It is no secret that academic research is more focused on the Internet as opposed to books than ever before. Not wanting to be caught behind the times, the Tisch Library has recently launched several new technology initiatives, including a pilot program to stream video clips to students in five classes over the Tufts network.
The system uses a Web−browser based video−streaming interface that will be familiar to users of popular video−streaming Web sites including Youtube.com, Hulu.com and Netflix.com. Students enrolled in the classes can log onto Blackboard Academic Suite, click on a link and watch the clips rather than make the trek to Tisch Library's media center.
The pilot program's five classes are spread out over the subjects of English, Spanish, dance, history and American studies.
"We're still in the learning stage, and that's the reason why this is our pilot semester. We're going to encounter bumps and starts and stops," Richard Fleischer, media coordinator for the Tisch Library, said.
Tisch had been looking into a streaming service for years but needed a vendor with a reliable service before moving forward. Thanks to a large gift by the family of a graduating senior to the Bernstein Media Center, Tisch was able to do just that. "As economic times got bad, we had this wonderful gift there," Fleischer said.
If the pilot program is successful, the library hopes to extend it to other media−intensive classes. However, students hoping that the Tisch Library will soon take the place of popular video−streaming sites like Hulu.com and Netflix.com shouldn't hold their breath — or cancel their accounts — just yet.
Several restrictions have been placed on the service to ensure compliance with copyright laws. Students can only watch videos relevant to classes in which they are enrolled, and the links to those videos will expire at the end of the semester. Students also cannot watch full films, only clips deemed relevant.
Although the streamed videos can be watched anywhere on campus, students living in off−campus housing will not be able to watch the clips from the comfort of their homes.
"It's a problem," Fleischer said. "We felt that the copyright infringement possibility would have been much more problematic [if we allowed] students to watch things outside the immediate network area."
Laura Walters, Tisch Library's associate director for teaching, research and information, believes the system's benefits outweigh any shortcomings for students living in off−campus apartments. "They at least don't have to come to the library," she said. "They can come anywhere on campus if they have their laptop."
"We have to err a little on the cautious side," Fleischer added.
Complying with complex copyright laws was a chief focus of those involved with project.
"There's absolutely no case law for copyright —not either in the print world or in the online world — so you interpret the copyright law and you interpret these fair use guidelines," Walters said. "Because there is no case law, you will never get the same answer from any attorney you ask."
Not only does the library hope to stay at the forefront of technology with its video streaming services, but it also plans to do so through its Twitter.com and Facebook.com pages.
"We're always keeping in mind how students are looking for information — what tools they're using and how they are using them — so we started looking at Twitter," Thomas Cox, technical project manager for the Tisch Library, said.
"We put up this page, we didn't advertise it, and we just started putting things out there, and what was striking was that we were using this to talk about things like author talks, new resources that had become available, and without any advertisement, people started finding it," Cox said. "We didn't tell anyone this existed, and within a month we had 60 students following us."
The library first created a Twitter page last August, but has recently been looking into new ways to use the service, which previously focused on announcing events like author talks.
"We discovered that Twitter could actually function as sort of a window into the human resources of the library and allow students to get [a] great sense of not only what they can do in the building, but in what ways the staff of this library can help them, so we're very excited about it," Cox said.
The library also keeps a Facebook page, but its focus is different than the Twitter page.
"The Facebook page is an opt−in experience, so students become a fan of us, and we do have information about things that are happening in the library, but with the Facebook page, we also have embedded into it direct service routes so you can use the catalogue from the Facebook page," Cox said.
"What I think is kind of exciting about Twitter is the informality of it: the ‘social' in ‘social media.' We're posting some things that are going on in the world of library science that we think inspire critical thinking, and we're putting that out there as well," Cox said. "The Facebook page is more of a service: it's more of a ‘come and do things' [service]."
Walters sees the library's Facebook and Twitter pages as just more options for students who want to get in contact with the library about using its resources. To that end, Tisch is also looking into a text message system to communicate with students, but that project is not yet in full−scale planning stages.
"We're still happy for students to come into the library and talk to us face−to−face. That is still our favorite way to interact with students, but we know different people like different ways of contacting the library so we want to … reach all the learning styles," Walters said.
