Accomplishments Submitted for Annual Report
Hybrid Class Support
Mobile Stations
EZ Connect wireless network
TechLending (audiocassette, EdTPA cameras, Apple chargers, Nikon Camera)
Student Training (TechLending and Sandbox)
Digitization (Kaltura, VHS conversions)
EZ Proxy exploration
OCLC Discovery search box
ILLiad Upgrade and ILLWMS exploration
Hybrid Class Support
This year, Memorial Library was asked to house the college’s first satellite course, where a professor would teach a group of students while located in another location. We worked with the Psychology department, campus IT and the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia to research, implement, and support this course throughout spring semester. We were able to purchase the technology and support the class for under $3,000. This was a tremendous cost savings to the college, where initial estimates were between $20,000 and $30,000 to outfit one room with the technology necessary to support the class. While we experienced some difficulties along the way, overall we were very pleased with the outcome of the experiment and look forward to building upon our success in the coming year.
Mobile Display Carts
One of the needs expressed by faculty in our end of year review of the sandbox was the desire to have additional screens to use for group work during class sessions. Although we were not able to replicate the mobile display carts in the sandbox, we were able to purchase two smaller carts that served a similar purpose. These were used sporadically throughout the semester, but were very successful when used.
EZConnect Wireless Network access
One of the biggest problems that we have faced with loaning technology is connecting our devices to the campus wireless networks. With IT implementing the new Berry EZConnect wireless network, we were able to work with them and develop a solution that provides all of our devices with secure access to the network without the need for faculty/staff credentials being necessary for authentication.
Technology Lending
This year we consolidated all of our lending technology into a central area at the library lab service desk. This enabled patrons to have a one stop location for everything technology related. We also expanded our offerings to include various cables, chargers, devices that would allow us to meet our students’ needs.
Student Training and Support (TechLending and Sandbox)
We invested additional time this year in the training of all students who were assigned to work in the library lab. They received training in operation and troubleshooting of all sandbox and lab equipment and were a very effective first line of support for these locations. Also, they were the primary contact point for the poster printing as well as setup and cleanup for the online psychology class.
During the year, the Tech Team improved discoverability and accessibility of materials for students and faculty with a few projects.
Digitization of Media
With the addition of the Kaltura streaming media platform to campus, the library took the lead in offering digitization services to faculty that would convert their media to digital format. The majority of this media were no longer supported by classroom technology and needed to be converted to streaming media so that it would remain usable in their courses.
EZProxy Exploration
One of the recent updates to OCLC WMS collection manager added a tab for to manage EZProxy entries and appeared to integrate the hosted version of EZProxy into WMS. We were very excited and began the process to migrate away from a local server to a hosted solution. Once we paid for the hosted solution and began testing, we realized that it was not performing as desired. Much to our dismay, WMS and the hosted server were not connected and according to OCLC they had no plans to connect the two systems. We will continue to manage our local server as is, without the additional cost of a hosted solution, and not renew the EZProxy contract at the end of the year.
OCLC Discovery Migration
One of our goals when we considered migrating away from ExLibris’ Voyager library system was the desire to offer a single search option for all of Berry’s resources. When OCLC announced the development of their Discovery interface, we investigated if it would meet our needs and were excited to find out that it did. We migrated to the new interface over the summer of 2015 and added a single search box to the library’s home page. The addition has been well received and we are now investigating the possibility of customizing an additional search box for our satellite locations in the CMC and Music Library.
ILLiad and WorldShare ILL exploration
OCLC has added the capability of managing Interlibrary Loan in WMS and we began investigating the possibility of transitioning from Illiad to WSILL. We identified that this change would yield a significant cost-savings, but we are working to ensure that no functionality is lost in the transition.