Professional Development Opportunities
Creating Digital Learning Objects for Libraries
Interactive tutorials helping students locate peer-reviewed journal articles, a short video introducing patrons to interlibrary loan services, podcasts covering copyright basics for faculty—these are all examples of digital learning objects (DLOs) that libraries have created to support members of their communities. Developing asynchronous online resources such as these has become increasingly essential as library services, resources, and patrons shift online. In this four-week course, students will examine DLOs, apply instructional design basics to propose and design a DLO that could be deployed at their library, investigate technologies used to create DLOs, and explore assessment, marketing, and accessibility as related to DLOs. This course is part of the Certificate in Library Instruction.
September 6–October 3
Digital Accessibility for Library Work
In this course, you will learn the basic principles and specific rules of international accessibility standards and practice applying them to key areas of library work. You will develop the skills to assess accessibility features and barriers in electronic resources, to create digital content that can be used by all, and to advise digital scholars on access concerns. As a result of your work in this course, you will be able to recognize accessibility barriers, understand accessible design, and communicate that knowledge to colleagues with less digital accessibility experience.
September 6–October 3
Digital Repository Fundamentals and Design
Digital repositories allow libraries, archives, and museums to disseminate and create access to unique digital collections related to institutional academic output or digital special collections. Digital repository options vary widely, from proprietary to open source, and include platforms specialized for specific use cases, such as institutional academic production, audiovisual materials, cultural heritage collections, and community and tribal collections. This course is designed to give the student the fundamentals of selecting, designing and implementing the digital repository solution that is right for their particular institutional, academic, or personal project. This course can be taken as one of six courses needed to earn our Certificate in Digital Curation but can be taken as a stand-alone course as well.
October 4–31
Understanding and Using Library Data
This course is designed for librarians and library staff who are involved with assessment, decision-making, and other areas that involve data analysis and interpretation. Effective collection, interpretation and display of library data informs library decision-making and service design. This course serves as a primer for basic analytic concepts and methods and a refresher on tried-and-true statistics. Students will discuss the relative merits and limitations of concepts covered. The course will provide instruction on several free tools for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data. Students will draft a data analysis project to use in their own library.
September 13 & 15, 1–3 CDT
$140 (AMIGOS Member) / $220 (non-member)
Testing for Accessibility: Free Tools to Assess the Accessibility of Online Resources
Accessibility in online resources—the ability for users with disabilities and/or learning impairments to access content—is important to libraries, archives, museums, and other types of cultural heritage institutions: but how do you test an online resource to see if it is accessible? How do you ensure that the material you purchase and/or the material you create conforms to accessibility standards and best practices? This class will review several freely available tools that can help you test a website’s adherence to accessibility standards. The tools can help you test content you are considering for your institution, or resources that you already provide but want to improve either internally or through advocating for improved accessibility. We will also review common standards and best practices that are used to evaluate online content.
October 6, 1–2:30 CDT
$75 (LYRASIS Member) / $100 (non-member)
Fundamentals of Electronic Resources Acquisitions
Participants will learn about starting a digitization program. The first session covers the basics of project planning, equipment selection, digitization preparation, and care during digitization. The second session covers technical information relevant to getting started with digitization, such as metadata, file format selection, compression, and more. The class also covers quality control, access, and touches upon basic concepts of digital preservation as relevant to small institutions planning digital projects.
August 3–4, 1–2 CDT