Advancing Digital Transformation in Libraries and Digital Scholarship through Collections, Technology and Partnerships
How can you gamify your library experience through immersive technologies such as AR/VR and 360 technologies? What types of partnerships can be forged to advance digital libraries and digital scholarship? How can libraries ignite interest in our collections through digitized archives to encourage interactive learning experiences?
These are some of the burning questions that the team from NUS Libraries addressed at the EDUTech 2024 Conference, by showcasing success stories from our Special Collections and Tech Central and how we effectively integrate collections, partnerships and technology within the library. We give you a quick recap of what our colleagues shared at the conference – read on to find out more!
Collections: Harnessing digitised archives for dynamic teaching and learning
Research Librarian Nur Diyana Abdul Kader highlighted the potential of digital archives in education, citing instances of collections being used during information literacy programmes embedded in courses offered at NUS. Digital collections, such as maps, historical texts, and multimedia content, not only provide innovative ways to engage with materials but also enhance the management and preservation of fragile documents. Integrating these collections into teaching also fosters critical thinking by encouraging students to analyse primary sources, question historical narratives, and understand socio-cultural contexts.
Technologies like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) improve accessibility, making archival materials searchable and usable by a broader audience, including those with visual impairments. The integration of supplementary digital formats—such as oral histories, video footages, and 360-degree images—activates and contextualizes traditional documents, creating immersive learning experiences. This collaborative, multi-perspective approach nurtures deeper understanding and brings historical and cultural studies to life in dynamic new ways.
Technologies: Elevating the exploration of learning spaces through gamification
Senior Librarian Richard Ho and Libraries Executive Radzi Rahim showcased how they made use of scavenger hunt creator technologies to increase engagement with library collections and programmes.
Utilizing a non-linear PowerPoint presentation with game-like elements, Richard and Radzi took conference participants through how NUS Libraries put together the software, technologies and equipment found in our TEL Imaginarium to curate and create a unique discovery experience for students. (Visit the TEL Imaginarium website to find out more!).
The presentation concluded with some benefits of utilizing immersive and scavenger hunt technologies to motivate and engage learners in library programmes. For example, how we used gaming platforms to motivate participation in our Tech Central Carnival 2024.
Although this presentation featured library-oriented use cases, many non-library participants found the presentation useful and applicable to general educational contexts – This was evidenced by active participation of the crowd, taking photos of the presented content and scanning QR codes to access our XR experiences. After the session, our speakers were also approached by educators interested in discussing gamification in courses.
Partnerships: Museum-Library collaborations to use 3D technologies and innovative educational strategies
Principal Librarian Raudhah Thongkam and Digital Technologies Executive Hisyam Rosli spoke about the power of partnerships, using the collaborations between NUS Museum and NUS Libraries as a study in the natural partnership between these collections-oriented institutions. Beyond housing artwork and artefacts, NUS Museum regularly conducts educational outreach programmes and course collaborations; similarly, NUS Libraries doesn’t just house book collections, but helps explore the use of technologies for emerging information formats such as 3D scanning and printing, and how they can be applied to enhance scholarship and learning.
With their powers combined, the library staff contributed to a museum archaeological event called ‘Be an Archaeologist for a Day’. This event, held in collaboration with the National Heritage Board, needed durable replicas for children to role play as professional archaeologists to examine a mini-excavation site. The feedback from users were positive, and children enjoyed the tactile learning experience afforded through digging up and examining the 3D printed replicas, an enhancement from the traditional display where artefacts were hidden behind lock-and-key.
Besides creating fun replicas for participants, NUS Museum staff also received training on 3D printing technologies from NUS Libraries staff, and found that 3D printing offered great benefits to their work with artefact study, replacing time-consuming clay modelling and allowing the development of higher-quality replicas at scale.
Since this presentation, we have also applied 3D printing to natural history artefacts from the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum such as a Singapore mousedeer skull, which was featured in our workshop on “Leopard Cats in Singapore: The Last Wild Cat but are They Here to Stay?”. This allowed nature enthusiasts to interact with a life-sized replica of a mousedeer skull without putting the fragile original at risk of damage.
To wrap up this blog post, the presentations highlighted above demonstrate the exciting potential for librarians to leverage technology—such as XR, 3D, and 360 technologies—to enhance engagement with various collections, whether they be books, artworks, or museum artifacts. By collaborating with strategic partners like alumni, heritage institutions, and faculty members, librarians can unlock new ways to connect with their audiences and enrich the educational experience.
It was our privilege to share some of our experiences in applying learning technologies at the library, and were encouraged by the good turn-out and post-presentation discussion at our sessions. There was plenty of inspiration and ideas from speakers sharing tools, best practices and resources, motivating us to continue our journey of transforming the library, and hopefully, continuing to share our experiences with the world.
Contributed by:
Radzi Rahim, Executive, NUS Libraries
Richard HO, Senior Librarian (Scholarly Communications Librarian), NUS Libraries
Hisyam Rosli, Executive (Digital Technologies Executive), NUS Libraries
Raudhah THONGKAM, Principal Librarian (Immersive Learning Librarian), NUS Libraries
Nur Diyana Abdul Kader, Librarian (Research Librarian – HASS), NUS Libraries
Suei Nee WONG, Senior Librarian (Research Librarian – STEM), NUS Libraries
Siu Chen LIM, Senior Librarian (Research Librarian – HASS), NUS Libraries
Magdeline NG Tao Tao, Vice University Librarian, NUS Libraries
The authors would like to thank NUS Libraries for their commitment to staff development in providing them the opportunity to attend EDUTech Asia 2024. They would also like to thank Marcus Wong and Natalie Pang for looking through drafts of this piece.
Disclosure:
This article is an original work by the authors. Generative AI was used to assess the flow of the document.