Tech Takeaways

I will admit that when this course started, I was hesitant of using a lot of technology in the library. It has nothing to do with being anti-tech. I am far from it. I love technology and am an avid user (and have been since youth) in my personal life. I was more concerned with whether it would take up too much time to introduce technology and then create a product. However, after taking the time to explore and finding how simple a lot of the technology we can use is, I feel confident that it will be easier to use technology in class. I also got to see in one of my observations for LBS815 how an elementary school librarian uses technology. It seems that if you have iPads, you're probably good to go. Maybe not that simple, but it does seem like my concerns were maybe unnecessary, especially since kids these days seem to be so natural with basic computer and tablet skills. You can teach them more because you don't necessarily need to teach them the basics, as much as you would've had to do 20 years ago. My first grader is coming home, telling me about how he was using the Chromebooks in class. So, by the time they're in fourth grade or so, you can probably do a whole lot.

I also learned more about the importance of being a leader within the school. In order to get people excited about your proposed technology, you need to reach out and show the faculty how it's done. This isn't something with which I am necessarily 100% comfortable, so talking about its importance was good for me.

There were so many new tools and apps I learned about. The reminder that you can find tools for almost anything online and to not get frustrated with the first one you try was also important.

I knew almost nothing about adaptive technology, at least not with that term, and I learned so much. Just knowing to look out for adaptive tools within the technology at the school is crucial. Add to that other specialized tools and ideas and I feel confident that I can reach more students.

I've really enjoyed the chance to explore that I was given in this course. I feel certain that if I stay on top of technology, I will be able to do creative and accessible projects with students in my own library some day.

OPAC Chit-chat

Here's my main criteria when looking at OPACs - can I find what I need? Most OPACs these days are pretty user-friendly, so when it comes to comparing them, I start to get into design and the nitty-gritty of filtering. I love filtering my searches, and if the one I'm using doesn't offer me good filtering options, I get frustrated. But am I alone in that?

I turned to the librarian at my son's elementary school, Mrs. Callahan, to see how she felt about Follett's Destiny catalog, since I have never used it from the back end for more than circulation and acquisitions. Overall, she seems pretty happy with Destiny. Mrs. Callahan finds that at the elementary level, very few of the students use the catalog until she begins teaching it in third grade. She doesn't try before that because she discovered that second graders still aren't great spellers and since Destiny doesn't autocorrect in the way that Google does, it made using the catalog frustrating.

Mrs. Callahan tends to use the classic version of Destiny to introduce the catalog to students because it is so simple. Once they start to discover ebooks and audiobooks, they move to into using Discover. She really likes Quest as a book discovery tool, much like Goodreads, but she informed me that it's no longer being supported, meaning it is probably on its way out.

When I asked what she didn't like about Destiny, Mrs. Callahan said she wishes it was more interactive and wasn't so clunky. For example, there's a way for students to write book reviews and include them in the catalog, but there's no way to batch review them. You have to go through each review individually, which is time consuming.

Overall, she likes Destiny. She has used it for almost all of her career and hasn't had much of a chance to explore other options, but she doesn't feel the need. The department head isn't a librarian, so when decisions do need to be made, the head consults with the district's seven librarians. However, in the end they do not get to make the final decision.

My general sense from this chat and the discussion board is that Destiny is fine, and that if you don't have a reason to change, most people like it well enough to stick with it. I think that's perfectly acceptable, quite frankly. Making a change from one OPAC to another can be a challenge and time-consuming. Unless my budget changes or the product I use is going away, I don't know that I would want to change a product with which I was familiar and had no real problems. However, I think it's good practice to at least know what else is out there in case a problem with your OPAC arises.