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.