July 2009 Archives

With this interactive digital archive, the University of Minnesota Libraries honors the history of Memorial Stadium. Photos, game footage, programs, correspondence, reports, and blueprints from the University Archives' collections were scanned by the Libraries' Digital Library Development Lab and uploaded into Omeka, a free, open source, interactive web-based publishing platform which allows visitors to the site to share their own stories and recollections of Memorial Stadium. The result is a lasting resource reflecting the history of Memorial Stadium from a wide variety of perspectives.

Share and reflect at http://brickhouse.lib.umn.edu/

I'm curious to get your feedback on a web tool that the libraries are currently developing for students. It's called an "Lab Report Assignment Calculator" and it helps walk students through the process of creating lab reports. It can be viewed here: https://tools.lib.umn.edu/ac/?assnId=180

We are generating this base template, that will be fully customizable (click "Save to My Assignments" then "Unlock" to start editing), and are currently
seeking feedback from instructors and coordinators.

If you wouldn't mind, please send me your thoughts on the language, resources, and processed outlined? Is it relevant to introductory physics labs? What would you change? How might you scale it for the advanced lab courses?

I really appreciate your help. And if you have time, I'd be happy to call or stop by to hear what you think. Thanks, Lisa

More tips on how you can use the new assignment calculator at https://tools.lib.umn.edu/ac/instructortips.html

You have probably noticed a change in the blog interfaces of your favorite UMN pages. The latest UThink blog upgrade completely changed the look and added new functionality which might be useful to you.

UMN blogs now have:

• New templates that display recent activity, file uploads (like podcasting), comments, etc.


• Widgets including tag clouds, slide show presentations, and tagging.


• Interface upgrades like WYSISYG editing capabilities and easy media upload.

If you have an older blog and would like to upgrade to use the new features, try these instructions.

Do you need a website for your lab or group? Since the change on June 15th UThink blogs are now capable to four blog "types" that can be customized to:

1. Classic: traditional blog with upgrades listed above


2. Forum: This type of page creates treads where multiple people can add entries and make comments on. Each member of the forum can upload avatars, limit access (private space), and vote on topics to rise them to the top of the page.


3. Community: This type has similar features to the forum, but orders the posts chronologically, perfect for a class. Students can interact on the assignments throughout the semester.


4. Website: the content management system allows uploads and management of assest(images, files, media), a database widget can be customized to organize your information, and the built-in pages (Home, About, Contact, Blog) can be easily customized to give you a professional-looking website quickly and easily.

To learn more about how UThink might fill you web-presence needs, check out the FAQ .