Sharing the Genius: Library Conference Blog

A place for sharing what we’ve learned at conferences.

LOEX 2011, Andy Herzog’s Notes

May 24

Posted by Andy Herzog in LOEX | No Comments

Here are notes for the best two sessions I attended at LOEX 2011.

Authentic Assessment – Laura Saunders

  • Traditional focus of assessment was inputs and outputs measuring satisfaction and perceptions
  • This method is not measuring learning
  • different types of assessment.  Direct/Authentic: Measures actual learning, tied to predetermined goals, involves feedback then adjustment.  Ex:  Assignments or tests scored against rubrics, portfolios, capstone projects.
  • Indirect.  Measures perceptions of learning or other outcomes such as satisfaction.  Not measured against predetermined goals. Ex: course/class evaluations, focus groups, interviews, surveys.
  • First steps.  Backwards design.  1. Define learning outcomes.  2. Identifying evaluative measures/developing rubrics. Not yes or no answers. 3. Creating learning activities.
  • Assessment examples:  Utah State Assessment Tools, http://library.usu.edu/instruct/assessment/index.php; RAILS, http://railsontrack.info/; Jon Mueller’s Authentic Assessments, http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/; University of Maryland – sample assignments, http://umuc.edu/library/tutorials/information_literacy/example.shtml
  • Give assessments before the end, so they cant leave they are done.

Classroom Assessment Techniques in One-Shot Instruction Sessions

  • Discussed a series of strategies for assessment in one-shot library instruction
  • Poll everywhere(survey technique, just basic texting costs)
  • Background: took ACRL immersion assessment program
  • Her epiphany:  Assessment is more than a large institution wide program.  value in assessing student learning just for the sake of student learning
  • Background of teaching she does (VCU), Undergrad students; University 200 class, main class she teaches, about writing a research paper
  • Her “bible” of assessment: Classroom Assessment Techinques by Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross.  (also recommended by other assessment session)
  • Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
  • Examples: CAT 1 , Background Knowledge Probe: questionnaire to assess students’ prior knowledge or background knowledge.  Generally prior to class.  SurveyMonkey, PollEverywhere, Google Docs.
  • CAT 2, Classroom Opinion Poll: Use polls to discover opinion, attitudes, or experiences (how confident do you feel how to email yourself an article from ASC.)
  • CAT 3, Misconception/Preconception Check: Discover what students might need to unlearn.  Before or after class. SurveyMonkey, PollEverywhere, raising hands.
  • CAT 4, Minute Paper: Based on two questions.  What was the most useful thing you learned today?  What questions do you still have that remain unanswered?  She adds a PS line for their email if they want her to answer any questions.  Asks the questions during the middle of class.  The audience offered “What did you learn today that you will use tomorrow?” as a third question.
  • CAT 5, Directed Paraphrases:  Asks students to restate what they learned in their own words with a specific prompt.  Ex: in a few sentences, describe in your own words how the Boolean operator “AND” can be used to search for information on your research question in library databases and the catalog.  She created rubrics to grade learning objectives.  Used answers to identify that her language needs to be consistent.
  • CAT6, Topic, Discipline, Database, Article (Her own CAT):  Asks students to situate their research question in a discipline, locate relevant discipline specific databases, and locate one article.

LOEX 2011, Jody Bailey’s Notes

May 12

Posted by jbailey in LOEX | No Comments

LOEX 2011 NOTES

FRIDAY, May 6

Melanie Hawks, “Instruct, Engage, Influence”
University of Utah
melanie.hawks@utah.edu

Whiteboards everywhere — students take advantage and write on white boards but also on glass. They decided to “go with it”.
What is a teacher’s influence? When have you influenced a student? When were you influenced by a teacher?
What came out of those conversations? Teachers engage students, serve as mentors, allow people to cocreate what happens in classroom, inspire passion

Teacher who inspired Melanie: her 1st-grade teacher who awarded her with the Charlie Brown Dictionary — Melanie was self-motivated, didn’t do it for the prize, but it validated her. Feedback, reinforcement made her feel like a star.

This illustrates magic that happens between teachers/students.

General characteristics of being influential in an org:

  • Having long-term commitment to change
  • Being willing to invest time in things that may not have immediate payoff
  • Might not see results right away (if ever)
  • Being willing to adjust to different situations and with diff people; all is dependent on context; must understand environment, pay attention to culture of that org
  • Adapting to the environment; barriers may arise that you can’t get around, you may have to take a circuitous route; ex: you must rely on coworkers, you have list in your head of things they “ought” to do. Perhaps better to think of them as customers — they don’t know my mindset, they have many other options of things to do with time and money. This saves my sanity, keeps me from getting frustrated, gives me options to deal with a situation in different ways. Ex: getting people to go to training, successes lead to more demands so peeps don’t have time to go to training that may be training during staff meetings in shorter chunks. Thus over time, people start to think in terms of 20- to 30-min blocks rather than an hour-long special meeting (when possible)
  • Can’t always predict results. Must also balance lofty goals with realism, or “I’ll take it”-ism.
  • Unpredictable-ness: Most people don’t “get it” — don’t deal well with change, not everyone will get it, and they do stand out, but most are standing in background willing to go along. Some people will be left behind — don’t waste time with those who will never buy into change
  • “Serendipitous benefit of being there” — where people in power are. Figure out who has power and get to know them. Not to be a toady, but to know someone who can cut through the crap and get things done. Are they schmoozers? Then schmooze. Are they data driven? Give an elevator speech.
  • Looks for gaps at the beginning or the end of a project; that’s where you can get in. Be at point of need! Pay attention to what’s going on in your environment — her example: MUSE program, they got 4 MUSE interns, fully funded by program

Strategies you can use to influence your organization:

  • Why are instruction librarians poised to influence people across the campus? We are bridges to talk to other constituencies on campus. Instruction is a primary marketing tool for the library, an opportunity to market all library resources. We leave the library, we are proactive rather than reactive, we take the library TO people rather than waiting for them to come. We are involved in a lot of campus work, get appointed to lots of committees. We build relationships with faculty, help make students & faculty successful, make their lives easier; politically neutral outside library.
  • If you really want to influence people, GIVE THEM SOMETHING. Don’t ask for stuff. Defenses will go down, interaction will be very different. Approach them with “I have something for you” rather than “I want something from you.”
  • We can be influential because we are agents of change. We LIVE change all the time.
  • ADDIE model of instructional design: 5 processes or stages –
    • Analyze
    • Design
    • Develop
    • Implement
    • Evaluate
    • Mel talked about two stages as part of being a change agent:
    • Analyze: preassessment, understanding audience; there’s a point where we have to stop appealing to people who have dug their heals in, who will never get on board. Focus on people who are on fence. We put audiences into demographic categories: first-year students, grad students, faculty, administrators. We know these people want & need different things. But we must also be aware of their personal STYLE of working and mesh with them. Try to adapt to what you know will work with a given person/audience. Tap into their motivation. What is most important to them? Know your objectives – what do you want people to know, feel, or do? You must prioritize, figure out what is most important of all things you can potentially do! We have to distinguish between what kind of change you’re asking for because asking people to change is a big deal. It may mean making ourselves vulnerable, showing ignorance, feeling uncomfortable. Behavioral change often comes when you make things easier, convenient. Be clear about your objective. Focus on behavior more than knowledge or feeling.
    • WIIFM — what’s in it for me? Behavior is motivated by PAYOFF or rewards. Sometimes concrete or self-interested.
      • TREATS! Like a prize.
      • Connect with people’s values. Ex: make a guaranteed donation to a food bank for every survey that’s filled out.
      • Meet common goals. Ex: nudge people toward doing things in shorter time frames in an all-staff meeting (see above)
      • Design
        • Usability — make things easy/intuitive, make it serve a purpose, ex: website design
        • Aesthetics — make things attractive, appealing; adhere to design principles that hold true across the board
        • Example of above: DRIVE SAFELY. You must remind people to do all kinds of things to achieve this goal, but wearing SEAT BELT is greatest factor in saving lives — it’s a VITAL BEHAVIOR. If you do it, other things will naturally follow. Tell people that ONE THING that is the vital behavior. It must be SIMPLE, CLEAR, DIRECT, PURPOSEFUL and their needs to be some kind of PAYOFF. Should be a call to action. Say/ask for what you want, make it easy for them to do it.
        • Reach your audience — you must communicate what you want. Ex: don’t use the president of the campus on READ posters. Use a campus celebrity instead (her example: SAFETY COW). Use IMAGES, DATA, STORIES, or EXPERIENCES. But keep it SIMPLE! Give people nuggets of experience, lay a trail of treats. Never underestimate the power of a pilot project for influencing people!
        • PUT THE BOAT IN THE WATER AND GO! Get to the right place at right time, screw up courage to put foot in water.

“Lose the Lists! Elevating Your LibGuides to a New Level,” Andrea Falcone & Lyda Ellis

  • Platform is still rather “clunky”
  • Examined guides for 8 peer institutions aimed at 1st-year students & grad students; overall 97% guides had lists, 22% had active instructional components
  • Mainly in library profession, we took print guides and posted them online as PDFs or in LibGuides platform — giving same info in same way as during print era.
  • Focusing on video — short-form content (under 5 min) consumed by 25mill users every month; college students 86% (by 2014, 95%); viewing of educational vids increased from 22% to 38% in 2009
  • Vid instruction more effective than text-based, vid increases retention and comprehension, self-motivation
  • Student learning styles: focus on visual, auditory, and kinesthetic — most common. Visual learners: like visual cues; auditory learn through directions and oral rep; kinesthetic: learn through active exploration. In their study, 74% were visual, 25% auditory, 1% kinesthetic. Guides with vids vs. lists — students greatly preferred former.
  • Instructional preference survey: video vs. text and click-through. Video was fave (57%), click-through (29%), text (14%). Kinesthetic learners didn’t even like click-through, preferred simple vid, but still preferred it to text
  • Students hate lists, prefer active instructional component!
  • Tools: Spicy Nodes (mind mapping), Prezi, docstoc, Feed43, Twitter, Poll Everywhere, Xtranormal, Animoto, Rollyo.
  • Go to their LibGuide for ideas after conference! Don’t forget about ANTS!

“Incorporating mobile technology into IL instruction: Opportunities and challenges,” Chad Crichton & Robin Canuel

  • Being available anytime, anywhere, any place
  • New paradigm — mobile becoming more common
  • World without wires — 940 million 3G subscriptions globally
  • People connect to web via mobile more than landlines
  • In 2010, 75% undergrads either had or planned to buy a smart device
  • Most users in 3rd world are mobile only, including 25% of users in U.S.
  • 2007-2010 mobile broadband increased 4932%
  • 80% of users accessing web will soon be doing it via mobile
  • Future users will be very mobile-oriented
  • Librarians must use existing apps to reach out to patrons
  • Make library collections accessible via mobile
  • Lots of surveys showing most libraries and universities offer no mobile services
  • Apps vs. websites: mobile website is easier to develop + works better across platforms, will function same for iPhone, Android, etc.; apps have greater functionality but must be recreated for each OS. Many sites are hybrids of apps and websites. HTML 5 will make things easier.
  • Top five services access via mobile: catalog, hours, contact, account access, library location. Libraries want to give more access to licensed databases.
  • Whose priorities are these? Users or librarians?
  • Mobile access will influence how students search, find, evaluate & use info
    • Time, context, cost — they use less search terms. They rarely use advanced features. They rarely go beyond second page of results.
    • Mobile learning: any learner that happens when the learner is not at a fixed location
    • Mobile IL: several competencies are relevant — an IL student knows costs of acquiring info; an IL student selects appropriate retrieval systems to access info; the IL student communicates product/performance to others; the IL student understands ethical/legal/ethical issues surrounding mobile tech
    • Having access to all world’s knowledge does not imply wisdom
    • Rheingold: mobile internet will not just be a way to do things without moving but also to do thing one could not do before.
    • Mobile search variety: voice search, other audio (Shazam), Google Goggles, location-aware (GPS/compass), barcode/QR scanning, AR
    • What innovative ways can you think of to use mobile resources and tools to facilitate learning and the development of mobile IL? And to give users access to librarians at point of need? Networking on fly, library tours, library help at point of need
    • How would you go about incorporating mobile tech into an in-class IL instruction? Twitter
    • Send info about library tour with QR codes (esp. audio file info) to Steven Deineh, sdeineh@miracosta.edu!
    • Challenges: tech expertise, perhaps have to outsource some things; cost, but tech costs generally decrease; competing priorities; perception of librarians; DRM, licensed vs. owned content; speed & coverage

“Evaluating Video Tutorials: Measuring Excellence and Outcomes,” Sally Ziph

  • They evaluated videos with instruction on making lists of companies in the area in OneSource
  • Rationale:
    • New MBA students needed company/industry info to prepare for interviews
    • Vids were meant to help them find information on companies
    • Process:
      • Librarians created scripts based on FAQs
      • Tech: Audacity (audio) + Camtasia
      • Vids integrated in website and promoted thru email
      • Evaluation
        • Did lit review, found that pre- & posttests, A/B  tests, focus groups, user interviews, surveys, stats were most used
          • Pre- & posttests: measure learning that takes place when students see tutorial; most suitable for assessing tutorials that teach specific skill; difficult to write questions that will give good comparison data. For them, pre & posttests ??
          • A/B tests: used to compare outcomes from versions of same tutorial (e.g., in-person vs. online or different instructional techniques); also used for gathering subjective feedback; difficult to teach out whether variances are due to content or presentation. For them, they didn’t have time to do this type of testing; perhaps it would be useful for refining tutorials in future.
          • Focus groups & user interviews: easy to get feedback from variety of viewpoints; can be conducted iteratively, at any stage of development cycle; requires experienced facilitator. For them, time crunch made this evaluation impossible, but perhaps useful for future assessment. May also need IRB approval. Also, vocal group can be overrepresented compared with people who are less willing to speak up.
          • Surveys: easy method for data collection; easy to formulate questions, but good questions may be harder; results can reflect subjective preferences. This was method they used.
          • Statistics: raw numbers from Google Analytics or other utilities measure use; can be used to validate data from other measures; does not measure usefulness or value of content. For them, data will prove useful in future. Found out which vids were most popular.
          • Their survey: used Qualtrics (see handout for questions)
          • Results: 13 of 45 students responded (28%); 72% of respondents did not use videos. Students saw videos as inconvenient or irrelevant, and they wanted other topics.
          • Conclusion: find ways to help consortium students & make vids worthwhile. Send reminders.
          • Future: keep gathering statistics, use focus groups to ID new topics, consider testing methodologies to measure learning & usefulness. Can email her for bibliography of literature review.
          • Questions: Describe videos more? Vids were passive, no active involvement of student. Don’t you see the fact that they wanted more topics as very positive? Yes. In your lit review, did you find info about how to have evaluation pop up as soon as they finished vid? We saw that in lit, but we didn’t do it. We sent Qualtrics vid. Who asked for the vids? The students actually approached librarian and asked for online vids. What about when database UI changes? And browser incompatibilities? Everything has to be tweaked all the time. Does OneSource have its own online vid help? Yes, but we just wanted to teach one specific task.
          • Conclusion: explained types of evaluation, why they were or were not appropriate, and what they did.
          • Kresge Business Administration Library, UMich — all vids are there.
          • Biggest takeaway — ??

“Formative Assessment: Transforming Education in the Library,” Teague Orblych and Michelle K. Dunaway

  • Fisher Nut Study (Hirsch 2010) — use clickers as ice breaker
  • Teach & learning are interactive
  • Formative assessment — teachers are making ongoing adjustments in teaching (diff. from outcome or evaluative assessment); done while instruction is in process; helps us to learn about teaching as communication process
  • Begin by engaging faculty — then do preassessment to develop roadmap, give students opportunity to confront misconceptions about research skills (did this ~2 weeks before class)
  • If we don’t do preassessment or formative assessment, we are going into instruction blind, except for what faculty may tell us
  • Learning objective 1: getting students to evaluate information and sources critically
    • Preassessment: what do you look for to ID high-quality sources?
    • Formative: What characteristics make an info source high-quality?
    • Postassessment:
    • Learning objective 2: selecting methods/sources
      • Pre: what specific steps would you use to find a good source?
      • Formative: what research tool would you use to find a high-quality source?
      • Post
      • Learning obj 3: citing sources correctly
        • Pre: give a citation for your best source
        • Formative: which of following is correctly cited?
        • Post: do citations
        • Outcomes: formative assessment was success; lots of student improvement
        • Takeaways: formative assessment is a process; two parts — assessment & adjustment; clicker tech is only one way to do formative assessment, there are others.

SATURDAY, May 7

Panel Discussion: “The Role of Library Leadership in Advocating for Information Literacy,” Carol Everhart, Ellen Safley, Pat Van Zandt

“Rethinking the Instruction Session Handout,” Ashlynn Wicke

  • Define handout: resource created for specific library instruction session; can include characteristics of worksheet & handout
  • Uses of handout: outline for instructors, place for students to take notes, makes instruction less passive for students, part of historical record of library, gives students something to refer to after session
  • Her project: major overhaul of library handouts, need to make better use of handouts
  • See her handout for things our table likes to see on handouts
  • Presenter added:
    • Database comparison chart! Nice!
    • Fill-in activities — comparison charts that students fill in! Nice!
    • Search screenshots –
    • Ice breakers — match game
    • Search terms activity — research activity
    • See her handout for our ideas of how to improve her library handout
    • Suggestions from others: reduce text, make a column on the right for NOTES
    • Student reactions: mixed results — some thought not enough detail, some loved them, some didn’t care
    • Minimalist approach: from Grassian & Kaplowitz (2009) IL Instruction: theory & practice
    • Other ideas: flow charts, QR codes, handouts & activities from Library Instruction Cookbook (Sittler & Cook 2009)
    • Prioritize! Teach top three things, and reflect that in handout
    • Use bookmark as handout in class or at desk — KISS, contact info, LibGuide, a few databases
    • Teach from LibGuide versus homepage?
    • How can we make LibGuides and mobile work together?
    • Activity:
    • 1. Freshman orientation: KISS, contact info, demo searching in databases
    • 2. Freshman comp: contact info, search term activity, having goals, walk away with at least one research; popular vs. scholarly, library layout
    • 3. New faculty: bookmark format, contact info, resources for faculty, instruction options, course reserves, database comparison chart
    • 4. Undergrad Bus. Class: SWOT graphic, database comparison chart (filled in & one for them to work on), LibGuide, how to find news articles, space for notes
    • 5. Undergrad Hist. Class: primary vs. secondary sources, terminology, search strategies (screenshots),

“Library Instruction Credibility: How Do We Establish It? How Do We Publicize It?” Frances A. May and Yunfei Du

  • We need to expand horizons; publish in discipline-specific journals, stop preaching to choir
  • The norm is 50-min IL session, we must lobby for more time; course devoted to IL that is required across the board
  • Evaluation: impact of teaching on student learning & institution; need to measure value of academic librarianship on:
    • Enrollment
    • Retention
    • Student success
    • Achievement
    • Learning
    • Experience
    • Faculty productivity
    • Institutional reputation
    • Establishing credibility: talk to people who have influence, admin people who can mandate IL or a course across disciplines; we must reach faculty/admin where they get info; not just qualitative info, more quantitative data, this speaks to ADMIN
    • Data (TNG char) has a human face, we have to structure it in ways admin loves (quantitative)
    • Dallas County CC (Richland College, 1999-2003) tracked course of students who took an IL certificate program — tracked course completion rate, student retention rate, and grade — need to differentiate between causal effects and correlation with consistent data and replication
    • Retention rate x student total x tuition = dollars
    • UNT: 11k freshman + sophomores, 15% retention rate = $6million saved per semester
    • Currently no across-university efforts on IL evaluation; most assessment is small-scale, course-based; only includes affective student eval., not larger picture
    • Goal: form alliances among institutions, to get consensus, on what we should measure & how, figure out what demonstrates credibility (they asked us to leave our contact info for them)
    • Discuss:
      • Are variables (retention grades and completion rate) good enough? What else could we measure? Maybe qualitative data, it’s useful. But less useful when trying to do studies across institutions. Variables: learning (critical thinking, IL competencies), ACT/SAT scores, socioeconomic status, age, race, work status, at-risk or LD status, analysis of students’ bibliographies, college rank, how many students go on to grad school or get jobs quickly, how many default on student loans. Remember what faculty/admin want/need to know. Draw from institutional learning outcomes.
      • What kind of knowledge and skills do students need to solve problems in their academic work? Critical thinking, IL competencies, presentation skills, collaborative/teamwork/communication skills, multimedia skills (transliteracy), efficient assessment of info, translating data in to real language, interpreting statistics, teasing out biases, defining/focusing on their problem, time management, solutions, life skills
      • How do we measure success? Institutional research office and registrar can give info on groups of students without having to worry about privacy issues — perhaps how many went on to grad school. Student artifacts from courses (bibliographies, projects, presentations) — evaluate them using rubrics. Use control groups (who’ve had no instruction). Pre- & posttests. Critical incident questionnaires. GPA & grad/professional success.
      • Retention: community, diversity are huge — we need hard-core stats, but also need to be reaching students on emotional level
      • How do we publicize success? Collaborate with faculty on papers, get published in their journals.

“You Oughta Be in Pictures: Using Video in Library Instruction to Engage Students,” Lori Mardis

  • Started with argument for using videos — emotional connection, triggers recall later
  • Glee video: used in comp and IL curriculum
    • Benefits of arts/music: every part of the brain is engaged when playing an instrument, helps to learn foreign language, teamwork, social skills
    • Benefits of sports: team-building skills, problem-solving, social skills, improves retention & attendance, helps students lose weight
    • Synonyms for sports: athletics, physical education
    • Used all of the above to help students find topics for papers and build searches; Glee vid shows a lot of information in very short time & so works well. Topic is familiar to them — everyone’s participated in choir/band/art/theater and/or athletics, so they are happy to discuss it. Great for comp classes.
    • Students recording their own orientation vids: overview of what library has & things you can find there. Don’t do scavenger hunt! They get it over and over again. Tried self-led tours & librarian tours — didn’t work.
    • Gives instructions on how to use Flip cam on handout. Divides class into groups & assigns each group a floor. Each group must answer group questions on the handout for their floor in their vid. Benefits: students answer questions in their own words, active learning, highly motivating & engaging, enables them to work independently. They have 25 mins to film, 25 mins to show vids. Make sure to have supplies ready (flip charts, markers). Tell colleagues they can provide info but not interviews. Students must tell their own story.
    • She shows quick vid while students arrive, showing items in library that students commonly want/look for — laptops to borrow, feature film DVDs, study rooms, etc.
    • WMM demo
    • Do you keep student-made vids? No, I tell them I don’t so they won’t be shy. Thought of asking some who did really great job if she could share it on library FB page but has not done so yet.
    • Are students getting video-editing instruction in other classes?

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ACRL 2011, Philadelphia, Jody Bailey’s Notes

Apr 7

Posted by jbailey in Uncategorized | No Comments

ACRL 2011: Philadelphia
Schedule: http://www.goeshow.com/acrl/national/2011/conference_schedule.cfm (has links to handouts)
Virtual Conference: http://www.learningtimes.net/acrl/2011/

Using QR Codes in the Library: The Library Audio Tour (p. 37)
Thursday, 10:30

As a requirement for their first-year writing class, most freshmen at Brigham Young University are required to complete a library audio tour and then a tour quiz. An investigation was performed to see if students preferred using their own cell phone with QR Codes or checking out an MP3 player from the Media Center to complete the audio tour. The iterative process will be presented as well as results of a post-tour survey.

Codes lead to pages with audio files, map is downloadable to phone. Very cool idea! Beta testing with student workers pointed out that students don’t like to carry around maps — it makes them look uncool. Overall, students like the tour, and it will be refined and improved taking in results of survey.

EBSCO Lunch
Thursday, 11:30
Lots of discussion of EBSCO’s purchase of NetLibrary and implications thereof: increased access, NO MORE “one seat” per book! Roll-out in May-June? No mention of cost so I’m very curious about that.

Engaging Faculty, Creating Allies: A Declaration of Interdependence (p. 40)
Thursday, 1:00

Faculty can be among the academic library’s greatest allies. And we know that one of the most effective ways libraries and librarians can reach students is through their professors. Librarians from 4 different institutions—2 community colleges, a private university, and a liberal arts college consortium—will discuss initiatives they have developed to engage faculty with librarians to benefit learning, teaching, and research.

Chisata Uyeki — budget cuts led to cutting resources, speaker polled faculty, this got their attention. Cuts actually led to lots of conversation about which resources are really needed, especially databases. Be approachable, friendly, expect forgetfulness, be persistent & responsive. Nancy Getty — teaching research skills explicitly through assignments, using IL competency standards as guideline. Taught faculty first, had THEM do the assignment. Faculty had to rethink, revision, revise assignments. Participants were encouraged to attend through outreach, offering professional development credit hours OR $250 stipend, called “spa for the brain” during winter break, Now they see assignments much more about research process than end product. Lessons learned: include best practices, don’t overstructure sessions. Both adjuncts and regular faculty are encouraged and excited to attend. Gale Burrow — also did faculty workshop program. Put more of research process into product (e.g., for annotated bib, have students put how they would use the resource in their argument). Sent workshop invite: asked for name, contact info, and description of course & research assignment. Workshop (half-day) included lots of food but no other incentives. Keynote was by a faculty member. SPCO librarians presented useful resources as did subject librarians. Faculty and librarian pairs worked on designing assignments, with librarians making faculty aware of possibilities: embedding in class or Blackboard page, making course guides, etc. Ended with lunch & presentations of new assignments. Faculty appreciated focus on learning objectives & activities. Robin Lockerby — distance learning institution, faculty are not local. Collaborate with faculty training programs. Article by Marty Mahafy: on FB page.

Invited Paper: Librarian as Situated Educator: Instructional Literacy and Participation in Communities of Practice
Char Booth, Thursday, 3:15-4:15 (p. 45)

Whether or not “instruction” appears in our job titles, librarians in the academy are increasingly in the position of teaching our users, colleagues, and peers. Despite this reality, faculty and student perceptions of librarians often do not adequately reflect an awareness of this changing role. At a time of massive transition in higher education, the library’s pedagogical mission must be integrated more meaningfully into the learning and research communities that comprise our institutions. This process is inhibited in part by the collective challenge of developing on-the-ground instructional literacy: library professional education has not kept pace with the escalating need for preparation in pedagogy and instructional design, creating widespread demand for viable, on-the-ground instructor development strategies. At the same time, we seek outreach and integration strategies to cultivate awareness of our ability to participate in and contribute to learning communities.

Three Core ideas:
Communities of practice
Situated learning
Instructional literacy
Librarians are not trained to teach; it causes anxiety. Skills build, but knowledge is still needed. Booth surveyed librarians for her book, found that librarians aren’t comfortable with teaching, nor are they prepared to be effective instructors.
We strive to emulate those we admire as teachers and avoid those behaviors that we hated.
Expectations & assumptions: we bring them to our classrooms, and so do students. Example: Marion Diamond — says to introspect, reflect
Information literacy = the “what” of instruction, not the why or the how, it is our collective identity
Instructional literacy = broadens IL into a set of skills
Librarian as indicator species: what traits/characteristics? Freedom, knowledge, learning, intellectual democracy — tell this to students. What LIBRARY is. What privileges they have to use it.
Reflective practice: metacognition — gleaning, collaboration. Are listeners bored? Write down 3 things: what went well? What didn’t go well? What to do next time?
Collaboration: community of practice, mentorship
Educational theory: rooted in practicality, efficacy in the classroom
Learning: memory, motivation
Connectivism: nature of learning is shifting
John Dewey first made connection between thinking, doing & learning
instructional technology: it’s a tool kit to be used for specific outcomes and practical capabilities
instructional design: learner context, educator, context
revising/reusing: what can I recycle for next time?
REFLECT ON WHAT YOU ARE DOING IN THE CLASSROOM!
Situated learning is what happens in a community of practice.
We are all embedded in learning communities; every campus is its own ecosystem.
If faculty don’t see the value of a librarian, then you need to change their perception of what librarians are, what we do — participate, talk, embed — we are “research therapists”. Start with individuals and work your way up. Faculty/students can let their guard down with us. Paper to check out: “FYI, TMI” — First Monday

Raj Patel: Keynote
Thursday, 4:30-6 (p. 47)

Activist, academic, and much-in-demand speaker, Raj Patel is an authority on the world economic system and the international food crisis. Raj brings the idea of interdependence to his writings about sustainability, the food crisis, and democracy. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for African Studies, an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a fellow at The Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First. He is an award winning author of five books including Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his 2010 New York Times best-seller, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. He has written more than a dozen articles, all of which are open access and freely available on his website (www.rajpatel.org), along with a link to his blog and several thought-provoking videos.

Interdependence = power
Dustbowl in U.S., bad
Dustbowl in China, happens routinely b/c of bad environmental practices, responsible for loss of 8% of China’s GDP
much of this environmental pollution is b/c of the products that are made in China and exported to the U.S.
environmental impact of a burger = was cow raised on land that used to be rainforest?
what would we owe developing countries if we were to pay them the true costs associated with our consumption? $5 trillion
combined value of unpaid work of women: $11 trillion (50% of glob  al economy in 1995), this work is REQUIRED for our economy to flourish
food sovereignty = we need democracy in the system (look up Via Capusina).
“We all need to be setting the terms of our interdependence”
50m people in US are food insecure, almost all are in women-headed households.

Conference Chair’s Reception, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Thursday, 7:00
Live music, fancy hors-d’oeuvres, and conversation with Kristin Partlo of Carleton College re: librarian trading cards. Summary: Kristin designed them, had them printed at campus print shop. They give them out instead of business cards to students at ref desk, instruction, welcome week, etc. Helps put friendly face to librarians’ names. Students love them!

Opening Pandora’s Stream: Piping Music into the IL classroom
Friday, 11:00 (p. 56)

Information Literacy sessions struggle to make the one-shot session to be as effective as possible. Retention of research skills is low in a traditional lecture style format. Optimizing the learning environment is one way to remediate this dilemma. This paper presents qualitative and quantitative data of a study done that measured the effect of music on a student’s overall research project.

Kathleen Langan, Diana Sachs, Western MI U
creates an atmosphere of relaxed attention
20 classes, taught by presenters — 2 groups: with and without music
had music playing at different levels
how did students feel with the music playing? how well did they retain concepts
Overall: students liked music!
music helps them concentrate, some like it when they study
They thought noise level was just right and thought classroom atmosphere was more positive than the rest of the library without music.
Learning outcomes: with music: students were less confident than those without, but those with music did better on a final quiz
Music choice: NO CLASSICAL, generic rock/pop was better received, make sure it’s not too loud

Do Screencasts really work? Assessing student learning through instructional screencasts
Jo Angela Oehlri, Amanda Peters, Julie Placentine, U Mich
(had to leave)

Do students really learn from screencasts? As libraries experiment with new instructional technologies, questions about the effectiveness of those technologies emerge. This presentation will focus on an assessment process that one large, Midwestern, research institution completed with undergraduate students. The presentation will introduce a potential model for assessment, and will also include an analysis of challenges that were overcome and share the best practices identified as a result of the assessment.

Gale Cengage Lunch
Friday, 11:30-1
Great discussion — mainly they asked us questions about how the can make our jobs easier through new marketing and promotions for Gale products. Showed us new digital images we can use in LibGuides, also said they would provide new product descriptions focused less on selling the products and more on what students/faculty need to know about the products.

Pedagogy of Gaming
Friday, 1:30 (p. 65)

How will gaming explorations in higher education impact libraries and library instruction? Game Studies recognizes that video games create unique experiences that impact players, peers, and students. These experiences create teachable moments that use student’s extra-curricular experiences to create meaningful information literacy connections within the classroom. Three librarians explore different aspects of educational gaming: games adapted for classroom instruction, the development of formal Game Studies programs and student-created library games.

Neal Baker, Kate Todd, Paul Waelchli
1. Neal Baker. Game Studies: what is it? it’s called different things; can be compared to academic studies of film, but sociologists and psychologists have been studying games. Peer-reviewed journal: “Game Studies”
Conceptual bases: fans are active, creative agents (Jenkins)
Narrative: scholars focusing on narrative caused concern among film and literature scholars
Ludology: studies games as games (rules, etc.) not as narrative
Types of scholarship 1: Ontology: studies fundamental or essential characteristics (Alexander Galloway, word 1 for ontological theory of gaming is action); also divides games into categories
Types of scholarship 2: Single games, single platforms — lots of WoW scholars, Everquest, Lara Croft, Atari platform studies
Types of scholarship 3: single topics — cheating in video games, ethics, philosophy, history & nostalgia, sound
Types of scholarship 4: contexts, game cultures — anthropology of gamers, fan art, fan music, cosplay, modding
Types of scholarship 5: games & society — wider context, seek to understand effects of games on individuals (do video games cause violent behavior), educational potential of games (James Gee? wrote books about learning and gaming)
2. Paul Waelchli. ACRL IL standards — gamers have to determine costs/benefits of certain actions in games; sports games bring in raw data from primary sources (e.g., playbooks, stats); first-person shooter players must strategize and determine locations of themselves and resources; survival/action horror players must organize info and mythology of game space; Minecraft, take new ideas, put them together to make new worlds and ideas. RPG’ers must determine alliances and validity of information. “Popular culture may be uncomfortable but it creates new opportunities to tailor our interactions with students and instruction with information literacy and research.”
Choices in games: expressive, strategic, and tactical
Expressive: giving player reasons to keep playing, being able to design one’s avatar; many school assignments create same opportunities
Strategic: the structure of the game, the design of the game, whether it be closed or open; library instruction is very guided, we want to move people along a path to a certain outcome; we also have open experiences in users’ experiences in the library as a whole
Tactical: the process of playing; in libraries, do students use Google Scholar, databases?
How does this affect services?
Think of ways we can make ourselves more accessible, have embedded assistance, have active learning; also connect tactical choices to evaluation
Kate Todd: teaches IL credit-bearing course (required); students must do annotated bibliography. Problems with annotated bib: lacks meaningful context, easy to plagiarize, assessment by minutiae, tedious grading. Alternative: got grant to do IL instruction that had as outcome a game created by students. Used “Scratch” game creation software (open source). Group project: each group had to created a game about library content — how to find books, how to use databases, how to find help, etc. Also taught a group of ESL students using this pedagogy.
Conclusions: game creation is great for keeping students’ attention! useful for student assessment, new respect for gaming studies, difficult to overcome belief that no learning takes place.
Questions:

  • How would you use Game Studies?
  • How would you support game studies in collection development?
  • Identify specific game strategies to incorporate into student interactions
  • modify instructional sessions using game strategies
  • apply game-based learning by incorporating games into instruction
  • collaborate with students to create unique instructional games

Invited Paper: Animating the Archive: New Modes of Scholarly Publishing
Tara McPherson, USC, Friday, 4-5 (p. 72)

Can scholarship show as well as tell? Can it engage new sensory and emotional registers? Might we present our evidence in livelier formats or embed an analysis within an archive? How might scholars better utilize the rich variety of digital materials now available? Can we imagine new human and technological infrastructures for scholarly publishing? This talk will engage such questions through an exploration of two recent experiments in scholarly communication. First, McPherson will present the online journal, Vectors, and describe its lively attempts at remaking the look and feel of scholarly work. Second, she will discuss the emerging Alliance for Networking Visual Culture, an initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation that is meant to scale the experiments of Vectors to a much wider audience and model new scholarly workflows.

Vernacular archives of pop culture are expansive:
Over 5b photos on Flickr
Over 2.5b photos uploaded to FB every month
How can we harness the energy of the popular vernaculars of the web for scholarship?
Can the archives of the web impact our research but also the ways in author and share scholarship?
Can our analyses and writing more seamlessly live alongside our data and our evidence?
Can we combine human + machine interaction?
Data can be gathered in new ways, from amateur to expert, e.g. e-Birds
New scholarly practices can emerge: public peer review of a scholarly journal (e.g., Shakespeare Quarterly) — studies found there might be more rigor in public review
Digital data is malleable, mutable, so it can be discovered and represented in new ways. For example, TextMap: instantly displays data in several different ways — clouds, graphs, lists, etc. — so that displays can be geared toward different audiences.
Humanities scholars should help design tools that suit our research paradigms. How might databases be redesigned for humanities scholars’ use? For analysis of text and images? Of arguments? See Huburtu (sp?)
We also need to thing about interactive design in different ways, e.g., “Blood Sugar” sound archive from San Francisco.
How can you play an argument like you play a video game?
Alliance for Networking Visual Culture: funded by Mellon Foundation, Critical Commons Archive. University presses participating: MIT, Duke, ? Also Digital Humanities Initiative. And Scalar, which allows you to easily and quickly import a clip from archive partners, which in turn allows you to tell multiple stories side by side using video — becomes an interactive database.

Final Keynote: Clinton Kelly
Saturday, 11-12:15

What happens when a renowned fashion expert with an international following comes to ACRL? Find out when Clinton Kelly, co-host of TLC’s What Not to Wear, delivers the closing keynote at ACRL 2011. A renowned fashion expert and author who specializes in helping individuals achieve personal and professional transformations, Kelly will discuss why we are often averse to change and how to turn this fear into positive action. Kelly achieved his own transformation to television stardom from the world of fashion journalism where he worked for such publications as Marie Claire, Mademoiselle and DNR. You’ll want to be there when Kelly delivers the closing keynote address and sends thousands of academic and research librarians home with inspiration and ideas for a better self and a better library. Just don’t expect $5,000 for a new wardrobe.

Great discussion, main point: present yourself as professionally as possible. Much as we don’t want it to be this way, appearance really does matter.

UT Arlington Engaging Student Conference, 2010

Oct 8

Posted by mjhandke in Uncategorized | No Comments

Dr. Rebecca Deen, chair of Political Science, referred to Gretchen and Eric as her heroine and hero because of their collaboration with her on You Decide 2008.  I am paraphrasing here, but their input saved her QEP project.  It was great to hear her say this over and over in a room full of non-librarians (including members of the Provost’s office).   Very proud that we are sharing our genius this way!

An idea from LOTW 2010

Jul 14

Posted by ebarker in Loex of the West | No Comments

How can we leverage our primary sources in SpCo to reach a greater range of students?

_________________________________________________________

Hi Evelyn,

I have been working on an oral history project and have been interviewing GLBTIQ  living in Kansas. There is not a lot of documentation on the experiences of GLBTIQ people, so I worked with a Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies class to do research in the archives to see what they could find on a topic of their choosing. They had to take the topic and connect it to Kansas and the rest of the country. If they couldn’t find information on Kansas, but could find information national, I asked them to theorize why this might be the case.  Students were only allowed to use primary sources and they spent hours going through boxes looking for information.  The project lasted all semester and all the final products will eventually go online, in our institutional repository – I got permission from all the students who wanted their materials online. Only two will not go online, mostly because the students did not do what was required of the assignment.

Their final product included:

A timeline (this was a bit difficult so I made it optional)

Annotated bibliography

What they did or didn’t discover

Reflection on the experience of conducting such detailed research

Students had to hand in portfolios every two weeks. They had to document objectively what they found and then write a reflective subjective section on how they felt about what they found and the direction they were going with their research idea. The instructor and I reviewed the materials and gave feedback to the students.

I worked very closely with the instructor and the students. I’m not an archivist, but I spent hours working with students in the archives. I also had office hours specifically for this class.

At certain points the students were very frustrated and wanted to know what they had to do to get an A. I flipped it on them and asked them what they thought they needed to do to get an A. By the end of the semester many of the students had developed phenomenal research skills and by documenting their process they were able to see their progress.

I was so proud of what they had accomplished and their instructor told me that he got weepy reading their papers.

If you have specific questions let me know.  I hope you can work with people on your campus to get something up and running.

Take care,

Tami Albin

University of Kansas

Loex of the West: Calgary 2010

Jul 7

Posted by ebarker in Loex of the West | No Comments

Random ideas from LOTW

  • GIFTS sessions (Great Ideas For Teaching Students).  These were speed sessions where there were 5 concurrent sessions in one room and each one lasted about about 10 minutes. Then you switched tables and did another one.
  • Applying for a grant to collaborate with GTAs to integrate IL into assignments.
  • Creating a library conference for faculty and students. Kansas State University puts on Library Days.
  • Including student work (like oral histories) in the institutional repository.
  • Mt. Royal has a nice tutorial teaching about citation in a visual way.
  • Put together alternative suggestions for controversial issue papers. Specifically, some ENGL 1302 professors ban the gun control topic. Have a recommendation like, “If you like writing about gun control, you might like writing about African American incarceration rates or private militias engaging in border control.” (I’m just making these topics up. They may be awful.)

ALA Annual Conference 2010: Jody Bailey

Jul 5

Posted by jbailey in Uncategorized | No Comments

Attended ALA Annual 2010, Washington, DC, June 24-28, 2010. Highlights are as follows:

  • ULS Soirée, Fri. 6/25/2010, 5-6. Great opportunity for networking and meeting other academic librarians. Spent time chatting with Kim Leeder, Maura Seale, Ben Tucker, Robin Chin Roemer, Jeff Bonds, and others.
  • ULS Communications Committee Meeting, Sat. 6/26/2010, 10:30-12 (attending: Loretta Wallace [U. of Houston, chair], Karen Glover [GA Tech], and me). I got a sense of what the committee does, and found out that virtual membership has been approved by the ULS executive committee. We will have virtual meetings quarterly, with the first sometime in late September or early October; we will use Dim Dim, iLink, Adobe Connect, or Skype. Loretta mentioned that this committee has some discretionary funds that we can think of ways to use. We then discussed new ways to promote activities and information regarding the ULS. In the past, the committee has had only a blog and a wiki. Karen suggested that a survey of the ULS membership might be a good idea, a way to try to discover the focus of the ULS – a sort of “who we are, what we are, and why we are”. Loretta noted that Karen had volunteered to moderate the ULS Listserv at the last meeting but that the moderation privileges had never been transferred to her; this is being remedied. A new focus for the committee is using social networking or other new media tools to engage ULS members. A ULS Twitter account is being created; a Facebook account already exists. We discussed the idea of making a video to promote the ULS but came to the conclusion that it would take a lot of time and effort. I had the idea to have a contest and invite ULS members to make their own videos using Screenjelly or Jing or a Flipcam. I threw out the idea of the theme being “What’s the U in ULS?” We could create a YouTube account that we could moderate and invite members to submit videos there. I also said that we could encourage participation by using some of our funds to give away a prize that everyone would like, such as an iPad; Karen suggested giving away a registration for ACRL 2011. I also said that we could perhaps publicize the contest with an eye-catching postcard mailed to all 4000 ULS members. Loretta and Karen really liked these ideas, especially since it would remove the onus of so much work for us and it would be inexpensive. Loretta decided that our assignment would be for each of us to make a video and upload it to the YouTube account as a way of practicing.
  • Poster Session Presentation, Sat. 6/26/2010, 3-4:30, “The ‘Wow!’ Factor: Using Informal Screencasting to Bring Customer Service to the Next Level”. My poster went up on time, and I had quite a few people stop by to chat with me about it. Fifteen people left their email address so that I could send them the link to the LibGuide I made in lieu of a handout, and several people also scanned the QR code on my poster that gave them the link to the LibGuide (http://libguides.uta.edu/screencasting). Also, I had two emails arrive after the conference in which the writers asked me if I could send them further information because they could not attend my session. As of today (7/5/10), I have had 56 hits on the guide, so quite a few people seem to be following up on the topic.
  • Instruction Section Soirée, Sat. 6/26/2010, 5-7. Another opportunity to network and meet new people. Spent time with Eric, Rafia, Kristin Stout, Maura Seale, and David Gibbs.
  • Young Turks Reception, Sat. 6/26/2010, 10-midnight. A reception hosted by the president of ALA, Camila Alire. Socialized with Kristin Stout, Maura Seale, Rafia, Eric, Kim Leeder, etc. (And yes, that “etc.” is meant to cover all those people I met whose names I no longer remember.)
  • RefWorks 2.0 Demo, Sun. 6/27/2010, 12-2. This demo lasted about an hour and a half and was very informative. Highlights include an updated look and feel, more intuitive navigation and function, the Quick Access buttons, and enhanced/easier sharing. The beta version of RefWorks 2.0 is available now, so I encourage everyone to open your account, look for RefWorks 2.0 in the upper right corner, click on it, and do some exploring.
  • Exhibits, Sun. 6/27/2010, 2-5:30. Spent lots of time looking through the exhibits, both academic publishers and leisure-reading ones. Also attended Rafia’s poster session this afternoon and perused others’ posters.
  • Library of Congress Professional Tour, 6/28/2010, noon-2:30. This tour was fascinating! If you ever go to DC, be sure to arrange for the tour one month before you go. We got to sit down and chat with a reference librarian who works in the main Reading Room, who told us what her typical duties are. The interesting this was that she related many stories about dealing with problem patrons that are exactly like ours! She gave us a tour of the public computer area, the main Reading Room, the card catalog (yes, they kept it!), the book processing area under the Reading Room, and part of the stacks (which are, of course, closed). We then got to take the normal public tour, which covers the grand entrance to the Jefferson Building (featuring a perfect copy of the Gutenberg Bible), a view of the Reading Room from a balcony (that’s the closest the public can get), and permanent exhibits. I had time to briefly walk through “Thomas Jefferson’s Library,” which includes all 5,000 surviving books that Jefferson sold to the Library to start its collection. Pictures of my trip are available here.

    ALA Annual 2010 Report : Frierson

    Jun 29

    Posted by frierson in ALA | No Comments

    On Friday, I flew into Washington DC for ALA’s Annual Conference.  These conferences are usually brutal on the body, with meetings scattered far and wide across the city – this year’s conference had the added challenge of highs in the upper-90’s (DC hit record highs two of the four days I was there) coupled with staggering humidity.  This made me very happy that I had exchanged my laptop for an iPad – much lighter and much easier to carry around, minimizing the sweat the computing weight added.

    Enough complaining.  In short, it was gross.

    Friday

    1:30 – 4:00pm – ACRL Leadership Council, Mayflower Hotel, East Room
    The ACRL Leadership Council is a session for ACRL division-level committee chairs, ACRL’s Executive Board, and ACRL Section chairs to come together and discuss the ACRL Strategic Plan and division goals and activities.  This year, we expanded on an activity we did at Midwinter in Boston – identifying the major trends in academic librarianship and providing the Board with ideas on making progress in those areas.  Unlike the Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries, we spent time prioritizing them and developing action suggestions.  Trends that emerged:

    1. Doing More with Less
    2. Demonstrating ROI / Value
    3. The Need for Advocacy Training at all levels of librarianship
    4. Changing demographics in student population
    5. Issues of Scholarly Communication will still loom large

    4:00 – 5:30pm, ALA Young Librarians Task Force, WCC 160
    The Young Librarians Task Force spent the last year exploring issues of retention and engagement with librarians under the age of thirty.  Prior to this meeting, we had produced a final report that was to be presented to ALA’s Executive Board.  During this meeting, we discussed strategies for our member doing to Board presentation, but we also discussed the recommendations in our report.  Many of them, like our recommendation to make committee participation entirely virtual when possible, the Board doesn’t have control over.  In the end, rather than asking the Board to approve our recommendations, we asked to extend the Task Force by one more year so that we might investigate the feasibility of the recommendations and develop implimentation plans for them.

    5:30 – 7:00pm, ACRL Instruction Section Soiree, George Washington University
    After back-to-back long working meetings, it was nice to relax with Jody and Rafia at the Instruction Section Soiree, a networking event for library instructors.  Now that my days are mostly filled with committee meetings and business meetings, these socials are the only place I really get to engage with new people.

    Saturday

    10:30 – 12:00pm, ACRL Instruction Section Advisory Committee I, JW Marriott Hotel, Grand Ballroom III
    As incoming chair of an Instruction Section committee, I will be on the ACRL/IS Advisory board.  In this meetings, I learned about the finances of the section (and of the division), and I was introduced to my co-chair of the ACRL Policy and Publications Review Committee, Peter Tegtmeyer of Colgate College, and we had a very interesting discussion on the use of screencasting in library instruction.  In his instruction sessions, he sometimes has students record how they go about searching using Jing or Screenjelly as an opening activity.  They can then use those screencasts on the projector to discuss how the database works.  Certainly the best, practical idea I heard at all of ALA!

    1:30 – 3:30pm, ACRL Instruction Section Policy and Publications Review Committee, JW Marriott Hotel, Capitol Ballroom C
    I continued my work with Peter on the committee I am incoming chair for.  The work of this committee is different from the kinds of work I typically seek out – it’s very detail oriented.  Essentially, this committee does two basic things:

    1. Maintain and document the publications by and about the Instruction Section.  If anyone from the section submits something for publication, our committee tracks it from proposal to publications.  We make sure the Board is reminded about each proposal, and we track the actions they take.  We compile bibliographies and copies of the documents.  We archive “dead” documents.
    2. If the Board has any policy-related issues, they charge our group with looking at them and providing the Board with policy suggestions.

    3:30 – 5:00pm, Exhibits and Poster Sessions, Washington Convention Center
    I went to see Jody’s poster and look through the exhibits some.  I didn’t do much swag-grabbing – just some mints from Springer.  Jody did wonderful at her poster and got quite busy during her time slot.  I had some good conversations with other poster presenters as well, also involving screencasting.

    10:00pm – 12:00am, Young Turks Reception, Presidential Suite, Renaissance Washington
    Jody, Rafia and I (and a few other found friends along the way) attended a reception in Camila Alire’s (ALA President) suite, where we met many new and old faces from around ALA.

    Sunday

    9:00am – 9:30am, ACRL 101, Washington Convention Center
    I helped Kim Leeder, chair of the University Libraries Section of ACRL, conduct ACRL 101.  It’s meant for new ACRL members to learn about the division and get involved in its business.

    10:30 – 12:00pm, ACRL University Libraries Section Conference Program Planning Committee, Renaissance Hotel, Meeting Room 15
    I’m a member of the 2011 planning committee for ULS.  We’re planning a session on new roles for academic libraries, co-sponsored by ACRL’s College Libraries Section.  In this meeting, we set up the format rules (lightning talks, no longer than 5 minutes, 20 slide limit, they advance every 15 seconds, regardless of how fast the presenter is going), developed a plan to call for proposals and invited two or three, and brainstormed how to engage the audience using our budget.  If you come to ALA in New Orleans in 2011, come to this session!  I’ll be emcee’ing it.

    12:00pm – 1:30pm, RefWorks 2.0 Luncheon, Hamilton Crown Plaza, Hamilton Ballroom
    In this FREE lunch, Jody, Rafia and I watched a demo on RefWorks 2.0.  The most exciting portion came at the end, when the speaker talked about the API.  An API is a way for people who make web pages and other tools to use the data and tools in RefWorks on their own sites.  So for example, one might potentially be able to replace the “My Shelf” feature of our catalog with RefWorks, so that when students click on “myShelf”, it connects with their RefWorks account instead of the catalog.  She showed how other universities had incorporated it into their course management software, so students could use refworks within the look-and-feel of their class website.

    1:30 – 3:30pm, ACRL Advocacy Committee, Capitol Hilton, New York Room
    I’m incoming vice-chair of the ACRL Advocacy Committee.  It’s a fairly new committee, sp we ended up setting goals for the coming year, which included the production of a toolkit that would help frontline librarians advocate to students and faculty, in order to turn them into vocal proponents of the library on their institutions.

    4:00 – 5:30pm, NMRT/REFORMA: The New Professional Paradigm, Renaissance Mayflower, Colonial Ballroom
    I was one of four panelists on this presentation that discussed the changing nature of librarianship and our roles.  Panelists presented on international librarianship opportunities, the management and leadership skills for Generation X librarians, and community outreach services.  I went last, talking about how the work of the Young Librarians Task Force mentioned earlier reflected these new professionals, and I reported on what our recommendations to the board would be, inviting session attendees to participate in the next stage of our work.

    5:30 – 8:00pm, Run/walk on the National Mall
    I took a break from ALA and ran and walked 7 miles down the National Mall to see several monuments and buildings, including the Capitol, the White House, the Smithsonian buildings, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam and Korean War memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, finishing it up with a run along the Potomac River, finishing very sweaty at my hotel.

    Monday

    8:00am – 10:30am, ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee, Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, East Room
    This committee writes the Environmental Scan and the Top Ten Trends in Academic Libraries (mentioned earlier).  In this group, we identified the big sections to be included in the scan, and volunteered for various sections.  I will be looking for resources on the future of the profession.

    10:30am - 12:00pm, ACRL Research Coordinating Committee, Renaissance Mayflower Hotel, East Room
    I am rolling off of this committee, having served as chair for the past year.  This committee will be coordinating ACRL’s efforts to respond to the stated research needs in the upcoming Value of Academic Libraries research report by Megan Oakleaf.

    12:00pm – 2:00pm, Tour of the Library of Congress
    Jody, Rafia, and I (and friends) got the behind-the-scenes “professionals” tour of the Library of Congress.  We got to go into the closed stacks, go below the main reading room where conveyor belts bring books from across the system, see staff offices, the card catalog, and have a great, friendly discussion with our tour guide, LoC reference librarian Phoebe Peacock.

    Then I came home!  In addition to the committee work I’ll be doing, the most important things I learned related to my work at UT Arlington included the unique use of screencasting as a teaching tool and RefWork’s API capabilities.

    eric

    Mansfield ISD Conference

    Jun 10

    Posted by mjhandke in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

    I presented yesterday as part of a panel of local librarians (public, academic and special) about the resources we offer to the general and K12 communities.  These are a few things I learned about while listening to the others present:

    http://fur.ly — it’s a way to package multiple URLs into one page.  a great way to share sites if the point is to get users to specific sites and not spend time searching.  The Mansfield librarian, Jennifer Rike,  made one for the session:

    • http://fur.ly/wob.   Note the yellow bar across the top.  That is how you navigate from page to page.  She says these are not searchable (I have not confirmed this) so be sure to note your URL or you will never find your fur.ly again!

    http://www.shmoop.com– Literature guides for educators to help make required fiction accessible and relevant to today’s students.

    http://www.lexile.com–Offers rating levels for books — kind of like movie, music or video game ratings.  For example, if you have a student who cannot read at the level presented in class, this will offer titles on the same topic but at the student’s reading level.

    http://www.hakia.com

    – “is a semantic search engine that is focused on quality and elevated user experience.”  UX (user experience), relevant to today’s ACRL webcast.  :-)

      Third Friday in September from 4-6pm is the educators open house in the Fort Worth museum district.  All museums offer free admission during this time and present on the resources and services they offer to local teachers.  Katherine, Amon Carter’s librarian, said there’s always tasty food!  If I can find a URL for the event, I’ll add it to the comments below.

      Katherine also wanted everyone to know that free parking is going away around the museums.  The small lots around The Modern, ACM and the Kimball will still be free, but they are small.  Street parking, the parking garage and the Will Rogers complex are all charging and will soon start ticketing non-payers.  Upper levels of the new garage will cost less if validated at a museum.  She did note that after 5pm and on weekends parking the UNT Health Science Center across the street is free.

      IOL Conference 2010: Collaborative Grouping Online

      May 27

      Posted by frierson in Innovations in Online Learning | 1 Comment

      Jigsaw… a two step process.  Each person belongs to two groups.  In the first group, groups will be looking at certain aspects of the “big topic”.  The second group is made up of one member from each of the first set of groups – and these people are the specialists in the aspect they studied in their first group.  This way, every student has something unique and valuable to bring to a group.

      Voicethread - you can post a picture or document, and others can post questions around it.

      Uses Wimba for synchronous presentations to others.  Use Doodle.com for scheduling. Grouping by school makes it easier.

      Jigsaw can be time intensive because of the multiple-group structure.

      Self- and peer-assessment rubric for presentation assignment requires students to participate in the selection of the topic, which students usually don’t like to do – they would rather be told a topic.

      Library-related:  Jigsaw class activities – maybe for MLA, one group works togethe rto master how to cite one type of source.  Then, one member from each group forms the new group – a super team of citers.  THEN play the MLA game?  By making sure each individual has to become an expert on one type of citation, there’s more motivation for the to be on their game in their second groups…