All Shook Up: The Future of Distance Librarianship in Changing Organizations - April 20, 2012

A panel of librarians from Portland State University, Oregon State University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, California University of Pennsylvania, University of Montana, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Montana State University discussed their situations with distance librarianship. They've posted their individual summaries online at http://tinyurl.com/dlspanel Ultimately the discussion lead to the summary that the distinction between roles really depends on the college and library setup as well as librarian personality and levels of comfort. The Distance Librarians definitely serve as the primary advocate for distance library services, but might not be the only provider of those services. The session ended with comments from the audience that supplemented the presentation.  We are all in similar boats!

Using Systematic Design to Create Affective Library Instruction for Distance learning Students: A Model Baserrd on Kuhlthau's Information Serach Process (ISP) - April 20, 2012

Having Kulhthau's name in the title of this presentation caught my eye and brought me back to my days as a K-8 Librarian when I worked to incorporate her process into my library instruction classes.  One of the first questions the presenter (Angela Doucet Rand @ University of South Alabama - Baldwin County) asked was if our goal is to teach students to be librarians? She was being a bit facetious, but sometimes we wonder how much of our area of expertise we expect students to know after a session or two of library instruction.  The thrust of her presentation was focused on cognitive science and how students need to be motivated to learn. She believes we've focused too much on the search process itself and haven't helped students to think about how they learn and feel about their research experience.  She wants to move to a more learner-centric model. While this was a very academic presentation (she's a doctoral candidate) that was more theoretical than practical, it certainly offered librarians the chance to think about what our students may be going through as they encounter the research process.

SpringShare CampusGuides/LibGuides

One aspect of this conference I have always appreciated is that there isn't an emphasis on vendors. This is the first time I recall having vendors on site...and it was presented more as a Technology Showcase than a time to sell a product.  I did stop into the Springshare presentation - this is the company that does LibGuides  and many of the sessions I had attended referred to their use of LibGuides in reaching distance students. The presentation focused more on the CampusGuides portion that ties into LibGuides. I need to learn more about this tool and how it differentiates from LibData that we currently use.
Intelecom was also presenting; we currently have a trial for that video clip set. I did visit with that representative on Friday morning during the Poster presentation time.

Table for One: How Librarians Provide Individualized Services to Distance Students via Web Conferencing - April 19, 2012

Using web conferencing (in our case Adobe Connect) for reference or instruction sessions has been a service I'd like to start offering, so I was interested in hearing how the librarians on this panel approached it.  Librarians from Indiana State University, University of Central Missouri, Norwich University, University of West Georgia, University of Maryland, and Saint Leo University presented how they utilized this at their respective colleges.  While each approach was a bit different based on population needs and staffing availability, one similarity was the need to continually remind students (and faculty) that the service is available; ongoing marketing is needed. (Ultimately this is true for most of our library services.) It got me thinking about how we could set this up at Minnesota West....should it be set hours or by appointment only? Should specific kiosks be established at each campus? How would we advertise on the website? Could we be scheduling times for this via GradesFirst? 

Collegial Librarians; The Faculty-Librarian Partnership in Distance Education - April 19, 2012

The focus of this presentation was on graduate students, a population I don't serve in my current position. One could argue, as the presenters did, that graduate and doctoral students have differing needs than their undergraduate counterparts. These librarians from Benedictine University have a very hands-on, personalized approach to serving their distance learners.  They do many one-on-one consultations with students and offer many ways to be in contact with a librarian after the consultation; almost as a personal research assistant. This model doesn't match my situation, but their point that we need to stop being passive and actively be an involved service point works in all distance library scenarios.