 | Target groups and topics covered
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The modules in the course "Digital Libraries à la Carte: New Choices for the Future" were targeted, but not limited, to the following groups.
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Module 1
Technology
(Topics) |
Module 2
Hands-on
Library 2.0
(Topics) |
Module 3
Research and
Open Access
(Topics) |
Module 4
Teaching and
Learning
(Topics) |
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| Library managers/directors | X |
| X | X |
| Deputy librarians | X | x | X | X |
| Library middle management | X | x | X | X |
| Digital library project managers | X | x | X | X |
| IT or systems librarians | X | X | x | x |
| Publishers | X |
| X | X |
| Information specialists, Research support | X | X | X | X |
| IT people | X | X |
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| Library training officers |
| X |
| X |
| Courseware developers, Teacher support |
| X |
| X |
| Researchers |
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| x |
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| Library PR officers |
| X |
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| Topics Module 1: Technological Developments: Threats and Opportunities for Libraries (Tuesday 22 August)
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During this day, we shed light on emerging technologies that will affect library strategy.
- Our keynote speaker discussed changes in the information environment, trends in end-user behaviour, and how the information environment is dictated by the end user and his needs. There still is a role for libraries and librarians!
- After that, we shed light on four emerging technologies that will affect library strategy. Advances in search provide opportunities for digital library providers. We discussed access to rich media, extreme precision by contextual analysis, and social networks.
- In 2005, the Gartner Group announced electronic paper displays as one of the top 10 strategic technologies. We examined the technology and its impact on publishers and libraries.
- Portals combine services from library, course management, research and administrative systems with personalised and customisable interfaces. The fourth presentation reviewed the portal experience so far, pointing to the technical and organisational challenges, and considered how portals might combine with Web 2.0 approaches.
- The use and re-use of objects in a scholarly repository require a level of interoperability across heterogeneous repositories that goes beyond what is currently available. We concluded the day by providing insight into the evolving work and thinking in this problem domain.
You can also check the day's programme or the abstracts of the lectures presented that day.
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| Topics Module 2: Hands-on: Library 2.0 technologies to reach out to the customer (Wednesday 23 August)
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Module 2 offered two hands-on workshops and a lecture. Participants received practical instruction in a computer room and developed their own skills during hands-on exercises.
- First, we learned how to use blogs to offer a more dynamic and interactive website for our patrons. In addition, we discussed how to use RSS to push resources out to where our users are, rather than forcing them to come to our website to find out what’s new.
- In the second workshop we explored and explained instant messaging (IM) in the library setting, including software, training and policy. We got a true feel of what launching an IM reference service at a library involves.
- A lecture on Library 2.0 brought together the two workshops and concluded the day. None of the trends, technologies, and observations related to Library 2.0, individually, is perhaps particularly world changing. But together, they presage a quite dramatic shift in our notions of community, openness, participation, presence, and collaboration.
You can also check the day's programme or the abstracts of the lectures presented that day.
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| Topics Module 3: Libraries supporting research and Open Access (Thursday 24 August)
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Changes in science, the way research is conducted and scholarly communication impact academic and research libraries, whose task it is to support research. We had lecturers from science and the humanities discussing these issues.
- First, a representative from the new UK e-Science Envoy shed light on what is changing in research, paying attention to eScience and GRID technology.
- The recent development of e-infrastructure and virtual research environments, and the emerging role of the digital library and its librarians within virtual research environments were discussed in a following presentation.
- Open Access, too, has an impact on research and scholarship. It offers librarians a set of opportunities and challenges to support new publishing models, as shown in the third presentation.
- A case study of how one major university and its library set off to support Open Access publishing concluded the
day.
You can also check the day's programme or the abstracts of the lectures presented that day.
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| Topics Module 4: Libraries and Teaching and Learning (Friday 25 August)
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 eLearning is changing the nature of teaching and learning, the support of which is one of the main tasks of higher education libraries.
- The information professional’s changing role in education was first set against the broader background of educational development and higher education, providing reflection and exploring practical implications.
- We then moved on to give an insight into how social software (e.g., instant messaging tools, extensive virtual worlds, social networking services, weblogs, podcasts, and video blogs) is used in teaching and learning, and how that relates to library services.
- Gaming is another area which, perhaps surprisingly, has a relationship to higher education libraries. Gameplay strategies are similar to information-searching strategies, the digital information/library development sector can use digital game interfaces and peripherals, and video game technology is potentially useful in digital library systems.
- The concluding lecture showed why it is important to seek to measure the library’s impact on learning and teaching, and gave practical examples and methods. We learned how to use this kind of approach in our own library.
You can also check the day's programme or the abstracts of the lectures presented that day.
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| English
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All lectures, workshops, and discussions were in English. Sharing of experiences among participants was essential and participants were expected to engage in high levels of interaction. The course drew heavily on European and North American best practice.
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