Library Tools, Tips, & Technologies

While out with friends in Vancouver over the holidays, we discussed what we might write in an open letter to the City of Vancouver regarding the upcoming Winter 2010 Olympics and how visitors might view our fair (um, okay, grey) city.

The open letter would include the dissing of many restaurants in Vancouver that include the same menu items (braised pork ribs, and other such comfort foods), as well as the inability to rent a car with snow tires in Vancouver, despite the fact that every visitor renting a car during the Olympics will be driving the sea-to-sky highway to Whistler, which-though widened-has not be de-winded (not a word), nor de-iced.

There were other points, but the point of these points in this post is that it got me to wondering what an open letter to an academic library might include....

Here are some things I might include in an open letter to the library (virtual and physical musings included):

-why are there so few self-check stations at libraries, and why have they been so sparsely implemented in libraries?

-why don't call numbers make more sense? I mean, why can't I find the book?

-why can't one drink and eat in a library? I know the reason, but it's not really holding up now is it?

-No one cares where the electronic journal article came from-as long as it's free and accessible. Why do we insist on explaining it, and why do these explanations have to be coined "information literacy?"

-why are the computers hidden?

-where is "my library" with my preferences?

http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=106-1

Interesting predictions for 2010. Several include a renewed focus on pedagogy before technology-yeah!

Design Before 'Cool'-2010 must be the year for Learning Design. We must take the "cool" technologies (gaming, social media, video connections) and do the hard work of designing learning methodologies that can cost effectively scale. Leave the hype and fascination about 2.0 or 3.0 and let's design!" —Elliott Masie, chair of The Learning Consortium, and CEO of The Masie Center

Not Quite 2.0
"We know there is more e-learning, but it isn't what you expect. Is it lessons in a virtual classroom? PowerPoint slides with an audio track? Scenario-based e-programs? What of 2.0? After an opportunistic study of nearly 1,000 practitioners, Jim Marshall and I were surprised. Instructional design practices made a strong showing. Tutorials, scenario-based learning, and problem-solving strategies were popular. "-—Allison Rossett, San Diego State University

Learning With a Capital L
"In 2010 the learning focus will favor pedagogy over technology in innovative learning discussions. "-—Ignatia "Inge" de Waard, e-learning coordinator and researcher at Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp

And my favorite-
Users Trump Designers
"I've been a broken record on the subject of user-centricity for the past 10 years, but in 2010 the tectonic plates are finally beginning to move. The intelligence of the users—individually and collectively—trumps the intelligence of the designer. Online learning will become much more adaptive and collaborative, more dynamic and less static in design, leveraging and activating the collective intellectual capital of the organization. Semantic technologies, taxonomies and ontologies will become critically important as filters for user-directed learning that bends time and space, allowing the learner to assemble needed knowledge, data, tools and ideas in real time. "Expertise" will extend beyond the individual to the group, from something one has, to something one uses. This shift impacts the design of online solutions more than any time in the past. "
—Jonathon Levy, president and chief strategy officer at LeveragePoint Innovations

I was reading (okay, skimming) the 2010 Horizon Report which comes out annually and is "a collaborative effort between the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) and the New Media Consortium (NMC). Each year, the report identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education within three adoption horizons: a year or less, two to three years, and four to five years."

One such emerging trend is mobile computing. Which brings us to iPhone apps. The report provided an example of one such app created by the San Franciso Museum of Modern Art.

"The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is offering two new mobile applications: Making Sense of Modern Art Mobile and the Rooftop Garden iPhone Tour. MSoMA Mobile is available
on iPod Touches that may be borrowed by museum visitors and includes interviews with architects, artists, and curators; video footage; and music and poetry related to the collection.The Rooftop Garden tour is available at no cost as an application in the iTunes Store." (2010 Horizon Report).

What can libraries do to harness these new trends? For example, rather than re-doing our iPod tour of the library (as we are currently doing), should we be pursuing how to add an iPhone app to provide such a tour? And if so, does Apple have an iphone app area comparable to itunes u-for educational purposes?

Other musings on the same subject:
-iPhone Apps and the Library (if you can’t build one, join one): http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_ubiquitous_librarian/2009/02/iphone-apps-and-the-library-if-you-cant-build-one-join-one.html
-Here's a list of the top ten iphone apps librarians should have on their phone: http://kenleyneufeld.com/2009/02/11/top-10-iphone-apps-for-librarians/