Tech Talk with the CSN Library

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InterLibrary Loan Gets Books You Need From Anywhere

The library is the natural place to go when you need to find a book, and a CSN campus library is the place to find and check out books for research and assignments. But what happens if we don’t have the book or article you need? No worries!  We can get it for you, even if it is at another library! Through a process called “InterLibrary Loan” CSN libraries borrow physical books and online articles from libraries across the world.

InterLibrary Loan is something that many students and faculty are already familiar with—it’s one of the many services the library has been offering our CSN community for years. But we’re excited to announce some new changes that will make InterLibrary Loan even easier for you.

Those who used the system before may notice that our traditional book or article request form has been replaced with a single sign-on system. Simply log in to a single location (found here) to keep track of all your requests with the same username and password required for Canvas and CSN computers. That’s the student ID number and Canvas password for students or the active directory login and password for faculty.

Once logged in, you’ll see a menu for new requests on the left. Click on Article, Book, Book Chapter, Media (DVD/VHS), Thesis/Dissertation, and even Legal Reference Materials to make a new request and fill out an online form tailed specifically for what you need. Click the “Submit Request” button at the bottom of the page and the request will appear in the “Outstanding Requests” section of your InterLibrary Loan site. You can also view all online articles you’ve received, any items checked out, and all requests that are still being processed. It helps you keep track of everything in one place!

Keep in mind that depending on where the materials are coming from, it could take anywhere from 3 to 28 days to receive a book (usually sooner for online articles), so make sure to get your requests in as early as possible if you need something right away!

We will be adding more changes this summer, so keep checking back for new ways CSN libraries can help you get exactly what you’re looking for!

 Have questions about InterLibrary Loan? Contact our InterLibrary Loan department at 702-651-5007 ([email protected]) or you can Ask a Librarian for help!

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Kanopy Videos for Courses

Many of you are already including quality educational videos in your online and in person courses. The CSN libraries have thousands of online digital streaming videos that are searchable through the library catalog or through our multiple video platforms like Films on Demand, Alexander Street Press, Ambrose Digital Video, and more.

But the library is adding even more resources! If you’ve never heard of Kanopy videos, you’re in for a great experience for both you and your students!

Kanopy offers many collections that are exclusive only to this platform, ranging from educational documentaries to critically acclaimed full-length features. When you browse, you see films from New Day Films, Criterion, Frontline, and PBS. You can browse by subject category if you need a film on The Arts, Business, Education, Health, Sciences, and more.

If you’re a Communication professor, for example, you can bookmark https://csn.kanopystreaming.com/catalog/mediacomm to find the most popular videos in Media and Communications, the different communication collections, or sort by category, supplier, filmmaker, or even language. Looking for Children of the Amazon? Type in the title and you’ll find the 72-minute film from 2008.

Once you’ve selected a film to use, Kanopy offers multiple features such as transcripts, creating clip segments to share in class (once you create a free Kanopy account) and an easy link to share with students (https://csn.kanopystreaming.com/video/children-amazon-0) or embed directly into Canvas.

Finally, all Kanopy films have public performance rights, which means you’re allowed to show them in class. With such a great resource at your fingertips, there’s no reason to wheel out a VHS cart ever again.

While Kanopy is not the library’s only film collection, it is a new database that’s definitely worth exploring. And if you have any questions about the films, embedding, or how to find what you’re looking for, feel free to contact a librarian. You can also find our entire staff directory and all our collections on our website: www.csn.edu/library. We look forward to working with you!

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How the numbers break down: CSN Library Services

To understand how something works, it often helps to narrow in on one small piece of the puzzle and work out from there. To understand how your college library works, it can help to narrow in on one day in the life of the library to paint a picture—or a “snapshot”—of the kind of business done and services provided by the library overall. On April 16, 2015, the CSN libraries participated in the state-wide Nevada Library Association “Snap Shot Day” to collect statistics and photos showing a day in the life of a Nevada library. Here’s what happened at CSN:

Visitors: 5,437

That’s right—across all three campuses, in a single day, over 5,000 students, faculty, or community members came to visit a CSN library in person. Almost 4,000 of these visitors came to the Charleston campus, but Cheyenne and Henderson also did steady business. Cheyenne had students coming in to see the therapy dogs at the Cheyenne campus library that week that help stressed-out students take a much needed break from studies. The Henderson campus library circulated the most books per student with a ratio of one book checked out for every two and a half student visitors.

Website hits: 2,511

The CSN library website also had almost half as many virtual visitors as the total in-person visitors in one day in the life of a CSN library. These web users spent time searching for materials through the library’s OneSearch bar: 658 searches to be exact. If you’ve never looked for materials through the OneSearch bar (to search almost the entire library website at once), it’s easy to locate on the library homepage since it’s right in the center of the page (www.csn.edu/library).

And what do the people appreciate about the library? Comments collected throughout the day cited such services as “access to media,” “study, quiet space,” and staff that is “helpful and polite.”

For more information about Snap Shot Day, or to view the final results of all libraries across Nevada (to be released later this year), visit http://nevadalibraries.org/snapshot/index.html.

And if you have questions about any library services--big, small, digital, or in person--feel free to contact a librarian to help you out! We want to make sure all faculty, staff, and students understand our piece of the college puzzle and how we ultimately contribute to students’ overall success.

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eLearning Conference Recap!

Did you miss the eLearning Conference last month? From February 18-21, Las Vegas held the annual conference for eLearning faculty, instructional designers, online media specialists, and web course developers to exchange ideas with colleagues coming from across the country and the world. Right down the street at the Planet Hollywood Report & Casino, CSN served as the host organization for the event, and our very own CSN librarians were among the only librarians in attendance at the conference.

Always eager to share the information we learned, below are some of the eLearning sessions attended by our librarians and the takeaways that will keep you up to date with what’s happening in the world of online education:

 Open Educational Resources: Roadmap to Adoption

Geared toward educational leaders, this session offered suggestions for implementing Open Education Resources (OER) on college campuses. Donna Gaudet and the Math department at Scottsdale Community College implemented OER for the first 3 math courses in her department. She noted that at the beginning of the implementation process, students began to select OER courses over textbook courses. This is part of the Maricopa Millions Project that aims to save students $5 million over five years.

Two of the presenters noted the campus bookstore’s involvement in the process—they stated that most of their bookstore revenue comes from T-shirts and non-textbook items. They were eager to help with the distribution and printing of OER materials. Bookstores on campus were willing to print a book if a student requested it, and still charged for it, but at a cost that was significantly less than a traditional textbook.

The issue of accreditation was brought up. The presenters stated that faculty implementing OER have more input on their course content and structure, which they said is a “plus” with accrediting bodies. It was suggested that faculty first consider whether they’d like to create original OER content or adopt content (from places such as OpenStax or MERLOT).

 One suggestion was obtaining a grant that could help facilitate such a project. The TAACCCT grant (http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct/) is one such possibility.

 Action, Interaction, Reflection: Moving Tablets into the Classroom

Two full-time faculty at Linn-Benton Community College purchased 40 tablets for a classroom. The tablets were connected with the classroom and students logged on using their student accounts. One of the faculty members noted that when he didn’t use tablets, students tended to be preoccupied with their phones. But during activities with tablets, they were more engaged and less likely to take out their phones. Business faculty found that the students’ final projects tended to be of a much higher quality than they were before.

Faculty involved in this project initially thought they’d be using mostly apps on the tablets, but they discovered that they used a lot of programs that worked across all platforms, such as GoogleDocs. Some of the barriers in this experiment included the fact that the tablets only allowed four logins each, which prevented some people from using them. Also, one faculty member said he had the IT department in his classroom almost every day for two weeks in order to deal with unexpected technology issues that arose.

 Faculty-Created Media: Enhancing Student-Faculty Connections in Traditional, Flipped, Hybrid, and Fully-Online Programs

One instructional designer described her techniques for assisting faculty who wanted to create new content. Her campus has a “studio” where faculty can create content and have access to her assistance nearby. She emphasized that faculty should start with what they’re comfortable with. For some, that’s simply narrating a PowerPoint presentation while for others it that could be creating a whole video in Camtasia.

 Federal Regulations for Distance Education—What's Next? Ask the Experts!

The Higher Education Act was last reauthorized in 2008 and will likely not be reauthorized again during this administration, but states are looking at their own solutions such as the State Authority Reciprocity Agreement (SARA).

The presenters discussed financial aid fraud and stated that your Financial Aid department needs to always be on the lookout for new ways “students” are defrauding schools.

Presenters also talked about ADA accessibility and how “students are in the driver’s seat” when it comes to compliance. It’s not a matter of if your institution is accused of non-compliance, but when. These are some things to think about as our college continues to strengthen its Distance Education program.

  Do you feel like you were there? Do you want more information? Feel free to contact our librarians, or visit the Instructional Technology Council website to learn more about the eLearning Conference and other resources for online education.

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Quick Tips for Instruction: YouTube Captions

If you’re creating YouTube videos for lectures, content sharing, or other instruction, you’re probably already a little ahead of the game when it comes to using technology in the classroom. But did you know that you can make your videos easier to understand, as well as ADA compliant, with a few quick modifications? Creating captions or subtitles in YouTube videos you create is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Log into your YouTube channel and select “Video Manager” at the top of the screen. Choose the “Edit” button for the video you want subtitled.

2. Click on “Subtitles and CC” at the top of the page and choose your language. When you click on the language button that appears (“English”, for example), you will see captions that have been added to each few seconds of your video, automatically.

3. Click on the text of any segment that you need to update in case the automatic caption is incorrect. Be sure to double check these as YouTube’s captions are known to be only 80% accurate. Then choose “Publish edits” at the bottom of the screen. Congratulations! Your video now has subtitles, accessible whenever students click the “cc” button underneath your YouTube video.

You can view the library’s own video tutorials that we are adding captions to here: https://www.youtube.com/user/CSNLibrary. We’ll be working on updating the content of these videos with the most current website information over the next few months as well, so keep checking back.

And if you have any questions about adding captions or working with YouTube videos, feel free to contact the library!

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Library workshops show students how to research outside the library

When you think about doing in-depth research, you might picture a dark library with heavy tomes piled high on the tables and papers scattered everywhere. But when CSN librarians teach students about the research process we like to start—believe it or not—outside the physical library of books and paper. Today’s technological world has allowed CSN libraries to offer a multitude of academic resources for completing research assignments through our online library website (www.csn.edu/library). Which means research doesn’t have to be in person all the time. There are databases, eBooks, and streaming digital videos as well as online guides and tutorials. But how do students know where to start?

 Every semester the CSN Library Services department offers drop-in “Start Your Research” workshops to show students just how to begin the research process. Crossing the line between face-to-face instruction and digital instruction, students can come in person to a workshop on any of our main campuses but learn how to do their research off campus with our online Start Your Research guide.

 The workshops cover the basics of finding quality information for research assignments through the library website in a simple six-step approach: choosing a research topic (if applicable), getting background information and reference materials on the topic, finding books/eBooks and DVDs/streaming videos through the library website, finding different viewpoints on a topic (if applicable), finding magazine, newspaper or peer-reviewed journal articles, and citing sources in MLA or APA style. The librarians that teach the workshops also spend the first half of the hour-long session going over the process while leaving the second half open for one-on-one help if a student has questions on a specific upcoming assignment. It’s a great way for both new students and veterans in need of a refresher to get the basics down and ask questions in a comfortable environment. It’s also a great opportunity to offer extra credit if you want to make sure your students visited a librarian before turning in an assignment. Many faculty already do this with both the library and the Writing Center.

 A full calendar of Start Your Research workshops is available online, or you can pick up a hard copy at any campus library Reference Desk. Each campus hosts workshops at different times (afternoons and evenings) to be as accessible to students as possible.

 However, if you want your class to visit a librarian all at the same time to go over the research process (or have a librarian come visit your class), you can schedule your own instruction session using our online form. We’ll be in touch with you to find out what learning outcomes work best for your course and get details on your upcoming assignment that students will use library research to complete.

 Keep an eye out for future library workshops on other topics such as citation basics as well as four-hour long Research Labs at West Charleston.

 Research extends beyond books and beyond even library buildings. Help your students find the best possible sources for their assignments by directing them toward a librarian today!

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Library Help for the Busy Professor

Getting help from the library to improve your course might take less time than you think.  Look at how much time you have, then see what the library can do for you in that time.

Five minutes?

The library has created a number of resources that are already packaged to go straight into your online class.  Here are some of our favorites. Just copy the link and add it into Canvas.

Citing with MLA – This page guides students through formatting citations based on the Seventh Edition of the MLA Style Guide Handbook.  It was developed in collaboration with the CSN Writing Center and the CSN Libraries.

Citing with APA – Same as the MLA Citation Guide, but for the Sixth Edition of the APA Style Guide Handbook.

Research 101 –This interactive tutorial introduces the entire research process to your students with a quiz at the end.  If you want to embed the quiz into Canvas, we have you covered! Follow these step-by-step directions. 

Start Your Research – This guide highlights library resources that will help your student complete each step of the research process. 

Program and Subject Guides – We have created guides to library and information sources for many of the programs and departments here at CSN.  Don’t see what you need? Request a custom research guide for your course.

Fifteen minutes?

The library subscribes to all types of electronic materials, not just articles or books. We have videos, images, and interactive media as well.  If you spend 15 minutes searching some of these resources you are likely to find media you can add right into Canvas to enhance your course.  Not sure how to embed it in canvas?  We have a guide for that! 

Here are a couple of our favorite collections:

Alexander Street Press and Films on Demand –   You might have thought high-quality video content was too time consuming, but not here at CSN.  These two databases have hundreds of thousands of educational videos on every subject.  Need a full-length documentary on the U.S. Congress?  That’s in there!  Need original newsreel footage of atomic testing in Nevada?  That’s there too! Need a video that shows subject-verb agreement? It’s in there! Need a video showing how to use variables in algebraic equations?  That’s in there too!

Journal of Visualized Experiments – This collection is wonderful for our science programs here at CSN.  This premier collection exhibits how to use standard pieces of laboratory equipment essential in many experiments, as well as how to perform basic laboratory functions.  Each video is paired with additional video resources for you to view practical applications of the technique and other complementary skills.

Pronunciator – This collection of interactive language lessons is an easy way to learn any of 80 languages included in the program.  Your students can test their pronunciation, track their progress through quizzes, and download audio lessons.

This is just a taste, we have almost 200 databases that you can browse on our website.

An hour?

If you have an hour that you can devote to improving your class, we would love to talk to you—either in person or virtually—about what specific resources we have that can benefit your class.  Contact us today to set up a meeting.

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Open the door to student success with open education resources

Have you heard of OER? It’s not the latest texting abbreviation but it is a higher education trend with a lot more value—and one you need to know about.

Open educational resources are free and openly licensed educational materials that students use instead of high cost textbooks. At CSN, where so many students face challenging economic conditions and accessibility problems, OER could be a saving grace that leads to their overall academic success.

Imagine an ambitious student takes on four classes to attempt to “Finish in 2” (years) as CSN has been promoting. On the degree plan is English 100, Philosophy 102, Math 120, and Political Science 101. While textbook selections vary depending on the class and professor, it is easy to find that a used copy of How to Write Anything for English 100 is $51.75, a used copy of American Politics Today is $74.25 and a Thinking Mathematically textbook with a MyMathLab package is $104 and $125 respectively. And that’s before any philosophy texts. An average first-year student can spend upwards of $400 (and that’s if the used copies are available) in addition to tuition. Even if a student has $400, they might not get the book by the first day of class because of delays in shipping or financial aid. And prices go up depending on a student’s major and program.

Studies show that students are more likely to struggle in class if they don’t have the textbook—yet 65 percent of students opt out of buying those textbooks according to the 2014 survey by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund. And they aren’t opting out because they don’t think those textbooks are important. Of those students that didn’t buy the textbook, 94 percent were concerned this would hurt their class grade. Every semester, CSN campus libraries see panicked students rush into the library to find a copy of their book, knowing that chapters must be read before class, questions must be answered, and problems in the book must be solved.

While the libraries have teamed up with CSN’s Student Government to provide a copy of as many textbooks as possible (kept on reserve for 2-hour use inside the library so more students can benefit from them), there are other ways to supplement high textbook costs. That’s where OER comes in.

We’ve written about the topic here before (http://csntechtalk.tumblr.com/post/59401238177/open-source-textbooks-to-support-student-success) explaining the issue and offering websites like Openstax College and College Open Textbooks, that offer free open source content and provide resources for new faculty looking to incorporate them into their courses.

If more CSN courses offered content from websites like these, where students can access learning materials online, download them for free, or purchase them at an affordable price instead of a traditional textbook, it would go a long way toward student success in our community. And it’s not unheard of. Houston Community College, for example, provides a case study that shows “using an open textbook improved student learning as measured by final exam scores and GPAs” (http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/IR/id/2827/rec/1). Tidewater Community College in Virginia has also created a clear Open Educational Resources policy: http://www.tcc.edu/policies/2000/2108-UseofOpenEducationalResources.pdf

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges manages the website Open Washington that teaches faculty about OER in an online course and then helps them find OER materials through their open textbook, open course materials, open video, and open image searches.

Even other colleges in Nevada are paying attention. UNLV hosted the 2014 Nevada Conference on Digital Learning where open education was a major topic and Nevada State College has been researching the issue as well.

The first step to getting CSN on board is to raise faculty awareness of OER options. As a two-year institution that now focuses on completers more than enrollment, CSN is in the perfect position to get on board. So make December 2014 the month you start learning about this exciting new trend. And bring a colleague (or two or three) along!

CSN libraries are here to show you that it’s easier than you think, and the benefits to students are worth it. If you don’t know where to begin, the library is offering a CAPE workshop in the Spring of 2015 to introduce the idea of OER and show how you can get involved.

In our session, “Open the Door to Student Success with Open Education Resources,” you’ll learn to “keep full control over your course curriculum by selecting from a range of texts instead of being limited to one format,” according to the description. “Guarantee that your students have the materials they need to be successful in class. This session covers how to find high quality open access resources (both online and through your CSN library) and how to incorporate them into courses to create your own custom textbook!”

You can also start exploring with the following links:

A community college focused organization working on OER issues: http://oerconsortium.org/

Webcast of the Nevada Conference on Digital Learning presentation: “Open Education: The Business & Policy Case for OER”: http://wcet.wiche.edu/connect/oer-webcast

Open Course Library: OER resources for over eighty courses: http://opencourselibrary.org/

Creative Commons: Open Educational Resources: http://creativecommons.org/education

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What kind of library user are YOU?

Do you work better at night or in the morning? With friends or alone? Discover your personality type (and the library resources that fit you best) through our online quiz! While geared toward students, CSN faculty can also take the personality test and share it with their classes so students learn about our resources in a fun and more personal way. Don't forget to post your results to our Facebook page!

Note: This quiz is compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer 10 or higher. If you cannot view the quiz, try switching to a different browser first.

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Website Usability: How can we make your search easier?

#84288445 / gettyimages.com

CSN libraries, like most libraries you’d find, are committed to our users and the whole user experience. At CSN, those users are students (who might come to the library for research assistance, finding sources, and formatting citations) and also faculty (who might come to schedule an instruction session, order books and films for a class, or work on professional development). Everything the library offers is in an attempt to meet those needs of our clientele, and nowhere is this more present than on our library website.

  You can see how we did this by visiting www.csn.edu/library. You’ll see an entire section for students working on assignments (“Start Your Research”) as well as a section for instructors (“Faculty Corner,” which is probably how most people find this blog). We designed the site to be visual and easy for our users to navigate. However, as times change and new resources become necessary, we have to constantly reevaluate our services and how easy it is to find those services.

  Such an evaluation occurred recently with our APA and MLA citation guides. To keep up with the most current editions of the APA Handbook and the MLA Handbook, to make our guides were as useful as possible, and to ensure that we were providing the same information that other CSN departments used, we spent this summer completely redesigning our citation guides in partnership with the Writing Center. Not only has the information been updated, but our online versions were redesigned to be more streamlined and clear as well. We hope you will find information less overwhelming now as each section only appears when users click on the title. Gone are the days of scrolling down a long wall of text!

  We feel this is a good start in the revaluation process , but our online citation guides are just one part of a very large online space that CSN libraries maintain.  How do you think we are doing in that space?  Please take a few minutes to answer a couple of questions for us to help with our redesign.

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Welcome back to school! Learn how the library can help you!

Classes are back in session and we’ve all survived the first week of school!  To survive the rest of the semester, take a look at some of the tools available for instructors through the CSN library website!

1. New Faculty Corner page

We redesigned our faculty page over the summer, providing more links for teaching, research, and professional development. Visit this page to schedule an instruction session with the library where we teach your students about finding research materials for their upcoming assignments. Choose from a list of pre-selected learning outcomes, or tell us what you’d like your students to get out of the session.

2. New Distance Education guide

Also linked from our Faculty Corner page is a guide just for DE instructors and faculty members who post to Canvas. Find instructions on how to add library resources to Canvas (it saves you time, saves you trouble, and guarantees your students are viewing high-quality, academic videos, articles, and more). Discover other great research tutorials here as well, all available online!

 3. New MLA and APA style guides

Click the “Start Your Research” link from our website and select Step 6 (“Cite Your Sources”) to view all our online citation style guides. You may notice that MLA and APA look just a little different. They’ve now been updated in a collaboration with the CSN Writing Center to provide you and your students the most up-to-date citation information in an easy-to-use format. The printable PDFs are also shorter, easier to navigate, and available in person at any CSN library campus Reference Desk.

  4. Extended chat hours

Did you know you and your students can communicate with the library without having to set foot inside the building? Our online chat service connects you with a librarian immediately, and our chat hours are now longer than previous semesters. For Fall 2014, chat is available Monday-Thursday: 10am-6pm and Friday: 10am-4pm. Just click on the "Ask Us" tab on our home page or use the "Ask a Librarian" link.

All these tools and more can help make the semester easier! The library is here for you!

Have questions? Want to know what else the library can do for you? Contact us online, by phone, or in person—we’re happy to work with you!

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New in Online Videos!

This month, we’re sharing new collections and changes related to streaming digital video.

CSN libraries already had access to a multitude of online streaming videos that you can assign, share in class, or upload to Canvas (for instructions, check out our guide to Library Resources in Canvas), but we have highlighted some new, exciting additions below!

With the fall semester right around the corner, now is the perfect time to build these videos into your courses and create the optimal experience for students who already engage in online media as part of their daily lives.

  Ambrose Digital Video

One brand new database the library now subscribes to is called “Ambrose Digital Video.” This collection offers about 500 closed captioned videos on a variety of topics, including history, science, and even full-length Shakespeare plays! They have many BBC classics and more films becoming available in HD.

  Each video contains a description of the program and citation information in MLA, APA, and Harvard style. These videos can also be linked in Canvas if you click on the “View Permalink and Embedding Information” box and add the CSN ezproxy URL in front of the “Permanent Shortcut” (see our Library Resources in Canvas page for more details or ask a librarian for help!).

Here’s an example of the full link you can place in Canvas right now!

  http://ezproxy.library.csn.edu/login?url=http://videos.ambrosedigital.com/?SH-035&L=a5051767848ceb84e379cbd50d36d777

  Find Ambrose in our complete alphabetical list of databases or go directly to the Streaming Digital Videos page from the Video Collections tab on our home page.

  Journal of Visualized Experiments: General Laboratory Techniques

Our most recent streaming video collection, the “Journal of Visualized Experiments” can also be found on our database list or video page. JoVE is actually a collection of how-to videos for nursing and health science students to learn to use standard laboratory equipment essential in experiments and careers, and perform basic lab functions. Need to share an introduction to the Centrifuge or the Bunsen Burner? JoVE has it! Just make sure to add the ezproxy link in front again for off campus access.

  Academic Video Online

While not new to CSN libraries, our “VAST: Academic Video Online” collection has undergone a significant change with more than just a new name (“Academic Video Online: Premium”). The collection’s interface redesign allows for easy (and much more modern) access to all videos, including popular subcollections like American History in Video, Dance in Video, Education in Video, Ethnographic Video Online Volume 1 and Volume 2, World History in Video, Nursing Education in Video, Nursing Assistant in Video, Nursing Assessment in Video, and Veterinary Education in Video, to name a few.

  Welcome to the Library

Finally, the CSN libraries put out a new video that you don’t have to log in to access and you can easily upload it to Canvas with its regular website URL or the handy YouTube button.

At just under 3 minutes long, it’s a quick film to show in class or have students view outside of class to learn just what the library does—especially if they’ve never used our resources before. We have in-person and online services that range from computers and study rooms to eBook collections and online research guides. Check it out, link to it in Canvas or on your syllabus, and let your students know that “The library is here for you!” (And by “you” we mean “everyone”).

Questions about our video collections or resources? Need technology assistance? Contact our Digital Librarian Emily King, Tech Talk blog author Stephanie Espinoza, or any of the librarians at CSN!

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Gadgets for College—Do Tablets Make the Grade or is the Smartphone Smarter?

Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns from Latvia (Nokia Lumia 1520, Uploaded by RaviC) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

They’re one of the latest futuristic gadgets. Lighter than a laptop, more powerful than a phone. You’re in command with a touch screen that puts the world’s information just a tap or a swipe away. As the tablet market continues to grow you would think they are quickly becoming the norm in business, entertainment, and especially education.

But more students seem to be finding them…redundant.

According to a study by journalism professor Michael Hanley at Ball State University in Muncie, IN, students prefer sticking to laptops and smartphones in college. Tablets are seen as an unnecessary luxury when you can manage your entertainment videos, social media, news, and more on your phone and get your school work done on a laptop or campus computer. Hanley’s 2014 survey results found that 89 percent of participating students owned a smartphone while 29 percent owned a tablet. The 29 percent itself had dropped from 31 percent in 2013. Only around 8 percent (of the surveyed 1,800 students) planned to purchase a tablet as well. While this was just one small study, it does reflect trends seen in other parts of the country.

Delaware County Community College’s study of 138 students to look at eBook use in their school found that 74 percent of students owned a smartphone or other small screen device, 65 percent owned laptops and only 33 percent owned an iPad or other tablet device.

The national Pew Internet Project’s research on a much wider scale also found that as of January 2014, 58 percent of American adults own a smartphone, though the number jumps to 83 percent of adults aged 18-29. Pew Internet also finds that 42 percent of American adults own a tablet, which drops to 37 percent in the 18-29 age group.

Even CSN libraries’ online tutorials like Research 101 are accessed more from iPhones (11.9 percent in the spring 2014 semester) than from iPads (2.3 percent). The iPhone added with the Android makes up a total of 25.5 percent access on a smartphone compared to about 60 percent on a Windows computer.

But cell phone screens are so small, you might think. Wouldn’t students be drawn to the larger display of a tablet? In some cases, the larger screen might be preferable. But consider the familiarity of the cell phone. Many students age 18-25 have now had access to cell phones since they were children. It’s a new generation that has grown up with this technology from the start and gotten used to using them for everything from online banking to social media. As smartphones upgrade their cameras, for example, more students post photos and videos directly from their phones rather than waiting to upload social media content to a computer first. According to Hanley, this allows students “to share their lives instantly—something they love to do.”

Consider this year’s CSN graduation as proof: Regents’ Scholar and commencement speaker Carlos Holguin took a “selfie” with the entire 2014 graduating class using his phone while speaking on stage. The photo was then posted to CSN’s official Facebook page and has received over 90 “likes” since May 21.

And Carlos wasn’t the only one. Throughout the night students could be seen whipping out their phones from underneath their shiny blue gowns and snapping pictures (Even our CSN librarians got into the spirit, posting updates to Facebook.com/CSNLibraryServices minutes before the ceremony began).

Because of this smartphone prevalence, CSN libraries have also adapted many resources to be accessible on mobile phones—our website itself has a mobile version with links to databases and guides optimized for the small screen, as well as a mobile FAQ (csn.libanswers.com).

Does this mean tablets should be ignored in the community college setting? Not necessarily. Different devices work for different students. Many tablets today have just as many features as a laptop but in a much lighter package, which can be easier to bring to campus for students already lugging heavy textbooks back and forth to class. Speaking of books, tablets are also great options for reading if you want to carry multiple eBooks on a single device.  And CSN’s learning management system Canvas does have an app for iPad and Android devices. But for the most part it seems that tablets are purchased by college students when they are no longer college students. As Hanley found: “many students plan on getting a tablet when they graduate in order to watch movies, play games or access social media. After graduation and getting a job, you can afford to splurge on entertainment.”

For questions about library resources on mobile devices, or for more information about our online tutorials like Research 101, feel free to contact the library and check out our Archive of past Tech Talk blogs!

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New eBook Collections Available All Summer Long

School may be out for the summer at CSN, but that doesn’t mean the learning process stops. The first session of summer classes starts June 2, but even those who aren’t on campus during the break can take advantage of the time out of the classroom to prepare for upcoming placement tests and other exams required for different career paths. The library, as always, is here for those students, not only keeping the physical doors open for learners to wander in, but by offering new distance education resources like our brand new eBook collections: McGraw-Hill eBook Library and Very Short Introductions.

McGraw-Hill (a well-known textbook company) now offers eBooks that cover subjects ranging from Business to Medicine, with a lot in between—including Study Aids.

Ever heard of the Demystified series or Schaum’s Outlines? What about any McGraw-Hill practice test manuals? We have them inside each campus library and now we have them online too. Entire study manuals (from the GRE to TEAS to Praxis tests to PAX-RN exams) can be read right on the computer without ever having to set foot inside the library. Simply click on the “Table of Contents” tab to select a chapter and dive right in, or click the “READ IT” button to start from the beginning. If you use a computer on campus, the eBook will appear automatically in a new reading pane screen. If you’re working from home or other off campus location, it will just ask you to log in with your student ID number and Canvas password in order to access the material. Then you can use the screen controls to navigate through the book, clicking on arrows to turn pages or using the search bar or contents to narrow in on what you need. You can only print sections of the book one page at a time, and there is no direct download option to view on a tablet or e-reader device, so reading these books on the computer might be easiest.

All the McGraw Hill online books can be found individually through the library catalog (it searches every book the libraries have in both our physical and digital collections), or you can find the McGraw-Hill eBook Library under the “Article Databases” tab of our home page search box (under eBook Collections or M for “McGraw-Hill”). If you need even more practice tests, also take a look under L for Learning Express - Practice Tests. It’s another great collection of exam books, test prep information, software tutorials, and more. They recently changed their online site to a more user-friendly interface too, so navigating through subjects and tests is easier than ever! Just be sure to create an account (all that’s required is a name, e-mail address and password) in order to take the practice tests and access detailed information. Then you’re good to go to prepare for placement tests, college skills, and future careers.

Another new collection the library now offers is the Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press. You may have seen these small books squeezed between the shelves at each campus library, covering almost any subject you can think of. Now they’re available to read online! Browse by subject or search for a topic in the search bar. Then click on the title to see a “very short” abstract/summary of the book and a table of contents listed below. These eBooks are set up more like web pages than print books, but the structure of the information is the same with chapter headings (that you can now click on) to help you get to the sections you need.

The Very Short Introductions series has a few more options for accessing content offline as well. You can print whole chapters instead of just pages, e-mail chapters to yourself, and even save the content and your searches if you create a personal profile within the database. And with an easy “Cite” button (the pencil icon) students can find the APA or MLA citation for the books easily, ready to copy and paste into a Reference or Works Cited page (just be sure to double check with our handy CSN library APA and MLA style guides to make sure the citation is up to date).

eBooks are great ways to do research and find information when you can’t come into the library, or to add to the materials you do find in the library. Now is the time for students to get ahead of the game and keep the research process fresh in their minds so they don’t forget important information and skills by the time fall rolls around. The library is ready to help students no matter what time of year it is—so we’ll have our doors open as much as we can this summer and our digital collections open even longer. Online libraries never close.

  For questions on how to use or access any of the collections mentioned here, contact a CSN librarian.

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The Evolving Information Environment: What to keep an eye out for

Unless you’re a librarian, you may not know of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA: http://www.ifla.org/), but they have been researching and reporting on how today’s society uses technology in order to predict emerging trends that ultimately affect how all people access, consume, and share information.

Future technology is clearly an issue that concerns more than just libraries. Any student, instructor, staff member or friend who has ever used a smartphone to access the Internet, taken an online class, created a social media profile, made purchases through websites, or participated in an online forum is a part of the modern information environment. And every key trend listed in the insight document for IFLA’s latest report (entitled “Riding the Waves or Caught in the Tide? Navigating the Evolving Information Environment”) applies to CSN as well as colleges across the world:

Trend 1: New technologies will both expand and limit who has access to information

Students will need basic information literacy skills (being able to read and process information online and use digital tools) in order to survive in the new information age.  Not having these skills will become a major barrier, especially in education, the workforce and in business interactions. Another way information access may be limited relates to ownership of intellectual property. IFLA representatives want the public to think about a possible transition from our current society that takes extra steps to make materials open access, to a society that takes extra steps to make materials copyrighted instead.

New online business models are going to influence who can own, share, access, and profit from information as well. While it’s too soon to say whether these business models will be limiting or expansive, there are benefits to living in such a “hyper-connected” world. Health education and employment resources will be easier to access than ever, and mobile devices will weaken the “traditional concept of ownership” where information rights are limited to one single location.

  Trend 2: Online education will democratize and disrupt global learning

If you’re a faculty member at CSN you may have heard of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Their broad adoption is only one trend in the future of online education. Learning opportunities will become easier to find, cheaper, and easier to access with online open education resources and “gamified” learning. Online courses themselves are serving more students now than ever before. At CSN alone, 13,525 students took at least one online course last semester and 5,826 students took online classes exclusively. The future of the education market is predicted to be shaped by the business models of companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon, while online resources like the many CSN library databases and journals available for student use will be transforming the classrooms of tomorrow.

  Trend 3: The boundaries of privacy and data protection will be redefined

The IFLA report forces us to ask an important question: who is profiting from our personal information? Profiling by governments and companies will allow these organizations to connect their products and services with very specific people and groups—but what’s the cost? It’s becoming all too easy to track a person’s activities based on where they click and what they post online, and we may see more companies offering the same products and services to different people at different prices all based on the data they collected this way. IFLA predicts trust levels to decrease in the online world. While security is not a major concern of the average user today, we are starting to think about the risks of leaving behind a “permanent digital footprint.”

Trend 4: Hyper-connected societies will listen to and empower new voices and groups

IFLA wants to know if you’re ready for cyber-politics. Single-issue movements will be able to rise as traditional political parties are weakened in this digital future. With our digital universe doubling about every two years, there are going to be even more players in the commercial and political sphere. Get excited for a rise in empowered individuals, more civic participation and commercial accountability. But be prepared for the more negative outcomes of empowered cyber criminals and extremist networks. There will also be an increase in the use of simulated virtual environments where decisions can be tested first before being taken into the real world—including political policies.

Trend 5: The global information economy will be transformed by new technologies

Online mobile devices are a common site at CSN (iPhones, Androids, etc). But as we have already begun to realize, these mobile devices are quickly becoming the main way students (and society in general) access information and services. Other new technologies to look for include artificial intelligence, 3D printing, language translation, and networked sensors. According to the IFLA report, “networked sensors embedded in devices, appliances and infrastructure nears 50 billion by the year 2020.” Designed to make our lives easier, society may jump at the chance to make their inanimate objects as “smart” as possible. Still, IFLA again poses a question to keep in mind: “When your phone, your car and your wristwatch know where you are at all times–who runs your life?” Our society needs to balance its consumer desires with education of what these new technologies mean so that we maintain some control over who has our information and who we are.

It’s important to keep all these trends in mind as technology use rises and the futuristic society we keep imagining slips more and more into the present-day. There are major implications not only for libraries and information providers, but for all professional and personal consumers of information. Which is pretty much everyone. Now is the time to pay attention.

To read more insights from IFLA’s report, visit: http://trends.ifla.org/insights-document or http://trends.ifla.org/. And to learn more about the possibilities that technology provides CSN, we invite you to contact our librarians and partner with us in your exploration of the digital information environment.

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Before you Google…. Online images available for free use

We all know the Internet provides an immeasurable expanse of information in a variety of forms—text, audio, videos, and images—with only a few quick keystrokes. But CSN Library Services is a strong believer in helping to track down the most credible and quality information no matter what form it takes. When it comes to images, this means more than just making sure that picture of Albert Einstein sunbathing wasn't manipulated by photo editing software. It also means making sure that picture doesn’t belong to someone else who doesn’t want it being reused without credit and without permission.

This is why it’s such exciting news that the online photo archive Getty Images is opening up 35 million of their photos for free use, according to the March 2014 article from CNN. That means that “noncommercial users” (anyone not making a profit off the image such as bloggers, Facebook posters, college professors, and students) can embed the images into their websites, which creates an automatic photo credit and link to the original website. For example, check out the photo of Albert Einstein we just uploaded to this CSN Library Tech Talk blog tumblr post:

The photo credit is included below the image so you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. It also adds in a direct link to share the photo (via Twitter, tumblr or embed code) as well. That makes it perfect for students using online tools for presentations in class as well as for faculty who want to embed one of these free images into their Canvas course.

To do so, simply select the “Switch Views” link at the top right of the screen in a Canvas Page in order to view the Page’s html code. Then paste the code straight in.

Of course, if Getty Images doesn’t have what you’re looking for, the CSN library website might. While Getty’s news is exciting for all proponents of research, CSN libraries also has its own rights-cleared collection of images for students and faculty to take advantage of: Britannica Image Quest, which we’ve posted on before if you need instructions on how to use that as well.

Einstein. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. Web. 31 Mar 2014. http://quest.eb.com/images/139_1953288

Our Britannica Image Quest database also includes copyright information and both MLA and APA citations (along with Harvard and Chicago Manual of Style) to allow students to give credit where credit is due and include these images in more than just online blogs and sites (PowerPoint anyone?).

While the breadth of the Internet can make it difficult to know how to filter information down to the most appropriate sources, the CSN libraries are always trying to find ways to help students and faculty get the information they need and solve their unanswered questions.

So, in case you were still wondering, that picture of Einstein sunbathing wasn't edited at all: 

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/german-born-physicist-albert-einstein-reclines-in-a-deck-news-photo/3245371

[csntechtalk]

The 24/7 Library for Distance Education Students

When students think of a library, a giant building full of books is what usually comes to mind. Sometimes they picture quiet corners to study for finals or computer banks to type up their reports. And while the CSN campus libraries do have all those resources, they are more than just places to go. The libraries are also places to help. And for the distance education students who can’t come into a physical building full of books, there is so much help available online through the CSN library’s website. This kind of “fourth campus” and 24/7 library can reach all students exactly where they are at the time they need it. Here are five online library resources that students can use in distance education in order to complete assignments and ultimately achieve success in their courses:

  Start Your Research Online Guide

http://sites.csn.edu/library/research/Start.html

For students who have never done a research paper, could use a refresher, or just want an outline to help them through it, the libraries have built a six-step guide that walks students through a research paper  from the beginning (finding a good topic) to the end (citing sources) with links to relevant databases, collections, and other tips every step of the way.

  Research 101

http://libguides.csn.edu/research-101

However, if students need more than just a refresher and want to dive a little deeper into the entire research process, Research 101 is the library’s online tutorial that explains how to do all research instead of just giving a few basic steps to follow. In Research 101, students learn about the different types of sources and how to evaluate them, how to search with keywords, Boolean operators, and more, and where to go on the library website for more help. This interactive experience with quizzes along the way reinforces skills and offers a cumulative test at the end—which means faculty can also use it to evaluate their students’ comprehension of research and information literacy. In 2013 alone, with the help of faculty members introducing this tool to students, use of the Research 101 tutorial reached 37,367 total page views. Try embedding the guide into Canvas as a hyperlink or the cumulative test as a quiz file (directions to save and upload the quiz can be found here: http://sites.csn.edu/library/fac/InfoLit.html)

Course and Subject Guides

http://libguides.csn.edu/research-guides

When students are already familiar with performing research and instead need to find specific information for assignments within their CSN program or academic subject, the library subject guides provide resources on a single topic in one location so students can easily find research materials just in that area. Faculty can also request a guide for a specific course or shared assignment and the CSN librarians may be able to create something tailored to that class. For example, the ALS 101 career research assignment, BIO 196 lab research paper, and COM 101 persuasive speech are all guides that librarians put together for students to use in those classes.

  Mobile Website

www.csn.edu/library

For distance students on the go, the library has a mobile version of its website, fully optimized for a smartphone’s smaller screen. While not all resources work in this format, students can still use the library’s OneSearch bar that searches CSN library books, articles and videos all at once, search mobile databases and subject guides, and follow the Start Your Research guide on their phones. In 2013 alone, the CSN library website received nearly 8,000 visits on a mobile device. This number, added to the visitors using the website on a computer made up a grand total of over 93,300 visitors to the CSN library website in 2013 alone!

  New: FAQs and Chat!

http://sites.csn.edu/library/research/Ask.html

Just launched in the spring of 2014, CSN libraries now have even more ways for distance education students (and all students) to communicate with their librarians and get their questions answered. The first is a searchable collection of Frequently Asked Questions that students can look through or add to in order to find common answers about library hours, rules, resources, and more. The second way to get a question answered is through the library’s online chat, where students can talk (or rather, type) to a librarian live. Simply ask a question in the chat widget box during regular chat hours (Mon-Thurs: 10am-4pm, Fri: 10am-2pm) and a librarian will respond! The chat page can be found through the library’s Ask a Librarian link, or students can click on the green “Ask Us” tab on the right side of the library home page to immediately begin chatting. The chat feature is also available through the library’s mobile site.

  If you teach an online class or work with distance education students, we hope you’ll take a moment to mention (or link to) some of the library resources that can help one CSN student population (as well as many others) get into the virtual library and come out with more than just a stack of books.