Many libraries (especially in developing and under-developed countries) rely on OERs to provide information for their patrons. What I have noticed however is that these resources are many and scattered all over the internet. What is a good way to gather all these reources and organize so that patrons have everything in one place and able to search and access easily?
Libraries are channels of information and it has a duty to serve with right information to right people at right time. In my opinion, libraries should organise a web page showing major subjects/topics of concerned information. This page may be hyper-linked to some another pages with information (details) at micro level. The libraries now have meta data searches for its occupied resources on Web OPACs. If this type of cataloguing would be possible for open access electronic resources, it would be better...
RDA is a good cataloging choice. OCLC info: https://www.oclc.org/support/training/portfolios/cataloging-and-metadata/rda.en.html
PALS has a site with workshop info at https://www.mnpals.org/content/acquisitionsserials-and-cataloging-workday-april-2013 and a PDF of examples https://www.mnpals.org/system/files/RDA-Electronic%20Resources.pdf
I am part of an initiative called Affordable Learning Georgia (United States) to use OERs. My links to various resources: http://libguides.darton.edu/OpenEText (i am providing links rather than a catalog -Libguides is a 3rd party system, but there are similar free systems for linking pages- we received Libguides as part of this initiative and use it for library help pages in addition to linkages.
http://libguides.darton.edu/OpenEText
https://www.mnpals.org/content/acquisitionsserials-and-cataloging-workday-april-2013
https://www.mnpals.org/system/files/RDA-Electronic%20Resources.pdf
https://www.oclc.org/support/training/portfolios/cataloging-and-metadata/rda.en.html
Wow...thanks so much for all of this information. With so many libraries struggling where finances are concerned Open Educational Resources is the way that many are going to provide quality information for their customers. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Madam Carr,
You may have a separate web page for OERs where you can provide web links to the select OERs. The answer of Ms.Caryl Nemajovsky is a best example. Good Luck.
I wish to add that, Google Custom Search is a good tool used to mobilise relevant websites from the internet, and making them searchable simultaneously.
When the resourcees involved have MARC records, these can be imported into the library's database system. One however, needs to pay attention to the level of pertinence of the resources being made available, as far as the user community is concerned.
You can use Open Source Solution also : SubjectPLus
http://www.subjectsplus.com/
http://www.subjectsplus.com/
I'll echo Caryl and Francis. The libraries I'm most familiar with (US academic libraries) don't have the resources to catalog a lot of free web sites. That's usually left to reference or liaison librarians to pull that information together on web pages or guides. They will only do that if the content is useful to their patrons.
Speaking from personal experience, subject directories are good in that they help organise resources by subject. However, without a comprehensive search tool, a subject direcotry stands to be woefully underutilsed. The multidisciplinary nature of some materials is one reason for this - a material you are seeking in one discipline might have been placed under another discipline because it fits there too. The laborious task of wandering from one link to the other is another reason. One is likely to look for an item under the wrong discipline. One funny thing associated with looking for items in the list is that, one's fallible eyes may not even see the item here is looking for, although it is right there. Performing a search by entering your key term or concept, for me is the best method of locating what you want. This is one reason why putting OER together and rendering them searchable is a good approach to making resources available to library clientele. I found that Google Custom search perfectly does the job
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Publication