Accessibility and All-Digital Libraries

Uproar ensued at Vermont State University in early February when the institution announced its intentions of moving its library fully digital. The university is being created from a merging of three separate institutions, and the merger and digital library are expected to be completed by July 1st of 2023. The university cited financial constraints and accessibility as reasons for eliminating a physical library, also claiming to have consulted with the staff and student body on the issue. However, staff members and students publicly stated their dissatisfaction with the university’s decision.

The Positives

In response to backlash regarding the Vermont State University’s decision, the university’s president stated, “Higher education is changing. And digital libraries are the way of the future.” Many libraries are deciding to move towards a digital space. These libraries shifting to the digital realm usually give accessibility as a reason for the shift, just like Vermont State University. Digital libraries offer many ways to increase accessibility.

Time

While less of an issue for public libraries, time is critical for university libraries. Procrastinating students researching the night before would no longer be hindered by the inconvenient interlibrary loan. Digital sources would be available immediately without waiting on the physical book to be sent to the student’s library location from another library. The speed of access to materials increases with a transition to a digital library.

Night owls and early birds would be able to access materials at all hours of the night and the very early morning. Unlike a physical library, resources can be accessed digitally from home at any time. Students’ access to books is no longer limited to hours of operation.

Mobility

Mobility is less critical for public libraries but important for university libraries. Commuters and traveling students would be able to access materials on the go. Rather than being burdened by physical books or being unable to access the materials needed, students could access resources digitally.

Covid-19 lockdowns forced students to work online. Access to physical libraries was impossible due to legal restrictions. University campuses were closed, and students were forced to work online. Even after the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns were over, many students remained online. Because of this, digital libraries increase accessibility for them. Remote or online students may not have the ability to access physical library resources.

Removal of Physical Barriers

Digital libraries could expand accessibility for those with disabilities. This is a critical issue for both public and university libraries. Those with mobility issues wouldn’t have to worry about getting to and from the building. People who are visually impaired can utilize auditory functions, such as texts that can be read aloud. Those who experience sight impairment would also be able to make visual changes to the materials, such as adjusting font size and screen brightness to personal preference.

Digital libraries increase access to texts in different languages. International students or multilingual students would have a greater chance of utilizing materials in the language of their choice. Physical libraries are more limited in the ability to have multilingual resources.

The Negatives

Regardless of the benefits of going digital, many readers are opposed. For example, Vermont State University students protesting the digital library explained that the digital format actually decreases accessibility.

Lack of Resources

According to the Federal Communications Commission, “Approximately 19 million Americans—6 percent of the population—still lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds.” Internet both costs money and is difficult to obtain in rural areas. Digital libraries create another expense that may not be accessible to some.

Digital media must be consumed using a device. Students need to have access to a computer or e-reader to utilize the resources from a digital library. A physical library offers access to those unable to obtain a device. Additionally, not everyone has a place to complete work. A physical library offers a safe quiet space to work and read with internet access.

Lack of Assistance

Many Americans struggle with digital literacy. According to a study conducted by Pew Research Center, “A majority of U.S. adults can answer fewer than half the questions correctly on a digital knowledge quiz.” Eliminating a physical library and moving to a digital one could harm the digitally illiterate.

Removing the physical library also removes in-person assistance from librarians. Locating the desired information or source can be difficult. Utilizing the search engine may look different from library to library and is sometimes difficult to manage. Searches can require certain keywords in order to locate the desired information. A physical library allows a person to ask for assistance from an in-person professional rather than navigating a digital space alone or with a chatbot.

Physical Barriers

Staring at a computer screen or e-reader constantly can be both annoying and a real problem for some. Blue light from many screens affects the body’s circadian rhythm and ability to sleep. Those with brain injuries are instructed to avoid looking at screens. Conditions such as computer syndrome can develop, causing vision problems.

Combatting the Negatives

While some issues with digital libraries such as blue light exposure are unavoidable, some are already being combatted. Libraries are already beginning to blend digital media with physical space. The space could be smaller and less staffed due to the elimination of physical media, but still offer a place to work and a librarian to assist. Additionally, maintaining a physical space would allow those without internet access to utilize digital media while in the library’s physical space. Some libraries allow people to borrow e-readers and computers, helping those unable to purchase the appropriate technology to consume digital media. In a world with rapidly advancing technology, the digital world is inevitable. Libraries should attempt to increase accessibility as they navigate the integration of digital media.

GPT Chatbots and Academic Integrity: Why Generative AI Should be Allowed in the Classroom

The International Baccalaureate, a prestigious college prep organization, recently allowed students to use ChatGPT on the IB exam as long as they do not claim it as their work. This surprising development is the latest in the string of headlines related to generative AI. Many school systems have already banned ChatGPT out of fear of academic dishonesty. Turnitin has announced the development of an AI-detection software that will be rolling out in April. Generative AI has made many rapid improvements, but students will not completely forego traditional learning in favor of bot-generated responses. Educators should integrate AI into the classroom so students know how to use the developing technology effectively and ethically.

Limitations with AI

An educator’s biggest fear is that students will use ChatGPT to do their work for them. While this is a valid fear it is often exagerrated. Olya Kudina’s students were tasked with comparing their assignments with an AI generated assignment. They were initially blown away by “how quickly the chatbot rendered information into fluid prose;” that is until they reread the bot’s work. The students realized that the bot was using incorrect information and it was unable to provide sources for the things it was claiming . Kudina’s students concluded that “copying from ChatGPT wouldn’t actually net them a good grade.”

On the other hand, Pieter Snepvangers received a passing grade on a 2,000 word essay that was written by AI. While AI generated work is passable at first glance, it fails to produce high quality academic work. Snepvangers’ essay was very generalized and didn’t include any citations. The lecturer grading the essay said it had “fishy language.”

Many teachers are horrified at the thought that students will be able to type an essay prompt into an AI generator and submit a paper in about 20 minutes; however it is not always that simple. ChatGPT can only produce up to 365 words, meaning that the student must ask the AI multiple questions to meet a higher word count. Snepvanger asked ChatGPT ten different questions related to the essay prompt. After receiving the paragraphs, Snepvanger selected the best ones and “copied them in an order that ‘resembled the structure of an essay,’” Even when trying to use Chat GPT, students must use fundamental writing skills to create a coherent paper.

An AI is unlikely to do well on any assignment that requires anything more than a surface-level understanding of the material. AI can’t properly source an article, and it doesn’t tell its users where its information came from. Any analysis produced by AI will be far too shallow to receive a good grade because the AI is unable to understand the deeper themes of texts or form original perspectives.

AI and Academic Integrity

Many institutions are grappling with the ethics of allowing AI in the classroom. Some are simply requiring that students state when they are using AI generated text. Others are claiming that use of AI in any form is plagiarism. Kalley Huang equates the current status of ChatGPT to Wikipedia in the early 2000’s, which educators also saw as the end of traditional education. Villanova University’s Chair of the Academic Integrity Program, Alice Dailey, believes that schools should allow AI, but they should develop a blanket policy that covers a wide range of circumstances. The advancement of AI technology is going to force educators revolutionize the way they evaluate student progress.

Many schools are moving away from take home essays and are using “in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams” to combat AI plagiarism. Stephen Marche claims that the essay is the “way we teach children how to research, think, and write.” Though these skills are important, there are better ways to teach them in an AI world. Antony Aumann is requiring students write their first draft in the classroom and explain each revision. This method of teaching is not only teaching the students how to write an essay, but is also forcing them to think critically about why they are writing it in this way.

AI in the Classroom

Instead of banning ChatGPT because of its risk to academic integrity, educators should use it as a tool in the classroom. The technology is not going away and students will be unprepared for the future if they are not taught how to use AI efficiently and ethically.

Students can only know the limitations of AI by using it. Ethan Mollick is not only allowing AI in his classroom, but he is mandating it. Mollick’s AI policy requires students to assume the AI is wrong, adding that students will be responsible for errors and omissions on behalf of the AI. Mollick also requires his students to include a paragraph at the end of their work disclosing the use of AI, as well as the prompts used.

Contrary to popular belief, turning in a research paper is not the height of academic evaluation. According to Kathy-Hersh Paseck, it is more important that students develop writing skills, like how to write a thesis and support it, rather than turning in a paper. Students are able to learn these necessary skills by interacting with AI.

Donnie Piercey’s fifth grade class plays a game of “find-the-bot,” which asks students to pick the AI summary out of a lineup with peers’ work. The students said that the exercise helped them identify proper capitalization and punctuation, as well as how to correctly summarize information. This exercise also led to a discussion on writing voice, and why the AI text sounds “stilted.”

AI text generators are tools that should be embraced in the classroom. Like other technology that was new for its time, AI will not go away. The best thing educators can do for their students is to teach them efficient and ethical ways to use AI text generators while still honoring academic integrity and learning essential writing skills.

From Fanfiction to Film: How Wattpad is Ushering in A New Age of Writing

Wattpad is an online community of authors and readers that hosts stories from typically unpublished authors. The site is unique in combining social media and a reading platform, which allows readers to interact with the books and the author. Wattpad was founded in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen as an e-reading platform where “readers could download an app to read and chat about fiction shared by professional and aspiring writers from around the world.” According to Lau, being mobile was the top priority. This mobility allowed for interaction on the site to skyrocket. Wattpad appeals to up-and-coming writers who wanted to distribute their work without going through a publishing process.

Writers typically release the book a chapter at a time and readers can make in-line comments on stories, allowing the writer to adjust the book to the reader’s preferences. Wattpad readers are primarily young people who were drawn to the appeal of free books written by their peers instead of older, more established authors. Many of these young authors became success stories through the constructive criticism and praise they received from their fans.

Anna Todd and Happily Ever After

Wattpad has been a powerhouse for undiscovered authors in the past few years. Anna Todd’s After began as a Harry Styles fanfiction in 2013. Written under the name @imaginator1D, After became an almost overnight success, with the fanbase reaching the hundreds of thousands. Todd wrote the majority of After on her phone, with no outlining or proofreading before she uploaded the chapter to Wattpad. While some may dislike the lack of outline, Todd and her fans equally enjoyed the “social writing” model. Todd would listen to her fans’ feedback and adjust the story to their preferences in real time. Not only did Todd’s fanbase grow, but the relationship between the fan and the author grew as well. Readers felt like they had a say in the story, which increased their loyalty to the author, as well as their willingness to offer financial support.

With the help of Wattpad, Anna Todd received a book deal with Simon and Schuster in 2014, just one year after she published her first chapter on Wattpad. After was also granted a movie in 2019, with three sequels to follow. Todd’s story is a testament to the power that her fans and Wattpad hold. The first movie currently holds an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, though fans give it a significantly better rating of 66%.

Wattpad to Movie Pipeline

Though Todd’s story is one of the most notable, it is far from the only success story that has come from Wattpad. At seventeen, Beth Reekles became the youngest Wattpad writer to score a book deal for her story, The Kissing Booth. Reekle later went on to earn a movie deal with Netflix, though that movie also did poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite the abysmal critic reviews, The Kissing Booth garnered immense fan support. According to Sara Perez, this disconnect is due to the “built in audience” of Wattpad users.

Readers don’t just read and watch these stories, they create them. Wattpad utilizes the fan base when adapting stories for film. In an article for Quartz, Adam Epstein discusses Wattpad’s story-to-film process. The fans are integral to the adaptation process, with some “superfans” gaining access to the script to provide feedback before the film hits the box office. This process seems to work well. Epstein writes,

Most books come with a built-in audience, but this one comes with a built-in audience that’s also invested in the development process itself. It not only makes them more inclined to watch the show when it comes out, but leads them to become evangelists for the project on social media, which helps build buzz.
Adam Epstein, Quartz

Wattpad is unique in that its user base not only reads and shapes the stories on its platform, but also the way the stories transition off the platform.

Story DNA

According to Aron Levitz, the fans’ engagement is part of the “microtrend,” which allows Wattpad to know what will sell based on the size of the fanbase and reader engagement. Macrotrends are made possible by Story DNA. Story DNA is Wattpad’s deep-learning AI technology, which, according to Ashleigh Gardener, “deconstructs stories into their elemental features, such as sentence structure, word use, and grammar,” This gives Wattpad further insight into what makes a story popular outside of comments, likes, and shares. As a result, up-and-coming stories are given a greater chance at being discovered and transitioning off of Wattpad. The development of this technology is leading to a future of reading that is not just consumed by the reader but also formed by them.

Wattpad is unique in the fact that it is constantly reinventing itself to the benefit of its writers and readers. Wattpad has adapted from merely presenting stories to publishing them and promoting them outside of the digital platform. Wattpad not only publishes for fans but with the fans. The future of reading is driven by the reader, not the author or publisher.

What Publishers Can Do to Increase Learning in Digital Textbooks

Focus, comprehension, and critical thinking are shallower when one is reading on a digital device rather than on paper. An Insider article with Patricia Alexander and Lauren Singer showed that reading is faster on a device than on paper. Most people tend to skim through the text in order to find the “answer” rather than closely reading the text.

Despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of print books, we live in a digital age. Many students use free, or even illegal sites to get their textbooks because of the rising costs of education. While e-textbooks are significantly cheaper, that price cut simply cannot compare to a free resource when the student is getting the same experience. Digital textbooks must go beyond simply offering the text and give students an immersive and intuitive approach to learning that has adapted to the digital world.

Limit amount of text on a page

One of the biggest obstacles to close reading in a digital format is text overload, especially when it is formatted as a big block of text. Something that gives digital textbooks an edge over sites like Project Gutenberg is the ability to break up text. Project Gutenberg is popular among students for its free and legal access to many required readings; however, the site is clunky and the HTML format means that the student is forced to read through a wall of text.

Scrolling

Scrolling is one of the worst things a student can do when trying to read online. Even if the student has put away their phone, scrolling through their required reading is one of the biggest distractions for a student. In a study done by Pablo Delgado, Cristina Vargas, Rakefet Ackerman, and Ladislao Salmeron, “scrolling may add a cognitive load to the reading task by making spatial orientation to the text more difficult for readers than learning from printed text.” The mind diverts attention that could be used for comprehension to tracking the text as the reader scrolls, telling the finger to scroll, and when to stop scrolling.

Length

If scrolling is bad, how do publishers fit all the information on the page? Well, they don’t. The best way to help a reader digest information is to limit the amount of information on the page. According to Laura Singer, any more than 500 words on a digital “page” will overload the reader and impact comprehension. You eliminate text overload by fitting a section to a page. This also carries the added benefit of geospatial recognition that is similar to print books.

Headings

The physicality of print books is something that has been increasingly hard to replicate on the digital scale. The geographical place of text within a codex is a key point in how students remember details and it is extremely difficult to digitally replicate. This is where headings come in. Headings and subheadings help to position the reader in the text and break up the text into easier-to-digest sections.

Remove Distractions

The biggest edge that print books have over digital books is their lack of distractions. Many digital textbooks must be accessed online, which requires the student to navigate to a search engine, type in the name of the publisher, log in, and access the textbook. Not only does this limit study time to times where the student has access to the internet, but there are so many opportunities for students to get distracted. It would be easier for students to access their text through an app that allows offline access.

The use of flashy colors and animations can succeed at grabbing a student’s focus, but they can also steal attention away from the material. This is the same concept as scrolling. When the brain has to take in any kind of movement and read a text, comprehension is going to be compromised.

Offer Customizations

The largest benefit over both print books and free websites is customization. The ability to customize the textual space goes beyond aesthetics. Accessibility is easiest in the digital format, where one can quickly change between fonts, colors, and text size. A student with dyslexia can change to a font that better supports reading. A visually challenged student, or a student that learns better through auditory input, can use a text-to-speech feature.

The ability to take notes in the margins is an important part of gaining a deeper understanding of the text; however digital textbooks are unable to provide comparable in-text note taking features. The options are so abysmal that the UNC Learning Center suggests creating a word document for each individual chapter, or writing notes out on a separate sheet of paper. These options take away valuable time and focus from comprehending the text. Furthermore, these options will quickly become bloated and confusing. Publishers must develop an in-text note taking and annotation system in order to have an edge over print books and free resources.

There are benefits and drawbacks to every type of textbook, but the purpose behind every one of them is the same: To help students learn. Education is rapidly moving towards a digital model and students demand textbooks that can keep up.

Publishing and Licensing Through Creative Commons

Publishing through Creative Commons is a quick, free, and easy way to license your online content. This guide will explain how to license your material through Creative Commons and offer a brief explanation of what the different options mean for your work.

Navigating the Website and Finding the Licensing Section

The First step to licensing your material under Creative Commons is to navigate to the ‘Share your work’ page. You may find this link on the home page of the Creative Commons website.

Once you have navigated to the ‘Share your work page,’ the website will present you with two sections. The first section is to choose a license. The second section expresses that you may share your work on a platform that allows Creative Commons licenses.

If you plan on licensing through Creative Commons and sharing your content on a platform, please refer to the desired platform’s help resources to better understand their individual process and stipulations. Platforms that allow their users to publish under a Creative Commons license include, but are not limited to, YouTube and Flickr.

Choosing and Using a License

After navigating to the ‘Share your work’ page, click on the ‘get started’ button under ‘choose a license.’ This page will then prompt you with two questions and an optional ‘help others attribute you’ section. Once you have answered each question, the website will give you a copy-paste link to add to your work.

The first question deals with whether you want your work to be modifiable and to have such adaptations shared. It is important to note that no matter which option you choose, people who use your work must attribute you as the person whose work they have modified.

If you select ‘no,’ then people may use your work in any manner they want, but they may not distribute their own works based on your content. If you want your original content to be unmodified and ascribed to only you, but don’t mind people distributing, sharing, and performing your work at will, then select ‘no.’

If you select ‘yes, as long as other’s share alike,’ then others may use your work, modify it, and distribute it; however, they must also license their creation under a ‘share alike’ license. If you believe that all content should be shared freely at all times and want any derivatives of your work to be licensed under a similar consideration, then select, ‘yes, as long as other’s share alike.’

If you select ‘yes,’ this is different from the previous option in one significant way. They may take your work, modify it, and distribute it without also licensing under a ‘share alike’ clause. If you believe that all content should be shared and used freely to the extent that others may take your work and not place it under a share alike license, then select ‘yes.’ This does not mean people may use your work, and its derivatives, for commercial uses. The second question concerns commercial use.

The second question deals with whether you want to allow people to use your content, and derivatives of it, for commercial use.

If you select yes, then people may use your work for commercial use. If you select no, then people may share, use, or distribute your work according to your selection from question 1 but may not use it for commercial use.

After answering these two questions, and before filling out the optional third field, you will now be presented with the license that suits your needs. The website will also present you with a link that will explain, in detail, the license it has given you.

The third section, ‘help others attribute you,’ has 7 fields for you to fill out. This section helps modify the license it presents you with to include machine readable metadata for your content. This will not only help others attribute your work, but also assists others in finding your work.

While you may fill out as many, or as few fields as possible, the ‘license mark’ section is necessary for how you want your work to be published.

For example, if your content is published on a web-page, such as a blog, then you will need to select ‘HTML + RDFa. This option will give you code, presented in the final section, which you will then copy and paste into your web-page’s structure. This will then present the viewer with your license at the bottom of the page as well as include machine-readable metadata in your web-page as well.

However, if your content is meant to be distributed offline then you will want to select ‘offline.’ This presents you with a line of text that states what license the work is under along with the URL to the details about that particular license. This allows the document to be distributed under the license without the use of the internet; for example, a word document you print out or e-mail to a friend. To include this license, just copy and paste the text into your document as-is.

The final option is ‘XMP.’ This option gives you a downloadable version of the license to include in your compatible files.

Once you have included the code, the text, or the xmp in your content, your work is now under your selected Creative Commons license. It is important to note that your work is immediately licensed once you include that text, code, or xmp.

This means that anyone who obtains that content with that license attached to it now has that content, under that particular license, for as long as it is valid. You may remove the license from your work and distribute the content without the license whenever you want. However, anyone that has obtained your content with that license, still has the rights to it as specified under the license they obtained it under.

If you have any other questions and concerns, the Creative Common’s website has an extensive Frequently Asked Questions web page that will prove helpful.

The 2019 Digital Book Awards and Conference

Digital Book World posted their finalists for the 2019 Digital Book World Awards on August 12. The awards will be given on Tuesday, September 10, between 5:45 and 7:15 p.m. in Nashville, Tenn. The finalists for every category of the 2019 awards can be found on Digital Book World’s website.

Whether the nominees were published digitally, or if the book was published digitally at all after a physical release, each of these categories has something related to digital publishing. Through cursory research of the books in each Best Book category, it is difficult to see if these books are being featured in this awards ceremony for their particular contribution to digital publishing, or if they are merely showcasing some books that have e-book options. Most books have both an e-book option and a physical novel, even on their specific publishing company site.

Some exceptions to this do exist such as Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin. It is available through Harper Collins Canada on the site Rakuten OverDrive, where you cannot purchase the e-book, but find out if it is at your local library. There is clearly accessibility in mind by aiding in locating it for free. At Amazon, it can be purchased through Kindle, or paperback for ninety-nine cents cheaper. Another exception is Civilian by Deonte Osayande, through Urban Farmhouse Press.

The goal of the Digital Book World and awards does appear to be more about highlighting the digital aspects of a shifting world, which still includes print publication. In the 2019 conference, a breakout track included will be Print Book World: “Best practices in the print publishing world, with specific attention paid to the emerging, yet very under-discussed, world of augmented print books utilizing micro digital technologies.” Even while recognizing the world of print publication, they are focusing on it in a digital light.

On DBW’s website, the CEO of Score Publishing, which owns the Digital Book World, wrote an article entitled “Barnes & Noble: How Can We Miss You, If You Won’t Go Away?”. Within it, Bradley Metrock writes the following:

One of the persistent topics of discussion at a conference like Digital Book World is the relationship between digital books and print books. We’ve all endured the absurd ‘print is dead’ trope, and have collectively reached the understanding that print books will always be with us, even as digital books become more and more ubiquitous and evolved.

Despite the critiques of Barnes & Noble, along with physical book locations in general, there is the recognition of the market still present for print publications.

Digital Book World will hold a pre-conference on September 9, including workshops that feature topics such as Book Marketing for Independent Publishers and Leveraging the Colibrio Reader Framework.

On September 10, there will be several speakers and events, featuring people from Simon & Schuester and panels featuring Amazon Alexa. The final event will be the awards dinner for the announcement of the Digital Book World winners.

On September 11, the day following the awards ceremony, there will be more speakers and attention paid to some of their breakout tracks, which were not covered previously at DBW Conferences, such as the Marketing Book World and Academic Book World.

The final day, September 12, will focus on Building Direct Connections with Readers and the political side of digital publishing, closing with a keynote presentation from the US Army: Our Nation’s Newest Publisher.

Click here (Links to an external site.) for more information on the speakers and presentations available at the 2019 Digital Book World Conference, and here (Links to an external site.) to find available tickets to attend.