Play, Learn, Innovate.

I attended "Play, Learn, Innovate. An OCLC/Library Journal online symposium." You can playback or download the event. I did take some notes during the session, but not as many as I wanted.

I also had the opportunity to ask Erica Rosenfeld Halverson a question live after her presentation. As a part of her response, Erica mentioned that "libraries understand the connection between tools and ideas." I think this was an important point and one we need to continue to market to our constituents. It is applicable in terms of information literacy as applied to library instruction and reference, as well as how we develop our collections as the University Libraries. The collections piece is going to be of even greater importance moving forward. Our shrinking collections budget, duplication policy, and rise of electronic access to scholarly content amplify the need to make that connection between tools and ideas. Concepts of holdings and format have shifted, but I don't think we have developed strategies to inform or educate our constituents about these changes. We're not compromising access to key scholarly content, and we're allowing for faster access across all campuses.

Admittedly my question evolved during the course of Erica's presentation, but it did get me thinking more actively about our campus' digital commons, the products student produce using the equipment, and how we are or are not engaged in that process. At my current campus, the flip cameras, digital cameras, and other materials to produce digital media are available for checkout in the library, but the actual lab with workstations and green screen are in the building with the computer center. At my previous campus the library did not have any of this equipment. I know other Penn State campuses have the entire digital commons in the library. Even in one university geographically dispersed there isn't a single approach to this process. Of course there are some space and access considerations in each location. I need to keep this in mind once I start moving forward with a knowledge commons task force.