Lilly Conference 2010

I attended my first Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching on February 5 & 6 (while you all were enjoying a "snow" day friday). The Lilly Conference was held at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro and this year's theme was Evidence Based Learning and Teaching. I believe it benefits librarians tremendously to attend non library conferences: not just for learning about topics from another discipline's perspective, but to chat with others in different disciplines, network, and build relationships to benefit libraries and those we teach and serve.

Summaries of sessions I attended - eventually the presentations and handouts will all be on the Lilly Conference web site:

• Service & Experiential Learning Plenary Session by marin burton and emily janke of UNCG - They led an interactive plenary session about these 2 concepts: Experiential education - a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage learners in direct experiences w/ focused reflection in order to increase knowledge and develop skills and clarify values; includes reflection, critical analysis, and synthesis; learner is actively engaged; its not a dichotomy - need to keep traditional learning/reading/reflecting as well as experiential learning. Service learning: service (in non profits, schools, agencies, business etc) w/in academic course materials with critical reflections areas. Advantage in final course grade/retention, helps w/ career exploration, chance to apply theory to real situations, increases critical thinking/problem solving/prosocial reasoning, see others perspectives; show them how to construct new knowledge (co-construct). The library is a natural place for experiential (& even service) learning but how can we do more in this growing, important area?
  
  
• Just in Time Teaching (JITT) by Scott Simkins NC A&T - Scott had the attendee fill out a survey in advance and used the responses in his session to demonstrate JITT - the idea is to gather info outside of class like a survey or post a question that might define learning gaps or engage students more effectively and use that in your teaching the next time you meet. Not only then do student know what to expect in class, they are connected better to material/readings from outside of class, and allows them a little reflection in the process. Scott handed out some great resources and examples that should be online soon.
  
  
• Who's reading What and Why (in teaching and learning) by Donna Baily of UNC - some good suggestions and discussions on the best professional literature for various aspect of teaching. Some interesting books I want to check out:
  • Why don't students like school? : a cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom by Daniel T. Willingham (library record).
  • Brain Rules by John Medina (web site).
    
  • Building online learning communities : effective strategies for the virtual classroom by Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt (library record)
  
  
• Howard Gardner Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Higher Education by Susan Autry of CPCC - always good to remember we all learn differently; understand how to reach more than one learning style is important and so is expanding your idea of what is "smart." Need to integrate other ideas and effective instruction to reach more students more effectively. Some interesting statistics (from meyers and jones 1993):
  
  • students only pay attend 40% of time
  • students take in 70% in first 10min and only 20% in rest of class
  • if you lecture more than 15min - student can take notes but not process info
    
  • 4 months after taking college survey course students only know 8% more than those never taking the class
  
  
• Criteria Driven Approach to Instructional Technology by Jane Harris and Bonnie Canziani of UNCG - an excellent, interactive, sharing session on tools we have retained or dropped and a useful chart to evaluate instructional technology tools. All info and forms on their googlesite.
  


• Civic Engagement: The Process of Learning by Doing - Prof Darlene Rodriguez and her PSC300 @ UNCG planned and moderated an open discussion for the campus community in Fall 09 called Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public’s Role. what a wonderful example of civic engagement, experiential and service learning, giving students a chance to move beyond justtheory and apply knowledge first hand and reflect. Details.
  


• Virtual Executive: Digital Problem Base Learning Object by Wade Maki of UNCG and Karen Hornsby of NC A&T - They demoed a few learning objects they created using Quandry - an open source tool to create case study type mazes (a choose your own adventure style). These tools are both digital and portable; offers multiple learning styles; its interactive and students can do it more than one time; its an example of formative assessment.
  


• Evidenced Based Exploration and Discovery by Pam Carter of NC A&T -an example of engaged pedagogy, active co-learning evidence based exploration and discovery. Used the process model of curriculum design - facilitative teaching. The process of learning is central - not the content. For this class, students engaged in a Green IT project of their choosing. They created a website to educate students on campus, went around and looked at computer labs, researched and made recommendations to lower energy consumption to the campus.
  


• What Research Tells Us: Principals for Making Feedback More Hearable
  By Kate Brinko of ASU - a very engaged interactive session where the attendees discussed in small groups stories of feedback - both positive and negative. From this we determined principals for hearable feedback: credible/knowledgeable/well-intentioned source; feedback told soon after event; sandwich negative btw positives; and give accurate, performance based (not personal), descriptive, and concrete feedback - and limit how much (people can only take in so much info at one time)
  

• Feedback Session by Kim Cuny and Hema Yarragunta of UNCG Speaking Center - Discussed how feedback can be used in work environment, peer to peer, and subordinates to supervisor - basically create a more liner not hierarchical approach to feedback as they have done at the speaking center. How often as a supervisor/teacher do you ask you your students to give you feedback? In a diverse workplace today, feedback impt for all levels: helps newcomers learn the ropes in workplace, improves student performance, allows for consideration of opportunities of further development for all, maintains desired productivity which lead to students having a better chance to adjust their experiences; supervisors/teachers can learn from students as well and become better facilitators of knowledge.
  
  

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!

Staff devpt presentation - State health plan changes

Hi all,

Here are my notes from this afternoon's presentation by Melissa Barnes (UNCG HR) on state employee health plan changes. Sorry if they're confusing at times - some of this is up in the air and I'm no expert on our health care plan :)

If you have questions, Human Resources is the place to ask: 336.334.5009

If you are covering someone else on your state employee health plan, have proof ready that you're related (birth certificate, adoption or marriage certificate). You'll be asked to provide your proof at any time now.

There will be a health fair in February.

Starting this spring open enrollment for the state health plan will be online (shh! this will be publicly announced next month). Open enrollment will probably take place in March. In 2010-2011 everyone on campus will default to the 80/20 health plan. Remember to keep your ears peeled for info on how to get back on the 70/30 plan if that's the one that you want. One thing to watch for is an "I don't smoke" affadavit that will be included in open enrollment paperwork. If you don't return this affadavit during open enrollment, you'll be on the 80/20 health plan starting July 1, 2010.

Smoking initiative starting in the 2010-2011 health plan year
The 70/30 state health plan will ONLY be available to employees if they and their health plan dependents DO NOT smoke. There will probably be spot checks, possibly including making employees visit an office on campus to have their cheeks swabbed to test for nicotine. Human resources staff have been told that they will be involved, but the process is unknown at this time. HR staff are unsure as to how this rule would be enforced for dependents (they couldn’t really require dependents to visit campus to be tested, can they?). People will probably be allowed to stay on the 70/30 plan with a doctor’s note stating something to the effect of “So and so is using a smoking cessation program.” Important for anyone using nicotine gum or patches.

BMI initiative – Scheduled to begin Summer 2011
It is likely that in Summer 2011 the entire campus will once again be migrated to the 80/20 health plan. Only employees and their health plan dependents who are BELOW a certain BMI during open enrollment will qualify for the 70/30 health plan. At this point it is not known whether affidavits will be used, whether a doctor’s examination will also be required, etc.

BMI is a number calculated from your height and your weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC):

• BMI 18.5-24.9 is normal
• BMI 25.0-29.9 is overweight
• BMI 30.0 and above is obese

At this time it is believed that the “cutoff” BMI will be 40 or over. Employees and health plan dependents would need to be under that BMI **and** take some as yet unknown action before open enrollment ends if they wanted to use the 70/30 health plan for the 2011-2012 health plan year.

It is likely that the BMI cutoff will be lowered to 35 for the following year, 2012-2013.

Want to calculate your BMI? Try this calculator from the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.html

It is likely that 4 nutritionist visits per year will be allowed under the state health plan in order to support weight loss.

Questions about the state health plan can be addressed to Human Resources: 336.334.5009

Benefits – Employee Wellness page includes list of smoking cessation resources and a link to a BMI calculator from the CDC.

Thanks,

Lea

Finding health information online

Ever needed to see an image of an episiotomy? Wanted to learn about different approaches to treating lower back pain? Without using a medical dictionary to look up every other word?

The Consumer Health Complete database has encyclopedia articles, images, videos, and many other easy to understand materials on a wide range of health topics. Off campus access is restricted to current UNCG students, faculty, and staff with active Novell accounts. Consumer Health Complete is featured as the top subscription on the University Libraries' guide Consumer Health Information Online

By the way, if you have non-UNCG friends or family who would like to use Consumer Health Complete from home, just point them to this page on the NCLive site (Consumer Health Complete is the 3d db listed). They can contact their local NC public library for a password :)

Cheers,
Lea

SD Institute webinar on demonstrating value

Thanks to Terry for forwarding notice of this afternoon's webinar We can count 'em...But do they count?

Ulla de Stricker discussed traditional library methods for demonstrating value (how much/how often we provide help/materials) versus making a business case for the library (why do we make these provisions/what impact do they have).

Some of the more interesting slides were text-heavy, but here were a few points that I liked...

Don't just report metrics, tell a story. Investigate the context of information needs

• What is the universe of clients and needs?
• What typical activities are they undertaking?
• At what points and how often do they experience information needs (this can inform services that we should increase/develop)?

If we count attendees at events, do we segment by demographics and follow up to measure impact? We have lots of recent activity on this front in library instruction assessment :)

If we count reference questions, do we measure size/complexity of question, trace questions to dept, requestor, or even project?

For chat questions, do we follow up to ask why they use this medium and whether there are any difficulties in using this or other library services?

de Stricker emphasized the need to p/r (probe/realign) before undertaking traditional PR (public relations). She also listed steps that should accompany p/r such as investigating the market (context of clients and info needs).

The presenter suggested a number of PR activities. Overall she suggested that we "have the stakeholders/clients tell the story of library value" for us, though this requires that we reach out to get then deliver these stories. One example was a permanent "library value track" on the website/wikiyoutube (I believe that we currently have this in the library newsletter :)

The recording of the presentation and the ppt should be on the SirsiDynix Institute website in a week.

Thanks,
Lea

Upcoming campus presentations/workshops by Library Staff

11/10/09
Getting the Word Out: Alternatives to Traditional Scholarly Article Publication
Today's community-engaged researchers have many options for presenting their work to the global community. Tim Bucknall will discuss subject repositories, institutional repositories, Google Scholar, local journal hosting, and other nontraditional ways to present research to a global audience. Sponsored by the Office of Leadership and Service Learning... a brown bag lunch series - bring your lunch, drinks and desert will be provided.
Presenter: Tim Bucknall, Assistant Dean of Electronic Resources and Information Technology, Jackson Library
When: Nov. 10, 12–1 p.m.
Where: Faculty Center
RSVP: alkeith@uncg.edu

11/16/09
Introduction to Creative Commons
The goal of this workshop is to introduce the concept of creative commons, how it relates to copyright, how to use a cc license, and how to find creative commons materials. Creative Commons licenses allow you to use and share materials such as music, pictures, videos, and other examples like the library's info literacy game and FIRST research tutorial. You can check it out on your own here or stop by the workshop and find out more!
Presenters: Lynda Kellam and Beth Filar Williams
When: Nov 16, 3-4pm
Where: CITI Lab/Jackson Library
REGISTER

11/19/09
Educating Yourself in Basic Herbalism: Be Your Own Medicine Man/Woman!
Jackson Library staff member, Stacey Krim, has been using and producing herbal remedies as her primary form of healthcare for about 15 years. With increased health care costs and a growing emphasis on preventative medicine, many consumers are turning to herbal remedies and dietary supplements to meet their health and nutrition needs. Stacey will discuss herbalism basics, varieties of information sources available, and how to educate yourself on finding good information, making intelligent choices when selecting herbal preparations, and using them safely. Sponsored by Staff Senate: Professional and Personal Development Committee
Drinks and Dessert Provided Seating Limited Reservations Required
Presenter: Stacey Krim
Where: Bryan School of Business, Room 416
When: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Time: 12:00 to 12:50 p.m.
REGISTER

Southwest Days Conference in Colorado

I recently attended the Southwest Days in Durango, CO on Oct 8-9. Being a place I use to live and a workshop I use to help organize, I was thrilled to be back and enjoyed presenting both days of the conference on Creating a Green Environment @ your library. We had some great discussions as a group and found some new tips and ideas (such as libraries lending Kill-a-watt devices to patrons) all within the gorgeous new LEED certified gold, Durango Public Library.

I attended a few other sessions as well. Norice Lee - Head of Access Services @ NMSU Libraries - presented on library leadership, based on Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence ideas. She offered ideas on how to be a highly succeessful organization - some non librarian-y ideas worth considering. Norice also mentioned a book worth reading called Change Your Questions, Change Your Life by Marilee Adams of Brookings Institute.

Going Social and Two Point Woah sessions with Michael Cox (Youth Services Librarian at pueblo city-county library) and Victoria Peterson (Technology Manager at Mancos Public Library) used the cool prezi presentation software to offer a jumping off place for the group to talk about any of the many subtopics such as Twitter, facebook, friendfeed or any other free online tools. As a group we jumped around to various tools, websites and apps, offering suggestions to each other and sharing since there are always new tools to explore. I discovered zamzar for free online file converting, National Geographic's Wildlife filmmaker/video mashup and animoto - a way to make quick, cool videos w/ music from your images. Irma Minerva also made an appearance as her facebook page was shown as a great example of a library (not a building or librarian) on facebook reaching users in a fun way.

Future of Libraries session was facilitated by Sharon Morris, Library Development Director of the Colorado State Library. Sharon led a wonderful group discussion first asking us what we loved about our job and then what we wondered about the future of libraries. Being a group of school, public and academic libraries, comments ranged but the overall realization was that librarians and libraries provide lots of benefits to users from teaching information literacy skills to providing unique gathering spaces in our buildings or online. One of the big issues is that we don't promote what we do or could do for people (for free!) well enough so people are not aware of the benefits of their libraries. We also need to be willing to shift, change and rethink what libraries are in order to stay relevant in the future. In thinking about the future of libraries, we determined a few ways we can strive to become more relevant to our communities:

• We are the aggregators and creators of information; lets create ways to make it easier for our users to find what they need and start digitizing more unique resources we own.
  
• Schools may be about teaching but libraries are about listening and self directed learning. Lets build our collections and create spaces that engage our community with ideas and stories.
• We are the leaders in our communities; lets model behavior and ideas to guide us into the future.
  
• Advocacy! we may think we are relevant and important but are we telling - and showing - this to our patrons ... or our non patrons?
• Take time to look at your future: analyze stats, assess your needs (such as what are you demographics?); research changes over time, patterns and/or cycles; and most importantly stayed tuned in to new disruptive or revolutionary technologies to determine where the world might be headed and how libraries can play an important role.