Comments on: …and then my head exploded …. http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/ It is and we do. Musing, enthusing, libraries, emerging technologies, balancing, being mum. Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:43:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: peta http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/comment-page-1/#comment-36479 peta Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:24:42 +0000 http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/#comment-36479 At MPOW the students really hammer the LMS (learning management system) - they have to visit it. I reckon that's a good place to start embedding the library experience. We have a library tab where we can add search boxes for catalogue, federated search, meebo chat box, useful links, feed from the blog and anything else we can widgetize. Next step would be to build a bridge between the library system and Blackboard so that student logs in and on their first page they can get a list of their current loans, or maybe just loans due in the next 7 days, list of holds and their status, relevant library events. When they visit a subject site they can get a list of course readings with links out to the e-reserve system for digital copies or to the library catalogue for hard-copies in the reserve collection. A vision -- the challenge is in making it happen. For many libraries getting the technical skills on board and resourcing for these projects can be challenging. There is so much competition for project resourcing - I guess on the bright side it means that we are working with lots of colleagues who all have great ideas to improve the student experience. At MPOW the students really hammer the LMS (learning management system) – they have to visit it. I reckon that’s a good place to start embedding the library experience.

We have a library tab where we can add search boxes for catalogue, federated search, meebo chat box, useful links, feed from the blog and anything else we can widgetize.

Next step would be to build a bridge between the library system and Blackboard so that student logs in and on their first page they can get a list of their current loans, or maybe just loans due in the next 7 days, list of holds and their status, relevant library events. When they visit a subject site they can get a list of course readings with links out to the e-reserve system for digital copies or to the library catalogue for hard-copies in the reserve collection.

A vision — the challenge is in making it happen. For many libraries getting the technical skills on board and resourcing for these projects can be challenging. There is so much competition for project resourcing – I guess on the bright side it means that we are working with lots of colleagues who all have great ideas to improve the student experience.

]]> By: Kathryn Greenhill http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/comment-page-1/#comment-36458 Kathryn Greenhill Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:25:48 +0000 http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/#comment-36458 *Myles*. The problem is that librarians still don't have expertise at co-ordinating and organising multiple online systems and tools into a unified user experience - and we don't have the funds to employ developers/designers to do it for us. A *big* reason why we don't have funds for developers is that we pay vendors huge amounts to provide data silos that have no decent, flexible, freely available API so we can get our data out. These data storage / stock management people also provide user interfaces...so they try to sell us something that does what we can't afford to develop for ourselves. I was going to end my post with "maybe we should just get back to getting our vendors to provide simple data interrogation systems" ..but that conclusion - being 180 degrees from what I usually think.... did my head in too. There are some great Open Source LMS out there that are being installed by some large library systems, eg. Koha and Evergreen. Even if we could afford it, I'm not sure what libraries have to entice developers to specialise in bringing together all those threads we need to really serve our users online. *Myles*. The problem is that librarians still don’t have expertise at co-ordinating and organising multiple online systems and tools into a unified user experience – and we don’t have the funds to employ developers/designers to do it for us.

A *big* reason why we don’t have funds for developers is that we pay vendors huge amounts to provide data silos that have no decent, flexible, freely available API so we can get our data out. These data storage / stock management people also provide user interfaces…so they try to sell us something that does what we can’t afford to develop for ourselves.

I was going to end my post with “maybe we should just get back to getting our vendors to provide simple data interrogation systems” ..but that conclusion – being 180 degrees from what I usually think…. did my head in too.

There are some great Open Source LMS out there that are being installed by some large library systems, eg. Koha and Evergreen.

Even if we could afford it, I’m not sure what libraries have to entice developers to specialise in bringing together all those threads we need to really serve our users online.

]]> By: Myles Eftos http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/comment-page-1/#comment-36452 Myles Eftos Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:37:48 +0000 http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/04/09/and-then-my-head-exploded/#comment-36452 Besides the identity thing, why should a LMS have an Event system in the first place? Whatever happened to software doing one thing well, instead of lots of things badly? An LMS should be, as you say, a branch of a students experience, no the centre... Besides the identity thing, why should a LMS have an Event system in the first place? Whatever happened to software doing one thing well, instead of lots of things badly?

An LMS should be, as you say, a branch of a students experience, no the centre…

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