Thing 16 - Get yourself organized!
In this latest of the 23Things, Thing 16 explores the use of Research Project Calculator and how it may be useful to library patrons and staff.
SIDENOTE before I begin - 23Things abbreviated this tool’s name to “RPC.” Although I’m sure this was fine for most, I found it hard as an IT professional to NOT think of this as Remote Procedure Call (a method in which one host will contact another in order to initiate a particular process). But I survived.
Once again I feel I must take the outsider’s point of view with this Thing. However, I feel I do have some applications of my own.
Thing 16 prompts us to think about how RPC (not remote procedure calls) could help me help students in a library fashion. Although I don’t work in a library, I do work for a very large university. My division specifically handles online and continuing education. That being said, I could see this being a tool that we could informally recommend to students to help with their coursework. Penn State’s WorldCampus system does not have any tools of this sort built in for student use. I did like the interface and how RPC structured your tasks and efforts towards completing assignments on-time. It somewhat reminded me of Project Management in that it accounted for specific phases, required documentation and input, and
However, I cannot say whether or not it has practical application for the library itself. The tool seems to be designed with academic tasks in mind. As such, it may be difficult to fit various library tasks into the RPC model. The same would go for any other organization.
Nevertheless, RPC seems to be a good tool to help impose some structure on those who may need a little help getting organized.
