David Comeaux and LSU Libraries Technology Initiatives Department were awarded the Best Customized System Award at the LOUIS Libraries Conference. The award was given in recognition of LSU Libraries e-textbook web pages. The platform provides students with access to LSU-owned e-textbooks that are assigned to their classes. The platform also allows LSU faculty members to choose from over 250,000 e-textbooks that LSU Libraries would purchase for use as course materials.
The project was inspired by a similar initiative developed by University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which was then under the leadership of current LSU Libraries Dean Stanley Wilder. Dean Wilder brought the idea with him to LSU in the summer of 2014, and the first version of the platform went live in Fall 2014. LSU Libraries has been continually implementing improvements since. Key contributors to the project include:
David Comeaux, Web Development Librarian
Emily Frank, Institutional Technologies/ Engineering Librarian
Mike Waugh, Systems Librarian
LOUIS (Louisiana Online University Information System) is operated under the Louisiana Library Network, which consists of more than 45 public and private college and university libraries. The network strives to provide information technology solutions such as an integrated library system, an interlibrary loan system, electronic scholarly resources, remote access to resources at any time, any place, and a host of other services.
The LSU Libraries includes the LSU Library and the adjacent Hill Memorial Library. Together, the libraries contain more than 4 million volumes and provide additional resources such as expert staff, technology, services, electronic resources, and facilities that advance research, teaching, and learning across every discipline.