Monday, October 24, 2011

Online Teaching, Streaming Multimedia, Copyright and All That Jazz - October 19, 2011

Along with 249 other registrants, I listened to and viewed a presentation by David M. Hooten, Music Instructor at McLennan Community College in Waco, TX, speak about his use of Softchalk to create his online music appreciation course. He demonstrated for the group how he incorporated images, streaming audio, streaming video and links to articles into his course. It was so encouraging to see how many library resources he utilized!! His use of Encyclopedia Brittanica (a tool we have FREE access to in Minnesota thanks to ELM) and other library databases (specifically Naxos Music Library) was refreshing! He also mentioned free tools such a YouTube and NPR as resources. He commented on how difficult it can be to find operas to include in the course as while much of the music is in the public domain, the performances are not.
He referenced three tools he has utilized to edit materials to incorporate into his course: Snag-It to add captions to images, Sound Forge for MP3 files, and Camtasia for streaming video. He noted that it is important to keep video segments short - both for the end-user and for the streaming video server. He specifically mentioned how vital library resources are for online courses!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Copyright & Intellectual Property Webinar - 4/25/11

Listened in on an informative webinar with MnScu's System Director for Intellectural Property, Gary Hunter. His presentation reinforced many of the practices I have supported at Minnesota West such as the need to see if streaming rights are available for purchase before converting a DVD into streaming format. Also the discussion about being conscious of the fact that many "consumables" (e.g., workbooks, tests, quizzes) oppose fair use guidelines.
The discussion about e-Textbooks and course packs was interesting, too. The recommendation is to always cite where information is from and to include documentation about copyright clearance from each copyright holder in the coursepack so it is clear that all is in compliance. I do wonder how much we are moving away from printed coursepacks and as we transition into providing readings via the digital D2L environment how much this is/will be monitored?
Other topics of interest that were discussed included public performance rights (always necessary for entertainment purposes) and concern over using Google Images (suggestion is to assume they are copyrighted).
In the discussion about streaming video, reference to a document entitled Educational Video Streaming: A Short Primer by Arnold P. Lutzker, Esq. was referred to as a good read on this topic is litigation is underway in CA.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

April 15, 2011 - MnPALS Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Workday

Had a productive joint Circulation and Interlibrary Loan workday! I participated in the Opening session topic discussing how we serve our online and distance students. There were also presenters from Southwest Minnesota State University (SMSU), Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSUM), and Northland Community College. I think an entire day could have been spent on this topic!
The first breakout session I attended was Circulation Reports and How We Use Them - this was a good refresher of available reports and it was nice to hear how other libraries use the data. Breakout #2 was about How Lost Items are Handled in Circulation. As a result of this session, I will be requesting some table changes in order to clean-up our lost items replacement fees in circulation. This session also reminded me to look at Patron Scrubbing practices. The final Breakout of the day was Keeping your Circulation Tables up to Date - again this was a good refresher about which tables need to be updated and when to make those changes. I've already been able to make a few changes in the tables with information I learned at the workday!

April 14, 2011 - Consortium of MnPALS Libraries Annual Meeting

Enjoyed the annual meeting with presentations by Stephen Elfstrad, PALS Director, Adam Marsnik (Normandale Community College) of their SUMMON instance, and Todd White (College of St. Scholastica) and their use of the EBSCO search product. We also heard from Todd Digby (System Director of Libraries for MnSCU) and Bill DeJohn (Minitex).
The afternoon was spent in small and large group discussion on a variety of topics affecting the consortium. Topics included The Future of Discovery, Open Source vs. Vended Solutions, The Future of the ILS, Future Funding, Minimum Set of Library Technology Services (this is the group I was on), and Open Access Data and Digital Repositories. The ideas generated will be brought back to the PALS office as they continue their planning efforts.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Library Futures: Cataloging - New Perspectives 4/8/11

This College of DuPage teleconference focused on changes occurring in the realm of cataloging right now, specifically RDA. There was also much discussion about how entities outside of the library world are interested in library data and the importance of the semantic web. To date, there isn't much library data available "in the cloud," but there are places on the web where bibliographic data is used (e.g., Amazon), but it isn't necessarily following the consistent format laid out like we do with library bibliographic formats.
Although I've listened to a handful of sessions regarding RDA over the past year, today's point about FRBR being the conceptual backbone of RDA struck me. The process of how RDA came into place was reviewed throughout the presentation.
The presenters have compiled a great starting list of resources on these topics that can be found at http://www.dupagepress.com/library-learning-network/cataloging/resources.
The two presenters (Karen Coyle and Christopher Cronin) ended the presentation reiterating points about how the library community needs to be involved in this process and that librarians need to recognize that changes are happening. It's time to jump in and learn all we can so we can be active participants in the change.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

MnPALS Reference/Instruction Workday - April 4, 2011

I attended my first in person MnPALS workday on Monday, April 4, 2011. Sessions I attended at the Reference/Instruction workday were:
Opening session - Perry Madden gave an overview of what's happening at PALS along with upgrades to MnPALS Plus and requests for ideas for further upgrades.
Breakout 1: The Legislative Website: How to Find Bills, Laws, and Other Helpful Resources - this was a very informative session and was a great introduction to the Legislative website. There is such a wealth of information available here and we were given a few tips to help us in our searches. One such tip was under the Statutes section...in order to find previous editions, you need to click on "Read more..." and that will lead to Previous Editions that go back to 1941. Another tip was to make use of the Index; many times using that to search can be more useful than doing a Keyword search in the statutes. Other points of interest...the Vetoes Database and the Legislative Time Capsule.
Breakout 2: Information Literacy for First Year Students and Beyond -- interesting dialogue about how different campuses insert information literacy into the curriculum. Concordia's "Library Launch" is a mandatory session for all students in the First year Program so they know everyone has had a least one basic session. Many students get additional sessions through their First Year Program that is more targeted to the topics they've selected. Minnesota State University, Moorhead, has put together an audio walking tour and map and culminates with an online quiz students need to take in order to avoid spending too much time on the logistics during valuable Library Orientation sessions. The availability of these tours have specific start and end dates so that instructors know who has/hasn't completed the activity. I can't recall the college who stated that they now have a required Information Literacy 2-credit course for all students who are completing an A.A. degree. I love this idea as it would help prepare students who are moving onto a 4-year degree be better prepared for their additional two years of college. The book Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning was also recommended and I see we have a copy being added to our Worthington Library collection so I will look forward to reading that!
Breakout 3: Staffing Models for Reference -- it became very apparent early on in this large group discussion that understanding your student population, along with available staffing, is key to how libraries staff reference desks. Although some libraries continue to staff a traditional reference desk with librarians, many have or are moving to the "on-call" model where another staff person (or a student worker in some cases) is at the desk and can field 75-85% of the questions that come to the Reference desk while knowing that the other 15-25% can be referred to an on-call librarian. There seems to be an increase across MnSCU of computer-related, technical-orientated questions that come to the reference desk and would not need to be handled by professional librarians. This is a debate that will rage on, but in my opinion knowing ones institution, faculty, and students help shape the reference desk staffing. There isn't a one-size fits all approach that will work.
The day ended with a LibJam which served as an open forum to demonstrate online tools being used and an open ask-a-question session for people to generate ideas. Perry demonstrated an Open Source tool ODIN has been testing that serves as a cross-searchable tool (i.e., brings back articles, ebooks, books, etc. that are pulled in from other databases). This is based on Pazpar2. MnPALS may consider exploring this if libraries will commit some financial support to the exploration.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

MLA Library Legislative Day - March 1, 2011

I attended my first state Library Legislative Day ever this year! In addition to this being my first Library Legislative Day, it was also my first trip to the Minnesota State Capitol.
I have the privilege of being involved in libraries in a number of different capacities at this time, so it seemed like the most logical year to attend (not to mention the budget woes affecting the state!). I tried to keep all of these "hats" in mind as I was listening and sharing: college librarian, Marshall-Lyon County Board President, Plum Creek Governing Board member, and SAMMIE Planning Committee chair and Member Council representative.
I had an educational and interesting evening/day! I enjoyed listening to lobbyist Elaine Keefe on Monday evening and hearing her perspective on our library issues. On Tuesday I joined a librarian colleague from Southwest Minnesota State University for a private meeting with Representative Chris Swedzinski. We also joined a group of approximately 20 from the Plum Creek region to meet with Senator Gary Dahms.