Lynda @ the NCLA Government Resources Section Meeting

I attended the North Carolina Library Association's Government Resources Section workshop and business meeting on June 13, 2014. Lots of good info on changes to the docs program and on free GIS mapping services.

NC-LITe meeting at UNCC Libraries notes

NC-LITe meets 2x a year usually May and December,  rotating host library. This May we went to UNCC for the first time, hosted by Mendy Ozan (former UNCG gal!) It was well organized, with a free lunch (thanks to their library director Stanley!), good break out sessions and lightening rounds, and with over 11 campuses represented we learned a lot from each other. Check out the notes from this meeting on the NCLITe google site space, see past meeting info, and join our google group if you have not already!

Steve at LOEX 2014

I wrote a summary at http://liaisonlife.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/loex2014full/.  ---sc

Colorado visit for the 16th Distance Library Services Conference

Got in some hiking too :)

I just got back from one of my favorite states of Colorado from attending the  16th Distance Library Service conference, a small conference in one hotel with about 230 attendees. Really good conference for new librarians getting into distance and online learning. It is well organized, good presenters with friendly people from all over even internationally. I found many of the session content not so relevant to me as we have implemented many of these ideas already at UNCG over recent years! But I have a few takeaways to share. I recommend the conference to those on fringe of distance, or instruction librarians trying to learn how to reach online students.

One session I did enjoy and glean some ideas was from Nova Southeastern, a large primary graduate school in. Florida, with a presentation of their library video repository. Check it out at http://sherman.library.nova.edu/sites/learn  Their slides are here and they talked us through the process of getting to this video repository site. I like how they created an actual map of where all their students were virtually coming in from. This helped determine how to host their videos (ex: YouTube not accessible to their students in china so not an option). They noted a key article to read for advice "Best practices for online video tutorials in academic libraries - a study of student performances  and understanding" by Bowels-Terry, Hensley and Hinchliffe. And gave us a few key things to keep in mind when creating tutorials (with my comments in parenthesis)

• Most important content first in case student do not listen to it all (great point, but also just make them short with limited info so they will watch it all)
• Brand the start of each video (*note - a poster session I went to later on had done a year long usability test of their tutorials with feedback from students saying "we hate the opening brand, as well as don't "start at library homepage - we want you to jump right into where we have issues/need help")
• Not overly flashy but clean and straightforward
• Captioning and transcripts a must (now switching .srt captioning file standard   - a summer project for me!)
• Shorter the better, make them in chunks, modular
• Central file storage, link from there with consisting naming (been doing this and it makes it so much easier to update, replace file w/o replacing it every place it's linked)

Other conference takeaways: 

• One library tracks students in their LMS courses as to who looked at the libguide and videos embedded there, and how that impacted their grades and final assignments. Not easy to correlate but they are trying!
• Another library is creating a digital badges program in Blackboard for information literacy skills/outcomes. They wanted to use for extrinsic motivators - for tracking learning outcome. In BB these are called "achievement"
• a great way to travel with a poster, try getting it printed on fabric! easy to travel with (poster session takeaway - she used SpoonFlowers :)(
• Also the conference organizers offered this cool Learning Forward session to wrap up the conference; choose a general topic and room, and attendees gather to discuss what they learned, found interesting, other ideas,  etc. A great way to starting applying what you learned and connect with others before you get back home to work and think to yourself "hmmm what did I learn there...?"!

Keynote Steven Bell (handout) was the most interesting to me, though he gave a lot of info + ideas in a short amount of time: 

• " Alt-higher ed " --(article on it)  idea of how it's changing with online learning via MOOC like situations. Higher ed expensive, huge student debt, lots can be learned on your own online. Predictions of students going for a few years only enough to get some sort of a job (like an AA degree) but then use moocs for the key learning you need, at multiple institution,  3-7 years, non linear and unpredictable. Also companies are rising up to help train students in real world needs of employers by adding value to higher ed. Ex- Koru is a bootcamp for college grads from liberal arts institutions to learn key skills has already signed agreements w 13 institutions to get their grads into this bootcamp post graduation (costs extra though)
• Virtual Gate Opening --  Next he talked about changing the online user experience. Focus on people not content as we are not gate keepers. One great example was the Enterprise Rental Car recent commercials  - "We all have the power to make it right" -  they redesigned their customer service instead of focusing on cars to people, as they discovered dealing w/ people's problems is always the biggest issue and provide s best customer service. They went from bottom in rental car company customer service to almost the top in 2 years. Can we do this in libraries?  Another example is the  Seattle  Pikes Fish Market. Joseph Michelli is the visionary behind this change from the fish market going under to where it is today. Called a "Way we serve statement" or an  "experiential brand statement" NOT marketing but empowering statement and way of changing behaviors. (For Pikes is was "treat people as if they are world famous")  Should be an easy to remember phrase that employees live not a marketing gimmick/mission statement. Michelli has a Way We Serve development tool you can use in your library! (pdf)    Check out the book - The new Gold Standard, about the Ritz Carleton hotels experience to a amazing customer service motel. Their service credo "we pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guest" w/ steps of service -  intro self, make eye contact, ask if you met their need. Why this is so impt- everyone is responsible and can't push it off on someone else! Also check out the Zappos Experience for a more online UX. Lots to read!
• Customer journey mapping -- To change the experience, need to study the customers journey, map it out and find a better process. Carneige in Pittsburgh did this design process they mapped every customers potential journey.  Do this as a staff, virtual journey mapping,  even small processes such as ereserves, what are all the step for a customer and how many different processes are there!
• 5 C's of distance library UX
• Convenient - must be easy for them
• Consistent  - things similar online so students can find what they need every time
• Competent  - have everyone everywhere be ready to help in all areas
• Connected - harder area to reach to make them feel connected
• Community - this is the hardest!

photo courtesy of Tina Adams

Lastly my panel presentation -  Librarians as partners: Strategies for systematically embedding in online course development -  seemed like a positive learning experience for people too. Our goal was to tell our stories from three different libraries at various stages of embedding in online course development process  - one at early stages, one embedding in faculty environment, and one in a fully online program, fully integrated. My part was discussing how I collaborated and partnered with FTLC to create Power Up - a bootcamp for faculty development of online courses.  Surprisingly one of the popular takeaways from our last poll everywhere poll "what did you learn today that you can apply at your library" indicated most people gleaned Jenn's idea of spreadsheet of elearning objects for maintenance timetable. Actually all three of us do this sort of maintained and perhaps indicates a great idea for future presentation on how build a scalable, sustainable manageable elearning repository. 

Code4Lib Preconference: Archival Discovery and Use

On Monday, March 24, I attended a day-long preconference on Archival Discovery and Use, held as part of Code4Lib 2014 in Raleigh. This workshop proved interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it wasn't being led by archivists but by two technology/development librarians. This allowed the archivists in the room (about 1/3 of the 30+ people in attendance) to hear how others understand archival use.

Throughout the day, we had short (10-15) presentations followed by 20-30 minute group discussions, with each group focusing on the presentation from a different angle. Presentation topics ranged from the effectiveness of archival finding aids to integration of finding aids and digitized components to crowdsourcing as a means of enhancing archival description. My group was tasked with questioning the presentations from a point of view related to assessment -- how do we measure the effectiveness of our practices and programs, and how do we interpret user data to inform our work/development?

In these small group discussions, it became clear that the archivist's notion of the archival researcher and his/her needs doesn't always match that of the technology folks. One prominent question framed most of our conversations: should discovery systems be optimized for those conducting in-depth research in the archives (an audience which varies based on your archives' focus), or do we need to present our archival finding aids and digital collections in a way that best reaches the masses and garners more hits (an approach driven largely by analytics)? Most archivists in the group advocated for a focus on the former, while most of the developers and digital collections librarians advocated for the latter.

The framing of the discussions as well as the ensuing conversations reiterated the need for archivists to be (very) vocal in terms of advocating for their researchers in the development or use of technologies aimed at enabling archival discovery. Of course, this is predicated on understanding your users' needs and workflow. This requires a focus on assessment -- particularly qualitative assessment -- as well as an understanding by all staff of who the primary audiences for archival discovery tools are in your particular archives. If archivists don't prioritize this type of user assessment, who will?

3 Archivists, 3 Conferences, 3 Presentations...

Let me set the scene. It's mid-October, the days are getting sorter and the leaves prettier.  Three archivists set out to do the impossible: give three unique presentations at three different conferences in less than one week....

October 16th brought Keith Gorman, Kathelene Smith, and I to the North Carolina Library Association conference in Winston-Salem for our first presentation with Curtis Rogers from the South Carolina State Library.

Evolution of the South Carolina Literary Map
Dr. Curtis R. Rogers

Curtis' portion of the presentation was titled "Evolution of the South Carolina Literary Map."  He gave an overview of the history of South Carolina Literary Map, which began in the early 2000s as a class project in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina.

The project had stagnated in the last decade, having outdated information as well as hard to navigate features.  Curtis worked with SLIS at USC to launch a revamped site (www.scliterarymap.org) which went live just days before our presentation. 

He then discussed future plans for sustaining the project, which included having a 'memorandum of understanding' with SLIS to define roles and responsibilities of each party and creating an author submission form for users to suggest writers to be added to the map.



The North Carolina Literary Map:
How to sustain online projects once they are launched


Keith, Kathelene, and I presented on sustaining the North Carolina Literary Map (http://library.uncg.edu/nclitmap).  We discussed the push for state online literary maps from the National Center for the Book as well as the differences in mission and institutional support between our map and other state map projects. 

Research of other online literary maps lead us to some surprising discoveries.  Of the 22 state maps, only 6 had been updated in the last 2 years.  Sustainability is definitely an issue with these projects!

In seeking to sustain the North Carolina Literary map, we set the foundations for sustainability by identifying the map's audience, securing funding, and promoting outreach.  We then redesigned the website and enhanced search functions.  And finally, we are continuing to evolve by adding new collaborators to our advisory board who can assist with funding and assessment.

Reception at the Upcountry Museum,
 Greenville, SC

Following our brief stop at NCLA, we headed to Greenville, SC for the Tri-State Archivists Conference, October 17-18.  This conference provided a rare meeting among archivists from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.  Kathelene and I served as the Programming Chairs for the Society of North Carolina Archivists.  Kathelene also headed up Local Arrangements for North Carolina.  I oversaw the call for panel proposal and worked with speakers and presenters to schedule the entire two-day conference.  Kathelene worked tirelessly to ensure registration, catering, and venues were organized and ran smoothly throughout the conference.  She also single-handedly organized a lovely wine and dessert reception for conference participants at the Upcountry Museum in Greenville.

But organizing the conference wasn't enough for us...we needed to present as well!  Keith, Kathelene, and I, along with Gene Hyde from the University of North Carolina at Asheville presented current students, recent graduates, and those re-entering the job market with tips for creating quality cover letters and CVs as well as important considerations for each step of the interview process. 

 

Keith beginning our talk on Career Planning 101 

Keith began by giving a survey of the archival field and informing participants of relevant literature.  Gene Hyde showed the results of a ACRL survey conducted in 2010 titled, "Academic Library Search Committees: What They Want You to Know."  The survey gathered qualitative and quantitative data from academic librarians through the United States.  Results confirmed what we and others involved in the search committee process had know only anecdotally until then; mistakes in cover letters and resumes greatly impacted whether or not candidates were asked for an interview.

Kathelene gave considerations for creating cover letters and resumes, including practical advice such as spellchecking the documents and avoiding confusing fonts and colors.  I presented the real-life example of my recent job search, citing examples of how I tailored my cover letter and CV to highlight how I fit the qualifications listed in the job posting.  Keith talked about both phone and in-person interviews, giving tips for how to prepare and successfully navigate the process.  We concluded by working one-on-one with those who had submitted cover letters and resumes to us prior to the conference, giving personalized

On Monday, October 21st, Kathelene and I set out to once again promote the North Carolina Literary Map.  This time we presented with Gail Buckner at the North Carolina Association for Elementary Educators (NCAEE) Conference.

As part of the 2012-2013 LSTA grant for the NC Lit Map, Gail had worked on creating lesson plans

A slide from our NCAEE presentation

which integrate using the map with various learning objectives.  We spoke about the history of the NC Lit Map, demonstrated how to effectively search for books and authors, and showed participants how they could use the newly developed tools in their classrooms.




This was a busy week in October...we are all still recovering...



NCLA highlights

At my professional blog I posted some takeaways from NCLA 2013.  --Steve