Goal 4: Transformative Technologies

DMC's Proactive Approach Almost Triples In-Class Instruction Sessions

In aligning DMC efforts with goals set out at the Digital Scholarship Services

retreat to improve support for teaching, the DMC engaged in a successful direct

outreach campaign encouraging faculty to utilize DMC support for digital media

instruction embedded into their courses. DMC staff browsed the course catalog

for courses that either mentioned media components or appeared to be good

candidates for incorporating digital media and emailed instructors directly. The

feedback received was overwhelmingly enthusiastic and positive. While the DMC

has long supported in-class instruction, we saw a substantial increase from 19

in-class sessions in FY24 to 49 in FY25. The courses supported spanned 17

different departments, increasing the DMC’s visibility and establishing

connections with faculty all across campus. The departments supported

included English and History in the School of Humanities, Anthropology and

Psychology in the School of Social Sciences, Bioengineering and Mechanical

Engineering in the School of Engineering, and Earth, Environmental, and

Planetary Science in the School of Natural Sciences. Areas of support included

website design and creation, citation management with Zotero, digital

storytelling, document and layout design, data visualization with Tableau, and

ethical generative AI use. Going forward, the DMC team hopes to build upon a

successful year, growing long-lasting collaborative relationships with faculty and

enriching students’ educational experiences.

 

Class Data Visualization Website

Reference and Research Guide Usage 

 

Total chat sessions: 366  

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

Total FAQ Public Views:  8,548 

 

Top 10 FAQ’s from the FAQ System:  

 

Research Guides: 

  • Total Number of all published guides: 515 
  • Total views of all published guides: 109,843 

 

Top 20 guides by views:  

 

Website Changes

Landing Page Redesign (June 2024)

  • A redesigned library landing page was launched in June 2024 to enhance usability.
  • Updates were informed by user research conducted by the UX Office and UX Student Researchers, as well as collaborative design activities involving committee members. 
  • Improvements included revised icons, clearer quick links, and reorganized navigation to better serve user needs.

 

Contact Us & Help Page Redesign

In Fall 2024, the Web Team initiated a redesign of the Contact Us page to improve usability and visual clarity. The new page is titled “Help” and is anticipated to go into production in early July.

 

  • UX Review & Benchmarking: The team analyzed NC State Libraries' contact page, noting its clean layout and emphasis on contact methods (e.g., chat, phone, email).

 

Help Page/Contact US Design Process Highlights:

  • A series of UX tables, design work with the web team, CMDC, librarian heuristic sessions, and focus groups with our Student Ambassadors were held.
  • Web team discussions emphasized the need for a hybrid structure combining contact methods, topics, and departments/service.
  • Recommendations included adding social media links, using drop-down menus, and prioritizing frequently used options.
  • Some suggested a separate subpage for forms to reduce clutter.

 

Key Changes:

  • A Consultation Services section was created, and creation of new consultation services are encouraged.
  • The existing “Contact Us” form was retained as a link. There is a new embedded chat on the new Help page, with a link stating, “Don’t want to chat? Use this form.”
  • Language revised for clarity around chat and librarian help, with a variety of contact methods still maintained.
  • The Help page embeds a number of current help points into one stream-lined page, including Contact Us, Faq’s, Consultations, Directory, Research Guides, Training/Video help, all on one page. The few highlighted Research Guides are based on analytics of most frequently used guides. The few highlighted Faq’s are also based on most frequently asked questions.

 

Fondren Library Adds a New AI Librarian Position 

In response to the changing nature of her role and the growing demand for generative AI instruction and guidance, Hannah Edlund petitioned for the creation of a new job title and position, the AI and Patent Librarian. She is part of two AI committees outside Fondren and the co-chair of Fondren's Committee on Generative AI in Libraries (C-GAIL), which are all permanent appointments. These, along with new instruction on genAI, were significant time commitments that did not allow her to focus on other parts of the government librarian position, like microforms and maps. In July, at the start of the fiscal year, Hannah Edlund was granted this new position and now directly reports to Lisa Spiro. She is still the PTRC representative and will continue all job duties related to this.