Brick & Click Conference - November 4, 2016

The student workers have always been part of academic libraries doing myriad of tasks. Most of them are hired to shelve returned books, checking out library material, helping users at the information desk, and many chores necessary to keep the library running. However, students can also be of great help in more specialized tasks that align with their school curriculum by providing them a real-life learning experience while also helping libraries when there is manpower shortage.
At the UMKC School of Law, we initiated a new experiment in which we hired students from the computer science department to help us develop mobile and web applications that can benefit not only the law library but also the law school and the entire university. The students work on various projects designed to solve existing problems such as a library mobile application and a room schedule display system, while the students also get to work on experimental projects such as short story dispenser and close proximity notification system.
In this presentation, the speaker shares the initial results of this on-going experiment as well as some tips for libraries interested in initiating similar programs.