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Emerging Technologies Committee

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Presentation on theme: "Emerging Technologies Committee"— Presentation transcript:

1 Emerging Technologies Committee
Exploring Potential, Improving Services Jin Wu Emily Brennan Amy Chatfield Megan Curran Annie Hughes

2 Outline History How it works Accomplishments Challenges Tips
Future plans

3 History Created in April 2010 Committee members (5 librarians) Goals
1 Emerging Technologies Librarian 1 Metadata Librarian 3 Reference Librarians Janis Brown, the Associate Director for Systems & Information Technology Division came up the idea of ETC. She thought it would be helpful to get ideas from different departments in the library with regards to technology.This committee was created since I started my new position as Emerging Technologies Librarian at USC Norris Medical Library. My position was a newly created position as well. The committee is composed of a chair (myself) and 4 members, which are 1 metadata librarian and three reference librarians from Pharmacy, Medical and Dental. The goals of the committee are to identify, examine and implement appropriate technologies into the library environment, therefore improving library services. And we explore technologies for all areas of the library, like reference, instruction, general marketing, etc.

4 How it works Meet once a month Collaborate Share ideas Tech liaisons
It’s fun! -It looks simple and that’s actually how the committee works. We set up monthly meetings at the beginning of a semester. -And committee members bring up ideas that they thought might be useful. -We collaborate on examining and evaluating the technologies together and brainstorm ideas on how this new technologies can be applied into library settings. -Meanwhile, members are tech liaisons to their own depts. If a new technology is not suitable for library setting, it might be useful at work. -Last but not least, it’s fun! The other day my colleague whose office next to the conference room was complaining to me that we laughed too loud during our meeting. We really enjoyed working in this committee.

5 Accomplishments Evaluate new products Make recommendations
DeskTracker Wufoo Animoto NetSupportSchool Make recommendations Mobile site vs. apps Marketing Committee Brainstorm new services Foursquare QR codes Promote new services Facebook Twitter Less than a year since the committee was created, we have already had some accomplishments. We evaluated a product called “DeskTracker” which tracks reference statistics and recommended it to the Library Executive Committee to decide to purchase it or not. We also evaluated Wufoo, an online HTML form builder service, which has been used on the library website to replace old forms. Animoto is a web application that produces videos from user-selected photos, video clips and music. We have been using it for marketing purpose. We also evaluated a software called NetSupportSchool, which monitors students computers and remote control softwares. This software has been used in library instructions. The committee has also made several recommendations to the LEC. As mobile devices are getting popular, library decide to provide better mobile access. We discussed the pros and cons of having a library app and library mobile site and investigate the cost thus recommended to have an outside company to develop both library app and mobile site for the library. We have also created marketing plan integrating our presence on these social networking sites, our library’s blog, physical spaces in the library, and handouts/flyers. This is involved deciding what format and style of communication best fits each of these communications channels, and deciding on message frequency. This ensures that Norris is providing the same information via different channels each in channel-appropriate tones. As an example, for a recent author reading event, instead of posting the same formal 500-word description of an event on the blog, on Facebook, printing it on a poster, and putting it on a handout, we had a formal 500-word description on the blog; an informal 100-word description on Facebook, reposted every 3 days; we did one very short fun tweet every 5 days about the event;  put five sentences on a flyer and added a QR code which led to a special interview with the author; and made a poster with more words and information. The ETC has also promoted knowledge sharing about technologies across the library.  ETC members are formally charged to keep their departments aware of ETC activities and plans. These formal reports have encouraged more discussion of technology and sharing of knowledge about technology overall, including our student and part-time staff as well as full timers.This is a great informal way to hear about new technologies, or new uses for existing technologies. - changing the culture of the library as a whole, e.g., using clickers at staff mtgs/parties

6 keep up with technologies
implementation keep up with technologies staff buy-in adoption staff time Challenges -implementation: we may recommend something to the appropriate section supervisor, but implementation is not guaranteed -While all committee members are generally aware of new technologies, but we still have to always keep up with technologies and learn by ourselves. - Since we all have other duties so we have to carve out time to explore on our own time. -Figuring out what technologies our patrons would use if offered by the library is a challenge. It’s hard to tell if technologies will be adopted by USC health sciences students. It’s difficult to find information about uses of these technologies in academia or libraries, so many times we have to be creative and envision how our students and faculty would adopt a technology into their work. - have to have staff buy-in/trust

7 Tips Discover new technologies Include people who are interested
Focus on technologies that work for your library Don’t use cost as a main consideration -to discover new technologies, read blogs, become fans of libraries on FB, look at other library’s webpages -For creating a committee, select people who are interested in technologies, regardless of their role/status in the library. We happen to have 5 librarians on our committee, but including people who are interested is key.   focus on technologies that will work for YOUR library/institution. Hospitals might be different than academic envirnoment. For sustaining the committee, realize that not every technology is appropriate for your setting or interests of your patrons. We investigate, demo, and discuss many more technologies than we end up using in our work. You cannot expect that this committee will have a steady reliable output unlike other committees in the library world. - our focus is more on identifying and exploring technologies, and not necessarily implementing everything we explore. - We also don’t use cost as a main consideration....although this may be a consideration for other libraries. - We try to focus on free tech

8 Future plans Think more about mobile devices
Online presence standardization Library mobile site/app Development of marketing committee More QR codes in the library -Implementing use of our iPads, Galaxy tablet, etc.  Thinking more about mobile devices...  we all have gadgets, some from the grant -Technical Services plans to integrate QR codes on the bookshelves which lead to relevant subject-specific guides

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