LS589 - Week 1 blog post: DPLA and Adobe Spark

The Oxford Union style debate at Harvard our class watched as an assignment led me to research the presenters, one of whom was involved with Digital Public Library of America. The DPLA is a national digital library that provides books, images and more to those with access to the Internet. This is a fascinating site that features more than 14 million items from libraries, archives and museums.

Prepare to get lost as you explore by location, date, exhibitions and more. A separate apps feature includes images, colors, language, frequency maps, phrases, and (in my opinion) the two greatest apps: historical cats and historicalGIFs. Excuse me while I continue my studies researching cats and gifs!

Image from the Boston Public Library via DPLA

After learning about and creating a Voki (here’s my introduction), I wondered what else was out there and stumbled upon Adobe Spark, a way to turn ideas into social graphics, web stories and animated videos. I even made my own introduction:

You can pick a story template such as promote an idea, tell what happened, a hero’s journey, show and tell, personal growth, teach a lesson, an invitation or make up your own. Use your own photos, search for photos online or from a service such as Dropbox, Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Google Photos or use a preloaded icon.

You may be wondering what this all has to do with the library. This week’s readings focused on evaluating Integrated Library Systems (known as ILS in the library world). To non-library folks, ILS is the software (and more) that creates the online catalog you would use to search for an item at the library. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but to a library, it’s a huge deal to ensure that the system used by the library is the one that best meets the needs of its users.

Before a library considers switching ILS systems, it will research the various ones out there (my public library, the James V. Brown Library, uses Polaris) and speak with other libraries of similar type and size that serve a comparable population. There are now amazing resources to use to connect virtually with other libraries across the world, such as Skype, WebEx, Join.Me and others.

However, I see Spark as a way for library staff to conduct continuing education trainings, educational programming, presentations, and virtual, off-site educational opportunities. A library staff member can use a quick Spark video to show patrons how to use the specific library services and resources, such as downloading a book through OverDrive, learning a new language through Mango Languages, or even taking a practice exam through LearningExpress.

At my public library, there are a lot of requests for genealogy research and help and a simple Spark tutorial could show a newcomer how to use the microfilm machines, navigate POWER Library, and where to begin research using Ancestry, My Heritage and other similar sites.

If you have any favorite apps you’d like to share, please comment below!