Outreach in Reference Services: Capitalizing in Emerging Technologies

1. Outreach in Reference Services:Capitalizing in Emerging Technologies Columbia Reference Symposium March 10, 2005 Kathryn Shaughnessy Instructional Services Librarian

2. Reference Outreach: the Mission University’s Mission: • Leveraging Technology • Academic Computing Initiative • Infrastructure • St. John’s Portal and WebCT CMS • Social Justice • Student Engagement Reference Mission: • Instruction • Information Literacy • Outreach to Faculty • Equity of service for DL & on-campus

3. Reference Outreach: the Mission plan Using technological innovations for outreach: • RSS • Podcasts • Wikis • Blogs Need to research, build up skills/resources Outreach by modeling use of the technologies

4. Reference Outreach: the Mission Allies Allies in the developing Outreach innovations • Library faculty & Staff • E-services department • DLIS • Distance Learning • Center for Teaching and Learning

5. Reference Outreach: RSS RSS is… Rich Site Summary Really Simple Syndication A growing method of delivering text & audio information • Time-shifted or real-time notification of web-site update • Self-selected or personalized syndication • An informational broadcast in “lite-XML” or RDF • Users access RSS feeds at their convenience via aggregator or Feed-reader

6. Reference Outreach: RSS RSS timeline… • 1997: Dave Winer (Userland) develops “scriptingNews” format • 1999: Userland & Netscape “RSS0.91” continue to develop and improve upon formatting versions, simplifying and standardizing the XML • 2000: RSS 1.0 developed by Dornfest (O’Reilly) using RDF and namespaces; DW/USerland develop xml version of “RSS 0.92” • 2002: MetaWeblog API uses Winer’s RSS 0.92 with XML-RPC for Blogging delivery; DW designs xml-based RSS 2.0 • 2003: RSS 2.0 Specs released through Harvard under a Creative Commons license • 2004: “iPodders” search for a way to retrieve old blogs and audiofiles – develop RSS (Winer) and podcast software (Curry) for podcast delivery From RSS at Harvard Law, by Dave Winer & Hobson & Holtz

7. Reference Outreach: RSS RSS evolution … • News delivery • Website updates • Blogging : Personal / information sharing • Podcast delivery • Education & Research

8. Reference Outreach: RSS RSS for Professional Development and Informed Outreach Put together training program on RSS, readers and provided some basic pertinent feeds: • RSS feeds from Professional Associations: ACRLog:http://acrlblog.org/index.php?feed=rss2 • RSS feeds from Professional Journal-Blogs Library Journal Tech Blog:http://www.libraryjournal.com/LJTechblog.xml • RSS feeds from other practicing librarians Stephen Bell (Academic) : http://keptup.typepad.com/academic/atom.xml • RSS feeds from Vendors/Innovators OCLC Lorcan Blog:http://orweblog.oclc.org/index.xml

9. Reference Outreach: RSS Developing RSS in St. John’s Libraries for Outreach • Feeds for finding/compiling podcast lectures • Scholarly Communication/Open Access journal updates • Library News/Program updates (webpage) • New book updates (OPAC) • ProQuest (Currently Business) & Ebsco (in Development) • Information sharing among professionals

10. Reference Outreach: RSS Practical Questions: • Investment of Money: minimal • Computer access • Aggregator: • free or fee-based • Desktop or web-based • through academic portal Newsgator (www.Newsgator.com) & Bloglines (www.bloglines.com) seem most popular now; a reader directory is available through dmoz

11. Reference Outreach: RSS Practical Questions: • Investment of time: • to learn aggregator • to build up *your* collection of sites • Personal interest • Professional development • Reference-based • to weed out less-helpful sites over time

12. Reference Outreach: RSS • Strengths of using RSS in libraries (worth the time/effort): • Richer resource-base for research/reference/outreach • Facilitates keeping up in your outreach-specialty field • Facilitates keeping abreast of news within your organization • Convenience of checking all sites at once, on your own time • Sharing/Learning from other library professionals • Keep up with developments in other technologies • podcasts, wikis, blogs

13. Reference Outreach: Podcasts A podcast is… A growing method of delivering audio information • Time-shifted • Place-shifted • An informational “broadcast” saved as an audio file (mp3) and distributed via the web (strictly speaking via RSS) • Listeners download/listen at their convenience via desktop/laptop or on a personal player

14. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Podcasting timeline… • August 2004: “iPodders” search for a way to retrieve old blogs and audiofiles – develop RSS (Winer) and podcast software (Curry) • July 2005: iTunes supports/distributes podcasts, get 1 million subscribers in first 2 days • August 2005: 8,000 podcasts, 6 million listeners • December 2005: Podcast selected as “Word of the Year” by editors of New Oxford American Dictionary: "a digital recording of a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player" • January 2006: iTunesU offers “free” courseware distribution Hobson and Holtz Report, 8/4/2005 http://forimmediaterelease.biz/index.php/weblog/2005/08/05/ ) Oxford University Press, US website, http://www.oup.com/us/brochure/NOAD_podcast/?view=usa

15. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Podcasting evolution … • Personal / information sharing • Business applications • Religious groups • Education

16. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Duke Report (2004 - 2005) Noted education benefits: • playback of difficult content/material, especially in sciences • multiple repetitions for students who have difficulty with English • review/study class materials while multitasking (e.g.: commuting or exercising).  • inspired students to create podcasts outside of the classroom; noted increase of “frequency and depth of student interaction,” especially in language & music courses  • increased communication between faculty, library and IT; led to better, collaborative planning, both within the university and with other institutions.

17. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Current Uses of Podcasting in Higher Education (2005-2006) • Classroom Lectures for current students (U of New S. Wales) • Class and Guest Lectures for Alumni (Stanford) • Scholarly Communication (Princeton & U. of Florida) • Audio tours & newscasts (Purdue & U. of Western Ontario) • Admissions & Orientation materials (Mansfield & Drexel) • Outreach to potential students (Peterson’s Directory)

18. Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/results.php?cat=2&mode=a FirstGov http://firstgov.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/Libraries/Podcasts.shtml OYEZ Supreme Court Podcasts http://www.oyez.org/podcast/ WhiteHouse Radio Addresses: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/radio/ NASA http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.htm AAAS Science podcast http://www.sciencemag.org/about/podcast.dtl UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/videoaudio/video_podcast.html BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/ NPR http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php Reference Outreach: Podcasts

19. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Finding New Podcast Resources: • Podcast Directories • List-servs • RSS feeds from blogs and your favorite websites • Suggestions from others

20. Reference Outreach: Podcasts “Programming” Podcasts captured by the St. John’s Libraries • Poetry Readings: Poets Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Jane Augustine • Author visit: Richard Vetere “Third Miracle” • Guest Lectures: Italian Consul General and diplomat, Minister Antonio Bandini on “Italy and World Diplomacy” • Student essay winners, e.g.: Service Learning Essay • Title III Project: Colloquia & meetings

21. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Podcasts in the Department / Classroom • DLIS Academic Library class: Dr. Becker’s Graduate course lecture & discussion • Guest Lectures: McKeever Chair, Paul Lauritzen’s Lecture on “The Commodification of Education” • Distance Learning: Orientation to using WebCT, library resources; Pre-class lecture for “Just-in-time ”quiz & discussion • English Student Projects: Graduate Poetry final

22. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Instruction-related Podcasts • Audio Tours: of physical library & library website • Database Tutorials: Audio guide to supplement current online and paper-based tutorials • Distributed Learning: Greetings from director, Orientation to using CMS, Intranet and/or information portal; Podcasts of instructional workshops, for patrons who cannot attend during instruction sessions • Professional Development: Podcasts of professional / association meetings; podcast of information sessions for fellow faculty/staff; Continuing Education lectures/workshops

23. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Legal Questions: • Release form for electronic recording • Library developed one, approved by counsel • Clarify distribution to lecturer • On main website: available to all • On WebCT / SJ Central: Although password protected, once in digital format it is relatively easy to duplicate.

24. Reference Outreach: Podcasts • Strengths of using external/internal podcasts: • facilitates development of information literacy and life-long learning • faculty contact re: information literacy throughout the course • enriches primary-resource reference base • coach vs. sage – facilitating/motivating individual learner inquiry and peer discussion • engages different styles of learning • assists low-vision and ESL patrons

25. Reference Outreach: Podcasts Some Recent/Relevant coverage of Podcasting in Academia • Chronicle of Higher Education: “Lectures on the Go” (10/28/2005) http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i10/10a03901.htm (Subscription req’d) and “Apple Releases Free 'iTunes U' Software to Colleges for Coursecasting “ (01/25/2006) Accessible for free. http://chronicle.com/free/2006/01/2006012501t.htm • Duke University.“Duke University iPod First Year experience evaluation Report” (June 2005) Accessible electronicallyhttp://cit.duke.edu/pdf/ipod_initiative_04_05.pdf • US News & World Report. (From the 10/17/05 print issue)http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/articles/051017/17elearn.htm • Educause article on Podcasting (December 2005) http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/erm0561.pdf

26. Reference Outreach: Websites, Blogs & Wikis Social/collaborative trends in education • For Students: • learn best from each other • learn to work together • greater engagement in the task • For Faculty: • learn to be facilitator • E-portfolio for long-term assessment • For Libraries: • learn to model life-long learning • Facilitates hands-on “evaluation”

27. Reference Outreach: Websites, Blogs & Wikis Using Website development, blogs and wikis for outreach: • Model use of instruction via library instruction • Reference desk wiki • Global Master’s program resources • Set up “resource libraries” for these technologies • For in-house reference and instruction • For outreach to patron/faculty • Offer collaboration with specialists: • Encourage/model life-long learning • Facilitate creation of assignments that provide new evaluative insight

28. Reference Outreach: the Mission Allies Allies in executing Outreach innovations • E-services department • Library faculty & Staff • DLIS • Distance Learning • Center for Teaching and Learning • Center for Technology Education

29. Reference Outreach: Using Technologies Please contact me with comments or ideas: • Kathryn Shaughnessy, x1454 Shaughnk@stjohns.edu St. John’s University Augustine Library 304 Instructional Services Lab