Reflection 1 (PLN)

When you work in an academic library, you are constantly thinking of new ideas and ways to improve your library. Ways to keep your students engaged and on track for academic success. One way is to ensure they have up-to-date technology they can rely on. Often, when it comes to technology, academic libraries tend to stick to what they are familiar with. What they know is being 20-year-old printers that make your scanned PDFs look like they were scanned in a moving car. When most of the technology is older than the target demographic of students, you know that something needs to change.
I am proposing a KIC Bookeye 4 V2 Scanner because it directly addresses student needs and will enhance daily experiences for students, library staff, and faculty. As Carrie Spector states in the Stanford Report, "Technology is a game-changer for education – it offers the prospect of universal access to high-quality learning experiences, and it creates fundamentally new ways of teaching" (Spector, 2024).
The biggest challenge in this proposal has been finding a way to justify the cost of the scanners. For everyone who has had to make multiple scans a day, they understand the need, but for those who do not, it will take some convincing.
While I have been drafting my library technology proposal, I have been able to see other areas of the library I would also love to update. This has opened my eyes to just how much could be improved upon. The students deserve a library that meets their technology needs. One way that I try to stay informed on student needs is by implementing a suggestions box in my library. Whenever a student verbally tells me about something they would like the library to have, I make a note, and if we can purchase it, we do. However, not every student feels comfortable asking us directly; the suggestion box has been a great way to get more student feedback. 
It is our job to make sure that students have all the tools they need in order to succeed. When a student has been in the library for over 8 hours studying for finals, the last thing they need is a printer that is older than they are, spouting error messages when they are trying to scan a graph. I have been on the receiving end of a student who is at their wits' end and on the verge of tears when the document they just scanned is not loading properly. They deserve technology that can keep up with them and does not add extra stress to their very busy lives. 

Work Cited

Spector, C. (2024, February 14). How technology is reinventing K-12 Education. Stanford Report. https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2024/02/technology-in-education 

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