Library Course Tools
Dynamically generated course-centric views of library resources and services.
Overview
The Library Course Tools application dynamically generates student-centric views of library resources and tools for all courses taught at North Carolina State University. Library content is contextualized to the course wherever possible by exploiting existing and new library resource mappings to North Carolina State University course department codes or course numbers. Library Course Tools provides a consolidated view of library offerings that is easily linked to from both library systems and non-library systems such as campus learning management systems.
How We Did It
Library Course Tools is a styled set of "widgets," collected by "RESTful" requests to the Library Widget System, that provide entry-points to library resources and services from a course-centric perspective. These widgets can contain static or dynamic content that use the course identifier to leverage librarian-created knowledge to select content at various levels of customization. All of the widgets have been designed to be as scalable as possible, supporting various levels of manual customization while allowing for more general content when appropriate. This project is implemented using object-oriented PHP, and the front-end design makes use of YUI, jQuery and CSS. Library Course Tools URIs are "RESTful" and intuitive, and the Library Course Tools widgets are easily reusable in other contexts, such as Moodle.
Results
Recognition
- ALA's Office of Information Technology Policy's Cutting-Edge Library Services 2009 award. This award is meant to "showcase libraries that are serving their communities with novel and innovative methods and provide the library community with some successful models for delivering quality library service in new ways."
- Duckett, K. (2010). "Course Views (Library Tools) at the North Carolina State University," Future of Libraries: Cutting-edge Services, program sponsored by the ALA Office of Information Technology Policy, American Library Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2010.
- Casden, J., Duckett, K., Sierra, T., and Ryan, J. (2009). "Course Views: A Scalable Approach to Providing Course-Based Access to Library Resources", The Code4Lib Journal, Issue 6.
- Sierra, T., Casden, J., and Duckett, K. (2008). "A Scalable Approach to Providing Course-based Access to Library Resources", Digital Library Federation Fall Forum 2008, Providence, Rhode Island, November 13, 2008.
- Duckett, K. and Casden, J. (2008). "Scaling Up Library Resources for Students: Course Views at NCSU," part of the "Course Management Systems: Integration Library Content" series of presentations, 2008 LITA National Forum, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 17, 2008.
- Duckett, K. and Sierra, T. (2007). "Course Views: A Scalable Project to Connect Students to Library Resources", EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Meeting, Seattle, Washington, October 26, 2007.
- Duckett, K. and Sierra, T. (2007). "Connecting Students to Library Resources through Course Views", poster presentation for EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2007 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 23, 2007. [poster]
![Duckett, K. and Sierra, T. (2007). "Connecting Students to Library Resources through Course Views", poster presentation for EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2007 Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, January 23, 2007. [poster]](/documents/dli/projects/courseviews/eli2007-poster.png){kind=link}
Team
Kim DuckettDepartment Head, Research Engagement
Jason CasdenFormer Associate Head, Digital Library Initiatives
Andreas OrphanidesLead Librarian for UX Strategy
Bret DavidsonFormer Associate Head, Digital Library Initiatives