EDUCAUSE | Library Items

Repurposing Open Source Software for Agile Digital Image Library Development

In 2007, the University of West Florida Department of Digital and Learning Technologies was charged with the task of rapidly developing a digital image library focusing on the university's upcoming 40th anniversary. This project was to highlight a spectrum of the university's archival holdings with special attention to images and linking to them permanently from the libraries' web site and University Special Collections and Archives.

The Effectiveness of a Web-based Board Game for Teaching Undergraduate Students Information Literacy Concepts and Skills

To teach incoming undergraduate students information literacy skills, a research team at the University of Michigan School of Information developed the Defense of Hidgeon, a web-based board game. We opted for a game in lieu of other approaches because what people are doing when they are playing good games is good learning. This article describes the game's backstory, how to navigate its 34-space game board, and special game-play features. The research team invited a class of undergraduate students to play the game, gave monetary awards to winning teams, and interviewed students about their game-play experiences to determine what they learned and obtain their suggestions for improvements to the game. The authors offer three premises for the redesign of the Defense of Hidgeon and discuss these premises with regard to the design of future information literacy games.

Using Personas to Understand the Needs and Goals of Institutional Repository Users

This study shares the results of an effort to understand the needs and goals of future institutional repository (IR) users at the University of Colorado at Boulder (UCB). Due to underutilization of IRs at other institutions, the University Libraries at UCB decided it was imperative that insight into users' goals and needs of an IR be gained before design of the repository began. The libraries partnered with faculty and students with expertise in human-computer interaction to study user needs. The results of this study yielded "personas" describing different classes of potential IR users on university campuses, which can be used to guide IR architects in designing repositories that facilitate increased participation.

Georgia State University's IT Procurement Review Process--Practical Approach to Assessing Risks of IT Projects

In late 2005, the Security Review Policy was adopted by the University, which states "Where appropriate, information security personnel will conduct risk assessments of technologies/processes that are being evaluated and/or used at Georgia State University. The purpose of these assessments is to quantify the impact and probability of potential threats and vulnerabilities.