Using New Tools but
Keeping the Old
A collaborative approach between
a University's Academic
Technology department and the
Library to enhance access to
electronic materials
Terry Ballard
 Associate
Professor and Automation
Librarian – Quinnipiac University,
Hamden, Connecticut.
Part 1 - Making a Library Training
course that works in and out of
Blackboard
 Evolved
out of adding tutorials to
Blackboard for instruction in use of
the OPAC
 2003,
the library adapted the
University of Texas TILT program –
an information literacy tutorial.
We liked the program but found the
registration process cumbersome for
the assessments at the end of each
section, so we adapted the TILT tests
and added them to our Library
Instruction class in Blackboard.
We substituted many of the original
graphics with our own images.
Freshman English students would be
enrolled in the library "course" in
Blackboard, and follow a link to the
test in each module. Professors who
wanted could have the test scores
sent so that the student could get
credit for completing "QUILT." Each
Spring, English students are
automatically enrolled in the library
course, and regular usage was
logged.
The end of each module provides a
link to our own test in Blackboard
or, ungraded, to the original files
from the University of Texas.
The user can now take the test –
inside of Blackboard, and still
connected to QUILT
Team effort
 This
project was possible due to the
coordination of efforts between the
English department, the library, and
the programmers in Academic
Technology. Rosters were given to
the programmers so they would
know which students to add to the
library “class.”
Part 2 – creating an interactive
bibliography
 Most
English 102 classes at
Quinnipiac involve studying the novel
Frankenstein. We identified a number
of articles free on the web or in
library-owned resources. There was a
need for a master bibliography of
articles about Frankenstein with links
to online resources.
We began by finding all articles
about Frankenstein in MLA
We then began exporting the
citations to RefWorks, a
bibliographic manager
EBSCO has a mechanism for direct
export to RefWorks
The references were automatically
sent and saved in alphabetical
order
Finally, the bibliography is
downloaded into an HTML file, in
MLA format
The citations in the resulting file
can now be checked for full-text
availability by library workers.
Leading to the final product
Finding linkable information
 Library
workers searched for full-text
versions of these articles free on the
Web or in databases that the library
subscribes to. For chapters in books,
they checked the online catalog, and
linked to that record when available.
 The bibliography found an audience
immediately in and out of Quinnipiac.
Part 3 – Adding OPAC access to an
art image collection
 In
2004, the library, at the behest of
the Academic Technology
department, purchased a selection of
1000 jpg images from Saskia, a
company that photographed
artworks from the world’s great
museums, and licensed the images
for educational uses.
First solutions
 Initially,
the images were copied
from the CD-rom and added to
MasterFile, a content management
program that runs in tandem with
Blackboard. This made the images
available for addition to Blackboard
for teachers who looked for the
images.
Problems with that

To reach the level in Blackboard where you can begin to
browse the images, you’ve clicked 12 times
More problems
Only professors in the art program would
be likely to see this, since students and
staff members at the university could not
get in to the MasterFile portion of
Blackboard. Faculty in other departments
could potentially see these, if they
browsed in the Art folders, but MasterFile
is still mainly a tool for power users, and
hasn’t been entirely rolled out.
 The library was interested in expanding
the potential audience for Saskia.

The solution
 Early
in 2005, the solution presented
itself. At that time, library faculty
members discovered that the 970
fields in marc records that had been
used to add Table of Contents
information could take any HTML
commands. This gave the library the
option to add links to chapters in
ebooks, images and tables.
This had the potential to alter
drastically the marc display in a
web-based catalog:
The new plan for Saskia
 Add
the Saskia images to a server
that needs login and password to
access. Enable access to the entire
university community.
 Create marc records that display a
thumbnail with links to the controlled
directory for the full images.
The final result looked like this:
The password prompt appears
even when the user is on campus
The images now come up in the
same search that retrieves books
about an artist