A Scalable Approach to Providing Course-based Access to Library Resources

1. A Scalable Approach to Providing Course-based Access to Library Resources Tito Sierra, Jason Casden, and Kim DuckettNCSU LibrariesDLF Fall Forum 2008November 13, 2008

2. Outline • Background • Introducing “Course Views” • Demo • Technical Implementation • Usage • Lessons Learned

3. Background

4. Our Environment • Large institution (30,000+ students) • Many courses (6000+ courses) • Mixed LMS Environment • Blackboard Vista • Moodle • WolfWare (legacy filesystem solution)

5. Library Course Pages • Hand-authored course guides • Assignment focused • Do not represent the range of stuff the library has to offer

6. Library Course Pages • Hand-authored course guides • Assignment focused • Do not represent the range of stuff the library has to offer

7. Problem: Limited Reach

8. Introducing “Course Views”

9. What is Course Views? A distillation of the most student-centric stuff the library has to offer.

11. Course Views • Web application branded Library Tools • Homegrown, written in PHP • Product launched August 2008

12. Goals

13. Goals • A Course View for every course

14. Goals • A Course View for every course • A scalable and sustainable system for library course content delivery

15. Goals • A Course View for every course • A scalable and sustainable system for library course content delivery • Library content customized as much as possible to the course

16. Demo

17. Technical Implementation

18. Request URL http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/course/ENG/101

19. Request URL http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/course/ENG/101

20. Request URL http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/course/ENG/101

21. Course Identifiers NCSU example: ENG 101 • ‘ENG’ = curriculum code • ‘101’ = course number • ‘ENG 101’ = full course identifier

22. Value of Standard Identifiers The use of standardized course identifiers (Ex: ENG 101) enabled simplifiedintegration with a variety of external applications. Helps with collaboration.

23. A Course View for Every Course • No dependency on staff to create pages • Course Views can generate a course page for any known curricula • Librarians may further refine the content that appears for a particular course

25. ≈

28. Content Customization

29. Cascading Selection

30. Cascading Selection

31. Cascading Selection

32. Cascading Selection Course level: ENG 101 Kawanna

33. English 101

34. Cascading Selection Course level: ENG 333 Kim

35. English 333

36. Cascading Selection Cindy Curriculum level: ENG

37. English (default)

38. Integration

39. Integration Points • Blackboard Vista • Moodle • WolfWare • Library Website

40. Blackboard Vista

41. Blackboard Vista

42. Moodle

43. Moodle

44. WolfWare

45. WolfWare

46. QuickSearch

47. QuickSearch

48. Library Homepage

49. Library Homepage

50. Usage