Google, for instance, has made virtual field trips to inaccessible locations easier for history and social studies classes with its Cardboard viewers used in conjunction with the Expeditions app. And technologies like zSpace have expanded opportunities in STEM subjects with virtual interactive dissections, diagrams and experiments.
+++++++++++
more on VR in education in this IMS blog
“They do plan,” said a senior Obama-administration official. “They’re not stupid at all. But the idea that they have this all perfectly planned and that Putin is an amazing chess player—that’s not quite it. He knows where he wants to end up, he plans the first few moves, and then he figures out the rest later. People ask if he plays chess or checkers. It’s neither: He plays blackjack. He has a higher acceptance of risk. Think about it. The election interference—that was pretty risky, what he did. If Hillary Clinton had won, there would’ve been hell to pay.”
Even the manner of the Russian attack was risky. The fact that the Russians didn’t really bother hiding their fingerprints is a testament to the change in Russia’s intent toward the U.S., Robert Hannigan, a former head of the Government Communications Headquarters, the British analogue to the National Security Agency, said at the Aspen Forum. “The brazen recklessness of it … the fact that they don’t seem to care that it’s attributed to them very publicly, is the biggest change.”
Effective communication is one critical characteristics of effective and successful school principal. Research on effective schools and instructional leadership emphasizes the impact of principal leadership on creating safe and secure learning environment and positive nurturing school climate (Halawah, 2005, p. 334)
Halawah, I. (2005). The Relationship between Effective Communication of High School Principal and School Climate. Education, 126(2), 334-345.
Selection of school principals in Hong Kong. The findings confirm a four-factor set of expectations sought from applicants; these are Generic Managerial Skills; Communication and Presentation Skills; Knowledge and Experience; and Religious Value Orientation.
Kwan, P. (2012). Assessing school principal candidates: perspectives of the hiring superintendents. International Journal Of Leadership In Education, 15(3), 331-349. doi:10.1080/13603124.2011.617838
Yee, D. L. (2000). Images of school principals’ information and communications technology leadership. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 9(3), 287–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/14759390000200097
Catano, N., & Stronge, J. H. (2007). What do we expect of school principals? Congruence between principal evaluation and performance standards. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 10(4), 379–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603120701381782
Communication can consist of two large areas:
broadcasting information: PR, promotions, notifications etc.
two-way communication: collecting feedback, “office hours” type of communication, backchanneling, etc.
Further communication initiated by/from principals can have different audiences
Reyes, P., & Hoyle, D. (1992). Teachers’ Satisfaction With Principals’ Communication. The Journal of Educational Research, 85(3), 163–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.1992.9944433
parents: involvement, feeling of empowerment, support, volunteering
students
board members
community
Epstein, J. L. (1995). School/family/community partnerships – ProQuest. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(9), 701.
Others
Communication and Visualization
The ever-growing necessity to be able to communicate data to different audiences in digestible format.
considering the information discussed in class, split in groups of 4 and develop your institution strategy for effective and modern communication across and out of your school.
France’s data privacy watchdog may fine messaging app WhatsApp if it does not comply with an order to bring its sharing of user data with parent company Facebook into line with French privacy law.
Separately, Germany’s cartel office said on Tuesday it had found Facebook had abused its dominant market position, in a ruling that questioned the company’s model of monetizing the personal data of its users through targeted advertising.
in France, four eggs “were placed before birth on top of drones while still inside the eggshell and, after hatching, (were kept) there during their early feeding period,” Reuters reported in November.
The eagles were named after characters in The Three Musketeers, and by February proved capable of intercepting drones in lightning-fast horizontal chases.
“Soon they will be casting off from peaks in the nearby Pyrenees Mountains,” AFP reported.
The military has already ordered a second brood of eagles, according to AFP.
I heard back from Steam, with exactly the response I expected: Our service model (users reserve our own PC and VR headset, using our Steam software) needs to use their site license program. And even if it’s just on that one PC, we’d still have to run their site license server locally to manage it.
We did an inventory of what it would cost us to purchase a site license for our most popular games: Of our top 25 most played VR games, only 10 have site licenses available at all. Those 10 games would in total cost us slightly more than $3000 per year to license, which strikes me as ridiculous.
But Tara, thanks for pointing out Springboard VR! At a glance it looks really promising. I’m really glad to hear about another option.
-Chad
We ran into the same problem last year with Steam. However, we are now working with Springboard VR. Our head VR specialist says you can test run their interface on a machine for free and that they are putting together an academic package that should be available soon! https://springboardvr.com/
Tara
Amazing timing, Laura! I was just looking into the site license program this week. I wrote up what I’ve learned so far for someone else this morning, shared below. But to sum up, it’s not very promising either from a financial or practical view of the way we use Steam currently (one PC with Steam titles that we’ve purchased under our account, with an attached HTC Vive).
I originally thought this was just a different kind of license for each game, one which allows public use in a library, cafe, etc. But I got some clarification questions answered by Steam support – it’s actually designed for users to log into one of our computers using their own Steam account. They can then check out a game we’ve purchased a site license for, and play it under their account while they’re on our computer.
This also requires running some sort of server locally to handle the checkouts.
So I don’t think this is going to work for us. The pricing is also pretty wild. One of our most popular titles is Space Pirate Trainer – currently $10 paid one time to own individually, or $30/month/seat for a site license subscription. And I’ve seen at least one title that’s free for individual ownership, but somehow costs $20/month/seat for site license.
Much of their documentation is contradictory and out of date.
Even more annoying is that you can’t even see the site license prices until you sign up for a site license account and fill out some legal forms.
Last but not least, many titles, even free ones, do not have site licenses available at all.
I have one more request into Steam support asking how they prefer we purchase things as a library. I’ll let you know what I hear.
Oh, also – you can’t convert an existing Steam account or purchases. You need to create a new one and start from scratch.
-Chad
We’d also like to know if any other libraries had set up the Steam/Valve Site license, which we were just starting to look into ourselves: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3303-QWRC-3436 – which sounds like it solves many of these problems. Our general counsel has a few issues with the license terms but are willing to consider especially if I can find examples of other institutions utilizing it!
Associate Director Library Information Technology and Digital Strategies
Echoing what Peter said there are no good solutions right now. It would be great if Steam or HTC or Oculus offered site licenses or group accounts, but they don’t. We have 2 HTC Vives that share an account. This causes problems occasionally as it doesn’t like it if two headsets are using the same program. Going offline usually takes care of it. Our 4 Oculus Rifts also share an account but the Oculus store is less problematic than Steam since it only contacts the mother ship when doing an update. If you have the option prepaid cards and individual accounts would be the best way to go but our purchasing department said no.
Edward Iglesias
In our library’s VR Studio, we have a separate library-owned Steam account for each of 7 VR workstation computers. Some have Vives, some have Oculus Rifts at them. We purchase content for each account. We also allow patrons to download free games/tools to those computers.
If a patron owns Steam content that we don’t, they may log in to their personal account and download the game to our computer. So far, this hasn’t posed a problem, except that the added game will show up in that workstation account’s game list, but will not be playable to other patrons. I occasionally delete personal games that are causing confusion to other patrons. Not too many patrons have downloaded content yet so if it gets to be too troublesome we may disallow it in the future.
For the Oculus Rift stations, there is a Steam account as mentioned above, plus the Oculus library. For Oculus, I’ve been able to use one account for all of the workstations. We purchase content once and it’s usable on all the computers from the one account. This has worked fine so far except for playing multi-player online. The single account will not support multiple instances of online play for the same game.
None of these is a perfect solution but they are mostly working as this is a continuous work in progress. Feel free to get in touch off list if you’d like more specific info, etc.
Thanks,
Pete
Hi all,
I was curious if any of your libraries have Steam from Valve installed on your public workstations to drive PC gaming and an HTC Vive? Any tips on how to set that up? Obviously the licensing issue with purchased programs/games through Steam is a problem when you are providing access for a large user base. There are multiple free games/programs available.
How do you handle providing each user with HDD/SSD space on your machines for downloaded games/programs through Steam?
Thanks,
Alex
—
Elisandro Cabada
Engineering and Innovation Liaison Librarian
Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering Librarian
Bitcoins Bulgarian police seized from an ‘organised crime gang’ would now pay off a FIFTH of the country’s national debt after value rises by 600% in six months
Officers seized hundreds of thousands of units of the virtual currency in May
It was worth $500million at the time but the value of Bitcoin has since surged
The haul of 213,519 units is now worth a staggering $3.3billion
Thta is enough to pay off almost a quarter of Bulgaria’s national debt
this why metadata was entered in the post-processed MP4 file using the VLC player
export
H.264 . / iPAD 480p 29.9 fps
Shortcuts:
If you are using Premiere CC: 1. File/New/Sequence. 2. Ctrl M is the shortcut to export (M is for media)
Issues
the two Apple/Macs will deliver error messages with both the export to the MP4 format and for burning the CDs and DVDs.
e.g.
other issues
regular restart required for new capture
error messages e.g.
other issues:
audio. Audio synchronization during the digitization is off. Solution: possible solution is the last of this thread : https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2217377
open in in QT Pro copy an segment then past it into a new QT file and save. It then plays normally in Adobe products.
old Apple desktops. needed to be rebuild and reformatted.
Apple burner issues. issues with Premiere license (bigger organization, bigger bureaucracy – keep the licenses within the library, not with IT or the business department)
old VCRs – one of the VCRs was recording bad audio signal
old VHS tapes: the signal jump makes the digital recording stop, thus requiring a constant attendance of the digitization, instead of letting it be digitized and working on something else
the person who is uploading the digitized VHS movies can “Add Collaborator”
The collaborator can be “co-editor” and / or “co-publisher”
Thus, at the moment, Tom Hegert has been designated to a digitized VHS video as Co-:Publisher and Rhonda Huisman as “Co-Editor.”
Please DO log in into MediaSpace with your STAR ID and confirm that you can locate the video and you can, respectively edit its metadata.
If you can edit the video, this means that the proposed system will work, since the Library can follow the same pattern to “distribute” the videos to the instructors, who these videos are used by; and, respectively these instructors can further control the distribution of the videos in their classes.
issues:
sharing the videos from the generic Library account for MediaSpace to the MediaSPace account of the faculty who had requested the digitization either through sending the link to the video or publish in channel (we called our channel “digitized VHS”)
issue: ripping off content from DVD.
Faculty (mostly teaching online / hybrid courses) want to place teaching material from DVD to MediaSpace. Most DVDs are DRM protected.
Handbreak (https://handbrake.fr/) does not allow ripping DRM-ed DVDs. to bypass this Handbreak issue, we use DVD Decrypter before we run the file through Handbreak
Solutions:
From: “Lanska, Jeremiah K” <Jeremiah.Lanska@ridgewater.edu> Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 10:03 AM
I use a software on a MAC called MacX DVD Video Converter Pro. https://www.macxdvd.com/
I convert videos to MP4 with this and it just works for just about any DVD. Then upload them to MediaSpace.
From: “Docken, Marti L” <Marti.Docken@saintpaul.edu> Date: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 8:17 AM
Good morning Plamen. Here at Saint Paul College, we are asked to get permission from owner when we are looking at making any alterations to a video, tape, etc. This is true of adding closed captioning as well. The attached are forms given by Minnesota State which they may have an updated form.
Thank you and have a wonderful day.
Marti Docken Instructional Technology Specialist 651.846.1339 marti.docken@saintpaul.edu
From: Geri Wilson Sent: Friday, September 14, 2018 3:23 PM
What I do with DVDs is give a warning to the faculty that the MediaSpace link with the captions I’ve created should not be widely shared and should be treated as if it were still a DVD that can be shown in the classroom, but not posted on D2L. Because even if we use those forms, I don’t believe it gives us the right to use the video in a broader way. However, a safer approach might be to burn a new DVD with captions, so that it’s still in the same format that can’t be misused as easily.
Just my 2 cents. Geri
From: “Hunter, Gary B” <Gary.Hunter@minnstate.edu> Date: Friday, September 14, 2018 at 2:55 PM To: Plamen Miltenoff_old <pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu> Subject: RE: Process of ripping DVD video to mount it on MediaSpace
I’ll assume the contents of the DVDs are movies/films unless I hear otherwise from you. There’s a lot we need to consider from a copyright perspective. Let me know a day and time that we can touch base via a phone call. Next week my schedule is flexible, so let me know what day and time work for you. Until we speak, here’s some of the information related to making copies of copyrighted works for nonprofit teaching purposes.
There are two sections of the Copyright Act that authorize “copying” of copyrighted works for nonprofit educational purposes. It doesn’t matter if the copyrighted works are being copied from DVDs, CDs, flash drives, a computer’s hard drive, etc., the same sections of the Copyright Act apply.
Section 110(2), also known as the TEACH Act, allows nonprofit educational institutions to make a digital copy of a nondramatic copyrighted work and save it to a server for online and hybrid teaching. I have a TEACH Act checklist on the IP Tools & Forms webpage at http://www.minnstate.edu/system/asa/academicaffairs/policy/copyright/forms.html. The checklist identifies the few things that may not be copied under this section of the Copyright Act. If an instructor meets the various requirements on the checklist, than you can make a digital copy of the entire nondramatic copyrighted work and save it to MediaSpace. For nondramatic works, all MinnState instructors should be able to complete the TEACH Act checklist successfully, so I wouldn’t request a completed checklist from them.
Under the TEACH Act, nonprofit educational institutions are only permitted to make a digital copy of reasonable and limited portions of dramatic copyrighted works. Movies and films are usually dramatic works. Most people in higher education interpret “reasonable and limited portions” to mean something less than the whole and not the entire movie/film. There are several guidance documents on the TEACH Act on the IP Tools & Forms webpage that go into greater detail as to what is reasonable and limited portions. Unfortunately, this section only authorizes the copying of part of the movie/film and not the entire thing.
Section 107 Fair Use of the Copyright Act is the second section that permits copying of copyrighted works for nonprofit educational purposes. Fair Use is used more than any other section to make copies of copyrighted works for nonprofit educational purposes. An instructor needs to complete a fair Use Checklist showing the proposed copying is authorized by fair use. An instructor who completes a Fair Use Checklist that ends up being 50/50 or more in support of fair use for their proposed copying of a copyrighted work, should be able to make the digital copy. Fair Use has some nuances in it for unique situations. Let’s set up a phone call to further discuss them. There is also a flow chart that may helpful at http://www.minnstate.edu/system/asa/academicaffairs/policy/copyright/docs/Flow%20Chart-Using%20video%20in%20Online%20-%20D2L%20Courses.pdf.
We also have to consider whether or not the movies/films were purchased with “personal use” rights or “public performance” rights. Or if an educational license or some similar type of license gives us permission to make copies or publicly perform the movie/film. More layers of the onion that need peeled back to address the copyright concerns.
++++++++++++++
Issue: confidentiality
All digitized material is backedup on DVDs, whether faculty wants a DVD or not.
Some video content is confidential (e.g. interviews with patients) and faculty does not want any extra copies, but the DVD submitted to them. How do we archive / do we archive the content then?
Burning (Archiving)
where to store the burned DVDs? their shelf life is 12 years.
DVD’s must be labeled with soft tip perm marker, not labels. labels glue ages quickly.
all our desktops are outdated (5+ years and older). We used two Apple/Macs. OS El Captain, Version 10.11.6, 2.5 Gxz Intel Core i5. 8GB memory, 1333 MHz DDR3, Graphic Card AMD Radeon HD 6750 MD 512 MB
Question about the process of archiving the CDs and DVDs after burning. What is the best way to archive the digitized material? Store the CD and DVDs? Keep them in the “cloud?”
Question about the management of working files: 1. Premiere digitizes the original hi-quality file in .mov format and it is in GB. The export is in .mp4 format and it is in MB. Is it worth to store the GB-size .mov format and for how long, considering that the working station has a limited HDD of 200GB
we decided to export two types of files using Adobe Premiere: a) a low end .MP4 file about several hundred megabites, which respectively is uploaded in SCSU Media Space (AKA Kaltura) and b) one high-end (better quality) one the realm of several GBs, which was the archived copy
We placed a request for two 2TB HDD with the library dean and 10TB file space with the SCSU IT department. Idea being to have the files for MediaSpace readily available on the hardrives, if we have to make them available to faculty and the high-end files being stored on the SCSU file server.
++++++++++++++++++
Nov. 2019: transfer of accounts. The generic SCSULibraryVideo account is discontinued because of the August 2019 transition to the minnstate.edu. Agreed to host the accumulated digitized videos under the private account of one of the team members, who will be assigning the other members and the requesting faculty as co-editors.
++++++++++++++++++
2. correspondence among Greg J, Tom H and Plamen
email correspondence Greg, Tom, Plamen regarding Kaltura account:
From: Greg <gsjorgensen@stcloudstate.edu> Date: Friday, November 17, 2017 at 11:32 AM To: Plamen Miltenoff <pmiltenoff@stcloudstate.edu> Subject: RE: Question Kaltura
Plamen,
Channels are not required using this workflow. Just the collaboration change.
–g–
From: Miltenoff, Plamen Sent: Friday, November 17, 2017 11:31 AM To: Jorgensen, Greg S. <gsjorgensen@stcloudstate.edu>; Hergert, Thomas R. <trhergert@stcloudstate.edu> Subject: Question Kaltura
Greg,
About the channel:
Do I create one channel (videos)?
It seems to be a better idea to create separate channels for each of faculty, who’s videotapes are digitized.
******* any user you wish to collaborate with, will need to first sign in to mediaspace in order to provision their account.**** After they have signed in, you will be able to add them as collaborator.
Once they’ve been added, they will have access to the video in their MedisSpace account.
Like so:
From the My Media area:
Click ‘Filters’:
Then choose either media I can publish, or media I can edit:
If you want to simply change ownership to the requestor (for video available only to a single person), just choose change media owner on the collaboration tab.
The process above will allow for any number of collaborators, in a fashion similar to ‘on reserve’.
–g–
From: Miltenoff, Plamen Sent: Friday, November 17, 2017 11:19 AM To: Jorgensen, Greg S. <gsjorgensen@stcloudstate.edu>; Hergert, Thomas R. <trhergert@stcloudstate.edu> Subject: FW: Supplemental Account Request Status
Tom,
I submitted the request to Greg with the “SCSULibraryVideo” name
Greg, I submitted, Tom, Rachel W and Rhonda H (and you) as “owners.”
Pls, if possible, do not assigned to Tom ownership rights yet and add him later on.
I also received your approval, so I am starting to work on it
This message confirms your request for a new Supplemental Account with the requested username of SCSULibraryVideo. Please allow 2-3 business days for processing. You will be notified by email when your request is approved or denied. You may also check the status of your request by returning to the Supplemental Accounts Maintenance site.
Thank you for your request and please contact us with questions or concerns.
Once you’ve done that, just let me know the name of the account. (LibraryVideoDrop, SCSULibraryVideo, etc….)
I’ll then add it to the Mediaspace access list.
If there’s already an account to which you have access, we can use that, too. Remember, though, credentials will be shared at least between the two of you.
Well, that is a good question. Do we need a “STAR ID” type of account for the library?
If so, who will be the person to talk to. After Diane Schmitt, I do not know who to ask
Tom, can you ask the library dean’s office for any “generic” account?
Greg, for the time being, is it possible to have me as the “owner” of that account? Would that conflict with my current Kaltura account/content?
Can I participate for this project with my student account (as you helpled me several weeks ago restore it for D2L usage)?
Yes, except that there may be needs for multiple faculty to access the files. Think of it as analogous to DVDs on reserve or even in the general collection.
I think we’re hoping for an account from which we can share Library resources such as the digitized versions of VHS tapes that Plamen and I are creating. As I understand it, a closed channel is probably not the best answer. We need a common repository that can have open access to SCSU Kaltura users.
A single account can’t really be shared in the way you’re asking, but we can easily add a dept. supplemental account to Mediaspace. I just need the name of the account.
Depending on what you intend, maybe a closed channel? Create a closed channel and add individuals as needed?
Can you help me create a MediaSpace account for the library use.
How can it be tight up to the STAR ID login specifications?
Is it possible, let’s say Tom and I to use our STAR ID to login into such account?
Any info is welcome…
Plamen
++++++++++++
3. correspondence on the LITA listserv regarding “best practices for in house digital conversion”
From: <lita-l-request@lists.ala.org> on behalf of Sharona Ginsberg <lita-l@lists.ala.org> Reply-To: “lita-l@lists.ala.org” <lita-l@lists.ala.org> Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at 10:07 AM To: “lita-l@lists.ala.org” <lita-l@lists.ala.org> Subject: Re: [lita-l] best practices for in house digital conversion
I’m at an academic rather than public library, but you can see what we offer for digital conversion here: https://www.oswego.edu/library/digital-conversion. We’ve been generally happy with our equipment, and I especially think the Elgato Video Capture device (VHS to digital) is a good tool.
– Sharona
From: <lita-l-request@lists.ala.org> on behalf of Molly Schwartz <mschwartz@metro.org> Reply-To: “lita-l@lists.ala.org” <lita-l@lists.ala.org> Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 at 10:03 AM To: “lita-l@lists.ala.org” <lita-l@lists.ala.org> Subject: Re: [lita-l] best practices for in house digital conversion
I would also definitely recommend DCPL’s Memory Lab and the project to build a Memory Lab Network, which is more applicable to public libraries.
best,
Molly
On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Stewart Wilson <SWilson@onlib.org> wrote:
Hi all,
I know there is a lot of information already out here, but is anyone up for a conversation about media conversion technologies for public library patrons?
I’m interested in best practices and recommended technologies or guides that you use in your system.
Anything that converts projector slides, 35mm, VHS, photographs, cassette, etc.
We are building a new PC for this and 3D rendering, so any recommendations for things like soundcards or video capture cards are also useful.
Thanks for your help; this group is the best.
Stew Wilson
Paralibrarian for Network Administration and Technology
Applications for the 2018 Institute will be accepted between December 1, 2017 and January 27, 2018. Scholars accepted to the program will be notified in early March 2018.
Title:
Learning to Harness Big Data in an Academic Library
Abstract (200)
Research on Big Data per se, as well as on the importance and organization of the process of Big Data collection and analysis, is well underway. The complexity of the process comprising “Big Data,” however, deprives organizations of ubiquitous “blue print.” The planning, structuring, administration and execution of the process of adopting Big Data in an organization, being that a corporate one or an educational one, remains an elusive one. No less elusive is the adoption of the Big Data practices among libraries themselves. Seeking the commonalities and differences in the adoption of Big Data practices among libraries may be a suitable start to help libraries transition to the adoption of Big Data and restructuring organizational and daily activities based on Big Data decisions. Introduction to the problem. Limitations
The redefinition of humanities scholarship has received major attention in higher education. The advent of digital humanities challenges aspects of academic librarianship. Data literacy is a critical need for digital humanities in academia. The March 2016 Library Juice Academy Webinar led by John Russel exemplifies the efforts to help librarians become versed in obtaining programming skills, and respectively, handling data. Those are first steps on a rather long path of building a robust infrastructure to collect, analyze, and interpret data intelligently, so it can be utilized to restructure daily and strategic activities. Since the phenomenon of Big Data is young, there is a lack of blueprints on the organization of such infrastructure. A collection and sharing of best practices is an efficient approach to establishing a feasible plan for setting a library infrastructure for collection, analysis, and implementation of Big Data.
Limitations. This research can only organize the results from the responses of librarians and research into how libraries present themselves to the world in this arena. It may be able to make some rudimentary recommendations. However, based on each library’s specific goals and tasks, further research and work will be needed.
Big Data is becoming an omnipresent term. It is widespread among different disciplines in academia (De Mauro, Greco, & Grimaldi, 2016). This leads to “inconsistency in meanings and necessity for formal definitions” (De Mauro et al, 2016, p. 122). Similarly, to De Mauro et al (2016), Hashem, Yaqoob, Anuar, Mokhtar, Gani and Ullah Khan (2015) seek standardization of definitions. The main connected “themes” of this phenomenon must be identified and the connections to Library Science must be sought. A prerequisite for a comprehensive definition is the identification of Big Data methods. Bughin, Chui, Manyika (2011), Chen et al. (2012) and De Mauro et al (2015) single out the methods to complete the process of building a comprehensive definition.
In conjunction with identifying the methods, volume, velocity, and variety, as defined by Laney (2001), are the three properties of Big Data accepted across the literature. Daniel (2015) defines three stages in big data: collection, analysis, and visualization. According to Daniel, (2015), Big Data in higher education “connotes the interpretation of a wide range of administrative and operational data” (p. 910) and according to Hilbert (2013), as cited in Daniel (2015), Big Data “delivers a cost-effective prospect to improve decision making” (p. 911).
The importance of understanding the process of Big Data analytics is well understood in academic libraries. An example of such “administrative and operational” use for cost-effective improvement of decision making are the Finch & Flenner (2016) and Eaton (2017) case studies of the use of data visualization to assess an academic library collection and restructure the acquisition process. Sugimoto, Ding & Thelwall (2012) call for the discussion of Big Data for libraries. According to the 2017 NMC Horizon Report “Big Data has become a major focus of academic and research libraries due to the rapid evolution of data mining technologies and the proliferation of data sources like mobile devices and social media” (Adams, Becker, et al., 2017, p. 38).
Power (2014) elaborates on the complexity of Big Data in regard to decision-making and offers ideas for organizations on building a system to deal with Big Data. As explained by Boyd and Crawford (2012) and cited in De Mauro et al (2016), there is a danger of a new digital divide among organizations with different access and ability to process data. Moreover, Big Data impacts current organizational entities in their ability to reconsider their structure and organization. The complexity of institutions’ performance under the impact of Big Data is further complicated by the change of human behavior, because, arguably, Big Data affects human behavior itself (Schroeder, 2014).
De Mauro et al (2015) touch on the impact of Dig Data on libraries. The reorganization of academic libraries considering Big Data and the handling of Big Data by libraries is in a close conjunction with the reorganization of the entire campus and the handling of Big Data by the educational institution. In additional to the disruption posed by the Big Data phenomenon, higher education is facing global changes of economic, technological, social, and educational character. Daniel (2015) uses a chart to illustrate the complexity of these global trends. Parallel to the Big Data developments in America and Asia, the European Union is offering access to an EU open data portal (https://data.europa.eu/euodp/home ). Moreover, the Association of European Research Libraries expects under the H2020 program to increase “the digitization of cultural heritage, digital preservation, research data sharing, open access policies and the interoperability of research infrastructures” (Reilly, 2013).
The challenges posed by Big Data to human and social behavior (Schroeder, 2014) are no less significant to the impact of Big Data on learning. Cohen, Dolan, Dunlap, Hellerstein, & Welton (2009) propose a road map for “more conservative organizations” (p. 1492) to overcome their reservations and/or inability to handle Big Data and adopt a practical approach to the complexity of Big Data. Two Chinese researchers assert deep learning as the “set of machine learning techniques that learn multiple levels of representation in deep architectures (Chen & Lin, 2014, p. 515). Deep learning requires “new ways of thinking and transformative solutions (Chen & Lin, 2014, p. 523). Another pair of researchers from China present a broad overview of the various societal, business and administrative applications of Big Data, including a detailed account and definitions of the processes and tools accompanying Big Data analytics. The American counterparts of these Chinese researchers are of the same opinion when it comes to “think about the core principles and concepts that underline the techniques, and also the systematic thinking” (Provost and Fawcett, 2013, p. 58). De Mauro, Greco, and Grimaldi (2016), similarly to Provost and Fawcett (2013) draw attention to the urgent necessity to train new types of specialists to work with such data. As early as 2012, Davenport and Patil (2012), as cited in Mauro et al (2016), envisioned hybrid specialists able to manage both technological knowledge and academic research. Similarly, Provost and Fawcett (2013) mention the efforts of “academic institutions scrambling to put together programs to train data scientists” (p. 51). Further, Asomoah, Sharda, Zadeh & Kalgotra (2017) share a specific plan on the design and delivery of a big data analytics course. At the same time, librarians working with data acknowledge the shortcomings in the profession, since librarians “are practitioners first and generally do not view usability as a primary job responsibility, usually lack the depth of research skills needed to carry out a fully valid” data-based research (Emanuel, 2013, p. 207).
Borgman (2015) devotes an entire book to data and scholarly research and goes beyond the already well-established facts regarding the importance of Big Data, the implications of Big Data and the technical, societal, and educational impact and complications posed by Big Data. Borgman elucidates the importance of knowledge infrastructure and the necessity to understand the importance and complexity of building such infrastructure, in order to be able to take advantage of Big Data. In a similar fashion, a team of Chinese scholars draws attention to the complexity of data mining and Big Data and the necessity to approach the issue in an organized fashion (Wu, Xhu, Wu, Ding, 2014).
Bruns (2013) shifts the conversation from the “macro” architecture of Big Data, as focused by Borgman (2015) and Wu et al (2014) and ponders over the influx and unprecedented opportunities for humanities in academia with the advent of Big Data. Does the seemingly ubiquitous omnipresence of Big Data mean for humanities a “railroading” into “scientificity”? How will research and publishing change with the advent of Big Data across academic disciplines?
Reyes (2015) shares her “skinny” approach to Big Data in education. She presents a comprehensive structure for educational institutions to shift “traditional” analytics to “learner-centered” analytics (p. 75) and identifies the participants in the Big Data process in the organization. The model is applicable for library use.
Being a new and unchartered territory, Big Data and Big Data analytics can pose ethical issues. Willis (2013) focusses on Big Data application in education, namely the ethical questions for higher education administrators and the expectations of Big Data analytics to predict students’ success. Daries, Reich, Waldo, Young, and Whittinghill (2014) discuss rather similar issues regarding the balance between data and student privacy regulations. The privacy issues accompanying data are also discussed by Tene and Polonetsky, (2013).
Privacy issues are habitually connected to security and surveillance issues. Andrejevic and Gates (2014) point out in a decision making “generated by data mining, the focus is not on particular individuals but on aggregate outcomes” (p. 195). Van Dijck (2014) goes into further details regarding the perils posed by metadata and data to the society, in particular to the privacy of citizens. Bail (2014) addresses the same issue regarding the impact of Big Data on societal issues, but underlines the leading roles of cultural sociologists and their theories for the correct application of Big Data.
Library organizations have been traditional proponents of core democratic values such as protection of privacy and elucidation of related ethical questions (Miltenoff & Hauptman, 2005). In recent books about Big Data and libraries, ethical issues are important part of the discussion (Weiss, 2018). Library blogs also discuss these issues (Harper & Oltmann, 2017). An academic library’s role is to educate its patrons about those values. Sugimoto et al (2012) reflect on the need for discussion about Big Data in Library and Information Science. They clearly draw attention to the library “tradition of organizing, managing, retrieving, collecting, describing, and preserving information” (p.1) as well as library and information science being “a historically interdisciplinary and collaborative field, absorbing the knowledge of multiple domains and bringing the tools, techniques, and theories” (p. 1). Sugimoto et al (2012) sought a wide discussion among the library profession regarding the implications of Big Data on the profession, no differently from the activities in other fields (e.g., Wixom, Ariyachandra, Douglas, Goul, Gupta, Iyer, Kulkami, Mooney, Phillips-Wren, Turetken, 2014). A current Andrew Mellon Foundation grant for Visualizing Digital Scholarship in Libraries seeks an opportunity to view “both macro and micro perspectives, multi-user collaboration and real-time data interaction, and a limitless number of visualization possibilities – critical capabilities for rapidly understanding today’s large data sets (Hwangbo, 2014).
The importance of the library with its traditional roles, as described by Sugimoto et al (2012) may continue, considering the Big Data platform proposed by Wu, Wu, Khabsa, Williams, Chen, Huang, Tuarob, Choudhury, Ororbia, Mitra, & Giles (2014). Such platforms will continue to emerge and be improved, with librarians as the ultimate drivers of such platforms and as the mediators between the patrons and the data generated by such platforms.
Every library needs to find its place in the large organization and in society in regard to this very new and very powerful phenomenon called Big Data. Libraries might not have the trained staff to become a leader in the process of organizing and building the complex mechanism of this new knowledge architecture, but librarians must educate and train themselves to be worthy participants in this new establishment.
Method
The study will be cleared by the SCSU IRB.
The survey will collect responses from library population and it readiness to use and use of Big Data. Send survey URL to (academic?) libraries around the world.
Data will be processed through SPSS. Open ended results will be processed manually. The preliminary research design presupposes a mixed method approach.
The study will include the use of closed-ended survey response questions and open-ended questions. The first part of the study (close ended, quantitative questions) will be completed online through online survey. Participants will be asked to complete the survey using a link they receive through e-mail.
Mixed methods research was defined by Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004) as “the class of research where the researcher mixes or combines quantitative and qualitative research techniques, methods, approaches, concepts, or language into a single study” (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004 , p. 17). Quantitative and qualitative methods can be combined, if used to complement each other because the methods can measure different aspects of the research questions (Sale, Lohfeld, & Brazil, 2002).
Sampling design
Online survey of 10-15 question, with 3-5 demographic and the rest regarding the use of tools.
1-2 open-ended questions at the end of the survey to probe for follow-up mixed method approach (an opportunity for qualitative study)
data analysis techniques: survey results will be exported to SPSS and analyzed accordingly. The final survey design will determine the appropriate statistical approach.
Project Schedule
Complete literature review and identify areas of interest – two months
Prepare and test instrument (survey) – month
IRB and other details – month
Generate a list of potential libraries to distribute survey – month
Contact libraries. Follow up and contact again, if necessary (low turnaround) – month
Collect, analyze data – two months
Write out data findings – month
Complete manuscript – month
Proofreading and other details – month
Significance of the work
While it has been widely acknowledged that Big Data (and its handling) is changing higher education (https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=big+data) as well as academic libraries (https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims/2016/03/29/analytics-in-education/), it remains nebulous how Big Data is handled in the academic library and, respectively, how it is related to the handling of Big Data on campus. Moreover, the visualization of Big Data between units on campus remains in progress, along with any policymaking based on the analysis of such data (hence the need for comprehensive visualization).
This research will aim to gain an understanding on: a. how librarians are handling Big Data; b. how are they relating their Big Data output to the campus output of Big Data and c. how librarians in particular and campus administration in general are tuning their practices based on the analysis.
Based on the survey returns (if there is a statistically significant return), this research might consider juxtaposing the practices from academic libraries, to practices from special libraries (especially corporate libraries), public and school libraries.
References:
Adams Becker, S., Cummins M, Davis, A., Freeman, A., Giesinger Hall, C., Ananthanarayanan, V., … Wolfson, N. (2017). NMC Horizon Report: 2017 Library Edition.
Andrejevic, M., & Gates, K. (2014). Big Data Surveillance: Introduction. Surveillance & Society, 12(2), 185–196.
Asamoah, D. A., Sharda, R., Hassan Zadeh, A., & Kalgotra, P. (2017). Preparing a Data Scientist: A Pedagogic Experience in Designing a Big Data Analytics Course. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 15(2), 161–190. https://doi.org/10.1111/dsji.12125
Bughin, J., Chui, M., & Manyika, J. (2010). Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch. McKinsey Quarterly, 56(1), 75–86.
Cohen, J., Dolan, B., Dunlap, M., Hellerstein, J. M., & Welton, C. (2009). MAD Skills: New Analysis Practices for Big Data. Proc. VLDB Endow., 2(2), 1481–1492. https://doi.org/10.14778/1687553.1687576
Daniel, B. (2015). Big Data and analytics in higher education: Opportunities and challenges. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(5), 904–920. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12230
Daries, J. P., Reich, J., Waldo, J., Young, E. M., Whittinghill, J., Ho, A. D., … Chuang, I. (2014). Privacy, Anonymity, and Big Data in the Social Sciences. Commun. ACM, 57(9), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1145/2643132
De Mauro, A. D., Greco, M., & Grimaldi, M. (2016). A formal definition of Big Data based on its essential features. Library Review, 65(3), 122–135. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-06-2015-0061
De Mauro, A., Greco, M., & Grimaldi, M. (2015). What is big data? A consensual definition and a review of key research topics. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1644(1), 97–104. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4907823
Eaton, M. (2017). Seeing Library Data: A Prototype Data Visualization Application for Librarians. Publications and Research. Retrieved from http://academicworks.cuny.edu/kb_pubs/115
Emanuel, J. (2013). Usability testing in libraries: methods, limitations, and implications. OCLC Systems & Services: International Digital Library Perspectives, 29(4), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.1108/OCLC-02-2013-0009
Graham, M., & Shelton, T. (2013). Geography and the future of big data, big data and the future of geography. Dialogues in Human Geography, 3(3), 255–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820613513121
Hashem, I. A. T., Yaqoob, I., Anuar, N. B., Mokhtar, S., Gani, A., & Ullah Khan, S. (2015). The rise of “big data” on cloud computing: Review and open research issues. Information Systems, 47(Supplement C), 98–115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2014.07.006
Laney, D. (2001, February 6). 3D Data Management: Controlling Data Volume, Velocity, and Variety.
Miltenoff, P., & Hauptman, R. (2005). Ethical dilemmas in libraries: an international perspective. The Electronic Library, 23(6), 664–670. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470510635746
Philip Chen, C. L., & Zhang, C.-Y. (2014). Data-intensive applications, challenges, techniques and technologies: A survey on Big Data. Information Sciences, 275(Supplement C), 314–347. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2014.01.015
Provost, F., & Fawcett, T. (2013). Data Science and its Relationship to Big Data and Data-Driven Decision Making. Big Data, 1(1), 51–59. https://doi.org/10.1089/big.2013.1508
Reyes, J. (2015). The skinny on big data in education: Learning analytics simplified. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 59(2), 75–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-015-0842-1
Schroeder, R. (2014). Big Data and the brave new world of social media research. Big Data & Society, 1(2), 2053951714563194. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951714563194
Sugimoto, C. R., Ding, Y., & Thelwall, M. (2012). Library and information science in the big data era: Funding, projects, and future [a panel proposal]. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.14504901187
Tene, O., & Polonetsky, J. (2012). Big Data for All: Privacy and User Control in the Age of Analytics. Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, 11, [xxvii]-274.
van Dijck, J. (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and ideology. Surveillance & Society; Newcastle upon Tyne, 12(2), 197–208.
Waller, M. A., & Fawcett, S. E. (2013). Data Science, Predictive Analytics, and Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform Supply Chain Design and Management. Journal of Business Logistics, 34(2), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbl.12010
West, D. M. (2012). Big data for education: Data mining, data analytics, and web dashboards. Governance Studies at Brookings, 4, 1–0.
Willis, J. (2013). Ethics, Big Data, and Analytics: A Model for Application. Educause Review Online. Retrieved from https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/idcpubs/1
Wixom, B., Ariyachandra, T., Douglas, D. E., Goul, M., Gupta, B., Iyer, L. S., … Turetken, O. (2014). The current state of business intelligence in academia: The arrival of big data. CAIS, 34, 1.
Wu, X., Zhu, X., Wu, G. Q., & Ding, W. (2014). Data mining with big data. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 26(1), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2013.109
Wu, Z., Wu, J., Khabsa, M., Williams, K., Chen, H. H., Huang, W., … Giles, C. L. (2014). Towards building a scholarly big data platform: Challenges, lessons and opportunities. In IEEE/ACM Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (pp. 117–126). https://doi.org/10.1109/JCDL.2014.6970157
Lahav, O., Sharkey, P., & Merrick, J. (2014). Virtual and augmented reality environments for people with special needs. International Journal Of Child Health And Human Development, 7(4), 337-338.
Cai, Y., Chiew, R., Nay, Z. T., Indhumathi, C., & Huang, L. (2017). Design and development of VR learning environments for children with ASD. Interactive Learning Environments, 25(8), 1098-1109. doi:10.1080/10494820.2017.1282877
Passig, D. (2011). The Impact of Immersive Virtual Reality on Educators’ Awareness of the Cognitive Experiences of Pupils with Dyslexia. Teachers College Record, 113(1), 181-204.
Ke, F., & Im, T. (2013). Virtual-Reality-Based Social Interaction Training for Children with High-Functioning Autism. Journal Of Educational Research, 106(6), 441-461. doi:10.1080/00220671.2013.832999
Collins, J., Hoermann, S., & Regenbrecht, H. (2016). Comparing a finger dexterity assessment in virtual, video-mediated, and unmediated reality. International Journal Of Child Health And Human Development, 9(3), 333-341.
Epure, P., Gheorghe, C., Nissen, T., Toader, L. O., Macovei, A. N., Nielsen, S. M., & … Brooks, E. P. (2016). Effect of the Oculus Rift head mounted display on postural stability. International Journal Of Child Health And Human Development, 9(3), 343-350.
Sánchez, J., & Espinoza, M. (2016). Usability and redesign of a university entrance test based on audio for learners who are blind. International Journal Of Child Health And Human Development, 9(3), 379-387.
Rizzo, A. A., Bowerly, T., Shahabi, C., Buckwalter, J. G., Klimchuk, D., & Mitura, R. (2004). Diagnosing Attention Disorders in a Virtual Classroom. Computer (00189162), 37(6), 87-89.
Eden, S. (2008). The effect of 3D virtual reality on sequential time perception among deaf and hard-of-hearing children. European Journal Of Special Needs Education, 23(4), 349-363. doi:10.1080/08856250802387315
Eden, S., & Bezer, M. (2011). Three-dimensions vs. two-dimensions intervention programs: the effect on the mediation level and behavioural aspects of children with intellectual disability. European Journal Of Special Needs Education, 26(3), 337-353. doi:10.1080/08856257.2011.593827
Lorenzo, G., Lledó, A., Roig, R., Lorenzo, A., & Pomares, J. (2016). New Educational Challenges and Innovations: Students with Disability in Immersive Learning Environments. In Virtual Learning. InTech. https://doi.org/10.5772/65219
