Monday, November 14, 2011

NC3ADL Conference

I attended and presented at the NC3ADL conference in early November - that is NC Community College Distance Learning Conference - with the theme Emerging Collaboration, Compliance and Clouds:Professional Development for Emerging Initiatives. It's great to attend non-library focused conferences, especially related to distance learning for me, and hear from academic faculty and instructional designers are saying about online and distance learning.

Documenting Student Learning Outcomes in your LMS
by Amy Brown, GTCC

Due to SACs, they created a tool that works with their LMS as a way to document student performance on their student learning outcomes.

Created their own tool in 4 area, lives outside Moodle but linked so no separate login for users.
  1. Create teacher tool which links assessments to SLOs. Includes tutorials for teachers on how to. Rubric allows easily see slo, activity link, green/red/yellow to indicate if they are on track, and min for passing (60 but will be raising to 70) all w a code
  2. Create student view, clear transparent way to let them know how they are doing. Video to educate them on what SLOs are. 4 colors including grey (haven't done anything yet)
  3. Teacher view of student view - see how students see it. See a list of students with colors next to each of them for each SLO listed.
  4. Administrative view - reports, submit new SLOs, etc

Session- NCLOR 5.0
by Jonathan
Sweetin, NCLOR System Admin
http://Explorrethelore.org
  • NC learning object repository k- 20
  • Access via LMS or main interface
  • Search and add items via BB or Moodle courses
  • Contribute your learning objects (w login) via main interface
Collections include:
  • Duke u geriatric nursing collection
  • Health info technology workforce training collection
  • NC alliance of surgical tech educators collections
  • Nobelprize.org
  • Bionetwork
  • Smithsonian educator
  • History animated
  • I3d
  • Nroc national repository of online classes for grades 6-12
  • Open courses from Harvard, Yale and MiT
  • Vscoupe explored

Exemplary Courses in Blackboard
by Karen
Lynden, Business Instructor, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College
Won 2011 BB Exemplary Course Award for her BUS253 Leadership Course

Check out her course and web tour of other exemplary courses :
http://kb.blackboard.com/display/EXEMPLARY/Exemplary+Course+Program

Best practices-
  • Call a menu button "Start Here" - to guide students at the start of the course.
  • Make sure its ADA accessible - Images must have tags & transcripts for videos
  • Highlight your Class Expectations - create a matrix that easily shows what is required and worth on syllabus; include rubric w disc board posts laid out w 3 levels (not points), included your discussion board expectations written out for students.
  • Have all assignment due exactly same date and time to be consistent
  • Add mulitmedia - TED talks, other videos such as from explorethelor site!
  • Open w a podcast montage of clips to welcome them as an overview of class OR video of instructor welcoming them and giving an overview of course topic.
  • Create your course into Learning Units instead of folders, w/ the unit's SLOs and then divide into 2-3 subfolders in each, w/ disc board in each, videos embedded, interviews by various experts.

NCLIVE articles and beyond for distance learners
by online services librarian Heather Klein
  • About - 198 members, all colleges, funded through legislature and from each college, access to everyone in the state either through university I'd password or through public library card
  • In January doubling full text content to 8000 journal moving to ebsco complete
  • Database & articles links are permanent links
  • Videos - You can put a bookmark in a video and then students can watch just at that part. also will stream video through nclive if you rights to video for you.
  • Audio books will be Recorded Books coming soon! Will work w every platform from android to iPad.
  • Some specifically good resources to share:
  • Learning Express db for video tutorials like on Photoshop or Excel.
  • Skill drills - like bio, chem, finance, public speaking, math, etc
  • Career workplace improvement help like resume writing, goal setting,
  • Job and career accelerator db

NBC Learn - VIDEO
http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn
by Bruce Wilson (bruce.wilson@nbcuni.com) - he
use to be publisher at chronicle of higher ed
  • Now in 3000 middle and high schools
  • only in 75 higher Ed institutions , mainly Community Colleges
  • Why? No brand recognition, but superior to anything else you have seen
  • Lives in blackboard
  • Content to engage and simulate discussion in online classroom
  • NO buffering, quick and easy to play videos
  • Cuecard- flip the item over (virtually) and have detailed metadata about the item
  • Includes transcripts and closed captioning
  • totally Ada compliant by start 2012
  • Subscription total student fte about $1 a student

whats included?
Clips of past news and events and current events each week. Basically areas of content:
  • Archives
  • Current events
  • Decision 2012
  • Partner content (pre date tv content, etc)
  • Their original content (interviews, etc)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Beth's NCLA 2011 Summary


I attended my first NCLA conference in Hickory, NC in early October and enjoyed networking with some awesome librarians from around the state - meeting folks I only knew only virtually, connecting with amazing distance learning librarians at our new NCLA Distance Learning Interest Group meetup (which I co-chair w/ Angela Whitehurst from ECU) and meeting newbie librarians that NC is lucky to have!

I was thrilled to teach a half day pre-conference session with Lauren Pressley (WFU) and Amy Archambault (UNCG LIS grad student) called Everybody Teaches: Creating effective online e-learning experiences, check out our wiki for details. It was an engaged crowed of over 30 folks from all different types of libraries around NC and we shared a lot together in the 3 hours (which easily could have been all day!)

I also gave a fun presentation with Mendy Ozan (UNCG MLIS grad '11) demonstrating various tech tools from our libraries' Instructional Technology Toolkit which she helped me initially research to create. The internet went down (of course!) right at the start of our session. Though we had screen shots of the tools, the point of the session was demonstrating how they work so easily so we were thrilled that a gracious attendee (DE librarian at WSSU - Melinda Livas you rock!) offered her hot spot for us to use so we were able to demonstrate tools such as Urtak, RTM, Tungle.me, to name a few (don't know these tools? check them out in the toolkit!) I also did a poster session on the Toolkit - posters a great way to get feedback while chatting with people about your project.

I attended a few interesting sessions too. One from Wake County Public Libraries on The Art of Capturing Ideas: Internal Crowd-sourcing. They developed a website (using ideascale) calling it 'wcpl ideas: share - vote -change' where staff could post an idea, others can vote on it and/or comment, and if its get 20 votes in 30 dates then it goes into "review" either will be process and happen or be closed but with an explanation of why on the website. Helps staff feel they have a voice and place to suggest ideas, all staff can participate by voting, and it helps with transparency of why we "do or don't" from administrations to staff. They had 22 ideas implemented in the first year and 76% of staff participated. Check out their presentation.

Another session I enjoyed most of was from the Center Creative for Leadership on Your Leadership Brand - What Image Do You Present to Others? the interaction was nice, lots of discussions, as she had us all pick these cool visual cards that we thought represented our leadership style; in small groups we discussed what others thought when they saw it to realize various perspectives looking at the same thing. We were to connect that image to what we do now for work and then come up with 3 words to be a brand tagline. We discussed our brand presence which is not really what you look like as much as how you act in various situations & with various people, and how you show yourself on your resume/cv, in interviews and on social media sites - both when looking for job and on the job. The conversation went on the job seeking tangent for a while (since so many students looking for jobs were in the room!) but it was worthwhile conversations and thoughts. One thing I learned was you should add your accomplishments to your resume not just a job description. Check out her presentation.

More NCLA presentations are available now on slideshare.net/ncla2011

Summary of MAC-MLA 2011 - Medical Librarians Cut Loose in Richmond, VA!

Kidding!

Though I did hear a couple of librarians planning a night geocaching expedition. And yours truly engaged in a bit of sedate party-hardying - evening dine around at Sine, brief walk downtown to smooth out the adrenaline before presenting, and food spotting at a friendly cafe with a great salmon sandwich.

MAC-MLA 2011 officially ran from Sunday evening 10/9 to Wednesday afternoon 10/12, but I did it on the cheap. Drove up early on Tuesday so that I could attend the first full day of the conference then present the next morning before driving home.

Here are a few of the presentations and posters that caught my eye. No slur intended to all of the other cool projects highlighted at the conference!

NLM (National Library of Medicine) Update - Always one of my faves!!

Referencepoint blog for librarians - great entries, very useful
NLM Technical Bulletin - specialized, not sure whether all of the non-health sci library folks around here would be into it, but nice for me to keep in mind :)
NLM APIs - some of these look very cool. from what I can tell :P
PubMed Health - Resources for clinical effectiveness based on sources such as AHRQ and Cochrane. Systematic reviews and clinical guidelines, with consumer summaries and clinical summaries. Sounds great but didn't do well on three clinical questions that I worked on recently (then again, they were stumpers that each sucked down several hours-hard to say "time to stop" when you know patient care will be affected by the info that you find). Definitely worth keeping an eye on.
MedPrint - NN/LM and NLM print serials preservation program
Kids Enviro Health - "Connecting middle school students to environmental health information" (interesting potential for TED 495-01, instructional methods for middle grade sciences)
Health Data Tools and Statistics - has been updated. and thank goodness this awesome group has shorted their name to PH Partners. FYI, this link came from the blog not directly from the NLM Update. So double cheers for the blog :)





Contributed paper documenting a year and a half long project.

Seems to have been very labor intensive, but the starting familiarity was low (14/44 never had a mobile device at work) and there was a good range of introductory topics:
· Mobile computing 101
· Twitter
· Dropbox and file sharing
· Cloud computer and Google
· Social bookmarks
· Spatial literacy and mapping
· Crowd-sourcing
· Etc.

Nice approach–
1. Pre-survey to measure employee interest and experience
· Interdepartmental team (ETT) responded to supervisor requests for mapping mobile competencies to employee goals/work plans
2. ETT provided
· Orientation
· brown bags on mobile technology apps and marketplace
· monthly mobile “show and tells” (device specific)
· set up device-specific user groups
· RA TECH challenge - 4 month training program for paraprofessional staff based on 23 things and mapped to employee work plans
3. Evaluation
· Difficult to develop outcome measures
· Survey responses required in order to keep the mobile device assigned to each participant

Abstracts for some of the poster projects that caught my eye (sorry so long and messy, from this point it's mostly copy/paste)...

Capitalizing on Our Strengths to Improve the Public’s Understanding of Health Information through the Radio
– A team of health science librarians support YOUR HEALTH radio show and blog (hosted by UNC Family Medicine department). Librarians help develop and populate a companion blog with authoritative health info. Nice!! http://yourhealthradio.org/









Lara Handler, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
Barbara Rochen Renner, Health Sciences Library, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Christie Silbajoris, Health Sciences Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jean Blackwell, Health Sciences
Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Karen Crowell, Health
Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Robert Ladd,
Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Purpose: Health Sciences librarians work with producers of a weekly
health-oriented radio show to improve consumer health information on the show’s
website/blog. Previously, librarians helped develop the show’s interactive
website/blog and worked with the show’s hosts and producer to improve website
usability.
Setting/Participants/Resources: Health Sciences librarians at a
major Southeastern university partner with producers of an interactive
website/blog and local radio show hosted by clinicians in the university’s
Family Medicine Department.
Methodology: Supplementing weekly show topics,
librarians provide consumer health links to reputable websites, supplying
additional information and health education to readers of the radio show’s
website/blog. Librarians also provide hosts with resources about communicating
health information at a literacy level appropriate for the public. Challenges
included communication about topics, division of labor, determining show
segments to support, and appropriate number of links per topic.
Results/Outcome: The library is listed as a sponsor on the show’s website
and is acknowledged on-air weekly, during the main interview segment. Hosts
mention librarian assistance when directing listeners to the website for more
information. Website statistics reveal that the library sponsorship link on the
website/blog sidebar is among the most frequently visited links from the show’s
site. It is hoped the partnership will increase radio show listeners’ access to
quality health information on the Internet, along with positive interactions
with the blog. Feedback from the show’s producer and hosts has been favorable
and the partnership continues. The show is in the process of syndicating and
expanding across the state.
Discussion/Conclusion: This is a unique
partnership allowing a health sciences library to collaborate with a radio show
to reach the public. The librarians have made valuable contributions in areas
including social media, design, knowledge and provision of consumer health
resources, and health information literacy.





Capitalize on Collaboration: Development of a Health Curriculum for Adult Education Students - Very cool grant-based community education project










Kelly Near, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library, University of Virginia Health
System
Leslie A. Furlong, Adult Learning Center of Charlottesville, Virginia
Cindy Westley, University of Virginia Health System
Objective: An
eight-unit multi-level health curriculum was developed for the Adult Learning
Center of Charlottesville, Virginia, in the spring of 2010 with funding from an
EL Civics Grant from the State of Virginia. It is a curriculum intended for
English as a Second Language (ESL) and General Educational Development (GED)
Students. Goals of the curriculum are:
1. To help students better navigate
the US health care system.
2. To help students understand their rights and
responsibilities within the US health care system.
3. To enable students to
become advocates for their own health and promoters of healthy living.
4. To
promote mutual information sharing among health care providers and adult
students.
Methods: The outreach librarian collaborated with center educators
to develop the health curriculum which was taught during the spring 2010 and
2011 semesters. A field trip to a hospital was included as part of an
educational unit. During the field trip, students were shadowed by volunteers
who accompanied them on a “scavenger hunt” where students were asked to find
various destinations within the hospital. The field trip was designed to help
students learn to navigate within the facility and to inform healthcare
administrators about potential barriers to access.
Results: Teachers and
students were enthusiastic about the health curriculum and it will become a
permanent part of the center’s offerings. Students provided significant feedback
to library and hospital personnel about their experience navigating through the
hospital and an online database of information collected during the field trips
was developed and will be maintained by the library. This information will be
shared with administrative personnel to help enhance future signage development
and communication efforts for hospital patients and families.
Conclusions:
Collaborations with adult educators to develop a health curriculum can be part
of effective community outreach activities for librarians and hospital
personnel.







Strengthening e-Professionalism: Discussing Social Media Dos and Don’ts with Students and Faculty – Interesting topic for library instruction, nice approach, seems to have been well received.










Gisela Butera, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, the George Washington
University Medical Center
Tom Harrod, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library,
the George Washington University Medical Center
Alexandra W. Gomes,
Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, the George Washington University Medical
Center
Anne Linton, Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library, the George
Washington University Medical Center

Objectives: To describe our
instructional initiatives in e-professionalism designed to encourage appropriate
use of social media among students within the George Washington University
Medical Center (GWUMC).
Methods: In Fall 2010, Himmelfarb Library created a
library drop-in workshop on Delving into Digital Dirt: Social Networking for
Individuals in Health Care, discussing social media best practices and how to
avoid posting content that could be detrimental to a health professional’s
career. The workshop included an interactive session reviewing examples of
blogs, twitter and Facebook sites using audience response system (clicker)
questions to evaluate content posted by medical professionals. It concluded with
recommendations on specific actions health care professionals can take to
improve their online social networking presence.
Results: The workshop
generated a lot of interest from students and faculty. Based on this feedback,
we developed a sample lesson plan for a more interactive session that included a
panel of experts. Faculty in the School of Medicine, Physician Assistant, and
School of Nursing programs expressed interest in working with the library to
integrate this material within their formal orientation or curricular plans. In
May 2011, the library conducted a session on e-professionalism for the Physician
Assistant Program and invited a GW faculty guest speaker who has written on the
topic to lead the discussion. We created an e-Professionalism: Social Media
LibGuide and included a reflection exercise to gather feedback on lessons
learned. Future plans include adapting this session for other GWUMC programs.
This poster will describe the evolution of the instruction from library workshop
to integrated curricular material, including details on the e-professionalism
content, lessons learned, and future plans.

Hosting a Library Resource Fair: Lessons Learned – Interesting outreach event in which vendors were invited to market and educate patrons about their tools. Important lessons that I recall from convo – start planning many months in advance, make sure to provide Internet access and power, and offer food to help attendance.











Tracie Frederick, Scientific Library, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, MD
Robin Meckley, Scientific Library, National Cancer Institute at Frederick,
MD
Objective: The intent of this event was to promote electronic resources
provided by the National Cancer Institute-Frederick’s Scientific Library, as
well as some freely available resources.
Methods: On March 8, 2011, the
Scientific Library hosted a five-hour Library Resource Fair, which featured
eleven vendors. Each resource representative was provided with a table to
distribute materials about their products and to answer questions from
attendees. Vendors were also given the opportunity to present a twenty minute
overview of their resources in a separate meeting room. As this was the first
time this type of event was offered by the Library, surveys were conducted of
attendees and the vendors involved to obtain feedback to enhance future events
like this.
Results and Conclusion: Overall, attendees and vendors were both
satisfied with the event; however, vendors would have liked to see more people
in attendance. Logistical and marketing lessons were learned by Library staff
that will help with planning future events. These lessons will be shared within
our poster.





Capturing and Sharing What Users Love About Their Library to Capitalize on Our Strengths – “Appreciative Inquiry” sounds interesting. Marketing, assessment, celebration, and more. Apparently this blog celebrating the Health Sciences Library is unmoderated. They haven’t had to deal with any rants or demands for $10,000 subscriptions, but it sounds like getting content has taken a lot of work. http://ilovemyhsl.org/






Barbara Rochen Renner, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill
Matt Marvin, Health Sciences Library, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill
Robert Ladd, Health Sciences Library, University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jake Wiltshire, Health Sciences Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Program Objective: To
discover and share elements of the library that users value as important to
their success, via blog and an Appreciative Inquiry approach. With storytelling
recognized as one of the best ways for an organization to illustrate its value,
the objective was to create an ongoing vehicle for users to submit and share
stories of appreciation.
Setting: Health Sciences Library of a major
Southeastern university
Participants: librarians, library staff, and library
users
Program: Project creators developed and promoted a blog, integrated
into the library’s web presence, to capture and share stories of appreciation
and success in users’ own words. We called it, “I Love My HSL,” creating a fun,
social media environment to encourage user participation and launched on
Valentine’s Day.
Main Results: After 3 months, this approach has already
gathered more significant examples of what users value and appreciate than other
methods previously used. Library liaisons and others use submissions to assess
the value of their roles and of specific resources and services. Stories
gathered are part of an integrated marketing/communication effort. As the
library engages in high-level conversations/negotiations at the institutional
level, information gathered will be used to support the library’s value.
A
major challenge is building on the momentum, encouraging users to submit stories
at a rate that keeps the blog alive. We are focusing on creating more in-depth
stories, following up on submissions using multimedia, including audio and
video. Work has begun to analyze blog statistics and to work toward integration
with the library’s other social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
Conclusion: Blog submissions and analytics have provided the library with
rich data already used in a variety of ways. Analytics and anecdotal evidence
have convinced library leadership that the blog is a success, and we plan to
continue to analyze, grow and enhance the blog.

Monday, August 8, 2011

FREE online consumer health information workshops

Hi all,

The NN/LM office for N.C. and other Southeast/Atlantic Region States is offering FREE online workshops on consumer health information for library staff.

I just finished their "Snakeoil" workshop (evaluating consumer health info). It was informative, well designed, and VERY convenient. Over the course of a month, I had the opportunity to log into Moodle at any time to read NN/LM advice on evaluating sites, post my own evaluations, and discuss concerns with other library staffers. The students were a mix of medical librarians and staff from public and special libraries - a varied and interesting group! There was one synchronous/interactive discussion at the end of the course. The course came with 3 hours of continuing education credit, but many students spent more than 3 hours on the work.

If you're interested in free online consumer health information workshops from the NN/LM SeA staff, check out this page - http://nnlm.gov/sea/training/chis

Best,
Lea

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Webinar: 10 Tips for Improving Co-Worker Relations

We all struggle at times with various people and personalities at work. This free webinar by Pat Wagner and Tim Sullard provides some simple concepts (though often difficult behaviors & attitudes for us to change!) that we can all use and apply in work and at home. Pat gives some great anecdotes and stories that make these top 10 ideas very clear and reachable. The session is recorded if you want to listen to the whole thing and the slides are avaialble on http://lifelongeducation.posterous.com/

My summary:


1. Describe behavior. You can't read someone's mind so describe what they do rather than state "this person was rude to me." This can lead to realization that the behavior wasn't directed at you - and not to take it personally and REACT. good to talk over a situation with your boss or buddy can help you see it was a different perspective. Don't start the drama. If others come to you with drama/gossip, just step back and don't add your energy to it.

2. Choose how to respond. Especially on days you know you are off, tired, frustrated - take it slow and take the time to think about how to respond to things. For ongoing situations, take time to plan how you might respond, rather than jump in at the moment. And w/ co-workers -you will have to see them again, probably the next day. So what is the outcome you hope for short term and long term?

3. The world is a mirror. If you find all day long that people are grouchy or negative, the only commonality is YOU so maybe you need to change. You get back what you give out. How are people seeing you and responding? Take notice.

4. Details works. Look on your face, tone of your voice, your words, etc. These details are key to good relations.

5. The standard for behavior. Think about how you react to people you like and people you don't like. Then try to standardize your behavior for all people. Get rid of your JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL learned behaviors and attitudes. You get farther being more calm and positive then showing attitudes with people you dislike.

6. The key is "despite." Despite whatever is happening at your job that is unhappy or unfair you have 3 choices: Leave - which can be good, its good to go to a new place and get unstuck in your current job; Stay and learn to ignore whats happening; or Stay and go through the proper channels to fix the situation. But so NOT stay and sabotage the situation for others or you will turn in to a toxic person too and cause more negativity in the workplace.

7. Do something differently. We all fall into patterns. These patterns are not always good and sometimes we need to change. Get outside your comfort zone. Try a new approach. Respond differently.

8. Not perfect is okay. Sometimes being a perfectionist hinders working with others. You might need to try something new, different, uncomfortable, even if you don't feel like you are ready or perfect yet. You have to try it and risk to learn.

9. Basics work. Basic decency at work is key. These aren't your friends ,they are you co-workers. Saying no and thank you. Acting beyond the way your normally act. Be more formal, but not in an uptight way, but they way your would welcoming someone in your home for the first time.

10. Buddies are necessary. Find a buddy who can support you and critique you and tell you about your own behavior. Not someone who will just agree that "so-and-so is annoying" but someone who will point out how you are acting and tell you how you can change. We are all too close to our own stuff regardless of how old, how educated or how intelligent you are. Also, going to a professional to talk can be important (you go to a professional when you need your teeth cleaner or appendix out right?)

Find more session like this one at http://leadonline.info/


Friday, May 13, 2011

May NC-LITe Meeting Summary

NC-LITe (NC library instructional tech group) met on May 3 at NCSU to give campus updates and share ideas on the theme of assessment. Notes from the session are available if you want to check out the discussion or find out more about the group. Also a good summary of the event is on Wake Forest Library's professional development blog. We meet up twice a year and the next one will be in December at Wake Forest library. Anyone interested is welcome to attend!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

computer issues

We'll be closed this weekend, so I don't expect a major impact, but FYI. If I get more specific info on how this will affect the libraries, I'll do an update, Mary

Starting Friday May 13th at 6:30 PM, UNCG Information Technology will take down most ITS campus services to perform upgrades on the back-end network storage system (see the list of included servers and departments at https://its.uncg.edu/News/2011/May/Service_Outage/Departments.pdf). These upgrades have been recommended by Dell to improve system performance. Services should be restored by 6 AM on May 14th.

Most campus services will be unavailable during this work. These services include: Novell application delivery, file, printing and authentication services; AD/GCN authentication, file, printing, application delivery services (including remote access via sslvpn.uncg.edu); Lotus Email Archives, SQL Services, Web services (including web.uncg.eduand www.uncg.edu), 6TECH Online, and various campus hosted applications. These campus applications include NOLIJWEB, Lectra, Compulink, Admissions Pro, Emergency Management AM Radio, Class Climate, FAMIS, and Medicat.

These servers and departments will be included in this downtime: https://its.uncg.edu/News/2011/May/Service_Outage/Departments.pdf

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Free Webinar: Ten Tips for Improving Co-Worker Relations

Info/Register

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 2:00 PM -3:00 PM EDT
Free Webinar: Ten Tips for Improving Co-Worker Relations with Pat Wagner


Sometimes the hardest people to deal with are your co-workers, the people with whom you might spend more time than your own family. Unfortunately, familiarity does not always result in good relationships. Misunderstandings can take on lives of their own. Is it possible to repair old conflicts and regain trust and respect? Most of the power lies in the details of your behavior, regardless of who "started" it.

Learn what you can do to change the dynamics of workplace relations with time-tested tactics borrowed from behavioral and cognitive psychology. If you are trying to improve the culture of your workplace, want to get along with co-workers better, want to improve your supervisory methods, or need ideas for a staff meeting discussion on internal customer service, you might find some useful reminders. [Warning: Although this program is about workplace conflict, you might find the same techniques work with family, friends, and neighbors!]

Pat Wagner is a management consultant with over 30 years' experience dealing with workplace conflict issues. She is known for her good-humored and practical programs. She is also the author of "Improving Workplace Relations", a self-paced online course from the University of North Texas Lifelong Education @ Desktop (LE@D

Thursday, April 7, 2011

ACRL 2011 Summary

Finally getting around to posting my notes from the great ACRL 2011 Confernce in Philadelphia in late March/early April. I was excited to present twice at ACRL this year - Fostering Library as Place for Distance Students: Best Practices from Two Universities by Beth Filar Williams & Heidi Steiner. (Presentation ppt | Summary of session) and Going the Distance: A Closer Look at Uniting with Remote Users by Beth Filar Williams, & Lizah Ismail of Marywood University Library & Angela Whitehurst of East Carolina University(Presentationppt). There was a virtual conference track as well where two of our awesome librarians presented On the Front Lines: New Opportunities for Embedded Librarianship by Jenny Dale & Lynda Kellam - but unfortunately going first, ACRL didn't have their act together for the recording and thus you cant hear their session! View other sessions materials. Here are the key sessions I attended worth sharing:


Value of academic libraries session

Presentation on The Value of Academic Libraries: A Comprehensive Research Review and Report, released in September 2010. By Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, University of Illinois
Mary Ellen Davis, Association of College and Research Libraries
Megan Oakleaf, Syracuse University Meganoakleaf.info

If you cant read it all, just read these sections:
  • Checklist in back of report
  • Pages 94-10
  • Page 20-57
Demo-ing Value:
  • Value= use, commodity, competing alternatives, library impact, roi.
  • How can we demo our value to others? Key - value of library to overarching institution. With tight budgets everywhere now, need to promote value even more impt otherwise, "why should we give you money?"
  • Use is not enough! We need to show outcomes,impacts, benefits, etc.
  • Think about the shift from collections to service. Access is important too, but more so how to help the users makes sense of it and use it better. What do libraries do to enable people to do? What do they use the info for?
  • Little medical packets at a hotel that say things like: "help, I have a headache" or "help, I have a blister" ...can we apply this to libraries?
  • Librarians are very concerned about privacy (which is great but …) and have trouble gathering needed data sometimes. But we have to know who is using our services/resources and for what purpose - if you don’t know what people do or use how can you determine impact? Find ways to gather info.
Recommendations-
  • Define outcomes. What are your needs of institution and of library and where do they intersect? All librarians feel they contribute to students learning and outcomes but Can you explain why?
  • Use existing data. Data audit - what do we have? Gather from campus.
  • Develop systems to collect data on behavior but keep privacy.
  • Assessment management systems. Do libraries have this in place? Ex: Weave
  • Determine how the library contributes to the research agenda on campus.
  • Key- share results and needs w/ stakeholders!
  • What if you find out it's not valuable? Don’t just dump it... Determine why it's not, tweak it, maybe replace it, rejuvenate it, usability test it, or is it a marketing problem?
Also Read this report too “Futures thinking for Academic Librarians: Higher Education in 2025” and check out the Toolkit on using the value of academic libs report


To the Cloud! Exploring Tools to Enhance Teaching and Learning
Diane Schrecker, Curriculum Librarian, Ashland University Library
Sara Klink, Assistant Director, Stark State College
  • Animoto - to create videos, use free video styles, preloaded your pictures, add text, add music.
  • QR code generator
  • Voki.com - Create personalized talking avatars free. Can upload your own backgrounds. Type text and it's generates voice or record your own voice.
  • Twitter uses - Use in place of discussion, assess/learn key concepts or questions, use w students to follow current events


Bibliobouts session
http://bibliobouts.si.umich.edu/ (demo version: demo@bibliobouts.org and password demo)
Karen Markey, Professor, University of Michigan School of Information
Chris Leeder, School of Information University of Michigan

A web-based game that enables game players to gain valuable practice using online library
research tools and library collections while they work on their assignments. Uses zotero. Various rounds by various players. topics chosen by the instructor. First do searches on your own...then see others searches. People donate their searches and players review, rate, tags the given sources.Used in classes or in a class w instructor involved. Librarians can come into the class too.



Connecting through Course Guides Session
By Jacqui Grallo, Cal State Monterey Bay
  • Learner centered teaching
  • Teach less, they will learn more
  • Instruction vs learning
  • Use Course Guides during person sessions.
  • Instead of doing it on a whiteboard, use their course guide, and students comment in there, they can see it immediately, and you can review it later.
  • Use polls through their course guides too they see immediate feedback and poll results
  • Check out: http://todaysmeet.com/ for open source idea instead

Building Relationships through Embedded Librarianship session
By three librarians from McMaster University

Poll: Which works best for which - Building campus relationships and improving student learning? (conclusion: they all do, various methods combined to reach various students!)
  • Embedding into a program- librarian co-creating and co-teaching the curriculum, deeper the embedding the greater the improvement in learning. Participate in organizational actives for both program and library. located in the program facilities, but also they have space in the lib. Discipline specific example: Science literacy - co-teach w science prof 2 hours a week. Students blog formal science writing, others comment. Pros: deep embedding but doesn't have to be full-time. Con: not a large reach.
  • Embedding virtually - embed in your LMS using quizzes, discussion forums, pathfinders, learning objects, chat. Course by course level rather than larger community. Pros: reach multiple learning styles, asynchronous reviews, point of need help, anonymity. Cons: not accessible to all (some of their course arent in BB); not as deeply connected w/ students.
  • Embedding into Teaching and Learning Support Center - salary paid by the t&l center! Librarian created a digital media literacy course. Outcome based learning. Curricula level mapping of program level learning outcomes. Teaching Metaliteracy - 21st c skills/fluencies. Con: will you T&L pay for a librarian to be w/ them?

The Unconference (10 min sessions)
Kim Leeder, Boise State U - connecting w teaching faculty
  • Be confident. Be bold
  • Make the Connection. Get out there. Ask them about themselves
  • Reinforce the Connection. Follow up w people. Be multidimensional
  • Build the relationship
  • Go Collaborate
  • Be - make - reinforce - build - go
Read more about this session on her recent Blog Post :Collaborating W/ faculty: A 5-Step Program


Also view the recording or view the slides from the Technology in University Libraries Lightening Round Up session on ACRL conference.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

A scholar from Spain finds the UNCG Ayn Rand Collections useful

By Sha Li Zhang, April 26, 2010

I met Dr. José Rodolfo Hernández Carrión in late March 2010 at a chili party at the Casa Chu hosted by Dr. Clara Chu, Professor and Chair of the LIS Department at UNCG. As a librarian, I naturally asked Dr. Hernández what he thought about the UNCG Libraries’ collections in helping his research needs at UNCG. Without hesitation, Dr. Hernández told me that he was very happy with the Ayn Rand Collections at the Libraries. It was one of reasons for him to visit UNCG in 2010.

Dr. Hernández is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Valencia in Spain. As a visiting scholar, he came to UNCG on a three-month research journey in spring 2010. According to the announcement from the LIS Department which hosts the scholar at UNCG, Dr. Hernández conducts research on Economics Education for Change: Internet 2.0 and New Pedagogies in Teaching Economics. He studies social media, information and communication technologies (ICTs), and learns management systems and new pedagogies, with the purpose of acquiring excellence in new strategies to more effectively teach and enhance economics’ curriculum in the Schools of Law and Economics at his home university.

Since 2007, the UNCG Libraries established the Ayn Rand Collections located on the second floor of the main building at Jackson Library. The collections were purchased through a BB&T fund donated to the Libraries. Dr. Hernández commented, “I found the area, where the collections were placed, very familiar and enjoyable. In fact I am using some books for my teaching right now in Valencia and I think that your library very well provided the materials for Critical Thinking Literacy in the Economic field.”

Dr. Hernández spent a lot of time at the Jackson Library. As a matter of fact, he has a small study on the seventh floor in the Tower. Dr. Hernández notes that “about my favorite place in the library is the seventh floor where you can find similar books for Critical Thinking in Economics. I think that the titles are very good. I didn't check missing things so I am finding items here, what there is, more than looking for specific titles here.”

With more and more scholarly publications on digital formats and on open access modes, Dr. Hernández also expects the library materials related his fields are available online. During his visit at UNCG, when Dr. Hernández started checking out more print books, he sent questions to me and asked why the Libraries do not provide pdf files or digital format for this kind of material. He assumed that these materials “should be free access right now and perhaps it could be attractive and at low cost to digitalize the old ones.” From the aspect of preservation, Dr. Hernandez notes that “we have to contribute to preserve these old books that are getting valuable by themselves as rare and ancient.” I explained to Dr. Hernandez that we have increased acquisitions funds in purchasing materials in digital formats, especially for electronic databases, datasets, and electronic journals. For monographic publications, we also increased spending on electronic books in past two years. While some of the digital monographs (published prior to 1923) are freely available on internet via Google and other vendors’ mass digitization projects, access to electronic monographs published after 1923 still need to be purchased (vs. freely available via internet) by the Libraries. According to the current copyright laws, we may follow the same pattern for some years to come. This may be different from European countries. Nonetheless, we made several rush orders on the requests from Dr. Hernandez. The titles that he suggested will be added to the Libraries’ collections soon.

More photos on Dr. Hernandez's visit at UNCG are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/iminerva/sets/72157624463434057/

Friday, March 18, 2011

LAUNC-CH 2011: networked individuals & networked libraries

On March 7 2011 I attended LAUNC-CH Annual Conference (Librarians' Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) at the Friday Center (yum, good food!) in Chapel Hill with this year's theme "Staying Vital in a Time of Change." My favorite part was the Keynote "Networked Individuals, Networked Libraries" by Lee Rainie, Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. His presentation slides are available online and worth checking out to see the latest data and details on social networking and technology adoption, the way people have changed the way they access, share and create info, and the way that libraries can adapt to this new information ecology to “stay vital” to their users. here are some of my notes from the session:

2/3 of Americans have broadband at home but digital divides are still really prevalent. Age still matters - after age 71 broadband drops off. Spanish speakers are less likely to be on broadband.

40% of people are now associated w/ religious groups that they did not grow up w. People are moving away from the family, small community,places where they grew up. They are developing their own beliefs and growing their own networked groups.

Wireless. Mobile. Fastest growing tech. 40-45% cell users surf internet on it. 55% own laptops up from 30% in 2006. Adults 57% use mobile Internet. But Hispanics and Blacks are higher users of cell than Whites. Prob more for money if they can't afford both. Rural is always lagging from urban regardless.

Apps world will rise and web will slowly die. Better for commercial world - you can sell them an app and learn more about the customer.

7%of adults own iPad type devices-up from 4% last year - and ebook readers growing too.

Info Ecosystem creates a sense of place and sense of presence. "Alone together" concept. Anywhere and any device. Contact people how we want, when we want, but on a social researcher perspective this is changing everything in how we related and communicate.
For libraries this changes not just collations but space - the world is becoming placeless! Be where your people are not hosting or expecting them to be in your place.

Social networking is growing to older adults too. Online videos growing, top area is comedy video. But second is news and educational. Older adults and women are top video creators. Online social networks and ubiquitous mobility. Libraries can be nodes in peoples network, to help them solve problems as well as learn from them too on what they want and need. Embedded librarians.
Expertise and influence in social networking has created amateur experts.

How networked information users are connecting:
  • Attention zones-hard to stay focused on one thing to get done . "Continuous partial attention." But also deep dives into info is possible, we all can become experts in any area. Info snacking (I love this term!) - quick 2-3 mins info snack, when you are waiting for something.
  • Media zones- social streams, toss a line in there every so often. Or try immersion like gaming. Creative participatory zone, libraries are adding to this creation. Study or work zones.
How networked information users reply on networks:
  • As sentries - word of mouth - from friends, login to facebook to see what friends are reading or doing, to share or ask opinions of them - what use to be city newspaper is now Facebook
  • Also as info evaluates- people go to their online "friends" - and ask friends is this true? and how much attention should I pay attention to it? what do you all think?
  • As forum for action- everybody's a publisher!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Time Management Workshop

Here are the slides from the Time Management/Project Planning workshop. Please let me know if you have any questions!