BlackBoard and TU Library

for "Reaching Students in New Places and New Spaces"

2008 Spring Meeting of the Libraries of Drexel University, Temple University, and The University of Pennsylvania

June 6, 2008

1. Blackboard

   Blackboard is heavily used at Temple. It is a destination students already go to online for their courses, making it an effective location for trying to embed library content. "Go where the users are" as they say.

2. Course Specific

   Instead of the "Library Tab" that many libraries use (effectively recreating a library website), we have attempted to get tailored content embedded in a student's course.

   This allows us to feed the student's less, but more relevant, content.

   I tried this with 2 courses in the fall and for the spring we tested with all the distance education courses (since they have to use BB).

3. Example

   Here's an example of what we call a bb library content package (zoomed out, so losing detail).

   ...How does it get there?

4. Content Package Creator

   I made a form (in php) to allow librarians to fill out fields which are then used to generate html.

   See: http://155.247.22.22/badman/bb/ for form and instructional screencasts.

5. What's Included
   • Federated Search box (also dynamically generated either by category or through a pasted url)
   • Google Scholar/Book Search box
   • Catalog search box
   • Librarian defined Links (like recommended databases)
   • QuickSearches into databases
   • Links to guides, blogs, etc.
   • Librarian Contact Info (and photo drawn from our staff list)
   • IM Widget
6. From Form To BB
   1. PHP form generates HTML
   2. Code is put into a librarian created course
   3. Exported from BB as a zip file
   4. Sent to Faculty (email with explanation (files are very small))
   5. Faculty import them
7. Issues/Problems
   • Form does not save. Editing requires html skill. Re-use is difficult
   • BB likes to try to edit your code (annoying)
   • Once the package is in the course, we cannot edit it.
   • Import/export process is slow and complicated.
   • Requires faculty action.
8. Ideas for the Future
   • Use webpages instead of packages ("External Link" in BB looks/acts the same as native BB content. This would allow for an editable option. (blackboard linked to webpage)
   • Working to use an API from Libguides to re-use our libguides content for abbreviated guides. (image is a mock-up)
   • Automation of some kind as a default? Auto-embedded content (forced by BB Admin?)
9. Questions/Links

   Questions?

   This presentation will live at:

   http://madinkbeard.com/library