The Library Technology Prototyping Service at Illinois
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The Library Technology Prototyping Service at Illinois focuses on recruiting diverse students into library science through paid internships and creating lightweight tech products to enhance library operations. Key accomplishments include the iwonder 'ask a librarian' service, mobile wayfinding apps, and the development of a Minrva web app. The service emphasizes mentorship, collaboration across departments, and continuous iteration to meet the evolving needs of library users and staff.
The Library Technology Prototyping Service at Illinois
- 1. The Library Technology Prototyping Service at Illinois: products and initiatives Jim Hahn minrvaproject.org
- 2. Outline • Goals, Funding, Management • Accomplishments • Communication • Mentoring/Staffing 2
- 3. Goals • Recruit students from diverse perspectives to library and information science careers by way of paid technical internships. 3
- 5. Goals • Produce efficiencies in library operations through the creation of lightweight technology products that advance services to end users and Library employees. 5
- 6. Funding • One time money for 3 years of funding. – Leveraged code and middleware of previous grants to bootstrap efforts. 6
- 7. Managing prototyping services • Student talent from technical majors – Requires frontloading of project objectives early in semester – Challenging work; supportive feedback – Sharing design choices; following student directions in design while steering toward impactful library services 7
- 8. Managing • Implementations across units • Collaboration with many departments – Security audits for production systems – User tests with front line employees – Training staff in variety of units 8
- 9. Major Accomplishments • IWonder (Ask a Librarian) • Mobile App Wayfinding modules in Minrva app • Desktop access to Wayfinding support – Backbone.js web app 9
- 10. I. Ask a Librarian Service 10
- 11. Development Team • Collaboration with CS courses in Software Engineering • Visiting Research Programmer in Library • Student Intern from the Technology Prototyping Service 11
- 12. IWonder • Security Audit – Two rounds – Overall system load tested – Common security hacks/phishing vulnerabilities by way of IBMs AppScan 12
- 13. IWonder • Chat.library.illinois.edu – Download operators manual – Code to be available in open source soon 13
- 14. IWonder • Path from prototype to production is a big leap. – Stabilization – Communication 14
- 15. II. Mobile wayfinding apps 15 • Wayfinder is a Minrva mobile app module. It displays a map of the unit library -- a red dot indicates where searched for item is located in the stacks.
- 17. Polished App on Google Play 17
- 18. To build a wayfinding module • A relational database for call numbers in stacks • Business logic for mapping • A view of the map on the phone using Android and iOS views 18
- 19. Main Stacks: over 5 million items 19
- 20. All Minrva modules are RESTful 20
- 21. III. Minrva Web app 21
- 24. Web app technologies • Same RESTful source, but web views are with Backbone. • It is lightweight and has few dependencies. • The structure Backbone gives to web apps makes development of single page apps quick and efficient. 24
- 26. Communication • Lightning Talk at Faculty Meetings • Technology Prototyping Service Open House • Student outreach – Department of Computer Science – Illinois Informatics Initiative – Women in Engineering 26
- 27. Technology Prototyping on Display 27
- 28. Mentoring • The service has had successes in funneling students to Library and Information Science Degree programs. 28
- 29. Research Mission • Since the academic technology research environment is dynamic and changing, TPS processes have operationalized an iterative rapid design process that is sourced from a services perspective and based on consultation with users and staff. 29
- 30. Research Mission • Production code is serving the research needs of staff, student and faculty; in the case of the chat system (IWonder) the system successfully serves the teaching, learning, and research needs for campus wherever they are and whenever they choose to seek the expertise of the library. 30
- 31. Education and Mentoring • Advancing technical skills of student interns – While not all interns go on to apply to library programs, they are in fact better able to compete for other technical internships. Students trained by the library found positions in EBay, Oracle, and GE. 31
- 32. Beta & exploratory • Room Reserve API • Wireframes of Library Gateway • Data Visualization of Library Circulation Trends 32
- 33. Room Reserve API • An API for room reserves processing built from DIBs xml. • Modularizing the room reserves data allows this set of information to be served from a single data source and ported to multiple platforms and views. • It is likely this API will be incorporated into a module of the new library gateway. 33
- 36. Wireframes of Library Website 36
- 38. Data Visualization of Circulation Trends 38
- 39. Elasticsearch visualization • Exploring the Elasticsearch with Kibana stack for next iteration of visualization trends include time series checkout trends of loanable technology. – Offer real-time analysis of data; treating our middleware as the pipeline for this stream. 39
- 40. Next year of work • Continue Library homepage redesign • Discovery and access R & D in collaboration with Engineering Library • Partner with like minded library labs – Open source promising software work • Chat software • OCR development in mobile apps 40
- 41. Thank you • Questions – jimhahn@illinois.edu 41
- 42. Portfolio of work • dunatis.grainger.uiuc.edu 42
- 43. Thank you My thanks to Ben Ryckman, Maria Lux for Minrva Wayfinding development and support, and Nate Ryckman and Ricky Lung on IWonder programming, and Georgy Petukhov for Backbone.js investigation and design. 43
Editor's Notes
- #2: 8:30 – 10am, Monday June 30
- #11: IWonder is a collaborative virtual reference chat system. IWonder allows IM messages sent to a single IM account to be queued, answered, and transferred by multiple operators from a web-based interface. Individual operator profiles allow operators to save pre-scripted messages for use in IM, and to provide a description of themselves, their contact information, and their area of specialty that can be seen by other operators.
- #28: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccn-phyZG0s