Teaching faculty how to use technology: best practices from leading institutions

Turning to Smith’s report, it is primarily concerned with how libraries with digital collections view their role in providing and sustaining digital collections and services to their core constituencies. Compiled and analyzed from the survey responses and in-person interviews with a handful of research libraries and her professional experiences, Smith states that a “sustainable digitization program should: ● ● ●

●

Be integrated into the fabric of library services; Be focused primarily on achieving mission-related objectives; Be funded from predictable streams of allocations, be they external or internal; and Include a plan for the long-term maintenance of the assets. (p. 2)

The report is divided into three parts. In the first, “Identification, Evaluation, and Selection,” Smith discusses policies, guidelines, and best practices concerning conversion criteria for digitization; rationale for digitization, such as preservation (surrogates versus replacements); reasons for access, such as meeting users and/or political needs; and the considerations given to digitizing items in general or special collections. In the second part, “Institutional Impacts,” consideration is given to treatment and disposition of source material; scalability (how many items from a given collection will be sufficient to add value); intellectual control and data management, such as metadata, descriptive practices, cataloging, and other bibliographic controls; coordinated collection development, such as scalable collections through cooperative efforts; funding and fundraising; preservation and the life time of the media used (such as CDROM) for the digital object; and user support, including the need for library staff to support the digitized collection and its services and the training of users. The third section, “Conclusions and Recommendations,” focuses on the source of funds and its applications, such as staffing; identified benefits for users and the library; and the sustainability of the digitization project over time. Is digitization part of collection development or a commitment to extending access? Smith separates “Recommendations for Institutions” undertaking a digitization project from “Recommendations for Research Agenda and Agenda for Consortia and Funding Agencies.” She concludes that digitization must clearly be an integral part of the core mission work of the library. An unannotated list of references is included. For those libraries wanting to undertake an internal digitization project, Smith’s work is highly recommended. Jewell’s work concerning commercially available databases is also recommended, especially for library administrators wanting a comprehensive yet brief review of current issues and practices.—Robert E. Dugan, Director, Mildred F. Sawyer Library, Suffolk University, 8 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108 . Teaching Faculty How to Use Technology: Best Practices from Leading Institutions, edited by Rhonda M. Epper and A. W. (Tony) Bates. Westport, CT: American Council on Education and The Oryx Press, 2001. 176p. $34.95. ISBN 1–57356-386 –2. LC 2001032156. (Series on Higher Education). It is unclear whether what generally passes for online learning in most cases—placing course materials on the Web

172

The Journal of Academic Librarianship

or in class management tools such as WebCT or Blackboard—significantly affects student learning. Although efforts to improve higher education through technology are admirable, it is also true that “instructional technologies should not be used as elaborate versions of portable student slates, larger and dynamic blackboards, overhead projectors or textbooks. These are static technologies, used traditionally to make information available to large amounts of students” (p. 7). It is ironic that this sentiment is quoted by one of the editors of Teaching Faculty How to Use Technology because the book barely acknowledges the importance of innovative and effective instructional design. Nor does this book deal with pedagogy, although the title certainly implies that what we will learn from the book is how to teach faculty to use technology. Instead, the book offers examples of best practices in planning and implementing institution-wide faculty development programs. A better title might have been “Faculty Instructional Development: Supporting Faculty Use of Technology in Training,” which happens to be the title of the study that provides the foundation for this work. Conducted by the American Productivity and Quality Center) and State Higher Education Executive Officers in 1998, the study identified best practices of higher education institutions in developing faculty use of technology in teaching. In the first chapter, Rhonda Epper describes the goal of the study. This is followed by a chapter on the study’s methodology, which includes a useful explanation of benchmarking and how it can be used by organizations to improve their performance. Subsequent chapters feature five of the seven identified “best practice” institutions and describe the “institutional setting, technology infrastructure, organizational infrastructure, major instructional technology initiatives, approach to faculty development, incentives for faculty participation, impact on teaching and learning, lessons learned, and future directions” (p. xvii). The final chapter, written by Tony Bates, synthesizes the findings from the study and draws some conclusions about why these particular institutions are successful in their efforts to develop faculty expertise in this area. These findings and conclusions may assist educational administrators, decision makers, and the staffs of instructional technology departments in making decisions about developing faculty support programs, as will the case studies, which identify useful models and innovative approaches. But for those interested in instructional design and the effects of technology on student learning, the book is not as helpful. Although each case study addresses the impact on teaching and learning, few specific examples are provided to show that the investment the institution made in the faculty development program paid off for the students in concrete ways. A more detailed examination and evaluation of the instructional designs produced by faculty participating in these support programs would have helped justify these investments.—Jennifer Dorner, Information Literacy Coordinator, Lewis & Clark College, Aubrey R. Watzek Library, Portland, OR 97214 . When Change Is Set in Stone: An Analysis of Seven Academic Libraries Designed by Perry Dean Rogers and Partners, Architects by Michael J. Crosbie and Damon D. Hickey. Chicago: American Library Association, Association