Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

From virtual reality to state–of–the–art makerspaces, higher education institutions are bringing digital innovation to a traditional academic hub on campus.

Despite the innovations happening on college campuses, university libraries continue to be an academic center for students. 

In order to keep up with the continuous marriage of education and technology, universities are implementing new digital solutions in their libraries.

Librarians should lead the way in technology use among fellow residents and gain more time for the most important activity: helping patrons. Since the main mission of most libraries is to offer equality of access to information for every citizen, then why not be a trendsetter in digital use and implement innovative technologies?

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. What you may not know is that you can implement augmented reality in libraries, archives, and museums for free in less than five minutes.

With AR, I didn’t truly ‘get it’ until I experienced it in its early days – a decade ago. Sadly, I’ve been predicting AR would take off for years, but in 2018 it did. My first experience was on the top of a Boulder Colorado hotel giving a speech on ILL value at a conference. I had this new AR app on my phone and decided to use it over coffee break. Visible from the window was the wonderful mountain view—and I opened the app and pointed my smartphone at it, and lo-and-behold the names of the mountains were overlaid on them as well as a few ski trails and tourist routes. Amazing! You’d think one Rocky looks pretty much the same as any other.

An inspiring event that showcases global excellence and ambition in library service, the tour aims to share best practice, and inspire professionals across the world.