ALA Chicago Conference Summary!

It has taken me a few weeks to post a summary of my activities at ALA Annual in Chicago in late June/early July. Chicago is a fun city and I arrived downtown when the Chicago Blackhawks Parade for winning the Stanley Cup was happening so crazy, red shirt, screaming fans everywhere - but I found then all to be polite and not too annoying (though a rolling suitcase through a crowds helps clear a path :)

view from room

I stayed -  not in a hotel this time  - but a dorm-like University Center housing called Chicago Summer Housing, that was secure, great location, simple but with all basic necessities (like WiFi, free breakfast but no TV or any fancy hotel like things I never need) and cheap at $52/night! I had a librarian friend roommate and we share a joint bathroom with two other awesome librarians I know. Highly recommend checking it out if you are in Chicago for ALA next time
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my room

ALA for me this year was a lot of meetings. As I was taking over as elected Chair of the ACRL University Libraries Section, I had a lot of business related events. Friday began with the ACRL Leadership Council Meeting focusing on Communities of Practices activities. I did like our "cafe style discussions" where we moved to new table every 10 minutes, to talk about the questions "what could we achieve? What challenges do we face? and What would we like to know?" rotating again and again, with a constant scribe staying at the table. Good way to meet others in ACRL outside my usual haunts and hear their ideas and directions. I liked that leaders in ACRL we want to see more of a "pull for knowledge rather than a push."  I also attended the ULS Executive meeting one early morning and enjoyed seeing those who could attend, sharing ideas (such as more ULS webinars or "virtual conversations"  to engage more than just at physical conferences, with more ULS members!) and celebrating our accomplishments.  I look forward to taking over as chair this year with such dynamic, and innovative ULS committee chairs, conveners and members!

I attended a few informative but fun sessions such as one from the GameRT on makerspace and fablabs happening in various libraries. Some public libraries has a fab lab on carts to roll out or move around locations in town. Also the push for STEM to shift to STEAM - adding the A for art - as art and creativity in the STEM environment is also just as important.  The ULS program this year was Busting Out of the Cubicle: Your Creative Self at Work - a fun interactive session where we played with Legos and more. The idea is that we ALL can be creative if given the time, strategies and facilitator. The presenters from U of Guelph were amazing and I highly recommend viewing their slides and ideas:

Busting Out of Your Cubicle (ALA 2013) from M.J. D'Elia

As co-chair of the Distance Learning Section's Program Planning Committee for Chicago, a big role for putting on our program "Is It Worth It? Assessing Online Instruction" We had over 310 attendees for this panel of 3 librarians and a moderator who keep the session interactive and yes NO powerpoints were used - a PBS NewsHour style session. Great ideas were suggested and interesting questions asked by attendees!  Following the program I also had to attend the DLS Exec meeting which is also nice time to meet other DE Libraries, share thoughts and catch up on projects.

As recently appointed co-chair of the Innovations Committee for the ACRL 2015 conference in Portland, OR (woot!) I attended a meeting for those taking over to learn tips and idea from those who were co-chairs for 2013 conference. Good information and I really look forward to this unique ACRL service over the next 2 years - being able to be creative and innovative with ideas and working with people on the committee with that same mindset. Let's see what cool innovations we can bring to 2015 with the theme Libraries Build Sustainable Communities.

SustainRT walk - photo by M. Egherman

This theme wraps into my last involvement at ALA which is the newly formed Sustainability Round Table (SustainRT) which I helped get approval at ALA Seattle in January. In September ALA members will be able to sign up officially for SustainRT and spring 2014 there will be elections. For now its just a number of us sort of leading the way, and drawing in other interested people especially those who want to take the lead (as you can tell I need to cut back on service leadership activities :) Our meeting on Monday morning had an amazing 24 people attending  (at ALA Anaheim last year we had only 3 interested!) and hopefully they will get involved! We even had 2 international librarians from Aruba and St Maarten. These international folks were part of a session "How the Dutch Caribbean Goes Green with Libraries and Other Supporters: A Panel Presentation"Fascinating and inspiring how these islands are advancing in green energy and sustainability. The National Library of Aruba supports the annual Green Aruba Conference, Symposiums,  and a Sustainability Education program. The library in St Maarten had a solar energy project, adding 48 panels on their roof, 200kw hours saving $17700 in 40 months! Out SustainRT folks also met at the Chicago River Walk for a beautiful afternoon stroll along the waterfront.

Lastly there were fun social as well, which often are the best for networking and meting other librarians from all over the globe. The ULS Social was held outside on a rooftop location and I enjoyed seeing many of my DE librarians friends there as well:  (PS Recommended place eat at least once while in Chicago Native Foods Cafe!)

With librarians from Utah State, MS State, U of Central FL, JHU, and Winona

IASSIST and ALA 2012

I attended two conferences in June. IASSIST is the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology, a data professionals organization, and you can read about some sessions. I also attended ALA Annual Conference and read a summary if you wish.

ALA Midwinter and Emerging Leaders

I wouldn't usually attend the ALA Midwinter meeting--it is committee meeting time rather than a true "conference", but this year I attended as an Emerging Leader, which meant that I participated in a day-long training session on leadership. Leslie Burger, former ALA President developed the Emerging Leader program in 2007 as a way to encourage leadership growth among newer members of the library profession and to encourage them to take active roles in ALA. Our own Mac Nelson was a member of the first cohort, and Jenny Dale was a 2008 Emerging Leader. Each EL is assigned to a project developed by an ALA organization. The groups start on the project at ALA Midwinter in January and then work towards ALA Annual where the project is presented to the group and to the wider community.

While it has had some growing pains--keep in mind how new it is--at the same time it has been a worthwhile program for many involved. The experience seems to depend partly on what people make of it, but also on the project to which you are assigned. My project is with the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), a division of ALA. LITA tends to be one of the more innovative tech groups in ALA because a large portion of its members work with emerging technologies in their libraries--so, they focus their energy on discovery and developing tools to assist with library services. As such their projects are focused on technology. Below is a description of my project:

Project Description:
There seems to be confusion about when to use the LITA website vs the wiki vs the blog and now ALA Connect. Which tool is best for what purpose? LITA is comprised of multiple committees, interest groups, and task forces; these parts communicate to members in a number of ways using various media (print, electronic, social). What information is coming from where? Which communication channel can a person follow, when, or why? Team P will survey the "parts" of LITA and summarize the ways these parts contribute to the "whole" - i.e. the purpose of the organization - and detail the communication streams from each one, along with its strengths.
Expected Outcomes:

• Team P will identify the various communication tools currently used by LITA Members and how each is being used to do the business and marketing of the Association.
• Make recommendations for which communication tool is best used for each purpose.
  

While we are working for LITA, I realized that this project is important for many ALA groups. I asked my sponsorship group, the Government Documents Round Table, about their thoughts on this project, and they were enthusiastic about hearing the outcomes. Admittedly, the proliferation of web access points is a problem not just for ALA groups, but also for any organization. We hope to disseminate our findings widely. At this point though, I’m just happy to be working on a project that has wide implications for a large number of people.

Beyond the EL program, I also participated in the GODORT education committee. The Government Information Technology Committee talked about its list of tech tools that could be useful for instruction, both within our libraries and GODORT. The list includes Skype, dimdim, jing, delicious, google wave and other tools we use at our library. We also had small group discussions to share ideas about using these tools, which was helpful. Although I hated the small group format in school, I can really appreciate the usefulness of that format when the discussion is focused and purposeful. It worked well with this project.

I also attend some general membership meetings for GODORT and the ACRL Law and Political Science Section. The discussions were mostly focused on upcoming programs at Annual. I am excited about several of the proposed topics.

The final highlight was the LITA Top Tech Trends panel. You can read my notes at my personal blog if you wish.

It was a busy weekend and I have many things to absorb, but overall Midwinter was a great experience! Can’t wait for Annual!

Kathy Crowe's ALA Poster Session

I did a poster session at ALA on our work with Student Affairs. I want to thank everyone in the Libraries who participates in this program whether it's staffing a table at SOAR, serving as a liaison or providing a program. It’s a vital part of how we market our services and resources to students!

Kathy Crowe's ALA Poster Session

View more presentations from jacksonlibrary.

ALA Midwinter 2009 Summary

Lucky me, I flew into the Denver area early and got to enjoy the 70 degree weather for hiking and visiting with Colorado friends. But when Friday arrived and ALA midwinter officially began, it was the usual cold, snowy January Colorado day, a good time to be inside attending sessions on various topics. Here is a summary of some sessions I attended:

RUSA/STARS ILL Hot Topic Discussion

Many libraries are having major budget crises in their library - from 50% budget cuts to full time staff layoffs. Several librarians from U of AZ, U of OR , Colorado State University, Baylor, LC, etc. discussed their issues and ideas for dealing with budget problems:

• Generate income streams/revues. (EX: rights and reproductions of special collections materials)
  
• Use RAPID.
  
• Use other people from various areas of the library (tech services folks esp good for searching) Put ILLiad software on computers in reference and spec collections and train others to use it. Night staff does ILL requests at night. Note: 30-40% of ILL work is NOT from ILL dept. (U of AZ)
• Everyone ILL dept is cross trained.
  
• Students are trained in all areas of ILL, more so than staff – they are easier to train, pick it up faster, esp technology. And they use ILLiad - not just pulling books or mail. (CSU)
  
• No physical reserves! (U of AZ) Video streaming is used esp for DVDs. Doc delivery for all physical books.
• Hired back retired staff to work part time, is very reliable, but costs less than fulltime staff.
• Only borrow from IFM libraries.
• Went through every possible procedure and cut back on any unnecessary task and paperwork to save time. (U of OR)
• Don’t worry about overdues - waste of time for staff for what $5.
  
• Stacks does the pulling for all lending (they are quick and know the stacks well) and this benefits both b/c the stacks folks then are needed more and less likely to have positions cut.
  
• Reserves Dept does the scanning and doc delivery - works well, since their busy time is not same as ILL busy time of semester. Also, ILL and reserves processes are similar and was a nature combo.
• Using technology to train staff such as a wiki of info everyone can post to (ex: how to fill a difficult request), youtube videos on how-to do a task, post resources and help on blackboard … staff can use this as a reference instead of always needing an actual staff person to go to - especially relevant at night for ILL work. (Baylor)
• Mobile scanning station - take it with you around stacks instead of gathering print, bringing down to ILL, scanning and taking back up again to stacks. (someone actually calculated this saved 40 hours a week )
• Supporting borrowing side with lending revenue; take revenue to fill staff/student positions; or some us it for UPS costs.

LITA Distance Learning Interest Group Session

• Check out their blog: http://dlig.wordpress.com/
  
• (regis) Library does a 2 week faculty orientation to library course via blackboard. Reach out to adjuncts and new faculty. Usually 15-20 people each time.
• Text from catalog to cell to find your book in library stacks (included call #, title, and location in library. (WFU)
  
• Screen capture tools/tutorials: Captivate (regis) - you can track stats via google analytics (shockwave flash embedded) including how far user has gone, buttons clicked, etc. Can do this in Viewlet Builder as well (VB is best for multiple buttons in tutorials) set resolutions at 800 x 600. Also using Jing and Wink for quick, on the spot chat references.
  
• Ants projects: ants.wetpaint.com - Canadian project, librarians can post tutorials that all can use and edit if needed. Also turn them into a tutorial on Bliptv (better resolution than youtube)
  
• Check out the Horizon report to see whats coming down the road in tech -- this time mobile and cloub computing
  
• Slideshare.net - see many presentations here from conferences or just someone sharing a presentations.
  
• LibX toolbar - recommended by many libraries.
  

ACRL Distance Learning Section Discussion Group

After running my committee meeting as co-chair of the Bibliography Committee, we all met as a large group and discussed two reports on scholarly communication - Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication Nov 2008 by Marion and Smith; Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in Digital Transformation in Higher Education (PDF) August 18, 2008 by Housewirght and Schenfeld. Then discussion shifted to budget issues and paper vs electronic journals. Most libraries are getting rid of paper copies of ejournals (esp JSTOR) – some say they get initial complaints to hold on to them, but most faculty are okay after they are removed from the collection. Someone suggested that we have to push back to get more support and realization to faculty that of what we do and offer. Most libraries goal is to make things seamless as possible. What about an embargo and the currect copy is not available? Then go directly to ILLiad to request it. Someone mention if we all get rid of everything paper, then who can we borrow the embargoed copy from? As long as one library keeps it we'll be alright :>

Task Force on the Environment (SSRT)

I also attended a working group session of TFOE. We discussed a program for ALA Annual in Chicago with the hope to have some brief presentation but mainly focus on attendees forming into groups to discuss small, practical, things they are doing or could be doing in their libraries, offer this chance for networking with others, and to share and work collaboratively on greening your library ideas. Also discussed was next year 2010 will be 40th anniversary of Earth Day and 10th anniversary of ALA's Libraries Build Sustainable Communities, so some good green planning should be started now to make it an ALA wide event in 2010. Join the listserv and stay tuned!