The University of North Texas Libraries’ Dean’s Innovation Grant, provides funding to research and projects within the UNT Libraries that promote scholarship and contribute to the gathering of knowledge that helps improve our libraries, our university, and the community.

Dean’s Innovation Grant 2024 Awardees

Video Promotion

Meranda Roy, Whitney Johnson-Freeman, Varun Mandadapu

Project Description: This project’s purpose is to evaluate and propose effective strategies for promoting instructional videos in an academic library setting, focusing on enhancing access, awareness, and engagement among library users. More specially, we are interested in answering the following questions:

• What are the current levels of engagement and usage of instructional videos?
• What are the perceived benefits, challenges, and preferences of library users regarding instructional videos?
• What strategies can be implemented to enhance access and discoverability of instructional videos in the library?
• How can the library effectively promote instructional videos to increase user engagement and usage?

Bridging the Gap: Identifying Need-Based Services and Software for Engineering Students and Faculty

Chassidy Miles, Meranda Roy, Ana Krahmer

Project Description: This project employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify and enhance the resources and software necessary for the UNT College of Engineering students and faculty, with the aim of improving library offerings and liaison services. We developed three overarching questions to guide our inquiry:

• What liaison services and resources are essential to effectively meet the needs of engineering students and faculty?
• How can we better support project-based learning within engineering degree programs?
• How can the Libraries’ engagement with COE students and faculty be improved? To answer these questions, we conducted surveys with both students and faculty to identify strengths and weaknesses in current support services and resources. Additionally, to inform the local data, we extended our research by deploying a survey to engineering librarians at institutions external to UNT, to develop evidence-based recommendations for improvement.

Student-driven Spatial Needs Assessment for the UNT Music Library, Special Collections, and the 4th Floor of Willis Library

Kristin Wolski, Susannah Cleveland, Meagan May, Gabby Milburn

Project Description: With a renovation scheduled within the next several years for the fourth floor in the Willis Library, the Music Library and Special Collections have been asked to identify how public spaces are used and why students and staff might benefit from changes to them. This project was a needs analysis focusing on patron needs—particularly students— related to using spaces on the fourth floor of the Willis Library. The goal of this research project was to collect data from students pertaining to the fourth floor about how they interact with spaces, what they currently like and dislike about the spaces, and ideas about how spaces could be improved. From this data, the project team sought realistic recommendations for changing spaces based on the data.

Project Reno

Alexandra Folsom, Aspen Reeves, Carlos Aguilar, Connor Anderson, Dean Maddox, Gabriel Pedraza, Matthew Early, Nabil Ahmed, Nor Hakeem-George

Project Description: Over the past year cohort 5 has been working with Willis Libraries 4th floor, Music and Special Collections, and libraries to discover and design renovations based on student needs. The driving questions for both semesters stayed the same while our scope evolved across the year.

Driving question: How might UNT renovate the 4th floor of the Willis Library to better meet the needs of its patrons, based on the perspective of students?

Fall 23 Scope: Collect data and feedback from UNT students, analyze data to find the best fit for focus groups, collect additional data through impromptu speeches and tabling, and inform UNT library staff and stakeholders.

Spring 24 Scope: Perform additional data analysis as needed, explore other libraries, and provide 2 design proposals.

Improving Digital Library Image Accessibility with HTR

William Hicks

Project Description: This project’s purpose was to evaluate machine learning/AI tools that improve on traditional OCR technologies in such a way that they can read and transcribe handwritten text.