Based on Skilltype data and a Librarian Survey, the new Technology from Sage report explores the current librarian skills landscape and identifies areas for further development.
The second Librarian Futures report asked the question: How can academic libraries be more deeply involved in the undergraduate learning journey? This new report, in partnership with Skilltype, explores the emerging skills required to fulfil a library’s mission – in a decade shaped by social, political, and technological change – and meet the needs of today’s library patrons. We gathered global perspectives from over 2,000 academic library professionals, from frontline librarians to library directors, to ensure a representative set of insights for the report.
“Technology from Sage is proud to be a strategic investor in Skilltype, supporting their mission of building librarian skills for the future. I’m delighted that we could collaborate with Skilltype on this important report on librarian futures, helping Tony and his team share their unique insights on librarian skills – both where we are now, and what’s needed in the coming years.”
Matthew Hayes, PhD, MD, Technology from Sage
“Our aim with this collaboration is for information professionals and their teams gain new perspectives on the competencies they should be cultivating within their personal repertoires and their organizations. Librarians, and the new skills, competencies and responsibilities they will develop in the years ahead, are going to be pivotal to this. But it all starts with increased dialog, understanding where we are and where we want to go. I hope this report contributes to that dialog and inspires conversations in your library, amongst your peers, and within the wider library community.”
Tony Zanders, Founder and CEO, Skilltype
We believe the right technology can remove barriers to knowledge. So, we curated a suite of library technologies that improve your patrons’ workflow – from managing reading lists to discovering online resources and reference management. Whether used individually or in combination, our Lean Library, Sciwheel, Talis Aspire, and Talis Elevate, technologies amplify the library’s value on campus, prepare your library for the future, and are backed by the Sage name you already trust.
Find out more at: www.technologyfromsage.com
Skilltype is a talent management platform designed for libraries to analyze, develop, and share expertise. Founded in 2018, the platform uses linked data to help libraries identify skill gaps across their organization, create personalized training plans for employees, and identify opportunities for collaboration. Skilltype is based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with offices in New Orleans and Boston.
Unlocking success: Start your new academic year with Lean Library October 6, 2023Throughout September we ran our Lean Library ‘Back to school’ webinar series, which consisted of three webinars, revisiting Lean Library’s key functionalities to ensure that our customers provide the best possible support to their patrons, and present our product roadmap for the year ahead. Let’s dive into the details of each webinar:
In our first webinar session, Senior Customer Success Consultant, Clare Chan, went over the key features of the Lean Library dashboard, providing the necessary tools for institutions to get the most out of this academic year. This session included:
In our second webinar session, Senior Customer Success Consultant, Clare Chan, was joined by Beatriu Piera Moreno, a Project Manager from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), who presented the results of AUB’s introduction of Lean Library, their strategy, and next steps, including:
In our third and last webinar session, Customer Success Consultant, Mariette Asem, was joined by Lean Library’s Senior Product Manager, Becca Richards, who looked back at Lean Library’s recent releases, upcoming updates to the product and what is being planned for Lean Library in 2024.
Read our latest case study from Kennesaw State University, who increased their collection usage by 3712% in just 4 months!
7 Ways to Reimagine the Academic Library September 26, 2023
In September we were excited to collaborate with OpenAthens on a webinar titled: Striving for a painless route to online content: Reimagining the academic library for the student of tomorrow. We explored how researchers can do their best work when they’re unable to get online, and how academic libraries can meet the evolving needs of students in the 21st century.
The webinar was presented by: Richard French, Product Manager at OpenAthens, Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant at Technology from Sage, Ian Snowley, Dean of Learning Skills and University Librarian at University of Lincoln, and Maizie and Madeline, two second year students from University of Lincoln.
The webinar also explored the findings of two key reports, both published earlier this year:
We’re delighted to present 7 ways to reimagine the academic library based on Matthew’s discussion with Ian, Maizie and Madeline. Here are the ways the academic library can be more involved with the student learning journey:
The Librarian Futures Part II report found that that students receive support from “myself”, “my peers”, and “my teachers” more than librarians. This is a key issue which a lot of academic librarians are aware of, especially as they put huge amounts of effort into trying to communicate with students.
We feel it’s really important to try and integrate our support as much as possible ….It’s very clear that academics are in a key position to influence students, much more so than other staff in the university.”
Ian Snowley
Madeline highlighted that she found it incredibly useful to participate in library training sessions at the beginning of the academic year which provided guidance on using the library resources. Maizie noted that they had library led sessions where they actually went to the library and were taught how to use it, and this support was incredibly helpful.
There was a big push for us to sort of do our work in the library and at least for the first few weeks of university just to come and sort of see how the library works.”
Madeline
Maizie said the type of support from the library which has been the most useful has been referencing help, especially when she first started at university. Ian added that getting students to understand referencing and to do it right is a relatively solvable problem, but selecting reference management software is quite a personal decision amongst students. However, the library can support with signposting students towards the different reference management options.
Obviously referencing is such a new concept and I know myself and some of my friends have gone to the library and they’ve gave us guides which tells us exactly how to do it … but that’s where I found it most helpful.”
Maizie
Madeline said that she was grateful University of Lincoln offers a lot of skills seminars, especially academic reading which is really is something she has to focus on more with studying an essay-based subject with a dissertation. Maizie agreed with Madeline that academic reading is a skill which does take a lot of time to hone and perfect and analysing is probably the hardest part of reading.
I think that’s definitely something we’re very grateful that the library offers because I think all of our seminar tutors would get very sick of us asking all the time how to do it properly.”
Madeline
Both Madeline and Maizie acknowledged that they feel students may not instantly make the connection between librarians being that academic support, as their lecturers are normally their first port of call for academic issues.
The lecturers really promote their office hours and they host drop in sessions so that support seems more readily available whereas you have to seek it out yourself in the library, which might seem quite daunting to a lot of students.”
Maizie
I think it is just sort of more at the front of our minds to go to [seminar tutors] rather than to go to our subject librarian, which, obviously, as you were all saying, is a shame, because subject librarians do have a lot of knowledge that they can offer.”
Madeline
Ian described the work University of Lincoln have done to further integrate what the library does into the academic process of reading for students’ degrees.
We think it will take some time, but it just allows us to really work more closely with academics. And as Maizie and Madeline pointed out, we can, as librarians, deliver some key learning objects that students will benefit from and that aren’t necessarily part of the subject discipline.”
Ian
Ian said that effective library support needs to fit all the different types of students that attend University of Lincoln, from full-time students to those participating in apprenticeships. The library should help students get through the many pressures they face.
Our students, I suspect, are as pressured as any students have been before, with all the sort of implications of the economy and the kind of cost-of-living crisis. So, we need to be there for them, delivering what they need when they need it.”
Ian
Finally, Madeline noted that an effective library just needs to support students when they need the support and be a resource that all students can use, whether that’s supporting with essay writing or academic reading or how to read statistics properly.
I think a library that is accessible and also approachable is just so useful. If a student feels at ease and willing to utilise all the services and resources librarians offer, then it’ll just be even more beneficial.”
Maizie
Recent reports highlight the struggles faced by students and researchers in finding and accessing valuable resources. Strategies for librarians include establishing connections with academic staff and participating in the university’s teaching and learning strategy. However, by improving the discovery process, centralizing information, and showcasing the expertise of librarians, we can navigate this online research maze with ease. Let’s work together to bridge the gap between students, researchers, and libraries and create a seamless path to knowledge in the digital age.
Download our Librarian Futures Part II report to discover more noteworthy insights regarding how academic libraries can be more deeply involved in the undergraduate learning journey.
Kennesaw State University Case Study August 31, 2023
In this case study, we look at how Kennesaw State University Library used Lean Library to increase patron usage of its digital collections.
Lean Library has been instrumental in helping students and faculty become aware of the breadth of resources they can access through our subscriptions, particularly those provided through academic publishers.
Karen Doster-Greenleaf, Director of Research & Instructional Services/Librarian Associate Professor
Kennesaw State University librarians tried on multiple occasions to promote their digital collection offering through social media outlets without much success due to a lack of awareness of their digital collection holdings and how to access this content by students and faculty. This led the team to research and find a solution that simplified the search process and saved access and research time for faculty and students.
We analyzed our digital collection data and found only a 24% usage level from November 2021 to November 2022… We asked ourselves how we could maximize the exposure of our resources and increase usage.
Li Chen and Karen Doster-Greenleaf, Kennesaw State University (KSU)
Kennesaw State University introduced Lean Library Access in July 2022, promoting the tool through a mixture of passive and active promotion, including website banners, campus announcements and FAQs on how to use Lean Library.
Since we adopted Lean Library, we have received positive feedback from both faculty and students. The usage of our library collection through Lean Library has steadily increased as well.
Li Chen and Karen Doster- Greenleaf, Kennesaw State University (KSU)
When patrons accessed a website Kennesaw State University is subscribed to, they would receive a pop-up assist message
To promote the availability of Lean Library to patrons, promotional collateral was created and shared throughout the campus
The introduction of Lean Library created a sharp increase in the number of library resources accessed, growing from 88 to 3,355 (3712%) in just 4 months.
The number of Link Resolver requests also increased after the introduction of Lean Library.
If you’d like to hear more or receive a product demo, get in touch.
Lean Library launches redesigned extension on major web stores August 22, 2023We’re thrilled to announce that Lean Library, a Technology from Sage product, is launching a redesigned and improved browser extension on all major stores. This is the same access broker and workflow tool loved by librarians and their patrons – only quicker, sleeker, and better than before.
Lean Library puts your library on your patrons’ shoulder via one easy-to-use extension on their browser. Lean Library simplifies online access to library content and open access alternatives, and embeds library collections and services into the patrons’ workflow – whether they start on Google Scholar, PubMed or beyond.
The improved extension first launched on the Google Chrome store in June, and is being made available on Microsoft Edge, Opera and Mozilla Firefox stores this August-September. The final web store it will be made available on is Safari later this year. The extension automatically updates for users of Lean Library, along with their regular app updates, so existing users don’t need to download anything new to get the new experience.
Founded in late 2016, Lean Library provides an award-winning library service, bringing library resources and support directly into the patron’s workflow. This redesign marks a significant milestone in our journey to facilitate seamless learning and research workflows. It is the culmination of an extensive period of development, driven by invaluable feedback from librarians, students, and researchers.
There were three main goals for the redesign:
Our new UI design is sleek, modern, and thoughtfully crafted to emphasize content and minimize distractions. This will allow library patrons to focus on what truly matters – accessing your library-licensed content as soon as they need it.
Time is precious for students and researchers, and we want to make their tasks effortless. We have carefully restructured the navigation in one side tray, bringing together multiple notifications and features across all subscription packages. With just a few clicks, users can effortlessly customize preferences and discover new tools and content that enriches your library’s digital presence.
The redesign delivers significant performance and speed enhancements. We’ve fine-tuned the inner workings of the extension, optimizing it to provide libraries and their patrons with a swifter browsing experience. Say goodbye to longer pop-up loading times and hello to instant access to patrons’ favorite library resources.
Whether patrons are searching for scholarly articles, exploring databases, or accessing e-books, they’ll experience accelerated browsing with the new Lean Library extension!
‘Keyword Enhancements’ is a functionality of the Lean Library Futures package that highlights library-licensed publisher or special collections content to users in their workflow. One optimization within the new extension is the ‘Always On’ feature for Keyword Enhancements. Relevant taxonomy terms will now appear automatically to your users on sites such as Google and Wikipedia.
If users did want to turn off one or all packages, however, they can do so easily by using the toggles or the ‘enable/disable’ button.
The best way to get to know the new Lean Library experience is by getting a demo from one of our experts. Request a demo today.
A Day in the Life, with our Product Manager, Kate Broadfield August 8, 2023At Technology from Sage our purpose is to support libraries in advancing teaching, learning and research. We can’t achieve this mission without the work of the talented team at Technology from Sage, so we’ve launched a series of posts for you to find out more about the team.
In this A Day in the Life post, we’re joined by our new Product Manager, Kate Broadfield at Technology from Sage. Read on to find out more about Kate – including what it’s like working on the Talis product platform, working at a risk-supportive company and visiting National Trust properties!
I’m so thrilled to be working as a Product Manager building digital tools to support higher education! I support the Talis product platform currently focused looking how to improve Talis Aspire for our institutions, from integrating their discovery systems to improving the ease of processing reading list reviews to ensure every student has what is needed to succeed in their course.
Working in the Product team I spend time learning about our university libraries and the faculty and students they support. I review ideas from our customers, coordinating with the team to understand technical feasibility. I analyze usage analytics looking for trends, and perform user discovery sessions, both to ensure we make the right decisions for our users. I write product briefs for new features or changes. I collaborate with user experience and development daily and stay in touch with Marketing, Sales and Services to keep everyone informed and plan out marketing promotions and communications.
I love collaborating across disciplines: Marketing, Engineering, and User Experience. I love planning, writing and seeing change happen. I love working for the betterment of universities through building and improving the digital tools they need to enhance the educational experience.
Technology from Sage is the future!
Technology from Sage make sure we have the best support to do great things, from training and workshops to excellent pay and benefits, including remote working. I hear the message repeatedly from various levels of management up to the top. We are a risk-supportive culture so we can push our limits and delivery great solutions for universities!
I work in Product developing the Talis platform. I work directly with Engineering, User Experience, and my fellow Product Managers. On a regular basis I have discussions with Services, Consulting, Marketing, and Sales. We all connect both asynchronously and directly, 1-to-1 and group sessions. We meet on video calls supported by chat and channel communications. This blend is self-sustaining, but on average we meet in person every other month for bonding and to work through the challenge du jour in person.
Starting a job remotely has been wonderful! I admire any company willing to do it. Personally, it is such a relief not to have to drive an hour each way after an intense day, especially on those dark rainy winter nights. Technology from Sage provided terrific support to get me my equipment in advance of starting and I was online day one.
Gardening, reading in the garden,taking photos of nature, playing with the cats, and taking day trips with my husband to explore Britain/Europe’s seaside, National Trust garden properties, and castles! Additionally, I have a long-time interest in front-end coding and supporting live music.
Anyone can connect with me on LinkedIn, X/Twitter or Threads.
What are the risks and opportunities for AI in the academic landscape? July 25, 2023
We recently held our inaugural Tech from Sage Insight conference, a two-day event held in Birmingham, bringing together Technology from Sage staff, academic librarians, students and thought leaders from across the higher education sector. At the event, members from Technology from Sage’s Tech Team hosted a ChatGPT and Generative AI Co-design Challenge: How can we address the risks and benefit from the opportunities? breakout session with librarians. As technology continues to advance, artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into various aspects of our lives, including the field of education.
Benjamin, Nadeem, Richard and Alex from Technology from Sage’s Tech Team have shared the discoveries from the workshop in this blog post. They’ll explore the effects of AI on assignments and assessments in educational settings; from AI-powered answer generation and checking to the digitization of resources and examine the advantages and challenges that arise from integrating AI into the learning process.
AI has the potential to revolutionize the way students answer questions. With AI algorithms, students can receive immediate assistance in formulating well-structured and accurate responses. AI can analyze the question, identify relevant keywords, and suggest appropriate answers, providing a valuable resource for students to enhance their learning experience.
Additionally, AI-powered tools, similar to Grammarly, can assist in checking the accuracy and clarity of students’ answers. These tools can help students identify grammatical errors, enhance their writing style, and improve overall academic performance.
One challenge with integrating AI into education is the dated nature of training materials. As AI relies on vast amounts of data, outdated training materials can lead to inaccurate or fictional references. Educational institutions need to ensure that the data used to train AI models is up-to-date and relevant to avoid misleading students.
Another area where AI can be beneficial is link validation in reading lists. Currently, identifying broken or outdated links is a manual and time-consuming process for librarians. AI-powered algorithms can automate this task, making it easier to ensure that students have access to reliable and up-to-date resources. Additionally, AI can assist in automating purchasing needs, enabling institutions to make cost-effective decisions by comparing prices and suppliers.
AI can play a significant role in improving content discovery for students. By analyzing user preferences, reading histories, and academic requirements, AI algorithms can provide personalized and accurate recommendations for further reading. Similar to Netflix’s recommendation system, AI can suggest relevant resources that align with a student’s interests and academic goals.
Furthermore, AI can help address the issue of bias in resource collections. By considering a broader range of factors beyond just keywords, AI algorithms can provide more diverse and unbiased content recommendations. Cross-institution and cross-department recommendations can also facilitate interdisciplinary learning and collaboration.
The digitization of resources brings accessibility benefits to students. AI can assist in formatting resources to meet accessibility standards, such as providing image alt text for visually impaired students. However, challenges arise in accurately converting scanned chapters to digital format, especially with complex elements like tables and graphs. Librarians may face difficulties in identifying issues with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and ensuring the quality and usefulness of digitized content.
Live chat and chatbot services have become popular ways for students to seek assistance. AI-powered chatbots can handle frequently asked questions, reducing the workload of librarians and providing immediate responses to students’ queries. However, there may be a lack of trust or enjoyment in using chatbots, highlighting the importance of improving their training and performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of chat services, with some institutions implementing 24/7 support from American universities. There is also potential in training AI models on librarian knowledge bases to provide more accurate and tailored responses to student inquiries.
Educational institutions need to adapt assessments to account for the influence of AI and prevent academic dishonesty. While plagiarism has always been a concern, the use of AI raises questions about the reliability and fairness of traditional assessment methods. Assessments should aim to test understanding in ways that AI cannot currently replicate.
Some interesting remarks were made on a more global approach to AI from educational institutions; while some are resistant to it, and the avenues it opens up to students in the form of plagiarism, AI will be an everyday tool employed in the job market by the time they graduate/enter the workplace. By depriving students of these tools in academia, are institutions restricting the skillsets of individuals further down the line?
Just as when search engines became mainstream, and created concerns over plagiarism and how these tools will be used within the context of education, AI provides both concerns and opportunities.”
ALEX, SENIOR PHP ENGINEER
Click below to access all of the Tech from Sage Insight 2023 recordings:
Librarian Futures: In Conversation with Patrons July 10, 2023
We recently held our inaugural Tech from Sage Insight conference, a two-day event held in Birmingham, bringing together Technology from Sage staff, academic librarians, students and thought leaders from across the higher education sector.
At the event, EdTech Success Consultant, Matthew Weldon, spoke with Samantha Sharman (student at the University of Lincoln) and Professor Jamie Wood (University of Lincoln) about the key takeaways from part two of our Librarian Futures series of reports. We’ve summarized some of the main points from this thought-provoking session below, as well as provided audio excerpts from our speakers.
Check out the recording from our session at Tech from Sage Insight below:
Our research shows that most students are using Google while during their research, and a plurality go to Google first. Our panelists were not surprised by this, and agreed that academic libraries have a crucial role to play in addressing this. Libraries can empower students by training them to use Google effectively, ensuring that students are equipped to navigate through the vast sea of information and access credible sources.
We also found that students do not identify librarians as having helped them across a number of categories, including reading academic literature. Jamie Wood described how signposting, integrating library resources into modules, and modelling the value of the library might contribute to a better understanding of the role and value of the library among students. Samantha Sharman then described how big a difference being taught by a librarian has made to her studies.
We asked whether, as technology continues to evolve, libraries should be involved in addressing emerging tools like ChatGPT. Our panelists discussed how educating students on how to use such technologies effectively and ethically is essential to promote responsible academic practices, and how by providing guidance on the appropriate use of ChatGPT and fostering discussions on the topic, libraries can help students navigate the ethical challenges inherent in using these technologies.
In our session, we discussed at length the pivotal role that libraries have in supporting students and academics, especially in the digital age. However, as our Librarian Futures series highlights, to provide the appropriate support to students means that librarians must address the bidirectional knowledge gap that exists between librarians and their patrons. We’re grateful to Samantha Sharman and Professor Jamie Wood for joining us at our Insight event to discuss their thoughts on the knowledge gap and the future of the academic library, and we’re excited to continue to work with and support librarians and library patrons.
Click below to access all of the Tech from Sage Insight 2023 recordings:
A Day in the Life, with our Customer Success Consultant, Julia Dougherty July 6, 2023
At Technology from Sage our purpose is to support libraries in advancing teaching, learning and research. We can’t achieve this mission without the work of the talented team at Technology from Sage, so we’ve launched a series of posts for you to find out more about the team.
In this A Day in the Life post, we’re joined by our new Customer Success Consultant, Julia Dougherty at Technology from Sage. Read on to find out more about Julia – including what it’s like starting a new role remotely, her librarian background and love of thrifting!
Hi everyone! I am the newest Customer Success Consultant on the Technology from Sage team based in Houston, Texas.
Right now I’m onboarding, but I’m looking forward to working with and supporting current Technology from Sage clients daily via support, regular calls, and catch-ups.
I’m most excited to combine my librarian experience with my sales and customer support experience in this role. I look forward to speaking to people in the academic library space every day!
I am pretty new to both Talis and Technology from Sage, so that’s yet to be seen! I can definitely say I appreciate the open communication channels we have between teams.
I am directly involved with the Operations team. Although it can be complicated to connect as a team that all live in different countries from yourself, it seems there are regular efforts to chat and catch up.
It can be a bit daunting to start a role on the other side of the Atlantic from the rest of your team and in different time zones from yourself. However, I enjoy getting to know people from around the world, and my team has been very supportive thus far.
I’m a lover of music and have played piano for over 10 years. I also love traveling, dogs, and thrifting.
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at Julia.dougherty@technologyfromsage.com. Cheers!
Unlocking the Power of Teaching & Learning Technologies: Honest Insights from Asking the Students June 26, 2023
At our inaugural Tech from Sage Insight event in April, we had our breakout session “Ask the Students: Honest insights from students using teaching & learning technologies”. This was an interactive session, with a panel of students discussing their university experience, pedagogy, and the features of different digital tools including: Talis Elevate, Lean Library and Sciwheel.
Check out the recordings from our studio sessions at Tech from Sage insight below.
The panel was facilitated by our Development Manager (International), Christopher Lewis, and the students on the panel were:
In this blog post, we’ll explore the challenges students face in their undergraduate university journey and provide the key takeaways and insights from the students which resonate with their experiences of using digital tools.
University life presents its fair share of challenges, but the integration of digital tools has played a pivotal role in overcoming these hurdles. Students shared their experiences and highlighted how digital tools have addressed common issues faced in their academic journey, including not owning a laptop, or as Stefan says below, being able to ask librarians for support:
“When I think of going into the university library it’s always quite hectic, or at least in the foyer of people coming in and out … Rather than doing that, [wouldn’t it] be good to have somewhere I can go and ask questions about how I can do research?”
Stefan
The integration of digital tools has also had a positive impact on their students’ learning journeys, making learning resources easily accessible and eliminating the need for students to navigate through multiple platforms or physical materials. With everything in one place, students can save time and focus more on their studies. Here are some key points that arose from the session:
Digital tools, like Lean Library, have eliminated paywall barriers, enabling students to access a vast array of scholarly articles and research papers effortlessly. This accessibility has expanded students’ knowledge and enriched their research projects.
I started using it this year. When I started researching my dissertation, and I realized I couldn’t possibly go through 20 different pages of Google Scholar, figuring out if I had access to them. It’s saved me a lot of time.
Sam
We asked the students where they begin their research journey, with many of them beginning their journey with Google rather than the library:
“I tend to just go straight to … the source of a public street to JSTOR, Cambridge, or something like that, rather than navigate the site itself?”
Cameron
Collaborative work has been greatly enhanced through tools like Talis Elevate, giving students the option to participate in discussion anonymously online, giving the silent majority a platform to participate in the conversation. Chris asked the students how they found their experience of using Talis Elevate for their modules:
If you have to look at the content again, for the seminar, you then come with a bit of understanding of where you can be talking about issues you can already see maybe the key themes that are going to be coming up, everyone’s asked along similar lines.
Stefan
Being able to read other people’s comments was like, maybe this means XYZ, it helps me go to the seminar more prepared and get a better understanding of the content.
Sam
Chris asked the students how they felt about referencing regarding their university work:
We have a proprietary referencing system based on MHRA. The university provide us with style guides. Enjoyable is not a word which would apply to referencing in most cases. I personally struggled quite a lot with referencing. It was only in my third year that I discovered reference management softwares, and I used Zotero. I enjoyed it but most reference management software doesn’t adapt to the style guide you’re using.
Annabelle
Annabelle revealed she got signposted to reference management software in her third year of university, in a dissertation skills preparation module, and that it was up to the students to decide which reference management tool to go with and teaching yourself.
After the students played around with Sciwheel, here is what they had to say:
One of the best benefits of Sciwheel is the personalised referencing. Sciwheel responded to customer feedback and got this issue fixed right away. Now that’s resolved, I wish I had a time machine to use Sciwheel for my projects.
Sam
Annabelle and Stefan made the points that they like making references by hand, as they can see where they are in their work, but they can see how reference management tools can be useful for group research projects.
Digital tools have made learning more flexible and convenient. Students can access resources anytime, anywhere, allowing them to tailor their study schedules to their individual needs. This flexibility promotes a better work-life balance and empowers students to take control of their education. We asked students how librarians can encourage student uptake of these tools:
It’s easier to get a different perspective on things via word of mouth. I don’t know if all universities have a network of Student Reps. I’m a Student Rep for my year, so I can signpost students to digital tools or problems in terms of formatting or how to improve library workshops.
Sam
Participating in the workshop and reflecting on how during my studies I was taught using various digital tools reaffirmed to me the importance of intertwining university libraries, teaching, and technology. Universities are continuing to expand, with lecturers’ time further limited and accessing physical resources becoming ever-increasingly difficult. Being able to … use Talis Elevate to unpick say, a 14th century legal document – and see classmates’ comments – accelerated my understanding of topics and made my studying more efficient. Using these sorts of technologies isn’t spoon-feeding students, rather ensuring in the digital age they have possibility to not only learn but learn well.
Stefan
Providing the tools for students to succeed, such as through showing them how to use certain software and digital tools, is conducive to fostering independence within these students, and enhancing their skills development. Students are not experts at studying and researching, and as such, need more guidance to develop these skills.
Sam
The insights shared by students highlight the transformative power of digital tools in higher education. From organisation and accessibility to collaboration and flexibility, these tools have revolutionised the university experience for students. There are still lots of elements to consider for universities and academic libraries, including providing guidance for students on developing these digital skills and encouraging uptake of these tools within the student community.
At Technology from Sage, we are committed to continuously improving our solutions to meet the evolving needs of students. Their honest feedback and experiences are invaluable in shaping the future of teaching and learning tools.
