Conference presentation
Innovative Applications of Social Software in Reaching Out to Engineering Students
Drexel University Libraries. Library staff research and publications
01 Aug 2008
Abstract
The past few years have seen several new engineering initiatives develop at Drexel University. Some of these initiatives are in emerging fields such as Nanoscale Science and Technology, Microfluidics, and Bionanotechnology. The rapid growth in research in these and several other subject areas motivated Drexel's engineering librarians to experiment with new ways of reaching out to faculty and students. Drexel's emphasis on team based engineering design projects requires students to develop critical understanding of engineering subject areas. Developing awareness of core electronic resources such as Knovel and Engineering Village is crucial for them to use such resources efficiently. This poster outlines innovative experiments aimed at increasing information awareness using social software such as Facebook, Del.icio.us, and blogs. Having an engineering librarian's presence on Facebook is useful since many engineering students at Drexel are heavy Facebook users. Organizations such as Drexel's IEEE student chapter and ASME are on Facebook as well. Drexel Engineering Information Awareness Campaign Group is a librarian-created group aimed at increasing awareness of new and existing resources. The poster also includes an example of using Facebook's Notes application to receive automated feeds of new information resources from an engineering blog (Englibrary) and an illustration of automatically importing new engineering information related bookmarks from Del.icio.us into Facebook. Judging by the number of engineering students on the engineering librarian's Facebook, it appears that this innovative experiment is succeeding, a required first step before our users can embark on learning how to use engineering information resources more efficiently.
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Details
- Title
- Innovative Applications of Social Software in Reaching Out to Engineering Students
- Creators
- Sasha Gurke (Author)Jay Bhatt (Author)Josh Roberts (Author)
- Publication Details
- Drexel University Libraries. Library staff research and publications
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- DUL Administrative Services; Drexel University Libraries
- Other Identifier
- 991014632607404721