Reposition Library Technology Support Services to Take Leadership Role on Campus in Developing Students' Technology Skills ❧ By Amy Jiang Library Technology Coordinator University of La Verne CALA/SCA.
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Reposition Library Technology Support Services to Take Leadership Role on Campus in Developing Students' Technology Skills ❧ By Amy Jiang Library Technology Coordinator University of La Verne CALA/SCA Chapter 2015 Annual Conference February 26, Thursday, 2015 Outline ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ Background information Why we need to reposition ourselves How did we do it Challenges and opportunities Moving forward on technology services Some final thoughts About the University ❧ ❧ La Verne, CA ❧ Private institution ❧ 5000 students on campus and 3000 students on regional campus ❧ Offer doctoral degrees, master degrees About the Library ❧ ❧ Budget size: ❧ 2 million ❧ Staff size: ❧ 10 full time librarians, 5.5 full time staff About the Technology Unit in the Library ❧ ❧ Library Technology Coordinator (me) ❧ Electronic Services Technician (1 full time staff) ❧ Tech helpdesk students workers (90 hours) Other related units on Campus ❧ ❧ LEC: learning and enhancement center ❧ Focusing on tutoring, content creation ❧ Graduate Success Center ❧ Focusing on graduate students ❧ Center for the Advancement Faculty Excellence ❧ Focusing on faculty ❧ Central IT ❧ Focusing on administrative IT No unit focusing on student technology development Why we need to reposition ourselves ❧ ❧ From nice to have a library to have a library must to ❧ So how library technology unit can contribute changing library from Nice to have to Must to have? People are saying… ❧ ❧ “Becoming literate in how the technical world works is equivalent to reading, writing and math. We need to look at this fourth literacy as mainstream,” --Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation (telepraph.co.uk ) ❧Coding is literacy– MIT media lab (news office of MIT when launching ScratchJr) Some questions ❧ ❧ Should library technology unit transition from a supporting role into a proactive leadership role? ❧ Can library technology unit becomes the leader in developing students’ technology skills on campus? Our technology unit ❧ ❧ Prior March 2013: ❧ supporting role, computer labs, ILS and databases. ❧ Present: ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ ❧ in addition to above... Blackboard support ePortfolio support MS office product support media support 3D printer support student run workshops Qualtrics support and future Digication support How we get started ❧ ❧ Opportunity and starting point ❧ University strategic change ❧ Center for Teaching and Learning changed to Center for Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFÉ ) ❧ CAFÉ will be more faulty focus ❧ Blackboard helpdesk need a new home Strength /Advantages ❧ ❧ Past experience with Blackboard support ❧ Existing library services model ❧ Will transfer existing student workers to the library ❧ Staff mentality Challenge and Concerns ❧ ❧ Can we handle the technical questions ❧ Can we provide better services ❧ Is Blackboard part of library’s scope of services ❧ How faculty and students receive it ❧ How library staff receive and support it Reasons behind our decisions ❧ ❧ Fit into library’s mission ❧ Technology is literacy ❧ In line with the national trend ❧ an opportunity ❧ A core system ❧ visibility ❧ A good foundation Blackboard helpdesk transited into the library ❧ ❧ March of 2013, Blackboard student support transit into the library ❧ What is being transferred ❧ Two student workers from CAFÉ ❧ What library subsidized ❧ Backup from Circulation student workers and circulation staff Transition period ❧ ❧ Keep the same phone number, email ❧ Provost office sent out announcement ❧ Internal training for students and staff who might be impacted ❧ Keep the support desk with the circulation desk for future cross training Service improvements ❧ ❧ Added more hours ❧ Added more students workers (received more budget) ❧ Always have someone answer the phone Formats of support ❧ ❧ In person ❧ Phone ❧ Chat ❧ email Hours of support ❧ ❧ Monday to Thursday 8-8PM ❧ Friday 8-6PM ❧ Saturday and Sunday 12-5PM Managing helpdesk ❧ ❧ Circulation staff managing student workers including making schedules ❧ Tech unit managing students’ technical skills ❧ Spent most time orienting student workers at the beginning ❧ Train students on customer service (helping attitude) Benefits ❧ ❧ Bring library tech services into mainstream ❧ Got involved in more projects and initiatives ❧ More visibility ❧ More related service request ❧ More budget ❧ more opportunity Issues we run into and how we deal with it ❧ ❧ Staff training and pushback ❧ Reallocate resources and training focus (staff > students) ❧ Panic moments ❧ Train to stay calm and adding more phone lines ❧ Handling faculty challenging questions and concerns ❧ Train on customer service skills ❧ my involvements Issues we run into and how we deal with it ❧ ❧ Services is not personalize enough ❧ Provide training on personalizing support services ❧ Has to hire a part time staff during transition period ❧ Staff deal with faculty issues ❧ But after the transition period, eliminate the position and add a student worker position More opportunities ❧ ❧ Start to receive questions on MS office, media ❧ CAFÉ started a new initiative- eportfolio ❧ Students want a place where they can ask tech questions without making an appointment ❧ LEC wants to have someone else handle technical questions such as Excel so they can focus on content assistance to students Expansion ❧ ❧ ePortfolio – fall of 2013 ❧ MS office products – Fall 2014 ❧ Graphic design - Fall 2014 ❧ Media support – fall 2014 ❧ 3D printing - Spring 2015 Why we can expand ❧ ❧ Unique service model of the library ❧ Longest opening hours on campus ❧ Great student workers and staff ❧ Training on attitude ❧ Administrative support ❧ Matching student interest with skill set ❧ Agile cycle ❧ Empower students and staff ❧ the only unit on campus that service all audiences on campus ❧ Hire the right students ❧ Drift down workflow Moving forward ❧ ❧ More in class presentations ❧ Outreach to orientations ❧ Open a STAR lab (student technology and research lab) ❧ Makers Space (3D printer, poster printer, and tools) ❧ Student research initiatives ❧ Student innovation lab ❧ revenue generation unit? Some final thoughts on library tech unit & higher ed. ❧ ❧Disruptive technology and technology as driver ❧Library’s unique advantages in expanding services ❧Changing the preparation - delivery model of higher education ❧From flipped classroom to flipped campus ❧Student entrepreneurship initiative Thank you! ❧ ❧ Questions or comments ❧ [email protected] ❧ (805) 881 2164