New Look to the Blog

Emily,

Love what you've done with the site!!! The logo makes a cool background!

Library use high because of computers

Check out the article below from Reuters. It claims that Gen Y (born (roughly--there is some disagreement on the start and end years of the different Gens) between 1981–1995) uses the library more because of computers and the internet, that in turn, drive the interest for research.

Generation Y biggest user of libraries: survey

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2849864420071230

Orientation

Karen I loved the video you did for orientation. I am wondering though if the rest of you have been asked to do a presentation at orientation? All I have done so far is take pictures for the Photo ID's.
I have decided that students will be asked to pick up their ID in the library. That way we will get those new students back in and hopefully we can have a snazzy handout to send with them as to what the library has to offer.

Bismarck collection

So you've heard Emily and me joke about how small the Bismarck collection is. Check out this slideshow to see far the collection has already come.

Pictures of Emily opening her gifts

EBSCO's new Visual Search

The redesigned Visual Search for EBSCOhost is up and running. It's quite different from the old way, but I think the new format is better at showing the thought process behind narrowing a search topic. When you first open up Visual Search, a flash tutorial runs automatically to explain the features and how to use them.

New ILS - Input Please

In our quest for a new ILS, Heather (formerly @Mankato) and I looked at different vendors at ALA Annual in June. Our notes, including websites, are available on CHIPSnet in the OPAC Committee folder. Also in the folder is an article with info on various vendors (i.e., which ones are used in academic libs). As I mentioned on our call this week, I'll be attending Midwinter next month. Any feedback beforehand would be appreciated - which vendors do you want more in-depth information on their product(s)? Which ones don't you like? Emily can correct me of course if I'm wrong, but I think we're steering clear of open-source systems and SirsiDynix. We like TLC, but are looking at others as well. Thanks!!

Web 2.0 Webinar (WebJunction)

WebJunction is offering a January 16 webinar about ways to use Web 2.0 to increase a library's service to the community. (1:00 to 2:00 Central Time) See the summary and instructions for attending . Registration is optional, and the webinar is free.

Exam Cram

Eagan campus hosted another study-a-thon on Saturday Dec 8th.. This librarian writes about how he planned and advertised for an Exam Cram during finals week.

Do students retain information literacy training?

I think that by now.. a lot of you are already reading Stephen's Lighthouse! ... but I thought this article was interesting about how much students retain about IL..

Student Orientation update

I have to say, I'm pretty darn pleased with how this turned out.  We had the first of four student orientations today, and for the most part, it went well.  I wanted to create the library portion as more interactive as opposed to just me spewing out statistics.  I came up with the theme of a library "quiz" - the new students' first quiz of what they might know, and what they should know, about the Rasmussen College Library System.  

I created the slides first with Office 2007, but I wanted to get them into the library and use the AWESOME large monitors on the Mac.  To do that, of course, I needed to figure out Mac's version of PowerPoint - KeyNote.  I then was able to publish it with QuickTime!  You'll need to pause the "movie" to read all the bullet points.  Thanks to Chandra for the awesome "Librarian Secrets to Success!"

Orientation #2 is tomorrow night.  

Explore your inner librarian

Check out this cool sight that I again discovered through Stephen's Lighthouse.

Student Orientation

Question .... I'm trying to come up with some fun and interesting ways for the library intro portion of the student orientation. I have a few ideas, but I thought I'd throw this out to the group. :)

Virtual Reference:

I realize I had informed you that I had set up a Meebo account but hadn’t made an official post on it yet. As you know, Rasmussen College Library will hopefully be implementing a chat reference service for the students.

The first decision that needed to be made was which software would be used. In order to reach as many students as possible, an aggregator is necessary. I was familiar with Trillian and while I did find librarians online who used this service, Meebo was the more popular choice with libraries. It works as an aggregator like Trillian or GAIM but doesn’t require a software download. Plus, the widget allows people who don’t have a MSN, AIM, Yahoo…etc. account to still participate in the discussion.

Meebo

Our account is RasColLib and I’ve already affiliated AIM, Yahoo, Gtalk and MSN accounts to the Meebo account. (I'll let Emily distribute the password.) Therefore, if a student prefers to IM the librarian via their chat software instead of the Meebo widget on the library page, they can.

Features:

Widgets: Chat windows connecting to RasColLib can be embedded in different parts of the Rasmussen College website.

Logs: Meebo does keep logs but only if the Meebo user is chatting with someone who has a username. Anonymous communication, which is chiefly what comes through a public Meebo widget, is not logged. If records about these communications are to be kept, a separate system will need to be set up.

Customizable Away Messages: If you’re logged in but have to step away for a bit, students can see when you’ll be back. Plus, they can still leave questions in the window to be answered later.

File Transfers: A student can send files via Meebo but for security reasons, you still may want them to e-mail any document to you.

Text, Video & Audio Chats: These are other parts of Meebo that is accessible as long as you’re not chatting with an anonymous user. MeeboRooms, however, do allow anonymous chatters to join a conversation. With Rooms, there is the risk that non-RCL using participants will join it.

There is the beginning. The next step will be testing it out on real students and professors to discover what trends they may have that will help shape the future of virtual reference at Rasmussen.

If you'd like to read more about where to go from here, Amanda Etches-Johnson at blogwithoutalibrary.net has a few helpful resources about what should be considered when developing an IM chat service.

Amanda's presentation on incorporating IM PDF
IM Road MapPDF

And if you feel inclined, drop me a line to chat or ask questions:

~Krista

Is anyone else "Twittering"?

Are you "Twittering"? What do you use Twitter for? Would this be useful for librarians? Would this be useful for us?

Open APA workshop success..

I have to share.. I did a workshop on Wednesday night, and 9 people came. I ran out of pizza! It was very exciting. To get the students there, I enticed them with advertising pizza and opportunities to get extra credit. I think most students were there for the extra credit.

I know some librarians are against bribing students with pizza or extra credit, BUT I made the students work. I got them in the door with the pizza and extra credit, but I think all the students learned a lot about APA/Noodlebib/paraphrasing/quoting. I created the powerpoint to be about Minnesota and specifically the Vikings.

You know the slide in Emily's ppt that has 2 columns?
You do not have to credit ____, you do have to credit ____? Well, I changed that slide to:

no credit: It snows in Minnesota
credit: The Metro region averaged 35.5 inches of snow in '06-07

no credit: Ice fishing is dangerous when there isn't enough ice
credit: Pickup trucks and large fish houses should be on ice at least 12 inches thick.

no credit: Minnesota is the home to the Minnesota Vikings football team.
credit: Ragnar is the Vikings' team mascot. He holds the current world record for fastest time shaving a beard with an ax.

*Since these MNstats were interesting to the students, I could tell that they were digesting the information.

Then, I had them practice paraphrasing and quoting from an article that I printed from the Minneapolis Star Tribune about the Vikings. I had them use Noodlebib to get a citation for that article. The students (especially males) were really engaged with reading the Vikings article and having to put the football article into their own words. I love using pop culture/regional culture to "make it click" with students.

§

Proof that marketing works

Last night, I sent all students an e-mail with an attached list of the items added to the library within the last two weeks, along with their dot sections. About noon today, a student walked into the library, headed straight to the Office Management shelf, and selected a brand new book about Office 2007. The book hadn't even been on the shelf for 18 hours.

Plus, I'm relieved to know that at least one student reads the e-mails I send.

RSS In Plain English

I love this site!

It's called Common Craft-Explanations In Plain English. They work with clients and create videos for-profit, but they also create basic educational videos on Web 2.0 technologies.

They have them for:

Blogs
Wikis
Social Networking
and
Social Bookmarking to name a few.

I find their videos to be very well done. In short videos, they explain the basics of each technology and how it can improve a user's online experience. If a student or teacher ever inquires about them, I recommend showing them this site as I don't think I've seen an introduction that has been as clear as these are.

My favorite video is the RSS video below.

~Krista Jacobson

Flickr groups

FYI, there are a couple of Rasmussen College groups on Flickr.

Rasmussen College / New Construction
Rasmussen College Photowalks

Meeting with the Admission Reps...

I met with the Reps on Friday and, all in all, it went well. I started off very generally - I used the opportunity for a lesson in what librarianship is about and the various hats I wear.

I had a packet of stuff for them, everything from the ALA's Bill of Rights to how the RCLS is set up. I used a version of Chandra's RCLS sheet, as well as a run-down on the services and materials we as a system hold.

I ended with two ABSOLUTES they needed to always remember, especially when they give tours:

• Whenever possible, ALWAYS bring in potential students into the library. I've had many just by-pass the library all together. No one is here right now. There is no reason not to come into the library.
  
• NEVER start off by saying, "I know this library is small, but ...." Instead, I suggested something like, "What you see here is the tip of the iceberg for all of the resources that are available to you."

Thanks to all of you who assisted and made recommendations!

Meebo @ your library

If we decide to do chat reference, here is a posting from Stephen's Lighthouse that is interesting. The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library also has Meebo loading as soon as you connect to the homepage. One of the articles I included in my annotated bibliography on Virtual Reference talked about having the popular IM systems loaded onto the library computers with the librarian already programmed into the buddy list

posted by our illustrious leader ...

What is Plagiarism?

It's in the My Rasmussen College blog created by Mark Krupinski. Nice Job, Emily!

To Excel or not to Excel (well), that is the question!:-)

A couple of tips on how to work faster in Excel

Fast Data Entry in Excel, from PC Magazine.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2224429,00.asp

What do you do...

When you get new books, what do you do with the CD-ROMs that are in the little envelopes in the back of the books? Do you leave them in the envelopes, or do you remove them and keep them in cases behind your desk, or...?

Cataloging blogs

I thought this was interesting...

How do you catalog a blog?

This librarian contemplates cataloging them as a serial..