Call for Presentations – 15th Reference Research Forum, 2009 (ALA Annual in Chicago)

The Research and Statistics Committee of the Reference Services Section of RUSA invites the submission of research projects for presentation at the 15th Reference Research Forum at the 2009 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.

The Reference Research Forum continues to be one of the most popular and valuable programs during the ALA Annual Conference, where attendees can learn about notable research projects conducted in the broad area of reference services such as user behavior, electronic services, reference effectiveness, and organizational structure and personnel. All researchers, including reference practitioners from all types of libraries, library school faculty and students, and other interested individuals, are encouraged to submit a proposal.

More info at http://rusa.ala.org/blog/2008/10/09/rrf/

Open Workshops

Are any of you planning open workshops to highlight the new databases? I've been thinking about offering open workshops by discipline. During the workshops I'd like to cover our traditional resources as well as our recent database additions. Do you think students would be interested or would participate? I hate holding empty workshops (sorry for complaining). Can anyone think of ways to "jazz" them up?

The Future of Reading - Part II

"Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers" is the front-page headline of the Monday, Oct. 6, 2008, issue of The New York Times. It is the second installment in the paper's "Future of Reading" series. The series is "looking at how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/books/06games.html

Syncing Google Calendar to Outlook

I have now tried to sync twice from Google Calendar to my Outlook Calendar. All that transfers is the chat schedule. As much as I would love to know who is doing virtual reference every hour, this really clutters up my calendar. Also, not having the Master Calendar transfer to my outlook is quite bothersome. I uninstalled and reinstalled Google Sync in hopes that if I highlighted only the Master Calendar that it would work, but it did not. Who can tell me how to make this work?
Thank you!

ILA 2008

Last week I attended the Illinois Library Association conference in Chicago. There were two sessions that actually applied to Academic Libraries. They were Systemic Change Needed in Information Literacy and Academic Integrity and the College Student.

In the first session Lisa Stock, from the College of DuPage, discussed a study she conducted on how students develop info lit skills. She found a need to educate the educators and that there should be full collaboration between librarians and faculty, not just parallel work or cooperative work. Our new workshop forms are more collaborative.

The session on Academic Integrity seemed to bring up more questions than answers. The speakers were from Eastern Illinois University and Elmhurst College. They found that while there are not more students plagiarizing, students are plagiarizing more. They discussed what role librarians have in teaching students about plagiarism, citations, and use of information. They discussed how to keep students from cheating. Turnitin software was mentioned. One suggestion was that faculty need to create cheat proof assignments and not give the same tests over and over. They too said that collaboration between faculty and librarians is vitally important.

One session I attended in which I had to stand for 1.5 hours (see below) was The Customer Focused Library - Lessons Learned from Retail. This was the result of a study conducted in the Chicago area of four libraries, both public and academic. While the academic library was larger than our libraries are, there were still some things that apply to us. One of them was to keep the desk uncluttered - lofty goal for me since I do all my work from my desk. Also, look at your library from a patron's view and keep computer-generated signage fresh or it will lose power among frequent visitors.

I did attend a session on gadgets, where they had the Kindle, some phones, some battery chargers, etc. It led to my purchasing an ITouch. After all, we did step up to DSL from dial up at home last month. Now if I would just connect everything so that I can use it. :)

I wanted to get into the session about leadership, but it was full to overflowing. (I still uploaded slide presentation to Google Docs.) As a matter of fact, that happened to me in three of the sessions that I wanted to attend. I noticed that some of the very popular sessions were put in rooms that had only about 50 seats, while others were in huge rooms and had only a scattering of attendees. That was the frustrating part of my week.

I placed the handouts and PowerPoints in the ILA 2008 folder under conferences in Google.

Successful admin rep workshop

I had been prepared to show the Admission Reps the library introduction I use during student orientation. There are a few 'high-maintenance" reps who simply are too stubborn to use any of my previous suggestions, and in the spirit that repetition makes a consistent pattern, I was going to share with them how I introduce the library resources.

Of course, the ones that tend to be the "high-maintenance" reps were not there. I had only 4 of the 9 present, so I had them log onto the student portal and I took them through a 20 minute library session, and it was fantastic.

We went through the library website. I pointed out the meebo online reference box. We looked at the catalog, the ebooks, the journal article databases our students need to use. We looked at the APA citation help and showed them where they can see for themselves how papers need to be written look like. I showed them and encouraged them to log onto NoodleBib so they can experience the wonder that is NoodleBib.

It went really well. The 4 that were present are fantastic reps, and they do their job really well. They seemed to appreciate me going through the library website and its resources with them, and it has given me some ideas as to how we can follow up on this!

:)

Successful RSS workshop

We had 9 instructors attend a Professional Development program last night. My part was to introduce them to RSS and what it can mean for them. Our new full-time IT hire (yippee!) was the only one who knew what RSS was, so it was very new to the rest of them.

The things I highlighted were how it could eliminate the time it took to keep up-to-date, how easy it was to set up, how Google Reader was so easy to use, and sample RSS feeds they might want to try. Very successful!

Book Display for Faculty and Staff

Last night I set up a display of books in the Faculty and Staff lounge. The sign says, "Faculty and Staff, Do you have extra time over break to do some recreational reading?"

Already this morning I had 2 check-out slips! I chose the books carefully trying to decipher what the faculty and staff might be interested in reading. The 2 books that were checked out are Maus and The Last Lecture.

Here are the photos of the display.




So, sometimes you have to take the books out of the library to get faculty and staff to notice??

I Forgot MEEBO...

Librarians,

Since MEEBO will be included in the reference sampling, I thought that it might be time to put aside the daily MEEBO stats.

What are your thoughts? Is it necessary to collect them daily? Do you think that an occasionally "heads up" on chat trends from one another will be sufficient?

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 – Oct. 15.
The US Census has a ton of great info. Follow that link for many great bulletin board ideas and trivia facts.


Here is some information that is available on this website:


"In September 1968, Congress authorized President Lyndon B. Johnson to proclaim National Hispanic Heritage Week, which was observed during the week that included Sept. 15 and Sept. 16. The observance was expanded in 1988 to a monthlong celebration (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15). America celebrates the culture and traditions of those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively."

Interview Thyself!

This week, I've worked on preparing interview questions for the final three candidates for the Aurora campus librarian position. We've whittled down from approximately 70 candidates, to date (and they keep on coming).

What struck me about these questions is that I'm not sure how I'd answer some of them. Now, I am by no means preparing to leave my current role, but I think that it's important to take a step back and gain some professional perspective. It may also help you sort of re-focus on your work and gain back some energy toward a job that can become stressful at this time of the quarter.

Please look through the questions. You can answer them in the blog, if you want; or, you can simply think over the answers to yourself. I'd be interested in knowing if any of them inspired you to change your work habits, short term or long term goals.

1. What do you see as the value of belonging to a professional organization?
2. Do you like working with people?
3. Where do you expect to be professionally in five years?
4. If we asked your present supervisor what your strengths are, what would he/she say?
5. What did you do to prepare for this interview?
6. What would you do if you overheard a staff or faculty member providing inaccurate information about the library?
7. What type of management style do you prefer?
8. Give an example of an incident of teamwork you performed in a former job, your role on that team, and what you would change now, given the opportunity.
9. After you have eliminated the backlog, how do you see this job challenging you? What will motivate you to come to work?
10. What have you read lately, and what are you reading now?
11. You have an expansive book order planned, and then you are told that your budget has been cut. How would you manage such a situation?
12. Are you a person who likes to “try new things” or “stay with regular routines”? Give an example.
13. What do you hope to leave as your professional legacy?

Mentor Center

The dean asked me to find out what techniques, if any, have worked at your campuses to make the Mentor Center successful? At my campus, the mentor center is seperate from the library. One of the instructors coordinates the pairing of mentors with students needing help. The peer mentors are volunteers, not paid or FWS. We also have a few instructors who mentor occasionally as well. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Intergenerational Classrooms

I would like to study how librarians and faculty can best instruct information literacy concepts to an intergenerational classroom.

Understanding the different learning styles and how students interact will help librarians and faculty meet the needs of students and improve the teaching style for information literacy purposes.

Here are some questions that I have. I would love feedback from librarians/faculty that hold workshops and teach intergenerational classrooms. You can respond by commenting on this blog or by email: amys@rasmussen.edu

1. Who is more likely to participate in class discussion- traditional aged students or non-traditional adult learners?

2. T/F You cannot teach all ages the same way.

3. T/F Traditional aged students view adult non-traditional students as more knowledgeable because they may have more work/life experience.

4. T/F There is limited interaction between non-traditional and traditional aged students.

5. T/F By the end of a course non-traditional and traditional aged students realize that they can really learn from each other.

6. T/F When using or discussing technology in the classroom, there is a wide gap in understanding technology between traditional students and non-traditional aged students.

7. T/F Traditional aged students have a shorter attentional span in the classroom.

8. T/F Outside of class, non-traditional students spend more time on assignments and preparing for class.

Do you have any suggestions for alternative questions?


* This was cross-posted on my blog.

Mosby's Dictionary: New Edition

I received a flyer today that Mosby's Dictionary is in a new edition. According to the flyer, new features include: 5,000 new definitions; thumb tabs, entry words in color; new lab test and surgical procedure definitions; 50 complementary and alternative medical therapies; and over 200 new drug entries.

The ISBN is 9780323049375.

Should we purchase an eBook, as well as having the print version available in our libraries? This is an essential reference for our Allied Health & Nursing students.

One of the nicer features appears to be the companion Evolve website, with 35,000 audio pronunciations; a printable English-Spanish phrase book; 400 interactive medical terminology review exercises, and more. You can see complete information about the text at http://MosbyDictionary.elsevier.com.

Mosby's Dictionary Online will be available in the Spring. It will act like a database, rather than an eBook.

I think that I should just purchase a copy for every library - but I am interested in your thoughts.

Adult Education Resources

This morning, I had a new catalog on my desk from Steck-Vaughn, self-proclaimed "Leader in Adult Education". Many of the titles were for GED and TABE preparation, but they had other titles for basic mathematics & algebra; language skills & vocabulary; ESL; classic fiction titles for a 2-6 reading level; etc.

Since we are an open enrollment institution, we will continue to see students who struggle with reading, writing, and mathematical concepts - even those students who have successful passed Foundations classes.

Should we offer titles like these in our libraries? Should we work collaboratively with our Mentor Centers to maintain this kind of collection with their resource bank? How do we advertise that these titles are available? Do we maintain them in their own section?

The link to the company catalog is http://www.SteckVaughn.com/AdultEd.

Privacy, Part II

Pretty apparent that the buzz about the topic of privacy just keeps on increasing; among colleagues, students, neighbors, you name it.... Not only is it a cover story in the current Scientific American, but my September copy of american libraries just arrived. Haven't had a chance to read it yet, but its cover story looks intriguing: "Privacy: A National Conversation."

Admissions Team Workshop

I have been trying to meet with the Head of Admissions for the past two weeks without success. Today I walked in with one of the reps who does a fantastic job of promoting the library and sending students to me. She said that I needed to do a workshop for the reps. I told her it was funny that she should mention that as I had been trying to talk with her supervisor about it. She said that if I was available on Monday during their regularly scheduled meeting that she would take care of it. Soon after, she sent an email to her supervisor and copied it to me requesting that I do a workshop. Fifteen minutes later, her supervisor called me and we finalized the arrangements. I am excited about this as we have several new admissions reps and as far as I know there has never been a library workshop for admissions. As Chandra has said, it is important for them to know what they are promoting. Also, the reps are the ones who do all of the online training with the students at orientation, so it is important that they be able to show them what is available in the online library. And, I now know the 'go to' person in Admissions. ;^)

Going to ALA in Chicago?

2009 Annual Poster Session Application Information

Chicago, IL: July 11-13, 2009

Applications for presenting poster sessions at the 2009 American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, IL, will be accepted via the World Wide Web at:
http://www.lib.jmu.edu/org/ala/

Applications will be accepted between November 1, 2008 and January 31, 2009

An application form, guidelines for applying, helpful hints, and photos of sample poster sessions can be found at the website. If you don’t have access to the World Wide Web or to email, please contact Jody Condit Fagan, Chair, at 540-568-4265 (telephone) for instructions on how to apply.

Intro to Library Presentation: Success!

Since Jan was out today, I volunteered to take over her presentation to a mid-start Success Strategies class. All that I know was that the instructor had given me about an hour to talk about the resources in the Online library.

Normally when I give this presentation, I run through the resources (sometimes with students following along, sometimes not) and the results are the same: students' eyes glaze over, they play solitaire or work on assignments, etc. It's frustrating to me, in part because I believe I deserve their respect, in part because I know that I'm sharing information that will be valuable to them down the road - probably a very short road.

I came up with a solution this morning as I was waking up. I'm only blogging about it because it happened to be successful, I think. After I set up the laptop, I passed out 11x14 sheets of paper to each student. I had the entire class turn off their computer monitors. Then, we talked about maps. I talked about how a map gets a person from one point to another, that the legend usually identifies rivers, railroads, Chuck E Cheeses, etc. (they laughed).

Then, I asked them to use the paper to create a map that they could use to navigate the library website. I told them that they could write all text, or they could draw out a map with pictures and arrows, etc. I encouraged them to include the key resources that they thought would be helpful in their program. I also told them that their instructor would collect them at the end of class to take a look at the maps, and then hand them back so that the students could use them as a guide.

The instructor did not know in advance. Thankfully, she likes me.

We walked through the catalog. I identified each of the databases by program, and we took a look at Academic Search Complete and Points of View (may favorite, but all of the students liked it). We looked at the Magnolia sites, and then APA tools. I showed them Noodlebib and how to create a APA-formatted paper using the export feature (they loved it). I showed them Ask a Librarian, and then logged into Meebo and chatted with myself.

They had questions! They asked about getting back into the databases, using Noodlebib, using MEEBO, and about the Magnolia sites. I stayed to watch the instructor collect the maps, and a couple of students were really worried that they wouldn't get them back! Many of the students asked about the assignment that they have for their Success class (a six page paper - egads!) All of the maps contained substantial notes, and many had visuals (arrows, images). I believe that it's a legitimate assessment for what is otherwise a potentially mundane and/or overwhelming workshop.

I need to get back in the classroom more often. I love doing workshops and I miss connecting that way with students.

Constitution Day happenings on GB campus

In addition to everything else happening system-wide, we're going to do a couple of other 'events'.

1. During the week of September 8th, we will be running an in-class competition, completely voluntary. We will be providing all the words of the preamble, mixed up. Each class, as a team, will need to put the words in order. There will be no using the web to find the answer. The closest team will be awarded with a copy of the constitution AND pizza!

2. I'm figuring out a way to display something on the board we have- which is in the student lounge right now - and have some sort of interactive Bill of Rights discussion (which is the most important / why). Students really got into writing on the boards during the Women's Equality week last week.

That's what we're planning right now. Are you doing anything extra?