You're an awesome Librarian! But does the world know it?

 PART 1: SOME TYPICAL INSTANCES AND WAYS TO RE-CONNECT

(Image Source: https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2019/03/bad-libraries-build-collections-good.html)

No.	INSTANCES YOU MIGHT RELATE TO	WAYS TO RE-CONNECT
1	Manual User Register at Entry Points	Jump start to Online! a)   Connect with the ERP of your Institute b)  Simplest way is to ask all users to enter their Roll No. in excel and maintain a date-wise sheet. c)    Alternatively, install biometric machines.
2	Two Library cards for two books	Do not restrict to only two books! We have so many books in the library. And even if we do not have sufficient number of study books, no worries. Re-shelve all your story books and biographies. Let the users have the feeling and trust that they can derive maximum benefit from the library.
3	Extra books to Toppers	It’s a common rule everywhere that toppers are given extra books as a token of appreciation. I feel, the students who have not been able to make it to success are in actual need of books to study harder. Why deprive them of their library? Work it out with your management and library committee. I am sure students will bless us with all their heart.
4	No Library Card = No books	ID card = Library books If you have a bar-coded ID card, do away with library cards.
5	Periodicals cannot be issued	Display magazines with trendy topics at the counter. Let students flip through them. Dedicate one day in a week, preferably Friday, to issue Periodicals.
6	Donations of old books not allowed	Accept book donations with a smiling face. We segregate these books as under: a)   Rare books b)  Children and Young Fiction c)    Little Free Library d)  Reading Inspiration Day Event Our library members are actually waiting for the event of “Take Away of Books” on Reading Inspiration Day. And this has become a habit!
7	Library does not know about students’ projects	Magazines such as Electronics For You, Open Source For You have many Do-It-Yourself sections. Compile the projects and make a list. Share it in Google Classroom of your Library and on the blog.
8	No one comes to the library to read periodicals	a)   Now this is something where you need to invest your time and expertise. b)  Select a few periodicals which have trending topics or ask faculties to suggest a few topics. c)    Make a gist of two articles from these selected periodicals. d)  Give a nice catchy title to your service and introduce it your users. Let your users have two mails from the library every week.
9	Library Orientation	Re-design and Rename the traditional library orientation to “Information Literacy Hour”. Take the freshers around the library in small batches and tell them what they would like to know most – books and internet access. To start with, show them story books section as most new students are not aware of their syllabus content.
10	Writing Quotes on Whiteboard	This is gateway to the library! So try playing with different options such as: a)   Today In History b)  Today in Science c)    Today is National ----- Day You may get to know more about this from Google Doodle which is dedicated to each day.

Cite as: 

Bhange, C., 2021. You're An Awesome Librarian! But Does The World Know It?. [online] Innovating Libraries. Available at: <https://chinmayeebhange.blogspot.com/2021/01/youre-awesome-librarian-but-does-world.html> 

You're an awesome Librarian! But does the world know it?

Use of Google Classroom for enhancing access to library resources and services: a case study of SFIT Library, Mumbai

COVID 19 pandemic and the ensuing pandemic presented the libraries with ample opportunities to re-learn and share. With a plethora of complimentary e resources available, many libraries were working out innumerable ways to reach to their users, albeit differently. Online libraries have been around for more than a decade now but the mode of accessing them was just the Institutes’ portal, blog and many other social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for real time updates. A new and lesser known option of Google Classroom may be considered now if your parent Institute has G-Suite for Education. This paper reveals the best ways in which a library can use Google Classroom much more efficiently.

Google Classroom for Libraries

A Google Classroom can be initiated by first creating a list of topics for which resources or updates would be created. SFIT LIRC has created the following topics so as to get a curated list of all the posts over a period of time.

Trend Reports: Includes Company Financials, Current and Prospective Projects

Worth Reading: A Select list of general newspaper clippings online pertaining to updates from AICTE, UGC and University of Mumbai

Good Reads: A thought provoking list and infographics on trending technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science. It also features interviews of CEOs.

Virtual Labs (VLabs): A cumulative list of virtual experiments for nine branches of engineering.

Open Educational Resources: A list of forty-one OER shared by AICTE.

e-Journals and e-Magazines: Links to subscribed as well Open Access journals and magazines pertaining to Engineering and Allied Areas.

By tagging each post to a topic, we get a curated list of all our shared posts. This comes as a handy list and we get to know whether we are covering all the topics intended to be shared. Besides, the posts can be scheduled for a later period of time to avoid cluttering of inboxes.

A snapshot of one of the posts is given below for your reference:






There are four tabs in the Google Classroom such as

Stream – It displays the posts with date and time. It also identifies the person who has shared the post. Here, you may either give posting rights to all the library staff or retain it to the library e-mail id only. The list of posts is in reverse chronological order with the latest post on top. We (as Library) post announcements to the class page in this “stream” view.


Classwork: The place where we create Topics and post material. It also displays the Google Calendar and the folder where all our material which is shared is stored. Remember that this folder is automatically created in our Google Drive - both for admins (in our case, we the Library) and the users.

People: People are the users (in our case) to whom we have to send an invite using their e-mail id. They are then required to accept the invite so they would receive notifications in their inbox everytime something is posted in the Classroom.

People can be added in two categories – one as ‘Teacher’ who will have posting and editing rights and the other as ‘Student’ who have only viewing and commenting rights. People can be added and removed as required. But only 250 people can be allowed in one Google Classroom.

When we add a new class to our Classroom site, a new folder is immediately created in our Google Drive. If one wishes to segregate posts for respective departments that too can be done by creating a Classroom for every department.

All material which is posted is also archived and can be re-used whenever required.

Grades: This feature can be put to use where libraries are posting assignments to be completed by students. We at SFIT LIRC, have not yet explored this possibility.

Creating a classroom is very simple and the librarian can share the unique class code for any student to join the class. Class Codes are automatically created or we can edit them as well.

For those librarians who are involved in regular teaching of Information Literacy or Research related courses, Google Classroom can be effectively used as a way to bring all the participants together under one umbrella i.e. into one virtual classroom to ensure that all are receiving the same links, materials, and support by sharing the same class code with those students. Our library orientations or library instruction can also be done using this method followed by a small quiz to gauge the understanding of the students. The possibilities are endless and being innovative is the only quality required here.

I trust this will not only mainstream the things we are sharing; it will also be fulfilling to realize that we have lived up to Ranganathan’s Laws of Library Science.

References:

1. https://canvas.fau.edu/eportfolios/2192/Home/The_History_of_Googles_G_Suite__From_The_Early_Days_To_Now (Accessed on 5th January, 2021)

2. https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-09-27-a-timeline-of-google-classroom-s-march-to-replace-learning-management-systems (Accessed on 5th January, 2021)

3. https://developers.google.com/classroom (Accessed on 5th January, 2021)

4. Amanda Izenstark, Katie L. Leahy. (2015). "Google classroom for librarians: features and opportunities", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 32 Iss: 9, pp.1 - 3. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2015-0039

Cite this:

Bhange, C., 2021. Use of Google Classroom for enhancing access to library resources and services: a case study of SFIT Library, Mumbai. [Blog] Chinmayee Bhange, Available at: <https://chinmayeebhange.blogspot.com/2021/01/use-of-google-classroom-for-enhancing.html#more>.