E- Learning, Digital Libraries, and the Role of
Academic Libraries in the 21st Century
Christine L. Borgman
Professor & Presidential Chair in Information Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
John Kemeny’s Challenge to Libraries
Symposium at 50th Anniversary of Baker Library, 1978:
“One of the keys to the subject of computers and libraries lies
in discovering how the computer might play a role and do
it in such a way that the love of the material you are
working with can still be there.” (p 74)
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Responding to Kemeny’s challenge
• How can computers be used in libraries to sustain “the
love of the material”?
• How can libraries use computers to enhance the love of the
“material”?
• How can libraries use computers to enhance teaching and
scholarship?
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New media
New students
New faculty
New librarians
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The new students
• Technology for learning and entertainment
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Information retrieval: Google
Reading: WWW, E-books
Writing: Word processors, web sites
Arithmetic: Graphing calculators, Mathlab
Music: Kazaa, Napster, CD-RW, MP3 players
Photos: Digital cameras
Navigation: Global positioning systems
Communication: Mobile phones
Entertainment:DVDs, Networked computer games
Instruction: course web sites
Science labs: computer based dissection, experiments
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The new learning
• Learning can be more like scholarship
– Access to primary information sources
– Inquiry learning - learn by doing, asking questions
– Navigate, explore, construct and test hypotheses
• Students can learn to “think like,” “work like”…
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Scientists
Social scientists
Humanists
Practitioners…
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Digital libraries
• Digital libraries are systems that support
searching, use, and creation of content
• Digital libraries are institutions with people,
digital collections, and services
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Digital libraries for learning
• Content: Primary sources in digital form
– Historical records
– Social science datasets
– Geo-spatial data
• Infrastructure: Distributed access from
classrooms, offices, dorms, and reach of wireless
networks
• Tools and services: search, select, manipulate,
visualize, display, and create digital resources
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Scholarly and teaching practices
• Information technologies faculty use for
scholarship
– Digital libraries
– Tools for selecting, organization, manipulating digital
resources
• Information technologies faculty use for
instruction
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Textbooks
Chalkboards
Overhead projectors
Slides
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Two case studies
• Alexandria Digital Earth ProtoType (ADEPT)
– UC-Santa Barbara, UCLA
– NSF Digital Libraries Initiative, 1999-2004
– Incorporate geographic digital libraries into
undergraduate instruction
• Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS)
– UCLA, USC, Caltech, UC-Riverside, CSU-LA
– NSF Science and Technology Center, 2002-2012
– Incorporate networked sensing data into grades 7-12
instruction in biology and physics
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ADEPT: Geographical digital libraries for undergraduates
• Geography relies on primary data sources
– Satellite observations
– Physical observations
– Remote sensing
• Geography studies dynamic processes
• Educational standards for geographic knowledge are informationbased:
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asking geographic questions
acquiring geographic information
organizing geographic information
analyzing geographic information
answering geographic questions
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Museum Artifacts
Alexandria DL of Distributed
Spatial Information Objects
Earth Art
Other Digital Archives
Zoological Habitat Study
If it has a latitude
and longitude then
it can be in ADL
Botanical Study
Ocean Science Data
Archeological Dig
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Users and uses of geo-spatial digital libraries for learning
• Instructors
– Gather geography resources for teaching, using ADEPT and other
sources
– Present lectures to students using ADEPT
– Design laboratory projects for students using ADEPT
• Teaching assistants
– Assist instructors in developing lectures and lab projects
– Reinforce concepts in laboratory sections
• Students
– Attend lectures and labs presented with ADEPT
– Conduct science experiments using ADEPT
– Learn to “think like scientists”
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Embedded Networked Sensing in support of
Grades 7-12 science education
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Imagine this...
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Active, Networked-Sensor
Investigations
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Advantages
– Sophisticated triggering:
students direct sensors to
collect data
– Multi-variate data:
students propose and test
numerous hypotheses
– Complex query capabilities:
less time required to perform
Local base
authentic explorations
Local sensors
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Educational Vision
Inquiry
Modules
Inquiry and
Exploration
Center for
Embedded
Networked
Sensing
Networked
Sensing
Software and
Systems
Management
Development
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Educational Goals
Inquiry and Exploration
• To teach science as a way of knowing
• To learn science by doing
• To deepen conceptual understanding
• To promote original thinking, collaboration, and ownership of the
learning process
(AAAS, 1992; NRC, 1996; NCTM, 2000; ISTE, 1999)
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Calibrated Peer Review
• Provides strategic and epistemic guidance for students’ inquiry
• Uses written work as public traces of students’ thinking
• Promotes guided reflection upon science concepts and processes
Supported by NSF Division of Undergraduate Education 95-55605
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Good Technology is Not Enough
• College / university faculty
– Scholarly practices well established, highly codified
– Teaching practices individualized, idiosyncratic
– Extrinsic rewards for scholarship are much greater than rewards
for teaching
• Academic libraries
– Focus on collections, on access to information,
– Little focus on delivery to classrooms, learning sites
– Provide tools to search for information, not tools to use
information
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Implementing new information technologies
• Usability
– Useful for important tasks
– Fits into work practices
– Learning and implementation time / effort must be acceptable
• Adoption
– Must offer sufficient added value to be worth the effort to adopt
– Assistance and services must be available to assist in design,
development, and deployment
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The New Academic Library
• Resources / collections
– For teaching and scholarship
• Tools and services
– Access, use, and create information resources
– Persistent availability of resources
• Infrastructure
– To support scholarly and teaching applications
• Integration / coupling
– Tight coupling between library resources, services, user behavior,
practices, information infrastructure
– Digital libraries support life cycle of searching, using, creating,
disposing of information
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The New Academic Librarian
• Library skills: select, collect, organize, preserve, conserve,
provide access to information in many media
• Management skills: large, complex, evolving organizations
• Technology skills: design, management, and policy
• Scholarly knowledge: theory, method, practice of multiple
disciplines
• Educational skills: pedagogy, standards, discipline-specific
technologies
• Policy: intellectual property, infrastructure, technology
• Vision: role of libraries in teaching, research, information
infrastructure, national and global policy
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Summary and Conclusions
• Responding to Kemeny’s challenge to libraries: use computers to
sustain “the love of the material”
– Libraries should be fully engaged in the scholarly and teaching missions
of the college / university
– Computers now can be used to make learning more like scholarship
– Digital libraries can help to engage students in more active forms of
learning and inquiry
• Implementing digital libraries
– Content, infrastructure, tools and services
– Usability
– Adoptability
• New students, new libraries, new librarians
• Integration of library, scholarly, teaching, and learning practices
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