Digital World @ SWFLN Annual Meeting

After our Orlando team meeting, on Thursday morning, Nov. 5, 2009, I zoomed down to a library at the bottom of Naples (near the Everglades!) to attend the annual meeting of the Southwest Florida Library Network. Fortunately, "tourist" Sara was my companion during the long drive.

Both of us enjoyed hearing the meeting's guest speaker, Arnold Hirshon. He is the chief strategist and executive consultant at LYRASIS, and former executive director of NELINET. His speech was titled "Where is the Library Field Going????"

("Created in April 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation’s largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals. The primary service area is the Mid-Atlantic, Southeastern, and New England regions.")

First, Mr. Hirshon showed the following video:



Afterward, he asked if the audience thought that the video's "predictions" will be positive for society. Many people raised their hands. But several people also raised their hands when he asked if the "predictions" will have negative ramifications for society. I am sort of conflicted! How about all of you?

Then Mr. Hirshon basically talked about how print books are going the way of the dodo bird. Period. Full stop. No ifs, ands, or buts. He totally endorses digital readers 1000%. But when one librarian said she has concerns that people will take them to the beach and drop them in the sand (good question -- remember -- this is Florida!!!), he really didn't have an answer...

Database workshop without a lab

As our student population grows, it becomes more difficult to secure a computer lab for library workshops. This happened to me this week when I conducted a journal database workshop for English Comp. Thankfully most of the classrooms now have overhead projectors connected to the instructor's computer. I was trying to figure out a way to make the workshop interesting when students could not sign on and try their own searches. As the students arrived, I handed them a slip of paper and told them to write their program at the top and write their thesis statement or what they were going to write about for their project. (Engaging the student as they walk in the door) I collected these and then had the students get into small groups by program. I had them brainstorm for about 10 minutes to come up with search terms that they could use. (Catering to the millenniums who like to do group work) Then I did one search from each program in Ebsco, showing the students how to narrow their search; find scholarly, peer-reviewed articles; and how to create an account and save to their folder. We also took a look at Proquest and Safari to show other types of databases. Overall, the students were engaged and I received positive feedback. One drawback was that the students were not able to fill out their electronic surveys during the workshop. However, I did check later and one of the students had taken the time to do it.

NDLA 2009 Conference in Dickinson, ND

Chandra and I attended the NDLA Conference September 23-25. It was great to meet Chandra and other ND librarians.

You might all know about this already, but EBSCO has some great training videos that may be useful during classroom presentations and some free, customizable, downloadable promotional materials (posters, bookmarks, etc.) available for free at http://support.ebsco.com.

Is It All Online For Free

Check out this SlideShare Presentation I saw at NDLA. Great links we may want to add to Delicious or in presentations.

Is It All Online For Free

View more presentations from Valley City State University.

new APA tidbits

I'm wondering what my library teammates have discovered in th 6th edition of the beloved APA Manual. I've already found a couple things new things, plus a few I thought were new but were really old things that I just didn't know from the previous edition.

What's new to you in the latest APA Manual?

1. NEW: In the reference page listing for a book, all cities now get their 2-letter state abbreviations. So no more trying to remember the list of which cities were exempt.

2. NEW TO ME: Although I knew that personal communications don't get listed on the reference page, I learned that classical words (like the Bible and the Qur'an) do not get listed on the reference page either. (See p. 174.)

New Student Orientation

While I'm still getting oriented to my new job, I have started working with the Dean of Student Learning to be involved in new student orientations. The Learning Center instructor and myself are going to give 20-minute presentations at all of the orientations about the library/learning center services available to students. We figure it will be a great opportunity to increase usage.

ND Author visits Bismarck

During summer quarter, I worked with a campus instructor and a librarian at the local public library to bring a noted North Dakota author into the Bismarck/Mandan community. Shadd, the instructor, contacted Larry Woiwode, a North Dakota native whose works have received high acclaim, and asked him to come to Bismarck to do a reading of his book A Step from Death: A Memoir and to discuss his experiences as a writer. I launched a campus-wide book discussion group over A Step from Death and invited the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Library to partner with the college for the author’s visit. The public library hosted event and publicized the event through displays, on its webpage, and to its mailing lists. The marketing team from Rasmussen crafted a press release which was picked up by the local newspaper.

On August 20, approximately 70 people gathered in a meeting room at the public library. After an introduction by Shadd, Larry Woiwode shared a poems and then read sections from his novel. He then took questions from the audience, many focusing on his writing process. The evening finished with Larry signing books and visiting one-on-one with attendees.

As a result of this successful event, my contact from the local public library and I are already discussing ways to collaborate in the future for more community and lifelong learning events.