When working with faculty, students, and staff on digital projects, librarians at the Grinnell College Libraries need to provide these constituents with tools to create robust metadata for these digital projects. The Grinnell College Libraries sought to create a user-friendly alternative. The landed on using Google Forms and Sheets to facilitate metadata creation.
The Grinnell College Libraries has collaborated on digital oral histories with the Grinnell College Office of Development and Alumni Relations, the Drake Community Library, and a mental health advocacy project.
Librarians Kevin Engel, Liz Rodrigues, and Rebecca Ciota discuss the library instruction session portion of the Grinnell Science Project, a program to promote diversity in STEM majors at Grinnell College.
Along with the rise of digital scholarship librarians have taken on new roles in working with faculty, students, and staff in a variety of ways including consulting on metadata. Grinnell College librarians utilize a variety of tools including Google forms to sheets.
Working with faculty and staff to create digital projects requires a complex group of skills and activities. Potential collaborators often jump to the end vision without fully grasping the need for proper description & metadata. Using Google Forms & Sheets is perceived as neutral and less frightening than working in a repository platform or using other proprietary productivity software.
