outreach in reference services: capitalizing in emerging technologies
DESCRIPTION
Outreach in Reference Services: Capitalizing in Emerging Technologies. Columbia Reference Symposium March 10, 2005 Kathryn Shaughnessy Instructional Services Librarian. Reference Outreach: the Mission. University’s Mission: Leveraging Technology Academic Computing Initiative - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Outreach in Reference Services:Capitalizing in Emerging Technologies
Columbia Reference Symposium
March 10, 2005
Kathryn Shaughnessy
Instructional Services Librarian
Reference Outreach: the Mission
University’s Mission:• Leveraging Technology
– Academic Computing Initiative – Infrastructure– St. John’s Portal and WebCT CMS
• Social Justice• Student Engagement
Reference Mission:• Instruction• Information Literacy• Outreach to Faculty• Equity of service for DL & on-campus
Reference Outreach: the Mission plan
Using technological innovations for outreach:
• RSS• Podcasts• Wikis• Blogs
Need to research, build up skills/resources
Outreach by modeling use of the technologies
Reference Outreach: the Mission Allies
Allies in the developing Outreach innovations
– Library faculty & Staff– E-services department– DLIS– Distance Learning– Center for Teaching and Learning
Reference Outreach: RSS
RSS is…Rich Site SummaryReally Simple Syndication
A growing method of delivering text & audio information– Time-shifted or real-time notification of web-site update– Self-selected or personalized syndication
• An informational broadcast in “lite-XML” or RDF
• Users access RSS feeds at their convenience via aggregator or Feed-reader
Reference Outreach: RSS
RSS timeline…• 1997: Dave Winer (Userland) develops “scriptingNews” format
• 1999: Userland & Netscape “RSS0.91” continue to develop and improve upon formatting versions, simplifying and standardizing the XML
• 2000: RSS 1.0 developed by Dornfest (O’Reilly) using RDF and namespaces; DW/USerland develop xml version of “RSS 0.92”
• 2002: MetaWeblog API uses Winer’s RSS 0.92 with XML-RPC for Blogging delivery; DW designs xml-based RSS 2.0
• 2003: RSS 2.0 Specs released through Harvard under a Creative Commons license
• 2004: “iPodders” search for a way to retrieve old blogs and audiofiles – develop RSS (Winer) and podcast software (Curry) for podcast delivery
From RSS at Harvard Law, by Dave Winer & Hobson & Holtz
Reference Outreach: RSS
RSS evolution …
• News delivery
• Website updates
• Blogging : Personal / information sharing
• Podcast delivery
• Education & Research
Reference Outreach: RSS
RSS for Professional Development and Informed Outreach
Put together training program on RSS, readers and provided some basic pertinent feeds:
• RSS feeds from Professional Associations:
ACRLog: http://acrlblog.org/index.php?feed=rss2
• RSS feeds from Professional Journal-Blogs
Library Journal Tech Blog: http://www.libraryjournal.com/LJTechblog.xml
• RSS feeds from other practicing librarians
Stephen Bell (Academic) : http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/atom.xml
• RSS feeds from Vendors/Innovators
OCLC Lorcan Blog: http://orweblog.oclc.org/index.xml
Reference Outreach: RSS
Developing RSS in St. John’s Libraries for Outreach
– Feeds for finding/compiling podcast lectures
– Scholarly Communication/Open Access journal updates
– Library News/Program updates (webpage)
– New book updates (OPAC)
– ProQuest (Currently Business) & Ebsco (in Development)
– Information sharing among professionals
Reference Outreach: RSS
Practical Questions:
– Investment of Money: minimal• Computer access• Aggregator:
– free or fee-based– Desktop or web-based– through academic portal
Newsgator (www.Newsgator.com) &
Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) seem most popular now;
a reader directory is available through dmoz
Reference Outreach: RSS
Practical Questions:
– Investment of time: • to learn aggregator• to build up *your* collection of sites
– Personal interest– Professional development– Reference-based
• to weed out less-helpful sites over time
Reference Outreach: RSS
• Strengths of using RSS in libraries (worth the time/effort):
– Richer resource-base for research/reference/outreach
– Facilitates keeping up in your outreach-specialty field
– Facilitates keeping abreast of news within your organization
– Convenience of checking all sites at once, on your own time
– Sharing/Learning from other library professionals
– Keep up with developments in other technologies • podcasts, wikis, blogs
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
A podcast is…
A growing method of delivering audio information– Time-shifted– Place-shifted
• An informational “broadcast” saved as an audio file (mp3) and distributed via the web (strictly speaking via RSS)
• Listeners download/listen at their convenience via desktop/laptop or on a personal player
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Podcasting timeline…
• August 2004: “iPodders” search for a way to retrieve old blogs and audiofiles – develop RSS (Winer) and podcast software (Curry)
• July 2005: iTunes supports/distributes podcasts, get 1 million subscribers in first 2 days
• August 2005: 8,000 podcasts, 6 million listeners
• December 2005: Podcast selected as “Word of the Year” by editors of New Oxford American Dictionary: "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player"
• January 2006: iTunesU offers “free” courseware distribution
Hobson and Holtz Report, 8/4/2005 http://forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php/weblog/2005/08/05/ )Oxford University Press, US website, http://www.oup.com/us/brochure/NOAD_podcast/?view=usa
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Podcasting evolution …
• Personal / information sharing
• Business applications
• Religious groups
• Education
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Duke Report (2004 - 2005) Noted education benefits:
• playback of difficult content/material, especially in sciences
• multiple repetitions for students who have difficulty with English
• review/study class materials while multitasking (e.g.: commuting or exercising).
• inspired students to create podcasts outside of the classroom; noted increase of “frequency and depth of student interaction,” especially in language & music courses
• increased communication between faculty, library and IT; led to better, collaborative planning, both within the university and with other institutions.
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Current Uses of Podcasting in Higher Education (2005-2006)
– Classroom Lectures for current students (U of New S. Wales)
– Class and Guest Lectures for Alumni (Stanford)
– Scholarly Communication (Princeton & U. of Florida)
– Audio tours & newscasts (Purdue & U. of Western Ontario)
– Admissions & Orientation materials (Mansfield & Drexel)
– Outreach to potential students (Peterson’s Directory)
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/results.php?cat=2&mode=a
FirstGov http://firstgov.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/Podcasts.shtml
OYEZ Supreme Court Podcasts http://www.oyez.org/podcast/
WhiteHouse Radio Addresses: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/
NASA http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.htm
AAAS Science podcast http://www.sciencemag.org/about/podcast.dtl
UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_podcast.html
BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/
NPR http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Finding New Podcast Resources:
• Podcast Directories
• List-servs
• RSS feeds from blogs and your favorite websites
• Suggestions from others
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
“Programming” Podcasts captured by the St. John’s Libraries
– Poetry Readings: Poets Maria Mazziotti Gillan
and Jane Augustine
– Author visit: Richard Vetere “Third Miracle”
– Guest Lectures: Italian Consul General and diplomat, Minister Antonio Bandini on “Italy and World Diplomacy”
– Student essay winners, e.g.: Service Learning Essay
– Title III Project: Colloquia & meetings
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Podcasts in the Department / Classroom
– DLIS Academic Library class: Dr. Becker’s Graduate course lecture & discussion
– Guest Lectures: McKeever Chair, Paul Lauritzen’s Lecture
on “The Commodification of Education”
– Distance Learning: Orientation to using WebCT, library resources; Pre-class lecture for “Just-in-time ”quiz & discussion
– English Student Projects: Graduate Poetry final
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Instruction-related Podcasts
– Audio Tours: of physical library & library website
– Database Tutorials: Audio guide to supplement current online and paper-based tutorials
– Distributed Learning: Greetings from director, Orientation to using CMS, Intranet and/or information portal; Podcasts of instructional workshops, for patrons who cannot attend during instruction sessions
– Professional Development: Podcasts of professional / association meetings; podcast of information sessions for fellow faculty/staff; Continuing Education lectures/workshops
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Legal Questions:
– Release form for electronic recording• Library developed one, approved by counsel
– Clarify distribution to lecturer• On main website: available to all• On WebCT / SJ Central: Although password protected,
once in digital format it is relatively easy to duplicate.
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
• Strengths of using external/internal podcasts:
– facilitates development of information literacy and life-long learning
– faculty contact re: information literacy throughout the course
– enriches primary-resource reference base
– coach vs. sage – facilitating/motivating individual learner inquiry and peer discussion
– engages different styles of learning
– assists low-vision and ESL patrons
Reference Outreach: Podcasts
Some Recent/Relevant coverage of Podcasting in Academia
• Chronicle of Higher Education: “Lectures on the Go” (10/28/2005) http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i10/10a03901.htm (Subscription req’d)and “Apple Releases Free 'iTunes U' Software to Colleges for Coursecasting “ (01/25/2006) Accessible for free. http://chronicle.com/free/2006/01/2006012501t.htm
• Duke University. “Duke University iPod First Year experience evaluation Report” (June 2005) Accessible electronically http://cit.duke.edu/pdf/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf
• US News & World Report. (From the 10/17/05 print issue)http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/articles/051017/17elearn.htm
• Educause article on Podcasting (December 2005) http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0561.pdf
Reference Outreach: Websites, Blogs & Wikis
Social/collaborative trends in education
– For Students: • learn best from each other• learn to work together• greater engagement in the task
– For Faculty: • learn to be facilitator• E-portfolio for long-term assessment
– For Libraries: • learn to model life-long learning• Facilitates hands-on “evaluation”
Reference Outreach: Websites, Blogs & Wikis
Using Website development, blogs and wikis for outreach:
– Model use of instruction via library instruction• Reference desk wiki• Global Master’s program resources
– Set up “resource libraries” for these technologies• For in-house reference and instruction• For outreach to patron/faculty
– Offer collaboration with specialists: • Encourage/model life-long learning• Facilitate creation of assignments that provide new
evaluative insight
Reference Outreach: the Mission Allies
Allies in executing Outreach innovations
– E-services department – Library faculty & Staff– DLIS– Distance Learning– Center for Teaching and Learning– Center for Technology Education
Reference Outreach: Using Technologies
Please contact me with comments or ideas:
– Kathryn Shaughnessy, x1454
St. John’s University
Augustine Library 304
Instructional Services Lab