Monthly Archives: November 2015

C-MACS Updates

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Social Media

C-MACS has been working on strengthening Fondren’s Social Media presence. Our new series of Facebook posts, Faces of Fondren, have been extremely popular, and we are in need of additional profiles. Our Instagram followers have increased to 30-40, and we will hold a student contest where all shares on Twitter or Instagram during a defined period will be entered in a drawing for a dedicated study room during finals. Look for more details about the contest soon!

Renovation Open House

Access Services is hosting a study break on December 7 at 10 pm, and C-MACS is providing coffee mugs and cookie trays.

Collaborative/Quiet Spaces

C-MACS is following up on recommendations from the Survey Data Implementation Group (SDIG) about the need for collaborative versus quiet spaces within the library. We will investigate possible spaces and may explore another Space Study.

Fondren 101

A group of staff, including Sandi Edwards, Debra Kolah, Amanda Thomas, Kathy Weimer, and Joe Goetz, are meeting to design a 1-hour course as an introduction to the library, including a 101 on using Fondren’s Website and a tour of the physical space. We aim to roll it out around O-Week 2016.

Executive Committee Summaries (Oct. 16 – Nov. 12, 2015)

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Oct. 15 No meeting

Oct. 22

The group discussed appropriate uses of a $10,000 gift from a Friend of Fondren for Sara Lowman to consider.

Horizon Group recommendations were discussed, with Lisa Spiro and Melinda Flannery delegated to get back to the group regarding its followup responsibilities as well as integrate accepted proposals into the Fondren planning document.

The group discussed UX proposals for paid Fondren Student Ambassador and Fondren Fellows programs. The group agreed to proceed with the ambassador program but had further questions about the need for the fellows program, which would pay graduate students to teach Fondren classes.

The interim report of the Ithaka S + R survey group was discussed. Preliminary assignments were considered for the majority of recommendations.

Recent campus incidents nationwide call for a spotlight on Fondren’s emergency procedures. The Disaster Response Team (DiRT) will be asked to review existing emergency procedures in the Disaster Manual, add procedures for active threat/shooter situations, identify specific gathering places and produce a handy summary document that staff members can find easily in an emergency.

Oct. 29 No meeting

Nov. 5

The group discussed an updated draft policy with procedures to manage use of public computers by non-Rice community members. The draft was produced collaboratively by Research and Access Services. It will go into effect Dec. 1.

Kerry Keck shared information on HATHI membership, a campus quote for New York Times access and ORCID licensing, including costs. The group discussed the benefits of pursuing each of these additions, including access (HATHI) and licensing (ORCID) complexities.

Sara Lowman expressed pleasure at the fact that the renovations underway will be completed early, before finals.

Nov. 12 No meeting

 

News from the Kelley Center for Government Information, Data and Geospatial Services: Spotlight on Patents & Welcome Annie

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Did you know that on this date, 100 years ago, the design for the Coca-Cola bottle was patented? This familiar contoured shaped bottle was designed after the cocoa pod, the Rediscovery identifier 27687hf1-202302050main ingredient in chocolate! You can read more about this patent, or see it on display at the National Archives.

A big part of what we do in the Kelley Center is helping the public search for patents. As a patent depository library, that is one of our mandates. Siu and Linda offer patent searching classes on a regular basis to entrepreneurs from Rice and the Houston area. In addition, this year, we hosted two widely attended training sessions given by staff from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Our Rice affiliates are productive and garner numerous patents. To support their work and bring more visibility to the library and Rice community, the Rice patents are now deposited in the Rice Digital Scholarship Archive. This project seems to be a first among libraries and one that is sure to garner much attention. Along with the Kelley Center’s Linda Spiro, Siu Min Yu and me, contributors to this project were Scott Carlson, metadata coordinator; Monica Rivero, digital curation coordinator; Lisa Spiro, executive director of digital scholarship services; and Shannon Kipphut-Smith, scholarly communications liaison.

Joining the Kelley Center staff this fall is Yen-Nhi (Annie) Pham as our Government Information and Data Specialist. Annie is a recent graduate of UH with a degree in Anthropology and is currently pursuing her masters’ degree, also at UH, in Sociology. In this part- time position, Annie will be working at the Kelley Center desk as well as building library services for government agency datasets.

Going guerrilla in Fondren

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Recently, you may have noticed a table set up near one of the entrances at Fondren, displaying delicious (chocolate!) candy and Fondren swag.

Pauline conducting guerrilla testing in the library

The UX Office is continuing to do guerrilla testing on the main floor of the library this semester. Debra Kolah first started using this UX technique at Fondren with a student worker last year.

We usually set up a table with one or two representatives from the UX Office. Pauline Chen, our student worker pictured above, developed a new method of testing this semester: traveling around campus to conduct testing with students in public spaces outside of Fondren.

Michael conducting guerrilla testing

Michael Chiles, Access Services Associate, also designed several guerrilla testing tasks and collected data to fulfill requirements for a graduate school course.

This semester, we have primarily used Google Forms to collect data while testing. This gives easily repeatable structure to the tests and data can be collected on any mobile device. The form automatically saves submitted data to a Google spreadsheet which also can be shared, manipulated and downloaded in multiple formats.

Guerrilla testing helps us to not only quickly collect valuable qualitative and quantitative information, but also to deeply engage and connect with the Fondren community.

We have collected data and feedback in a number of different areas already, and will devote the rest of the fall semester primarily to analyzing this information and reporting out to different departments and committees in late 2015 and early 2016.

 

 

DMC News: Guides on Generating Subtitles, DMC Audio Studio Gets a Lot of Usage Recently

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Guides on Generating Subtitles

Whether you have an upcoming video project or you have videos uploaded on YouTube/Vimeo already, DMC has guides cover you if you need to add a subtitle.

Creating and Adding Subtitles to Videos

Create Subtitle in Final Cut Pro X

Visit DMC Guides Home to see more DMC professional guides.

DMC Audio Studio Gets a Lot of Usage Recently

In September, the DMC Audio Studio got used 14 times, and in October, it got used 23 times. People use it to record voice over narrations, singing and playing instruments, and dialogues. People also use it for video conferencing. Sometimes, people bring in their own laptop and microphone. They come in just to use the sound-proof space.

Visit this page for the DMC Audio Studio settings. If you have a recording project coming up, don’t hesitate to reserve it or contact us directly.

To learn the audio quality of the recording done in the studio, listen Mindfulness Meditation recording done in October by Micki Fine, a consultant at Rice Psychology Department.

 

DMC is to Offer Workshop on Infographics on Wednesday, November 18.

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In response to a student survey for library instructions done in Spring 2015, DMC is to offer a workshop on “Infographics, Communicate Information with Graphics” on Wednesday, November 18, 10-11:15 a.m. in B43A. Sign up here.

In the undergraduate student survey, 37% expressed interest in a workshop on infographics– more than any other application (followed by data visualization at 34%). In the graduate student survey, 41% expressed interest in a workshop on visualizing data– more than any other application (followed by EndNote at 34% and Infographics at 28%).

The workshop will cover the following topics:

  • What is Infographics? What is Data Visualization?
  • What Makes a Good Infographic?
  • Information Design Best Practices
  • Tools for Creating Infographics and Data Visualization
  • Data Sources

When preparing the workshop, Jane pulled out DMC equipment circulation statistics for the past six years and library instruction statistics for the past two years to play with. See the diagrams below.

DMC Equipment Circulation Statistics
Statistics of Library Instruction Sessions – AY2013-2014 and AY2014-2015

Statistics of Total People Trained by Library and All Departments
AY2013-2014 and AY2014-2015