Pam's 23 Things on a Stick

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

2011-10-24T15:01:00.002-05:00

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!

Copyright & Intellectual Property Webinar - 4/25/11

2011-04-27T11:10:00.005-05:00

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.

April 15, 2011 - MnPALS Circulation and Interlibrary Loan Workday

2011-04-20T13:10:00.003-05:00

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

2011-04-20T13:00:00.002-05:00

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.

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

2011-04-08T12:31:00.005-05:00

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.

MnPALS Reference/Instruction Workday - April 4, 2011

2011-04-05T09:47:00.002-05:00

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.

MLA Library Legislative Day - March 1, 2011

2011-03-02T15:56:00.004-06:00

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.

Library Futures: Redesigning Today's Public Services 11/12/10

2010-11-12T14:26:00.002-06:00

This was a College of DuPage teleconference lead by Marie Radford. The discussion revolved around reference services and how they are in transition. She talked about the increased need for collaboration and consortial involvement; librarians no longer need to be the Lone Reference Desk Ranger.
The influence of mobile applications was discussed; this ties with the last College of DuPage teleconference on Libraries & the Mobile Technologies Landscape held on 9/24/10. She gave examples of augmented reality (AR app) and Quick Response Codes (QR Codes). (The 9/24/10 presentation also discussed QR Codes!)
She devoted a good portion of time to the discussion of outreach. Whether that is a public library with a drive-up window (interesting considering that had been on the table for the new Marshall-Lyon County Library building), or an academic library like Penn State University that has an "ASK Cart" that travels around campus with a librarian (a.k.a. Library Dude) at the helm. She also referenced Cornell University's tiered system of having a non-professional librarian staffing the Information Desk so that professional librarians could spend the majority of their time doing professional duties and be called upon as needed to answer true reference questions. (I recall a similar model in place at the University of Iowa when I was completing my graduate program there.) She noted that 85% of questions that come to the Information/Reference Desk are NOT reference questions. She also mentioned a small liberal arts college (Franklin & Marshall) whose librarians make "House Calls" to the academic departments. All of these examples demonstrate ways librarians can make themselves available at the point-of-need while at the same time help change perceptions of librarians (i.e., we're not all waiting behind an intimidating desk for people to approach us).
In response to a listener question about the future of print reference, Marie answered an unequivocal "Print Reference is Dead." She specifically mentioned that the Oxford English Dictionary is 100% an electronic product now and that Encyclopedia Britannica in print has been declining in sales since 1990. This reminded me that my 10-year-old daughter just asked me this week if we have an encyclopedia set at home. I responded that we (along with all Minnesotans) have access to a great encyclopedia online, so we don't need a print one in the house. She responded, "I thought so." :)
Marie's presentation concluded with her thoughts that as librarians we need to continue to thrive and move forward embracing the technologies our patrons are using and find ways to meet them in that environment.

RDA: What It Is, and What It Means to You - November 11, 2010

2010-11-11T12:05:00.003-06:00

I tuned in to a Minitex webinar led by Mark Ehlert about RDA (Resource Description and Access.) The presentation included an introduction to the foundations of RDA, FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data), covered what RDA is along with an explanation of the toolkits available, the testing that has been done, and the potential rollout of RDA.

This was a great introduction to the topic and set the stage for learning more details about using RDA when/if that time comes. Mark made it clear AACR2 is not going away any time soon, but it's still a good idea to start planning for the likely change to RDA down the line.
These are the major ideas about RDA to keep in mind at this time:
1) RDA is the proposed successor to AACR2

rules for creating descriptions of resources
rules for devising access points to discover resources
rules follow AACR2 predominantly
greater reliance on cataloger's judgment
fewer abbreviations used; words are transcribed instead (e.g., First edition instead of 1st ed.)

2) Based on FRBR/FRAD rather than ISBD

3) Layout of the materials and terminology differ from AACR2 (not as linear)

4) 3 new fields (336, 337, 338) will be required in an RDA record

Surely much more to come on this topic!

MnPALS User Groups - October 28, 2010

2010-11-01T13:28:00.003-05:00

I attended the MnPALS User Group meetings at the Wellstone Center in St. Paul on Thursday, October 28, 2010. As the Circulation User Group convener, I had been involved in the planning for this day and was looking forward to seeing librarians from around the state! It was a good, but packed day of meetings. I attended the following sessions:
ILL Subsystem Meeting
Circulation Subsystem Meeting
Systems Subsystem Meeting
Lunch/General Session
Reference Subsystem Meeting
Cataloging Subsystem Meeting
The staff at the PALS Office does a great job of keeping us informed of changes, especially in regards to the upcoming version change. The upgrade to Version 20 is scheduled for January 28-30. Online training sessions will be held with more details, but it was nice to catch a glimpse of some coming changes.
One of the biggest things I pulled away from this day of meetings is to take some time to look at the report options in ALEPH. The Reports Group has been working hard to create new reports that are key to the consortium. There is much clean-up of records that needs to be done, so I've started working on that project.
Overall it was a great day for connecting with colleagues and being active in the consortium.

MLA Conference 2010 - Friday, October 8

2010-10-13T13:19:00.002-05:00

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.

MLA Conference 2010 - Thursday, October 7

2010-10-13T13:06:00.001-05:00

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.

MLA 2010 Conference - Wednesday, October 6

2010-10-13T13:03:00.001-05:00

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.

Library Futures: Libraries & the Mobile Technologies Landscape - 9/24/10

2010-09-24T14:02:00.006-05:00

This was a College of DuPage teleconference with Joe Murphy, Yale Librarian, as the primary presenter. One of his initial comments was that using mobile technology has become standard and is not a passing fad - therefore libraries need to engage in this, particularly school and public libraries. He discussed a few mobile technologies: texting, mobile applications, and location-based services.
He also emphasized Mobile Literacy and how important it is for librarians to gain familiarity with a variety of mobile technologies and to be aware of the impact of the mobile technology on our patrons.
He discussed four mobile technologies he believes we all have to be familiar with:
1) text messaging
2) mobile applications
3) mobile web pages (he referenced Amazon's Kindle Store and Tech Crunch)
4) Twitter -- although he brought in another speaker via Skype to discuss this, he is a really big fan of Twitter -- here's his link: http://twitter.com/libraryfuture
A few examples he gave of how Twitter could be used by libraries/librarians were to post library news/happenings, to provide a link to a "New Items" list, to attend conferences via hashtags, or write 140-character book reviews. It was also mentioned that 10/1/10 is Follow a Library Day on Twitter!

Two current trends he referenced were:
1) Location - specifically location-based services. These answer the question "Where are You?" vs. the "What are you Doing?" that Twitter fulfills. The most common example of location based services that he provided was FourSquare. He refers to this as the "check-in culture."
2) QR Codes -- this was a new term and concept to me - I will have to do some investigating into this! I believe they are 2-dimensional barcodes that can be read by a Smartphone.

Yet another speaker chimed in (Lisa Carlucci Thomas from Southern Connecticut State University) to talk about e-books and e-readers. She pointed out that e-books have been around for about a decade, but it's just been in the past couple of years that the e-readers have become more commonplace. She talked briefly about the issues of digital ownership and referenced incompatible DRM -- we are encountering this topic at my college now with a new e-book being used for one of our microcomputer courses. This book requires a specific DRM before the book can be downloaded. Lisa commented that librarians need to have an understanding of device compatibility regarding e-readers.

Joe did also reference that there can be a heavy personnel cost to implementing some of these technologies. There needs to be an understanding of that both by the staff involved as well as administration. Decisions need to be made about where time and emphasis will be spent. We all know technology is a quickly changing environment so sometimes it is difficult to know which tools and technologies to move ahead with...as Joe said sometimes we'll have to "be willing to be wrong."

Thanks to Minitex for offering librarians the opportunity to listen to these College of DuPage teleconferences.

Marshall Breeding Webinar - 9/21/10

2010-09-24T13:48:00.002-05:00

I had the opportunity to listen to Marshall Breeding (Director for Innovative Technologies and Research for the Vanderbilt University Libraries in Nashville, TN) speak via a webinar on September 21. (offered by Minitex) He spoke about network technologies and library automation. Here's his website: http://www.librarytechnology.org/
One of the tidbits I wrote down from his presentation (and I learned a colleague of mine did as well!) was the percentage of money being spent on people to work with print materials and yet budgets are moving more towards securing electronic content. Sometimes we have difficulty letting go of past workflows that we have traditionally used with print materials.
When Marshall was talking about the OLE project - which I have heard discussed a bit over the past year or so - it really struck home this time when he emphasized this is a back-end functionality project. It is not trying to be or replicate a front-end discovery interface: http://kuali.org/ole
I did have to chuckle at one of his comments about many young students today not knowing life without the Internet. I had just had that conversation with students in an Introduction to Microcomputers class the day before. Just to marvel at how much has happened in the past 20 years in relation to the Internet and World Wide Web is amazing to me...as it was to "non-traditional" students in that class. The generation who only knew life with the web, however, wasn't as fascinated by the topic ;)

Information Literacy Education: A National Overview (College of DuPage Library Learning Network)

2010-03-12T12:51:00.000-06:00

Three panelists led today's discussion about Information Literacy: Dr. Lisa Stock from DuPage, Dr. Jean Donham from the Univ. of Northern Iowa (and a former instructor at Univ. of IA Library School when I was in Grad School there!); and Dane Ward from Illinois State Univ.
Background information about Information Literacy, including the variety of standards (and diversity of students/patrons) related to information literacy kicked off the session. Recognition was also given to President Barack Obama declaring October 2009 National Information Literacy Month -- here's a link to his proclamation.
Dr. Donham referenced an article published in the Winter 2010 edition of College Teaching entitled Mental Models of Research: Generating Authentic Questions (authentication required to access) that questions how we as educators can help students move to a position of inquiry rather than reporting. Later in the session she referred to 7 dispositions that she believes are useful in ensuring students are ready to learn:
1) open-minded
2) curiosity
3) meta-cognitive
4) strategic
5) investigative
6) reasoning
7) evidence-based
Mr. Ward focused more on the collaborative aspect of information literacy and recognized elements of the collaborative process as:
* spontaneity
* expertise
* pushing the boundaries
* being present in the moment
* knowing each other
* knowing oneself
He summed this up by stating it is important for all involved in the collaboration to be open-minded and not to judge one another during the process.
Emphasis to grow information literacy on a national level needs to focus on these three areas, according to the panelists:
1) standards - moving beyond the boiler-plates that are there and also recognizing the different needs of the communities using the standards
2) work towards a model of moving beyond information seeking
3) context and collaboration are key to success
A follow-up question that piqued my interest was about what textbook they might recommend for a 1-credit information literacy course and Dr. Stock mentioned Research Strategies: Finding Your Way Through the Information Fog by William Badke.

Marshall-Lyon County Library Board - March 2010

2010-02-28T12:00:00.001-06:00

I am pleased to be back on the Marshall-Lyon County Library Board and serving the community in this way! I previously served 2003-2006. This term begins immediately and expires December 31, 2012. My first board meeting is March 8 and I look forward to getting caught up on the progress with the public library.

YME High School Visit - February 23, 2010

2010-02-28T11:56:00.000-06:00

I had a wonderful request from YME High School to come for a visit to their Media Center. I met with a senior high English teacher and the superintendent to talk about ways to improve their Media Center as they look to renovate. It enjoyed the visit and look forward to a continued partnership with them.
After my time at YME, I also made a stop at the Granite Falls Public library and had a nice visit with the library staff there!

Meinders Community Library - Pipestone, MN (November 19, 2009)

2009-11-19T11:46:00.000-06:00

I made a visit today to the Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, MN. This was my first time at the facility; it is a very impressive combined library setting for this size of community. Meinders is combined with the Middle/High School library. I met with Stephanie Hall, Director of Libraries, to learn more about the library and to ask about use of the facility by Minnesota West students. It was a good visit and nice to have made contact there!

Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Group Meeting - October 28, 2009

2009-11-02T13:53:00.000-06:00

The Fall User Group meeting was jam-packed with business meetings for each user group as well as a variety of breakout sessions. As one of the Convener's involved in the planning process for this day, I'm really interested to hear the feedback as this was a bit of a different schedule than usual.
Here's what I attended:
9:00-9:50 - Breakout - General Cataloging Q&A....tips learned:

Vendor Neutral for Electronic Books
check our Local Holdings on OCLC - need to keep it updated
Heard about RDA on the way - MII will likely lead trainings when the time comes

10:00-10:50 - Breakout - MnPALS Plus Version 2.0

Since we just moved to this interface, I wanted to hear what others were experiencing and see what was on the horizon for improvements. Continue to watch this on the Forum.

11:00-11:50 - Breakout - ILL Best Practices Survey

Always good to hear from MII what things we can do to make their lives easier and more efficient for patrons. One thing they mentioned was to always be sure to include the Due Date on the paperwork that is inserted into the item.
Ran out of time on this one, but they will be posting the Housekeeping items for Lending and Borrowing, so will want to review that when it is posted...they weren't sure if it would be on a wiki, the website, etc.

12:00-1:20 - Lunch/General Session

1:30 - 2:20 - Systems Subsystem Meeting

Not much to report from this business meeting. One highlight from this group is how much the Reports Task Force did this year to get some new reports in place. Kudos to that group!
Planning for a Spring Workday...

2:30 - 3:20 - Circulation Subsystem Meeting

I am the convener for this group, so I led this meeting.
We are going to use the forum to determine interest/participation in a Spring Workday before scheduling one.
Have work to do yet on the Consortium Circulation Policy -- starting with a survey.

3:30 - 4:20 - ILL Subsystem Meeting

Following Circ lead and posting on the Forum to gauge interest in having a Spring Workday.

Homeward bound :)

2009 Upper Midwest ExLibris Users' Group Meeting - October 26 & 27

2009-11-02T13:09:00.000-06:00

This was my first time attending an ExLibris User Group meeting - the variety of sessions was fabulous and I learned something at almost every one.
Day 1 sessions attended...
Link Resolver: Panel Discussion -- this was a nice introduction to three link resolvers currently being used and/or developed in our region. I like the A-Z list feature and it's uses as a collection analysis tool. I'm excited to see what comes out of the PALSconnect beta.

Eeney Meeney Miney Moe? : Loader Options in ALEPH -- this presentation was led by the University of Minnesota and discussed the variety of options available for loading records into ALEPH. This is beyond our current needs at Minnesota West, but it is nice to be aware of options!

Course Reserves:v19/v20 Usage & End of Semester Clean-up: Although we currently are not using the Course Reserves module, I wanted to hear how other libraries liked the upgrade we saw from Version 17 to 19. Overall the comments were positive and libraries are happy the functionality is back in the GUI rather than on the Web. This was a good reminder to me that we still have course reserves data to clean up...

Day 2...
The day began with the Keynote Presentation: Next Generation Software by an ExLibris exec. This was the low-light of the user group for me as the presentation seemed more geared to ARL libraries and didn't recognize the variety of library sizes we have in our consortium. It was too much from the sales perspective for my preference.
Walk-Up Sessions -- there were a variety of 15-minute sessions to attend during this hour. The four I attended were:
* Hierarchical Budgets for MnSCU Libraries -- this was led by Minnesota State University, Mankato, and it was interesting to see all of the Budget Data they've put into ALEPH Acquisitions. Our primary uses to date have been for Book and AV budgets, but they use it for all Acquisitions -- annual subscriptions to databases, etc. When I asked why they did that when those big transactions are in ISRS anyway, he referenced the nice clean reports they can pull from ALEPH and easily transfer to Excel. This is food for thought when next year's budget rolls around...
* Expand Procedures and Fix Procedures -- An ODIN Systems office staff member led this session and walked through some time-saving procedures that could be put into place. I have a feeling these would be set up at the system level, but some could be local. I'm not sure we would find need for those at MnWest. I am thankful that I have seen a few fix routines with the e-books we are cataloging now so I had a clue what they were talking about! :)
* Why is My Video Showing Up as Print Book? -- This was a nice close look at tab_type_config and how the LDR, 006, and 007 fields impact the OPAC display. Need to check this out and see how ours our displaying...
*Ask the Experts -- stopped by to visit with Al R./PALS and found a solution to a problem we had encountered earlier that week! YEAH ~ and it was an easy fix which made it even better :)

URM Discussion and Reaction -- this was a panel of ExLibris users who are on a variety of focus groups for the new ExLibris URM product. Like the keynote, this was too "out there" without enough clarification about what it will be, look like, etc. (especially in a consortium environment) that it wasn't very useful to me.

Analytic Linkages -- Bobby Bothmann led this presentation. Very informative and again, more to think about!! I hadn't seen this before, so it will take a little investigative work to put it into place. One title that came to mind to implement this with is the Rural Minnesota Journal...

Automatic Creation of Holdings and Item Records -- Another area I hadn't looked too closely at yet, but it would make the cataloging process more efficient so I'm all for that!!! It was nice to have a multi-campus library as one of the presenters...learned there is a lot of set-up work in the tables to get this up and running (so maybe a summer project?!?!), but well worth it once it is done. Also learned that we could be adding 856 $u into the Holding record to get the URL to display there -- would be a nice shortcut for patrons.

MLA Conference - St. Cloud - Oct. 14, 2009

2009-10-16T18:13:00.000-05:00

My highlight for the MLA Conference was the Pre-Conference session entitled “Cataloging Streaming Media.” The timing of this was perfect as we have just started to catalog our streaming videos this year at Minnesota West. While we started the collection a few years ago, I hadn’t taken steps to get the titles listed in our catalog, but this year we are putting more resources into that collection so the titles need to get into the catalog. Mary’s presentation was well done and highlighted areas we need to focus on when cataloging streaming video or audio resources. This entire presentation was practical and will be useful to my work! Thanks to SAMMIE for funding this professional development activity.

Thing 29 - Google Tools

2009-05-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

I decided to explore the Google Web History. I can see this as a useful tool. For me I think I would use it more at home than at work. At work I am more apt to bookmark useful sites and/or add them to my del.icio.us account. I know I've had times when I've done a search for something and can't recall what the web address was...it would be great to have this history to refer back to. I'm not overly concerned with the privacy issue for a couple of reasons: 1) it does require that you log in and use your own login and password to access your search histories and 2) I wouldn't be looking for anything that could be deemed illegal or otherwise concerning from the perspective that I wouldn't want others to know what I was searching for or what I had found.

One drawback for me of this tool is the recommendation to download a Google Tool Bar. I chose not to do that so I only have the option to see the history of my web searches right now. In their prompt suggesting you download the Tool bar they say that it will help you bookmark pages more easily. My first thought was that is what I use del.icio.us for!

For the Productivity section I decided to stick with MyYahoo Calendar rather than set up another one in Google. I had mentioned in an earlier post that I've used MyYahoo Calendar for social engagements with friends. It worked well and we were able to share our calendars and coordinate that way. I do see value in these tools in the workplace as well. I think organizations may use an internal product like Microsoft Outlook which has sharing capabilities as well. Many times it may be what most people are comfortable using.

I loved the "advertisement" for the Goog-411. I'm not sure I would have much cause to use it, but I think the concept is great! I'd be interested in hearing from others if they've used it successfully...I think I just came up with something to Twitter!!!

Thing 28 - Customized Home Pages

2009-05-23T19:13:00.000-05:00

I ended up working on MyYahoo page that I had created about a year and a half ago. At that time, I was getting into using the Yahoo Calendar to schedule weekends with other friends on Yahoo. It worked pretty well and I did a little customizing of my page then, but I've updated it more now to include one of the RSS feeds I have on my blog and also did some other of the customization options within the tool. I think it's pretty user-friendly and was easy to set up since I already had a Yahoo account established. It does seem to have more pre-programmed tools rather than advertising how to add your own. One of the widgets they offer (and I added) is a Calorie Counter - who couldn't use that?!?

I have looked at Page Flakes in the past as well. One of the graduate classes I took this Spring semester talked about Page Flakes so we saw some examples of that during our Webinar sessions. I decided to stick with the one I'd already created in Yahoo, though, rather than redeveloping another customized home page.

Thing 27 - Twitter

2009-05-23T11:04:00.000-05:00

I've been hearing about Twitter more and more, but had never taken the time to go out and look at it. I didn't realize the posts were to be so short!! That is a tough task to keep things that concise.
My Twitter site is: https://twitter.com/psukalski

I'm not sure I'll continue to use this tool. Maybe if I find a handful of cutting edge librarians to follow I will be interested in reading others' tweets. At this time, I'm not seeing how my posting in here will be beneficial. As I watched the YouTube video about it, the emphasis there was on the Social Network side of Twitter and asking questions for people to respond to as they would in a conversation. I have kept up with my Facebook account since starting that in the first round and have found it useful and fun on a personal level; I've kept that more on the personal-only side by connecting with high school and college friends and not looking for professional connections there. Perhaps Twitter can fill the professional side for me and I can connect with more librarians throughout the state and country.

I looked at the Luria Library Twitter site and it is mostly hours and campus updates. I can see this as way for libraries to keep in touch with their patrons who are on Twitter. I suppose the success of the tool would depend on how many relevant posts there are to make and how many in your clientele are on Twitter.

Thing 26 - NING

2009-05-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

I joined NING in the first round, but haven't been a participant of it. Today I updated my photo, added a photo of my daughters with their new kittens, and added the Badge to my blog. I actually thought I had added the badge during Round 1...

There are so many avenues of communication that at this time I'm not seeing a use for the Ning in my professional life. I do like to see what others are adding, many of which are more on the personal level (such as the kitty picture I added). The group I would be most likely to join would be the MnSCU Librarians group, however I find that for my professional work I am more apt to keep in touch with that group via listserves and Forums available through our library consortium.

Thing 25 - Bloggers' Toolkit

2009-05-23T09:38:00.000-05:00

I ended up adding SnapShots, a Clock, Recent Comments, and gVisit to my site. I'm not sure I would have added more widgets/gadgets to my blog without the requirement of Thing 25 to add at least four. For the purpose of my blog which I'm using to document professional development activities, etc., I don't feel these tools are adding value to my blog. I'm happy to learn more about them, but probably wouldn't have actually added them to the site.

With the large number of options to look at on this Thing, it took quite a bit of time to explore. I didn't look at all of them, but probably close to half so I spent more time on this than I would have liked.

18th Annual Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference - May 19, 2009

2009-05-23T09:29:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed attending my first ILL conference. Marshall Breedings' morning presentation (Next Generation Library Automation and Its Implications for Resource Sharing) was thought-provoking. As he described it, this is his 'niche.' His Library Technology Guides will be worthwhile to keep tabs on: http://librarytechnology.org/. He is very involved in the OLE project which we also have heard about at previous MnPALS meetings.

During the MINITEX Update, Bill DeJohn mentioned a resource for licensing and e-journals: http://librarycopyright.net/ . I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but this topic is of interest to me so I anticipate I will explore it a bit more in the future.

The afternoon session was more hands-on and was led by Ray Wilson: Seven Quality Improvement Tools for your Workplace. The tools he reviewed were * Agenda * Affinity Diagram * Check Sheet * Operational Definition * Pareto Chart * Cause & Effect (Fishbone) * Cause Analysis * Force Field * Multivoting * Plus/Delta. I had heard of many of these before, but it's always good to have a refresher and to find ways to immediately implement some of them.

Finally Getting to it...

2009-05-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

I registered for More Things on a Stick months ago, but am finally finding some time to get into them. I've updated my Avatar to a great summer scene! It felt like summer today. I am in St. Paul for the Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing Marshall Breeding speak. I'm also looking forward to learning more "Things!"

Luoma Annual Gathering - Friday, March 24, 2009

2009-03-30T14:05:00.000-05:00

The LUOMA Leadership Academy Annual Gathering was held via ITV across the state. I attended via ITV from Southwest Minnesota State University. The focus of the day was "Think Differently." The day revolved around three primary sessions: Leading Courageously in the Face of Economic Challenge, Demand in a Think-Different Economy, and Sustaining Leadership Developing Efforts.

They were all good, useful, thought-provoking sessions. The Think-Different Economy session provided some interesting statistics such as in 2015 there will be 10% fewer high school students and in 2020 there will be more 65-year-olds than 16-22 year-olds in Minnesota. Hmm, makes one wonder about marketing emphasis and techniques...

I'm glad I took the time to re-connect with LUOMA colleagues. It would have been great if we all could have been together in one location as originally scheduled, but it was still worthwhile over ITV. We have a great face-to-face opporunity in 2010 as the Chair Academy's International Leadership Conference for Post-Secondary Leaders will be held in Minneapolis!

Information Literacy for Life - College of DuPage Teleconference

2008-11-21T17:17:00.000-06:00

Oh, this teleconference was on one of my FAVORITE topics!! The panel talked about their experiences collaborating with other entities to teach/discuss/introduce information literacy skills. The college librarian from American University in Washington, DC, really piqued my interest because of his collaborative work with high schools and his involvement in his college's Teacher Education program. The other two librarians discussed grant projects they had done with information literacy skills & both of those projects were interesting as well. One was on the value of peer mentoring of information literacy skills in a high school setting and the other was about teaching information literacy skills to older adults with an emphasis on health information. I would love to pursue that idea in a collaborative effort with a local public library!
The teleconference was reassuring in the sense that work I've done in the past and am currently engaged in with information literacy collaborations is on track with what other librarians around the country are doing. We are encountering some of the same challenges and have discovered some of the same rewards! A key reminder for me was that collaborations take time and consistent efforts...but it's also important not to bite off more than one can chew!
I was really intrigued by a question that was posed after the panel concluded that asked about collaborating with home school groups...no one on the panel had done that yet. That sounds like a wonderful idea to me!!! Again, another potential area to collaborate with a public library. My focus has been more on local high schools, but the home school association would be a great avenue to head down as well. I also asked a question which the moderator posed to the panel :) I asked what role college librarians can play for high schools that do not have a school librarian. They responded with Advocacy type answers and just getting involved and being a voice. I can see the value in that; it's really a big issue and difficult to know where to start. One more thing to look into...

Lakeview High School - Nov. 7

2008-11-10T21:15:00.001-06:00

I had so much fun meeting with the Lakeview 7-12 teaching faculty and principal on Friday, November 7! The meeting was a result of the grant I did a few years ago collaborating with two local high schools using an online information literacy course that I created in D2L. One of the Lakeview teachers attended my Teaching & Learning session on the topic and asked if I would come speak with their faculty.
They want to get a "plan" in place for incorporating more information literacy skills into their curriculum. I thought this initial meeting on Friday went well and I am excited about supporting them through this process!!
This is absolutely one of my favorite topics -- bridging the High School to College gap in library/information literacy, etc. skills!!! So it was a real treat for me to get to go and get on my soapbox and really have interested listeners! :)

MnPALS User Group Meetings - October 29 & 30

2008-11-10T21:08:00.000-06:00

MnPALS Consortium User Group meetings were held in Mankato this Fall. We are trying a new format by having one User Group meeting a year and "work days" in the Spring. As a new member of the User Council I enjoyed being part of the planning process and trying a new format this year!! Change, it is refreshing!
I was the Convener for the Circulation Group and the meeting was productive and on time! :) The break-out sessions I attended were very informative and useful. I like the new format, although as part of the Circulation Group Steering Committee, there's lots of work ahead planning a work day for the Spring!
Sessions I attended were: PLIF Error Logs, Weeded Materials, ILL/CIRC Workflow and ILL/CIRC Tables. I also attended the ILL Sub-system meeting and put in 2cents for not being on the Courier route and how that can change workflows for direct borrowing.

I See I Didn't Finish...

2008-11-10T21:06:00.000-06:00

I see I didn't finish blogging about the rest of the LUOMA week's experience. It truly was a phenomenal learning experience and I hope I can retain and put into practice what I learned!! I am already looking forward to the Mid-Year Meeting :)

LUOMA Leadership Academy - Days 1 & 2 (July 20 & 21, 2008)

2008-07-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

Back in Chaska for Week 2 of the LUOMA Leadership Academy. This is a wonderful experience learning more about leadership and myself...looking forward to a great week learning about strengths based leadership and hearing everyone's Action Research Projects.

We started working on our Strengths Finder reports today and sharing our individual results. For the record, my top 5 strengths are:
1) Responsibility
2) Learner
3) Deliberative
4) Achiever
5) Harmony

We have heard these 7 action learning project reports already!!!:
1) NE Higher Education Instructional Learning Project
2) Instructional Cost Management Analysis - Phase Two
3) Recruiting Academic Deans at 2-Year Colleges
4) Understanding Underrepresented Student Retention Initiatives
5) Developing a System-Wide Communication Strategy with Minnesota's 11 Tribal Nations
6) Minnesota State Colleges and Universities New Faculty Orientation
7) Evaluation Study of Optimal K-12 Century College Relationship

See the LUOMA site for the Executive Summaries of these projects!

Networking and learning from others is such a huge part of this program. I am so happy to have met so many wonderful people from around the state in this program. It was a pleasure last night to have Dr. Jim Luoma, former MnSCU trustee for whom the program was named after, be present and to thank him for his years of service and his vision.

We started the Dimensions of Leadership Profile today as well. It is interesting to see how some things in there line up with the Strengths identified via the StrengthsFinder. There are definite themes that resurface in all of these tools, including the DISC that we explored last summer.

Off to network on the golf course :-)

Minnesota e-Learning Summit (May 21 & 22, 2008)

2008-05-23T12:34:00.001-05:00

I attended my first Minnesota e-Learning Summit May 21 & 22. Very good sessions to choose from and lots of Minnesota colleagues to connect with there.

I attended a half-day workshop on Wednesday afternoon -- Don't Get Too Comfortable - The Landscape of e-Learning is Changing by Lesley Blicker. This was a good overview of Web 2.0 and covered a number of tools. Many of the tools discussed I had heard about (and many I had experienced via this 23 Things on a Stick project!), but there are always more out there to learn about. Members of the audience contributed their successes/failures with certain tools throughout the workshop. A few things I wasn't familiar with that I would like to do more exploring on are: VoiceThread, RockYou (similar to PictureTrail), terminology AJAX, more work with Google Maps and overlays (re: one for Duane/Rose about oil consumption), Scott Lesley (sp.), EON Reality, and elgg.org. We spent some time talking about Second Life and she showed some cool YouTube videos -- Ohio University, art work in there, and Second Nature (the virtual periodical counterpart to Nature).

On Thursday, the day got off a great start with Keynote Speaker Dr.Michael Wesch: Human Futures for Technology and Education. I have heard so much about this man and watched his cool videos on YouTube, so it was wonderful to hear him speak! He focused on everything "user" -- user-generated, user-content, user-filtering, user-organization, user-distribution, user-commentary, user-ratings. He commented that his video Machine is Us/ing Us is based on his New Guinea experience -- and the pictures he showed from there and the related stories were both entertaining and enthralling. His references to a few authors I've heard of, but haven't read piqued my interest in looking them up again (Marshall McLuhan and Richard Katz). A librarian side-note: he's on the Board of Directors for Britannica.

Open Educational Resources was the first open session I attended. Interesting to see Winona State's EduCommons site and be reminded again to go out and look at other schools' online courses (MIT, JohnsHopkins, Tufts, U of Michigan, Utah State U). Also interesting to hear how they went about getting into ITunesU.

How Moodle Opens Doors to Extend Learning for All Students -- this was a great presentation and hit a real interest area of mine. The things that Eden Prairie High School has done using Moodle is a great boon for their school and will be a real asset for their students as they move into post-secondary education. It reminded me of what I was working to accomplish with my CTL grant a few years ago -- get high schools familiar with online learning before graduating from high school as they are so likely to encounter it after graduation -- whether as part of a post-secondary program or on-the-job training. Their classes are not fully online -- they are all blended with face-to-face classes -- but they are giving them a taste of what online classes are about.

Digital Learning Commons: A Conversation with the Learning Innovations Council -- this was more of an open forum discussion about the proposed work for a Minnesota Digital Learning Commons to include the work being done by many entities in Minnesota. It's being created to serve as a "statewide gateway for K-20 programs" and listed these areas of interest: K-12 Online Learning, College Planning & Readiness Projects, MnSCU Online, K-12 Online, U of M Digital Campus, Statewide Online Learning. Lots of talk about Merlot and the upcoming conference this August in Minneapolis. Discussion NROC and mention of the Developmental Education courses for college transition being created at North Hennepin.

This conference really got me energized for education and all the technology possibilities with it. I love the new ideas and reminders that were generated for me and will look to attend the next Minnesota e-Learning Summit!

OCLS Conference - Day 3

2008-04-25T17:17:00.000-05:00

Today's sessions...

Using WebCT, Wiki Spaces, and e-Portfolios for Teaching and Building Information Literacy Skills -- I found a lot of similarities in what this presenter was talking about to our "in process" CourseLibData pages. She created modules for different classes with specific resources for those classes. She had them in a repository of sorts (something I continue to check with Kayla on to see if D2L's can be turned on, but no luck yet!) and they were imported to classes as appropriate. Her initial focus was the nursing program. This librarian talked about how much success she had because she could back up what she was doing with research -- she said once her subject faculty understood she was following pedagogy, they understood she was more than capable of teaching within their course. RE: e-portfolios -- she said the best part of this tool was after doing library instruction with students, she was able to see some of the successes (or failures as the case may be) to their searching. Students would complete an e-portfolio and invite her has a guest to view it and she could see the sources they used for their project.

Building a Virtual Campus: Librarians as Collaborators in Online Course Development and Learning -- This was a very interesting presentation! The librarian (who is new to the profession and was a conference award recipient) did a wonderful job with her powerpoint by having the perfect amount of info on each screen and adding good supplemental info during her talk, rather than reading from the powerpoint. Plus her topic was pretty interesting, too :) They have been able to be involved in the creation of online courses upfront -- they work as part of a team to design a course (graphic artist, subject matter expert, course designer, librarian). They work from a course blueprint which shows learning outcomes/steps, learning activities, review assessments, and assets. Assets are specific things assigned to the librarian and graphic artist to find or create. For example, she talked about being asked to find supplemental resources for (I think it was) an anatomy class and she found a great video clip on YouTube that was inserted into the online course. She also had "assets" from Flickr, a website, and an article from a database. I would love to see our college implement more of a process for creation of new courses -- and one of the steps would be checking in with a librarian about options to incorporate such as online videos, YouTube clips, article links from databases (this process will hopefully get easier as we move to EZProxy in the next month or so...), and so on. I was pretty excited after this session!

How May We Help You? Online Education Faculty Tell Us What They Need from Libraries and Librarians -- Unfortunately, this wasn't a great one for me to end the conference on. I liked the idea of what they did surveying faculty re: needs, awareness of services, etc., but I think they presented "too soon." They kept saying, 'we're going to have to look into that' or 'we aren't really sure what they mean by that' or 'we need to do more marketing.' But they never really gave us anything concrete they had done based on their survey...maybe it's more clear in their paper.

My MN colleagues also retrieved a handout for me from the Creation, Management, and Assessment of Library Screencasts: The Regis Libraries Animated Tutorials Project that they attended at the first session when I was in the WebCT one. They said it was a great presentation - lots of info and somewhat overwhelming. More fun stuff to explore!

I was thinking this was my 3rd OCLS conference, but it's just my 2nd...it's a wonderful, targeted conference. I hope to attend again in a few years.

OCLS Conference - Day 2

2008-04-24T20:44:00.000-05:00

Today's sessions...

Embedded Librarians: MLS Students as Apprentice Librarians in Online Courses -- Focus on relationship marketing and connecting customers and content. The lead researcher on this project has been at a few different universities and has experimented with this concept in different ways. This presentation was on MLS students being embedded into nursing courses. The MLS students are from Emporia and the Nursing program is at Central MO. A practicing librarian created tutorials for the "apprentice librarians" to use to become more comfortable with MeSH and the medical databases. They posted to a wiki to get feedback/input from all involved -- said it was successful. Was interesting to listen to the MLS student and her experience -- so much to learn and experience: creating a relationship with a nursing instructor at a different college, being embedded into a class they have little or no subject knowledge of, and being able to answer the student's questions. Quite an undertaking for a 1-credit optional class, but a great experience! Interestingly, last night at the Keynote Speaker I was seated next to the student who was presenting today. She seemed quite enthralled with the whole conference experience and she did a wonderful job presenting today!

Embedding General Education Competencies into an Online Information Literacy Course -- Debated about going to this one since it was another "embedded" topic, but the focus was much different. This is really about a stand-alone course taught by the librarians that incorporate 5 out of 6 gen ed competencies (Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, Critical Reading, Writing, Quantitative Reasoning). As they worked their way through their presentation, I recognized much of it was what I had been doing with the high schools I worked with last year on my CTL grant. They had a few different components since they were specifically targeting the gen eds vs. my focus on information literacy, but it was nice to see their model. Primary difference in why they originally created this -- overseas students! I guess that would definitely qualify as a distance student!

Beyond the Library's Walls: Using Library 2.0 Tools to Reach Out to All Users -- I just had to attend this session after spending all the time recently on the Web 2.0/Library 2.0 topics in 23 Things on a Stick! Got me thinking about how we could use wikis internally: keep track of our High School library contacts? tutors to connect on topics they are currently tutoring? Book reviews? Policies and procedures -- we are due to update the Collection Development Policy this May. They talked about blogging, too, which I know we've discussed -- could we use this tool as a way to have our New Titles list out there and then RSS feed that into our Webpage?? How about using NING in working with local high schools? Could this be a forum we create to work with them? Reminded me how much I need to get in and try Audacity. They talked about using del.icio.us with a class to create helpful resources and then adding it as a widget into a d2l course -- assuming there was access as an embedded librarian :)

Using Online Tutorials to Reduce Uncertainty In Information Seeking Behavior -- this was the only "research based" one (rather than more practical ideas) that I attended today. I liked her thought process about if there is high uncertainty, a more structured form of searching is best, whereas if there is low uncertainty, serendipitous searching is probably adequate. She didn't demonstrate any of the tutorials they are using, but did talk about things to think about when creating tutorials such as student skill level, training for librarians to create tutorials, student modem connection, download times, and tutorial design. Putting some tutorials into the Teacher Resources area of D2L would be a good idea..."Library Elements" is what they termed their information, I believe.

Visual Tutorials for Point of Need Instruction in Online Courses -- I generated a list of ideas to create tutorials for using Captivate, Camtasia, etc. -- in areas I hadn't considered before. As the RightNow administrator, I'm thinking there are some basic ones we could also load into AskJay! How cool to have a quick 1-2 minute tutorial about naming conventions and saving files to a drive and how to put it into the dropbox! As we move to EZProxy, a quick tutorial on that might also be a good idea. I'm wondering if we'd be able to embed some tutorials into our Course QuickStart guides as we get those created? Specifically thinking about nursing and how to get to CINAHL, etc.

Until tomorrow...

OCLS Conference - Day 1

2008-04-23T21:39:00.000-05:00

Travel into Salt Lake City went well -- that's always the first hurdle!! Beautiful city with the surrounding mountains! This is my first trip to Salt Lake City, or Utah, for that matter!

Today's sessions...

Mobile Devices and Distance Learning -- I didn't hear the speaker for this one, but I did pick up her handout. There's a term in here I haven't heard before: "m-learning." The increased use of mobile devices brings about the need for libraries to explore reaching students via this method of communication. The paper discusses the challenges along with previous and current practices in higher education. Interesting topic...as with many technological advances, I always try to think about how many of our students would benefit from utilizing this? We sure see a lot of students on their cell phones in the LARCs -- could we be tapping into them via that source as well? Food for thought.

Document Delivery vs. Interlibrary Loan -- this was a discussion group having an open dialogue about how services are provided to distance students. It's interesting to hear how others provide service, if they charge, what tools they use (Iliad, Ariel, etc.). One idea in particular I think we should discuss at our college is the idea of using ILL requests more as a Collection Development tool. Those who are doing this made a good argument that many of the items we buy are for "anticipated use" and may never get checked out, but if an ILL request has been made on an item, purchasing it might make more sense -- at least we'll know it has at least one use then! And maybe the odds are increased that another student will use it, especially if it's for a targeted assignment. I know we do some of this already, but this is more targeted in that they have certain criteria to meet (e.g., less than $100 purchase, not a textbook, not fiction, English language, must be able to get it within a week) and they purchase the book from vendors (they specifically named Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble) that can guarantee arrival in a week or less -- about the same as with an ILL request.

ACRL Distance Learning Section -- this was an open forum discussion about ways to align the DLS strategic plan with ACRL's strategic plan. I think it more turned into an open discussion about ideas and ways we could do more collaboration with each other. This is a difficult discussion to summarize as it was really all over the board with ideas -- many expressed interest in affordable, online continuing education offerings through DLS, developing or utilizing streaming video in online classes (discussion about PRIMO, MERLOT), as well as general discussion about statistic gathering and research topics being pursued by some members.

Keynote Speaker -- Lynn Copeland from Simon Fraser University "Library Services to Distance Learners: Is it Time to Recast the Model?" This was not the best keynote I've heard -- it was perhaps a little too much focused on what we all do. Or maybe we were spoiled a bit last year with a futurist speaker who talked more about tools (e.g., the mobile devices mentioned earlier) and not so much on services most of us are already providing. I'm not sure she ever quite got her point across about how we recast the model -- she expressed concerns about some of the current guidelines, so maybe that's what she was getting at??

Had good conversations with Joan from SCC, Julie from St. Scholastica, and Karen Docherty, who used to be at Minitex, then moved onto CLIC -- she's now down in Arizona at Maricopa Community Colleges. This conference is so small (about 200 attendees this year) that I can recognize faces (and have even come up with a few names before reading name tags!) from 2 years ago in Savannah. :)

MnPALS User Group Meetings - April 17 & 18

2008-04-23T18:17:00.000-05:00

Spring User Groups for the MnPALS Consortium were held at St. Cloud State University on Thursday, April 17, and Friday, April 18.

Thursday -- Attended the General Session and enjoyed the presentation and dialogue about Open Source ILS options. After sharing lunch with other 2-year, out-state community and technical college librarians -- always a good dialogue!! -- I attended the in-person ILL training. Very good information -- some systems work I need to look at in the background and a new interface for the staff to learn! I'm confident they will all pick up on the new look quickly :) Then I attended the Systems Librarians User Group meeting and learned more about the proxy server change over -- very happy to hear the timeframe for the move is sooner rather than later. I believe we are number 7...or is it 9?? on the list to get moved over, so I'm anticipating early in June we will be on EZProxy.

Friday -- Started the morning meeting with one of my LUOMA project members...good to catch up and reflect on that project. The end is near...we hope! Then onto Circulation User Group -- my first time convening, although it was by default as the Convener is out on maternity leave! Overall I think it went well and it was enjoyable to work with the PALS staff in collaborating on the agenda using the Wiki! We identified some good discussion points we can move out to the Forum for further discussion with the consortium. Then onto ILL User Group -- reiterated our situation on not being on the Delivery system and how that can affect direct borrowing requests.

Thing 23 - Final Thoughts

2008-04-12T21:54:00.000-05:00

Although I've completed the 23 Things, I certainly can't say this is the end. I do plan to continue to use my blog and explore other tools that I haven't been using.

I do have some of these already built into my regular work (wiki, RSS, ELM), but I'd like to do more Podcast exploring and get more familiar with the social networking sites. I am also more intrigued by Second Life than before...might take me a while to figure that one out, but I'm glad I'm "in" so I can do that!

I don't have any words of advice for the creators/moderators -- I really enjoyed the whole experience. Thank you for providing the opportunity!!

My one sentence to describe the experience? An unbelievably productive, hands-on learning experience!

Thanks again ~ Pam

Thing 22 - What Did I Learn Today?

2008-04-12T19:10:00.000-05:00

I do think I will keep blogging on my 23 Things on a Stick site. After I got going on the 23 Things and realized how much I was learning, it dawned on me that this is all Professional Development materials I will be able to use at my review. One of the most difficult things I have found when preparing for my review is keeping track of everything I've learned, done, etc., in one place. Viola! Here it is! This will be a great tool to document for that goal. Every time I take part in a Minitex Webinar, training for our ILS, a WebJunction course, or attend a conference, here is where I can post it!

I also hope to work a few of the new tools I've experimented with here either into my personal life (e.g., photosharing with family, ideas for scrapbooking) or into my work - especially in collaborating with online instructors. There are great possibilities there and the more comfortable I feel with the tools, it will be easier to share them with instructors and work with them to incorporate them into their courses.

Thing 21 - Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks

2008-04-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

Well, now I'm really 'with it' since I'm officially a member of multiple social networks! :) How do I feel about that? Is it going to be 'one more thing' to keep up with or am I going to reap benefits I never would have considered?? Time will tell.

I'll proudly display the 23 Things on a Stick Ning Badge:

Visit23 Things on a Stick

Thing 20 - Libraries and Social Networks

2008-04-12T17:06:00.001-05:00

I decided to join Facebook -- primarily because my sister-in-law sent me a request (a long time ago!) to join it so we could scope it out before my niece got in there. I never did quite got all the way into Facebook back then. And now it doesn't look like my SIL is active anymore! Oh well, I'm glad I finally made the plunge.

Hardest part of this for me was finding friends. Sad, I know! I did join a few groups -- 2 "large" groups and one very small group -- will be interesting to see if it's even active.

At this time, I haven't posted to a Discussion Board yet - although I tried! I kept getting an error message, so I will try it again later. It was a discussion about "Is anyone doing 23 things?" :) Okay - I went back into there and got it to post -- it was User Error :)

I see students on this ALL THE TIME in our college libraries/computer labs. I like being able to see what they see :)

Thing 19 - Podcasts

2008-04-12T16:16:00.000-05:00

I listened to a podcast from WIT - We Integrate Technology. The podcast I chose was talking about how much "extra" teachers needed to learn or have endorsement in Online Teaching in order to teach an online course. How much preparation/instruction is needed? This was coming from Michigan -- a state which has implemented a requirement that students to take an online course before graduating from high school.

I had trouble with the first Podcast Directory I was trying to look in (Podcast Alley), so I went to Educational Podcast Directory and found something there. I didn't think the directory was all the useful and there wasn't a search capability (at least it wasn't obvious to me!) so it was scanning through the titles and hoping one caught my eye.

The background noise in the podcast was a little distracting...almost sounded like people going up and down bleachers and the lady in the background who yelled "You're early!" really made me chuckle!

I have been interested in learning more about Podcasting since a student asked about it last year and a good friend of mine is experimenting with it at work. My interest is certainly piqued about how I could incorporate this into my work. Could this help me with the history instructor who wants some online videos into his course?

Thing 18 - YouTube & Other Online Video

2008-04-12T15:51:00.001-05:00

I've watched a number of YouTube videos in the past, but they were things that had been sent to me rather than things I was searching for. The number of videos is overwhelming.

I decided to go for a music video as I am happy to be overwhelmed by Keith Urban :) Seriously this is one of my favorite songs, so I'm thrilled to be able to add it and the video to my blog!

Things 17 - ELM Productivity Tools

2008-04-12T13:15:00.000-05:00

Wow, there was a lot to do in this Thing! All good, useful stuff! Fortunately, I've done most of these before and had accounts set up, etc. I did not end up creating the RSS for the Ebsco Search Alert as I already have 4 search alerts sent to my email each month. I did add one new one of those, though! They are a quick and easy way for me to stay current with those periodicals. I'm much more apt to go out and read one of the articles I run across in the TOC sent to me via email (along with links to the Full-text article) than I am to leaf through a print journal I receeve. It works well for me!

I had never tried the Ebsco Page Composer before, so I did go through those steps. It was slick since I already had an account setup. I'm not sure I see many of my students utilizing these advanced features unless it is part of an assignment. I would love to see something like this incorporated into our Intro to Microcomputers course, but they have so much to cover in there already...maybe an "extra" for advanced students who can work through the bulk of that class quickly?? Or maybe as a way to use some of the stuff they learn in that class in "real life."

Again with the ProQuest database I have used many of the features before - but I hadn't created a webpage first before emailing links to myself. One thing I didn't like was that you could only put in one email address at a time. In the directions it said to email it to yourself and a colleague, but in order to do that you have to recreate the webpage and then email it to someone else. Not a big deal and easy enough to do, but I would have preferred to have been able to put more than one email address in at a time.

netLibrary -- another tool I use regularly. I was just walking a student through some of the described features last week! There are so many cool things to do with e-books, but they haven't caught on in our institution as much as I'd like. We keep working to introduce more students and classes to them, though!

Thing 16 - Student 2.0 Tools

2008-04-11T19:14:00.001-05:00

I've seen a few presentations about Assignment Calculator and Research Project Calculator over the past few years. It's a neat project the UofM has created and disseminated Open Source.

From my perspective, it's really the instructors who need to get on board with the tool first. We need them to encourage student use, just like we need them to encourage students to use library books and databases rather than only the open web.

The time management aspect of this is key. Students need to see how they can plan things out and not have a crunch time at the end before their paper is due. It would be wonderful if students came to higher ed with that understanding :)

Thing 15 - Online Games & Libraries

2008-04-11T19:10:00.000-05:00

I've been hearing about Second Life for a couple of years now, but hadn't made it there yet. Another one of those -- if you haven't tried it, you can't understand it. Of course, I could also say, Well, I've tried it, but I'm not sure I understand it! I do get the concept, but I will take a good amount of time poking around in there to fully see capabilities.

Perhaps a good exploration for the summer?!?!?!

Thing 14 - LibraryThing

2008-04-11T13:57:00.000-05:00

Now this was a user-friendly tool! I can see great potential in this tool by incorporating it into a library website and/or into a class. Easy to create and post!

Nice way to make a recommended reading list for a class and have them post comments about it. This is a tool I would really like to come back to and make an effort to incorporate it into my work!

I added my LibraryThing in a left-side widget.

Thing 13 - Online Productivity Tools

2008-04-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

I chose MyYahoo as I've worked with it before...I didn't find it all that user-friendly the first time, nor did I this time. Some of it might be lack of interest in this for me as well. I will not be making it my permanent home page.

I have also used the YahooCalendar feature before and shared that with a friend as we coordinated get-togethers. It was useful!

I like the tadalist -- I'm a "list maker" by nature, so this one is right up my alley :)

I looked at Backpack, but didn't create an account. Again, I see this as useful tool for group projects...anything with collaboration. However, I've said that about a lot of them as I've worked my way through the Things!

I do find these interesting and can see uses for them. I'll admit I'm more paper and pencil when it comes to this. But I can change - I used to write out all of my checks, too, and now do as much as I can via online banking!

Thing 12 - Do You Digg?

2008-04-07T21:25:00.000-05:00

This is the tool I've been least impressed with so far...I'm sure they are useful, but they were just overwhelming to me! I can see getting lost in them for hours on end. My gut reaction was a lot of biases were being posted and students will just take the info and plop it into a paper without critically thinking about where it came from, who posted it and why.

Until today, I hadn't looked at these types of sites -- I did pop into a story or two that piqued my interest, but was consciously trying not to dive in, for fear I might drown. For me, these would be a productivity detractor!

Thing 11 - Tagging & Del.icio.us

2008-04-07T19:44:00.000-05:00

Another tool I've been introduced to before, but hadn't taken the time to set up an account. I now have my del.icio.us account set up, but will need to get back to work to be able to put my favorites in there! I can definitely take advantage of this tool and have found myself frustrated in the past by not remembering a URL that is on my PC at my office when I am on a different campus! I do believe this is a tool I will be able to use regularly for my personal use.

I can see uses for this in some classes I work with as well. Anything with a group project could benefit from this tool -- each member can log their resources and see what others are using. Plan to pass this one on as well :)

New RSS Feed Added

2008-04-04T12:47:00.000-05:00

Today I ran across a RSS feed in this month's issue of MINITEX/OCLC Mailing so I added it to my Blog! Authority control updates for adding Death Dates to the Personal Name Authority Headings. Maybe this topic isn't too exciting, but it is useful :)

Thing 10 - Wikis

2008-04-01T15:04:00.000-05:00

Those Common Craft video clips are really great -- they get the point across without lots of fanfare or wordiness!

I've been using a wiki for work since last Spring. Our consortium posts User Group (and other) meeting agendas and minutes that way. I was a minute taker this fall, so I had the opportunity to get in there and post the minutes. It was pretty intuitive, although I do remembering not hitting save once and about pulling my hair out when I lost all of my work!! I'm using that wiki again this Spring to post the meeting agenda. This is a collaborative effort between the Acting Convener(me), members in the consortium submitting agenda ideas, and the PALS office. We have edited the agenda a few times back and forth -- with only one phone conversation to clarify a few things. Slick!

I'm going to ask the group I'm Audio Conferencing with on Friday if they'd be interested in using Zoho or a Wiki to edit our final report document...hope they are willing!

I did go in and edit on the 23 Things on a Stick Wiki, although it is much different than others I've seen/used. It's not really organized in a useful fashion - at least as far as I could tell it was basically a scrolling list of comments rather than organized into a few major areas (e.g., some people were asking for marketing ideas, others were giving quotes or pictures, etc. but they weren't grouped together on different pages).

We do have instructors who ban Wikipedia based on it's unreliability/verifiability. Why not find the information in a more reliable place? Just because Wikipedia comes up first in a Google search -- that's the most common answer I hear for why students use it. I think it's a cool tool to learn about new concepts and ideas, but I'm not convinced it's the best source to use in a paper.

Thing 9 - Online Collaboration Tools

2008-04-01T14:39:00.000-05:00

Here's my attempt at ZohoShow:

This is a PowerPoint Presentation I created in 2004 to review the Dewey Decimal System with 5th graders as part of a library instruction unit. It was interactive (although I'm not noticing that functionality here) in that when an answer was selected it would ring a bell if you got it right, etc. I enjoyed putting it together and (I think!!) the students enjoyed playing it. I'd be happy to give sharing rights to anyone who wants to edit.

I can see these collaborative tools being extremely useful in the online teaching environment. I can think of one class in particular that I work with where the instructor has them collaborate on a group project. I'm not 100% sure if they use an online collaborative tool or not, but I will certainly be asking that question now!

Thing 8 - Share Your Creations

2008-04-01T13:25:00.000-05:00

Oh, boy, was this ever fun! I can see this as another advertising tool on the website or library blog :) It was pretty simple to do as well -- once it was part of a routine, it would be a real snap!

I would recommend this tool to others. I did have to poke around a little bit to get my Album into a Flick, but once there, it was simple to create. I like that there are a lot of different options to choose from so you could really mix it up as far as backgrounds, etc.

Thing 7 - Web 2.0 Communication Tools

2008-04-01T11:36:00.001-05:00

This one made me feel pretty 'with it' as I've used all of these W2 tools...and use most of them regularly! :)

Email -- on it all the time. I read the productivity comments. I could do better at managing my email...
IM -- I like the idea of IMing the reference librarian. Our library utilizes at Chat function which is pretty similar - except you don't have to be on the same IM service as your patron. We don't get a ton of chat traffic though...maybe it would be higher on IM. I'd be more than happy to try it as I use it regularly for personal use. We do have an IM function through work, but not everyone knows about (i.e., it isn't really advertised), but there are certain colleagues I use it with regularly.
Text Messaging -- I really got into this about a year ago. It is the handiest thing for me! I like the video with the texting librarian - I could do that as well (if I get a phone through work that pays the bill, that is :) The article about integrating with an ILS is very cool -- I'm all for that, streamline as much as possible. Again, I am regular texter -- every day, most likely multiple times a day with multiple people.
Web Conferencing -- I took a look at the OPAL presentation on flickr + libraries - a March 2007 presentation. Very smooth. I hadn't done one of those before. I do take part in Web Conferencing regularly through MnPALS consortium and have done a number of Minitex ones as well. I've also hosted a Web Conferencing meeting (MnScu uses WebEx) and as a matter of fact, just set up an Audio Conferencing meeting this morning!

Thing 6 -- Online Image Generators

2008-04-01T11:03:00.001-05:00

Alrighty, I see my Creation from ImageChef has appeared! THAT was slick.

This stuff is Cool, Cool, Cool! I can see lots of fun ideas for Scrapbooking :) But back to work ideas...again, I think these are attention grabbers. My ImageChef example could be posted to website as an eye-catching way to let students know our LARCs are closed over Spring Break (well, we might not be able to be quite as cryptic as my message, but you get the idea!).

I'm always a fan of using different fonts and colors when putting up signage/flyers/postings as I think that draws attention. A little more work perhaps, but hopefully worth the impact difference. Same idea with these tools -- they might take a little more work initially, but hopefully benefits would be reaped!

Here's my trading card:

Pam's 23 Things on a Stick

2008-04-01T11:02:00.001-05:00

Thing 5 - More Flickr Fun

2008-04-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

The mashups are fun -- a term I hadn't heard before, although I'm sure I've seen it, but just didn't realize what it was!

I chose the Puzzle maker since I love puzzles...and again selected a picture that looked bright, cheery, and colorful!

This was posted in Flickr by Lilian Nobumitsu Leao on 2/9/08 and is called Grampinhos.

Using these tools would be possibilities through our library website as attention grabbers, promotional materials, etc. We've talked about creating a blog -- this is something we could add to attract attention. Perhaps a new book cover mashed up or a book title displayed using the Spell with Flickr functionality would be eye-catching.

I'm not opposed to sharing photos online, but I do think people need to consider what they are sharing and why. Pictures of family and friends should really only be posted with permission of all parties in the picture, for example (assuming we are talking about public display/access to photos). It certainly is a simple, effective way to share photos across the miles!

Thing 4 - Photosharing with Flickr

2008-03-31T21:33:00.001-05:00

I'd heard a lot about Flickr in the past, but hadn't gone out to view the site myself. I can now see how helpful it could have been for a project my sister-in-law does with family photographs every year!! Goal for 2008?

The SJU/SBU functionality is cool...and useful.

I felt like I did too much surfing out there, but perhaps it was because I didn't have something I really wanted to look for/see. I'm uploading a picture of a butterfly posted by Chrisdeba2004 that he named "Twins" and captioned: In Rose Garden Near Lake Harriet.

Feels like a good Spring picture for a snowy last day of March!

Thing 3 - RSS Account & Feeds

2008-03-31T18:08:00.000-05:00

I have worked with RSS feeds in the past. I've plugged them into a few online courses I've worked with and tried to get some online instructors to plug them in as well...not sure they've actually done it yet, but I'll keep asking :) I used an RSS Feed to Javascript converter to get them to display within our Online Learning tool (D2L). I thought it was pretty cool and was an easy way for instructors to get students to understand the importance of staying current in their field by reading the literature -- and what an easy and up-to-date way to do it. I need to remind a few people about this...

I used Google Reader to set up my 4 RSS feeds and also added one to my main page here. I do like the functionality of the RSS feeds as it brings the information to me. Easier to read it when it's delivered each day rather than having to go out and look for it!

Thing 2 - Library 2.0

2008-03-31T16:52:00.000-05:00

Interesting, interesting, interesting commentaries! I'm low-mid on my personal knowledge of Web 2.0/Library 2.0 -- familiarity with the concepts, but not much into the practice of many of them. Abram's point about only understanding them if you've used them is so true. Until I started Im'ing, I didn't understand how easy it is, how convenient, how addicting, and how much it could become a time-sucker! I'm sure many more of the tools could have the same impact on me...if/when I take the time to explore them. Being online and connected is key for me at home and at work.

I'm looking forward to exploring the different tools and working to define which ones might be suit our patron's needs, time, and skill level. I do think there is a need to infuse some of this into each type of library -- to reach some users that otherwise may be turned off by the "typical library" -- if there is still such a place!

I have to chuckle at the first posed question about how to find the time to engage in this learning activity since I already blogged earlier today that it's taking a snow day to get me back on track! I am a believer in taking/making time for the important things -- some important life things have kept me away from this, but I'm back on track now and look forward to continuing to learn and explore.

My participation is to broaden my own awareness and to see what possibilities there are for the libraries I work in to get moving on. Some of this may be happening in our consortium as we look to pull away from the traditional ILS and move into more open-source options. I'm excited for those possibilities and the opportunities related to L2 that may come along with it.

Blyberg's post about the need for internal reorganizations is sure to scare many...change is hard, especially when you're getting down to people and positions and affecting budgets. Tough stuff. I'm a BIG fan of his comments about the need for more library collaboration -- across types of libraries is where I'd like to see more emphasis, especially K-12 to college libraries, but those are my interest areas as well. Just seems to me that the L2 movement could help us make some of those transitions.

The OCLC article on "Icebergs" struck me with the comments about our reliance on user education...we need to make it easier so as much UE isn't as necessary. Hurts to hear from a librarian interested in the teaching aspect, but I do see the point about working to have more intuitive products and tools so patrons can find what they want and use library resources rather than all internet, i.e., Google searches.

I Love the idea of expanding metadata - the example was linking geographic name heading with longitude and latitude coordinates. Cool stuff!!

Let's see what's next...

Oh, the things to get done a snow day...

2008-03-31T14:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, this has been on my "to do" list for a while, but having a wintery Spring snow day has moved it to the top! :)

Welcome to my Blog

2008-02-13T10:02:00.000-06:00

As part of a wonderful opportunity provided in Minnesota, I am learning more about Library 2.0.