This document discusses the University of Houston Libraries' efforts to implement library resources and services into the university's instance of the Blackboard learning management system. It describes creating a "Library Course" in Blackboard to provide library instruction, developing research guides and linking them to specific courses, training for librarians on Blackboard, and plans to include e-reserves and other dynamic library content directly in Blackboard. The goal is to meet students' information needs within the system they already use for courses to improve discovery of library resources.

1. Anita
R.
Dryden,
Digital
&
Web
Projects
Fellow
Chris=na
H.
Gola,
Head
of
Instruc=on
&
Outreach

2. } ~40,000
students
} Commuter
campus
} High
#
transfer
students
} Decentralized
} Tier
One
Aspira=ons
Shasta
III,
Courtesy
of
Special
Collec=ons,
UH
Libraries
Digital
Library

3. } Driven
by
a
few
tech-­‐savvy
liaisons
} ScaQered,
inconsistent
} Libguides
&
Meebo
“Puzzle
Pieces”
from
Flickr
user
andrewmalone

4. } Instruc=onal
Designers
} Managers
of
Blackboard
Vista
and
more
} Short
staffed
and
underfunded
“solu;on”
from
istockphoto

5. } History, oops! Value??
} PHP script using Blackboard’s
template variables from UT
Libraries
} “Library Course” – students
self enroll
“Blue
Screen
of
Death”
from
stock.xchng
user
cdw0107

6. } Simple for anyone to
understand
} Easy to communicate
} First steps are “tech free”
} Little effort needed on FDIS
side

7. } Identified courses
} Course builder with
permission
} Manually linked to LibGuides
} Gathered stats from one
semester
“Copy
Cats
Ahead”
from
iStockPhoto

8. 3,872 hits
in one
semester

9. } Still too much work for
implementing in Blackboard
VISTA, but…
} Blackboard Learn
} Implementation Team
“Heres
is
a
top”
from
stock.xchng
user
blary54

10. } Training - 4 days, all day
} Not all relevant
} But we learned everything
} Got more than we wanted

11. } Campus Level
◦ Variety of content
} Course level
◦ Class Guides
“Take
Two”
from
stock.xchng
user
Ulrik

12. } Courses/Organiza=ons
} Tabs
} Content
Collec=on
◦ Individual
◦ Course/Organiza=on
◦ Ins=tu=on
◦ Library

17. } Research Guides (course level)
} Library Tab (institution level)
} E-Reserves (content collection) – maybe!

18. } Discovery at point of need
} Automated process necessary for 1800
courses per semester
} Dynamic links pass subject code and course
number
} Linking vs. Embedding
} Based on Duke Model

20. } Library has administrator privileges
} “Modules” for customizable content
} Dynamic content from other library systems
} Focused on point-of-need research help

22. } Part of “content collection”
} Folders are automatically created for each
course
} Folders expire each semester and content
embargoed for reuse

24. } Dynamic
content
wherever
possible
} Minimal
library
staff
working
in
Bb
} E-­‐Reserves,
largely
similar
to
current
workflows
“Low
Maintenance”
from
Flickr
user
WiQy
Name