Announcing _Archival Practice_, a new OA journal in OJS

For a number of months now, I've been working with colleagues from around the country to develop a new peer-reviewed, open-access journal for the archival profession. For those who haven't heard, we have now officially launched Archival Practice, which will focus on discussions of real-world applications of archival theories and practices in the modern archival repository. See the inaugural call for papers below (with link to the journal site), and please feel free to distribute the information to any other folks you think might be interested.

------------------

Call for Papers: Archival Practice 

Archival Practice, a peer-reviewed, open-access biannual journal, is now accepting research articles, case studies, position pieces, and other entries for its inaugural issue (to be published in January 2014). Submissions should focus on discussion of real-world application of archival theories and practices in the modern archival repository, and may discuss archival acquisitions, processing, reference, outreach, instruction, preservation, or management in any archival setting (special collections library, government archives, university archives, corporate archives, etc.).

Archival Practice will feature peer-reviewed research articles, case studies, and position pieces related to all aspects of modern archival work. The non-reviewed "From the Field" section allows archivists to share newly-developed policies, procedures, web resources, documentation, or other tools which contribute to the development of archival practice. The journal will promote conversations among readers through commenting features. Publication will be on a rolling basis with submissions made available immediately after passing through the peer review and editing process, allowing for timely distribution of information.

Types of submissions accepted include:

• Research articles (peer-reviewed) 3,000-7,000 words, including bibliography Research articles present and describe original research (broadly defined) on topics of current importance that impact modern archival practice. Manuscripts provide clear and complete methodology and may include all necessary figures, tables, and illustrations. 
• Case studies (peer-reviewed) 2,000-5,000 words Case studies describe mature projects and programs that highlight innovative archival practices, partnerships, programs, spaces, etc., in any archival setting. Case studies should clearly describe the project or program and address the impact of the work. 
• Position pieces (peer-reviewed) 2,000-5,000 words, including bibliography Position pieces are essays intended to inform readers of, or to stimulate discussion about, significant issues in current archival practice. Position pieces may be primary or secondary research and will provide complete references. 
• From the Field (*not* peer-reviewed) 300-1,000 words From the Field submissions allow archivists to share newly-developed policies, procedures, web resources, documentation, programming, or other tools which contribute to archival practice. The text of the submission will serve to provide context for the linked or attached resources that were developed, but this section is primarily intended to publicize resources, not provide case studies of processes or practices. Photographs, links to related files or media, or other visual supplements are highly encouraged. 

As an open-access journal, Archival Practice will be online, free of charge, and free of copyright and licensing restrictions. Authors will retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. The journal will be hosted by the University Libraries at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro using its installation of Open Journal Systems (OJS). This installation will allow the journal to be produced and distributed free of cost to any author or reader.

Additional information about the journal and additional information for authors may be found at: http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ojs/index.php/ap. Additionally, you may subscribe to the journal at this site and receive email updates with each publication.

Archives Leadership Institute Intensive

I have the privilege of being one of 25 members of the 2013 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute (ALI), a training opportunity for emerging and innovative leaders in the archival profession. ALI (which is sponsored by the NPHRC -- the National Historical Publications and Records Commission) features a group of archivists from around the country, working in a wide variety of archives. A little over half of the group work in academic institutions, from smaller institutions with only a single archivist to huge institutions like Yale. The other half of the cohort are from government, private/foundation, or corporate archives (including the Target corporate archivist, who talked with us about everything from her collection of little Target dogs to the records she has related to opening new stores in Hawaii and Alaska).

From June 16-22, I traveled to beautiful (and isolated!!) Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, to participate in the week-long Leadership Intensive, the kick-off to our year of ALI. There, we discussed a number of key trends affecting the archival profession, received mentorship from the ALI steering committee, and collaborated on a number of projects and activities aimed at enhancing our abilities to effect change in the archival profession.

Our facilitator for the week was Luther Snow (no relation to the Luther who the Lutheran college is named for), who introduced ways in which leaders can make a positive impact and affect change, even when they are not in a position of authority or control. We focused on issues of leadership (leading when you’re not in charge or even the manager), not management (supervising). Throughout the week, he closed each day’s discussion by steering us away from need-based thinking (which we all know is pretty common in archives and libraries), and focusing on our assets, partnerships, and contributions to a greater whole. I can be a bit of a pessimist, and I’m not a big fan of most “motivational” talk using words like “generativity” or “synergy.” But it was really useful at the end of the days to think in terms of what we do have and what we can do, as opposed to simply thinking about what we need to do or what we need to have.

He's supposed to be falling. Not a failure
on the part of his awesome belayers.

We spent Monday afternoon at Luther College’s ropes course, essentially giant logs hoisted in the air that people climbed up, walked across, jumped off, etc. Folks like me -- those who weren’t about to do something like that! -- served as the “belayers,” essentially the weight at the other end of the ropes that kept the more adventurous people from falling. This was a great ice-breaking activity that really helped our cohort get to know each other.

Tuesday was focused on preservation of born-digital and other technology-dependent records. This session was led by Dan Noonan, Digital Resources Archivist at The Ohio State University. Dan focused on leadership thinking and skills needed to approach digital preservation, not the technical skills or competencies. He emphasized, however, that every archivist should be a digital archivist. Modern records creation demands that every archivist at every institution know something about born-digital records. He also used one my favorite quotes: Voltaire’s “Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien” (Perfect is the enemy of the good). Too many archivists are awaiting a “solution” to the born-digital records challenge. I was proud to be able to talk about my work with ERIT on our BDRM system, and our attempt to do something to ensure that today’s born-digital records are not lost, even if it’s not a “perfect” solution (although I think it’s becoming a pretty great one!).

Seed Savers Exchange

During lunch on Tuesday, we traveled to Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit farm dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. Not only was the farm a beautiful spot for a picnic (with awesome cows, chickens, ducks, and geese in addition to the plants), but we learned a lot from their seed curator about ways in which their work is similar to ours in the archives (selection, description, distribution, preservation).

On Wednesday, we learned about Project Management from Sharon Leon, Director of Public Projects at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University (home of wonderful projects like Omeka and Zotero). She emphasized the importance of communicating a clear vision for a project as well as a willingness to jump in and clearly model the work that needs to be done for your staff. She demonstrated a number of project management tools (like Basecamp), but stressed that you should focus on using the tools, not years of set up. My favorite thing she discussed, however, was her hiring practice for new team members. At the CHNM, they focus primarily on hiring based on curiosity and capacity to learn, not on a strict list of skills or knowledge. As she noted, this allows her to have a flexible team that is willing and able to adapt and respond quickly to change.

Field trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park

During the short free time that we had in the late afternoon, some of us made a quick field trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Park and Museum in nearby Burr Oak, Iowa. For those who are Little House fans, this was the place where Grace was born, but not a place featured in any of the books. Unfortunately the museum was closed by the time we got there, although we did spend time exploring the park. Luckily, Decorah sports a large and surprisingly beautiful trout hatchery that was built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, so we traveled there instead.

Thursday’s session featured Chris Barth, Associate Dean at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Chris talked about strategic planning -- particularly about the importance of having a clear vision of where you want to go and a common understanding of how to get there. The vision remains a constant, but libraries and archives must be able to adapt their “how to get there” plan in order to be responsive. He also discussed the importance of assessment, focusing on the fact that we must target our data collection on things we can change in our move towards our vision. His Tumblr focused on major topics in the information profession (http://pulse.infoneer.net/) is one that I’ll be adding to my feed.

Baker Commons at Luther College, site of our Leadership Intensive

On Friday, we looked at issues of advocacy and awareness with Kathleen Roe, the newly-elected Vice President/President-Elect of the Society of American Archivists and the Director of Archives and Records Management Operations at the New York State Archives. Much of what Kathleen focused on echoed my years of working in athletic media relations. Know your audience, be proactive in your outreach, tailor your messages, understand context, and don’t pander. She had us work on our “elevator speech” about archives (prompting one attendee to ask “Why are we always stuck in an elevator?”), and led us through the steps in developing a formal advocacy plan.

Saturday morning, we wrapped up with week with our facilitator Luther Snow tying all of the topics together. We also had time to talk with our Steering Committee mentor about our practicum projects, a year-long project where we will take what we learned at ALI and apply it to our home institutions. Here at UNCG, I will be focusing on building and promoting a records management training program for faculty and staff -- something that ensures that records (digital or analog) that have enduring historical value make it to the archives. Stay tuned for a brown bag session on this at some point in the upcoming year.

2013 ALI Cohort

Overall, ALI was an outstanding experience. Even though I am exhausted and my back hurts from a week spent sleeping on a dorm mattress, I feel like I learned a lot and met a number of wonderful new colleagues from across the country to whom I can turn with questions, ideas, etc. In fact, it was the informal discussions with passionate people during meals or activities or breaks that proved the most interesting and, in many ways, reinvigorated my love of the archival profession. 

We will be continuing our practicums and our conversations throughout the year, including a second formal discussion during SAA’s annual meeting in New Orleans in August. I really look forward to continuing work with this awesome group of archivists (already have a session proposal for the 2014 SAA annual meeting sketched out!) and applying the management skills and techniques learned to my work here.

Metrolina Information Literacy Conference

Here are my notes from the Metrolina Information Literacy Conference 2013 in Charlotte, NC. Great sessions on all aspects of info lit!

IASSIST Conference

Here are my notes from the IASSIST 2013 data conference in Cologne, Germany if you are interested. Some interesting tools and ideas for data support. My attendance was partly funded by the International Programs Center.

ACRL's Stealth Librarianship Webinar summary

UNCG Libraries hosted for NCLA, the ACRL webinar Stealth Librarianship:Creating Meaningful Connections Through User Experience,Outreach & Liaising on April 23, 2013. There were about 20 people in attendance mainly from UNCG libraries. The session was  divided into  three areas.   Part 1: UX for Stealth Librarian Outreach -  Learn to create a practical strategy in order to consciously shape and deliver positive user experience with the library staff in person and online by presenter Bohyun Kim [Digital Access Librarian Florida International University Medical Library   / @bohyunkim]  Bohyun offered a useful UX Environmental Scan worksheet to ponder unsuccessful touchpoints, pain points and how to deal with these problem areas; as well as successful touchpoints including inspirations and how to generate delight.  Part 2: Liaising - Analyze nontraditional opportunities for engagement in order to prioritize and maximize the impact of time allotted to nontraditional engagement by presenter Kiyomi Deards [Liaison Librarian,University of Nebraska-Lincoln / @kiyomiD]  Kiyomi discussed non traditional touchpoints, going where the users are for more informal relationship building such as Attend Guest Lectures,Help Recruit Students, Play a Sport, Participate in Campus Forums, Volunteer. She advised us to “Be genuine! Its all about building relationships, not selling things.” Part 3. Outreach - List specific outreach activities which will engage users in order to build positive relationships between the library and its users by presenter Erin Dorney [Outreach Librarian Millersville University McNairy Library @edorney] Erin probed us on how projects are created in the library - through what we librarians think users will want or user initiated. She covered outreach for Relationship Building and supporting student-initiated projects as well as inreach -  since everyone in your organization represents the library!

• View Tweets here
• View Slides here.
• Presenters encourage you to share ideas here.
• Presenters notes (on page 62)

ACRL 2013!

Here are my notes from my ACRL 2013 conference. Many program's handouts are available for anyone to view on this website.  I hope you will find something here useful and applicable:

Help them help themselves: Developing interactive tools to help faculty deal with copyright and fair use (presentation)   Presenter Mike Priehs, Coordinator for Scholarly Communications & Copyright at Wayne State University shared some awesome resources:

• DigitalCommons@WayneState 
• Copyright@WayneState – great resources with a copyright decision tree, fair use checklist and other great info! 

Keep It Streamlined for Students: Designing Library Instruction for the Online Learner Presenters are from U of MD, sharing ideas about scalable way to reach online learners:

• 10 libs and staff, 20-30 students per class, about 4-6 classes a semester.  
• Identify one key class in each dept to hone in on. Like a research methods or intro class. 
• Set a week long library online classroom instruction. Called it a library conference. All asynchronous - find evaluate cite... Integrate and reflect, formative assessment.
• Active learning, have them do exercises and tailor it to a particular class 
• Designed instruction through an article by  Neal Toporski, and Tim Foley, “Design Principles for Online Instruction: A New Kind of Classroom,” Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education 5, no. 1 (2004).

This Library Orientation is Fun!: Building a Successful Virtual Tour Experience for Students Presenters from App State libraries, download the game files:

• how to orient 500 students, w 3 librarians, 75 students, 4 hours! 
• created a 360 degree panorama of the library, videos w interaction of librarian and students showing tools and resources; built with JavaScript, jquery, and huggin (a free for 350 panorama stitcher)
• students view panoramic, view some videos, click on hot spots, little puzzle piece fills in, as all pieces fill in they then have to go there and retrieve something physical from the library, then they can take the quiz at the end ( totally online students can bypass this) 

Panel: Hacking the Learner Experience: techniques and strategies for connecting with your instructional ecosystem 

Brian Mathews: Hacking is pushing the envelope. Ex: Talked to adviser in mechanical engineer dept who didn't think they needed library support. They talked through the student’s process of "how would I get through this whole program" and found areas of need and support once they dove in the whole process. Curriculum mapping across disciplines (using mindomo) Goal: look at 360 degree view of the students experience through school and find new ways to support them, partner up, what skills do they need, and how can we tweak our instruction to meet these needs:  Build a learning network (it staff, tutors, librarians, etc...)

Lauren Pressley: Learner taxonomies - a standard categorization, took look at three:

• Blooms taxonomy (since 1950s) 
• Perry taxonomy (1968) - dualism, first year believe profs know all. Then contextual realism as they fight against and for what they want to know in second and third year. By fourth year, they accept others different opinions, and see commitment with contextual realism. Aka, design for freshman is much different that for seniors. 
• Kolb (1984) - more holistic and experiential learning. Concrete experiences, observe and reflect, form abstract concepts, test in new situations. (do-observe-plan-think) all learners come in and different places and can start at any stages and they are all in your room at once. 

Andy Burkhardt: inquiry based learning, Teaching attitudes and habits of mind, not just tools and tips (lift long learning). Learner centric - with content as secondary. Information self - who are they in info process- ask them "where do you like to get info". "how do you search" (filter bubbles, Ted talks) Question centric : though students are usually wanting answers we need to have them think of questions (MikeWesch!) create good questioners Teachers become co-learners: let's us inquire together!

SustainRT
The new group I helped get started is the Sustainabilty Round Table of ALA (will be official as of July!) We hosted a round table discussion and a walk event at ACRL.  Lovely discussion on what various libraries were doing and where the new SustainRT group should head. Some things to check out:

• Human Library  
• ASU’s aeroponics showcase in the library  
• Fellow SustainRT leader, M. Charney is teaching a Library Juice Press online course: The Sustainability Movement on Campus: Forming a Library Action Plan for Engagement 
• ACRL 2015 in Portland will be Sustainable Communities Theme! 

The walk was great despite the cold temps and wind with about a dozen librarians, walking the canal trail, viewing the art, and with a fabulous tour guide – a local Indy children’s librarian!  Check out some great photos by Susan Sharpless Smith including this one:

The Art of Problem Discovery - adaptive thinking for innovative growth and discovery. Presenter Brian Matthews.  Really good session and worth reading his paper here. My key takeaways:

• what is it that people really want, the outcomes? not the process.  EX: people do not want to buy a drill but drill a hole and need the drill to do so. 
• How do we become better listeners than sales? What are the struggles of all our users, including faculty? how can we apply evolutionary ecology, lean manufactury, emotional cartography to libraries?
• We are/can be problem solvers! Reach into other people's boxes not just "outside the box"
• Lateral thinking:  vertical ideas, intentionally disrupt something. EX: ref desk, not thinking about its' value, but eliminate it as a thought and then challenge yourself to learn how things would function if it never existed.
• Who to follow on twitter: Nextweb, fastcompany, wired

Panel:  “Love your library”: building goodwill from the inside out and the outside in
Definitely check out their awesome handout and ideas. Good for many in a library to consider. Key takeaways:

•  library workshops -  used images created by fine arts students, w/ contribution to students artists, with back of handout having workshop listing; about 1/4 size of sheet of paper; added fb and twitter links - lots of marketing and attention grabbing, beautiful!
• Anonymous white board for suggestions to library out of site of the desk; they take photos of questions and answers "conversation wall"
• Social media monitoring - hoot suite dashboard w many terms to refer to the library
• Teeny tiny orchestra, showed Silent films in the library & a Toy piano festival highlighted that discipline on campus (UNCG could do cello music festival)
• Created 2d large scale images of themselves around the library to remind people that real people are here (tattle tape on them to not get stolen) including tech staff and behind the screens people too. 
• Library hot dog outreach cart to be mobile around campus; create and use google map for location points. Also use this for other outreach!
• ExCiting food event- collaboration w writing center - recipes were the citation examples pulled from archives, a website, interviews, book - all found in the library. Also info on citing libguide, Plagiarism. another ediable book festival
• Re:book2013 - contest for students to take a book. Remake it. Win again! Helps them rethink what libraries are and how to reuse and not throw away stuff

OER (Open Educational Resources) Panel Session
CSU Stanislaus Library: 

• Workshop on Affordable Leaning Solutions: covering  OER, Copyright Ereserves, Creative Commons, Fair Use,  and Accessible Services. 
• Workshop/Libguide on future of the book.  
• Partner w faculty dev center. Web space for faculty showcase. 
• Create reading lists of materials on web pages instead of using textbooks.  
• Challenge students to find their own best materials rather than worry about an open resource going away!

CSU San Jose Library:

• Affordable solutions w partnerships campus book store- get list of all books faculty order, and match them up to ebooks in library.
• Partner w FTLC on summer workshop for faculty on using OER in courses 
• Ideas: Embed map into YouTube to do digital storytelling
•  Partner e vendors like NYT   - use them as textbook! -  for certain classes (16 week subscription of wall st journal instead of textbook for a class!) 
• Partners OER providers (Florida, California are using this): such as Merlot- require them to put content into Merlot, and encourage librarians to become a peer reviewer in Merlot
• Use  academic pub -  they will put copyright info on page to educate on high costs to users! 
• Moocs for flipped course model using "course site"  (free tool) in blackboard 
• Cataloging OER resources into libcatalog like Hathi Trust etc.

Poster Session: One Search to Rule Them All: Mapping the Literature on Discovery & User Experience By Courtney Greene & Kate Moore. Check out here:  http://Bit.ly/1search

MOOCs and Libraries

In mid March I attended (well, watched live stream) the  OCLC Research and University of Pennsylvania's  MOOCs and Libraries: Massive Opportunity or Overwhelming Challenge? conference. I wrote up a brief report on what I learned. Also check out the twitter hashtag: #mooclib.  Here is some basic information:

What are MOOCs: MOOC =  massive open online courses.  They are usually open and free, online courses not just videos or materials, taught by experts in their fields at universities partnered with and coordinated through one of these non-profit organization like  Coursera or  edX.  They are a disruptive technology.  With tuition costs rising, classes size growing, and online learning expanding, the public discourse pushing forward on MOOC concepts as they see a current broken education model (one speaker called it a “prestige arms race”). This disrupted technology will be growing, changing, shifting, and consolidating - think search engines in 1999 versus now.

Overview: MOOCs have been around for only about a year but have grown from 4 schools involved to 62 schools, and the growing audience of learners is phenomenal. MOOCs show incredible global reach – most MOOC students are not within the US – and demonstrate community engagement, with universities reaching out to their communities and through public library collaborations. Speakers and panelists discussed how MOOCs are seriously changing education, creating new ways to think about pedagogy of learning and how these ideas are being applied in non MOOC courses. These ideas include applying flipped classrooms, learning much smaller chunks of information at once, various class times, start times and lengths, giving students access to resources (videos, tutorials, quizzes, materials) to review over and over, and allowing students to learn at their own pace and their own timeframe. The two day conference included speakers – professors, scholarly communications librarians, library administrators, copyright experts - from various schools who have been working with MOOC providers including U Penn, Brown, Duke, Cornell, Berkeley, and LA County Public Library, as well as speakers from MOOC organizations and OCLC. They offered information on their various models, processes, procedures, growth, data on usage/audience and how librarians can and should be involved.

Why should librarians care? As one panelist said “it’s the perfect storm!”
•    disruptive to teaching and library models
•    externally driven - unlike past online learning growth
•    rapid uptake - seems contradictory to what we know and do
•    fast changing and always will be
•    happening in an environment of rising costs and questions about educational quality
•    potential revenue stream (many of now charging for credit)

Roles for libraries:

• Resources -  Licensing, open access, copyright/fair use, creative commons:  The most important and critical role and one we already know!
• Course Building - production, instructional design, integrating resources: a role some of us play in libraries and one that we might be able to assist with on our campuses.
• Preservation and/or Archiving, and Institutional Repositories:  another critical role, who better to  help preserve the materials for MOOCs on the campus.
• Materials Creations/Instructional Technologies: librarians as creators of information and assistance with tech tools for online course/MOOCs
• Tech Savvy Expertise: Many of the panelists mentioned that libraries tend to be more tech savvy than they are - nice comment to hear!
• Librarians create a MOOC & and take a MOOC or two: why not create on on information literacy or critical thinking ... but also we should take a MOOC to understand how it works.
• Interdisciplinary, broad vision, key collaborators: the library is an establish entity on a campus in this role, important for a campus wide initiate like MOOCs.

The full report is available if anyone wants to learn more!  Check out the new MOOCs and Libraries Google Group too.

Follow up 5/1/13:

• watch the sessions on youtube
•  more content from sessions here
•