Developing In-House Digital Tools: Case Studies From the UMKC School of Law Library

Abstract

The author describes his experiences working in the Leon E. Bloch Law Library designing and prototyping in-house digital tools to improve communication among internal and external stakeholders. The projects discussed include a custom study room schedule application syncing university calendar to affordable tablets to increase staff productivity, an online data visualization dashboard to help digest large and complex sets of data for better understanding and decision making, and a mobile application to offer students and community an easy access to library resources and services. In addition, the author calls for the need to engage in innovative and experimental practices in libraries by encouraging collaboration with external partners to help develop new services and improve existing ones.