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This is an interview for Writing in Digital Environments.
And our first question is
please tell us who you are and what you do.
I am Patricia Jordan, and I am the library director
at Spartanburg Community College.
How does your work involve writing in digital environments?
Well, I do a lot of writing
because we've got 3, soon to be 4, campuses,
so I'm dealing with staff that I don't always see,
so I do a lot of writing by email.
I'm dealing with faculty that I don't always
get a chance to see face-to-face, so there's
a lot of email communication.
And then, as we work with the students,
we have a lot of online students,
or students where they're not coming in
for a library orientation,
so we create online tutorials.
Things like that for them.
So it involves quite a bit.
And how does what you do involve more
traditional, pre-digital forms of writing.
Well, it's really mostly email.
I mean, I might send a note to a staff member.
Make a note when I'm sending something inter-office mail
to faculty member but a lot
is really email or maybe the phone.
you don't really send notes anymore
What tools and technical skills do you use
most often in your work.
Tell me a story about a situation in which those tools
and skills are most useful
Of course, email, but as we more and more
of our students have gone taking online classes
we started to use resources, for example
we use Panopto, which is
an open source video editing software
and I have used Snagit to create tutorials
where I do capture pictures and
be able to manipulate the pictures
add screen captures things like that
and Abode Captivate and an example of that
is the College 103 that is the Introduction
to College Skills that a lot of students
take and they have a information literacy assignment
and we work with the instructors
to create a series of worksheets that students
would do. To introduce them to research
but also introduce them to career resources
and because each worksheet involve a different type of skill
like the library catalog using the databases
we couldn't do all those classes face to face
so we created online tutorials
for those and that has been very helpful
so the students will come
in the beginning and we will do the traditional
face to face class and then for
the other ones they'll watch the videos
and work on the worksheets on their own
And how has your job changed
over the time as new digital
technology have been adapted
Quite a bit, I can just tell
you from being a student
was a student where you go online
to get to the books thru the catalog
but if you want a magazine or a newspaper
you had to use print resources
and then as I became a graduate student
you had the online databases but still
there was no full text
so you would use those instead
of the print indexes
you use the online databases to search
and then you still go to the
print magazines and journals
and then when I became started working
at the library you had the online databases
everything you got thru online
and even now there are streaming videos
we have we are starting
to have more streaming videos where
students will instead of coming and checking
the DVD they'll actually watch and view it online
from home or from the classroom so everything
changed even how they do the online
tutorials we do a lot more videos than
when we were able to when I first started
just because the software is better
do a lot more for a lot less
Have you adapted to those changes?
Oh yeah in fact all our English 101 students
now have to use do an online library tutorial
because we have several sections of English 101
and we can't meet with all of them
so we created an online tutorial
with some of the basic
skills a little more in depth
than the College 103
and all of those students have
to do that tutorial we have
online classes where we
have created online tutorials
for that so yeah you just have to do
do you seem more like understanding by getting
face to face? I really think there's
and this might be me being old school
but I think there is no substitute for
that hands on and that one on one
that face to face you can
teach and you can show but I think something
is lost when you don't have that
face to face and part really
depends on the students. Cause You'll have students
where they'll zoom thru the tutorial
and not really pay attention
so they'll get to the quiz
and you'll have ones that take notes
and everything so I think
it really depends on the student
the thing with it being online
is a lot more responsibility placed on the student
And changes to you anticipated
happening in the future as
new digital technologies are introduced
Well from my end as a librarian I can
see the what is a book
I can see that becoming confusing
because you have online resources
and print resources I see those
kind of melding into one
where its harder to tell where what
something is
where it goes to citing or evaluating and things
like that
I see a lot moving online
I see print not going away I think there I think
something is lost I see more things
go online. How is your website important
to your work
Oh it essentially and anything you
have to go through the website
to find the books you have to
thru the website and the catalog
we spent a lot of time a few years ago
changing it and simplifying
website and trying to make it so that
coming in they may not know what
a catalog is but they know where to find books
they may not know what databases are
but they might know where to find articles
and so we kept it very simple and in fact if
you go to our pages and it says
find articles find books find citation help
and I was adamant about it being that
way because I want to be able to say
it was the ABCs of research
and over on one side its got
catalog databases and has more of the library lingo
so we tried to keep it as simple as
possible but it is essentially to
what we do now and you can't
run a library without a website now
Do you ever use any social media like
Facebook or Twitter either in your work
or just to communicate with other
librarians or other libraries a cross the country?
Now we did have the library did have a Facebook
page but the person who ran
she left and we didn't have the staff for it
but what we used more often
we actually have a wiki that we used and its eternal
and what you happen is you get a lot of
assignments where you see them over
and over again thru the semesters and
what would happen is that someone
would come and mention something oh yeah
I remember when someone sent out an
email about that so I search in my email
trying to find to see what do they do
to find what were the good sources on that
it was only helpful to me so when Katherine
came who is our new Public Services Librarian a few years ago
she did some searching she created a wiki for us
so lets say Dr. Evans has an assignment
that's and we thought it was really hard
to find sources we could type some
notes and then someone else later on someone else
comes in and oh we have an assignment for Dr. Evans
its this and they can go to the wiki and type it up
and then they can see where someone put their notes
and then add to it and so it has been
really nice. Especially since that the Library staff at the Cherokee campus
and the Tyger River Campus its a nice
a way of keeping a track of that.
Do you measure the impact of the choices
you make using social media or website or traditional print
publications? Oh yeah a library lives and dies
by its stats so we try to measure everything we
used we recently switch to Google Analytic
on our website so we can see where people
where getting to the links in fact we actually change
we realized we were looking at our stats on
our literature databases that one of
the database which wasn't the best one
at the time was getting used a lot
we realized because it was first
and because it was alphabetically
so we changed the listing of the those databases
so instead of listing them alphabetical we listed by
what is usually the most useful database
for your typical literature database research
and we found that effective thing and so yeah we use
statistics a lot a librarian lives and dies by statistics
What would you say are the most significant advantages
of working with digital technology and media?
I think the first one is being able to
reach more students and cause again they are not always going to come
to a face to face
orientation be able to do something good
and then have it capture and you could use it again
or look at it and revised it and then
be able to put it up on a lot of places at once
What would you say the most significant disadvantages
of the digital tools and networks are
I would just say like I said something is lost
when you don't have that face to face
when you don't get to sit down with someone
to make sure their needs are meet
is not, the thing that you do with the tutorial
is that you can only it is basically
done one way I mean someone can go thru it faster
than someone else but when you are doing face to face
you can kind of get a feel for where your audience is
and whether you need to slow it down or focus
on one aspect so I think a little of that human touch is lost
it becomes a little more impersonal than I like
What adive would you have for someone who is still
completing thier college education and wants eventually
do the kind of work you do. I would definitely tell them
get as much of experience as you can get as much
lirbary experience as you can also work if you can
visit as much libraries as you can what I do as an
academic librarian is very different what someone what someone would do as
public librain. A public librarian in fact a
as two year college librarian is very different
than what someone working at a four year institution would do
I am a library director but still work the reference desk I still
interact with students whereas if I was at a bigger institution
I may never see a student so just find out what kind of
library you want to work in and get as much
experience possible teaching dealing with the patrons
cause that is what is important that is what they are going
to look when looking at your application
Do you enjoy the atmosphere of the smaller libraries more?
I do, cause I think in a bigger institution you get
compartmentalized and here I get to do a little bit of everything
so everyday is a little different and I am always working with the
students which is the fun of it
is being able to help somebody and know by the end
of the day you done something important cause
you been helping people.