2009 ALISE Conference

Digital Library Education Lab

Xia Lin

xlin@cis.drexel.edu

Digital Library Education Lab

Preparing LIS students to work in the digital environment is an essential part of LIS education nowadays.  While most of the LIS schools offer courses related to digital information management and services such as digital libraries and digital library technologies, there are many different approaches to this type of education. In this paper, we would argue that digital library education needs digital library labs to support the teaching and learning process.  The paper will first provide a review and summary of different approaches to digital library education, and then introduce the concept of digital library labs. It is emphasized that the labs provide a much needed environment where students can blend theories and practices they learn in class. Some of the characteristics of the digital library labs include:

•    The labs provide an environment to help students learn and experience first hand how a digital library operates and how the digital library supports the need of users and the mission of the library.
•    The labs allow students to complete their assignments and hand-on practice with the latest digital library technologies and software. Students will become more interested in the learning process when their assignments are based on a real digital library and their assignment outcomes may contribute to an operational digital library environment.
•    The labs provide a platform and a “sandbox” where students can experiment and test new ideas about digital information organization and other research issues. With digital labs, it is much easier to set up small or collaborative projects to allow students to participate in research, to develop prototypes, or to be involved in real operations of the digital library.
•    The labs provide a demonstration space to showcase how learning and collaboration take place in the digital space. Students can work collaboratively to develop and test new ideas through the labs.  Previous students’ work can be maintained and further developed in the labs by current and future students. Eventually some of students’ ideas will be incorporated into new components or  services of digital libraries.

The iSchool at Drexel currently is building its digital library labs through the Internet Public Library (IPL) presently under its management. In the past several terms, students in digital library courses have been doing assignments and projects through the labs and the IPL.  This paper will also discuss this experience and present some results of incorporating the labs work as assignments or class activities.  Students’ responses to these assignments and activities are very positive.  Their reflections will also be presented and discussed.

Finally, the paper will invite conference audiences to participate in the construction of the digital library labs.  Digital labs do not have to be confined by the physical location or school boundaries. Collaborative digital labs could be beneficial to multiple LIS schools and the digital library education as a whole.