Smart technology classroom in the stacks: promoting free government apps in an academic library
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2014-0095 |
| Published date | 02 March 2015 |
| Pages | 13-17 |
| Date | 02 March 2015 |
| Author | Dorothy Ormes |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology |
Smart technology classroom in the stacks:
promoting free government apps in an
academic library
Dorothy Ormes
Introduction
At Southern Oregon University’s
Hannon Library, the Government
Information Department has pride of
place just behind the reference desk on
the first floor of the library. All of the
government stacks are ranged along
one wall divided by a space where there
are two sets of tables where students
can attend instruction sessions or do
individual and group work. This
configuration was first established in
2005 with a single long table and about
18 seats. Now it has expanded to a fully
equipped electronic classroom in the
stacks.
Originally government documents
were housed on the third floor, which
was a long trek for students to go to find
the materials. Since the Government
Documents Librarian was not at the
first floor reference desk at all times,
other librarians often had to send
students upstairs for reference specific to
government documents. The Government
Documents Librarian regularly taught
special instruction sessions for university
seminar students in freshman experience
classes and targeted instruction for
Political Science and Environmental
Studies. When the library was renovated
in 2005 it seemed a good time to make
the move to the first floor and establish a
classroom that was close to the materials.
The librarian would bring out a selection
of paper documents for students to peruse
during the class and take them through
exercises to find pertinent information
in government hearings, Government
Accountability Office reports and the
Statistical Abstract of the USA. This new
configuration placed the Government
Information Department solidly within
the reference/instruction milieu. By 2011,
with the transition to a higher percentage
of online availability of government
information, the time was ripe for a new
idea.
I came to the Hannon Library as
the new Government Information/
Instruction Librarian in September of
2011 and continued to teach in a similar
style that fall, making paper documents
available and also taking students down
the hall to our electronic classroom for
instruction in accessing the myriad
online materials available. It was in the
spring of 2012 that I began to consider
the possibility of using iPads in the
classroom. The proximity of the
government information department to
the reference and learning commons
desk and the availability of a classroom
in the stacks helped make it possible
to envision a smart classroom in the
stacks to serve all students’ government
information needs.
Literature review
Between 2010 and 2011, educators
began to experiment with the idea of
using mobile technology in the classroom
in various ways. With the release of the
first iPad in April of 2010, it was clear to
many that there was great potential for
flexibility using these devices in an
educational environment. In 2010,
Wilson and McCarthy reported their
findings on a survey of mobile devices
in the Ryerson University Library,
Toronto, Canada. At that time they
were seeing increased smart device
usage on campus. They surveyed
students on what kinds of services they
might expect from the library. They
learned that 20 per cent of students
surveyed were using smart technology
at the time and many more were
considering purchasing and using it in
the future. Their findings indicated a
level of frustration with access to the
library site in general that prompted them
to take a closer look at their current
service options. Once they had created
some mobile service accessibility for the
library, they looked toward doing more
for the whole campus. In collaboration
with central computing on campus, they
worked on improving access to campus
information by creating mobile
applications. Their experience clearly
indicated that these services should be
considered at some level on any
campus and that the library can take a
significant lead on such a project
(Wilson and McCarthy, 2010).
In January 2011, two months before
the arrival of the iPad2, librarians at
Kent State published an article focusing
on mobile web accessibility in their
academic library. They sourced the Pew
Internet and Mobile Life Project to
discover a reported use of the mobile
Web by a staggering 39 per cent of
Americans (Seeholzer and Salem,
2011). The February 2014 figures show
that this has jumped to 58 per cent (Fox
and Rainie, 2014). After leading focus
groups with students, Seeholzer and
Salem concluded that students did want
to access the library on their mobile
devices given certain parameters as to
content and ease of retrieval.
In 2013, Bomhold (2013, p. 430)
promoted the idea of making information
resources available to students where
they are most likely to be engaged – on a
smart device. In her survey of students
she noted that “students do use smart
phone applications for more than
communication and entertainment; a
significant number (76 per cent) disclose
using apps to find academic information”.
By 2014, the literature had taken
another turn, with librarians examining
iPads as learning devices for the
academic library. Not surprisingly, early
adopters were two Health Sciences
libraries. Gillum and Chiplock compared
the implementation of iPad programs at
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 1 2015, pp. 13-17, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-10-2014-0095 13
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