DMC – Final Proposal

Digital Media Center

Create, Explore, Collaborate

Proposal 

Summary

In 2016, the current Technology Resource Center will be renamed the Digital Media Center (DMC) and moved to the northeast corner of the second floor of Hamersly Library. The new center’s focus will be on all aspects of digital production, providing both the means and the support for the following activities:

  • Digital video and audio recording and editing
  • Website design and support
  • Ebook creation and distribution
  • Desktop design, for posters, books, and other printed materials
  • Technology-enhanced presentations
  • Publishing support for all aspects of digital distribution and traditional publication

In addition to providing the equipment and software for do-it-yourself users, the center’s other primary mission will be to provide drop-in tutoring and scheduled training for the above activities, not to do the activities for users itself.  Equipment for checkout — camcorders, SLR cameras, audio recorders, and more — will continue to be handled by the library front desk.

What follows is a more detailed examination of why such a center is necessary at Western Oregon University, and some specific recommendations about the staff, resources, and design.

General Rationale

In the twenty-first century, when the average person has access to nearly unlimited amounts of information with a few taps on a smart phone, libraries can no longer afford to just be about books. The guiding philosophy of a library as a physical repository – a place where stuff is stored and organized for easy retrieval – is quickly giving way to the idea of library as a portal of information, both as a gateway to information stored beyond its shelves and, crucially, as a place where information can also be created and distributed.

“Publishing,” Clay Shirky (2010) writes in Cognitive Surplus, “used to be something we had to ask permission to do; the people whose permission we had to ask were publishers. Not any more” (p. 46). Shirky goes on to assert that while editors, publicists, graphic designers and other professionals can still play a role in improving the quality of information, publishing itself, that act of making something public, has become little more than a button (p. 48). Not only that, but cost is no longer a significant barrier. A motivated self-publisher, armed with little more than the Adobe suite of digital production software, can now reach a worldwide audience at minimal cost in multiple formats.

The purpose of the new DMC will be to support students, faculty, and staff on reaching these audiences, whether their work is intended merely for a few people locally or to be distributed on a more global scale. People are now able to participate in the exchange of ideas not just in a passive way, by reading a book, and not simply in a limited way, by asking a question in a library’s lecture hall, but by actually producing new content themselves.  This could be something as trivial as a post on Facebook, as time-consuming as a book published on Amazon.com, or as technologically elaborate as a video documentary uploaded to YouTube.  If we truly are entering a conceptual age, as Daniel H. Pink (2006) asserts in A Whole New Mind, we are entering an era in which more and more people will be active participants in the production and distribution of new content. To remain relevant, libraries should help enable this process.

Like academic libraries across the country, Western Oregon University’s Hamersly Library is seeing a rapid decline in the need for shelf space dedicated to printed journals and reference material, a decline that has spurred a “learning commons redesign” that will include a coffee shop, flexible learning spaces, and more areas for technology collaboration over the next few years.  The new Digital Media Center fits into this vision, re-purposing an area of the library that also has become somewhat dormant as of late: the “AV Materials” section.  This corner of the library contains several thousand titles in VHS, DVD, and CD formats, eleven VHS/DVD playback stations that see little activity, and three general purpose study/meeting rooms that could be reconfigured for more specialized use.


Other Ways the New DMC Can Enhance Teaching and Learning at WOU

Although the new center’s primary missions will be to give faculty, staff, and students digital production technology and skills, the specific ways that the DMC can enhance teaching and learning at WOU are practically endless. I have listed three such areas below — places where the new Digital Production Specialist will be focusing outreach and collaborative efforts as the new center gets off the ground.

1. Assisting Faculty in Open Source Publishing and Textbook Creation

As I mentioned above, publishing is radically changing in the 21st century. The stigma long associated with self-publishing is fading quickly as content producers of all sorts — whether that content be a video lecture, an audio book, or interactive website — are discovering the tremendous power of reaching an audience directly. While there may always be value in publishing in peer-reviewed journals and working with traditional publishers on creating textbooks, faculty now have viable alternatives. The high cost of textbooks has long been a source of frustration for both professors and students. The library’s Digital Media Center can help faculty create ebooks and print-on-demand textbooks of high quality, and work with them to either distribute them directly to their students or make them available to a worldwide audience through all the various online vendors: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, etc. The Kindle Direct Publishing program, for example, enables authors of all stripes to reach millions of Amazon customers with no upfront fees. Createspace.com and Lightningsource.com are print-on-demand companies that can allow faculty to make their textbooks available in print format not only at Amazon, but through all the traditional distributor channels like Ingram and Baker and Taylor, distributors used by physical bookstores around the world.

While there are challenges in direct publishing — namely, taking on all the labor that a publisher usually shoulders — the advantages are incredibly liberating. An author maintains control of their copyright and control of the entire publishing process, from the type of cover selected to the price charged for the product (even if that price is free). The lower cost and easier availability can be passed right along to students. Maintaining control of copyright means that faculty could potentially place these textbooks in their online learning management systems (like Moodle here at WOU) for free and yet still charge a fee when selling them through online vendors.

The same is true for publishing research in open-source venues. The DMC can assist faculty in this process, whether publishing an article on their own website, here at WOU’s own Digital Commons, or an open-source site supported elsewhere. If the faculty member is willing to embrace the idea that the only gatekeeper that truly matters is the reader (or audience) themselves, then the DMC can help.

2. Preparing Students for 21st Century Careers

One of the common complaints often heard from those in the business community is that today’s college graduates lack both the technology and creative skillset necessary for professional jobs in the 21st century. While I am not disputing the value of a broad liberal arts education, it is imperative that WOU students have training in all forms of digital production as well as plenty of chances to practice innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.

The library’s Digital Media Center can work closely with teaching faculty to create learning experiences — both in face-to-face classes and online — that give students these skills. Why not publish a mixed media presentation using both video and an interactive website? Why not have the class collaborate on creating their own textbook, one that can be made available to them as both a printed book and an ebook? Why not use the digital cameras available for checkout in the library to create a short movie that demonstrates some concept, one they can make available in their online course or publish to YouTube?

The Digital Production Specialist can offer this assistance both outside the classroom and by collaborating more closely with faculty, either through embedded tutoring in their online courses or by co-teaching some face-to-face sessions. Publish a website with WordPress. Produce a movie with FinalCut Pro. Create an interactive presentation with Camtasia. Make an ebook available to the world with tools like Jutoh or Adobe InDesign. Or use the growing number of free digital production programs — Jing, Prezi, etc —to do the same thing. In many ways, the tools are immaterial, because they will continue to change and evolve rapidly as the walls between content creators and the content consumers continue to dissolve. One of the jobs of the DMC will be to keep up with all the varied tools, ensuring that students, faculty, and staff are always made aware of the possibilities.

In short, it’s not really about the tools. It’s about creating a mindset among our students that they can learn any tool so long as they have a vision of how to go about using them. Creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, entrepreneurship, innovation — fostering these important foundational skills will be at the root of the DMC’s mission.

3. Collaborating with Other Campus Units

To ensure its success, the new DMC will need to collaborate with other campus units. The new Center for Academic Innovation (formerly the Center for Teaching and Learning) will provide opportunities for brown bag presentations, campus conferences, and other ways to get the word out about the DMC, as well as access to their Moodle support personnel. The TV Studio, which records campus events and faculty teaching for online courses (but offers little access for students), might be partnered with to offer a menu of services and to expand our promotional efforts. The help of University Computing Services will be enlisted to ensure that technology help is not duplicated in unnecessary ways, and that the kind of technology offered in the DMC is in line with what is available in other departments and campus units. Student Media, which produces the college newspaper, the literary magazine, and the student radio station, might also offer ways that the library’s DMC can enhance what they do.

The DMC will also reach out to key faculty teaching students in the Master in Educational Technology Program, the Visual Communication Design Major, the Writing Center, and the Communications Major to ensure that the technology and services offered are in line with what they perceive students will need, as well as to look for potential partners — “early adopters” who might serve to spread the word about what the DMC can do.

In short, this proposal should not be seen as the end of envisioning a new Digital Media Center, but only the beginning. The hope is that with right combination of passion, drive, and knowledge, the DMC, and the staff who work within it, can evolve to meet whatever digital production needs that emerge as we prepare our students to compete on the global stage.

Center Design

The re-purposing of the AV Materials area can proceed in phases, with the idea of focusing money and effort on the two digital production rooms first.  Here are the changes I am proposing, in two phases, with the first phase requiring very little remodeling or reconfiguration of the existing space:

Phase 1:

  1. Rename the area the Digital Media Center. Add a sign outside the area and directional signs in the main hall on the second floor.
  2. Remove the six VHS/DVD playback units inside the AV Materials itself.
    The five VHS/DVD playback units and the video phone outside the AV Materials area are sufficient for the current demand.
  3. HL 220 … becomes the office of the Digital Production & Publishing Specialist. This is a new position created by using funds allocated for a current professional staff position.
  4. HL 221 … becomes the Digital Editing Room. This room will contain a Mac and a PC outfitted with an array of digital editing software, scanners, professional microphones, and sound-deadening wall padding for better audio recording. More detail about the equipment and software is below.
  5. HL 222 … becomes the Digital Production Studio. This room will contain some of the same digital editing equipment and software as the Digital Editing Room (a Mac and a PC with digital editing software), but the west side of the room will also be used as a mini television studio, complete with digital camcorders, tripods, and a green screen.
  6. Half of the double desk station outside of HL 220 will become the desk for a Student Technology Assistant (STA), who provides support and training during drop-in tutoring hours as well digital production work for faculty. This station will also include a PC and scanner, which can be used as a general work station when not used by the STA.
  7. The other five stations will be used as follows: 1) a duplication station containing a CD/DVD duplicator, CD/Cassette duplicator, and a VHS/DVD duplicator; 2) a Mac editing station with a microphone and headset; 3) a Mac editing station with a microphone and headset; 4) a PC editing station with a microphone and headset; 5) a PC editing station with a microphone and headset.  This brings the total number of workstations, including the computers in the production rooms, the main area, and the STA’s desk to 4 Macs and 5 PCs.  Each of these stations will need a network connection.
  8. A color/black and white laser printer will be added to the area immediately outside the DMC.

Phase 2:

  1. Remove all shelving in the DMC except for a few spinner racks showcasing popular titles.
  2. Consolidate all AV materials to the shelving outside the DMC area; this space now houses government publications, which hopefully could be weeded, consolidated, and shifted to the shelving on the other side. Ideally, the shelving directly to the south of the DMC area would also be removed, and those materials would be shifted and consolidated, opening up a larger walkway between the main hall on the second floor and the DMC.
  3. Add a better desk for the STA, positioned so the STA can better greet patrons.
  4. Replace the video editing stations in the main area with larger desks, giving patrons space for other materials or for collaboration while they do their work.
  5. Provide a table for collaborative technology work, where students can plug in laptops that can share a group monitor.

Services Provided for Students

  1. Drop-in tutoring hours of 15-20 hours a week for all members of the WOU community, staffed by a Student Technology Assistant, on how to use all equipment in the DMC, as well as camcorders, cameras, and other peripherals checked out from the front desk of Hamersly Library.
  2. Assistance with a variety of software programs ( Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Camtasia, etc.) both during drop-in tutoring hours and on an appointment basis with the Digital Production & Publishing Specialist.
  3. Workshops scheduled by intructors for their classes, taught by the Digital Production & Publishing Specialist, focused on helping students with technology-enhanced class assignments.

Services Provided for Faculty and Staff

  1. Assistance with a variety of software programs ( Photoshop, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Camtasia, etc.).
  2. Individual website support and instruction (Dreamweaver, WordPress, etc.).
  3. Workshops and classes for faculty and staff on digital production provided by the Digital Production & Publishing Specialist.
  4. Collaboration in the production of multimedia solutions — video, audio, print, etc.
  5. Consultation and support of both traditional and independent publishing (ebook, Print-on-Demand, audio etc.
  6. Video and audio format conversion of academic material; i.e. VHS to DVD, DVD to digital files, cassette to CD, etc.

Staff

  • Digital Production & Publishing Specialist (1.0 FTE)
  • Student Technology Assistant (15-20 hours a week) 

Equipment Purchase List

[Coming soon]

What Becomes of the Old TRC Space? (HL 124)

Some possible ideas:

  • HL 122 and HL 123 return to group study/meeting rooms
  • A reader’s nook? Furniture designed for comfy reading: recliners, end tables with lamps, etc.
  • A maker space (paper cutters, glue sticks, etc, for physical design)?
  • Group work area?
  • How about diner-style booths?
  • An informal teaching/presentation area: a big screen could be placed on the west wall

References

Pink, D. H. (2006). A whole new mind: Why right-brainers will rule the future. New York, NY: Penguin.

Shirky, C. (2010). Cognitive surplus: How technology makes consumers into collaborators. New York, NY: Penguin.