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How Creating Social Spaces in the Workplace Fosters Positive Outcomes
Timothy B. Hall and Tariq Rahaman
Objective
To demonstrate how the Nova Southeastern University (NSU)'s Staff Development Committee (SDC) translated work-based social spaces into positive outcomes like stronger community bonds and skill building opportunities.
Methods
The presenters evaluated three different projects that enhanced their library's outreach and impact in their communities as a direct result of skills gained in Crafternoon workshops hosted by NSU's Staff Development Committee (SDC).
Results
Staff attending SDC's programs can connect over their common objective: learning a new skill. Without the pressure to network, they also shared personal and professional details about their lives with staff members they would not normally engage. Some staff also discover an affinity for certain skills. One employee used the paper flower skill to drastically change their branch library's monthly book display. Another employee used the information he learned about Canva to rework his library's brochure to meet University standards. Working on their departmental projects led them to reach out to the original facilitators, further strengthening the bonds between the libraries.
Conclusions
Low stress programs are effective at building skills and strengthening community bonds. By placing the focus on skill building and removing the twin spectres of proficiency and deadlines, staff are left open to trying things. In an environment where everyone is learning, it is easy to build rapport and collaboration. These programs can also lead to the development of departmental projects and interdepartmental partnerships/communication.
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Piloting the Emerging Technologies Internship at a Health Sciences Library
Tariq Rahaman
Background: The Emerging Technologies Internship program aims to provide 12th grade high school students an opportunity to explore, use and develop unique applications of 3D printing/scanning, virtual reality, and digital devices. The interns work closely with library staff on student and faculty projects, but are also challenged to develop individual projects that can positively impact health sciences and medical education.
Description: The internship was developed in collaboration with a local high school and launched in September 2018. The program components include 1) goals and logistics; 2) marketing; 3) a Learning Lunch presentation for interested students; 4) application & interview phase; 5) scheduling system and modes of communication; and 6) evaluation. The interns use Trello, a web-based project management application, to view projects and keep track of scheduled tasks.
Conclusion: Our first group of interns finishes in June 2019. Students have been logging their progress twice a month and will present their projects and experiences to library staff at the end of the internship. Students have also been working on a project for their senior capstone and will present their projects as part of their graduation requirements. A final measured outcome will be timely completion of tasks and projects which will be reflected in Trello.
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A New Way to Look at Old Bones: Launching a Virtual Reality Service at a Health Sciences Library
Tariq Rahaman and Aaron Sager
Background : This project's primary objective is to establish a sustainable and scalable virtual reality (VR) library service with a focus on virtual anatomy and medical simulation. A secondary objective is to develop inter-professional collaboration within our institution and support VR projects on medical/health sciences education and research initiatives.
Description : This initiative stemmed from an exploration of digital anatomy resources; VR was favored for its three-dimensional, immersive, and gamified approach to educational content. This presentation describes our process of launching and integrating VR as a new resource, including our decisions on hardware and software, staffing/workflow, policy and safety guidelines, outreach and programming, as well as use cases for VR technology in a health sciences library beyond anatomy resources.
Conclusion : The VR Lab has been successful in offering unique, virtual experiences that are academically relevant to our students, faculty and staff. As we continue to evaluate and demo applications, the VR equipment has been utilized for curricular activities in the case of anatomy simulation, and co-curricular activities in the case of self-study. Future projects will include surveys to validate apps, and increased outreach and programming to our students, faculty and staff.
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Harry Potter's World : Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine an NLM Traveling Exhibition
Todd Puccio and Nova Southeastern University
On Display at the NSU HPD Library
August 3rd - Sept 4th 2013
Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine is a six-banner traveling exhibition created to explore the link between Harry Potter and the history of science using materials from the National Library of Medicine.
The Exhibit explores the world of Harry Potter and its roots in Renaissance magic, science, and medicine. In 1997, British author J.K. Rowling introduced the world to Harry Potter and a literary phenomenon was born. Although a fantasy story, the magic in the Harry Potter books is partially based on Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science and medicine.
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Toward Collaborative Print Retention
Sue Woodson, Steven Douglas, Todd J. Puccio, Karen Grigg, Sylvia McAphee, Jan Orick, Martha Whaley, Mary Willams, and Sheila Snow-Croft
Background: :In order to serve the many member libraries who were faced with the loss of space and the subsequent need to downsize and discard print collections in a very short time, the NN/LM SE/A formed a task force on print retention in the spring of 2010. This group carried on online discussions and met twice between the Spring of 2010 and The Spring of 2011. The task force recommended, among other things, that a committee be formed to identify the potential for a collaborative print retention project in the region, develop educational resources on the topic of print retention, and recommend future directions.
Methods: The ad-hoc committee met, brainstormed ideas, and developed a survey for resource and primary access libraries. The committee received responses from 128 libraries.
Conclusions: An interesting and encouraging discovery was that almost one and a half times as many libraries expressed an interest in participating in a print retention project as were feeling pressure to give back space to their parent institution. This led the committee to conclude that space pressures and the resulting loss of print resources are a continuing concern for health sciences libraries. Even those who are not now facing pressures are interested in collaboration. Moreover, only a small number of the libraries were currently participating in print retention projects. The committee recommended that the NN/LM SE/A, in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine, continue work to develop a collaborative print retention project and to educate members on the resources available.