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Information Resources
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The Academic Commons Emerges

August 25, 2011

The Information Resources (IR) division provides the Occidental College community with a rich environment of people, texts, technologies, and learning spaces designed to enable discovery, creation, and scholarship. Over the summer, the division reorganized to better meet changing needs of the Oxy community. This fall, IR staff launch a focused portfolio of new and existing services, as well as enhanced access to technology for students in re-arranged and remodeled spaces. With these first steps toward creating a more cohesive intellectual center for the Oxy community, the Academic Commons begins to materialize. Just inside the front door, a new comprehensive Info Center provides a single point for service and questions. A staff and building directory at the main entrance as well as new signage assist in navigation. The IR groups and services in the building include

Info Center

“Start here”…. for research...

2011/12 Library Break Hours extended thanks to student feedback

May 8, 2011

After receiving advice from students this spring semester, we are extending the Library's break hours per the chart below for academic year 2011/12. The net effect is that the Library will be open several hours later on holiday weekends and during the weeknights of spring break. We hope this change meets the needs of those, especially seniors working on Comps, who prefer to work in the Library. Staff will monitor the building during these hours so that we can gather data about use patterns.

Current Holiday Schedule for Labor Day weekend, Fall break, Thanksgiving Saturday, Presidents weekend, spring break
Fri	Close 5pm
Sat	Open 10a-6p
Sun	Open...

One Perspective on The Digital Scholarship Institute

March 29, 2011

Carmel Levitan, Assistant Professor, Cognitive Science,originally applied to last summer’s Digital Scholarship Institute because she wanted to explore how new academic technologies could help her create data collection platforms that would enhance her research efforts. Levitan had been impressed by the resources and expertise provided by the CDLR, so she suspected the team could help her sort through the mass of apps and software available today to hone in on the just tools she needed. “It's so much more efficient to have people who have already tried the various options show us the cream of the crop solutions -- and teach us how to use them. In truth, I could definitely have explored things on my own, but it would have taken me a lot longer,” she says. Levitan’s proposal “got the nod,” not...

Optimizing Resources

March 29, 2011

As part of the campus Integrated Planning process, the Resource Optimization Task Force requested that all non-academic departments each department undergo an in-depth examination of departmental organization and activities, the relationship of activities to the mission of the College and an assessment of the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of departmental processes and procedures. The expected results of this effort would lead to a better ongoing understanding of the activities being performed across the College, the expenditures associated with such activities and the needs and challenges each department faces in carrying out activities in the furtherance of the educational mission of the College. Information Resources spent much of the Fall 2010 semester gathering data and analyzing... Read More

Academic Commons….the history

March 28, 2011

In his 2009 inaugural address, President Jonathan Veitch called for Occidental to re-imagine the Library as a premier scholastic environment that makes visible our commitments as a 21st –century liberal arts and sciences college. Through that transformation, technologies, resources and services would be combined in new ways to deliver a more seamless, integrated experience for students and faculty. The transformation would be greatly informed by the growing impact of digital technologies and computing networks on learning, creating and teaching. And the existing Clapp Library facility would be renovated as a hub for scholarship and innovation.This forward-looking vision soon became known as The Academic Commons at Occidental College. The first step in...

The Right Tech For Real Results

March 28, 2011

Bevin Ashenmiller, Assistant Professor, Economics, has little patience for “technology for technology’s” sake. As an educator, she feels that simply adopting any “gimmicky” new device or program that comes along is a poor way to advance the real goals of pedagogy. This is why she found last summer’s Digital Scholarship Institute so rewarding. Bevin says the DSI not only introduced attendees to new digital tools, it also became a forum for debate about the value of different academic technologies. “The thing that is most challenging as a faculty member is to learn how to leverage technology in a way that enhances learning,” she says. “DSI staff gave us a bunch of choices based on what people had asked for, as well as other things that might be useful. At the end of the day the most helpful part was the opportunity to talk about...

Making (Art) History With the Help of the DSI

March 28, 2011

Amy Lyford, Associate Professor, Art History and the Visual Arts, applied to the Digital Scholarship Institute last summer with a variety of classroom and research goals in mind. Now, only a few months after completing DSI, a group of her students have used online resources to share critiques of a landmark building. Others have contributed to an international geospatial web project that’s not only helped improve their research and critical thinking skills, it may help to bring much-deserved credit to a little-known African American architect. Lyford came to the institute with some familiarity with the digital technologies she wanted to use. What she needed was further clarification and incentive to begin experimenting with these tools. “I feel like the DSI gave me ideas or pushed me to try out ideas I had already considered. It was almost like a jumpstart,” she...

Welcome

March 27, 2011

oxy voices study green bean computers finals

Today we open a new communication connection among the people of Information Resources and the communities with whom we interact. This blog will be the place to look for news about the Academic Commons, about new resources, changes to services, and trends in digital scholarship and technology. This is also where we hope to hear from you in an ongoing conversation about scholarship, technology and higher education.We are using a blog rather than a print document for two reasons. The first is that we want this to be an opportunity for dialogue, for comment and critique, for question and answer. Print documents do not easily enable the give and take of conversation. Choosing the right...

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