Nursing Lib Qual results

This morning I met with Cheryl Pratt, Nursing director, regarding the results from the Lib Qual survey. We talked about the red areas for LPN (A library website enabling me to locate information & printed materials I need for work) and what could possibly be done to make sure that our nursing students know how to access resources.

Cheryl said that the first week of the new pod we (Brooklyn Park, St. Cloud, Pasco and Ocala)should make sure that we get in to a class to introduce students to the resources available. She said that once they get past the first quarter the curriculum is so rigorous it is almost impossible to get anything else in.

Cheryl is working on curriculum right now for the nursing program. I will ask her if she can note this in the lessons.

I was also told that Eagan and Moorhead should have a nursing program up and running by January 2009.

The RN program had some red areas they were: Community space for group learning and group study; Comfortable and inviting location; Getaway for study, learning and research; Library space that inspires study and learning. We discussed that it is hard to physically change the space that is available. Cheryl talked to Bradley Moore about getting two tables in the Nursing lab, in Mankato, so that students could come in for study groups or just a quiet place to study. Here in Mankato there are days when that's all you see in the library are nursing students, good thing, but Cheryl said that sometimes they need a space to study and discuss and the way the library is set up they would disturb other students. She wishes the library had a separate room with doors so that groups would have a place to go to discuss and learn.

Voter Registration Drive

When it's time for the voter registration/get out the vote drive, maybe we can make us of Electing a US President in Plain English by Common Craft.

Writing Contest for Librarians

Smart Poodle Publishing knows that librarians can make a world of difference in the lives of readers everywhere from every age and at every reading level! We feel that librarians are sometimes under appreciated or misunderstood. Now is your chance to speak out by entering our contest.

* 1 Grand Prize winner will receive $500
* 2nd Place winner will receive $100
* 3rd Place winner will $50
* All 3 winning entries will be posted on www.smartpoodlepublishing.com and may be published elsewhere online or in print.

Contest Deadline
Entries must be received by Monday, December 1, 2008 by 5:00 pm (EST)

More information

Communicating with People who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

The following link, from Gallaudet University, offers tips for librarians on communication with people who are Deaf or hard of hearing (fyi, NOT "hearing impaired"). http://library.gallaudet.edu/deaf-communication-libraries.shtml

Starting a Book Club Online

Many of you have mentioned that you have already or are considering starting a faculty/staff book club at your campus. A few of you have also mentioned that you are tying the book into an activity on your campus - your diversity committee, an event, a program, etc. It's fantastic that you are promoting reading and book discussion at your campuses. Of course, this could also be an avenue to bring in local authors and spark new programming, as well.

This morning, I came across a beta site called Book Sprouts. Book Sprouts is an online book club. Sign up is free. You can use the site to join or create a book club, select a book (it appears to be a kind of nomination/voting process), host online discussions and set up in person discussions.

You could definitely use this to enhance your own campus book club. However, is this something we should consider using for a system-wide event (sort of a revival of Rasmussen Reads)? We could do a Diversity focus. That way, we can involve faculty and staff from online and system offices who would not otherwise have the opportunity to participate. Your thoughts?

Business Reference

The BRASS section of ALA's reference division (RUSA) has the following site of Core Competencies for Business Reference. In addition, there are links to websites (many have already been added to Ma.gnolia), as well as terms, Q&A for biz ref, and print titles (of which I'm adding relevant, updated ones to a system-list cart on B&T). Thought it might be of interest if anyone needs a referesher or is stumped :-)
http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/rusaourassoc/rusasections/brass/brassprotools/corecompetencies/corecompetenciesbusiness.cfm

Google Releases "Knol™" to Compete with Wikipedia

Last week Google released Knol™ (http://knol.google.com/), a user-generated encyclopedia poised to surmount Wikipedia. Users who compose articles on Knol will not be anonymous, and will receive recognition for their contributions. Authors will also have the opportunity to profit from their articles with advertisements.

I like the fact that Knol articles will be tied to a specific author, but I do not think it’s a good idea (as a librarian concerned with access) that the Google search engine will be directing traffic to these articles. I have read on other websites that currently the Name Verification is only open to U.S. users as well. So what do you librarians think about Knol?

Bigger (and Better) than Google?

I don't know if I'm more excited that Google has an up and coming challenger or that the person creating it was the one who first started Google (and is a woman in IT! So cool!!!!)

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/28/technology/cuil.ap/index.htm?cnn=yes

"Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?"

The Sunday, July 27, 2008 New York Times has a terrific front-page story titled: "Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" The story jumps inside to an entire double-truck that is the first in a series of articles called: "The Future of Reading: Digital Versus Print." The series "will look at how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read."

If the first story is any indication, it is going to be a terrific series, very well-researched and written. Check it out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=reading&st=cse&oref=slogin

Diversity Committee Joint Ventures

Recently the chair of the Diversity Committee here on the Fargo and Moorhead campuses has asked to team up with the library to host and co-present a Parent's Day 7/28 including discussion of the importance of reading to young children and a storytime. We are also planning a quarterly Book Club with the first being in the Fall Quarter focusing on Native American Literature-possibly using the Beet Queen by Louise Erdrich (the story itself highlights this region). Has anyone else teamed up with a committee for events?

Library Programs

What is everyone doing for programming? I am at a loss for ideas...
Thanks!!

subbing at Rockford

I spent two days at the Rockford Campus, and it reminded me about how awesome it is to be involved in this type of organization and part of this team. Everyone was so very nice and welcoming, and I was able to do a workshop and help a couple of students. Spending a lot of time in another environment helped me come up with some other ways of doing things, find other resources I'd like to add to my collection, and talk with other staff and faculty about resources and ideas.

I think it also helped the students have another viewpoint - a different way of teaching other than what they might have already had. If you ever have a chance, and I think we all should do this at least once, I highly recommend spending a few days elsewhere. Geee... this is starting to sound like an exchange program!

:)

Kudos to Cynthia! The library looks wonderfully organized.

RSS for Faculty

Good Morning:

Several of you have mentioned interest in giving a professional development workshop for faculty about using RSS feeds in the classroom. I think that this is a great idea - a little out of the library norm (which is good), and probably very useful for most of our (and especially our tech savvy) faculty.

As an aside, if you weren't planning to give this kind of presentation, it's something for you to consider. If you aren't comfortable giving it, I'm absolutely certain that you can find a faculty member or someone in your community familiar enough with RSS related to teaching that they could come in and give a presentation.

The only concern that I have is that you probably have some faculty who aren't at all familiar with RSS. I have been thinking for some time about giving a presentation on an Introduction to RSS via webinar. Do you think that some of your faculty would be interested in attending? Do you think that this would be a useful presentation prior to any presentations about RSS in the classroom?

That Google article again!

Nicholas Carr's Google article in the Atlantic is really getting people talking (if not reading)! The latest copy of aldirect features SF Gate columnist Mark Morford's "You are not reading enough: Has the Internet killed the joys of sitting down with a good book?"

Morford agrees with Carr but also writes: "Ah, but I do believe all is not lost. There is lingering hope. I am moderately sure a brain thusly amped on the wicked energy drink of the Web can, through honest time spent, through forcibly yanking the Ethernet cable out of one's cerebral cortex, be re-rewired, untrained, re-addicted to the deeper juice. In fact, it isn't that difficult, really. We just like to think it is."

He has a funny ending to his column, too. Check it out!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/07/09/notes070908.DTL

RSS Workshop for Faculty

Have any of you hosted a workshop focused on introducing RSS feeds to faculty? In our morning meeting today my Dean was asking for ideas for professional development and I mentioned I was interested in hosting such a workshop. Most of the instructors sounded interested and ALL said that they were not currently using RSS feeds. Anyway, I guess I'm just looking for ideas - to see what may have worked in the past, or perhaps some good sites to recommend or blogs. I think it should be a fun topic and I'm looking forward to introducing it!

Splitting P2D for ILL benefits

Today I experienced my first benefit of our P2D symbol split. Someone at the University of Iowa wanted to borrow something from my campus through FirstSearch/OCLC! Talk about feeling important!

When you send an ILL outside of Rasmussen, what do you do to track it? I checked the book out to Ship so that it shows as unavailable, but I'm not sure of the best way to keep track of which outside library has what item, when it's due, etc. Please share your best practices.

Metro Net Information Literacy Conference

In June, 4 Rasmussen librarians attended a conference at the U of M St. Paul campus in MN. I was one of the 4. There were three main speakers along with break out sessions. Some interesting points were brought up. Such as students in high school will miss class and ask teachers for make up work and then that expectation is transferred over to college. Kent Pekel, executive director of the College Readiness Consortium, University of MN, recommended a resource from EPIConline.org by David Connelly titled Toward ....College Readiness. He also mentioned www.minnesotapromise.org having an article on the "Bridge to higher learning...". Kent wanted us to know how important it is that high school becomes a bridge to higher learning instead of a gap.

Larry Hardesty, a university librarian for over 30 years, handed out a two page bibliography that came from his talk on how a first year student is similiar to a canary in a coal mine. He talked about first year students information literacy needs and referred to the list of resources as a way to reach them.

The break out session I chose to go to was titled, "Writing Programs and Information Literacy". There was an English teacher and librarian from the U of M talking about how they worked together to create an orientation of the library services using a website as game. The hope is that it will be intergrated into the beginning writing courses online. It is about 45 minutes long. Students are forced to do something on every page so that they have to read the material that is in front of them. This project was still in the beginning stages but they had tested the website last semester in the English teachers' class. The students loved it and said that they liked the hands on experience. The surprising thing to me was that the librarian presenting was telling us how she could not believe that it worked because she did not believe, at first, that students could learn this way. One of the reasons the library team decided to try this way of teaching was because they were being stretched thin for presenting in classrooms.

A high school panel was there and they talked about how the Metronet Intiative helped them move into this century of teaching. These teachers, mostly middle school and high school had never used the Elm databases with their students and were not using computers to teach. They were pretty excited about their achievements and were able to tell us that the students scores were changing and for the better.

Think about it if high school students are not using databases, and I know from my own teaching experience that they aren't, then we are the first person who shows them how to use them. They may have used the internet and other programs but have they been using it reliably before they get to us?

There was a lot more covered at this conference I hope that my collegues who went will fill in the huge blanks I have left.

Seizing the opportunity

I've always struggled with knowing the best way to introduce adjunct instructors to the physical library resources, let alone the databases and classroom workshop opportunities. A very large percentage of our instructors are adjuncts, most of whom are unable to attend professional development sessions. I think I've finally stumbled upon a good method. I talk.

The first three days of this quarter have yielded great opportunities. One adjunct instructor stopped in the library to show me vacation pictures and ended up scheduling her very first workshop. Another came in to visit and ended up checking out five books, having a database lesson on using folders for suggested read lists, and scheduling two workshops. An adjunct instructor I've barely met stopped to ask me something because the door was open, and she ended up finding DVDs she wants to show and books she wants to show to her students, and she scheduled her very first workshop.

When I was a kid, my parents teased me that I talked too much. Who would have guessed that my talkative nature would have professional benefits!

Look Who's Blogging Now?

Our very own Amy Springer is a blogger for the Brazen Careerist blog. Way to go, Amy!

Interesting article in latest Atlantic

If you have a chance, take a look at the very interesting cover story in the July/August 2008 issue of the Atlantic. It's titled "Is Google Making Us Stoopid: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," by Nicholas Carr.

The gist is that Carr says his "mind isn't going ... but it's changing." He says it used to be easy when he immersed himself in a book or a lengthy article, but now his "concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages." A lot of food for thought in this article!

(Carr's latest book is The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google.)

The Chronicle Audio Clips

These are some interesting glimpses in how we librarians view the future and current state of libraries.

Audio
'We're Always in Language'
Michael Holquist, the 2007 president of the MLA, explains why the group's recent conference explored the role of humanities outside the academy.
Young Librarians Discuss the Future of Their Profession
Joe Sanchez, U. of Texas at AustinLibraries in virtual worlds will join physical libraries.
Susan Gibbons, U. of RochesterLibrary schools need to update their curricula.
Nick Baker, Williams CollegeCompanies like Google will bring "new blood" to libraries.
Casey Bisson, Plymouth State U.Libraries need to be more than community centers.
Jessamyn C. West, Librarian.netLibrarians are not very "change oriented" as a culture.
Sarah Kostelecky, Institute of American Indian ArtsDiversity is important to the library profession.
Char Booth, Ohio U.There will always be a need for librarians.
Brian Mathews, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThere's too much "bandwagon jumping" with new technology.
The Spellings Commission, One Year Later
Hear U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings talk about the continuing impact of last year's report by her Commission on the Future of Higher Education.(Related article)

ALA Conference Materials Archive

ALA has begun archiving materials from previous conferences (currently back to 2007). For handouts, presentations, etc., check out the Materials Archive. Some information from the Anaheim conference are already up-
http://presentations.ala.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

July: Bioterrorism/Disaster Education & Awareness Month

Guides from the American Red Cross... http://www.redcross.org/disaster/disasterguide/

Article on how libraries can use Twitter

Join today! I love Twitter. It has been amazing to read the "tweets" from librarians attending the ALA conference.

This is a great article on how some libraries are using Twitter for virtual reference, etc. James J. Hill Library (Business library in St. Paul) also has a twitter account that notifies it's members of new business websites, trends, etc.

Librarians that I have enjoyed following:
James J. Hill Library
Michael Stephens
Roy Tennant
David Lee King
Penguin Books has a Twitter for new book titles!
LIS News

It is difficult to explain the benefits of Twitter without having the hands-on experience. You can add me as your first "follow." :)