Friday, October 8, 8:00-9:15am
A Level Playing Field?: ELM and the High School to College High Jump
Session revolved around an interesting study conducted by librarians at St. Thomas (a private Catholic university). Question was asked: “What expectations should we have as librarians of students’ information literacy skills?” A dichotomy exists between what is being taught/learned in high school and what college faculty/librarians expect students to know. The ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) can serve as a bridge to help narrow this gap. They also identified scaffolding opportunities related to this; scaffolding was a new concept to some of the college librarians. Their research was based on a survey to librarians at 30 Catholic schools in the Midwest. They got responses from 15 librarians and made site visits to those locations to have one-on-one conversations with the librarians. They referenced a few articles on this topic that I need to explore and compare to my own high school- community college collaboration grant I completed a few years ago. Another off-shoot of this research project we could consider exploring at Minnesota West is to focus on students who will transition from a 2-year to a 4-year college.
Friday, October 8, 9:30-10:45am
Reading 2.0: Improving Literacy in an Academic Environment
A team from Rasmussen College’s Academic Resource Team (ART) presented ways they have collaborated in attempts to raise literacy. The ART includes librarians, student support professionals, and faculty members. Strategies mentioned included SQ3R, Word Power! (Princeton Review), and other course specific ideas. They are using the MAPP assessment as students come into the college and when they graduate to help gauge literacy increases. They talked about the importance of getting all faculty on-board with the idea of including reading strategies in their courses/programs. One way they worked on this was to get all faculty enrolled in an online course about teaching reading comprehension. They have also instituted the practice that instead of faculty having office hours in their office, they tutor in the library one hour/week. Comments were made about how that time in the library helped faculty learn what students in other subject areas struggle with and also to hear how student peer tutors interacted with students.
Friday, October 8, 11:00am-1:00pm
Luncheon Keynote: Bruce Schneier
Security, Privacy, and the Generation Gap
Mr. Schneier talked about the feeling and reality aspects of Security; there are two different concepts on the same word. He spent time talking about privacy and how that is affected by the generation gap and also how the Internet is the greatest generation gap since rock ‘n roll. I laughed out loud when he said “to search is easier than to sort” = keeping emails and searching through them rather than deleting. Guilty as charged! I also thought his comparison about what was ignored environmentally in the industrial age in the 20th century that we find incredulous now will be akin to those looking back at our lack of protecting privacy in the early 21st century.
I enjoyed my MLA 2010 Conference experience and the wide-range of topics that were available. I believe I was able to gain information on aspects of my job as well as other librarian-related professional responsibilities.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
MLA Conference 2010 - Thursday, October 7
reThursday, October 7 – 8:00am-9:15am
Current Trends in Instruction
Two University of Minnesota Librarians (Kristen Mastel and Kate Peterson) highlighted instruction trends and ideas they have picked up at 3 major conference they’ve attended in the past 6 months: 1) LOEX 2010, LOEX of the West, and ALA Annual Conference 2010. One presentation they referred to pulled on errors that are found online – they referenced C. Silverman’s books Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech as a key resource. The idea of using these errors as attention grabbers was discussed. I particularly liked the Miss Teen USA – South Carolina YouTube example. They also talked about using Cartoons and Humor and referenced cartoon generators like ToonDo. There were also examples of using visual literacy to help students refine and focus topics. A section on transitioning to college really caught my attention and made me think about how we could focus our efforts on working with the feeder schools for our college. We’ve tried to make connections with several school libraries in our region over the years, but this might be a more targeted focus we could pursue. I also got some ideas to consider incorporating into Freshman Seminar! http://www.transitioning2college.org/ based out of Ohio has good information.
Thursday, October 7 – 9:45am-11:00am
Minnesota’s Libraries & The Open Meeting Law
I put on my Public Library Board Member hat when I entered this session. After coming back on the Library Board in recent months, I’ve realized I do not know enough about state statutes relating to public libraries or the open meeting law. Nancy Walton, acting State Librarian, led this informative session. Ms. Walton talked us through some scenarios based on questions she has received in her office over the years and audience members posed their own questions. It was good to learn the state librarian’s office has resources at its disposal that public libraries can call on when questions arise. Minnesota Statutes 2009: Chapter 13D Open Meeting Law
Thursday Lunch - I enjoyed visiting with a public librarian, an academic librarian, and two regional library representatives during lunch while listening to music by the Irish Trio!
Thursday, October 7 – 12:15pm-1:30pm
Dessert Keynote: Erin Hart
Delving into the Otherworld: Murder, Myth and Music in False Mermaid
This was a fascinating introduction to Erin Hart’s work. I have not read any of her novels, although I have one checked out now! She talked about how she researched and came with ideas for False Mermaid, her third novel. This presentation included the best use of Power Point I have ever seen. She also supplemented her talk with live Irish traditional music (which featured her husband, Paddy O’Brien on the button accordion). Early in her presentation she said “Librarians are the original detectives, right?” I do believe that is correct! :) Her topic and her presentation were both spell-binding and I’m looking forward to reading her work.
Thursday, October 7 – 1:30pm-2:45pm
Legislative Outlook
Elaine Keefe gave her insight about the upcoming election and highlighted a few scenarios of what could happen depending on the outcome. There are so many unknowns yet until after November 2. We’ll be in wait-and-see mode until then! The draft MLA/MEMO 2011 Legislative Platform was also presented.
Thursday, October 7, 3:30-4:45pm
Briggs Library: Beyond Shushing
Librarians from the University of Minnesota, Morris, presented ideas they’ve used at their college to support college retention by making the library a welcoming, comfortable environment. They have worked on academic endeavors such as an embedded librarian in Research Methods, Biology, and Political Science, as well as having a “Librarian on the Loose” where a librarian takes a laptop and moves to different locations around campus to answer student reference and research questions. They have other areas/departments that work within the library area such as Academic Assistance, Disability Services, the Writing Center as well as a providing space for a TREC Program (Tutoring, Reading, Enabling Children). They also have a Library Associate (Friends) Board that accepts grants up to $500 for collection enhancements. Involvement in a campus group called SOFA (Something On Friday Afternoons) has also afforded opportunities for the library to participate in and draw students to the library. One Friday night a month the library stays open until midnight and has a game night. The library has also promoted a Food for Fines imitative where fines will be waived for can goods that are brought in. They also erase fines on “Random Acts of Kindness” days on campus.
Thursday, October 7, 5:00-6:00pm
MLA Annual Business Meeting
This was my first time attending an annual business meeting! Proposed by-laws revisions were brought forward along with explanations for the changes. These were approved after some discussion. The draft Legislative Platform was discussed again here. MLA Board Election Results along with memorial resolutions were presented.
Current Trends in Instruction
Two University of Minnesota Librarians (Kristen Mastel and Kate Peterson) highlighted instruction trends and ideas they have picked up at 3 major conference they’ve attended in the past 6 months: 1) LOEX 2010, LOEX of the West, and ALA Annual Conference 2010. One presentation they referred to pulled on errors that are found online – they referenced C. Silverman’s books Regret the Error: How Media Mistakes Pollute the Press and Imperil Free Speech as a key resource. The idea of using these errors as attention grabbers was discussed. I particularly liked the Miss Teen USA – South Carolina YouTube example. They also talked about using Cartoons and Humor and referenced cartoon generators like ToonDo. There were also examples of using visual literacy to help students refine and focus topics. A section on transitioning to college really caught my attention and made me think about how we could focus our efforts on working with the feeder schools for our college. We’ve tried to make connections with several school libraries in our region over the years, but this might be a more targeted focus we could pursue. I also got some ideas to consider incorporating into Freshman Seminar! http://www.transitioning2college.org/ based out of Ohio has good information.
Thursday, October 7 – 9:45am-11:00am
Minnesota’s Libraries & The Open Meeting Law
I put on my Public Library Board Member hat when I entered this session. After coming back on the Library Board in recent months, I’ve realized I do not know enough about state statutes relating to public libraries or the open meeting law. Nancy Walton, acting State Librarian, led this informative session. Ms. Walton talked us through some scenarios based on questions she has received in her office over the years and audience members posed their own questions. It was good to learn the state librarian’s office has resources at its disposal that public libraries can call on when questions arise. Minnesota Statutes 2009: Chapter 13D Open Meeting Law
Thursday Lunch - I enjoyed visiting with a public librarian, an academic librarian, and two regional library representatives during lunch while listening to music by the Irish Trio!
Thursday, October 7 – 12:15pm-1:30pm
Dessert Keynote: Erin Hart
Delving into the Otherworld: Murder, Myth and Music in False Mermaid
This was a fascinating introduction to Erin Hart’s work. I have not read any of her novels, although I have one checked out now! She talked about how she researched and came with ideas for False Mermaid, her third novel. This presentation included the best use of Power Point I have ever seen. She also supplemented her talk with live Irish traditional music (which featured her husband, Paddy O’Brien on the button accordion). Early in her presentation she said “Librarians are the original detectives, right?” I do believe that is correct! :) Her topic and her presentation were both spell-binding and I’m looking forward to reading her work.
Thursday, October 7 – 1:30pm-2:45pm
Legislative Outlook
Elaine Keefe gave her insight about the upcoming election and highlighted a few scenarios of what could happen depending on the outcome. There are so many unknowns yet until after November 2. We’ll be in wait-and-see mode until then! The draft MLA/MEMO 2011 Legislative Platform was also presented.
Thursday, October 7, 3:30-4:45pm
Briggs Library: Beyond Shushing
Librarians from the University of Minnesota, Morris, presented ideas they’ve used at their college to support college retention by making the library a welcoming, comfortable environment. They have worked on academic endeavors such as an embedded librarian in Research Methods, Biology, and Political Science, as well as having a “Librarian on the Loose” where a librarian takes a laptop and moves to different locations around campus to answer student reference and research questions. They have other areas/departments that work within the library area such as Academic Assistance, Disability Services, the Writing Center as well as a providing space for a TREC Program (Tutoring, Reading, Enabling Children). They also have a Library Associate (Friends) Board that accepts grants up to $500 for collection enhancements. Involvement in a campus group called SOFA (Something On Friday Afternoons) has also afforded opportunities for the library to participate in and draw students to the library. One Friday night a month the library stays open until midnight and has a game night. The library has also promoted a Food for Fines imitative where fines will be waived for can goods that are brought in. They also erase fines on “Random Acts of Kindness” days on campus.
Thursday, October 7, 5:00-6:00pm
MLA Annual Business Meeting
This was my first time attending an annual business meeting! Proposed by-laws revisions were brought forward along with explanations for the changes. These were approved after some discussion. The draft Legislative Platform was discussed again here. MLA Board Election Results along with memorial resolutions were presented.
MLA 2010 Conference - Wednesday, October 6
Wednesday, October 6 – 11:30am-1:00pm
Keynote Speaker – Ed Holahan
“Seven Practices of the Inventive Creative”Interesting, engaging speaker talked about different ways people can be creative and innovative at work. He was a toy creator so had interesting stories about how his seven themes were used in his industry. His seven practices were 1) Dream Dreams (cast a net, not a hook), 2) Be Open and Prepared (loved his Nerf ball examples) 3) Try New & Different Things (had audience move watch or jewelry to other hand and talked about stepping out of one’s comfort zone) 4) Find Quiet Time (he mentioned taking time to meditate/think!) 5) Mak Mistakes (I’m sure this slide drove the librarians in the crowd crazy with his purposeful misspelling of Make!) 6) Share the Dream and 7) Let Go and Trust. I liked his quote “Ideas are Your Gold.”
Wednesday, October 6 – 2:00-3:15
Demystifying Ethnography: Exploring Student Use of Library Spaces
Librarians from Gustavus Adolphus College adapted a University of Rochester study to investigate how students interacted with their physical and virtual library spaces. The librarians highlighted their process for this qualitative research study. They emailed a survey (and had a 26% response rate), conducted eight semi-structured interviews, used linguistic listing, mapping, photo diaries, and image association. They also conducted web focus groups. I loved their incentive ideas for garnering participation including exclusive use of their VIP Study Room and giving out 20 free prints for the student printers. I enjoyed learning about their ethnographic study and how they worked to complete this in one semester’s time. A piece of advice they offered all attendees – use student workers as much as possible to conduct interviews, do the mapping, etc., and start recruiting early!
Wednesday, October 6 – 4:00-5:15pm
Cataloging and OCLC Previews & Reviews
This session was an overview of much of what Minitex does as well as major updates in the cataloging area. They stressed how Minitex will be providing free training for RDA (the proposed successor to AACR2). Although this session didn’t go into great detail about RDA, Mark Ehlert (MII) noted a couple of the major changes: 1) there is greater reliance on cataloger’s judgment and in turn a greater focus on the needs of the user 2) RDA spells out abbreviations and 3) new fields – 336, 337, 338. A final decision about if the national libraries will/will not adopt RDA is expected before the ALA National Conference. Sara Ring also touched on ContentDM (software used in Minnesota Reflections project) and noted that the QuickStart version of ContentDM is freely available so to consider that for small-scale digitization projects.
Wednesday evening
EBSCO Hosted reception at the Kahler Grand Hotel that evening gave me the opportunity to talk and network with colleagues in the state.
Keynote Speaker – Ed Holahan
“Seven Practices of the Inventive Creative”Interesting, engaging speaker talked about different ways people can be creative and innovative at work. He was a toy creator so had interesting stories about how his seven themes were used in his industry. His seven practices were 1) Dream Dreams (cast a net, not a hook), 2) Be Open and Prepared (loved his Nerf ball examples) 3) Try New & Different Things (had audience move watch or jewelry to other hand and talked about stepping out of one’s comfort zone) 4) Find Quiet Time (he mentioned taking time to meditate/think!) 5) Mak Mistakes (I’m sure this slide drove the librarians in the crowd crazy with his purposeful misspelling of Make!) 6) Share the Dream and 7) Let Go and Trust. I liked his quote “Ideas are Your Gold.”
Wednesday, October 6 – 2:00-3:15
Demystifying Ethnography: Exploring Student Use of Library Spaces
Librarians from Gustavus Adolphus College adapted a University of Rochester study to investigate how students interacted with their physical and virtual library spaces. The librarians highlighted their process for this qualitative research study. They emailed a survey (and had a 26% response rate), conducted eight semi-structured interviews, used linguistic listing, mapping, photo diaries, and image association. They also conducted web focus groups. I loved their incentive ideas for garnering participation including exclusive use of their VIP Study Room and giving out 20 free prints for the student printers. I enjoyed learning about their ethnographic study and how they worked to complete this in one semester’s time. A piece of advice they offered all attendees – use student workers as much as possible to conduct interviews, do the mapping, etc., and start recruiting early!
Wednesday, October 6 – 4:00-5:15pm
Cataloging and OCLC Previews & Reviews
This session was an overview of much of what Minitex does as well as major updates in the cataloging area. They stressed how Minitex will be providing free training for RDA (the proposed successor to AACR2). Although this session didn’t go into great detail about RDA, Mark Ehlert (MII) noted a couple of the major changes: 1) there is greater reliance on cataloger’s judgment and in turn a greater focus on the needs of the user 2) RDA spells out abbreviations and 3) new fields – 336, 337, 338. A final decision about if the national libraries will/will not adopt RDA is expected before the ALA National Conference. Sara Ring also touched on ContentDM (software used in Minnesota Reflections project) and noted that the QuickStart version of ContentDM is freely available so to consider that for small-scale digitization projects.
Wednesday evening
EBSCO Hosted reception at the Kahler Grand Hotel that evening gave me the opportunity to talk and network with colleagues in the state.
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