Evaluating the Collection

Has anyone done an evaluation of their collection before using the A,B,C levels of collection development? If so, I am interested in knowing how you went about it. How much time did it take? Did you have a meeting with faculty first? Did you give them the collection development policy in advance, etc. I want to get started on mine, so any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

Greenwood- Free Access to Online Resources

Greenwood Publishing Group is pleased to offer free access to our online databases for National Library Week. Take a look at our critically-acclaimed online products: Latino American Experience, African American Experience, Daily Life America, Praeger Security International Online, Daily Life Through History, World Folklore and Folklife, The Reader's Advisor Online, Greenwood Digital Collection, and many more...And enter our daily raffle for $500 worth of ebooks held every day during National Library Week.

http://www.greenwood.com/

Drag de Go in Worldcat..

This is a pretty cool Firefox extension..

What Soldiers Carry for Good Luck

I just thought this was neat (emphasis is mine):

"In these ravaged parts, comfort comes in the form of a grandfather's dog tags, a library card, an ultrasound image of a daughter still in the womb -- any personal good luck charm to keep up motivation and hope of safely returning home."

For the full story see here:

What Soldiers Carry for Good Luck

POPLINE restricts the word ‘Abortion’ from the government funded database

One of our Gen Ed teachers sent this to me. He was upset that this can happen, and at John Hopkins of all places.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/04/03/popline-restricts-the-word-abortion-from-the-government-funded-database/

I was surprised that the government would take a stand such as this. An average joe would not think of the other terms that could be used. What do you think?

Meebo Best Practices

Here is a list of Best Practices I've compiled to follow for virtual chat reference modeled after RUSA's guidelines. If you have any more suggestions, post them here or e-mail them to me.

I. Introduction

a. Introduce yourself.

b. Include your position/title.

II. Show Interest

a. Ask how you can help.

b. Maintain word contact. In other words, make sure they know you’re paying attention or where you are at all times. For example, say ‘okay’, ‘thank you’, ‘I see’…etc. to show that you’re “listening.”

c. If you know you’re going to be “quiet” for a while, let the person know. Tell them when you’ll be back or let them know what you’re doing so they know why you’re not responding. “I’m going to search this database but I’ll still be here.” “I am going to go look on the shelves.” “I have to take this phone call, I’ll be right back.”

III. Listening/Inquiring

a. Restate provided information using your own words so they can see how you interpreted their information request.

b. Ask clarifying questions.

i. What are the details of your assignment? This is an important question to determine if you could provide them with information they might not know they need right now. APA help, for instance.

ii. What types of information sources are acceptable? (Databases, books, websites…etc.)

iii. What information have you already found?

c. Ask open ended questions.

i. What more can you tell me about your topic?

ii. How much information do you need?

d. Maintain objectivity.

IV. Searching

a. Find out what sources the student has tried.

b. Verify spelling and facts provided.

c. Explain your search process to the student.

i. Identify search terms used.

ii. Let them know which library services you are using to perform the search such as a specific database, the Internet, bookmarks or NetLibrary.

iii. Ensure they know where to find the services on the library’s website for future independent searching.

iv. When showing them how to find information on the website, make sure they open a new browser as to not navigate away from your chat window.

v. Once you have found the information, ask if it meets their needs.

V. Follow-Up

a. Ask patrons if their question has been answered completely.

b. Ask them if they have any more questions.

c. Based on the information you’ve discovered during the reference transaction as to the reason they need the information they’re seeking, suggest other library services they may find helpful in the future.

i. APA help.

ii. Other databases they may want to search for further information.

d. Let them know how to contact you or other librarians.

i. Let them know how long you will be available on Meebo and if another librarian will be at their disposable after your shift is over.

ii. Give them an e-mail address where they can contact you.

iii. Inform them of the “Ask a Librarian” e-mail option on the main library page.

iv. If necessary, provide them with a telephone number.

v. Set up an in person appointment if necessary and possible.

e. Do not end the interview prematurely. Let them end it.

General Tech Tips:

1. Use Firefox. Meebo .

2. Open a separate window for Meebo. Some of the signs of an incoming message won’t appear if more than one tab is open in the same window from which you’re accessing Meebo.

3. If you have to step away from the computer, make sure you leave an away message. To add an away message, click on the “I’m available” link underneath the smiley faces on the Meebo Buddy list window and choose the “Custom” option. A window will appear allowing you to type in a message for students to see. Be specific!

4. Don’t forget to record your shift, number of reference interactions and the nature of those questions in the RCLS Google Docs account.

Sources:

RUSA. (2007) Guidelines for Behavioral Performance of Reference and Information Services Professionals. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/rusa/protools/referenceguide/guidelinesbehavioral.cfm

~Krista Jacobson

Poster Session.... Collection Development Redux

So- my poster session (although this year they're not really doing "poster-like" displays) at the Florida Library Association Annual Conference is coming up in a few weeks. While this is Florida-specific, I used the fact that we are across 5 states as a "grab" of sorts.

I am highlighting collaborative collection development and incorporating the email lists (CHOICE, RCLweb) w/the form to try and increase faculty input. (This might be helpful to other academic librarians.) To an extent, input has increased on my campus. If anyone else has tried this yet, I would appreciate any info so I can incorporate details, anecdotes, whatever from other campuses, too. Thanks as always!

Chat/IM Reference in Illinois Academic Libraries

One session I attended at the IACRL conference was on Chat/IM reference at Illinois State University. ISU started using virtual reference through Docutec. It didn’t really take off the way they had hoped. When they switched to IM, the stats went up. They talked with focus groups to evaluate their reference services. The groups consisted of undergrads, grads on campus, and grads off campus. They had 45 participants divided into 7 groups of 5-10 students.
They asked students about their approach to research, preferred ways of seeking research assistance, what they value most in reference assistance, and their perceptions of chat or IM reference.

Results:

50% of the students used the library, either physical or virtual
There were too many databases and either too many/not enough results
Role of the professor was crucial

Use of IM:
Didn’t fit stereotype of millennial student
Used IM for social purposes
Unaware of IM and all else that the library had to offer

50% of the students knew they could use phone for reference
Some knew they could schedule an appointment
None had used chat reference
Perception of “chat” was chat room, not IM

Ideal Reference Services:

Personal librarian
Face to face or email
No automated phones
A specific person to email

ISU found that they needed to address all services promoted. Students value library as place. They wanted quiet hours and access to computers. Some students are unable to cross the digital divide. It is necessary to reach all students whatever their comfort level. It is also important to publicize all services to transfer students.

LibQUAL Survey at Western Illinois University Libraries

Since we are going to be conducting the LibQUAL survey, I went to a session on it at IACRL. In October 2006, WIU conducted the survey. They wanted to assess user expectations of library services, benchmark results with peer institutions for best practices, integrate best practices into strategic planning, foster a culture of excellence, and enhance analytical skills.

They decided to include the whole institution instead of a percentage of it. In order to get people to participate in the survey, they had prizes consisting of 5 iPod Shuffles, and several gift cards for the bookstore. To publicize the survey, they put it on the webpage, in the newsletter, and had table top signs in the library, lounge, and success center. They sent emails the day before with instructions. They ran the survey for a two week period and sent a reminder email halfway through. Even with all of this, they had less than 10% respond to the survey.

One of the things they liked about the survey is that they could read the responses live. As the surveys were being filled out they could look at the results and see what the users were thinking. They also liked the comment area. They could view comments about staff. Some of the comments they saw indicated that users wanted study space for both groups and individuals and that they wanted a scanner, color printer, and fax service. They were willing to pay for these services. They felt that the users were on target.

Analysis of the survey:
Quality of services was good.
Users wanted expanded service hours and more hours during break.
There was a “disconnect” between choices on the Webpage and those users needed.
There was a need for better instruction in access/use of resources.
There was a need for better directional cues to services.
There was a need for more recent books in the disciplines.
Library needs to market and promote resources and services.

WIU had focus groups before and after the survey. The attendance for the second focus group was poor and they thought this was possibly because they had already started making positive changes.

To wrap up, they gave out the prizes and publicized the list of winners. This is so that people know that they actually did what they said they were going to do and to get participants for the next survey. The next steps for WIU include instituting more changes, allowing time for the changes to influence users’ perceptions, and beginning the next cycle. WIU plans to do another LibQUAL assessment in 2009 to measure possible changes and improvements in service quality.

View LibQUAL results at WIU.

IDs

Ugh ... that FUN FUN thing that is creating IDs.
We've been having a heck of a time here with creating them in the first place.

• Pictures disappeared.
• Pictures were too dark.
• Pictures were too light.
• The color printer didn't work.
• The business cards were on back-order, for 3 weeks.
• The laminator breaks down.
• I wasn't able to attend the orientation session and therefore was unable to stay on-top of the project.
  

I understand that there might be some sort of solution in the future that will combine student records, picture and possibly their library record in one fell-swoop that would solve a lot of headaches (wouldn't that be nice) , but for our campus, we needed a better solution.

It was suggested that we use Access to figure out the process, so we've tested a possible solution, and so far, it looks like it'll work.

(select screenshots for a clearer view) This is the process we used:

1. We imported information of ALL of our current students from CLASS into this Access database. The picture is taken at orientation and I use Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2 (free download) to change the picture's filename to their name, crop, fix red-eye, etc. The picture was added as an attachment, which was easy to fine since I changed the filename.
   I created 2 fields that helps in the output of the student's information - ORDER & PRINT. The order is the order of which the record would print, and the print, well, is to actual print that record.
2. I created Print Query that would print the correct records in the correct order.
3. I created "labels" with the exact parameters of the business cards that we print.
4. I then had the labels using the "print query" as the source.
   
5. Looking at the records, it runs down the page continuously, but in the "print preview", it shows the documents just fine!
   
   
   
   (Figure of the labels in Design View)
   
   
   

(in continuous view)
(in print preview)



















Right now, of course, the laminator is broken and I'm awaiting a fix from Demco, but it WILL work!

Quiet Zone

We've increasingly had some issues about people being disrespectful in the library. I first put up the signs about being respectful (ie. courteous, quiet, etc.) in February. I sent out to the team what happened:

It is getting a bit busier in the library here (YIPPEE!) and we have had many phone calls, loud conversations, etc. as of late. I edited the poster with a different color scheme and put up a few of the posters around the library.

There were 2 students in the library when I put them up, one of whom does all of the above. Both saw me put the posters around, yet the one student continued as per usual. After she hung up her cell phone after about 30 minutes of talking, I highlighted the new poster explaining the new policy. Her response? “Nice colors!”

Oh my stars …. Patience please!

The posters didn't solve the problem. Students started complaining specific occurrences of rude students.

After conversations with both Pam (Academic Dean) and Scott (Campus Director), I got the go-ahead to create a Quiet Zone in the library during finals week. I created a new poster and posted it everywhere, advertised it in the student newsletter, and closed the door (after unlocking it so students could get in).


Despite some reservations from the admissions staff, everyone was supportive and it worked very well. Students were able to study in the library without the "threat" of others taking over the small space.

I thanked the staff profusely for this experiment and will probably create this Quiet Zone every finals week.

Collection Development - Book Daddy

This blog is great for keeping current with new titles.

Orientation for new students

How much is the library mentioned in orientations for new students at other campuses? I got to see the new powerpoint that they will be showing here and the slide for the academic support system lists the faculty, peers (study groups), the Dean and the ESC (mentor center-contacting tutors). I emailed back about the lack of library on the slide--I don't know their script, if we would be mentioned but not being on the slide, I'm guessing a brief nod. (just feeling frustrated; with all the retention, retention, retention, and we get left out as part of the support system(sigh)......

LibQUAL Approved

The purchase and implementation of LibQUAL is approved for our institution during Week 3 of Spring Quarter. We will market participation heavily the previous week (National Library Week).

My current plan is to offer 3-$100 gift cards in a random drawing of students who participate in the survey.

We will provide links (and put the link in multiple locations and e-mails) to encourage participation. Classes will not be scheduled to complete surveys - participation will be voluntary - but I still expect positive results.

This is an exciting step forward for our college and I great assessment tool. WOO HOO!

Overdue/lost Matierals

I'd like to get a general idea of how everyone handles their overdues, esp. for students that have either dropped, graduated, or are on "hold". I've never been sure how to handle these situations; in the past I've brought all of my paperwork to our Student Accounts Manager, but I'm not sure if she knew what to do either. Also, if you do bring the bills, etc. to the SAM, does yours ever follow through and tell you if the student has paid or reimburse the library in any way? Right now we have a new SAM at the EP campus, and I'd really like to get this figured out on the "library end" before handing it over to her. The less confusion the better! Thanks!

Earth Day

Hey, I'm thinking ahead to April 22nd - Earth Day. Have your campuses done anything cool in the past? I'm thinking of doing Earth Day trivia or emailing fun facts about how many trees are saved when people recycle, etc.

To purchase or not to purchase....

Today one of the faculty members on my campus requested the purchase of a massage PowerPoint teaching disc. Evidently she would use it as a teaching tool in her classroom and only she and other massage instructors would have access to it. My question is... would that be a purchase that the library is responsible for, or would it come out of a classroom "teaching aides" budget (if one exists)? I feel that a purchase made solely for teaching in the classroom - that is not available to others - should not be purchased or housed in the library. The instructor wasn't sure either, so now we're going to talk to our dean and to Emily. I checked our collection development policy and didn't see anything that directly mentioned this. Have any of you had a similar request? And if so, how did you handle it? Should we include this in our collection development policy?

Meebo Cling Take 5

Chandra was right.

MEEBO Promo Cling, Take 4

Hopefully this will make mostly everyone happy.

Promo Cling, Take 3

I think the email will be ok for the mousepad, which is of course larger, but I'm not sure I like it for the cling. Your thoughts are welcome.

Promo Cling, Take 2

MEEBO Promo Cling

Good morning,

I've posted an image of my "rendition" of the MEEBO cling. This is a 2" by 4" cling. I am assuming we'll get it in full color. They also have postcards that have the clings on the front (for online students).

What are your thoughts and suggestions for improvement?

Meebo Ideas

Hi Everyone,
I was thinking about an idea for the Meebo promotion and wondered if pens woud be a good idea. So many businesses and educational groups (Webjunction.org) are using free pens with the web address on them that I thought it might be part of a promotional item along with posters, etc. for Meebo.
Most people take free pens as they are useful and with the address on it the student would be able to go to Meebo with questions quite easily. What do you think?
Paula

Paralegals

Two Paralegal instructors and I took the MN metro students on a tour of a law library on Saturday. This idea has been "in the works" for about a month or so. The instructors asked me to participate b/c they knew that I had worked at a law library in the past. So, we met at William Mitchell Library. The paralegal students were all emailed about this event. I think there were 8 or 9 students-- which was perfect for a tour. I led the tour and the instructors had them do exercises of legal research. The students were beaming b/c they were so excited to get their hands on print resources that they'd usually find in Westlaw (online). It helped them understand the Westlaw citations that they use.. For example: They often cite things with NW, and then at the law library they were introduced to the Northwestern Reporters, and they were told that every time they cite an NW source - it's actually that reporter and the volume #.

We were in the library for over 2 hours, and then 1 of the instructors arranged for a lunch (paid for by Ras). It was a great afternoon, and it was a great way to connect with students that take all online paralegal classes. I am not sure which other campuses offer the paralegal program, but I'd highly recommend doing something similar in your respective cities/counties. Please let me know if you have any questions.

collection development, faculty requests

Please share your ideas. I need help!

When faculty members submit recommendation forms, do you always order what they ask for, or do you sometimes decide that a recommended item isn't a good fit for the collection? Do you have a routine in place for letting the instructors know if you will or will not be ordering what they've recommended? What do you do when an instructor will not accept that you have decided not to order what he/she wants, even after you've explained your reasons?

ACRL launches chat series

This could be interesting.

Is online studying cheating?

I found this to be of interest, especially since we have online students:

College Student accused of Cheating Using Facebook

Why would an online study group be 'cheating' but a 'normal' study group be a...study group?

Seems to be similar to our students posting on the portal. Any thoughts?

Sexual harassment DVD

Hello All!
Emily and I were talking about the new Sexual Harassment DVD that I am ordering and she mentioned that it would be a good idea to share what I found. The DVD is from Kantola Productions. It came with a training manual. It is titled, "Sexual harassment: The commonsense approach". I got it on a preview after our Careers teacher told me how bad the old one was and that she would love to get something more updated. She previewed it and gave comment on it as follows: "The DVD focuses on just the workplace, she liked the coverage on body language and it was 25 minutes, perfect for class.". I also had another instructor who teaches Careers take a look at it and her comments were: "The harassment video was excellent. I appreciated how modern it was. I liked it so much I showed it to two different classes and the students agreed with my assessment.".
The representative that I dealt with is Bob Keith. His email is bkeith@kantola.com and a phone number of 415-381-9363.

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

Plagiarism among professors

Check out the article from The Chronicle of Higher Education---a Harvard prof. got caught by a journal!!!

Journal Retracts Harvard Professor's Paper Flagged by Copycat Search Tool

student interest in IM

Dave Lungren and Randall Smith met with Bismarck students today to discuss students' perceptions of online learning. When asked what features they'd like to see added to their online courses, someone mentioned IM as a way to get instant answers to questions. The suggestion was met with enthusiasm from other students.

Even though they were talking about IM as a way to improve communication with instructors, I was encouraged that students would use and appreciate an instant chat service. Once again, our library team is on the cutting edge when it comes to improved customer service.

ID cards for online students

I'm wondering what the rest of you do for ID cards for online students who live too far from campus. I know I can simply assign a library patron barcode to distance students, but I'm sure they would like the discounts that come with having a student ID.

I told a patron today that I'd check with the rest of my team and would get back to her this week. I'd appreciate your input.

February's display

We've decided that February will be Black History Month. I have been playing around with some ideas for a while - something that our students can really be engaged in/with, and the idea didn't come to me until Friday of last week. I'm pretty excited about it!

Here's a snapshot of the poster I created.

So, what is YOUR February display going to be?

Collection Development - Faculty Collaboration

Hi everybody!

I had an idea today and was wondering if any of you do this and if so, has it worked out...

In CHOICE (cro2.org), you can of course look for titles on a given subject/program area. You can then 'select all' and email yourself the list. I did this today for business titles I wanted to come back to w/o having to re-do the search. So, what I was thinking was we could send these program-specific lists to the advocates and/or faculty on our campuses to (hopefully) get more feedback. Maybe this will work better than just saying 'I need recommendations' or filling their mailboxes with catalogs that sometimes get lost. Don't get me wrong, I still like publisher catalogs! I also thought it might streamline the process to send a copy of the Recommendation Form with the list of titles/reviews. Not that it is that difficult to get a form off of CHIPSnet... :-) And of course, there are the lists from RCL and B&T we could send out as well.

So, what do you think? I'm thinking of starting this on my campus.

And while I'm picking your brains... would this maybe be a good poster session topic??

Thanks!

Report from Ocala

I know I should be grading papers right now, but I wanted to take a break to say hello. I don't want to clog up e-mail with something that is basically irrelevant to your work, but I wanted to catch you up on what's going on down here. I also want to apologize for not calling and for not notifying (some and/or all of) you that I was unable to call.

I arrived in Ocala late Monday night. My first workshop was at 8:30 am for a group of Nursing students. Several of the students had never been in the library before (the allied health building is separate, but I don't think this is an excuse). I completed a total of 5 workshops that day for approximately 100 students. In three of the workshops, I completed a presentation on the start-to-finish process of writing a paper (I call it anatomy of a paper). In the other courses, I completed kind of an APA-mash. Most of the instructors wanted me to talk about APA and writing and databases for the entire period (2 hours). I know that's too much information for students, and at times I know a few of them were bored with just what I covered.

This is the first week that I've tried to be entirely PowerPoint free and I think that I've been pretty successful. I used the white board to list various points and information (in either theme-workshop). In the "anatomy" class, we pretended like we were writing a paper on the topic assigned by the instructor, and worked together to brainstorm, research, etc. I was very impressed by the number of students who interacted with me and provided informed opinions and ideas. I also had many good questions during the APA workshop.

The most unsuccessful workshops by far have been the times that I've done database demonstrations. The demonstrations have been brief - no more than 15 or 20 minutes - but I could tell the students just weren't interested in watching me search. The highlight was when I compared searches in Google to searches in the database. I also related the importance of narrowing a topic to searching in Google - how narrowing can take your results from 800,000 to 800.

I have collected worksheets and surveys in all workshops, if for no other reason than to prove that it most certainly can be done. After collecting the handouts, I immediately stapled them to the worksheet so that I knew how to enter them when I fill out the Excel sheet (which will be on the plane ride home). Most of the feedback has been positive, although I have not examined any of it thoroughly.

Aside from workshops, I've done quite a bit of work cleaning up the library. I begged Hilary to come to Ocala today (and she was a huge help, Thank You Hilary!!!). Together, we weeded about 500 very outdated materials (folks, we just scratched the surface) and purchased about 150 books from Barnes and Noble.

I am trying a new method of cataloging, and we will see how it works. I've entered all of the books into OCLC and given each book a spine label and a barcode. I then entered the ISBN and barcode number into an Excel chart so that I can do the ALEPH portion later even if I'm not in front of the books. This may be a good exercise if you have multiple books to catalog or if you know you're not going to be at the desk for several hours, but will still have access to a computer.

In all, this has been a good but exhausting experience. I've put in 12 hour days (at minimum) all three working days this week, and I haven't touched any of my System responsibilities. I am looking forward to working with a new librarian (we have a great candidate right now) to get that campus back to the place it should be in terms of both resources and services.

10 workshops in 4 days.... 150 books in OCLC in 3 hours.. who knew?

-E

ILS (Midwinter Meeting demos)

Of the ILS I looked at this time, one I particularly like is Innovative Interface (III). Their product is Millennium and new OPAC is Encore. Encore seemed intuitive to use, tagging capability and navigation on the side for material type from results screen. The rep equated the OPAC navigation to social networking. University of Michigan State uses this product. Millennium has a toolbar on the desktop with icons for the different modules (Circ, Cat, etc.). Also, many of the functions could be done from the Web. MARC records in Cat module has free text option. One caveat- have a certain number of user licenses, so staff would need to remember to close the module to have enough available throughout the system. According to the rep, there would be enough licenses for the number of staff.

I am still on the fence about Polaris. They’re not bad, I’m just not 100% sold on it being user-friendly; someone else might think differently. In any case, they are getting more academic libraries using their product. The rep said about 10% are academics and are a “very vocal group”. Toolbar on the desktop with icons for the modules. Pretty basic staff end, but I think some of the icons might be confusing- particularly for the assistants. One nice feature in the Circ module- items can be tracked by campus (returned at X campus, shipped to X campus).

I looked at Virtua which is one of the VTLS products. Same type of toolbar, although this one has small icon groups for each of the 4 modules. In Circ, the patron record looks like a MARC record, but the tags could be changed to have words instead of tag numbers (“Name”). The web OPAC is iPortal and is customizable. At this point I stopped the rep because she said it was “easy to do” by the librarian. I wanted to clarify that we would have tech support and not having to do all this customization! She brought in another rep and there are a number of options. From out of the box where we would control everything, to them controlling, and for anywhere in between.

We know we like TLC but they are lots of $$$$.

All of these are compatible with Connexion.

I wasn’t able to look any Endeavor products, since they were not at Midwinter.

Assignment calculator...

This is cool... Check out this assignment calculator.

I tried using the U of M calculator.. and in their time line of when to complete certain steps of your assignment, they have links of when to contact the librarians.. I love it.

Crying babies and social hour

I realize that this is not our grandmas' library and I don't have a problem with students talking in the library, but some students actually use the library to study and write papers. There have been complaints to the Dean in the past about noise in the library. In the last two days, there have been some issues. For instance, yesterday a young woman was in to get help from a tutor for her online class. She brought her two-year old child with her. She brought nothing for the child to do, so one of the tutors went to the admissions office to get coloring book and crayons. After the child had colored some, she decided that she might like to color on the equipment. The tutor ended up having to take care of the child, too. Then the little one proceeded to throw a fit - thrashing around on the floor crying and screaming. At that time there were no other students in the library. Ron, the Mentor Center Coordinator who shares the library with me, had to leave to go find a phone elsewhere to make a call. Mom kept saying they were going to leave and they finally did. Then this morning, I was in a webinar for Aleph and there were a group of students socializing and getting rather loud. I said that I hoped no one was trying to study.



Anyone else have any issues and how do you handle them?

More Mankato Rasmussen Photos

Mankato Rasmussen New Library Photos

My display

I'm an ebook fan.. and I try to promote ebooks on my campus... I manage to use ebook covers a lot in my displays.. I print off the covers in color ink.

This display is about New Year's Resolutions.. I also mentioned the RAS fitness blog.

Librarians at for-profit schools

I found a short article in The Chronicle of Higher Education this morning to be interesting:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2661/librarians-at-for-profit-institutions-seek-to-be-heard?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

As far I as I know, in St. Cloud, we've always been part of our local consortium (Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange) and have been able to buy from any vendor (why would you want to completely cut out a customer?). Has anyone had problems with these issues because of our status?

January Library Display

For my monthly display for January I decided to do National Mentoring Month. I have a bulletin board just outside of the library that I used to highlight Ron, our Mentor Center Coordinator, and the six tutors. (I call them "Ron and the Tutors," which makes them sound like an alternative rock band.) I asked the tutors to write up short bios and then I took their pictures and put them all on display. Although I had a little bit of grumbling from the tutors, most of them were happy to do it. I included the January tutor schedule, also. I thought it would be nice to highlight them since they really do work hard. We have 119 new students this quarter, so I thought it would be a good idea for them to be able to put names with faces of tutors. For inside the library I made up little signs for the three tables that I will include here also. I have received a lot of positive feedback on this display.

hands-on library training for admissions team

Today I met with our campus admissions team and DOA in a computer lab for about an hour so I could properly introduce them to our library. I began by thanking them for being library advocates when they give tours and for introducing me to prospective students. (That helps combat library anxiety, I think.) I told them that I wanted to show them exactly what it is they’re promoting when they tell students we have “a phenomenal online library.” Then we worked our way across the library webpage in a hands-on, interactive way.

• FAQ
• Ask the Librarian (that's why I got the Who is Joe Jones question)
• APA handouts
• NoodleTools (they all set up accounts and made a sample reference page)
• Library catalog and ILL possibilities
• NetLibrary
• Academic Search Premier

The team members and DOA expressed their appreciation for the workshop, and they commented that they learned a great deal about what our library offers. (Somone even e-mailed herself an article she found during the session.) I think it will have a positive impact on what they tell prospective and new students about our library and the tools and resources we provide.

Library Marketing: Why it Absolutely Matters

Yesterday, I (finally) finished typing up the brainstorming sheets from our session at the team meeting about Workshops and Programs. While I hope to spend some blog space talking about each portion of that brainstorming session, marketing is foremost in my mind.

I relate to marketing and marketers. Part of my love of marketing stems from the stigma attached to being a young library director - or a librarian at all. I've had to consistently challenge the views of non-library colleagues, friends and family about the value and rigor of my work. Most conversations about the library with non-librarians have been, at least in part, a sales pitch.

Another part of my love of marketing is my love of making something different out of what already exists. An interior design term for this concept is "repurposing". It's kind of like taking leftover roast turkey and turning it into a casserole or soup. Although, unlike a turkey soup, the results of repurposing related to marketing are usually fresh, innovative, and easy on the eyes & the stomach.

Marketing is vital to our role as librarians. Without a degree in marketing or an understanding of its ins and outs, I'd even argue that it's essential to almost any job. At very least, we must self-market. Very few products in today's world truly sell themselves; the worker bee is the least of these. No matter how good you are at your job, you have to make others aware of the great job that you are doing and the great job that you're going to continue to do. It's not bragging; it's self preservation. What is a commercial other than a company bragging about how good its product is? However, self-marketing is for a different day.

We are not a culture of students and faculty who clamor to the library in search of the depths of our databases, piling on interlibrary loans and seeking obscure texts. I think that as a team we could agree that we are a culture of the "instant answer" - dare I say Google - or maybe even a culture of apathy where no research is preferred to any research. How then, in this culture, can we expect students to seek out tools such as NetLibrary or Points of View? Marketing. Because the secret of marketing is not to tell students what they should use, but instead to reveal to them what they've needed all along.

So how does resource marketing work?

1. Create a need. Consider a carpet cleaner commercial. How many times is something spilled or stained in a commercial? And it's always something impossible to get out - wine or grass stains or ketchup. Consumers who see this commercial can relate to the need. In other words, you need to think about the timing and the audience that you are addressing when you are marketing a database. Are you advertising childcare resources in your child care classroom? What do you put in the Digital Design room?

The need concept works well when marketing to faculty, too. They have needs to provide content related to the course, to provide assignments, to enhance learning, to collaborate. How can a database meet this need?

2. Introduce the product. Yes, we have links to the databases on our website - but how many students and faculty have you spoken to that don't know how to access the Portal? Advertisers use pictures and text everywhere to convey the message that something is available to meet a need. How can you physically market a database to attract a user without singing its merits?

3. Be specific. Don't introduce a suit of databases, or a database and Noodlebib, in one marketing "campaign." Address one need at a time, and address it concisely so that your consumer isn't overwhelmed with data. Very few commercials will try to sell more than one product at a time (unless they are closely related and complement each other).

4. Meet the need. You've introduced a problem to your consumer (and just one problem). How do you solve that problem? A student needs books that they can search. Netlibrary lets you search books - how about that! Remember that you are control of the marketing destiny of each product that you put out there. You have to make up the mind of the consumer before you even put your plan out in public.

5. Use professional tools. Don't create a brochure when a poster will do. Use images instead of text - but make sure they are clean images that don't like copied and altered thrice over. Use easy to read, large fonts in attractive colors. When available, use glossy, heavy-weight papers.

6. Think outside the box. One suggestion from the brainstorm was to use baby bibs to promote Noodlebib. Or, you can create a poster of pastas with a phrase "what's your favorite noodle"? NetLibrary suggests putting a beach chair with a sunhat and sunscreen in a location with a sign on it that says "ebooks wherever you are.. or wherever you want to be". The possibilities for promoting your resources in new and alternative ways that spark interest because you are meeting a need will bring in results.



What are your ideas for marketing our resources?

Did you know that you can...

...Request a print catalog from AHIMA?

Does anyone else have a publisher that they utilize (online or a print catalog) to share?

Why I Hate Making Student ID Cards

When I ran the signed cards through the color printer to add the photos and logo, the printer jammed and nearly perforated the cards. It jammed twice, so the cards were in sorry shape. The side where the picture was to go got all smudged, so now I've resorted to printing the colored side on regular paper and using a glue stick to affix the colored side to the signed ID card. Hmmm....scissors and glue stick. Reminds me of childhood.

Any good (or not so good) stories about fiascoes while making IDs?

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..