Taking a trek with SCVNGR: Developing asynchronous, mobile orientations and instruction for campus
Posted: May 13, 2013 | Author: Nicole Pagowsky | Filed under: academic librarianship, design, library, library instruction, mobile, technology | Tags: gamification, scnvgr | 1 Comment »Embedding the library in campus-wide orientations, as well as developing standalone library orientations, is often part of outreach and first year experience work. Reaching all students can be a challenge, so finding opportunities for better engaging campus helps to promote the library and increase student awareness. Using a mobile app for orientations can provide many benefits such as increasing interactivity and offering an asynchronous option for students to learn about the library on their own time. We have been trying out SCVNGR at the University of Arizona (UA) Libraries and are finding it is a more fun and engaging way to deliver orientations and instruction to students.
Why use game design for library orientations and instruction?
Game-based learning can be a good match for orientations, just as it can be for instruction (I have explored this before with ACRL TechConnect previously, looking at badges). Rather than just presenting a large amount of information to students or having them fill out a paper-based scavenger hunt activity, using something like SCVNGR can get students interacting more with the library in a way that offers more engagement in real time and with feedback. However, simply adding a layer of points and badges or other game mechanics to a non-game situation doesn’t automatically make it fun and engaging for students. In fact, doing this ineffectively can cause more harm than good (Nicholson, 2012). Finding a way to use the game design to motivate participants beyond simply acquiring points tends to be the common goal in using game design in orientations and instruction. Thinking of the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) principle from a students’ perspective can help, and in the game design we used at the University of Arizona with SCVNGR for a class orientation, we created activities based on common questions and concerns of students.
Why SCVNGR?
scvngr home screen
SCVNGR is a mobile app game for iPhone and Android where players can complete challenges in specific locations. Rather than getting clues and hints like in a traditional scavenger hunt, this game is more focused on activities within a location instead of finding the location. Although this takes some of the mystery away, it works very well for simply informing people about locations that are new to them and having them interact with the space.
Students need to physically be in the location for the app to work, where they use the location to search for “challenges” (single activities to complete) or “treks” (a series of single activities that make up the full experience for a location), and then complete the challenges or treks to earn points, badges, and recognition.
Some libraries have made their own mobile scavenger hunt activities without the aid of a paid app. For example, North Carolina State University uses the NCSU Libraries’ Mobile Scavenger Hunt, which is a combination of students recording responses in Evernote, real time interaction, and tracking by librarians. One of the reasons we went with SCVNGR, however, is because this sort of mobile orientation requires a good amount of librarian time and is synchronous, whereas SCVNGR does not require as much face-to-face librarian time and allows for asynchronous student participation. Although we do use more synchronous instruction for some of our classes, we also wanted to have the option for asynchronous activities, and in particular for the large-scale orientations where many different groups will come in at many different times. Although SCVNGR is not free for us, the app is free to students. They offer 24/7 support and other academic institutions offer insight and ideas in a community for universities.
Other academic libraries have used SCVNGR for orientations and even library instruction. A few examples are:
- University of California – San Diego uses SCVNGR for their orientations. They created a LibGuide specifically for their SCVNGR orientation where they also post the scoreboard and photos.
- Oregon State University uses SCVNGR for international student orientations to increase awareness and support the university initiative to increase the OSU international population from 5 to 10% of the student body.
- Boise State is using SCVNGR for instruction rather than a focus on orientations. They have provided information to students who then go on to create their own SCVNGR orientations as an assignment.
- University of California – Merced recently wrote about SCVNGR in their campus-wide orientations, incorporating other areas on campus into the library’s orientation. They decided to try out SCVNGR from UCSD’s positive feedback, but had some issues with student turnout and discuss possible reasons for this in the article.
How did the UA Libraries use SCVNGR?
Because a lot of instruction has moved online and there are so many students to reach, we are working on SCVNGR treks for both instruction and basic orientations at the University of Arizona (UA). We are in the process of setting up treks for large-scale campus orientations (New Student Orientation, UA Up Close for both parents and students, etc.) that take place during the summer, and we have tested SCVNGR out on a smaller scale as a pilot for individual classes. There tends to be greater success and engagement if the Trek is tied to something, such as a class assignment or a required portion of an orientation session that must be completed. One concern for an app-based activity is that not all students will have smartphones. This was alleviated by putting students into groups ahead of time, ensuring that at least one person in the group did have a device compatible to use SCVNGR. However, we do lend technology at the UA Libraries, and so if a group was without a smartphone or tablet, they would be able to check one out from the library.
trek page for ais197b at ua libraries
We first piloted a trek on an American Indian Studies student success course (AIS197b). This course for freshmen introduces students to services on campus that will be useful to them while they are at the UA. Last year, we presented a quick information session on library services, and then had the students complete a scavenger hunt for a class grade (participation points) with pencil and paper throughout the library. Although they seemed glad to be able to get out and move around, it didn’t seem particularly fun and engaging. On top of that, every time the students got stuck or had a question, they had to come back to the main floor to find librarians and get help. In contrast, when students get an answer wrong in SCVNGR, feedback is programmed in to guide them to the correct information. And, because they don’t need clues to make it to the next step (they just go back and select the next challenge in the trek), they are able to continue without one mistake preventing them from moving on to the next activity. This semester, we first presented a brief instruction session (approximately 15-20 min) and then let students get started on SCVNGR.
You can see in the screenshot below how question design works, where you can select the location, how many points count toward the activity, type of activity (taking a photo, answering with text, or scanning a QR code), and then providing feedback. If a student answers a question incorrectly, as I mention above, they will receive feedback to help them in figuring out the correct answer. I really like that when students get answers right, they know instantly. This is positive reinforcement for them to continue.
scvngr answer feedback
The activities designed for students in this class were focused on photo and text-based challenges. We stayed away from QR codes because they can be finicky with some phones, and simply taking a picture of the QR code meets the challenge requirement for that option of activity. Our challenges included:
- Meet the reference desk (above): Students meet desk staff and ask how they can get in touch for reference assistance; answers are by text and students type in which method they think they would use the most: email, chat, phone, or in person.
- Prints for a day: Students find out about printing (a frequent question of new students), and text in how to pay for printing after finding the information at the Express Documents Center.
- Playing favorites: Students wander around the library and find their favorite study spot. Taking a picture completes the challenge, and all images are collected in the Trek’s statistics.
- Found in the stacks: After learning how to use the catalog (we provided a brief instruction session to this class before setting them loose), students search the catalog for books on a topic they are interested in, then locate the book on the shelf and take a picture. One student used this time to find books for another class and was really glad he got some practice.
- A room of one’s own: The UA Libraries implemented online study room reservations as of a year ago. In order to introduce this new option to students, this challenge had them use their smartphones to go to the mobile reservation page and find out what the maximum amount of hours study rooms can be reserved for and text that in.
SCVNGR worked great with this class for simple tasks, such as meeting people at the reference desk, finding a book, or taking a picture of a favorite study spot, but for tasks that might require more critical thinking or more intricate work, this would not be the best platform to use in that level of instruction. SCVNGR’s assessment options are limited for students to respond to questions or complete an activity. Texting in detailed answers or engaging in tasks like searching a database would be much harder to record. Likewise, because more instruction that is tied to critical thinking is not so much location-based (evaluating a source or exploring copyright issues, for example), and so it would be hard to tie these tasks and acquisition of skill to an actual location-based activity to track. One instance of this was with the Found in the Stacks challenge; students were supposed to search for a book in the catalog and then locate it on the shelf, but there would be nothing stopping them from just finding a random book on the shelf and taking a picture of it to complete the challenge. SCVNGR provides a style guide to help in game design, and the overall understanding from this document is that simplicity is most effective for this platform.
Another feature that works well is being able to choose if the Trek is competitive or not, and also use “SmartRoute,” which is the ability to have challenges show up for participants based on distance and least-crowded areas. This is wonderful, particularly as students get sort of congested at certain points in a scavenger hunt: they all crowd around the same materials or locations simultaneously because they’re making the same progress through the activity. We chose to use SmartRoute for this class so they would be spread out during the game.
scvngr trek settings
When trying to assess student effort and impact of the trek, you can look at stats and rankings. It’s possible to view specific student progress, all activity by all participants, and rankings organized by points.
scvngr statistics
Another feature is the ability to collect items submitted for challenges (particularly pictures). One of our challenges is for students to find their favorite study spot in the library and take a picture of it. This should be fun for them to think about and is fairly easy, and it helps us do some space assessment. It’s then possible to collect pictures like the following (student’s privacy protected via purple blob).
student images of ua main library via scvngr
On the topic of privacy, students enter in their name to set up an account, but only their first name and first initial of their last name appear as their username. Although last names are then hidden, SCVNGR data is viewable by anyone who is within the geographical range to access the challenge: it is not closed to an institution. If students choose to take pictures of themselves, their identity may be revealed, but it is possible to maintain some privacy by not sharing images of specific individuals or sharing any personal information through text responses. On the flip side of not wanting to associate individual students with their specific activities, it gets trickier when an instructor plans to award points for student participation. In that case, it’s possible to request reports from SCVNGR for instructors so they can see how much and which students participated. In a large class of over 100 students, looking at the data can be messier, particularly if students have the same first name and last initial. Because of this issue, SCVNGR might be better used for large-scale orientations where participation does not need to be tracked, and small classes where instructors would be easily able to know who is who in the data for activity.
Lessons learned
Both student and instructor feedback was very positive. Students seemed to be having fun, laughing, and were not getting stuck nearly as much as the previous year’s pencil-and-paper hunt. The instructor noted it seemed a lot more streamlined and engaging for the class. When students checked in with us at the end before heading out, they said they enjoyed the activity and although there were a couple of hiccups with the software and/or how we designed the trek, they said it was a good experience and they felt more comfortable with using the library.
Next time, I would be more careful about using text responses. I had gone down to our printing center to tell the current student worker what answers students in the class would be looking for so she could answer it for them, but they wound up speaking with someone else and getting different answers. Otherwise, the level of questions seemed appropriate for this class and it was a good way to pilot how SCVNGR works, if students might like it, and how long different types of questions take for bringing this to campus on a larger scale. I would also be cautious about using SCVNGR too heavily for instruction, since it doesn’t seem to have capabilities for more complex tasks or a great deal of critical thinking. It is more suited to basic instruction and getting students more comfortable in using the library.
Pros
- Ability to reach many students and asynchronously
- Anyone can complete challenges and treks; this is great for prospective students and families, community groups, and any programs doing outreach or partnerships outside of campus since a university login is not required.
- Can be coordinate with campus treks if other units have accounts or a university-wide license is purchased.
- WYSIWYG interface, no programming skills necessary
- Order of challenges in a trek can be assigned staggered so not everyone is competing for the same resources at the same time.
- Can collect useful data through users submitting photos and comments (for example, we can examine library space and student use by seeing where students’ favorite spots to study are).
Cons
- SCVNGR is not free to use, an annual fee applies (in the $900-range for a library-only license, which is not institution-wide).
- Privacy is a concern since anyone can see activity in a location; it’s not possible to close this to campus.
- When completing a trek, users do not get automatic prompts to proceed to the next challenge; instead, they must go back to the home location screen and choose the next challenge (this can get a little confusing for students).
- SCVNGR is more difficult to use with instruction, especially when looking to incorporate critical thinking and more complex activities
- Instructors might have a harder time figuring out how to grade participation because treks are open to anyone; only students’ first name and last initial appear, so if either a large class completes a trek for an assignment or if an orientation trek for the public is used, a special report must be requested from SCVNGR that the library could send to the instructor for grading purposes.
Conclusion
SCVNGR is a good way to increase awareness and get students and other groups comfortable in using the library. One of the main benefits is that it’s asynchronous, so a great deal of library staff time is not required to get people interacting with services, collections, and space. Although this platform is not perfect for more in-depth instruction, it does work at the basic orientation level, and students and the instructor in the course we piloted it on had a good experience.
References
Nicholson, S. (2012). A user-centered theoretical framework for meaningful gamification. Paper Presented at Games+Learning+Society 8.0, Madison, WI. Retrieved from http://scottnicholson.com/pubs/meaningfulframework.pdf.
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About Our Guest Author: Nicole Pagowsky is an Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Arizona where she explores game-based learning, student retention, and UX. You can find her on Twitter, @pumpedlibrarian.
Adventures with Raspberry Pi: A Librarian’s Introduction
Posted: April 22, 2013 | Author: Nicholas Schiller | Filed under: library, technology | Tags: raspberry pi | 5 Comments »Raspberry Pi
A Raspberry Pi computer (image credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Raspberry Pi, a $35 fully-functional desktop computer about the size of a credit card, is currently enjoying a high level of buzz, popularity, and media exposure. Librarians are, of course, also getting in on the action. I have been working with a Raspberry Pi to act as a low-power web server for a project delivering media-rich web content for museum exhibits in places without access to the internet. I’ve found working with the little Linux machine to be a lot of fun and I’m very excited about doing more with Raspberry Pi. However, as with many things librarians get excited about, it can be difficult to see through the enthusiasm to the core of the issue. Is the appeal of these cute little computers universal or niche? Do I need a Raspberry Pi in order to offer core services to my patrons? In other words: do we all need to run out and buy a Raspberry Pi, are they of interest to a certain niche of librarians, or are Raspberry Pi just the next library technology fad and soon to go the way of offering reference service in Second Life? 1 To help us answer this question, I’d like to take a moment to explain what a Raspberry Pi device is, speculate who will be interested in one, provide examples of some library projects that use Raspberry Pi, and offer a shopping list for those who want to get started.
What is Raspberry Pi
From the FAQ at raspberrypi.org:
The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.
This description from Raspberry Pi covers the basics. (H2G2 has a more detailed history of the project.) A Raspberry Pi (also known as a Raspi, or an RPi) is a small and inexpensive computer designed to extend technology education to young students who don’t currently have access to more expensive traditional computers. The Raspberry Pi project counteracts a movement away from general-purpose computing devices and toward internet appliances and mobile devices. The Pew Internet and American Life Project notes that: “smartphone owners, young adults, minorities, those with no college experience, and those with lower household income levels are more likely than other groups to say that their phone is their main source of internet access.2 Access to the internet today is pervasive and less expensive than ever before, but also more likely to come from an appliance or mobile device and without the programming tools and command-line control that were standard for previous generations of computer users. This means a smaller percentage of computer users are likely to pick up these skills on their own. Raspberry Pi offers a very-low cost solution to this lack of access to programming and command-line tools.
In addition to the stated goal of the Raspberry Pi organization, a lot of adults who already have access to technology are also very excited about the possibilities enabled by the small and cheap computing platform. What sets the Raspberry Pi apart from other computers is its combination of small size and low price. While you can do very similar things with a re-purposed or salvaged computer system running Linux, the Raspberry Pi is much smaller and uses less power. Similarly, you can do some of these things with a similarly-sized smart-phone, but those are much more expensive than a Raspberry Pi. For the technology hobbyist and amateur mad scientist, the Raspberry Pi seems to hit a sweet spot on both physical size and cost of entry.
The heart of the Raspberry Pi (or RPi) Model B is a Broadcom system-on-a-chip that includes a 700mhz ARM processor, 512mb RAM, USB and Ethernet controllers, and a graphics processor capable of HD resolutions. According to the FAQ its real-world performance is on par with a first generation Xbox or a 300mhz Pentium II computer. In my personal experience it is powerful enough for typical web browsing tasks or to host a WordPress based web site. Raspberry Pi devices also come with a GPIO (general purpose input and output) port, which enables an RPi to control electronic circuits. This makes the RPi a very flexible tool, but it doesn’t quite provide the full functionality of an Arduino or similar micro-controller3.
Out of the box, a Raspberry Pi will require some extra equipment to get up and running. There is a shopping list included at the bottom of the article that contains known working parts. If you keep boxes of spare parts and accessories around, just in case, you likely already have some of these parts. In addition to a $35 Raspberry Pi model b computer, you will definitely need an SD card with at least 4gb storage and a 5 volt 1 amp (minimum) micro-usb power supply. An extra cell phone charger looks like the right part, but probably does not put out the minimum amperage to run an RPi, but a tablet charger likely will. You can read the fine print on the ‘wall wart’ part of the charger for its amperage rating. If you want to use your Raspberry Pi as a workstation4, you’ll also need an HDMI cable, a digital monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse. Any USB keyboard or mouse will work, but the monitor will need to have an HDMI input. 5 Additionally, you may also want to use a USB wifi adapter to connect to wireless networks and since the Raspberry Pi has only two USB ports, you may also want a powered USB hub so you can connect more peripherals. The Raspberry Pi unit ships as a bare board, so you may want to keep your RPi in a case to protect it from rough handling.
Who is the Raspberry Pi for?
Now that we’ve covered what kind of kit is needed to get started, we can ask: are you the kind of librarian who is likely to be interested in a Raspberry Pi? I’ve noticed some “enthusiasm fatigue” out there, or librarians who are weary of overhyped tools that don’t provide the promised revolution. I love my Raspberry Pi units, but I don’t think they have universal appeal, so I’ve made a little quiz that may help you decide whether you are ready to order one today or pass on the fad, for now.
- Are you excited to work in a Linux operating system?
- Are you willing to use trial and error analysis to discover just right configuration for your needs?
- Do you enjoy the challenge of solving a living problem more than the security of a well-polished system?
If the answer to all three of these questions is an enthusiastic YES, then you are just the kind of librarian who will love experimenting with a Raspberry Pi. If your enthusiasm is more tempered or if you answered no to one or more of the questions, then it is not likely that a Raspberry Pi will meet your immediate needs. RPi are projects not products. They make great prototypes or test-boxes, but they aren’t really a turn-key solution to any existing large-scale library problems. Not every library or librarian needs a Raspberry Pi, but I think a significant number of geeky and DIY librarians will be left asking: “Where have you been all my life?”
If you are a librarian looking to learn Linux, programming, or server administration and you’d rather do this on a cheap dedicated machine than on your work machine, Raspberry Pi is going to make your day. If you want to learn how to install and configure something like WordPress or Drupal and you don’t have a web server to practice on (and local AMP tools aren’t what you are looking for) a Raspberry Pi is an ideal tool to develop that part of your professional skill set. If you want to learn code, learn robotics, or build DIY projects then you’ll love Raspberry Pi. RPi are great for learning more about computers, networks, and coding. They are very educational, but at the end of the day they fall a bit more on the hobby end of the spectrum then on the professional product end.
Raspberry Pi Projects for Librarians
So, if you’ve taken the quiz and are still interested in getting started with Raspberry Pi, there are a few good starting points. If you prefer printed books O’Reilly Media’s Getting Started with Raspberry Pi is fantastic. On the web. I’ve found the Raspberry Pi wiki at elinux.org to be an indispensable resource and their list of tutorials is worth a special mention. Adafruit (an electronics kit vendor and education provider) also has some very good tutorials and project guides. For library specific projects, I have three suggestions, but there are many directions you may want to go with your Rasberry Pi. I’m currently working to set mine up as a web server for local content, so museums can offer rich interpretive media about their exhibits without having to supply free broadband to the public. When this is finished, I’m going to build projects two and three.
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Project One: Get your RPi set up.
This is the out-of-the-box experience and will take you through the set up of your hardware and software. RaspberryPi.org has a basic getting started guide, Adafruit has a more detailed walkthrough, and there are some good YouTube tutorials as well. In this project you’ll download the operating system for your Raspberry Pi, transfer it to your SD card, and boot up your machine, and perform the first time setup. Once you’re device is up and running you can spend some time familiarizing yourself with it and getting comfortable with the operating system.
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Project One-Point-Five: Play with your Raspberry Pi
Once your credit card sized computer is up and functional, kick the tires. Check out the graphical interface, use the command line, and try running it headless. Take baby steps if baby steps are what is fun and comfortable, or run headlong into a project that is big and crazy; the idea here is to have fun, get used to the environment, and learn enough to ask useful questions about what to do next. This is a good time to check out the Adafruit series of tutorials or elinux.org’s tutorial list.
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Project Two: Build an Information Kiosk to Display Local Mass Transit Information
http://blog.bn.ee/2013/01/11/building-a-real-time-transit-information-kiosk-with-raspberry-pi/
I found this on the elinux list of tutorials and I think it is great for libraries, provided they are in an area served by NextBus or a similar service. The tutorial walks users through the process of building a dedicated information kiosk for transit information. The steps are clear and documented with photographs and code examples. Beginning users may want to refer to other references, such as the O’Reilly Book or a Linux Tutorial to fill in some gaps. I suspect the tricky bit will be finding a source for real-time GPS telemetry from the local transit service, but this is a great project for those who have worked through basic projects and are ready to build something practical for their library.
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Project Three: Build a Dedicated OPAC Terminal.
While dedicated OPAC terminals may no longer be the cutting edge of library technology, our patrons still need to find books on the shelves. Library Journal’s Digital Shift blog and John Lolis from the White Plains public library describe a project that uses the Raspbian OS to power a catalog-only public terminal. The concept is straight-forward and working prototypes have been completed, but as of yet I do not see a step-by-step set of instructions for the beginner or novice. As a follow up to this post, I will document the build process for TechConnect. The gist of this project is to set up a kiosk-type browser, or a browser that only does a set task or visits a limited range of sites, on the Raspberry Pi. Eli Neiberger has raised some good questions on Twitter about the suitability of RPi hardware for rough-and-tumble public abuse use, but this is the sort of issue testing may resolve. If librarians can crowd-source a durable low-cost OPAC kiosk using Lolis’ original design, we’ll have done something significant.
Raspberry Pi Shopping List
As mentioned above, you may have many of these items already. If not, I’ve purchased and tested the following accessories for a couple of Raspberry Pi projects.
Basic Kit: (parts sourced through Amazon for ease of institutional purchase. Other sources may be preferable or less expensive.)
- $35 Raspberry Pi model b
- $15 8gb SD card (Less expensive cards are available)
- $10 USB power supply
- $6 Micro USB cable
Accessories:
- $11 USB wifi adapter
- $12 Plastic case
- $20 HDMI to VGA converter-adapter (only necessary for using a vga only monitor w/ an RPi)
Raspberry Pi kits (Some vendors have put together full kits with a wide range of parts and accessories. These kits include breadboards and parts for arduino-type projects.)
- $105 Adafruit Raspberry Pi starter pack
- $130 Makershed Raspberry Pi starter kit (includes the Getting Started with Raspberry Pi book)
Notes
- Good and necessary work is still being done in Second Life, but it has become a niche service, not a revolution in the way we provide library services. ↩
- http://www.pewinternet.org/~/media//Files/Reports/2012/PIP_Digital_differences_041312.pdf ↩
- Check out this forum thread for a basic distinction between Arduino and Raspberry Pi. ↩
- The alternative is to run it ‘headless’ over your network using SSH. ↩
- Monitors with DVI input will work with a small and cheap HDMI to DVI adaptor. Analog monitors–the ones with blue VGA connectors–will work if you purchase an HDMI to VGA converter-adapter which start around $20. ↩
Local Dev Environments For Newbies Part 1: AMP on Mac OSX
Posted: March 25, 2013 | Author: Meghan Frazer | Filed under: coding, technology, tutorial | Tags: Apache, beginners, MySQL, OSX, PHP, phpMyAdmin, web server | 5 Comments »There are many cases where having a local development environment is helpful and it is a relatively straightforward thing to do, even if you are new to development. However, the blessing and the curse is that there are many, many tutorials out there attempting to show you how. This series of posts will aim to walk through some basic steps with detail, as well as pass on some tips and tricks for setting up your own local dev box.
First, what do I mean by a local development environment? This is a setup on your computer which allows you to code and tweak and test in a safe environment. It’s a great way to hammer on a new application with relatively low stakes. I am currently installing dev environments for two purposes: to test some data model changes I want to make on an existing Drupal site and to learn a new language so I can contribute to an application. For the purposes of this series, we’re going to focus on the AMP stack – Apache, MySQL and PHP – and how to install and configure those systems for use in web application development.
Apache is the web server which will serve the pages of your website or application to a browser. You may hear Apache in conjunction with lots of other things – Apache Tomcat, Apache Solr – but generally when someone references just Apache, it’s the web server. The full name of the project is the Apache HTTP Server Project.
PHP is a scripting language widely used in web development. MySQL is a database application also frequently used in web development. ”Stack” refers to the combination of several components needed to run a web application. The AMP stack is the base for many web applications and content management systems, including Drupal and WordPress.
You may have also seen the AMP acronym preceded by an L, M or W. This merely stands for the operating system of choice – Linux, Mac or Windows. This can also refer to installer packages that purport to do the whole installation for you, like WAMP or MAMP. Employing the installer packages can be useful, depending on your situation and operating system. The XAMPP stack, distributed by Apache Friends, is another example of an installer package designed to set up the whole stack for you. For this tutorial though, we’ll step through each element of the stack, instead of using a stack installer.
So, why do it yourself if there are installers? To me, it takes out the mystery of how all the pieces play together and is a good way to learn about what’s going on behind the scenes. When working on Windows, I will occasionally use a .msi installer for an individual component to make sure I don’t miss something. But installing and configuring each component individually is actually helpful.
Tips
Before we begin, let’s look at some tips:
- You will need administrative rights to the computer on which you’re installing.
- Don’t be afraid of the command line. There are lots of tutorials around the web on how to use the basic commands – for both Mac (based on UNIX) and Windows. But, you don’t need to be an expert to set up a dev environment. Most tutorials give the exact commands you need.
- Try, if possible, to block off a chunk of time to do this. Going through all the steps may take awhile, from an hour to an afternoon, especially if you hit a snag. Several times during my own process, I had to step away from it because of a crisis or because it was the end of the day. When I was able to come back later, I had some trouble remembering where I left off or the configuration options I had chosen. If you do have to walk away, write down the last thing you did.
- When you’re looking for a tutorial, Google away. Search for the elements of your stack plus your OS, like “Apache MySQL PHP Mac OSX”. You’ll find lots, and probably end up referencing more than one. Use your librarian skills: is the tutorial recent? Does it appear to be from a reputable source? If it’s a blog, are there comments on the accuracy of the tutorial? Does it agree with the others you’ve seen?
- Once you’ve selected one or two to follow, read through the whole tutorial one time without doing anything. Full disclosure: I never do this and it always bites me.
Let’s get going with Recipe 1 – Install the AMP Stack on Mac OS X
Install the XCode Developer Tools
First, we install the developer tools for XCode. If you have Mac 10.7 and above, you can download the XCode application from the App Store. To enable the developer tools, open XCode, go to the XCode menu > Preferences > Downloads tab, and then click on “Install” next to the developer tools. This tutorial on installing Ruby by Moncef Belyamani has good screenshots of the XCode process.
If you have Snow Leopard (10.6) or below, you’ll need to track down the tools on the Apple Developer Downloads Page. You will need to register as a developer, but it’s free. Note: you can get pretty far in this process without using the XCode command line tools, but down the road as you build more complicated stacks, you’ll want to have them.
Configure Apache and PHP
Next we need to configure Apache and PHP. Note that I said “configure”, not “install”. Apache and PHP both come with OS X, we just need to configure them to work together.
Here’s where we open the Terminal to access the command line by going to Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Once Terminal is open, a prompt appears where you can type in commands. The ” ~ ” character indicates that you are at the “home” directory for your user. This is where you’ll do a lot of your work. The “$” character delineates the end of the prompt and the beginning of your command.
Type in the following command:
cd /etc/apache2
“cd” stands for “change directory”. This is the equivalent of double-clicking on etc, then apache2, if you were in the Finder (but etc is a hidden folder in the Finder). From here, we want to open the necessary file in an editor. Enter the following command:
sudo nano httpd.conf
“sudo” elevates your permission to administrator, so that you can edit the config file for Apache, which is httpd.conf. You will need to type in your administrator password. The “nano” command opens a text editor in the Terminal window. (If you’re familiar with vi or emacs, you can use those instead.)
The bottom of your window will show the available commands. The “^” stands for the Control key. So, we want to search for the part to change, we press Control + W. Enter php and press Enter. We are looking for this line:
#LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
The “#” at the beginning of this line is a comment, so Apache ignores the line. We want Apache to see the line, and load the php module. So, change the text by removing the #:
LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
Save the file by press Control + O (nano calls this “WriteOut”) and press Enter next to the file name. The number of lines written displays at the bottom of the window. Press Control + X to exit nano.
Next, we need to start the Apache server. Type in the following command:
sudo apachectl start
Now, go to your browser and type in http://localhost. You should see “It Works!”
Apache, as mentioned before, serves web files from a location we designate. By default, this is /Library/Webserver/Documents. If you have Snow Leopard (10.6) or below, Apache also automatically looks to username/sites, which is a convenient place to store and work with files. If you have OS 10.7 or above, creating the Sites folder takes a few steps. On 10.7, go to System Preferences > Sharing and click on Web Sharing. If there’s a button that says “Create Personal Web folder”, it has not been created, go ahead and click that button. If it says, “Open Personal Website folder”, you’re good to go.
On 10.8, the process is a little more involved. First, go to the Finder, click on your user name and create your sites folder.
Next, we need to open the command line again and create a .conf file for that directory, so that Apache knows where to find it. Type in these commands:
cd /etc/apache2/users ls
The ls at the end will list the directory contents. If you see a file that’s yourusername.conf (ie, mfrazer.conf) in this directory, you’re good to go. If you don’t, it’s easy to create one. Type the following command:
sudo nano yourusername.conf
So, mine would be sudo nano mfrazer.conf. This will create the file and take you into a text editor. Copy and past the following, making sure to change YOURUSERNAME to your user name.
<Directory "/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Sites/"> Options Indexes MultiViews AllowOverride None Deny from all Allow from localhost </Directory>
The first directive, Options, can have lots of different…well, options. The ones we have here are Indexes and MultiViews. Indexes means that if a browser requests a directory and there’s no index.html or index.php file, it will serve a directory listing. Multi-Views means that browsers can request the content in a different format if it exists in the directory (ie, in a different language). AllowOverride determines if an .htaccess file elsewhere can to override the configuration settings. For now, None will indicate that no part can be overridden. For Drupal or other content management systems, it’s possible we’ll want to change these directives, but we’ll cover that later.
The last two lines indicate that traffic can only reach this directory from the local machine, by typing http://localhost/~username in the browser. For more on Apache security, see the Apache documentation. If you would like to set it so that other computers on your network can also access this directory, change those last two lines to:
Order allow,deny Allow from all
Either way, press Control + O to save the file and Control + X to exit. Restart Apache for the changes to take effect using this command:
sudo apachectl restart
You may also be prompted at some point by OS X to accept incoming network connections for httpd (Apache); I would deny these as I only want access to my directory from my machine, but it’s up to you depending on your setup.
We’ll test this setup with php in the next step.
Test PHP
If you want to check php, you can create a new text document using your favorite text editor. Type in:
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Save the file as phpinfo.php in your username/sites directory (so for me, this is mfrazer > Sites)
Then, point your browser to http://localhost/~yourUserName/phpinfo.php You should see a page of information regarding PHP and the web server, with a header that looks like this:
MySQL
Now, let’s install MySQL. There’s two ways to do this. We could go to the MySQL downloads page and use the installers. The fantastic tutorials at Coolest Guy on the Planet both recommend this, and it’s a fine way to go.
But we can also use Homebrew, mentioned previously on this blog, which is a really convenient way to do things as long as we’re already using the command line.
First, we need to install homebrew. Enter this at the command prompt:
ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"
Next, type in
brew doctor
If you receive the message: “Your system is raring to brew.” You’re ready to go. If you get Warnings, don’t lose heart. Most of them tell you exactly what you need to do to move forward. Correct the errors and type in brew doctor again until you’re raring to go. Then, type in the following command:
brew install mysql
That one’s pretty self-explanatory, no? Homebrew will download and install MySQL, as of this writing version 5.6.10, but pay attention to the download to see the version – it’s in the URL. After the installation succeeds, Homebrew will give some instructions on finishing the setup, including the commands we discuss below.
I’m going to pause for a second here and talk a little about permissions and directories. If you get a “permission denied” error, trying running the command again using “sudo” at the beginning. Remember, this elevates your permission to the administrator level. Also, if you get a “directory does not exist” error, you can easily create the directory using “mkdir”. Before we move on, let’s try to check for a directory you’re going to need coming up. Enter:
cd /usr/local/var
If you are successfully able to change to that directory, great. If not, type in
sudo mkdir /usr/local/var
to create it. Then, let’s go back to our home directory by typing in
cd ~
Now, let’s continue with our procedure. First, we want to set up the databases to run with our user account. So, we type in the following two commands:
unset TMPDIR mysql_install_db --verbose --user=`whoami` --basedir="$(brew --prefix mysql)" --datadir=/usr/local/var/mysql --tmpdir=/tmp
The second command here installs the system databases; ‘whoami’ will automatically replace with your user name, so the above command should work verbatim. But it also works to use your user name, with no quotes, (ie –user=mfrazer).
Next, we want to run the “secure installation” script. This helps you set root passwords without leaving the password in plain text in your editor. First we start the mysql server, then we run the installation scripts and follow the prompts to set your root password, etc:
mysql.server start sudo /usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.10/bin/mysql_secure_installation
After the script is complete, stop the mysql server.
mysql.server stop
Next, we want to set up MySQL so it starts at login. For that, we run the following two commands:
ln -sfv /usr/local/opt/mysql/*.plist ~/Library/LaunchAgents launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.mysql.plist
The ln command, in this case, places a symbolic link to any .plist files in the mysql directory into the LaunchAgents directory. Then, we load the plist using launchctl to start the server.
One last thing – we need to create one more link to the mysql.sock file.
cd /var/mysql/ sudo ln -s /tmp/mysql.sock
This creates a link to the mysql.sock file, which MySQL uses to communicate, but which resides by default in a tmp directory. The first command places us in the directory where we want the link (remember, if it doesn’t exist, you can use “sudo mkdir /var/mysql/” to create it) and the second creates the link.
MySQL is ready to go! And, so is your AMP stack.
But wait, there’s more…
One optional tool to install is phpMyAdmin. This tool allows you to interact with your database through your browser so you don’t have to continue to use the command line. I also think it’s a good way to test if everything is working correctly.
First, let’s download the necessary files from the phpMyAdmin website. These will have a .tar.gz extension. Place the file in your Sites directory, and double-click to unzip the file.
Rename the folder to remove the version number and everything after it. I’m going to place the next steps below, but the Coolest Guy on the Planet tutorial referenced earlier does a good job of this step for OS 10.8 (just scroll down to phpMyAdmin) if you need screenshots.
Go to the command line and navigate to your phpMyAdmin directory. Make a directory called config and change the permissions so that the installer can access the file. This should looks something like:
cd ~/username/sites/phpMyAdmin mkdir config chmod o+w config
Let’s take a look at that last command: chmod changes the permissions on a file. The o+w sets it so users who are not the directory’s owner can write to the file.
Now, in your browser, go to http://localhost/~username/sites/phpmyadmin/setup and follow these steps:
- Click on New Server (button on bottom)
- Click on Authentication tab, and enter the root password in the password field.
- Click on Save.
- Click on Save again on the main page.
Once the setup is finished, go to the Finder and move the config.inc.php file from the config directory into the main phpmyadmin directory and delete the config directory. So in the end, it looks like this:
Now, go to http://localhost/~username/sites/phpmyadmin in your browser and login with the root account.
You are ready to go! In future parts of this series, we’ll look at building the AMP stack on Windows and adding Drupal or WordPress on top of the stack. We will also look at maintaining your environment, as the AMP stack components will need updating occasionally. Any other recipes you’d like to see? Do you have questions? Let us know in the comments.
The following tutorials and pages were incredibly useful in writing this post. While none of these tutorials are exactly the same as what we did here, they all contain useful pieces and may be helpful if you want to skip the explanation and just get to the commands:
- Coolest Guy on the Planet AMP Tutorials (10.8, 10.7/10.6) by Neil Gee
- Using Homebrew to Support Drupal on OSX by Ron Golan
- Uninstall/Re-install MySQL from stackexchange.com
The Mobile App Design Process: A Tube Map Infographic
Posted: March 4, 2013 | Author: Nicholas Schiller | Filed under: coding, design, library, mobile, technology, usability | 1 Comment »Last June I had a great experience team-teaching a week-long seminar on designing mobile apps at the Digital Humanities Summer Institute (DHSI). Along with my colleagues from WSU Vancouver’s Creative Media and Digital Culture (CMDC) program, I’ll be returning this June to the beautiful University of Victoria in British Columbia to teach the course again1. As part of the course, I created a visual overview of the process we use for app making. I hope you’ll find it a useful perspective on the work involved in crafting mobile apps and an aid to the process of creating your own.
A visual guide to the process of designing and building mobile apps. Start with Requirements Analysis in the upper-left and follow the tracks to Public Release. (Click for full-sized image.)
Creating the Tube Map:
I’m fond of the tube-map infographic style, also know as the topological map2, because of its ability to highlight relationships between systems and especially because of how it distinguishes between linear (do once) and recursive (do over and over) processes. The linear nature of text in a book or images in slide-deck presentations can artificially impose a linearity that does not mirror the creative process we want to impart. In this example, the design and prototyping loops on the tube-map help communicate that a prototype model is an aid to modeling the design process and not a separate step completed only when the design has been finalized.
These maps are also fun and help spur the creative process. There are other tools for process mapping such as using flowcharts or mind-maps, but in this case I found the topological map has a couple of advantages. First and foremost, I associate the other two with our strategic planning process, so the tube map immediately seems more open, fun, and creative. This is, of course, rooted in my own experience and your experiences will vary but if you are looking for a new perspective on process mapping or a new way to display interconnected systems that is vibrant, fun, and shakes things up a bit the tube map may be just the thing.
I created the map using the open source vector-graphics program Inkscape[3. http://inkscape.org/] which can be compared to Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. Inkscape is free (both gratis and libre) and is powerful, but there is a bit of a learning curve. Being unfamiliar with vector graphics or the software tools to create them, I worked with an excellent tutorial provided by Wikipedia on creating vector graphic topological maps3. It took me a few days of struggling and slowly becoming familiar with the toolset before I felt comfortable creating with Inkscape. I count this as time well spent, as many graphics used in mobile app and icon sets required by app stores can be made with vector graphic editors. The Inkscape skills I picked up while making the map have come in very handy on multiple occasions since then.
Reading the Mobile App Map:
Our process through the map begins with a requirements analysis or needs assessment. We ask: what does the client want the app to do? What do we know about our end users? How do the affordances of the device affect this? Performing case studies helps us learn about our users before we start designing to meet their needs. In the design stage we want people to make intentional choices about the conceptual and aesthetic aspects of their app design. Prototype models like wireframe mock-ups, storyboards, or Keynotopia4 prototypes help us visualize these choices, eventually resulting in a working prototype of our app. Stakeholders can test and request modifications to the prototype, avoiding potentially expensive and labor intensive code revisions later in the process.
Once both the designers and clients are satisfied with the prototype and we’ve seen how potential users interact with it, we’re ready to commit our vision to code. Our favored code platform uses HTML 5, CSS 3, jQuery Mobile5, and PhoneGap6 to make hybrid web apps. Hybrid apps are written as web apps–HTML/JavaScript web sites that look and performlike apps–then use a tool like PhoneGap to translate this code into the native format for a device. PhoneGap translates a web app into a format that works with the device’s native programming environment. This provides more direct and thus faster access to device hardware and also enables us to place our app in official app stores. Hybrid apps are not the only available choice and aren’t perfect for every use case. They can be slower than native apps and may have some issues accessing device hardware, but the familiar coding language, multi-device compatibility, and ease of making updates across multiple platforms make them an ideal first step for mobile app design. LITA has an upcoming webinar on creating web apps that employs this system7.
Once the prototype has been coded into a hybrid app, we have another opportunity for evaluation and usability testing. We teach a pervasive approach that includes evaluation and testing all throughout the process, but this stage is very important as it is a last chance to make changes before sending the code to an app marketplace. After the app has been submitted, opportunities to make updates, fix bugs, and add features can be limited, sometimes significantly, by the app store’s administrative processes.
After you have spent some time following the lines of the tube map and reading this very brief description, I hope you can see this infographic as an aid to designing mobile web apps. I find it particularly helpful for identifying the source of a particular problem I’m having and also suggesting tools and techniques that can help resolve it. As a personal example, I am often tempted to start writing code before I’ve completely made up my mind what I want the code to do, which leads to frustration. I use the map to remind me to look at my wireframe and use that to guide the structure of my code. I hope you all find it useful as well.
Reflections on Code4Lib 2013
Posted: February 27, 2013 | Author: Margaret Heller | Filed under: academic librarianship, coding, technology | Tags: care, code4lib, conferences | 3 Comments »Disclaimer: I was on the planning committee for Code4Lib 2013, but this is my own opinion and does not reflect other organizers of the conference.
We have mentioned Code4Lib before on this blog, but for those who are unfamiliar, it is a loose collective of programmers working in libraries, librarians, and others interested in code and libraries. (You can read more about it on the website.) The Code4Lib conference has emerged as a venue to share very new technology and have discussions with a wide variety of people who might not attend conferences more geared to librarians. Presentations at the conference are decided by the votes of anyone interested in selecting the program, and additionally lightning talks and breakout sessions allow wide participation and exposure to extremely new projects that have not made it into the literature or to conferences with a longer lead time. The Code4Lib 2013 conference ran February 11-14 at University of Illinois Chicago. You can see a list of all programs here, which includes links to the video archive of the conference.
While there were many types of projects presented, I want to focus on those talks which illustrated what I saw as thread running through the conference–care and emotion. This is perhaps unexpected for a technical conference. Yet those themes underlie a great deal of the work that takes place in academic library technology and the types of projects presented at Code4Lib. We tend to work in academic libraries because we care about the collections and the people using those collections. That intrinsic motivation focuses our work.
Caring about the best way to display collections is central to successful projects. Most (though not all) the presenters and topics came out of academic libraries, and many of the presentations dealt with creating platforms for library and archival metadata and collections. To highlight a few: Penn State University has developed their own institutional repository application called ScholarSphere that provides a better user experience for researchers and managers of the repository. The libraries and archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dealt with the increasingly common problem of wanting to present digital content alongside more traditional finding aids, and so developed a system for doing so. Corey Harper from New York University presented an extremely interesting and still experimental project to use linked data to enrich interfaces for interacting with library collections. Note that all these projects combined various pieces of open source software and library/web standards to create solutions that solve a problem facing academic or research libraries for a particular setting. I think an important lesson for most academic librarians looking at descriptions of projects like this is that it takes more than development staff to make projects like this. It takes purpose, vision, and dedication to collecting and preserving content–in other words, emotion and care. A great example of this was the presentation about DIYHistory from the University of Iowa. This project started out initially as an extremely low-tech solution for crowdsourcing archival transcription, but got so popular that it required a more robust solution. They were able to adapt open source tools to meet their needs, still keeping the project very within the means of most libraries (the code is here).
Another view of emotion and care came from Mark Matienzo, who did a lightning talk (his blog post gives a longer version with more details). His talk discussed the difficulties of acknowledging and dealing with the emotional content of archives, even though emotion drives interactions with materials and collections. The records provided are emotionless and affectless, despite the fact that they represent important moments in history and lives. The type of sharing of what someone “likes” on Facebook does not satisfactorily answer the question of what they care about,or represent the emotion in their lives. Mark suggested that a tool like Twine, which allows writing interactive stories could approach the difficult question of bringing together the real with the emotional narrative that makes up experience.
One of the ways we express care for our work and for our colleagues is by taking time to be organized and consistent in code. Naomi Dushay of Stanford University Library presented best practices for code handoffs, which described some excellent practices for documenting and clarifying code and processes. One of the major takeaways is that being clear, concise, and straightforward is always preferable, even as much as we want to create cute names for our servers and classes. To preserve a spirit of fun, you can use the cute name and attach a description of what the item actually does.
Originally Bess Sadler, also from Stanford, was going to present with Naomi, but ended up presenting a different talk and the last one of the conference on Creating a Commons (the full text is available here). This was a very moving look at what motivates her to create open source software and how to create better open source software projects. She used the framework of the Creative Commons licenses to discuss open source software–that it needs to be “[m]achine readable, human readable, and lawyer readable.” Machine readable means that code needs to be properly structured and allow for contributions from multiple people without breaking, lawyer readable means that the project should have the correct structure and licensing to collaborate across institutions. Bess focused particularly on the “human readable” aspect of creating communities and understanding the “hacker epistemology,” as she so eloquently put it, “[t]he truth is what works.” Part of understanding that requires being willing to reshape default expectations–for instance, the Code4Lib community developed a Code of Conduct at Bess’s urging to underline the fact that the community aims at inclusion and creating a safe space. She encouraged everyone to keep working to do better and “file bug reports” about open source communities.
This year’s Code4Lib conference was a reminder to me about why I do the work I do as an academic librarian working in a technical role. Even though I may spend a lot of time sitting in front of a computer looking at code, or workflows, or processes, I know it makes access to the collections and exploration of those collections better.
The Setup: What We Use at ACRL TechConnect
Posted: February 25, 2013 | Author: Eric Phetteplace | Filed under: library, management, technology, workflow, writing | Tags: setup, tools | Leave a comment »Inspired by “The Setup” a few of us at Tech Connect have decided to share some of our favorite tools and techniques with you. What software, equipment, or time/stress management tools do you love? Leave us a note in the comments.
Eric – Homebrew package manager for OS X
I love Macs. I love their hardware, their operating system, even some of their apps like Garage Band. But there are certain headaches that Mac OS X comes with. While OS X exposes its inner workings via UNIX command line, it doesn’t provide a package manager like the apt of many Linux distros to install and update software.
Enter Homebrew, a lifesaver that’s helped me to up my game on the command line without much ancillary pain. Homebrew helps you find (“brew search php“), install (“brew install phantomjs“), and update (“brew upgrade git“) software from a central repository. I currently have 36 packages installed, among them utilities that Apple neglected to include like wget, programming tools like Node.js, and brilliant timesavers like z, a bookmarking system for the command line. Installing a lot of these tools can be tougher than using them, requiring permissions tweaks and enigmatic incantations. Homebrew makes installation easy and checking thirty-six separate websites for available updates becomes unnecessary.
As a bonus, some Homebrew commands now produce unicode beer mugs.
Updated Homebrew from bad98b12 to 150b5f96.
==> Updated Formulae
autojump berkeley-db gtk+ imagemagick libxml2
==> Upgrading 1 outdated package, with result:
libxml2 2.9.0
==> Upgrading libxml2
==> Downloading ftp://xmlsoft.org/libxml2/libxml2-2.9.0.tar.gz
####################################### 100.0%
==> Patching
patching file threads.c
patching file xpath.c
==> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.0 --without-python
==> make
==> make install
==> Caveats
This formula is keg-only: so it was not symlinked into /usr/local.
==> Summary
usr/local/Cellar/libxml2/2.9.0: 273 files, 11M, built in 94 seconds
[Note: simulation, not verbatim output]
Magic! And a shameless plug: Homebrew has a Kickstarter currently to help them with some automated tests, so if you use Homebrew consider a donation.
Margaret – Pomodoro Technique/using time wisely
Everyone works differently and has more effective times of day to complete certain types of work. Some people have to start writing first thing in the mornings, others can’t do much of anything that early. For me personally I find late afternoon the most effective time to work on code or technical work—but late afternoon is a time very prone to being distractible. So many funny things have been posted on the internet, and my RSS reader is all full up again. The Pomodoro technique (as well as similar systems) is a promise to yourself that if you just work hard on something for a relatively short amount of time that you will finish it, and then can have a guilt-free break.
Read the website for the full description of how to use this technique and some tools, but here’s the basic idea. You list the tasks you need to do, and then pick a task to work on for 25 minutes. Then you set a timer and start work. After the timer goes off, you get a 5 minute break to do whatever you want, and then after a few Pomodoros you take a longer break. The timer ideally should have a visual component so that you know how much time you have left and remember to stay on task. My personal favorite is focus booster. This is what mine looks like right now:
Note that the line changes color as I get closer to the end. It will become blue and count down my break when that starts. Another one I like a lot, especially when I am not at my own computer is e.ggtimer.com. This is a simple display, and you can bookmark http://e.ggtimer.com/pomodoro to get a Pomodoro started.
I can’t do Pomodoros all day—as a librarian, I need to be available to work with others at certain times—that’s not an interruption, that’s my job. Other times I really need to focus and can’t. This is the best technique to get started—and sometimes once I am started I get so focused on the project that I don’t even notice I am supposed to be on a break.
Jim – Tomcat Server with Jersey servlet: a customizable middleware/API system
The Tomcat/Jersey stack is the backbone of the library’s technology prototyping initiative. With this tool, our staff of research programmers and student programmers can take any webpage/database source and turn it into an API that could then feed into a mobile app, a data feed in a website, or a widget in some other emerging technology. While using and leveraging the Tomcat/Jersey stack does require some Java background, it can be learned in a couple weeks by anyone who has some scripting and server experience. The hardest thing to this whole pipeline is finding enough time to keep cranking out the library APIs — one that I got running over the winter holiday is a feed of group rooms that are available to be checked out/scheduled within the next hour at the library.
The data feed sends back a JSON array of available rooms, like this (abbreviated):
[{"roomName":"Collaboration Room 02 - Undergraduate Library",
"startTime":"10:00 AM",
"endTime":"11:00 AM",
"date":"1/27/2013"}, …
Bohyun – Get into the mood for concentration and focus
I am one of those people who are easily excited by new happenings around me. I am also one of those people who often would do anything but the thing that I must be doing. That is, I am prone to distraction and procrastination. My work often requires focus and concentration but I have an extremely hard time getting into the right mood.
The two tools that I found help me quite a bit are (a) Scribblet and (b) Rainy Mood. Scribblet (http://scribblet.org/) is a simple Javascript bookmarklet that lets you literally scribble on your web browser. If you tend to read more efficiently while annotating, this simple tool will help you a great deal with online reading. Rainy Mood (http://www.rainymood.com/) is a website that displays the window of any rainy day with even the sound of thunder sprinkled in. I tend to get much calmer on a rainy day which can do wonders for my writing and other projects that require a calm and focused state of mind. This tool instantly makes me have a rainy day regardless of the weather.
Meghan – Evernote
Evernote is not a terribly technical tool, but it is one I love and constantly use. It provides the ability for you to take notes, clip items from the web, attach files to notes, organize into notebooks, share notebooks (or keep them private) and search existing notes. It is available to download for desktops but I use the web version primarily, along with the web clipper and the Android app on my phone. Everything syncs together, so it is easy to locate notes from any location. Here are three examples of how it fits into my daily life:
- An enormous pile of classified bookmarks: I am currently trying to get up to speed on Drupal development as well as looking at examples of online image collections and brainstorming for my next TechConnect blog entry. The web clipper allows me to save things into specific piles by using notebooks and then add tags for classification and easier searching. For example, I can classify an issue description or resolution in the my web development reference notebook, but tag it with the name for our site which is affected by the issue. This is especially useful when I know I have to change tasks and am likely to navigate away from my tabs in the browser. When I return to the task in a day or so, I can search for the helpful pages I saved. Classifying in notebooks is also good to build a list of sources that I consult every time I do a certain task, like building a server.
- Course and conference notes: Using the web or phone version, I can type notes during a lecture or conference session. I can also attach a pdf of the slides from a presentation for reference later. Frequently, I create a notebook for a particular conference that I can opt to share with others.
- Personal uses: I am learning to cook, and this tool has been really useful. Say I find a great recipe that I decide I want to (try and) make for dinner tonight. Clip the recipe using the web clipper, save it to my recipes notebook and then pull it up on my phone while I’m cooking to follow along (which also explains all the flour on my phone). In a few months if I want to use it again, I’ll probably have to search for it, because all I will remember is that it had chickpeas in it. But, that’s all I have to remember.
There are lots of other add-ins for this application, but I love and use the base service the most often.
21st Century Education: A First-Hand Experience with the MOOC
Posted: February 21, 2013 | Author: Kate Kosturski | Filed under: continuing education, library, technology | Tags: MOOC | 1 Comment »MOOC. It’s such a small word – not even a word, four letters. Yet this tiny word has the power to be a very large change agent in education. MOOC stands for Massively Open Online Courseware – an opening of education to anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as they have a computer and Internet access. The concept of the MOOC is not new – MIT has been making courseware open to the public for many years. Neither is the concept of the online course, though such courses had always been behind a paywall of a university or corporation. In 2012, California-based company Coursera revolutionized the basic concept of the MOOC. Through Coursera, users have access to over 200 courses from some of the world’s top universities – all for free. The courses are truly interdisciplinary, ranging from humanities (Listening to World Music), the social sciences (The Law of the European Union: An Introduction), and the natural and applied sciences (Introduction to Organic Chemistry, Fundamentals of Electrical Engineering).
My fascination with online courses comes from coming of age when the World Wide Web was still in toddler stage. Webpages were basic, AOL was the top ISP, and connection speeds were laughably slow. When I went back to library school in 2007, the internet grew up considerably, but my library school was one of few (if not the only one) that did not offer online courses. This intstructional philosophy, coupled with my part-time student status, left me critically thinking about the state of education. How could someone like me – a non-traditional student, balancing my education and a full time job – get the benefits when there are only so many hours in a day? How could those students with families manage to get an additional degree without sacrificing too much of family life?
Coursera was not my first venture into online education – I took a free class through O’Reilly Media in XML programming in 2010. What made Coursera different from that course was the breadth and depth of subject matter offered, and the ability to receive a certificate of completion for the class.
The first class I took this fall was in the Python programming language, taught by instructors at the University of Toronto. The class structure was easy for me to follow. Each week, the instructors posted several videos on the week’s topics, along with a weekly quiz. It was easy enough for me to watch the videos and work on quiz questions during lunch hour at work or in the evenings/weekends. I spent no more than two hours each week working on coursework. Larger programming assignments were due every other week, and that took up maybe an extra hour or so of my time. Students needing assistance about the course, or just a place to socialize could find community in the course message boards, or through a Meetup-sponsored group. I participated in a local (New York City) group, and the benefits extended beyond coursework assistance – I came out of it with some great friends.
From a pedagogical perspective, the instruction was designed very well. The combination of weekly quizzes and longer assignments helped me to grasp concepts quickly. The instructors also took great care to dig deep into the theory of the science of Python, using a visualizer to step through the code so you could see how the computer processed the language. They transformed it into a living, breathing thing – past the symbols on the computer screen. They were extremely quick to respond to student concerns, such as errors in questions on the final exam and extension of due dates after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast United States in the middle of the course.
My largest concern with Coursera was with academic integrity. After a cheating scandal broke out in a few courses, the company added an honor code to enrollment. Some students interpret the honor code so strictly as to be impractical, and I experienced one such case where an innocent comment resulted in a cheating accusation from a classmate, including threats to report me to the instructors and Coursera. Thankfully, several students came to my defense, and no further action from higher powers that be resulted. It’s difficult to monitor integrity in a course such as this, when answers to questions are more quantitative than qualitative. Does a simple honor system like what Coursera has in place now work? Or, are more security measures (two-step or IP authentication, for example) necessary?
What should librarians think about when it comes to the MOOC? Instructional design librarians and subject specialists should think about how MOOCs can affect the subject guides and instructional sessions they curate. Is there an obligation to offer support for courses not offered at their university or students not matriculated at the school? Librarians who manage collection development and electronic resources should ask similar questions – is there an obligation to spend collection development funds on resources that do not directly support your institution or users? Faculty and department heads should think about how to properly measure assessment for these courses, especially if they want to offer credit. School administrators should carefully think about privacy of student data, especially if the institution is in a country that has stricter privacy laws than the United States (such as Canada).
What’s next for Coursera – both for me and for the company? I will be starting my next class in E-Learning and Digital Cultures at the end of this month, and two more set to start later this year. If you’re attending THATCamp Libraries in Boston at the end of February, I am hoping to convene a discussion group on the MOOC. (Watch the THATCamp Libraries blog for further details.) For Coursera, the company hopes to continue expanding its course offerings, and is in talks to allow Coursera courses to count for college credit. (Some institutions do this already, but Coursera is looking to broaden that reach.) There are rumors that Coursera will start charging for classes or for the end of course certificate, but for now, they are just that – rumors.
We’re growing closer to true freedom of education – opening scholarly pursuits to all. And all it took was the concept behind that little word of MOOC.
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About Our Guest Author: Kate Kosturski is the Institutional Participation Coordinator for the United Kingdom and Northern Europe for JSTOR. You can find Kate exploring innovations in teaching, learning and training on the T is for Training podcast, where she is an occasional guest host and frequent panelist. You can follow her on Twitter as @librarian_kate.
Aaron Swartz and Too-Comfortable Research Libraries
Posted: February 11, 2013 | Author: Bohyun Kim | Filed under: academic librarianship, library, technology, web | Tags: Aaron Swartz, academic libraries, information, Internet, knowledge, open access, research libraries, web | 6 Comments »*** Update: Several references and a video added (thanks to Brett Bonfield) on Feb. 21, 2013. ***
Who was Aaron Swartz?
If you are a librarian and do not know who Aaron Swartz is, that should probably change now. He helped developing the RSS standard, was the co-founder of Reddit, worked on the Open Library project, downloaded and freed 20% (2.7 million documents) of the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) database that charges access fees for the United States federal court documents, out of which about 1,600 had privacy issues, played a lead role in preventing the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and wrote the Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto.
Most famously, he was arrested in 2011 for the mass download of journal articles from JSTOR. He returned the documents to JSTOR and apologized. The Massachusetts state court dismissed the charges, and JSTOR decided not to pursue civil litigation. But MIT stayed silent, and the federal court charged Swartz with wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and recklessly damaging a protected computer. If convicted on these charges, Swartz could be sentenced to up to 35 years in prison at the age of 26. He committed suicide after facing charges for two years, on January 11, 2013.
Information wants to be free; Information wants to be expensive
Now, he was a controversial figure. He advocated Open Access (OA) but to the extent of encouraging scholars, librarians, students who have access to copyrighted academic materials to trade passwords and circulate them freely on the grounds that this is an act of civil disobedience against unjust copyright laws in his manifesto. He was an advocate of the open Internet, the transparent government, and open access to scholarly output. But he also physically hacked into the MIT network wiring closet and attached his laptop to download over 4 million articles from JSTOR. Most people including librarians are not going to advocate trading their institutions’ subscription database passwords or breaking into a staff-only computer networking area of an institution. The actual method of OA that Swartz recommended was highly controversial even among the strongest OA advocates.
But in his Guerrilla OA manifesto, Swartz raised one very valid point about the nature of information in the era of the World Wide Web. That is, information is power. (a) As power, information can be spread to and be made useful to as many of us as possible. Or, (b) it can be locked up and the access to it can be restricted to only those who can pay for it or have access privileges some other way. One thing is clear. Those who do not have access to information will be at a significant disadvantage compared to those who do.
And I would like to ask what today’s academic and/or research libraries are doing to realize Scenario (a) rather than Scenario (b). Are academic/research libraries doing enough to make information available to as many as possible?
Too-comfortable Internet, Too-comfortable academic libraries
Among the many articles I read about Aaron Swartz’s sudden death, the one that made me think most was “Aaron Swartz’s suicide shows the risk of a too-comfortable Internet.” The author of this article worries that we may now have a too-comfortable Internet. The Internet is slowly turning into just another platform for those who can afford purchasing information. The Internet as the place where you could freely find, use, modify, create, and share information is disappearing. Instead pay walls and closed doors are being established. Useful information on the Internet is being fast monetized, and the access is no longer free and open. Even the government documents become no longer freely accessible to the public when they are put up on the Internet (likely to be due to digitization and online storage costs) as shown in the case of PACER and Aaron Swartz. We are more and more getting used to giving up our privacy or to paying for information. This may be inevitable in a capitalist society, but should the same apply to libraries as well?
The thought about the too-comfortable Internet made me wonder whether perhaps academic research libraries were also becoming too comfortable with the status quo of licensing electronic journals and databases for patrons. In the times when the library collection was physical, people who walk into the library were rarely turned away. The resources in the library are collected and preserved because we believe that people have the right to learn and investigate things and to form one’s own opinions and that the knowledge of the past should be made available for that purpose. Regardless of one’s age, gender, social and financial status, libraries have been welcoming and encouraging people who were in the quest for knowledge and information. With the increasing number of electronic resources in the library, however, this has been changing.
Many academic libraries offer computers, which are necessary to access electronic resources of the library itself. But how many of academic libraries keep all the computers open for user without the user log-in? Often those library computers are locked up and require the username and password, which only those affiliated with the institution possess. The same often goes for many electronic resources. How many academic libraries allow the on-site access to electronic resources by walk-in users? How many academic libraries insist on the walk-in users’ access to those resources that they pay for in the license? Many academic libraries also participate in the Federal Depository Library program, which requires those libraries to provide free access to the government documents that they receive to the public. But how easy is it for the public to enter and access the free government information at those libraries?
I asked in Twitter about the guest access in academic libraries to computers and e-resources. Approximately 25 academic librarians generously answered my question. (Thank you!) According to the responses in Twitter, almost all except a few libraries ( mentioned in Twitter responses) offer guest access to computers and e-resources on-site. It is to be noted, however, that a few offer the guest -access to neither. Also some libraries limit the guests’ computer-use to 30 minutes – 4 hours, thereby restricting the access to the library’s electronic resources as well. Only a few libraries offer free wi-fi for guests. And at some libraries, the guest wi-fi users are unable to access the library’s e-resources even on-site because the IP range of the guest wi-fi is different from that of the campus wi-fi.
I am not sure how many academic libraries consciously negotiate the walk-in users’ on-site access with e-resources vendors or whether this is done somewhat semi-automatically because many libraries ask the library building IP range to be registered with vendors so that the authentication can be turned off inside the building. I surmise that publishers and database vendors will not automatically permit the walk-in users’ on-site access in their licenses unless libraries ask for it. Some vendors also explicitly prohibit libraries from using their materials to fill the Interlibrary loan requests from other libraries. The electronic resource vendors and publishers’ pricing has become more and more closely tied to the number of patrons who can access their products. Academic libraries has been dealing with the escalating costs for electronic resources by filtering out library patrons and limiting the access to those in a specific disciplines. For example, academic medical and health sciences libraries often subscribe to databases and resources that have the most up-to-date information about biomedical research, diseases, medications, and treatments. These are almost always inaccessible to the general public and often even to those affiliated with the institution. The use of these prohibitively expensive resources is limited to a very small portion of people who are affiliated with the institution in specific disciplines such as medicine and health sciences. Academic research libraries have been partially responsible for the proliferation of these access limitations by welcoming and often preferring these limitations as a cost-saving measure. (By contrast, if those resources were in the print format, no librarian would think that it is OK to permanently limit its use to those in medical or health science disciplines only.)
Too-comfortable libraries do not ask themselves if they are serving the public good of providing access to information and knowledge for those who are in need but cannot afford it. Too-comfortable libraries see their role as a mediator and broker in the transaction between the information seller and the information buyer. They may act as an efficient and successful mediator and broker. But I don’t believe that that is why libraries exist. Ultimately, libraries exist to foster the sharing and dissemination of knowledge more than anything, not to efficiently mediate information leasing. And this is the dangerous idea: You cannot put a price tag on knowledge; it belongs to the human race. Libraries used to be the institution that validates and confirms this idea. But will they continue to be so in the future? Will an academic library be able to remain as a sanctuary for all ideas and a place for sharing knowledge for people’s intellectual pursuits regardless of their institutional membership? Or will it be reduced to a branch of an institution that sells knowledge to its tuition-paying customers only? While public libraries are more strongly aligned with this mission of making information and knowledge freely and openly available to the public than academic libraries, they cannot be expected to cover the research needs of patrons as fully as academic libraries.
I am not denying that libraries are also making efforts in continuing the preservation and access to the information and resources through initiatives such as Hathi Trust and DPLA (Digital Public Library of America). My concern is rather whether academic research libraries are becoming perhaps too well-adapted to the times of the Internet and online resources and too comfortable serving the needs of the most tangible patron base only in the most cost-efficient way, assuming that the library’s mission of storing and disseminating knowledge can now be safely and neutrally relegated to the Internet and the market. But it is a fantasy to believe that the Internet will be a sanctuary for all ideas (The Internet is being censored as shown in the case of Tarek Mehanna.), and the market will surely not have the ideal of the free and open access to knowledge for the public.
If libraries do not fight for and advocate those who are in need of information and knowledge but cannot afford it, no other institution will do so. Of course, it costs to create, format, review, and package content. Authors as well as those who work in this business of content formatting, reviewing, packaging, and producing should be compensated for their work. But not to the extent that the content is completely inaccessible to those who cannot afford to purchase but nevertheless want access to it for learning, inquiry, and research. This is probably the reason why we are all moved by Swartz’s Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto in spite of the illegal implications of the action that he actually recommended in the manifesto.
Knowledge and information is not like any other product for purchase. Sharing increases its value, thereby enabling innovation, further research, and new knowledge. Limiting knowledge and information to only those with access privilege and/or sufficient purchasing power creates a fundamental inequality. The mission of a research institution should never be limited to self-serving its members only, in my opinion. And if the institution forgets this, it should be the library that first raises a red flag. The mission of an academic research institution is to promote the freedom of inquiry and research and to provide an environment that supports that mission inside and outside of its walls, and that is why a library is said to be the center of an academic research institution.
I don’t have any good answers to the inevitable question of “So what can an academic research library do?” Perhaps, we can start with broadening the guest access to the library computers, wi-fi, and electronic resources on-site. Academic research libraries should also start asking themselves this question: What will libraries have to offer for those who seek knowledge for learning and inquiry but cannot afford it? If the answer is nothing, we will have lost libraries.
In his talk about the Internet Archive’s Open Library project at the Code4Lib Conference in 2008 (at 11:20), Swartz describes how librarians had argued about which subject headings to use for the books in the Open Library website. And he says, “We will use all of them. It’s online. We don’t have to have this kind of argument.” The use of online information and resources does not incur additional costs for use once produced. Many resources, particularly those scholarly research output already have established buyers such as research libraries. Do we have to deny access to information and knowledge to whose who cannot afford but are seeking for it, just so that we can have a market where information and knowledge resources are sold and bought and authors are compensated along with those who work with the created content as a result? No, this is a false question. We can have both. But libraries and librarians will have to make it so.
Videos to Watch
“Code4Lib 2008: Building the Open Library – YouTube.”
“Aaron Swartz on Picking Winners” American Library Association Midwinter meeting, January 12, 2008.
“Freedom to Connect: Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) on Victory to Save Open Internet, Fight Online Censors.”
REFERENCES
“Aaron Swartz.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.aaronsw.com/.
“Aaron Swartz – Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz#JSTOR.
“Aaron Swartz on Picking Winners – YouTube.” 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BvJqXaoO4FI.
“Aaron Swartz’s Suicide Shows the Risk of a Too-comfortable Internet – The Globe and Mail.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/aaron-swartzs-suicide-shows-the-risk-of-a-too-comfortable-internet/article7509277/.
“Academics Remember Reddit Co-Founder With #PDFTribute.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/01/14/aaron_swartz_death_pdftribute_hashtag_aggregates_copyrighted_articles_released.html.
“After Aaron, Reputation Metrics Startups Aim To Disrupt The Scientific Journal Industry | TechCrunch.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/03/the-future-of-the-scientific-journal-industry/.
American Library Association, “A Memorial Resolution Honoring Aaron Swartz.” 2013. http://connect.ala.org/files/memorial_5_aaron%20swartz.pdf.
“An Effort to Upgrade a Court Archive System to Free and Easy – NYTimes.com.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13records.html?_r=1&.
Bonfield, Brett. 2013. “Aaron Swartz.” In the Library with the Lead Pipe (February 20). http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2013/aaron-swartz/.
“Code4Lib 2008: Building the Open Library – YouTube.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV-P2uzzc4s&feature=youtu.be&t=2s.
“Daily Kos: What Aaron Swartz Did at MIT.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/13/1178600/-What-Aaron-Swartz-did-at-MIT.
Dupuis, John. 2013a. “Around the Web: Aaron Swartz Chronological Link Roundup – Confessions of a Science Librarian.” Accessed February 10. http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/2013/01/20/around-the-web-aaron-swartz-chronological-link-roundup/.
———. 2013b. “Library Vendors, Politics, Aaron Swartz, #pdftribute – Confessions of a Science Librarian.” Accessed February 10. http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/2013/01/17/library-vendors-politics-aaron-swartz-pdftribute/.
“FDLP for PUBLIC.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.gpo.gov/libraries/public/.
“Freedom to Connect: Aaron Swartz (1986-2013) on Victory to Save Open Internet, Fight Online Censors.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/14/freedom_to_connect_aaron_swartz_1986.
“Full Text of ‘Guerilla Open Access Manifesto’.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://archive.org/stream/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008_djvu.txt.
Groover, Myron. 2013. “British Columbia Library Association – News – The Last Days of Aaron Swartz.” Accessed February 21. http://www.bcla.bc.ca/page/news/ezlist_item_9abb44a1-4516-49f9-9e31-57685e9ca5cc.aspx#.USat2-i3pJP.
Hellman, Eric. 2013a. “Go To Hellman: Edward Tufte Was a Proto-Phreaker (#aaronswnyc Part 1).” Accessed February 21. http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2013/01/edward-tufte-was-proto-phreaker.html.
———. 2013b. “Go To Hellman: The Four Crimes of Aaron Swartz (#aaronswnyc Part 2).” Accessed February 21. http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-four-crimes-of-aaron-swartz.html.
“How M.I.T. Ensnared a Hacker, Bucking a Freewheeling Culture – NYTimes.com.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/technology/how-mit-ensnared-a-hacker-bucking-a-freewheeling-culture.html?pagewanted=all.
March, Andrew. 2013. “A Dangerous Mind? – NYTimes.com.” Accessed February 10. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/a-dangerous-mind.html?pagewanted=all.
“MediaBerkman » Blog Archive » Aaron Swartz on The Open Library.” 2013. Accessed February 22. http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2007/10/25/aaron-swartz-on-the-open-library-2/.
Peters, Justin. 2013. “The Idealist.” Slate, February 7. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/02/aaron_swartz_he_wanted_to_save_the_world_why_couldn_t_he_save_himself.html.
“Public Access to Court Electronic Records.” 2013a. Accessed February 10. http://www.pacer.gov/.
“Publishers and Library Groups Spar in Appeal to Ruling on E-Reserves – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://chronicle.com/article/PublishersLibrary-Groups/136995/?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en.
Rochkind, Jonathan. 2013. “Library Values and the Growing Scholarly Digital Divide: In Memoriam Aaron Swartz | Bibliographic Wilderness.” Accessed February 10. http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/library-values-and-digital-divide-in-memoriam-aaron-swartz/.
Sims, Nancy. 2013. “What Is the Government’s Interest in Copyright? Not That of the Public. – Copyright Librarian.” Accessed February 10. http://blog.lib.umn.edu/copyrightlibn/2013/02/what-is-the-governments-interest-in-copyright.html.
Summers, Ed. 2013. “Aaronsw | Inkdroid.” Accessed February 21. http://inkdroid.org/journal/2013/01/19/aaronsw/.
“The Inside Story of Aaron Swartz’s Campaign to Liberate Court Filings | Ars Technica.” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/02/the-inside-story-of-aaron-swartzs-campaign-to-liberate-court-filings/.
“Welcome to Open Library (Open Library).” 2013. Accessed February 10. http://openlibrary.org/.
West, Jessamyn. 2013. “Librarian.net » Blog Archive » On Leadership and Remembering Aaron.” Accessed February 21. http://www.librarian.net/stax/3984/on-leadership-and-remembering-aaron/.
Test-driving Purdue’s Passport gamification platform for library instruction
Posted: January 28, 2013 | Author: Nicole Pagowsky | Filed under: academic librarianship, design, library, library instruction, technology | 4 Comments »Gamification in libraries has become a topic of interest in the professional discourse, and one that ACRL TechConnect has covered in Applying Game Dynamics to Library Services and Why Gamify and What to Avoid in Gamification. Much of what has been written about badging systems in libraries pertains to gamifying library services. However, being an Instructional Services Librarian, I have been interested in tying gamification to library instruction.
When library skills are not always part of required learning outcomes or directly associated with particular classes, thinking more creatively about promotion and embeddedness of library tutorials prompted me to become interested in tying a badging system to the University of Arizona Libraries’ online learning objects. For a brief review on badges, they are visual representations of skills and achievements. They can be used with or instead of grades depending on the scenario and include details to support their credibility (criteria, issuer, evidence, currency).
From classhack.com
Becoming a beta tester for Purdue’s Passport platform gives me the opportunity to better sketch out what our plans are and to test how gamification could work in this context. Passport, according to Purdue, is “A learning system that demonstrates academic achievement through customizable badges.” Through this platform, instructors can design instruction for badges to be associated with learning outcomes. Currently, Passport can only be used by applying to be a beta tester. As they improve the software, it should be available to more people and have greater integration (it currently connects with Mozilla Open Backpack and within the Purdue system).We are still comparing platforms and possibilities for the University of Arizona Libraries, and testing Passport has been the first step in figuring out what we want, what is available, and how we would like to design this form of instruction. I will share my impression of Passport and using badging technology for these purposes from my experience using the software.
Refresher on motivation
It’s important to understand how motivation works in relation to a points and badges system, while also having a clear goal in mind. I recently wrote a literature review on motivation in gamified learning scenarios as part of my work toward a second Master’s in Educational Technology. The general ideas to take away are the importance of employing game mechanics thoughtfully into your framework to avoid users’ relying solely on the scoring system, as well as focusing on the engagement aspects of gamification rather than using badges and points just for manipulation. Points should be used as a feedback mechanism rather than just promoting them as items to harvest.
Structure and scalability
Putting this into perspective for gamifying library instruction at the University of Arizona, we want to be sure student motivation is directed at developing research skills that can be visually demonstrated to instructors and future employers through badges, with points serving as feedback and further motivation. We are using the ACRL Information Literacy Standards as an outline for the badges we create; the Standards are not perfect, but they serve well as a map for conceptualizing research skills and are a way we can organize the content. Within each skill set or badge, activities for completion are multidimensional: students must engage in a variety of tasks, such as doing a tutorial, reading a related article or news story, and completing a quiz. We plan to allow for risk taking and failure — important aspects of game design — so students can re-try the material until they understand it (Gee, 2007).
As you can see in this screen capture, the badges corresponding to the ACRL Standards include: Research Initiator (Standard 1), Research Assailant (Standard 2), Research Investigator (Standard 3), and Research Warrior (Standard 4). As a note, I have not yet created a badge for Standard 5 or one to correspond with our orientations (also, all names you can see in any image I include are of my colleagues trying out the badges, and not of students). A great aspect of this platform is the ability to design your own badges with their WYSIWYG editor.
Main challenge screen
Because a major issue for us is scalability with limited FTE, we have to be cautious in which assessment methods we choose for approving badges. Since we would have a hard time offering meaningful, individualized feedback for every student who would complete these tasks, having something automatic is more ideal. Passport allows options for students to test their skills, with multiple-choice quizzes, uploading a document, and entering text. For our purposes, using multiple-choice quizzes with predetermined responses is currently the best method. If we develop specific badges for smaller courses on a case-by-case basis, it might be possible to accept written responses and more detailed work, but in trying to roll this out to campus-at-large, automated scoring is necessary.
Leveling up
Within each badge, also referred to as a challenge, there are tasks to complete. Finishing these tasks adds up to earning the badge. It’s essentially leveling up (which is progressing to the next level based on achievement); although the way Passport is designed, the students can complete the tasks in any order. Within the suite of badges, I have reinforced information and skills throughout so students must use previous skills learned for future success. In this screen capture, you can see the overall layout by task title.
Task progress by users
When including tasks that require instructor approval (if students were to submit documents or write text), an instructor would click on each yellow box stating that approval is needed to determine if the student successfully completed the task and supply personalized feedback (image above). And you can see the breakdown of tasks under each challenge to review what was learned; this can serve as confirmation for outside parties of what kind of work each badge entailed (image below).
Badge work details
Showing off
Once badges are earned, they can be displayed in a user’s Passport profile and Mozilla Open Badges. Here is an example of what a badge portfolio looks like:
User badge portfolio
Passport “classrooms” are closed and require a log in for earning badges (FERPA), but if students agree to connectivity with Mozilla’s Open Badges Backpack, achievements can then be shared with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networks. Badges can also connect with e-portfolios and resumes (since it’s in Beta this functionality works best with Purdue platforms). This could be a great, additional motivator for students in helping them get jobs. From Project Information Literacy, we do know employers find new graduates are lacking research skills, so being able to present these skills as fulfilled to future employers can be useful for soon-to-be and recent graduates. The badges link back to more information, as mentioned, and employers can get more detail. Students can even make their submitted work publicly available so employers, instructors, and peers can see their efforts.
Wrapping up
Whether or not it is possible to integrate Passport fully into our library website for students to access, using this tool has at least given me a way to essentially sketch out how our badging system will work. We can also try some user testing with students on these tasks to gauge motivation and instructional effectiveness. Having this system become campus-wide in collaboration with other units and departments would also aid in creating more meaning behind the badges; but in the meantime, tying this smaller scale layout to specific class instruction or non-disciplinary collaborations will be very useful.
Although some sources say gamification will be taking a huge nosedive by 2014 due to poor design and over-saturation, keeping tabs on other platforms available and how to best incorporate this technology into library instruction is where I will be looking this semester and beyond as we work on plans for rolling out a full badging system within the next couple of years. Making learning more experiential and creating choose-your-own adventure scenarios are effective in giving students ownership over their education. Using points and badges for manipulating users is certainly detrimental and should fall out of use in the near future, but using this framework in a positive manner for motivation and to support student learning can have beneficial effects for students, campus, and the library.
Additional Resources
Books:
Dignan, A. (2012). Game Frame. New York: The Free Press.
Gee, J. P. (2007). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
Koster, R. (2005). A theory of fun for game design. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.
Online:
Because Play Matters: A game lab dedicated to transformative games and play for informal learning environments in the iSchool at Syracuse: http://becauseplaymatters.com/
Digital badges show students’ skills along with degree (Purdue News): http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2012/Q3/digital-badges-show-students-skills-along-with-degree.html
Gamification Research Network: http://gamification-research.org/
TL-DR: Where gamers and information collide: http://tl-dr.ca/
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About Our Guest Author: Nicole Pagowsky is an Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Arizona where she explores game-based learning, student retention, and UX. You can find her on Twitter, @pumpedlibrarian.
From Cool to Useful: Incorporating hobby projects into library work
Posted: January 9, 2013 | Author: Nicholas Schiller | Filed under: academic librarianship, hacking, library, library as makerspace, technology | 1 Comment »Cool or Useful? A guide to incorporating hobby projects into library work
Sometimes I have trouble creating a clear line between geeky hobby projects I do on my own time and professional tasks for MPOW (my place of work.) This time, the geeky-thing-I-think-is-cool is a LibraryBox. LibraryBox is a hardware hack created by Jason Griffey. What I’m currently trying to work out is, is this project a viable solution to a practical work-place problem? Of course, I have to watch out for Maslov’s Law of the Instrument which can be paraphrased: “To a person with a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” These days I’m seeing a lot of LibraryBox-shaped nails. I’m eager to find potential applications for my new toy tool. My project in today’s post is to describe the LibraryBox project and describe a method of determining whether or not it has a work-related application.
What is a LibraryBox?
A LibraryBox is a very portable pocket-sized device that serves up digital content to wifi devices. It is designed to provide free ebooks to readers with wifi devices but without access to reliable Internet or power. The best introduction to LibraryBox may be found on the LibraryBox site. Jason Griffey has done an excellent job with the site’s design and has written comprehensive instructions for building and deploying LibraryBoxen. The site describes the project as: “an open source, portable digital file distribution tool based on inexpensive hardware that enables delivery of educational, healthcare, and other vital information to individuals off the grid.”
The LibraryBox project was designed to solve a very specific kind of problem. It is useful in scenarios involving all of the following conditions:
- Either no access or sporadic access to Internet and electrical utilities
- a need to distribute digital content
- users that have wifi enabled devices
In order to meet these objectives, the LibraryBox
- uses inexpensive parts and hardware.
- runs off of batteries and is highly portable.
- uses open source software. (The code is both kinds of free; both libre and gratis.)
My LibraryBox
Building the LibraryBox was fun and easy. I bought the necessary parts: a mobile router, a large usb flash drive, plus an optional battery. (I’m using a Sony Cycle Energy CP-EL I found on sale at the grocery store for $13). Then I went through the instructions. The process is easy and straightforward. A friend of mine completed them while his baby daughter was down for a nap. I took a little longer because I didn’t read the instructions through before starting and did some steps out of order. If you more diligent with following directions than I am, Jason’s instructions will get you from start to finish easily and without a hitch. Once I had my LibraryBox up and running, I filled the flash drive with some free and creative commons licensed content. I tested it out and was happy to see that I could use it to download ebooks onto my phone, laptop, and tablet. Once I demonstrated that it worked, I began to look for practical applications where it could be more than just cool, I wanted my hobby project to be useful. To keep myself honest and keep my project enthusiasm in check, I’m using a series of questions to help determine whether I’m being blinded by the new shiny thing or whether it is, in fact, an appropriate tool for the job at hand. These questions help with the tool/toy distinction, especially when I’m under the spell of the law of the instrument.
Questions:
- Does this tool or technology offer a solution to an existing problem?
- If the answer to #1 is yes, does it solve the problem better (more efficiently, cheaply, etc.) than alternate solutions?
- Does this tool or technology introduce unintended consequences or side-effects that are worse than the original problem?
Applying the Questions:
There are two ready applications for a LibraryBox at MPOW. Neither directly involve the library, both involve faculty projects in our Creative Media and Digital Culture (CMDC) program. Both are interesting projects and both project leads have indicated interest in using a LibraryBox to solve a problem. The first case involves using a LibraryBox to allow visitors to a remote historical site the ability to download and install a mobile app. My colleague Brett Oppegaard is leading development of a mobile app to provide visitors to a historic site access to interpretive materials. The location is somewhat remote and mobile broadband coverage is spotty at best and varies depending on the cell provider. My thought was to provide visitors to the site a reliable method of installing and using the app. Applying the three questions from above to this project, I learned that the answers to the first two questions are an unqualified yes. It solves a real problem by allowing users to download a digital file without an active net connection. It does so better than alternate solutions, especially due to its ability to run off of battery power. (There are no utilities at the site.) However, the third question reveals some real difficulties. I was able to successfully download and install the app from its .apk file using the LibraryBox. However, the steps required to achieve this are too convoluted for non-technical end users to follow easily. In addition, the current version of the app requires an active Internet connection in order to successfully install, rendering the LibraryBox workaround moot. These issues may be able to be resolved with some hacking, but right now the LibraryBox isn’t a working solution to this project’s needs. We’ll keep it in mind as the project develops and try new approaches.
Fortunately, as I was demonstrating the LibraryBox to the CMDC faculty, another colleague asked me about using it to solve a problem he is facing. John Barber has been working on preserving The Brautigan Library and re-opening it to submissions. The Brautigan Library is a collection of unpublished manuscripts organized in the spirit of the fictional library described in Richard Brautigan’s novel The Abortion. The Brautigan Library manuscripts currently are housed at the Clark County Historical Museum and we tested the LibraryBox there as a source for providing mobile access to finding aids. This worked, but there were speed and usability issues. As we tested, however, John developed a larger plan involving a dedicated tablet kiosk, a web-app template, and a local web server connected to a router in the building. While we did not choose to use LibraryBox to support this exhibit, it did spark useful conversation that is leading us in promising directions.
Next Steps:
After learning that the LibraryBox isn’t a turn-key solution for either project, I still have some productive work to do. The first step is to install a light-weight web server (lighttpd) on the hardware currently running LibraryBox. (Fortunately, someone has already done this and left directions.) It’s possible, but unlikely, that will meet our needs. After that we’re going to test our plans using more powerful hardware in a similar setup. I’ve acquired a Raspberry Pi to test as a web server for the project and may also try running a web server on a more powerful router than the TL-MR3020 LibraryBox is based on. (Some open-WRT capable routers have as much as 128mb of RAM, which may be enough.) There is also work to do on the Ft. Vancouver project. The next steps there involve working on-site with the design team to more clearly articulate the problem(s) we are trying to solve.
In both cases my hobbyist tinkering is leading to practical and productive work projects. In both cases the LibraryBox has served as an excellent kluge (jury-rigged temporary solution) and has helped us see a clearer path to a permanent solution. These solutions will probably not resemble my early amateur efforts, but by exercising a little discipline to make certain my toys tools are being employed productively, I’m confident that my hobby tinkering has a place in a professional workplace. At very least, my leisure time spent experimenting is benefiting my professional work. I also think that the kind of questions used here have application when considering other library toys fads innovations.
