UNM Libraries is moving its databases from e-reserves to the Learn system, giving students a one-stop shop for class materials.
Library Operations Manager Aaron Blecha said they began to advertise the switch in June, and the process is currently underway, with e-reserves to no longer available after Dec. 11.
“I feel excited for it, because I think students and professors will be better served,” Blecha said. “It is a service that, in it’s heyday, was very popular that’s really dwindled in popularity.”
UNM Libraries have been sending emails targeting users of the e-reserve system, he said, to notify them of the transition. The response from professors has been mostly positive, with a few mixed reactions,
“Any system that a professor or individual has gotten used to using, they become attached to it,” Blecha said.
He said that in all cases, after he has met with professors to communicate the benefits of the new system, they are more comfortable and enthusiastic about the change.
There are several reasons for the change, Blecha said. One of the bigger factors is student input. He said many students expressed frustration with the need for both UNM Learn and e-reserves to access readings for their courses.
“We want to generate a consistent and effective homogeneous experience for students,” he said.
With e-reserves, Blecha said there are some obstacles to accessing the materials that won’t be present with the Learn infrastructure.
“Learn has a much more fluid access: it authenticates through the student’s NetID as opposed to a password that the library generates,” he said.
Blecha also said that while three-fourths of professors have some footprint in the Learn environment, under ten percent utilize the e-reserves. Likewise, there are under 140 courses active in e-reserves, compared to 2,000 that are in the current Learn environment.
“We felt that there was a strong duplication and functionality between the Docutek e-reserves and Learn,” he said. “It was yet another reason that we had to discontinue it.”
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Director of Access Services Cindy Pierard said another reason for the change is the Docutek software itself, as it has not been updated for six years and has become more problematic to use recently.
Problems include such issues as not working on portable reading devices and lack of compatibility with various browsers, among other things, she said. In addition, Pierard said they were worried about the Docutek e-reserves system imminently crashing.
“It just didn’t seem like it’s a stable platform anymore,” she said.
Pierard said they suspect that perhaps it hasn’t been updated in a while due to a great many universities now use a learning management system, such as Blackboard, Canvas or Moodle.
“The thought of students not being able to access any of their readings or professors you need to have that stuff on a stable system with support,” she said. “There are a large number of courses where professors have students read electronic readings for the class, and we think it’s important for students to have access to those. We just see the advantage with Learn, being that it is all in one place.”
Unlike Docutek e-reserves, Learn provides a central home base for all course necessities like syllabi, announcements, reading materials, grades and communication methods, she said.
When Docutek started in 2003, the University did not yet have Learn, so e-reserves were the only means of online access students had to their courses, she said. Now, close to three-fourths of UNM courses are taught using Learn in some way or another.
“It just seemed like, you know, this is going to be a platform that’s already widely used,” she said. “It’s robust, it’s stable and seems like it’s going to be a better student experience.”
Pierard said the library, however, will still do physical course reserves.
“We still have some instructors who do put actual physical books or films, other materials on reserve,” she said. “We’re not stopping that; that’s going to continue.”
In addition, UNM Libraries will offer a scanning service in which the staff can scan articles or other educational literature and email them to the professor to be put online through Learn.
“We want to help,” she said. “It’s a change at a busy time, and we understand that, and we just want to try to help people get through it as painlessly as possible.”
Matthew Reisen is a senior reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
