Technology Nuts and Bolts for a Smaller (Library) World 20071019

Technology Nuts and Bolts for a Smaller (Library) World

Welcome to Olin College

– Dee in Second Life

October 19, 2007 Dee Magnoni, Library Director, Olin College of Engineering

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Where did the idea for Olin come from?

♦More than a decade ago, the NSF and the engineering community began calling for the reform of engineering education, recommending:

• hands-on learning• global awareness• entrepreneurial thinking• interdisciplinary learning.


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Idea, Part II

• To kick-start reform, the F. W. Olin Foundation pledged morethan $460 million, one of thelargest grants in U.S. higher education, to create and fund an innovative engineering college and provide full-tuition scholarships to every student in perpetuity.

Franklin W. OlinEngineer, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist


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Olin College Quick Facts

• Chartered: 1997• Location: Needham, MA, next to Babson College • Setting: 70 acre suburban campus – 14 miles from

downtown Boston• Program: Undergraduate engineering• Student body: Approximately 300 (about 75 per

incoming class)• Scholarship: four-year full-tuition (valued at

$130,000) awarded to all• Funding: F. W. Olin Foundation (in excess of $460

million)


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Olin’s Mission

“to prepare future leaders throughan innovative engineeringeducation that bridges scienceand technology, enterprise,and society. Skilled in independent learningand the art of design, our graduates will seekopportunities and take initiative to make apositive difference in the world.”


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Olin’s Library


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Olin’s Library

• Our Mission:The library furthers Olin College's mission by selecting, developing, deploying, and managing resources and services that foster learning, discovery, and innovation. We strive to embody Olin's philosophy of continual improvement by leveraging emerging technologies & practices to serve Olin and the broader learning community.


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Our Physical Space

• Designed to foster– Thought– Discovery– Serendipity– Play– Tranquility– Inspiration

• A break from temporal exhaustion…• Available 24/7


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Our Virtual Space

• Access to cutting edge electronic resources and tools

• Anytime, anywhere via– Wireless campus– VPN– All students own same laptop


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What about Web 2.0?

• Story I– First job ~ 15 years ago

• Printers (dot matrix, oh my!) & copiers• Computer layout


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What about Web 2.0 cont.?

• Story I, cont.– Today

• Wireless laptops• Databases accessed across network from any

machine• Many personalization features available• Printers/copiers same machines and networked


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• Story II– Later job ~ 13 years ago with early

Internet instruction• Telnet, FTP, Archie vs RSS, Google

commands, personalization w/in databases


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• Story III– Summer reading ~ 5 years ago

• Where we are now • Kevin Kelly’s vision

– Links– Tags– Annotations


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Olin Library’s Tech Reality

• Current operating scenario:– Decreased or squeezed budget(s)– Increased expectations for service & speed– Annual shifts in priorities toward more online

content– 3 full time staff + 38 hrs/wk student staff

• Where can technology assist?


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• We care about technology mostly for the functionality.

• Technology & new vendor relationships– Improved back-end workflow tools– Tutorials and handouts– Online training

• NELINET sandbox to transition tech from play/trial to productivity tool(s)


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• Some of our current tools– IM reference (no reference desk)– Self check-out– Wiki – http://silversmith.olin.edu/staff/FrontPage – SurveyMonkey – http://www.surveymonkey.com – Facebook – http://olin.facebook.com/group.php?

gid=2214475979 – LibraryThing – http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?

view=appropriatetech – LibGuides – Only in review stage; will enable changes across

guides, compatibility with web site & Facebook – http://www.springshare.com/libguides/index.html


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• Experimented with blogs early on– Did not have staff to keep information relevant

and current– Will circle back as ability to feed info to blog

develops further• RSS

– Teach database RSS capabilities– Do not maintain library RSS

• Two staff members on Second Life– Very low key presence at this point– Olin has presence via Sloan Consortium


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• Each of our tech tools helps with one or more of the following:– Staff productivity– Service delivery– Access quality– Information currency and flow

• Outside of our daily jobs, these and other technologies are creating a larger library impact


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Beyond us and workflow: A Global Library Village

• Libraries, and especially public libraries, have been great centers for Democracy in the US as well as many other countries, allowing self-education, access to wide assortment of materials, literacy training, etc.

• Impact of Glocal? Web 2.0? Expanding partnerships amongst library types as well as museums, schools and other institutions?


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A Global Library Village I

• Back to Kevin Kelly’s essay: – Scan This Book! New York Times

Magazine. 2006– What can be the impact of the scanned

book/publication with links, tags, annotations?

http://kk.org/img/kk-2003.jpg


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• “Some of us have thousands of books at home, can walk to wonderful big-box bookstores and well-stocked libraries, and can get Amazon.com to deliver next day. The most dramatic effect of digital libraries will be not on us, the well-booked, but on the billions of people worldwide who are underserved by ordinary paper books.”

Bill McCoy, general manager of Adobe’s e-publishing business


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• Open Content Material– The original…Gov Docs– Wikipedia & Citizendium– Wikibooks– PLoS– Jamendo – And so on


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A Global Library Village II

• The $100 laptop project• http://laptop.org/• Give 1 get 1 ($399)• Software open source• Library of basic material – encyclopedia,

dictionary, etc. + ability to link out to material• Combine power of Kelly/McCoy’s digital

library with attainable hardware

http://laptop.org/


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A Global Library Village III

• Open Source & the web– Open tools for writing, spreadsheets,

databases, presentations, project management, etc becoming a reality

– Zoho -- http://www.zoho.com/– Google Docs --

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html

http://www.zoho.com/




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A Global Library Village III

• Open Source & the web– Noodlebib –

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/noodlebib/ – Audacity – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ – LibraryThing –

https://www.librarything.com – Wiki & blog sites– And so on


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A Global Library Village IV

• Expand the community center definition of our physical space

• Web 2.0 technologies + library access to hardware + learning =– Safe places for intellectual exploration– Interact with Kelly/McCoy digital library– Use Open Source tools & software– Remix and produce new material (zines, blogs,

videos and beyond)– Create and/or print own book (PoD)


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A Global Library Village V

• Odd shadows – Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk– http://mturk.amazon.com– “Complete simple tasks that people do better than

computers. And, get paid for it.”– Technology creates opportunity, humans supply labor.– Matching colors in products, transcribing podcasts,

programming, writing, etc.– Wages range from $.01 – several dollars per assignment.

Most are pennies. – Fun hobby? Dark labor exploitation?

http://mturk.amazon.com/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Turk-engraving5.jpg


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A Global Library Village V

• Mechanical Turk and Libraries?– Tagging?– Book reviews?– Bibliographies?– Simple reference? Quality control?– Ability to create filters of qualified “Turkers”– Take a social stand with pay? – Stay within established system and view as

extension of hobbyists & volunteers?– How to pay within institutional budgeting

processes?


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Where do YOU think we’ll go tomorrow?

Add your thoughts to the

Smaller Library World wiki at:

http://smallerlibraryworld.wiki.zoho.com/HomePage.html


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Thanks! Questions?

• Dee MagnoniE-mail: [email protected]

Phone: 781-292-2389

IM: dmlibrarian

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/p/Dee_Magnoni/214500346

Second Life: Ani Petrov