Communicator Wiki
High
Touch/High
Tech: Moving
Library Staff
Training and
Services into Beatrice Pulliam
the Cloud Heather Williamson
October Conference
Dartmouth College
9 October 2009

Content Slide Title Goes Here
High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Who We Are - Institution
o Private, liberal arts Catholic institution founded in 1917
o Primarily undergraduate
o >5000 students
o 49 major areas of study and 11 graduate programs
Who We Are - Library
o Staff: 13 Professional staff, 20 Support staff, ~20 Students
Most staff have been @ library > 10 years
Majority of staff in tech and access services < 5 years
o Open 117 hours week

High Touch/High Tech @Here
Content Slide Title Goes PC
Our Library+ Commons
o Integrated, Technology-rich Services
rich
o Multiple Points of Access
In person
Three desks - Reference, Circ, InTeLeR Station
Online
Website and Libguides
Email
IM
SMS (coming soon)
o Academic and Social
o Collaborative Learning Spaces

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
PC...
2007: D. Russell Bailey develops PC's Library+ Commons doc
Commons cross-training model begins with student staff
training
Staff introduced to add'l commons concepts at training
2008: IT develops Self-Help Wiki
2009: Include attainable technology development in staff goals
Select staff enroll in 23 Things
LibGuides subscription purchased
Staff begin applying 23 Things concepts to library projects
More cross-training ensues
Beta pilot of tiered research assistance begins
Development of public service training modules using LibGuides & wiki

Cloud Resources…
“Scalable, virtualized resources provided as a
service over the internet…”, Wikipedia
“The PC age is giving way to a new era…the utility
age” – Nicholas Carr, in The Big Switch, on the
changing of computing

high touch/high tech @pc...
"The Tragedy of the Cloud?"
The Library at University of Victoria, Wellington NZ

define :: fail whale
• Visual error message that appears
when Twitter has an outage or its
server is down due to 'too many
tweets'

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Fail Whales....We've all had a few....
2005 - Phillips Memorial Library News Blog on Blogspot
(13 Posts 2005-2006)
2007 - (Relaunch) Library Blog on Wordpress.com
(47 posts 2007 - 2008)
lesson :: learned - it can take a village to grow a blog.
- evaluation of betas, pilots should be ongoing
- don’t be afraid to ditch something that doesn’t work

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High Touch/High Tech @ PC
March 2009 - 23 Things
o Initial ((soft)) goal: build awareness of emerging technologies
Free online training provided by RI's Office of Library &
Info Svcs. (OLIS)
Great option for departments with varying staff schedules
10 week commitment, but no staff time required to
develop training

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Tools used for Training
• LibGuides with questions
o http://providence.libguides.com/aecontent.php?pi
d=69006&sid=510224
• Use Wiki to upload answers
• Can monitor progress and areas that need further
development

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
ACRL standards as guide
• Concerning lifelong learning
• Standard Four*: "The information
literate student, individually or as a
member of a group, uses information
effectively to accomplish a specific
purpose"
• Flexibility/adaptability to new
technologies
• Sharing/Communicating result with
others
*Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, ALA

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Internal Workflow and Communication
• Campus IT Self-Help Wiki
o Disorganized shared network
o Had separate private area created for Access Services
Model implementation for rest of library
Can be accessed ANYWHERE in the library
o Migrated updated policies and procedures
Plan to put task-oriented tutorials here
oriented
Jing/Captivate/Camtasia/YouTube
o Track and update hardware and software inventories
o Allows staff to collaborate on projects

Access Services Intranet

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Internal Workflow and Communication (cont.)
• Conducting Process Review (NERCOMP 2009)
o Microsoft Office Communicator Server - IT Pilot,
ommunicator
cloudlike
o Microsoft Outlook Total Workday Control
o NOT a conspiracy group! ☺
o Leveraging existing Task Function to track ILL
requests
o Workaround - Too many systems that don’t play
well together

Task Form to Track ILLs (blank)

Task Form to Track ILLs (populated)

Borrowing Request Tasks at a Glance

PC New Book Area LibGuide created by LCA

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
TIPs for Planning Staff Technology Development
• Get staff buy-in and solicit input for training suggestions
in
• Training should be ongoing. Grow your skills.
• Training should be FUN. Give staff time to play with new
technologies
• Teach staff to be "change ready"
• Don’t be afraid to DITCH something that didn’t work.

High Touch/High Tech @ PC
Some Final Thoughts
Keep current with CE opportunities offered by your local,
consortial and regional library organizations. Many offer
free training opportunities
•Seek out your natural partners on campus! Can be
Seek
especially important if new technology use requires
approval…
•Leverage the resources you currently have, and use them
Leverage
in a NEW way
•Offer to “pilot” a new technology/service….good way to
Offer
grow expertise in house. Evaluation/Metrics should be
ongoing…

Survey Cloud Responses

THANK YOU!!
Beatrice Pulliam: bpulliam@providence.edu
or twitter: beatricepulliam
Heather Williamson: hwillia2@providence.edu
Presentation: (http://slideshare.net/pulliam/octconf09)
slideshare.net/pulliam/