Submission deadline is May 15th, 2007. Electronic submission is acceptable via e-mail directly as an attached Word document. Complete information about submission requirements is available at: http://JAS.HaworthPress.com under “Instructions for Authors” or from the Associate Editors:

Bede Mitchell, Dean of the Library, Zach S. Henderson Library, Georgia Southern University,
P.O. Box 8074, Statesboro, Georgia 30460–8074; Tel: (912) 681–5115; Fax: (912) 681–0093;
E-mail: wbmitch@georgiasouthern.edu

Lori Driscoll, Chair, Access Services, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida,
P.O. Box 117001, Gainesville, FL 32611–7001; Tel: (352) 273–2524; Fax: (352) 392–6540;
E-mail: ldriscoll@uflib.ufl.edu

For more information about the Journal of Access Services, to order a subscription, or to request a FREE sample copy, go to: http://JAS.HaworthPress.com

 


Technorati Tags: Access_Services, Scholarship