Tag Archives: ALA Annual

Tech Sharecase, 25 July 2013

MOOCs

We started off by talking about MOOCs a bit, using one Tech Sharecase attendee’s personal experience as the springboard for discussion. Mentioned in the conversation was Karen Schneider”s blog post at Free Range Librarian detailing her experience being a student in a MOOC course, “All the lonely MOOCers. Where do they all come from?”

Badges and Gamification

We talked a bit about the trend to add game-like elements to instruction and the use of badges as incentives, something that was the focus of several presentations at ALA Annual this summer (such as this one and that one).

Google Maps

With an Android phone connected to the projector, we were able to see how Google presents floorplans for buildings in the Google Maps app. We looked at the floor plans for the library at California State University-Monterey Bay (some details on this can be found here).

We took at a look also at how the Street View technology from Google Maps is being used to present a 360 degree interior view of buildings, such as this one for Jan’s Hobby Shop on the Upper East Side.

Library Box

We watched the video about Library Box, a tiny wireless device that can be used to share files where there is no internet connection or where that connection is weak or heavily monitored or censored. More details about the project can be found on the Kickstarter page for it.

Laptop and iPad Mini Kiosks

Arthur gave us an update on the laptop and iPad Mini kiosks currently being set up by the reference desk. See the vendor’s website (Laptops Anytime) for additional info about the kiosks.

 

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Tech Sharecase, 22 July 2010

Attendees
Janey Chao, Stephen Francoeur, Ellen Kaufman, Jim Livornese, Ryan Phillips, Linda Rath, Mike Waldman, Kevin wolff

LibGuides
We discussed Steven Bell’s study of LibGuides (pdf), which he presented at 16th Annual Reference Research Forum at the ALA Annual Meeting this year. Bell asked whether LibGuides help students do better research? The results of the student were inconclusive.

Gartner Research
On the CUNY Portal, we have limited subscription to Gartner Research (we do have access to the magic quadrant charts).

IT Needs for the Library
Jim Livornese asked us to talk about what IT needs the library has. Suggestions we discussed included:
  • better, faster, more stable PCs at the ref desk (the best we can offer) that have dual monitors (one angled for the patron, another for the librarian) and speakers (so we can play videos to patrons as needed)
  • digital signage
  • longer period for guest logins (2 days? 3 days? 1 week?)
  • better sense of who to contact in BCTC for what
  • software that makes image on instructor’s classroom PC display on the student PCs
  • multiple projection screens in the classrooms (and more whiteboards)

BCTC Projects
Jim Livornese ran through a list of projects that BCTC will be looking into or developing further: podcast producers, Boxee, iTunes U, media development, etc.

Videos
We watched the BYU video that was just released and parodies a recent ad campaign from Old Spice. Here is the BYU library video:

[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/2ArIj236UHs” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

Here is the original Old Spice commercial:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/uLTIowBF0kE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

It was noted that Yale and Middlebury have similarly well-produced videos for aimed at attracting applicants.

RSS Reader in Microsoft Office 2010
The new version of Outlook in Microsoft Office, which we are all getting in our desk PCs soon, has a RSS reader built in.
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