Week 8

The renovation project had caused some interesting rumors to circulate among the student body at Millersville.  One of the most frequently overheard statements is that Millersville doesn't have a library right now, which is patently untrue, not to mention potentially disastrous, particularly when prospective students are told this on campus tours.  Some rumors are more amusing - did you know that a dormitory is being put on the top floors of the new library?  I must admit, I always dreamed of being able to live in the campus library, so I had to chuckle at this one, but as obviously untrue and ridiculous as it is, rumors like this one are potentially harmful because they undermine students' opinion of the library at this difficult time.  With wild rumors like these running amok, someone must address them immediately, which is where Professor Erin Dorney, the outreach librarian, comes in.  Erin has addressed many rumors, complaints and concerns raised by students throughout the library renovation, seeking to remind students that yes, the library has remained open throughout the renovation, that many of the library's materials are available in the temporary library in Gerhart, that the library is working hard to help students obtain the materials they need through ILL, and that the full library staff is ready and willing to assist students in any way they can from their temporary offices across campus.  Erin reaches out to the Millersville community in a number of ways:  through the library's website and Facebook page, the library's blog about the renovation project, the faculty newsletter, and the campus newspaper.  In addition to addressing students' concerns about the renovation, Erin has also gathered ideas from students about what they would like to see in the new library from regular conversations with the Library Student Advisory Board.

One of the biggest challenges that Erin faces in communicating with the Millersville community is juggling all the different avenues of communication.  Every student and faculty member prefers a different method of communication, so it's important to get library news out to the campus on every available format, and in today's world, that's a lot of different formats.  Nonetheless, it's important to communicate with each community member in their preferred format so that important news reaches everyone.  The library routinely needs to get the word out about upcoming events, new resources and policy changes, so keeping community members informed is a constant and ongoing task.

Professor Greg Szczyrbak, the learning technologies librarian, also talked with me about how the library connects with the Millersville community through technology.  The campus uses the Desire2Learn learning management system, which allows faculty to create and manage online course content.  One of the best features of D2L is that it allows librarians and faculty to store the learning objects they create and share them with other instructors on campus, or even around the world.  For example, if a faculty member creates a diagram, model, graph, tutorial or other type of learning object for a lesson, they can save the object in D2L's learning repository, where it can be discovered and used by other instructors in their department or field.  I find this feature of D2L interesting and exciting because, as scholarly content increasingly becomes open source and open access, this will be an important resource for librarians and faculty alike.  Librarians can create learning objects as well, which faculty can easily include in their course sites, instantly incorporating a subject librarian's contact information and subject guide into the course website.

Another important set of resources for students on the library’s website are the online tutorials available through the “How Do I …?” link.  Librarians can create online knowledge bases on any topic, ranging from general information about the library’s resources to very specialized information on doing research in a specific field.  The “How Do I …?” knowledge bases are created using LibAnswers, a Springshare product similar to LibGuides, which is used to create subject guides.  Having used LibGuides myself to create a subject guide for a class project, which was a fairly simple and intuitive process, I can imagine that LibAnswers make it equally easy for librarians to create online knowledge bases tailored to the unique needs of their community.

Greg also gave me a brief overview of how the library creates and maintains content for the library website using Drupal Gardens.  I have not used Drupal myself yet, but as Greg showed me how he is able to create and edit content with Drupal, I found that it is a surprisingly easy and intuitive tool to use, and very similar to Wix, a freely available online tool for creating and maintaining websites.

Greg and I also discussed some of the new teaching techniques and technology that will be used in the new library.  Next week I'll be attending the SSHELCO conference in Harrisburg, PA, where Greg and his colleague Professor Jessica George, the education librarian, will conduct a presentation on these topics.  Stay tuned for my next post where I'll discuss these topics in more detail!