Photo by finchlake2000 on Flickr

I was lucky enough to attend yesterday’s South and Mid Wales Partnership Staff Conference 2010 (Twitter hashtag #swamp) which brought together all varieties of librarians from the region to the distinctly swampy-green Hotel Metropole in Llandrindod Wells. Days out like this are great for networking and staff development but the real value is the ideas and nuggets you can take back and incorporate into your own work. I came away with my head buzzing. A day’s reflection later and my thoughts had simmered down as follows…

Much of what we heard and discussed comes back to librarians feeling threatened, both by financial cuts and by a lack of understanding of the value we bring. Rather than being a negative, this generated a huge amount of positive and innovative ways of tackling this. The following is a high-speed, subjective round-up of the highlights for me:

Keep doing things better = often means do things differently.

1. 

   Image by Waka Jawaka on Flickr

   Balls! Recent years have seen the growing use of the “clicker” (or Voting System) to take rough-and-ready surveys and to increase participation in a teaching session. This was all swept aside yesterday by the triumphant return of the plastic balls in a bucket system: Powerpoint slides with a 30 second timer to give you the questions, colour-coded answers, grab a ball and put it in the corresponding bucket. Lots of movement, fast-paced, thought-provoking questions and lots of fun! Courtesy of the Swansea Public Libraries team.

2. Embrace Web 2.0 = “web pages you can do things with”. Key tips from Swansea Public Libraries: “Do it anyway and apologise later!”, find libraries that are already doing it well and learn from them, crowd-source so constant updating does not fall on one person. Not sure about the relevance of Web 2.0? It’s our job! Mark Hughes pointed out this CILIP statement: “As a library and information professional you will develop the ability to design, create, identify, locate, retrieve and exploit information in all formats.”

Information Literacy has never been more needed!

• New Information Literacy Officer for Wales, Joy Head, re-iterated the timely comparison that giving Wales 21st Century broadband without supporting digital literacy training is like being given a Porsche without having a driving licence. She put it much better than that but you get the gist!
• A quote from Martin Bean, the Vice Chancellor of the OU: “In my mind now the digital divide is much more about those that actually understand how to use and apply technology in their lives and their work as a necessity, rather than simply getting access to the technology per se,” (another one from Mark Hughes’ presentation)
• Discussion amongst the sectors present showed so much of what librarians do meets these needs but we are not good at pointing it out. This moves swiftly on to….

Making External Partnerships is Essential

This came out of both the Information Literacy strategy and Christine Clarke’s “Libraries Changing Lives” document. It was also fresh in my mind from the trending “Escaping the Echo Chamber” Prezi presentation by WoodsieGirl and theWikiMan which has been stirring up librarians all over the place.

Christine Clarke had a great set of “lessons learned” on how to do this effectively which could be applied to so many scenarios:

1. Talk the language of your partner: tailoring material to suit the audience is essential to get attention.
2. Put the impact on people first, not the library perspective.
3. External information adds value: quote non-library sources to support your case.
4. Try and quantify what you do in appropriate ways (e.g. generic social outcomes).
5. Use numbers people can visualise.
6. Get a fresh pair of eyes to look something over.
7. Use “for you this means….” and always bear in mind the “So what?” test.

Unfortunately I only have one link to share from the day so far but hopefully more will follow! Mark Hughes’ presentation on Twitter can be found on Slideshare.

Some modern library management systems come with enrichment services that provide useful extra features for the catalogue/OPAC – book cover images, tables of contents, links to reviews etc. They can be also be part of a whole revamp with a new resource discovery front-end such as Aquabrowser or Vufind, or they could be part of an OPAC enrichment service such as the subscription services offered by Syndetic Solutions.

Even LibraryThing is in on the act. As well as being a hugely popular social networking site for book lovers, it now sells a ‘LibraryThing for Libraries‘ package which works with most LMS/OPACs. Details here, and lists of libraries using it (so you can play with their OPACs) here.

However if you have some technical knowledge and support it is often possible for institutions to add some of these features for free. I’ll just stick to book cover images for now, but that is only one of many enhancements. Going back to LibraryThing, if you only want a basic service then some book covers are available from them for free. Another free source of covers is Open Library. In the past some OPACs have used Amazon for book cover images but Amazon doesn’t seem to support that any more so I won’t cover that. However I will cover Google’s service.

Google Books API

Google is always impossible to ignore, and Google Books is no different. The Google Books API can be used to embed Google Books in your site (see their blog post here and support pages here), or to just give you cover images from their huge database. I got in touch with Google support to discuss the latter use and got the following tips. Basically there are two main ways to go about implementing book covers, and in each case you will need the support of your technical staff.

One option is to use their Embedded Viewer, in which you can change the viewer interactions so that only the jacket covers show. You can find the steps for this option by visiting their API developers’ guide here.

The second option you have is a bit more technically involved, but it does allow you to show the search results within your own application. To do so, you can use the Book Search Data API, which allows your server to obtain results from Book Search and show them within your application. You can also use feeds to show the jacket covers. Examples of these feeds can be found here.

Lastly, you can find more developer documentation for the Data API here and here. There is lots of help available in the API Forum.

Have you implemented any features yourself to pimp up your OPAC? Vote here.

image by sqback

Instant messaging is a great means of communication. It gets around the delays of email and allows lots of debate, all in one place; and by being primarily text based it avoids issues that can occur with shared video and audio (lag, operating system settings, hardware requirements). The other good thing is that once you are logged into a system you can see a list of your contacts and know when they are available to chat, unlike with email.

The main problem with the system is that over the years different mutually-incompatible protocols have been released. So unlike email where there is just… email, with instant messaging there is IRC, AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo etc. Although you can use software such as Trillian, or a website such as Meebo to manage separate accounts, they still are separate systems.

So how can you gain most of the best features of instant messaging for collaboration, whilst avoiding the problem that contact A uses IRC, but
contact B uses AIM?

That is where sites like Chatzy and Twiddla come in. You can create a
chat room for free, then just send the URL to people along with a time when you want to have a discussion, and they can join without needing to create an account. They can even leave messages and ideas at any point, so it becomes a form of asynchronous communication too, like email, allowing conversations to take place over time.

We needed to discuss what the FE sector might do with CyMAL’s information literacy grant this year so asked interested librarians to join Sam and I for a discussion at 2pm on Friday 11th June, using the Chatzy tool. I supplied a URL (http://www.chatzy.com/935748212850). On the day librarians joined in. All they had to do was enter a screenname so it was clear who it was (e.g. Lynne NPTC, KarlD RSC etc) and pick a colour. I chose to trial Chatzy as an experiment for this because of the simple interface, the fact that you don’t need any special software or an account, and it shouldn’t be well-known enough to be blacklisted. We asked people to think about the issues in advance so that the discussion would be focussed. If people couldn’t make the Friday they were encouraged to go to the URL and enter thoughts that we would discuss and incorporate on the day.

In the end it worked really well for brainstorming. At one point we set a limit of 60 seconds to think of ideas, then when I typed ‘Go!’ we had a further 60 seconds to type out as many ideas as possible, with no thought as to how practical they were – just to give free reign to creativity. And that was how our final proposal started to form and take shape. So overall it worked brilliantly, one of the rare cases where collaboration leads to synergy and generates both enthusiasm and ideas.

The main problems were that Chatzy had to be unblocked at some colleges; there was no way to share attachments or files; and the chat contents need saving regularly. Chatzy seemed to lead to a lot more discussion than we get in some video conferences, maybe because it leads to everyone chatting at once: at some points there were ideas coming faster than I could read and think about or reply to! Or maybe because people feel less inhibited with text chat. Either way it was informal yet focussed and effective.

Sam thought that something that allowed us to share documents too may be better for future use, in which case we could try Twiddla next time. This works in a similar way for live chat but also lets you share documents and draw and collaborate in a whiteboard area. Another experiment for the future!

Bookmark - Courtesy of SecretLondon123 on Flickr

I’m often finding I need to collect some good web resources on a topic to share. Whilst we have been using delicious to collect and share our bookmarks, sometimes that doesn’t quite seem to do them justice. Delicious has the following great “pros”:

• Quick and simple to bookmark, particularly with the integrated browser toolbars and buttons
• Tags are powerful and flexible
• RSS feed of tags allows you to embed your bookmarks in the VLE or anywhere else you need to display them
• Graphical display of tag cloud can be a good visual aid
• Others can subscribe to your RSS feed (or any combination of tags) to keep up with what you are bookmarking

It also has a few “cons”, mostly on the display side:

• Not much space to add your own comments to a link (1000 characters) and no formatting e.g. you cannot include another URL in a comment. (This is something I feel quite strongly about as a user/student – don’t just give me a list of resources, tell me why they are important!)
• It’s not pretty: very basic display with no images or graphics to make it look nicer.
• Limited control with RSS feed or delicious to order how your links are displayed e.g. you cannot choose how to prioritize them

So I have been investigating a few social bookmarking tools which add a bit more functionality. This may be of use to LRC staff or teachers who need to show their students a collection of web resources with some added guidance notes. Some of the resources below can also be embedded in a VLE or website quite easily. They provide a more controlled and graphical way to peruse a collection of web resources without having to repeatedly open new windows or tabs. Some of this could be accomplished by the Intute Informs tool. This resource is currently limited to UK HE and FE but is soon moving to a subscription model. Here I have limited my search to free, open tools. I only had a fairly quick chance to look through some of these but here are some I tried earlier:

1) Diigo has social bookmarking and more. You can bookmark a site, tag it, add it to a list, highlight areas of a webpage, add sticky notes to the web page, collaborate on it, share your collection, display it as a “webslide”. All rich, good functionality with a pleasing interface plus a powerful Firefox Toolbar (presumably other browsers too). I like the Webslides (Short example: http://slides.diigo.com/list/rscsam/Using-Maps-in-Education) but am struggling to get any notes to appear. The one at the beginning is dominated by adverts. You can only add public notes once you are a “trusted user” to avoid spam. Requires more homework for me! It is still in beta.

2) LiveBinders – a way to collect things in web “binders”. This not only includes bookmarking websites but you can also add other content such as documents/images. There is a good blog post on how it could be used in education, even as a free portfolio tool if privacy and reliability (it’s a 3^rd party tool after all) aren’t too much of an issue. I have to say I find the interface very clunky indeed and it displays like an old-school Powerpoint, but the basic functionality is good. You can see a short example here: http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=18332.  There is the option to embed the Binder in another website too.

3) JogtheWeb is another site in beta but it has a very good, clean interface. I had a few teething troubles getting my account going and also it didn’t seem to like my Netvibes page so I had to take that out, but otherwise it seems to work very well. Here’s a very short example: http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/BWbNivxOG8Xn/RSC-Wales-Learning-Resources.

4) Back to Delicious which now has a beta option to “Browse these Bookmarks”.

Screenshot from Delicious

This means you can stepthrough the websites one by one. However you do not get to see any added description or text and there is no control of the sequence other than the order in which they were added (most recent first) so it is really quite limited. You can save a link to a presentation but it is not obvious. You do have the option to save to your own delicious quite easily if browsing someone else’s bookmarks so this is more of an enhancement to using Delicious for resource discovery. A useful option but not so much a tool in its own right. Try it here with RSC Wales’ Media Literacy Resources: http://delicious.com/browsebar/user/rscwales/media_literacy#id=5802f3c4a627d1da9c9dc30035139efe-0

These are just a handful of sites that I have tried and there are plenty more out there. The fact that several of them are in beta means it is probably not a good idea to put all your resource eggs in one basket until they have become truly established players in the social bookmarking world. Even so, it is good to experiment with new methods of displaying useful resources which may entice more students to take notice.

It seems that every day we hear about new technologies, tools and websites. The question is always: does this enable us to do something new, or perhaps to do something in a better way? Learning technologists focus on how the tool can enhance learning. My focus is a more specific sub-question: how can this tool improve the library service for users, enabling them to find, evaluate and use the LRC resources more effectively in order to enhance their learning?

I thought I would bring together a few tools or sites that I had played with over the last year:

• QR codes
• Cartoons
• Animoto
  
• Crosswords
• Quizzes

QR codes

The basics of these have already been covered by Sam. I have been following examples of use, from US studies of their potential, to commercial uses such as Google’s ‘Favorite Places’. I also tried things out using my work mobile phone, and was impressed at how easy it was. You just have to download some software to your phone if it isn’t already on there (I used QuickMark software but I have also heard good things about the Kaywa Reader). Then you can point your phone camera at QR codes and in a fraction of a second the code is deciphered and displayed on the screen. You can make your own (e.g. try here or here), or point at the code below.

How might libraries use QR codes? Below are a few ideas:

• QR code on textbooks in the library – scan to get a subject guide to resources that area (e.g. catering), including classmarks to look at, core texts, useful magazines, websites etc.
• Fiction collections – scan the code to get the e-book version, e.g. from
  Project Gutenberg if it is a classic text.
• Reference collection book – scan the code to go through to a reference
  website on that subject (e.g. online dictionary or style guide), or the library’s own virtual reference collection.
• Posters linking to the relevant web pages. Or notice boards could have
  QR codes next to headlines, which when scanned take the user through to a blog entry on that subject.
• Used as part of induction, for an innovative quiz where there are blocks of QR code information around the library, with a sort of treasure hunt following QR code clues on signs and hidden in some books. Students would be lent a phone if they don’t have their own. The hunt would involve using library resources such as the OPAC, and only if things are done in the correct order will they get the correct final code (which might open a safe; be a classmark for a book with a voucher in; it could be a map reference; or something more imaginative).
• Library cards could have QR codes with user information on, or to take the user to their library account on their phone so they can renew books etc (after some other form of authentication too, of course).
• Other uses for QR codes on a physical item, enabling users to see the
  catalogue record, reviews, similar items etc.
• On the OPAC so users can get locations, classmarks and item details onto their phone for finding item on shelves, or adding to bibliographies. This was done at Aberystwyth University as one of the mobile phone enhancements (the OPAC also has the ability to send an SMS with item details to a mobile phone). To view the QR code function, search the OPAC then click on the “QR code” link in the “Availability” section when viewing a record.
• To provide context specific help and information in the library, as
  at Huddersfield University.

Will any of this be commonplace in LRCs in 5 years? Let me know if you are
using them yourself!

Update 27 April 2010: I have just become aware of this article by Andrew Walsh, ‘Quick response codes and libraries’ (2009).

Cartoons

Librarians are always looking for ways to get information across to users. Pictorial methods are attractive, but not many of us have any artistic talent. That is where sites like Bitstrips come in, since with Bitstrips it is easy and quick to create a cartoon. You can design your own characters to appear in it, or use the hundreds that are provided on the site already. The system is easy to use – pose the figure, choose a facial expression, stick some props in the background, and add a text or speech bubble; then tweak until you are happy with it. The end result is that you can link to the cartoon on Bitstrips, or download it as an image to use in newsletters and on notice boards. Bitstrips are obviously aware of educational uses, since they have recently launched ‘Bitstrips for Schools‘.

I created a few for my RSC Wales job, see the RSC Wales LR Netvibes account. Also in my other role at Aberystwyth University, to promote our federated search tool. The fact that it is so easy to edit the cartoons means it is simple to go back in and create a Welsh version.

Animoto

I have always been a fan of Animoto. It is a site that lets you upload images and select music, and they get mixed together into a video slideshow which can then be viewed online, embedded on a webpage, or downloaded. In the early days you had to add words to an image yourself if you wanted text, but nowadays there are options to include titles and subtitles, and even to incorporate video clips. The basic version which creates short 60 second clips is free to use; however I took out a subscription so that I can create videos of any length.

I have used Animoto in various ways.

• Sometimes when I am doing a teaching session I like to have looped music and video playing as people come in and settle down: to help create an informal atmosphere, act as a border between the ‘outside world’ and the session proper, and possibly to raise some questions in advance of the session. This is an example I used in a session I ran on using multimedia resources.
• An attractive way of getting a simple message across.
• To promote a new service (ac yn Saesneg)
• As an ‘attract mode’ running on a laptop when you are on a stall e.g. a recent stall I ran demonstrating e-book readers had this animation playing to pull people over.
• A fun way of introducing people with photos and names.
• For your own projects outside of work e.g. presenting a poem, holiday snapshots.

Crosswords

LRCs often like to offer quizzes as ways of summarising information or reinforcing it later. Crosswords are an easy way to do this, something some users might enjoy (though they shouldn’t be over-used, and many students will hate them – it is just an alternative way of giving information). Creating a crossword by hand is a daunting task, and thankfully unnecessary! Lots of software is available. My favourite is Eclipse Crossword, which is free and simple to use, yet powerful and fast. If you haven’t tried it before, why not incorporate a quick crossword into one of your information literacy sessions, leaflets, inductions or competitions, or use one as part of a promotion of resources and services?

Quizzes

At the end of a teaching session it is good to include some way of reviewing the content. Institutions with voting systems or interactive whiteboards can use those, but there are many other options for running a quiz. One of my favourites at the moment is ‘Multiple Choice Quiz Creator‘, which resembles ‘Who Want To Be A Millionaire?’ in format and sounds. I like the fact that you only need a laptop/PC, speakers, and (ideally) a projector. Sometimes I get a student to take part, helped by the rest of the people at the session; sometimes I get people to call out answers; other times I put the lecturer on the hotspot (depending on the vibe of the session and how relaxed people are!) It has proven to be a fun way to finish off with a laugh, with a prize of some sort for the winner (e.g. a USB memory stick or some pens). The quizzes are free to play (since the display software has no limits), but the quiz creator programme itself is only free for thirty days. You can download sample quizzes here if you want to try it out.

I’ve been out of the office a lot recently, crossing the length and breadth of Wales, hence the lack of new posts here. To justify my silence I’ll give an update on where I’ve been. I should also say that when there are no new learning resources posts here, it is worth looking at the Chrissie’s Muses blog – Chrissie Turkington is a Learning Resources E-learning Adviser for RSC North West, so writes great posts on a lot of relevant topics, e.g. her recent post on using the Nintendo DSi to read e-books.

Another reason for my lack of time for blogs is that I only work for RSC Wales on Mondays and Tuesdays (for the rest of the week I work as a librarian for Aberystwyth University), normally job-sharing with Sam who covers the RSC role Wednesdays to Fridays. Sam is on maternity leave (and is doing really well!), so I’ve been on my own for a while, but now there is now extra learning resources support because Owen Phillips is providing maternity cover until Sam returns. LRC staff will no doubt be hearing from him soon!

Newport, Tuesday 13th – Wednesday 14th October

Ironically (considering I hadn’t had time to blog here for a while), I was in Newport on these days, teaching librarians how to blog! I ran a number of workshops which gave the background on Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and blogging, before looking at examples of library blogs from Wales. The librarians who came to the sessions were all great, and we had some thought-provoking discussions about how and why blogs can be used, as well as a hands-on where many trial blogs were created.

Getting to the fun part of the workshop...

Cardiff, Thursday 15th October

I was in Cardiff to visit Coleg Glan-Hafren with other RSC Wales staff. We discussed a range of e-learning topics, including technologies like voting systems, and ways of assessing the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning. Then I got to do my favourite thing – have a tour of the LRC! Carolyn Howe, the LRC Manager, showed me round. I enjoyed their Online Book Club displays, and took samples of the colourful leaflets and bookmarks that go with them. Students are encouraged to read the books, post reviews, read other students’ reviews and discuss them online via Moodle. This is a good way of encouraging reader development even when a group is unable to meet at regular times. Students can even write short reviews on the bookmark, and the data will be uploaded by LRC staff – a good example of making things easier for students! Another example of LRC staff going out of their way to be helpful is that some of the most relevant journal articles are indexed and records are added to the OPAC. This increases the use of the valuable print journals and aids resource discovery for students.

Coleg Glan-Hafren uses a PC booking system to ensure fair use of the PCs (which had the pleasant side-effect of  improving LRC staff and student relationships!). The LRC takes the innovative (and successful) line of not having fines for overdue books – instead they use the PC booking system to block the offending student’s access to the workstations until the items are returned, which ensures that the books do get returned – quickly! The system is also used for room bookings. There is a kiosk for students to book things themselves which frees up staff time for more valuable work, as well as encouraging student independence in the allocation of their own time.

Coleg Glan-Hafren is promoting the E-books for FE project, and even has a search box on every PC desktop that takes users straight through to relevant books. Currently Coleg Glan-Hafren uses OpenAthens and IP to provide students with access, but the college is considering moving to Federated Access Management in the future.

Aberystwyth, Friday 16th October

I made one of my rare appearances at CyMAL on that date, for a Libraries for Life meeting. I made suggestions concerning improving information dissemination about regional courses in Wales, and the importance of documenting library refurbishments funded by CyMAL in order to benefit other libraries. The truth is that the notion of new build as a cure-all is flawed, partly due to: the expense; the all or nothing nature and dangers when things go wrong (see here, here, here and here); and the environment/resource issues. However renovation and innovation are much more interesting, and there are a huge number of libraries in the position of being based in a building that they consider to be unsuitable, and looking for ideas. So what is needed is more imaginative focus on what can be done with existing estate. Refurbishments can have a stepped approach e.g. lower level funding for furniture, wi-fi, flexible learning and teaching spaces; but with more ambitious plans for if funding is available (restucturing, replace walls, moving entrances and staircases etc.) which avoids the ‘all or nothing’ danger inherent in new build projects. Fully documenting and promoting this kind of work is important for making people aware of the options.

Deeside, Tuesday 20th October

A visit to Deeside College with other RSC Wales staff (Owen Phillips, Helen Hodges, and Christine Davies). Deeside College has now merged with the Welsh College of Horticulture, so it was interesting to discuss the ways in which the best practices of both institutions can be combined. We also discussed a topic dear to many librarians’ hearts – the blocking of Web 2.0 resources. YouTube and other video sites have now been unblocked at Deeside College, since they are relevant to teaching (e.g. the catering courses use lots of clips from professional chefs). However some social networking sites such as FaceBook remain blocked. The debate about the educational utility of Web 2.0 continues! Where do you stand? Frivolous use of resources and time, or invaluable tools for education? I imagine most people fall between the two extremes, which is why the debate is so important so that policies can achieve the best balance.

The Learning Zone (LRC) is a two-floor open space which acts as a one-stop shop for many services. Patrick Cox (the LRC and E-learning Manager) told us that the Learning Zone is wi-fi enabled and students can bring their own laptops, or borrow a laptop from LRC bank of laptops. LRCs lead the way in providing flexible options like this, catering for different student learning styles and needs.

Wrexham, Wednesday 21st October

While in the North we visited Yale College, as the final leg of our tour! Owen and I spent time with Joanne Stewart and Maria Lewis, finding out more about the LRC.  The multi-floor LRC is heavily used, spacious and welcoming, with great use of exhibition space and displays of student art. There was also an interactive whiteboard in an open teaching area of the library, used during induction and information skills sessions – a great way of taking information out of closed rooms and into the relevant spaces and showing the teaching that LRC staff do.

There is also wi-fi in the Yale College LRC – users register their MAC addresses and can then use laptops, iPod Touches etc. There are more access points being added around the college, and also a trolley of rechargeable laptops for flexible access.

The LRC promotes reader development in many ways, from displays expanding on topics near the relevant book stock, to an ‘LRC Book of the Week’ on the staff intranet. The LRC is also hoping to embed resources within the relevant course areas on the VLE, which can be a great way to increase the visibility of quality resources and weaken the grip of Google! The LRC is keen on using Web 2.0 tools to communicate with users – there ia a blog and accounts for Twitter, Flickr and Netvibes (I’ll add links here once I have them).

Visiting all three college LRCs (Glan-Hafren Deeside, Yale) was great, you can see how popular and central to the college they all are by the buzz of use. If I was an FE student again I’d love to use any of them for my research.

Swansea, Friday 23rd – Monday 26th October

Across Wales again – but not for work this time! A long weekend in Swansea to enjoy one of my favourite eating places, my new hobby of kayaking, and a chance to do a bit of creative writing.

Windblown sand on Swansea beach

Morning view on holiday

I couldn’t resist something topical, which also shows the power of the book (and the librarian). Here are staff from the National Library of Australia at the 2008 staff Christmas party. Maybe we’ll get a Welsh version from the National Library of Wales one day.

Image from Conduit toolbars video

One of the most common queries that Sam and I get is to do with how to promote e-resources in order to increase take-up by staff and students. There are some ideas in the RSC Wales E-resources information area, but an idea that has popped up a few times recently is that of using customised toolbars.

The basic idea is that a toolbar is created that links to (or in some cases searches) the library’s resources, making it easier for users to find quality information for their teaching and learning (see this article). Not all toolbar solutions cost anything – for every company such as Besttoolbars which sells toolbar solutions, there are free options such as the Google Toolbar for Firefox, or Conduit. There are even specialist browser-plugin toolbars for libraries, such as LibX. These can do much more than just link to resources. A selection from the LibX feature list includes:

• The “Magic Button” – simply select an article title and have Scholar & the OpenURL resolver deliver an appropriate (accessible, “paid-for”) copy. This is a feature we use daily for our own research, it’s proved to be a tremendous time saver.
• Lookups of a complete book title, author, or ISBN – usually by selecting & right-clicking on a webpage.
• Proxying a page or link when coming from off-campus.
• Using cues and autolinking to get from pages that a user frequently uses to the library catalog.

Toolbars that appear as browser plugins could easily be installed across a college, with the advantage that IP address recognition can then allow users straight through to online resources. The LRS could also make the plugin available to users for their home computers and laptops, and in conjunction with appropriate access management (e.g. Shibboleth, or proxy solutions) the user at home could also have a seamless experience.

Note that toolbars don’t have to be something integrated into a browser – with a bit of creative thinking an LRS could incorporate them into their webpages, Moodle, the college desktop or even the OPAC. Let us know if you have tried this kind of approach – and how successful it was!

Andrew Eynon’s Library 2.0 blog is already added to our blogroll, but it is worth giving it a bit of extra publicity. It is part of a CyMAL-funded project, and covers how libraries can use Web 2.0 to become Library 2.0 institutions. So if you are interested in this area, follow that blog, or subscribe to its RSS http://andrewey.wordpress.com/feed/

In case you missed it in print, here’s a link to the supplement published in yesterday’s Guardian (April 22nd). It was a library special on “Colleges, universities and the digital challenge” – quite a useful collection of articles on topics such as “Learning Spaces”, “Library 2.0″ and other 21st Century library issues. It’s rather HE-focussed but there is still some interesting discussion on forging a new role for librarians as “information brokers” and generally raising the profile of learning resources.

Read 0n at the Guardian website….