“Face-to-Face or On the Couch in Pajamas: Research Help From Anywhere!”

“Face-to-Face or On the Couch in Pajamas: Research Help From Anywhere!” Toni Olivas & Ian Chan California State University San Marcos http://biblio.csusm.edu/

Objectives • Identify cost-effective online/virtual reference tools • Successfully conduct reference interaction techniques to use with distance students

Introduction • Face-to-face or on the couch… • Libraries have limited budgets • Free or low-cost tools

Oh the Places we could go! • Khan Academy • http://www.khanacademy.org/ • University of Florida Digital Worlds Institute: • http://youtu.be/RSLd-lSk9ts

CSUSM Background • California State University San Marcos • Founded 1989 • Fastest growing of 23 CSU campuses • 10,276 students • CSUSM Temecula branch • CSU Online

Library Services

Review of Literature • For-profit B.A. + 400% • (U.S. Department of Education, 2011) • Initial expenditures on new equipment, software and training = substantial amount of time and money • capital & recurrent costs; • production & delivery costs; • fixed & variable costs • (Bartolic-Zlomislic & Bates, 1999)

Review of Literature • Software, training, licensing, maintenance, monitoring costs • Bandwidth, network, security audit and compliance costs • Han, 2011

Review of Literature • 91.5% received little to no distance education training while on the job • (Fritts & Casey, 2010, p. 622) • Successful use of technologies = Instructor attitudes • (Askar & Umay, 2001; Huang & Liaw, 2005)

Cost Effective Software • Course Management Systems (CMS/LMS) • Blackboard • Haiku LMS • Coursekit • Moodle

Cost Effective Software • Instant Messaging (IM) Services • Meebo • LibraryH3lp • Google • Yahoo • Spark (Ignite Realtime) • Openfire IM

Cost Effective Software • Screencast Applications • Captivate • Camtasia • iShowU • Jing (TechSmith) • Example: http://screencast.com/t/VLbs1DtTCRlm • http://www.the10most.com/entrepreneurs/10-useful-screencast-applications.html

Cost Effective Software • Video Chat • Google Video Chat • TokBox • iChat • Skype • http://lifehacker.com/5088083/five-best-video-chat-applications

Successful Interactions • Plan • Make Friends w/IT • Focus on Objectives • Patient • Clear • Establish Relationship • “Meet” Often

Ian Chan, Web Developer • Cost? • Features and need? • Easy to use? • Instillation difficulty? • Future? • Community? • Ian’s full online presentation: http://biblio.csusm.edu/dls/

Conclusion • Be adventurous • Make time try new things • Listen to others • Failure is OK! • If I can do it, YOU can certainly do it!

Examples Used at CSUSM • Skype: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home • Moodle: http://moodle.org/ • Jing: http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html • Library á la carte: http://alacarte.library.oregonstate.edu/ • Spark (Openfire): http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/spark/ • Drupal: http://drupal.org/

Thank you…Questions? Please contact us! Toni Olivas, Education Librarian (760) 750-4333 tolivas@csusm.edu SKYPE: toni.olivas http://biblio.csusm.edu/people/tolivas Ian Chan, Web Developer (760) 750-4835 ichan@csusm.edu https://biblio.csusm.edu/people/ichan CSUSM Library: http://biblio.csusm.edu/

“Face-to-Face or On the Couch in Pajamas: Research Help From Anywhere!”