Creating Interactive Course Assignment Pages The OSU Libraries ICAP Project Coalition for Networked Information Fall 2007 Task Force Meeting Kim Griggs, Jane Nichols, Margaret Mellinger

ICAP Project Goals Connect students with quality library information when and where they need it for course assignments. Enable librarians to employ traditional library resources with Web 2.0 features in easily created and maintained web pages.

ICAP Project Strategies Determine the right approach –Course Management System, Content Management System, Campus Portal, Broader library software environment, Custom Solution? Get people with the right skill sets –Hired a programmer to develop the tool Use an agile development cycle –Ruby on Rails provides a framework to quickly develop prototypes and incorporate user feedback Perform usability testing throughout the process –Include stakeholders early and often

ICAPs: Connecting Students to Libraries To help students more easily access quality library information, we developed the Interactive Course Assignment Pages (ICAPs). ICAPs are dynamic web pages that integrate Web 2.0 features, chat and RSS feeds, etc. with traditional library content, such as catalogs and article databases.

ICAP Example

ICAP Publishing System: For and By Librarians Librarians have enough to do and maintaining static HTML pages is tedious and time consuming. OSU Libraries decided to develop the ICAP Tool, which enables librarians to easily create, manage, and publish ICAPs. The ICAP tool provides libraries with a system librarians can administer through a web browser.

ICAP Tool Screenshot

Initial feedback, assessment and analysis Librarians –Forums, usability testing, meetings, use statistics Students –Surveys, s, use statistics, chats and conversations Faculty –Surveys, s, conversations

Lessons Learned The ICAP project provided openings for discussion with campus about how the library supports student learning.

Lessons learned Learned a lot about the time and energy people need to spend to adopt new software Do the background research, but don’t get stuck there Use case scenarios and requirements documents Incorporating usability testing and training facilitated communication and feedback Built capacity, for the team and for the librarians. Learned to work through inevitable difficulties in project management

Future directions

Image credits Ryan Sawhill – pause ARendle's photos. Secret garden gate open. Valley Library (Oregon State University. A Jolly Librarian. 3/ 3/