INLS890_ProjectPlan

INLS890_ProjectPlan

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  Project Plan: ScannerTutorial for Davis Library, UNC-CH Katherine Knott and Laura O’Neill Introduction The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is home to over 28,000 graduate and undergraduate students. The University Library’s mission is to “support[] inquiry and learning at the university and for the people of North Carolina. Library collections, services, staff, and facilities further the university's mission. The library provides leadership in the development of scholarly communication systems and in the application of information technology to teaching, research and learning” (University Library System- Administration, 2005). To assist with this mission, the University Library provides resources and equipment for academic purposes. Scanners and scanning software are one type of equipment that users of the library have access to. The scanners in Davis Library are housed in the reference room, on the first floor. The main stakeholders in this project are the reference librarians whose job it is to assist users with the scanners. The clients are people affiliated with the university and residents of North Carolina. Problem / opportunity Students, faculty, and community members use the scanners in Davis Library to create digital copies of a wide range of materials including photographs, journal articles, and book chapters. Many users, especially those scanning for the first time, need assistance operating the scanners. The reference staff is trained to assist patrons and there are signs posted with scanning directions. However, the signs are frequently misplaced or not read. Additionally, the reference staff is often busy with other patrons and does not have the time or manpower to conduct lengthy, one-on-one scanning instruction sessions. This project will develop a quick, user-friendly scanning tutorial, available online. Requirement Gathering Methods Requirements gathering will be done by examining the specific scanning needs that people have, so that the tutorial can include information that covers most of the potential needs of library patrons. For example, information needed would include the types of documents that people are scanning (images or text documents); type of software most frequently used (Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, OmniPage for OCR needs); and types of common problems people have. In order to accomplish this, a combination of the following methods will be used: • Examine system logs that show what programs people are using • Interview staff about the type of scanning needs that users have • Instruct staff to keep a log of questions they receive about scanning, including the type of item being scanned and which part of the process the patron needed assistance with
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  • Conduct a technology overview of the literature to determine strategies and methods that have been successful in similar circumstances. The costs of gathering this information will be manageable because the library will not need to purchase any new resources and most of the raw data required is already being collected. Requirements Business Requirements • The tutorial should decrease the amount of time patrons spend scanning and increase the quality of their scanning. System Requirements • A system capable of generating a web-based tutorial is needed. A web-based tutorial will allow library staff to update the tutorial from one place rather than making updates at every scanning station. • The tutorial must be easy and fast for user to access; it should not require a special plug-in for viewing. • The tutorial should be supported by the operating systems run on the scanning computers in Davis, currently this includes only Windows XP. Similarly, since this is an online tutorial, the tutorial’s makeup and features will have to be supported and compatible with the internet browsers provided by the University Library on the public scanning computers; currently this includes only Internet Explorer (currently version 6.0) and Firefox (currently version 2.0.0.4). • First priority will be given to examining software that UNC already owns/licenses; that way the cost would be even less if we already have access to software that will do that job. For instance, various departments at UNC already use Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Captivate. • The tutorial pages / files need to be small enough and simple enough that they load quickly. • The tutorial files will need to be stored on a network file server. User Requirements • The system will allow the tutorial to be interactive so that patrons can select and get help on the type(s) of scanning that are relevant to their specific needs. • Users need to have the option to go back, jump ahead, or repeat sections of the tutorial. • The tutorial should be accessible to people with disabilities, which means the tutorial will need to support the special software the University Library provides on all computers to assist those with special needs. Also, the tutorial could provide the option for captioned narration, or audio instructions to assist deaf and blind users.
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  Project Goals This tutorialwill take a user through the necessary steps and decisions needed to scan. Users will navigate through different steps based on their scanning needs. For example, the tutorial will begin by asking if the user needs to scan an image or a text document. Based on the user’s selection, the tutorial’s next screen will present the user with the next step of the process involved in scanning that type of document. Project objectives and schedule For this scanning tutorial to be a success, the following objectives must be met: • April: Research and Requirements Gathering phase o Two library science graduate assistants will gather information about patron scanning needs. They will do this by looking at system logs that show what scanning programs patrons use and interviewing staff about the type of scanning needs that users have. The graduate assistants will also ask staff to keep a record of questions they receive about scanning; this record can be easily created by using Desk Tracker, a program that the library already uses to track different types of questions. “Scanning” will be listed as a type of question, with space for the librarian to describe the patron’s scanning need more specifically. o The graduate assistants will review literature detailing similar projects. o The graduate assistants will examine available software packages/systems that might be used in developing the web-based tutorial. • May: The graduate students will plan how the tutorial will work. This will involve writing a script for the tutorial, creating a flowchart showing different paths that users can take, and creating wireframes for pages of tutorial. • June 15th-July 15th: The graduate students will write html code, program interactive components, and produce multimedia. • July 15th-July 31st: The graduate assistants will ask librarians to evaluate the tutorial and they will conduct usability testing by having six to ten students use the tutorial. • August 1st-August 15th: The graduate assistants will make any necessary changes based on findings from librarian evaluations and usability testing. • August 15th (start of school year): The tutorial will be published and the library will publicize this resource with signs next to scanning stations and with desktop wallpaper on computer screens. Site-maintenance and assessment will be on-going.
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  Technologies overview This sectionexplores technologies that may meet the requirements for this project (as listed above). The different types of software are reviewed according to three different categories: web-authoring software, screencasting software, and software for editing images and creating animation Web-authoring Software Product Pros Cons Price Basic Text Many are free to download. No Requires knowledge of Free Editor, such as update fees either. hand-coding html and other Notepad or code. Hand-coding is time- TextEdit consuming and increases the likelihood of making mistakes in the code. These mistakes would then require more time to fix (Smith, 2006, p. 71). HTML Kit Free, although extra features can Requires knowledge of Free be purchased for a fee. Code is hand-coding html and other colored to aid reading. Users can code. preview pages. Dreamweaver One of the most popular web- Expensive. However, the Dreamweaver authoring tools available, which University Library has CS4 costs $199 means more people are going to be Dreamweaver CS3 so with education familiar with using it. The additional money will not discount (Adobe, University Library has access to be necessary. 2009). this program already. Software integrates well with Flash. WYSIWYG program that makes web page creation and editing easy because it does not require knowledge of coding (Smith, 2006).
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  Software for EditingImages and Creating Animation Product Pros Cons Price GIMP Free. Open source. Image Lacks the advanced Free Manipulation Program for tasks such as features of Adobe photo retouching, image composition products. Can be difficult and image authoring. to use (Quaint, 2008). Adobe Vector-based drawing program for Steep learning curve; Adobe Illustrator Illustrator creating original artwork, such as logos most likely would require CS4 costs $199 and graphics for web sites. Creates formal training or a staff with education professional-looking graphics desired member with graphic discount (Adobe, for tutorial. The University Library has design knowledge 2009). Illustrator CS3 so additional money (Binder, 2007). will not be necessary. Adobe Allows users to optimize or reduce More advanced features Adobe Photoshop images for the web. The University may require formal Photoshop CS4 Library has access to Photoshop CS3 training or staff member costs $299 with already. with significant education experience using the discount (Adobe, software (Smith, 2006). 2009). Adobe Can combine images with text and Interface is complicated Fireworks CS4 Fireworks other line art to make interactive Web and can be difficult to costs $99 with graphics, such as navigation bars, learn; may require formal education rollover buttons, pop-up menus, and training. discount. image maps. Lets users to create (Adobe, 2009). JavaScript behaviors without having to learn JavaScript. Adobe Flash Can be used to design animation and The latest version of Flash Flash CS4 costs Professional make pages more interactive. Allows is easier to use than $249 with users to copy and paste files from previous versions, but education Photoshop and Illustrator into Flash users still must study discount (Adobe, files. The University Library has Flash Flash before being able to 2009). CS3 so additional money will not be use it (Karlins, 2007) necessary.
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  Screen-casting Software Product Pros Cons Price Wink Free to download. Provides basic Does not have as many Free screen-capture technology. features as other, non- . free, software (Betty, 2008). Adobe Intuitive and easy to learn. Doesn’t Expensive. For Captivate 4 costs Captivate involve programming skills. Doesn't advanced features, $249 with require experience using Flash (“Adobe Captivate can be difficult education Captivate 2,” 2007). Allows branching to learn. Can result in discount (Adobe, so that developers can create different larger file sizes than in 2009). paths for users to follow depending on Camtasia (Clark & Khou, their choices (Clark & Khou, 2008). 2008). The University Library has Captivate 3 so additional money will not be necessary. Techsmith's Easy to learn. Doesn’t involve Editing is more tedious $299 Camtasia programming skills. Offers more than with Captivate (TechSmith, Studio choices for media types than Captivate (Clark &Khou, 2008). 2009) (Clark &Khou, 2008). Expensive. CamStudio Free. Open-source. Easy to use. No editing capabilities. Free 2.0 (Rethlefsen, 2009). Annotations must be prepared ahead of time and then added in during recording (Rethlefsen, 2009). Based on this overview of available technology, it was decided that the project team would create an online tutorial using the Dreamweaver web-authoring software and the Photoshop image-editing software. This is believed to be the best, most efficient software combination for this project – Dreamweaver to create the web pages (no html knowledge needed) and Photoshop to provide simple, yet professional graphics for the pages. While open-source products offer much of the same functionality at no cost, these proprietary lco paproducts were chosen because of their ease-of-use and availability to the project team (the University Library already has access to both of these programs). After evaluating screencasting software, it was decided that screencasts would not be necessary. Rather than having patrons watch a screencast demonstrating all of the scanning steps, this tutorial will allow patrons to step through their own scanning as they move from one page of the tutorial to the next.
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  Assumptions, risks, andobstacles An assumption is that the Library will support this project by having two graduate assistants focus their work time on the project and having an instructional design librarian oversee their work. Additionally, it is assumed that these employees will be able to stay through the duration of the project, committing to each stage of the project. Another assumption is that the library will continue to license the software needed for the project through its completion and will support the software as updates are needed for the tutorial. The risks of this project are fairly minimal. The major risk is wasting staff time for the tutorial development and assessment. For the graduate assistants and the instructional design librarian, this project will require a great deal of time. For most of the library staff, they will only be asked to record details about patron scanning needs (something they do anyway). For the evaluation stage of the project, several librarians will also be asked to assess the tutorial and suggest improvements. While these tasks will take time, librarians will likely see the potential benefit, recognizing that the development of this tutorial will lead to saving time in the future. The technical risks are minimal, as UNC already hosts / supports many websites and online tutorials. An additional risk involves the loss of money required to purchase developmental software. After researching a number of products, Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop have been selected for this project. Flash and Captivate are exciting programs, but, from information gathered during the requirements gathering phase, it was determined that students would be best served if they could quickly move through html pages to the information specific to their needs. UNC Libraries already have both of these programs, so the software for this project will not pose any additional cost. (For a smaller college without these programs, Adobe offers educational discounts bringing the cost of Dreamweaver to $199 and Photoshop Elements to $69. Or, another school might look into free web-authoring software. Web- authoring/editing software is preferable for this program, because it allows users to create professional looking web pages with little to no knowledge of html.) An additional small cost will involve compensation for those who volunteer for the usability testing on the tutorial. The library has conducted similar testing in the past and has successfully recruited participants by offering about eight dollars for forty-five minutes of time. Success metrics If the tutorial is successful, the reference librarians will notice that far fewer people come to ask for scanning assistance. To quantify the tutorial’s success, the graduate assistants will examine the library’s record of scanning questions from Desk Tracker again in the month following the tutorial’s publication. These statistics will then be compared to those gathered before the tutorial implementation. Additionally, the assessment will involve looking at how many people access the tutorial at the library. If records indicate that patrons paged through to the end of the tutorial, this will indicate that patrons found the tutorial helpful enough to follow through to the end. For additional feedback, the library will conduct a survey to make sure that patrons are receiving satisfactory assistance through the tutorial, asking if
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  patrons have seenincreased quality and efficiency in their scanning jobs. With just two questions, this optional survey will be short and will follow the last page of the scanning tutorial. Contingency Plan If the project fails, the users are no worse off than they are currently. They can continue to receive scanning assistance at the reference desk, which has been an adequate service option for both users and librarians for many years, with most users seeming get their scanning needs met. If the tutorial is not a success, the project team could make better/more permanent signs and printed directions in the scanner area, in the hopes that users would see them (i.e. use them) to meet their needs.
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  Works Cited Adobe (2009).Education Pricing. Retrieved April 13, 2009, from http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html Adobe Captivate 2. (2007, December). Technology & Learning, Retrieved April 12, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. Betty, P. (2008). Creation, Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project. Journal of Library Administration, 48:3, 295-315. doi: 10.1080/01930820802289342 Binder, J. (2007, June). Getting creative with Adobe. Aerospace America, 45(6), 22-23. Retrieved April 11, 2009, from LexisNexis Academic database. Clark, J., & Kou, Q. (2008, January). Captivate/Camtasia. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 96(1), 75-78. Retrieved April 12, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. Karlins, D. (2007, August). Flash CS3 Professional. Macworld, 24(8), 38-39. Retrieved April 11, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. Rethlefsen, M. (2009, January). PRODUCT PIPELINE. Library Journal, 134(1), S12-S14. Retrieved April 21, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database. Quaint, J.R. (2008, September 4). GIMP 2.4.7. PC Magazine. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329433,00.asp Smith, S Sharpless. (2006). Web-based instruction : A guide for libraries. Chicago: American Library Association. Techsmith (2009). Camtasia Studio. Retrieved April 15, 2009 from http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp University Library System-Administration. (2005). Mission. Retrieved April 1, 2009 from http://www.lib.unc.edu/aoffice/about/mission.html