Engineers fundamentally solve problems. Engineering students are obtaining the education necessary to develop problem-solving skills and tools. Olin College of Engineering was founded on the philosophy that a hands-on, entrepreneurial, design-centered engineering education would create engineers ready to solve current and emerging problems.
Olin‘s library has embraced the college‘s philosophy through the development of a realia, or learning objects collection that supports multiple intelligences. Moving beyond these learning objects, library staff wanted to build a collection of materials samples that enhance the engineering curriculum, and specifically design and materials science courses. Students use the objects to make project decisions and for inspiration. The hands-on nature of the collection aligns with the pedagogical philosophy of the college. These objects are physically available and also will have a digital representation. A partnership between the library and specific courses is helping build the collection, while subscriptions from vendors assure a steady growth of new objects.
The collection requires three phases of thought and development: display of objects, storage of objects, and the digital representation of objects. The digital representation has several layers of development, from database building to metadata decisions to sample photos to the workflow & policy decisions.
This paper will briefly discuss the philosophy and development of Olin College and the Olin College Library, and then address the new collection. The materials samples collection creation involved site visits to other types of samples collections such as museums and curriculum centers, discussions with faculty, partnerships with vendors, and re-alignment of existing library collections and space. The physical and virtual collections directly serve student and curriculum needs, provide a sense of collection ownership by the contributing students, and create new partnerships with faculty.
Dee Magnoni is the Library Director at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Massachusetts, USA. She was hired as the library‘s first director in 2002 and set up much of the services and resources from scratch, including a realia collection that engages several of the students‘ intelligences. A 2010/11 sustainable energy grant allowed Dee to deepen the library‘s book and media collections in this area. The grant also sparked the formal launch of the materials samples collection. Dee previously worked in both business and engineering libraries within corporate America and academia. She received her MLS from SUNY-Albany (1992) and her BA from Lehigh University (1986). Dee is an active member of the Special Libraries Association, where she is a Fellow and has served in several leadership roles.
#iatul2012 #p211 creating a searchable database based on selected metadata specific to materials.
— Phoebe Lim Choon Lan (@PhoebeLimCL) June 5, 2012
#iatul2012 #p211 how to physically organize and store physical samples?
— Phoebe Lim Choon Lan (@PhoebeLimCL) June 5, 2012
Advantage of a small university – library opens 24/7 possible!#P211 #iatul2012
— IATUL 2012 (@iatul2012) June 5, 2012
#iatul2012 #p211 realia in Olin’s library lockerz.com/s/214537716
— Phoebe Lim Choon Lan (@PhoebeLimCL) June 5, 2012
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering – Only 350 students in total – all engineering students!#P211 #iatul2012
— IATUL 2012 (@iatul2012) June 5, 2012
Remember the word “realia” when you want to justify getting play things. 🙂 Neat. A materials sample library. Huh. The library opens 24/7 with only 3 staff. Tagging samples should be interesting. I like the fact that students help tag.