Implementation Project: Senate Library: Making the Leap from ILS to LSP with OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services
WORLDSHARE IMAGE IS LICENSED UNDER ©2016 OCLC
Our final assignment in my LIS 672 course was to select any form of library technology and outline a plan to implement that technology in a specific library or information center. My library of choice was the Senate Library in Washington, D.C. and I proposed to replace their current integrated library system (TLC’s Library.Solution) with OCLC’s WorldShare Management System library service platform. The desired goals of the proposed migration was to update the Senate Library’s library management software (in use since 1999), increase discovery of print, electronic, and digital resources, streamline workflows, and ultimately, decrease operational costs. The full report can be viewed below
Emerging Technologies: Exploring Open Source Integrated Library Systems (ILS)
KOHA LOGO BY KOHA COMMUNITY IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-SA 3.0
Before taking LIS 672, Technology for Libraries and Information Centers, I knew next to nothing about open source products. So, for my emerging technology project, I decided to “get smart” on Open Source Software (OSS) in general, and Koha integrated library system software in particular. What I learned is that any library must weigh the pros and cons when making the decision about whether or not to switch to open source systems. However, it is reassuring to know that several OSS products (Evergreen, Koha) are being used successfully and that no one institution has to reinvent the wheel. On the horizon, information professionals can look to even better products like Kuali OLE and FOLIO. Read my full report below.
Content Management Plan
In LIS 694, Informatics and Web Design, we learned that the most well-designed web site in the world is still ineffective if your organization doesn’t have a cohesive content management strategy. Every piece of content produced by your institution needs to both convey the message and the mission of the organization and fulfill the needs of its users. Instructed to design a content management plan for an institution of our choice, I returned to Kainalu Elementary School, analyzed their content needs and recommended some strategies to get their message out to parents, students, faculty, and the community.
Usability Study
Another concept we explored in LIS 694 Informatics and Web Design was User Experience. After identifying a web site, each student was instructed to design a Usability Study to evaluate the effectiveness of the site. I choose Kainalu Elementary, my former employer’s, newly launched site. This project convinced me to think about user experience early and often!! Here is the report in all its glory:
Creating Web Pages with HTML, PHP, and SQL
While not an expert by any means, I did get to dabble in coding web pages using HTML, PHP, and SQL. My summer course LIS 694 Informatics and Web Design, included a module where we were expected to write code for increasingly complex web pages that called out to an instructor-created database for data. I always enjoy coding and intend to devote more time to learning some other languages (e.g. JavaScript, Python, R) in the future. Here is a sample of the code from one of the final pages that we were required to create.
Handbook Chapters
Our culminating class project in my LIS 650: Management of Libraries & Information Centers course was to create an employee handbook for a library or information center. Each student was team leader for one chapter and a contributor for another chapter. The chapter that I led (and completed with the help of Kelsey Hara) was Safety and Security and the chapter to which I contributed (led by Keala Richard) was Assessment and Reporting. Here are the completed chapters:
Assessment and Reporting Chapter
TUF Grant Proposal
In my LIS 619 class, groups had to create preservation projects and write grant proposals to the The Ulumaika Foundation (TUF), a fictional foundation created by our instructor, Debbie Dunn. Having written grants before, I can attest that the process was as realistic and intense as the real thing. A brief description of the project is below:
In 44 years of practice, Nā Kūpuna Mai ka Moku o Koʻolaupoko (NKMK) has generated 40 boxes of documents; housed in different members’ homes and/or in the schools in which we serve. These documents are susceptible to environmental and pest damage as well as to the possibility that they may be discarded. Coupling these risks with desires to centralize storage and increase access to the collection, we are proposing the pilot project, E Kaʻana Like Aku i ka ʻIke o Ko Kākou Kūpuna (Sharing the knowledge of our Kūpuna). We intend to archive the paper materials and create an open access digital repository of the Kūpuna documents. This collection will be a resource to currently practicing Kūpuna, future Kūpuna, and historians/scholars of Hawaiian culture. Indirectly, the collection will benefit hundreds of K-6th grade public school students who will receive this information in their Hawaiian Studies programs. If successful, this pilot project can be replicated for other Kūpuna groups. Someday, we also hope to include audio/visual materials of some of the oral tradition that our Kūpuna wish to share publicly.
TUF Grant Proposal Cover Letter
Making the grade: Reporting on a search experience with discovery tools in the University of Hawai’i Mānoa library system
Our culminating individual project in LIS 663 Database Searching, analyzed the effectiveness and usefulness of the University of Hawaii at Manoa library’s discovery tool OneSearch (hosted by Primo). We developed and refined the following skills:
- continuing to create and refine optimal search queries
- focusing on the end user’s information need by ranking and selecting the records returned as matches for that need
- practicing and describing different options of sharing results with the user (emailing search queries or records lists, printing records lists or portions of records)
The OneSearch discovery tool experience
Exploring Search Syntax in the ERIC Database Across Three Platforms
Student groups in LIS 663 Database Searching, focused on search syntax behaviors in the ERIC database across three different platforms. Results were at times predictable, at other times confusing and surprising. This project revealed how carefully one must construct a search query; maintaining awareness of and adhering to a particular platform’s idiosyncracies. It also reinforced the need to remain skeptical and critical of results given by any one particular platform.
Exploring search syntax in the ERIC database (report)
ProQuest, EBSCOhost, & Gale/Cengage: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Students in LIS 663 Database Searching course, were asked to work in groups; conducting searches for a particular information need utilizing three different search platforms, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, and Gale/Cengage. In addition to fulfilling the information need, the group critiqued and compared the usability and effectiveness of each platform. The result was a deeper understanding of creating effective queries and a familiarization with three of the most widely used search platforms in the information industry.
Comparison of EBSCOhost ProQuest and GaleCengage platforms (report)
Media Review
According to some library collection policies, materials may not be selected unless they have been positively reviewed. This requirement places independently published, locally produced materials at a disadvantage. In addition, writing reviews is one of the responsibilities that an active librarian can take part in in order to support the profession. Therefore, as part of our LIS 615 Collection Management course we were asked to write a review about a local book, journal, or movie. I chose to review the DVD Na Kupu Mana’olana (Seeds of Hope).
Na Kupu Mana’olana Seeds of hope DVD review
Deselection/Weeding Journal
One of the most necessary, and loathed, tasks of any librarian could very well be deselection, commonly known as weeding. At Kainalu Elementary school this fall, my coworker and I took on a much needed weeding project. For an critical narrative of our project and process read the journal below:
Collection Management Critique – Maps Collection
In LIS 615, we were tasked with comparing collection management policies for a library collection of our choosing. I decided to focus on the MAGIS (maps and GIS) collections of four different university libraries, Duke University, Stanford University, the University of Iowa, and the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. In studying those policies, I found practices to emulate and avoid. If you would like to read my analyses, click on the link below:
Comparison of Map Collection Policies
Poetry Inspires!
As part of a mini-grant awarded by the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, I collaborated with third grade teachers at Kainalu Elementary School to teach a poetry unit. Students will read and analyze poetry, create a watercolor inspired by the poetry, and write a short essay detailing how the poetry and their paintings are connected. The students will then display their creations as part of our April art theme in the school library. Stay tuned as this project develops!
Field Report
My objective of this project is to identify trends in library and reference services specific to Kailua Public Library (KPL), compare them to trends in public libraries nationwide, and make recommendations, supported by previous research, for how KPL can be more responsive to the community which it serves. To read my report, clink the link below.
Pathfinder
As a requirement of LIS 601, I designed a pathfinder for the 5th graders at Kainalu Elementary School to use for their Native American project. I colloborated with 5th grade teachers to customize a research tool that really fits their needs. It includes book, web, database, image, and multimedia sources. Check it out here:
Ethics Survey
In our Spring 2015 LIS 610 course, two fellow students and I explored how school librarians deal with controversial material. In December 2015, I presented our findings at the HLA/HASL Oahu Conference LIS student poster session.
Angela Barr MLISc 
5 thoughts on “Projects”