Sakai Conference: Integrating Library Resources into Sakai
Jezmynne Wezcott, The Claremont Colleges
Meebo widget in home page for her “Welcome to the Science Library” site.
Web Content Tool: Tip: Set new windows such as Refworks, etc. to open in a new window so that users won’t lose their work in that window as they navigate between Sakai and the other. Limit # of links in Web Content, because too many creates scrolling–just put the most important ones in here, and use Resources for the rest of the stuff. JW has created a dynamic list of all journals in a subject collection using the Web Content (note to self: ask to see this?)
Resources Tool: Tip: It’s useful to duplicate relevant items across multiple folders, i.e. guide/handout for Google Scholar, because these are used by many different disciplines. Use text or HTML for users who may not have Adobe or MS Office. Make items or entire folders publicly viewable in the item’s details so that they can be linked to from other pages/sites.
Assignments Tool: Good for a “How To” step-by-step research guide. Suggested library assignments beyond research papers. Work with faculty to share ideas, encourage faculty to point students to the library site.
Wiki Tool: Use text, links, images, video/audio files. Store items in a folder in resources. Place items marked publicly viewable in other sites (i.e. My Workspace) and link to them. Easy to use.
JW’s setup: students and faculty can voluntarily join the site via the public directory (publicized via in-class sessions.) Surprisingly popular. Sakai administrator on campus can say which are most highly-visited sites in the system, for assessment purposes. Faculty subsequently add librarians to course sites. Site stats indicate logins, events, and resources accessed.
Next steps: more librarian involvement, course-integrated instruction (work with faculty to integrate the library site and content into their research assignments), electronic reserves migration to Sakai. Create admin login to enable library staff to upload content to course sites. (?)
