Academic Library's Responses to the Emerging Trends in Higher Education
The New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Report 2014 made certain predictions about the emerging technologies and trends in higher education worldwide. The article reviews academic library’s position with reference to the predictions made by the Report. The articles briefly refers to selected trends in higher education, mentioned in the Report and reviews and discusses academic library’s present and future responses. The review and discussions are based on literature review. The articles find that academic libraries are responding to the emerging trends in higher education through innovative practices and services. It concludes that in spite of their efforts, there is still scope for the academic libraries to improve their role in the changing higher education scenario and to prove their value. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.14429/djlit.34.6.6878
Gamifying the University Library
We like to bring an element of fun and games into our information literacy teaching when we can, whether that is using crosswords, treasure hunts, or light hearted videos, but we hadn't before brought games, along with the technology and social nature of web 2.0, into the core of the library. We're currently changing this and have created a social, online game based around using the library resources working with a creative outfit (Running in the Halls - www.rith.co.uk). Called Lemon Tree, it brings ideas of gamification right into the centre of library activities. There are many applications, often available as applications for smartphones, which turn everyday tasks into chances to win points, badges and other virtual rewards, and share them with your social networks. Location based networks typify this idea and have exploded in popularity recently, with networks such as Foursquare (http://foursquare.com) and Gowalla (http://gowalla.com) allowing you to 'check in'Â� to various locations, to share that activity with friends, become MayorÂ� of a location or win badges for different types of activity. A more extreme version of this gamification of everyday activity is Epic Win (http://www.rexbox.co.uk/epicwin/), which allows you to create a to doÂ� list and play that list as though it is a game, gaining rewards for completing each task. Lemon Tree takes these ideas of virtual rewards and inbuilt social networks and turns common interactions with the library into a game. Users are able to link Lemon Tree to their library record, winning points and badges by activities such as taking books out, leaving comments on books, and borrowing a range of items. They build their own social network within Lemon Tree, but the system also links to existing networks such as Twitter and Facebook. Lemon Tree feeds back into our systems as well, so comments left on a book left by a student will appear on our library catalogue for everyone to see, regardless as to whether they choose to play and interact with Lemon Tree. The rewards users can gain through Lemon tree are developing as we see what works and what our users enjoy, with a massive range of options possible. We are particularly interested though in engaging those people who we know come into our library, but borrow very few books and rarely access our electronic resources. If we can make it fun for them to use the information resources we have and increase their usage then Lemon Tree will have succeeded for us. This is the first time the details of Lemon Tree will have been presented at a conference.
The Evolution of Measurement and Evaluation of Libraries: A Perspective from the Association of Research Libraries
This paper reviews the evolution of measurement and evaluation in libraries from the perspectives of three important figures who have shaped the history of library assessment activities: James Gerould, F. Wilfrid Lancaster, and Duane Webster. Although Lancaster is about a decade older than Webster and almost half a century removed from Gerould, the contributions of the three individuals knit a common fabric in the development of assessment in libraries in the past century. In investigating the interconnections of the three individuals, not only can we gain an understanding of how we got to today’s world of evaluation in libraries, but also we can gain a glimpse into future developments in the field. James Gerould was a library administrator, Lancaster was a library educator, and Webster was a library association executive. Each brought unique perspectives into the evaluation and measurement of library services. In this article we attempt to offer a tribute to Lancaster’s accomplishments within the context of the work done in the Association of Research Libraries as it was shaped over the years between Gerould and Webster, from the beginning toward the end of the twentieth century.