Comments (0) Tomorrow, the GSLIS Tech Lab will be hosting a livestream of the Digital Public Library of America–West event from 12-5pm EST in the GSLIS Student Lounge. Please feel free to come and go as your schedule permits.
A full schedule of the event is located here:
http://dp.la/get-involved/events/dplawest/agenda
You can learn more about the DPLA at http://dp.la/
Our sister technology lab in GSLIS West held an art show reception Saturday, March 3rd to brighten up the space! Similar to the reception held this Fall, students contributed photographs, paintings and 3D objects for display in a public gallery. During the unveiling reception, students, staff, and faculty mingled with food and beverages while admiring the artwork. Its great to see the GSLIS West creativity on up on the walls!
Last semester GSLIS Biblioteca announced that iPads are now available to check out from the GSLIS Tech Lab, and I wrote about our general policies for lending iPads and provided links to some helpful resources for learning the basics. If you’re interested in using an iPad during class or just want to check out what all the fuss is about, be sure to drop by the TRA desk as inquire about the service.
To start off this semester, I’ll discuss the applications that you can use if you borrow an iPad from the Tech Lab. As you probably know, apps are the bread and butter of the iPad, and while many apps are free, some can cost up to $1000. Apps fall into a broad range of categories, including games, readers, teaching tools, social networking and entertainment.
Some Apps currently available on the Tech Lab iPads:
If you own an iPad or iPhone and are wondering what apps to purchase, here’s a good, up-to-date list to aid you in your app hunting.
If you’re interested in learning more about apps useful for your work at GSLIS, check out this great guide from MIT Libraries recommending apps for academic environments: http://libguides.mit.edu/apps
The lab is always taking recommendations for new apps, so just send us an email at gslislab@simmons.edu or drop by the TRA desk with your suggestions.
The Tech Lab will be hosting a huge assortment of workshops this semester. To celebrate, we’re having a kick-off party February 2nd from 5:30-6:30 in the Tech Lab (P-213). Food and drinks will be served! You can also sign up for these workshops here. Those taking the TOR may be especially interested in our HTML and wiki workshops. Come! Learn about new library technologies from your favorite techies!
As always, our main page describes some of our equipment and services. Stop by P-213 to check out an Ipad! Also be sure to check out what’s happening in the lab on Facebook and Twitter.
The Notable Women at Simmons College Digital Libraries is the collection of digital libraries produced by students of LIS 462. As part of coursework, the class determines the management, strategies, workflows, standards, architecture, and design necessary to build and make available a complete digital library. Each class processes a scrapbook provided by the Simmons Archives and each class produces different results.
However, the libraries currently are silos. Each collection of digital material is isolated from the others. While a silo effect creates several long-term issues, the most profound is the lack of a realized and accessible collection. If you were looking for images of, for instance, animals, you would have to search each individual library using its particular search system. By collocating metadata, items from separate digital libraries may be discovered with like items.
Working with Candy Schwartz, Travis Lilleburg and I have developed a federated search application for the digital libraries. We began our project by harvesting the metadata using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. Harvested metadata moves into a search index, Solr, which stores the metadata for use in queries. From a search interface, queries are directed to the Solr index with results back to the user, providing cross-collection access to metadata.
Along with our application, we’re including a workflow for the inclusion of future projects within the index and preservation documentation. It is our hope that our application will provide a launchpad for further development for the Notable Women at Simmons College Digital Libraries. As a result, our project provides a long-term search architecture for the collection.
Drum machines have no soul and robots will take over the world. Technology is cold and sterile right? WRONG! We have the ability to “develop technologies in a way that serves people first.” World Usability Day was founded to encourage a humanistic and “usable” approach to technological development. Join the GSLIS Usability Lab and the Student Chapter of the Special Library Association as they celebrate World Usability Day with the Harvard ADS Lab and Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory, Thursday, November 10, 2011, 8:30 – 12:00pm at the Linda J. Paresky Conference Center (Main College Building, 3rd floor) here at Simmons! It’s free and there will be food – find out more here.
You know you want to be able to answer with “I’m coding right now” the next time you need an excuse of some kind. This November, GSLIS Tech Lab is offering FREE workshops on using Dreamweaver and coding in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Limited space. Register here to secure a spot.
As for future workshops, have you ever thought “I wish they’d offer a workshop on …” ? Now is your chance to speak up. Take 5 minutes to fill out this 7 question survey to help GSLIS Tech Lab expand their workshop series in the near future.
If you haven’t been attending the GSLIS Lunchtime Lectures you have really been missing out on affordable (read: free) and nourishing food for the LIS soul. But not to fear, GSLIScast is here! The GSLIS Media Lab hosts an extensive archives of recordings, including the recent talk by Andromeda Yelton, ALA TechSource blogger, on Personal Branding for Librarians.
What’s more, the GSLIS Media Lab maintains a variety of audio and video editing software and equipment for use by students and faculty. So not only can you peruse GSLIScast archives, but you can record and edit your own GSLIScasts. Pay a visit to the Media Lab on the 3rd floor and take advantage of this priceless resource!
Don’t be a stranger.
Don’t miss it! Pop into Room 105 at the SOM building for a live video streaming of The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Plenary Meeting in Washington, D.C. This is taking place Friday, October 21, 2011 from 9:30-5pm.
I looked up (yes, I confess) the phrase “plenary meeting” and it means a conference where all the delegates of a given organization meet together. So if you want to learn more about the DPLA (and can’t make it to Washington, D.C.) this live streaming, sponsored by Simmons ASIS&T and GSLIS Technology, is a great opportunity to get involved.
Convened by the DPLA Secretariat at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and hosted by The National Archives in Washington, DC, the first DPLA plenary meeting will bring together a wide range of stakeholders in a broad, open forum to present the history of and vision for the DPLA effort.
Attend the portion of the DPLA meeting most interesting to you. See the full program.
Simmons ASIS&T and GSLIS Technology are proud to present this event on a very large screen at the very fancy School of Management Building, Room 105. See you there.
The DPLA will have people monitoring Twitter and Facebook and feeding questions into the discussions in D.C.
Twitter hashtag: #dpla
DPLA on Twitter: @digpublib
Follow on FB.
Simmons ASIST will be having a meeting today!
Friday, October 14th
4:30pm-7pm
SOM roof deck (5th floor)
In the likely event of bad weather, we’ll be in the School of Management Executive Dining Room M513.
Stop by for some light refreshments, find out what events are planned for this year, and how you can get involved!
Also, be sure to check out the ASIST Student Chapter website for more details about your friendly ASIST chapter!
Come to the Grand Opening of the Tech Lab Art Exhibition!
The GSLIS Tech Lab and Panopticon very proud to announce the opening for the Tech Lab Art Exhibition 2011-2012 on Thursday, October 13th. Join Panopticon and the Tech Lab staff for food, beverages, mingling, and viewing of awesome artwork between 5 and 6pm.
Here is a sneak preview of some of this year’s art, created by GSLIS professor Naresh Agarwal:
Ch-ch-ch-chaaaanges!
In response to student input, Simmons has introduced Campus Print – a new way to print from anywhere on campus, including the GSLIS Tech Lab.
As with most technological changes intended to make our lives easier, this new way of printing can take some getting used to. My first attempt to print in the Tech Lab under this new system involved walking up to one of the new dark gray printers, staring at a blank screen for a moment, deciding to touch the screen with my finger, attempting to follow the onscreen directions to “swipe” my card and failing to find anywhere to swipe a card. This attempt was followed by a barrage of “do you work here?” inquiries from Tech Lab patrons looking to print and me pretending that I do not, in fact, work at the Tech Lab.
I soon got over this first wave of anxiety. Printing on the new system is straightforward: just send your print job to your virtual queue, walk up to any printer, and tap your student ID card. Follow the simple instructions on the printer’s screen, and your stored jobs will print. And don’t forget to log out 
So how is Campus Print different from Pay4Print?
The Tech Lab continues to have 4 black and white printers: 2 in the front, 1 in the back classroom, and 1 in the Cataloging Lab. And we’re still happy to help you as you figure out the new system.
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