Courtesy of the W.I. Dykes Library News

On Saturday, June 28, 2013, three of UHD's librarians presented a session at the American Library Association's Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. The ALA Annual Conference is the nation's largest library conference, and typically has around 25,000 attendees.

(Photo courtesy of Adam Sexton)

Librarians Jovanni Lota, Lindsey Simard and Ali Van Doren presented as a part of the conference's "Conversation Starters" series. Their session, "LibrARy Orientation: Augmented Reality in the Library," covered a new library orientation activity that is launching fully this fall at UHD, introducing students to important information literacy concepts as well as the library's various services for students through an activity using augmented reality. "It was great to see that other libraries are interested in exploring the use of augmented reality, too, and we were happy to share what our experiences have been so far," Van Doren noted after the session.

This summer, the library has been piloting the orientation activity with incoming freshman students in the Summer Fast Track Institute program, and so far student response has been positive. Lota explained, "We're hoping that the students find the activity and the technology interesting. It's a way for us to meet students where they're at, but at the same time we're getting our message across." Simard added, "It's also a great way for us to demonstrate that the UHD librarians are friendly, eager to help students, and enthusiastic about using innovative technology to contribute to student success."

More information about the activity and how to experience it yourself will be coming out this fall, so watch the Library's blog, Library News, for details!

Summer Fast Track Institute students interact with one of the library's augmented reality objects.