As open education initiatives aiming to lower the cost of course materials appeared at two universities, librarians became involved in identifying open educational resources (OERs) for university courses. However, when considering a number of subject areas-particularly in colleges focused on upper-division instruction-librarians encountered problems related to the availability of resources and materials selection processes. For this project, librarians selected one prominent subject area at their respective institutions-engineering-and worked to identify best practices for introducing OERs into courses. They surveyed engineering faculty and instructors to better understand their perceptions and needs related to OERs and, based on this work, they suggest best practices for liaison librarians in specialized fields who wish to incorporate OERs into their outreach work with a focus on upper-division courses.
OpenRefine is a powerful tool for exploring, cleaning, and transforming data. In this lesson you will learn how to use Refine to fetch URLs and parse web content.
The University of Idaho Library seeks the support of a National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives Planning Grant in the amount of $99,873 to refine, test, and promote CollectionBuilder, a lightweight, flexible tool for creating digital collection and exhibit websites driven by metadata, and powered by modern static web technology.CollectionBuilder programmatically generates polished and engaging websites from spreadsheets of collection metadata, creating interactive visualizations for users to discover content and understand context-from maps and timelines to data downloads. Unlike currently available platforms, CollectionBuilder is uniquely focused on providing information professionals with the mechanisms and support needed to independently create digital collections and exhibits without highly specialized IT systems or expertise. The project is guided by the values of GLAM institutions, and pragmatically designed to lower barriers to development, deployment, and participation in digital initiatives.The project team will use the IMLS grant over the course of one year to 1) refine and expand the development of CollectionBuilder, focusing particularly on optimizing the code base and developing workshops, documentation, online tutorials, and other content to facilitate the tool's use; 2) build a community of collaborators and advisors to test CollectionBuilder and contribute to its refinement; and 3) map the creation of future web publishing tools that situate libraries and information professionals at the forefront of their development and implementation.At its core, CollectionBuilder leverages librarians' specialized skills in metadata creation and subject analysis to create web publications, shifting the focus from click-on buttons and forms to creating high quality structured data. Following a "collections as data" model, the tool processes collection data, exposes it in reusable formats, and consumes it to generate accessible user interfaces and interactive discovery methods. Powered by modern static-web technologies and deployed on minimal infrastructure, CollectionBuilder uses Jekyll and a " JAM " stack approach to build complete websites from three basic components: a spreadsheet with well-formed metadata, a directory of digital objects, and a configuration file. This data-driven, minimal computing-based approach offers secure and sustainable solutions for libraries and cultural institutions that lack the resources, time, and expertise required to implement commercially marketed library platforms for digital collections and related web publications.To make this tool as widely accessible and usable as possible , we intend to collaborate with 3-4 institutions, including one that serves diverse communities, during the grant period. These institutions will receive a stipend from the grant in return for installing and using the tool and allowing us to visit the institution in-person to assist and observe their usage. We have also assembled an advisory board whose members have a broad range of experience i...
When University of Idaho (UI) Extension brought the Idaho 4-H Teen Conference to UI's main campus, the conference organizers collaborated with UI librarians to organize a workshop in the library's newly established makerspace, the Making, Innovating, and Learning Laboratory (MILL). In the MILL, the students used cutting-edge technology to foster new or existing interests in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This article describes how Extension and 4-H youth development professionals can team with librarians to use library makerspaces to introduce 4-H high school students to STEM technologies and digital literacies that will be necessary for jobs of the future.
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