EXCELLENCE IN USE OF TECHNOLOGY:

This award celebrates skill, innovation and expertise in the use of technology in developing or enhancing a library activity, service, process, or system. Attributes to highlight include originality, creativity, relevance, quality and benefits derived from the results.

NOMINEES:

James Benyshek

I'm nominating James Benyshek in this category because of all the ways he has helped the Media Archive move forward in digital conversion of our moving image content. James has worked hard on several projects for the Libraries, including the Civil Rights Digital Library, for which he was originally hired in a grant funded only position. When James was was hired full-time in the department he worked very hard on the Save America's Treasures grant which meant cleaning and digitizing 3/4" videotape in the Peabody Awards Collection. It also involved much learning of equipment, codecs, and working with the Systems Department to overcome many obstacles to getting that project completed.

Now to what James has done that may not be visible to everyone, but is incredibly important to the Media Archives and the mission of the Library. James continues to digitize content for us daily. This means digitizing 14 reels of film from WRDW that is now being added to the Newsfilm Database. It means continually digitizing Peabody content as needed for use on-line for on campus viewing primarily. Currently there are 2517 programs digitized in the Peabody Awards Collection. In addition, 15 campus films, 77 reels of home movies, all 33 hours of the Nixon/Gannon interviews, and 721 VHS cassettes have been digitized for easier access to our content. That list does not include everything he has done.

James has also started using Final Cut Server, which helps all us in the department access content directly at our desk tops for finding clips for producers and our own new exhibit area in the new building.

Lastly, James helps us push through all the orders we do for producers and other users of our content. Just this spring we've had 52 orders for content, and most of those orders involve James. He makes it possible for us to ftp files to producers or provide them with files of our content for use in documentaries.

We are a much better department with James' assistance, perseverance, willingness to learn, and foresightedness. He has mad skills.

Caroline Barratt

This year the MLC embarked on its largest survey of users yet. The faculty and students users of the MLC were asked to about their technological and audio/visual needs. From the massive response to the survey the building will be able to offer new services to better meet the use of audio/visual tools in the building.

Caroline Barratt and Phoebe Acheson - Kindle-in-the-Classroom Project

Testimonial #1: Since it debuted in August 2010, Amazon's Kindle has added an interesting angle on the (greatly exaggerated) rumors of the "death of print." However, instead of seeing the Kindle as a threat to libraries, Caroline and Phoebe wanted to investigate its usefulness to readers in an academic setting, particularly how using e-books in class changed (or did not change) the reading and writing experience for students. They wrote a grant proposal and in December 2010 were given funding from CTL's Learning Technology Grant program to purchase 42 Kindles. Working with an English professor on campus this spring, Caroline and Phoebe designed a research study, surveyed students online and in focus groups, and played an embedded role in the class to make in-person observations. Now that the semester is almost finished, they will compile the information they gathered to document one of the first research studies of this kind. Additionally, Kindles from this grant were used in a pilot lending program at the MLC to see what patrons thought of checking out these e-books from their electronic library, adding to the growing array of mobile and digital technologies that are available from our Libraries.

Testimonial #2: The discovery of unmet user needs and implementation of ground breaking or unique technological solutions to meet those needs -- What could be a better investigation of unmet user needs than to experiment with the application of a new technology in the classroom? Phoebe and Caroline successfully obtained a CTL Techology grant to deliver all class texts to students in ENG 4835 in digital form via Kindles. This project was in collaboration with Ron Baltasar. This gave the students a common set of tools of and a unified working environment, while being a ground-breaking use of a new technology. Phoebe spent a great deal of in-class time with the students, and Caroline did extensive post-class focus group work.

Implementing new technologies to introduce new services or the retool traditional services resulting in a better user experience or to improve and extend library service to meet user needs -- Right now we really don't know what the role of libraries will be in the support or a primarily digital class environment. This project helps to anticipate the kind of services that will be needed, and expands the role of the librarian into the classroom as a partner with the faculty member.

Creation of a streamlined workflow, user-friendly materials or interfaces by the incorporation of the new or enhanced technology -- During class sessions, Phoebe discovered issues in getting all students to the same page -- literally. They had to deal with using Kindle location numbers instead of page numbers, and bookmarking and notation issues. They trained students and helped them to develop study procedures. Phoebe and Caroline, are also helping the instructor to understand how best to organize class discussion and workflow for the future, through the collection of focus group information.

Creative collaboration between departments, groups, individuals or other libraries / types of institutions, resulting in demonstrable improvements in service to users -- Collaboration between UGA Libraries and the English department, is only one part of this project. By talking to their colleagues, Caroline and Phoebe have helped other librarians to learn more about Kindles and e-readers, and have made us more cognizant of technology issues.

Explorations of the future of libraries -- It often feels that the next logical step will be for students to have all digital textbooks, but libraries need to understand how realistic this is, how such a change would effect classroom structure and change pedagogy, and what kind of a role libraries could have in supporting classes in a new digital environment.