Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Loftus presents a framework for identifying the types of information used in your library and selecting open access digital resources to suit user needs. He discusses the “different meanings of free” and shares how to download instructions to create a children’s computer game using open software. Green discusses using collaborative innovation techniques to create a city’s open data program at the public library. Chapel Hill Open Data increases transparency and facilitates access to information. The library leads the planning, design, and implementation of the service, which advances the town council’s goal of increasing civic understanding. This role in leading innovation is one that other libraries can take. Hear about the benefits and challenges of the collaborative innovation techniques of associating, questioning, observing, networking, and experimenting used to achieve outcome goals. The last presentation looks at what we point to and make discoverable. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that may be freely used and reused at no cost. The U.S. Department of Education’s #GoOpen campaign seeks to make a bounty of OER available to all educators. It is critical that librarians find a seat at the #GoOpen table. Librarians have always been about selecting, organizing, ensuring access and equity, sense-making, adding value, instructional voice, storytelling, personalizing, and learning. Speakers consider strategies for curating OER, how to select and curate instructional content to add local instructional value, how to ensure valuable existing purchases are utilized along with the free content, how to work with teachers to understand the Creative Commons licensing behind the resources, and more.