Thanks so much for your thorough analysis, Clayton!

I concur with your summary, and would be especially concerned about the lack of any review and the limitation of content types, both of which were strongly desired by survey responders. 

-----Original Message-----

From: Crenshaw, Clayton E. [mailto:ClaytonE_Crenshaw@baylor.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 6:01 PM

To: 'Amanda M Goodsett'; Andrea Beckendorf; Brennan, Patricia B. M.; Jonathan Sauceda; Lazar,Lisa A; Sara Nodine

Subject: MLA Instruction Subcommittee - CORA

After comparing our database needs and wants with the Project CORA site, here are my observations, some of which Mandi has already identified.   - Clayton

PROS:

Permits multiple documents to be attached to posts.

Contributors can update their submissions at any time.

Posts include sections for Learning Outcomes, Course Context, Pitfalls/Teaching Tips, Relevant Links, and Additional Resources. 

Individual posts can have comments, some of which are identified as adaptations of the original idea.  An account is required for comments, which should control spam.

Search options include the basic categories from both the ACRL Standards and the Framework.  Also included are student level and group vs. individual.  Tags provide another layer of metadata, and there is also a keyword search. 

Music-related posts can be isolated using the discipline limit.

The site incorporates a blog where the community can share their experiences and get updates.

All contributions can be shared through a single Creative Commons license.

Potentially greater visibility for music librarians who contribute.

CONS:

CORA's content is more focused than what we had planned.  It contains a wide variety of "assignments," but it is not broad enough to include syllabi or course outlines.

Anyone with the appropriate credentials can be a contributor, and there is no peer review process. 

The posts do not have as many fields as we wanted.  For instance, I don't see any separate database fields for: duration, materials needed, or library resources used. 

Brief profiles are provided for the contributors, but no contact information (by default).

Permitted file types are limited-it does not permit sharing of PowerPoint files, Blackboard modules, etc. 

SUMMARY:

CORA looks like a solid platform for sharing instructional methods and materials, and it has many of the features that the Subcommittee outlined and that our colleagues suggested.  If we adopted it, though, we would have to give up some things.  The important ones that I see are:

Librarian and music focus - We would be part of a site that covers all disciplines, and we would have to share the music space with music faculty members, graduate students, and others.

Peer review - 86% of the 2014 survey respondents wanted content to be peer-reviewed.

Content - We would not be able to share some of the content types that have been suggested, and the posts would not contain some of our desired information fields.

Contacts - Surprisingly, CORA does not provide an easy way to contact the contributors.

-----Original Message-----

From: Amanda M Goodsett [mailto:a.goodsett@csuohio.edu]

Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2016 1:48 PM

To: Andrea Beckendorf <beckenan@luther.edu>; Brennan, Patricia B. M. <PBrennan@ric.edu>; Crenshaw, Clayton E. <ClaytonE_Crenshaw@baylor.edu>; Jonathan Sauceda <jonathan.sauceda@rutgers.edu>; Lazar,Lisa A <llazar@uakron.edu>; Sara Nodine <snodine@fsu.edu>

Subject: MLA Instruction Subcommittee

Hi everyone,

I don't know if any of you are on the acrlframe list-serv, but there has been some positive talk about CORA recently (see below). In my experimentation with CORA, it seemed like a good fit with our needs as described in the documents from our work space on the MLA website. There's an option to indicate the discipline of the assignments, so it would be easy for music librarians to just look at relevant music information literacy assignments. The interface is also really visually appealing and user-friendly. To submit assignments, librarians will have to register with the site, but the process is really straight-forward and registering allows you to have a sort of teaching profile, which I really like. It's possible to attach a number of documents to an assignment, and all submitted assignments are licensed under a CC BY NC SA license. The only downside is that assignments aren't peer-reviewed (although members can add comments and in order to submit you must be affiliated with an educational institution). That said, my vote is still to go with CORA for our assignment repository.

As far as the other ideas that are due on Friday, I don't have anyone to recommend for the Framework working group. I'm very interested in this topic and I'd love to be involved, but I realize that the group needs to be small and probably consist of more experienced librarians. :)

I also don't really have any suggestions for proposals that we might sponsor that have to do with the theme of international students. However, if there is any place for it, I have been doing a lot of experimentation with using technology (i.e. Google forms, Padlet, tutorials, etc. - http://researchguides.csuohio.edu/mus113) in the classroom with music students and I would be interested in presenting about that--if not this year, then in the future.

Mandi

Mandi Goodsett

Performing Arts & Humanities Librarian

Michael Schwartz Library, RT 110D

Cleveland State University

a.goodsett@csuohio.edu

216-802-3362

·         I’ve opened a new “conversation” in our Forums on the MLA website, and I’ll put this information there too.  I think it’s really helpful if we can put all the threads of a discussion there for future reference—it sure worked well for our Annual Meeting planning.

·         I’m pasting below my latest e-mail exchange with Katie Buehner, the MLA Web Manager.  We were waiting for Katie to determine whether or not there is a way to use the MLA’s proprietary content management system (CMS) for our project.

·         From her message, I’m understanding that she did not find a feasible way to use the MLA CMS.  That’s not surprising, since it is designed for association business functions, but she thought there might be a work-around.  Katie is now suggesting WordPress, but she has no experience with it.  I see that as good news/bad news—good news because the door is now open to use a flexible, popular, and free or low-cost CMS outside of the MLA main site; bad news because development would take a long time and considerable effort.  I am volunteering to help, which could speed up the timeline, but it would not be done quickly (I have experience with Drupal, but not much with WordPress).  I assured Katie that we could provide sample records for her to work with.

·         We discussed the pros and cons of Project CORA, and postponed a final decision until we heard back from Katie.  So with this new information, I think our next step is to decide:  do we take the plunge and build our own custom repository, or start populating CORA and recommend its adoption as the “official instructional repository of the MLA”?

-          Clayton

Thanks for the update, Katie.  I’ll report back to the Subcommittee; based on this information, we’ll need to decide whether to continue on the path to a custom repository or to recommend adopting CORA, which we have discussed.  I’ll let you know what I find out.

If we decide to go for a MLA-branded site, then we can definitely provide sample records.  Would it be possible that I could help with the site?  That could move things along faster, and I would also be interested in acquiring experience with WordPress.  It sounds like you have more MLA work than should be expected of one person, so I would be open to helping you with other projects too if that’s of interest. 

More later   - Clayton

From: Buehner, Katie R [mailto:katie-buehner@uiowa.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2016 2:32 PM
To: Crenshaw, Clayton E. <ClaytonE_Crenshaw@baylor.edu>
Subject: Instruction Database

Clayton,

I know it’s been a long time since you’ve heard from me about the Instruction Database, but I’d not a.) been satisfied with any of the options available to date and b.) other MLA web projects have needed to take priority.

I think I’m on the heels of a good solution for this project. I think I can build the needed database using Wordpress, but this will be an entirely new skillset and take some time to create. That being said, if successful, it would serve as a great model for other MLA projects, much the way that the CMC website paved the way for other microsites hosted by MLA (Copyright, Regional Chapters, etc.). In other words, if y’all are willing to help with the long slog of being the first to give this a try, I think we can do a very cool thing.

Right now, priorities on the Web Committee and Manager’s desk include the Orlando website (which still requires significant work), tying up loose end for the chapter websites that have already migrated, starting migrations for the Preservation website and remaining chapter websites, installing a major upgrade of OJS for the MLA Newsletter, and finishing cleanup on the mobile template migration of the main website. I’m telling you this so you don’t get your hopes up to have this done quickly. I can try to have something for the group to review before Orlando, but that’s the best I can shoot for.

In the meantime, to best develop a database, I’ll need some data. Any chance you can get me 10-15 potential records that I can use to create the database? It would help me to figure out the tables I’ll need to establish.

Thanks!

-Katie

Katie Buehner

Head, Rita Benton Music Library

University of Iowa

katie-buehner@uiowa.edu

(319) 335-3088