APA Refresher for Faculty

I don't know about you, but I'm often unable to learn something new after only one explanation or demonstration. Even if I think I've got it, I tend to forget the specific processes if I don't do something frequently. (How do I run that stupid overdue report in Aleph? How do I delete an item? How do I set the clock on my VCR?) I hope you can relate.

Now think about how our instructors feel about using APA for citations and references. Students get the instructions repeatedly, maybe more than once per quarter, and then they get to apply what they've learned. But many instructors hear our APA workshops less frequently, if at all, and they don't have to apply the concepts in multiple papers each quarter. No wonder many instructors feel less than confident when it comes to in-text citations and reference pages.

Based on requests from faculty members during our last GAP scoring session, I decided to offer APA refresher sessions for faculty professional development this quarter. I held two sessions this week, and a total of 10 instructors attended. In the one-hour sessions, we looked at examples of paraphrases, summaries, and quotes, and we examined the in-text citations. Participants built reference citations and corresponding in-text citations. (I used modified versions of some of the activities we made for our standardized Success Strategies APA session way back when.)

For some who attended, this was their first direct instruction in APA citations even though they've taught on campus for several quarters. Even for instructors who have been around a while, this was a valuable time to ask questions and actually write out citations.

As you think about workshops for next quarter, don't forget about your faculty. Even though you've already shown them how to cite a book or how to use a database, they may not have taken the opportunity to use what you've taught them. Perhaps new instructors have joined your team since your last faculty workshop. Consider holding refreshers for your faculty members.

Now... who's going to teach me to set the clock on my VCR?

Another Web 2.0 tool--

Check out the interesting article on Twitter from the Chronicle of Higher Education. This would be kinda cool for a Intro to Communications teacher to use in a class to show the students a modern form of communication that is in use:

Forget E-mail: New Messaging Service Has Students and Professors Atwitter

Happy Leap Year Day!!!!!

Unshelved..

Unshelved is allowing everyone to use their strips for marketing! For FREE.

How generous!

click here to read more.

Blackboard lawsuit

This is really interesting.. I wonder how/if this will affect Angel. I used both Blackboard and Moodle in Graduate School.

Article in Chronicle of Higher Ed News blog.

Collection Development

Has anyone tried using email lists from CHOICE and/or RCLweb with faculty yet? If so, please let me know- and has this feedback increased the number of recommendations received?

Thanks!!

How and When not to answer a reference question

I just finished reading the article Emily sent us. As I was reading it made me think of this week as I was helping a patron and I was feeling rushed I grabbed the mouse and began moving them to the Library Resource page. I caught myself and asked the patron to take over and told her that I wanted to make sure she could get to there by herself when she is at home. She smiled and took over.

I also apoligized to a student because he asked for help and I needed a few questions answered before I could help him. I could see on his face he just wanted an answer but I needed to know what he had already done and what was required of him for the assignment before I could direct him further.

I know that these are not examples of online help but from the training this week and the article I realized that there are many similiarities between the two.

Harvard Faculty Votes to Post Research Online

The Boston Globe recently featured an article (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/13/harvard_faculty_votes_to_post_research_online/)

discussing how Harvard’s University Library is planning to instantly make professor’s finished papers available via the internet for FREE. Tentatively named “The Office for Scholarly Communication,” this office will serve to publish articles and act as a repository for faculty.

Publishers are very much against this proposal, claiming it would be detrimental to the peer review process. Even though journal editors may not be involved in this new approach, academics generally volunteer to peer-review colleagues’ work at no cost. So Publishers no doubt feel threatened by this move and if other institutions follow suit, this could lead to a radical change in how academic research is made available. This is good news for libraries from a budgeting standpoint.

A Few Meebo Tidbits

I was sent an e-mail with the following questions and I wanted to share the answers with the group as I suspect the librarian who sent the questions is not the only one to have them. I know I had them for a while myself.

Why does it say I am signed in to AIM twice and I have to hit '1' to end the session?

I don't necessarily know the answer for this but I can take a guess. When you exit a session by simply closing the browser, you are automatically signed out of most of the accounts. I suspect the one you are not signed out of is AIM. Therefore, if the person who was covering Meebo prior to you getting on simply closed the browser instead of signing off first, AOL considers AIM still in session. Go ahead and hit '1' to end the session.

Also, I don't believe two people can be signed into the same Meebo account at the same time. Once someone else signs on, another person will get kicked off. I'm not sure if there is a system set in place yet but it might be a good idea to Contact the librarian via Meebo to see if it's okay to sign in so you're not disrupting a session with a student.

Should I talk to the meeboguests that appear in my buddy list?

Not unless you want to scare some random user of the library. :)

Each meeboguest represents an open widget. For instance, every time someone is on the main library page, a unique widget session opens for that user. So if five people are on that main library page, then five widget sessions are available and five meeboguests appear in your buddy list.

I suppose if you really wanted to, you could greet them. Otherwise, unless they're actually sending you a message, they're not expecting any response from you.

Our Challenges

During the call today, you shared several challenges that you've faced this quarter. Please take some time to review them, and then offer comments in the blog with potential solutions for these challenges. We'll discuss them during our next team call.

- Getting students to attend open workshops (even when workshops are heavily marketed and students show interest)

- Completing Binders & System tasks

- Managing quantity of workshops

- Finding time to make photocopies for workshops, handouts, etc.

- Not many students visiting or working in the library

- Time/Finding Time/Time Management - everything takes longer than expected

- Communication with faculty/ scheduling test proctoring

- Excel 2007

- Keeping up with Cataloging


EDO

23 Things on a Stick

I'm wondering if anyone else is participating in the 23 Things on a Stick program. If so, it would be fun to see what our teammates have created.

Please share links to your 23 Things blogs.

I can't get the links to show up, so I'll type them in the old-fashioned way. General site: www.23thingsonastick.blogspot.com

Chandra's blog: www.stuckon23things.blogspot.com

Collaboration in Success Strategies

Hello All,
Emily asked me to post about my "team teaching" in Success Strategies. The instructor is our Fargo instructor of the year and the Harlan Employee of the Quarter, Lael Richards. I have been going in the second half of the class to both present-database searching, NoodleBib, etc. and also aid students individually in course assignments as it is a rather large class. In the process, I have had the opportunity to observe Lael's teaching methods and interactions with her students. She is very warm and approachable, her lecture style is quite conversational, and she always asks for feedback and checks for understanding throughout the class time. Her class is very responsive to both she and I and the classroom environment is relaxed yet on task. I am very much enjoying this experience. Has anyone else experienced a "team teaching" approach?

Allied Health Certification Materials -Rotating Rack

I thought I would share the websites I used to print off certification materials for each allied health program. These were the primary sites I found, but there may be others out there as well.

Medical Transcription - www.ahdionline.org
Medical Coding - www.ahima.org
Medical Assisting - www.aama-ntl.org
Surg. Tech. - www.nbstsa.org
Pharm. Tech. - www.ptcb.org
HIT - www.ahima.org
Massage Therapy - www.ncbtmb.com

My packets are fairly long; it was hard to decide what to include. Generally speaking I included a job overview, a description of the importance of certification, the certification process, exam info., and other random bits of information. I think it would be nice to have Brad Moore look these over to verify that the information provided is accurate. On a side note... I included a title page for each field along with a "disclaimer" that reads...

Description: This packet was developed by your campus Librarian as a helpful tool for obtaining certification in your profession. Read the packet carefully and decide if certification is right for you (it is not required for some allied health fields). Every attempt has been made to locate and supply up-to-date information for your field. If you have further questions please consult your organization’s certification website or one of your instructors.

"Librarian" Is One Of The Best Careers Of 2008 Says U.S. News & World Reports

Here is a link to the article listing the top 31 careers of 2008.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2007/12/19/the-components-of-31-top-careers.html

An executive summary of the "Librarian" profession can be found here;

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/best-careers/2007/12/19/librarian-executive-summary.html

1 million books scanned!!!

The U of Michigan is on it's way!

A Million Books Scanned at the University of Michigan--and counting