ACRL 2015 Recap April 9, 2015

Tuesday, March 24, 2015 – #critlib unconference

Link to related Storify

I got into Portland Tuesday afternoon and made my way to the hotel, met up with my awesome roommate, and headed to registration. That evening I had dinner with the In the Library with the Lead Pipe editors that were in town. We do all our work online so it’s always nice to get to meet up in person.

Wednesday was the #critlib unconference which was incredibly fantastic. Mad props to that whole crew and everyone in attendance. I haven’t had such a wonderful wave of “my people” flow over me since I went to a weaving conference many moons ago. I had volunteered to help set up and break down, but they had things super under control. I think all I managed to help with was cutting some donuts in half.

I’m afraid my note taking was at an all time low for this conference. But thankfully both the #critlib archives and the ACRL website are robust.

My first session at #critlib was the one I had requested: Intro to Critical Theory [public notes][slides]. I was really excited that this was so well attended, both because it meant I was not the only one who wanted this background grounding (it’s not just me!) and because I had correctly identified a need. So yay to that. And kudos to whoever it was that realized it should have the first slot in the morning.

There was some interesting discussion that parallels discussions of library jargon about whether participants in #critlib chats (and presumably other spaces) should adjust their language to be more welcoming to newcomers or whether learning the language of the discourse community was important, words matter, having precise language matters. I also left reassured that even though I personally didn’t know all the names of specific theorists or even some specific terms (hello simulacrum and panopticon), I actually did already have a pretty good grasp on all of the theories that were covered. [I think my film and media studies background helped me a bit here.] There was also discussion of starting a book group, which I believe has been moved forward a bit since then.

Between sessions I quick grabbed Emily Drabinski to ask her for tips on onboarding new editors to open access journals. It was intended as more of a, hey, let’s talk about this later, but she was able to quickly share that assigning specific tasks was key. Possibly one of the most important concrete nuggets of conference for me.

I was very sad to miss the 1st session on open access, labor, and knowledge production [side note: the organization and notes from this are phenomenal]. So a few of us had our own impromptu research justice and labor production session. My only note from that discussion is “daytime #critlib chat? on the clock” Night time is off the clock for many of us, requiring unpaid labor. (also, just inconvenient for some) Some would be more able to participate while at work. Obviously the opposite is also true for many, their jobs may not consider Twitter chats, however relevant, to be part of their job. I do remember I was interested in this topic from many angles, I am an editor at an open access, open peer review journal that runs entirely on volunteer labor. I also volunteer with a group blog that is investigating trying to specifically pay authors of color and I’ve been reading things from communities of color such as Gradient Lair’s Content Use Policy. As well as, specifically, arguments that they do not want their freely available publicly visible online content being used in academic research – effectively making them research subjects without informed consent. I’m lucky enough that so far, all of my jobs have encouraged me to do Lead Pipe work on the clock, but we’ve definitely had editors on our board who had to do all of their Lead Pipe work on their own time. No answers here, just a lot of competing beliefs and realities. We also rehashed some of the ideas around exclusionary language from the first session.

Lunch break! The food carts were great and I got to catch up with several awesome friends.

For session #3 I went to #critlib Instruction Fails. I feel like I should have used my rule of two feet on this one. I have a couple of good take aways, but overall it seems to me that library instruction conversations always devolve to the same place and this was no exception. The bits I found particularly useful were the yoga analogy of not turning away from resistance, but rather focus your attention on the tension. The specific moment it was in reference to was dealing with conflict in the classroom and challenges from students. There was a nice story of allowing the student to share his expertise and how it set a really good tone for the class. Another librarian talked about starting class with the question, “How many types of information did you use today?” as a way to put the session in context. Another librarian shared teaching LC by saying, “You are anthropologists, what can you tell me about this culture?” Which I loved conceptually, but can’t see actually working into my instruction.

The unconference ended with lightning talks and a report back/take aways/feelings. There were lots of comments about how great it was to find a room of like-minded individuals as well as a critique of the whiteness of the room. Whose voices were missing and why? We also did the typical pitches. I stood up to share that Lead Pipe specifically views itself as a place that nurtures writers and Lead Pipe got such a round of applause that I got so emotional I forgot half of what I meant to say and had to come back later to put in a pitch for the “find a research partner” doc that some of the #critlib people put together.

One of my renewed interests from this day was learning to become a more skilled facilitator. I believe it’s something I have a general aptitude for, but seeing it done masterfully as well as seeing when it is sorely missed had this returning to top of mind. An evening chat left me with many resources to investigate, including: The Catalyst Project, specifically their Anne Braden Program; restorative justice groups; the NCORE conference; the White Privilege Conference; and radical K-12 groups.

One of the librarians followed up later with a few more resources:

Training the Trainers Manual by the School of Unity & Liberation (SOUL): “I can’t say enough good things about SOUL!  One of my Catalyst Project buddies told me about this manual.”

Little Books of Justice and Peace Building: “Great series of books on restorative justice.  The “Dialogue for Difficult Subjects” book is a nice place to start for facilitation tips.”

Teacher Action Group–Philadelphia: “TAG is sponsoring an Education as Liberation Conference in Philly next month.  They are part of a network teacher activists groups, which includes Teachers 4 Social Justice (SF) and many others: http://www.teacheractivistgroups.org

I have a lot of reading ahead of me!

The Rest of ACRL

Link to related Storify

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ALA 2014 Recap July 11, 2014

I got in Friday afternoon, got settled in to my room and caught up with a few of my Lead Pipe colleagues then was off to dinner with the wonderful and amazing Allie. On our way to dinner we were recruited to be background for a flash mob wedding proposal. After dinner we stopped by the ALA Play event with enough time to get my picture taken by Kyle Cassidy for his Alexandria Still Burns project. We also played three quick new-to-me games, including one called Timeline, which has an Americana variant I will be getting for a friend to use in her teaching.

On Saturday morning I presented along with Brett Bonfield to the Electronic Resources Management Interest Group (ERMIG) about open access publishing as it applies to our journal, In the Library with the Lead Pipe. You can read the program description at the ERMIG link above. Additionally, from my notes:

• Beth Bernhardt – spoke about getting the entire library staff involved in OA rather than having it be one person’s job
• Athena Hoeppner – her library uses EBSCO’s discovery tool and SFX. She added an open access icon in to their discovery layer as well as making a entry point to search only OA materials. She views this as a teachable moment that promotes awareness of OA.
• There was a movie suggestion for a library event – Terms and Conditions May Apply
• We also learned from a search in Athena’s OA index that it does not have article level linking for In the Library with the Lead Pipe. SFX can’t interpret the DOAJ metadata.

I went to the EBSCO lunch on Saturday afternoon and was particularly unimpressed with the way they talked about their study of student research. They way they spoke about their results left me feeling like they thought they had charted new territory rather than confirmed what many LIS studies have already shown. Mad props for using ecofeminism as their search example though.

After lunch I went to the discussion session: Introduction to Women’s Issues: The Staff Potluck. There was a good discussion of gendered expectations in the workplace, class and race issues, and more. There was also some discussion of the low attendance. Despite the low attendance, I still managed to run into a colleague from Minneapolis and caught up with her. Afterwards I stopped by the exhibit floor to say hi to one of my former deans.

I poked in to the very tail end of the Student Retention Discussion Group and was a little alarmed at the embracing of copious data collection on students in the name of library assessment. There was a brief nod to talking about the data in aggregate, so hopefully I just missed some of the explanation.

My last Saturday session was the ACRL IS Current Topics Discussion. It was a little heavy on the presentation section for a discussion and the organizers weren’t expecting the turnout they got. It was a pleasant surprise for them, but left their activity a little awkward since we were supposed to collaboratively edit a Google Doc. We did have a decent discussion at our table, mostly about the new ACRL Framework, but found trying to follow the activity/discussion questions too confusing. They don’t seem to have added the Google Doc to the session in the scheduler either so I can’t link to it here.

Sunday morning I sat in on C&RL’s Editorial Board Committee Meeting. I’ve put my name in for their book review editor and my wonderful Lead Pipe colleague Emily Ford was presenting to them about open peer review. The board discussed the proposal to try an open peer review experiment. There were concerns about loosing rank/status and not counting towards tenure if they don’t have a double blind peer review process but there was also interest. No decision was made at that time.

ACRL is looking into moving to Open Journal System (OJS), an open source software and was soliciting feedback from the board. Board members shared their experiences with different platforms and vendors.

I made a note to myself to talk to the Lead Pipe editorial board about exploring the idea of open peer review earlier in the process, to help develop a research question and methodology.

I was able to catch the tail end of Rebranding Librarianship – Building a Knowledge Alliance. This seems like a fantastic initiative that is doing important work. I suggested they write something up for Lead Pipe. As a total aside, one of their swag items was personalized microwave popcorn. That seems like a fantastic idea for a library at a residential college to use too.

I was scheduled for a lunch with the #critlib people when I also saw that there was a group meeting about social justice in information literacy at the same time. We were able to combine forces! The social justice/information literacy group apparently grew out of teacher track. There was some discussion of what was wanted out of a group like this as well as discussion of other groups doing related work within ALA and without.

I tried to get into several sessions at the 1:00 slot, but they were all completely full past capacity.

My final session was Discussing Discovery Services: What’s Working, What’s Not and What’s Next? hosted by RUSA RSS Discovery Services Committee (Reference Services Section). I helped with the implementation of Summon at my last job and we’re getting ready to implement EBSCOs discovery layer at my current library. This was a really good reminder of some of the features I need to be thinking about.

• Summon allowed you to have LibGuides be featured results based on certain keywords in the search terms, does EBSCO’s? (e.g. if someone types in “hours” the webpage with the library hours is the first result.
• Linking to OA resources can be sketchy b/c of the metadata
• Can we get it to point to our digital archives materials?
• can we see what is typed into search box?
• EBSCO has “research starters”

There was a question: How do you restructure your webpage to fix people typing JSTOR into Summon? I argued at my table that isn’t the question you should be asking. Instead, make JSTOR the first result in Summon based on all the common keyword variations. You could also have a LibGuide on how to choose which database to use be a top result for that search.

There was also discussion of what to name the tool – one library chose QuickSearch rather than OneSearch to show that it doesn’t do it all.

Instruction related notes from that session:

• one person mentioned using the filter bubble TED talk to explain search results are impacted by past use
• difficulty of tweaking results in Google Scholar
• showing discovery as more powerful than Google as opposed to showing it as easy compared to databases

ALA 2012 – Faculty Development Follow-up Report July 12, 2012

My report back to my college from ALA 2012:

A brief description of new ideas and information obtained:

You can read my full conference report including my notes from each session I attended at:

https://ellieheartslibraries.wordpress.com/category/conferences/ala-2012/

Highlights include:

“I Can Do It All By Myself”: Exploring new roles for libraries and mediating technologies in addressing the Do-It-Yourself mindset of library patrons

• The importance of the library as a collaborative space for students to work on projects and studying together with access to library resources, but also access to technology, whiteboards, being able to talk, etc.
• Creating self-service points

Addressing Global Diversity: Meeting the Needs of International Students in Academic Libraries

• Canada uses the phrase – English as a Subsequent Language (not assuming only 2 languages)
• Be conscious of how we use English when speaking to non-native speakers of English
  • Correcting mistakes makes people not speak next time
  • Ask “does this make sense to you” rather than “do you understand”
    • Students may not have similar understanding of what a library is and how they work and won’t know terms. Library’s in their country may have different rules and behavioral expectations

Hot Topics in Community College Libraries / National Council for Learning Resources Report

• Many groups are working on Open Access to Educational Resources (free, open access etextbooks) (Flatword Knowledge, Rice, U of M, and more)

Forum on ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Initiative

• Hoping to get 300 institutions involved over 3 years, teams need at least 1 librarian and 2 others in institution that aren’t librarians
• Several good survey question phrasings
• E.g. – qualitative question from a famous Ohio survey (school librarians): Remember the last time you got help at the library. What help did you get? What did that help enable you to do?

Learning Styles: Fiction, Nonfiction, or Mystery?

• Research is showing video tutorials don’t work. Example story of a school with 2 versions of their tutorials – webpage with the screenshots was more effective than screencast regardless of learning style

Discovery Systems: The Promise and the Reality

• Good reminders about working with webscale discovery systems (Normandale has Summon aka Library Combined Search)
• When looking at future database stats the important stats will be full text downloads, not searches since users will search Summon more often than the individual interfaces
• Make sure any new database purchases play nice with Summon – The first question they ask database vendors is, “Does it work in our webscale system?”

Ideas Normandale Community College may want to consider implementing:

• Creating more group study rooms
  • Look into implementing/participating in/repurposing questions from the MISO survey – http://www.misosurvey.org/  (“The MISO Survey is a web-based quantitative survey designed to measure how faculty, students, and staff view library and computing services in higher education.”)
  • Look into open access etextbook models
  • Consider applying to participate in the next level of ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Initiative
  • For tutorials – create webpages/pdfs with screenshots and instructions instead of or in addition to screencasts/videos

A description of the activity’s value to the college, your department and to yourself:

As the annual conference for my national professional organization, ALA included both a large chunk of practical takeaways (many of which are listed above) and many opportunities to strengthen relationships with colleagues around the country, as well as form new ones. In particular, I met and made plans to collaborate with several local Minnesotan librarians and was able to work face to face with several of my co-editors at In the Library with the Lead Pipe (a peer-reviewed online journal).

The college, my department and I (and our students) all benefit from the influx of new ideas, the increased network of colleagues to draw upon, and my own renewed energy and dedication.

Other comments:

Thank you for funding this incredibly fulfilling experience.

For a full conference report see:  https://ellieheartslibraries.wordpress.com/category/conferences/ala-2012/

ALA 2012 – Monday, June 25th, 2012 – Riding the Publishing Rollercoaster: Practical Strategies from Research to Writing

Riding the Publishing Rollercoaster: Practical Strategies from Research to Writing

Expand your knowledge of the publishing process, from concept through research, submission, revision and publication. Bringing first-hand experience of the writing and publishing process, this session’s panelists will present strategies and suggestions for individuals considering publishing. The five panelists will present the unique but complementary perspectives of authors, editors, and the publishing industry. Our panelists include authors Char Booth and David Lankes, editors Joseph Branin and Katherine O’Clair, and ACRL Content Strategist Kathryn Deiss.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/146

My notes:

• Wendi Arant Kaspar – I don’t waste my time with articles that aren’t worth it. So if you get a paper back that is bleeding, know that it is with love
• questions to ask yourself regardless of arena
  • point/purpose
  • 1 topic
  • tone
  • timeline
  • collaboration
  • (open) access method
  • feasibility
• document your work (at your job) – then you have the stuff to be able to write about it later

ALA 2012 – Monday, June 25th, 2012 – Insert Catchy Label Here or the End of Gen Y, Digital Natives and the Millennial Student Myth

Insert Catchy Label Here or the End of Gen Y, Digital Natives and the Millennial Student Myth

The program will look at how changing demographics effects academic library user populations and how libraries prepare for the changes. Issues addressed may include, demographic projections, users in two-year, four-year and vocational and graduate institutions, economic issues, serving first generation students, the digital divide, race/class/gender/age, Latino students in higher education, information literacy, technology trends and lib 2.0, assessment and ethnographic approaches to understanding users.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/154

My notes:

I walked in to find out (much to my delight) that this session had a strong social justice theme

Part 1: Yago S. Cura

• working in south LA
• noticed primarily affluent students were using homework helper service.
• In Bronx he realized he needed to bypass outreach to millennials and instead outreach to their parents
• explained to parents that education is an industry and parents need to take a role
• he had the benefit of having parents from Argentina and know how education works in the 3^rd world
• in this country we leave a lot of parenting to the teachers
• it’s not that the schools don’t have best interest in mind, but they’re often understaffed, not enough resources
• gave presentations to parents and the session numbers have increased
• success came from speaking to parents in Spanish and embedding themselves in the school system
• read in a pew report that 65% of Latinos don’t have broadband – pure economics
• but they do use smartphones – so were sure to highlight mobile interface of tutoring

Part 2: Roberto C. Delgadillo

• uc davis working with local cc
• working with transfer students
• many were coming unprepared
• the cc had a new building but few books, only 1 librarian and 2 student workers – were supposed to have 4 staff
• students at the cc weren’t aware of their electronic resources, nor that they were allowed to go to UC Davis library
• having to do lots of remedial (library) courses
• tying in social justice issues – like the issue of not thinking they’re allowed on Davis campus

Part 3: Virginia Eubanks

• book – Digital Dead End? : Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age
• myth #1 – if you build it, they’ll get jobs
• 2/3 of the women she worked with already had high tech jobs – in call centers and datacenters
• a woman working overnight as a systems something for $50/week
• hours are often split shifts or swing shifts – very hard for people with children
• negative health impacts
• chances of carpal tunnel go way higher if you’re pregnant
• level of monitoring and surveillance is incredibly high
• story of woman who checked her bank account to see if she had $ for lunch and IT came over and docked her 5 minutes pay
• myth #2 – the  high-tech economy lifts all boats
• the high tech economy is 2 tier
• the lower level is growing – typically underpaid and uninsured women
• Myth #3 – info tech is a tool for political empowerment
• in the social service system is where these women see computers the most
• the back of the monitor
• technology is the face of the system, the face of the state. There might be reasons to stay away from it
• IT has been used to increase sanctions, obscure decisions, demobilize collective action
• women in the Y community had copious experience with technology
• the center developed an approach called popular technology (based on popular education)
• started with the social justice goals and if appropriate added tech skills
• 3 major projects:
  • community technology lab
  • women’s resource directory – an angies list – integrated a talk back section – lasted 9 month before getting them in too much trouble – united way 211 provides listing service but no talk back
  • tried to make a video game called Beat the System – beyond their tech skills – made a board game
    • had played the sims with these women – wait,you start the game with $10,000? you get a job and someone just shows up and drives you to work?
    • Wanted to make something that showed the double binds they were in
    • There’s a game called spent that does a bit of what they wanted
• don’t assume what tech means to them, don’t assume they don’t have tech knowledge
• it’s about creating space for all to become more critical
• not about integrating or teaching skills to those deemed tech poor
• think of tech not as an endpoint, but another site of struggle
• shift understanding beyond access based – shift to models about ending oppression
• technology is part of the struggle, but it’s not justice
• book has 9 point equity agenda
  • protect workers and families
  • protect places (ecological impact and rejecting displacement)
  • democratize production of knowledge
  • support community institutions
• virginiaeubanks.wordpress.com
• digitaldeadend.com

Edited to add this write up from Minitex’s Reference Notes newsletter by Jennifer Hootman, because I loved her wording:

“Furthermore, Eubanks took the discussion a few steps further arguing that the idea of providing ubiquitous access to technology will uplift all members of society is flawed and is a result of “magical thinking.” Instead, she asserts that the realities of access and use of technology is far more complicated especially for poor and working-class women and families. Eubanks asked the audience how her message can be interpreted and applied to the library profession. She asks how we might include social justice in technology as a library initiative.”

Q & A

• social capitol and lack of is an issue we don’t usually talk about
• who feels like they have a right to what kinds of resources
• audience member mentioned that academic institutions often more business oriented than social justice oriented – made me proud to be in a cc
• interview question – how committed are you to social justice
• in small academic libraries everything has to be tied to the curriculum
• but the library has info lit goals outside of that – it is a library curriculum, and that often has a social justice component
• and those privileged students need their awareness raised too
• not so much that they don’t know tech, but their relation to tech and who uses it in their lives

Several people from this session (including myself) continued the conversation over coffee. I didn’t take notes, but it was a lively discussion and I ended up connecting with several local Minnesota colleagues.

So I missed:

Proving Our Relevance: A Comparison of European and American Assessment Practices

Increasingly academic libraries, along with their parent universities are required to assess their impact, determine their value, assess and evaluate their services and establish strategies for improvement. This session will provide a forum for European librarians to describe their assessment techniques and strategies, with a librarian from the United States providing a comparative analysis.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1133

ALA 2012 – Sunday, June 24th, 2012 – Discovery Systems: The Promise and the Reality

Discovery Systems: The Promise and the Reality

A new era of discovery systems commenced in 2008 with the release of services such as Summon (Serials Solutions), EBSCO Discovery Service, Primo Central (ExLibris) and OCLC’s WorldCat Local. They promised to revolutionize how students and researchers discover, access and use library resources of all types, and aim to provide a Google-like search experience for library collections without the pitfalls of federated searching. Consequently, librarians can focus on promoting information literacy rather than teaching information navigation techniques. This program examines how well discovery systems deliver on their promises four years into their development.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1096

My notes:

Part 1: Mashall Breeding – overview and recent trends and developments

• noticing a difference between public and academic adoption – public more focused on social and interaction, academic more about getting at all the formats
• index based discovery – challenge of relevancy – some citations, some marc records, some full text

Part 2: discovery environments : are users getting what they want? –  Barbara DeFelice (different colleague representing her?)

• Dartmouth College has Summon
• did a survey
• showed the top 10 importance by undergrad, grad and faculty
• summon ranked poorly for meets needs
• tracked with year in college to not meet needs later (senior)
• did focus groups
• differences between undergrad, grad, faculty

Part 3: Mark Dehmlow

• notre dame guy – primo
• making contextual search boxes – e.g. Psychology libguide having it’s own search box
• university of north florida
• print budget going up, circulation going down
• full text downloads rose 70% after webscale
• ebooks went up 2351%
• first question they ask database vendors is does it work in our webscale system
• ILL went down
• tips:
  • chose to have link resolver and web scale from the same vendor
  • fine tune your link resolver (pushing worse ones down, like we do)
  • matching databases to web scale system – chose the best combo and that meant changing some databases
  • promote the tool – made posters
  • database use up -> cost/use down
  • eliminated MARC data loads into catalog – unclear which things
  • new focus – full text downloads, not searches

Part 4: Cody Hanson – Discovery at the University of Minnesota

• planned out what they want from a service without looking at  available services
• currently in procurement process
• products on the market are as different as they are similar

I was also interested in seeing:

Emerging Research in Collection Management & Development Forum

The purpose of this forum is to nurture new authors by giving them an opportunity to present research and receive feedback as they prepare manuscripts for publication. Proposals for the forum were refereed by the ALCTS/CMS Publications Committee. The first presentation, by Kristin E. Martin, Sandra L. De Groote, and Deborah D. Blecic from the University of Illinois at Chicago, is entitled “Comparison of Citation Use Patterns to Link Resolver and Vendor Statistics in Journals in the Health Sciences Fields.” The second presentation, by David Beales from California Polytechnic State University (formerly from Imperial College London), is entitled “Modeling the Cost of Abandoning the Big Deal: A Case Study from the UK.”

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/366

And

The Personal Librarian: Easing Adult Learners’ Transition in College

Adult learners are often tasked with overcoming the pressures of returning to college. Students can feel overwhelmed with schedules, studying, and advancing technology. As non-traditional students may experience anxiety from academic stress, a personal touch can help them through the process. This presentation will discuss the process of building relationships with adult learners. Attendees will learn ways to reach non-traditional students and address their research and technology needs.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1224

ALA 2012 – Sunday, June 24th, 2012 – Learning Styles: Fiction, Nonfiction, or Mystery?

Learning Styles: Fiction, Nonfiction, or Mystery?

What do we really know about learning styles? This program will examine the conventional wisdom about learning styles and lead us into deeper consideration of how we address learning styles in our online and classroom teaching. A moderated panel of speakers will investigate the relevance and validity of learning styles in relation to information literacy instruction, and lead participants in exercises to reflect on their perceptions of learning styles.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/148

My notes:

• Handout includes a ‘5 things you should read about learning styles‘

Part 1: Char – learning styles

• there are 71 types of instruments that measure learning styles
• history of theory – state (context matters and style of learnings adapt – people choose how they approach learning situations) vs. trait (innate/intrinsic)
• in the 80s a woman researched and categorized 4 types
  • 1 – cognitive personality (innate)
  • 2 – information processing
  • 3 – social interaction (social dynamic has impact)
  • 4 – instructional preference (dynamic in a person’s life)
• some instruments are proprietary. Worth thinking about why they were developed and what is meant to be done with them.
  • 1 – pavio – verbal/visual, meyers-briggs
  • 2 – kolb – learning styles inventory – how people grapple with info when they receive it
  • 3 – grasha, dunn, duun & price
  • 4 – canfield, letteri – more about needs and motivations. Expectations a learner might bring
• IL applications?
• What do we do if we’re not testing students?
  • Active learning
  • Multiple modalities – trying to appeal to many types
  • Reflective practice – by trying to meet many types, we’re being reflective in our practice
• focus on learner engagement and differentiate our instruction
• slideshare.net/charbooth

Part 2: learning style controversies – dr. lori s. mestre

• not as important to focus on learning styles, but to provide (variety?)
• controversies
• good slides (not posted?)
• knowledge that you can’t just design things the way you learn
• many learning style inventories are self reports
• if people quickly answer without reflecting it’s not sure if that one instance is indicative of an overall preference
• some tests aren’t good enough (slide on better terms)
• not had an adequate research design
• most people are likely multimodal and multisituational
• idea of adapting style to content
• burden on teachers
• intentional variety in instruction – mix it up

Part 3: distance education

• used to really be about distance. Not a new phenomenon
• correspondence courses from 1800s. Btwn ww1 & 2 radio courses
• after ww2 – tv
• telecourses
• online courses, late 90s and some just getting into now
• distance not about distance anymore, more about the environment
• community college research center released a report on online classes and student success
  • reported that students were 8% less successful than students taking traditional courses
  • but need to see if your institution’s numbers are similar
• learning outcomes have to be the same regardless of delivery
• as educators we tend to teach the way we learn best, but we need to take into account differences
• slides with citations (not posted on ALA site yet)

Q & A:

• char – instructional design gives more universal approach than learning styles
• need to design outcomes, not enough to just pull on learning styles
• middle woman – had 2 tutorials – webpage with the screenshots was more effective than screencast regardless of learning style
• learning styles don’t take into account motivations – why is this student engaging in this course
• how can we speak to those issues?
• Chance for students to reflect within the class session
• some of the inventories give advice on tips on how to deal with an instructors style
• a stated preference for learning style doesn’t necessarily map to actual learning/retention of information
• look into online tutorials of middle woman’s school
• having conversations with your learners to see what they want next in that moment
• reminder about generational jargon
• be sensitive to whether something is working and have an arsenal to pull from
• it’s important to think about why we’re doing particular activities
• when you’re looking at educational psychology, you get a definition of learning that is testable, which tends to be recall – so definition is limited by the scientific method – testing hypothesis
• research is showing video tutorials don’t work
• top tech trends includes instructional design

I had also been interested in seeing:

Do You See What I See? Academic Librarians’ Experiences of Racism

This research project uses the framework of microaggressions, which psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines as “brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership” (2010), to investigate academic librarians’ experiences and observations of racism in the profession. Researchers – Solorzano, Ceja, and Yosso, as well as Griffin, Pifer, Humphrey, and Hazelwood –  have already used this framework to investigate the experiences of African American students and faculty members. If college students and faculty of color are encountering race-based microaggressions, it is possible that minority librarians are also experiencing them, which may lead to negative consequences for individuals, including decreased productivity (Sue, 2010), psychological withdrawal, and/or physical departures from institutions (Griffin et al, 2011). The academic library profession could also be adversely affected if minority librarians choose to leave not only an institution but also the profession. The Racial and Ethnic Microaggression Scale (REMS) survey instrument has been modified and academic librarians of all races will be invited to participate in an online survey. This poster will present preliminary findings of that survey.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/2595

ALA 2012 – Sunday, June 24th, 2012 – Forum on ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Initiative July 11, 2012

Forum on ACRL’s Value of Academic Libraries Initiative

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/207

My notes:

• got in a little late and missed the broader setting of colleges in general
• they did a big summit
• some comments from that – doing lots of assessment but not much conversation after getting the reports back
• slide of list of impact areas identified as the Summits
• white paper – connect, collaborate and communicate – http://www.acrl.ala.org/value/?p=381
• acrl.org/value – they want to know what we’re doing – help create community of practice
• applied for next level grant
  • hoping to get 300 institutions involved over 3 years
  • lowercase student success study
  • teams need at least 1 librarian and 2 others in institution that aren’t librarians
  • librarian would participate in a 1 year professional development program
• next webinar july 19
• survey question about whether the library had contributed to their success – likert
• qualitative question from a famous ohio survey (school librarians)
  • remember the last time you got help at the library
    • what help did you get
    • what did that help enable you to do
• on library website – “why are you using the library” “is there anything you’d like to tell us about the library?” – during library snapshot day
• library school student did some text analysis
• they were trying to show the diversity of themes
• show the huge range of activities that people are engaged in
• libvalue project will be releasing papers on faculty reading
• terri did a faculty question:
  • did you publish, perform, create something, etc.
  • did the library help you (including list of possible ways)
  • 75% said yes – great piece of information for her to show to higher ups
• making assessment actionable
• megan has a workbook coming out
• higher ups willing to accept correlation/connection even if you can’t do the in depth statistical analysis for causation
• don’t have to have your own statistical expertise in house
• state of Washington community colleges hired in that expertise at the state level since that was where they were funded

I was also interested in seeing:

Transforming Collections

What will library collections look like in the near future? A distinguished panel of academic and public library leaders will discuss the current landscape, dramatic changes taking place in how we define library collections, and innovative ways for libraries to transform collections in the global information environment.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/254

And

Conversation Starters: Working with Flamethrowers: How to Fuel Innovative Outreach in Academic Libraries

Why does outreach matter in academic libraries? And exactly what it is (advertising, PR, instruction, book clubs)? This panel discussion will examine why outreach should be a part of every academic library’s mission, how to think about it, and ways to actively engage users through outreach efforts. The panel will share innovative outreach efforts they’ve done at their institutions ranging from the graphic novel “Library of the Living Dead” guide to hosting a first-year student Information Carnival. This discussion will offer ways to think about outreach for your specific institution and provide ideas to try yourself. This panel will focus in particular on ways to engage students through outreach activities.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1707

And

Graphic Novel Stage – Women In Comics (Alameda Free Library / Graphic Novels MIG)

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1464

And

Critical Thinking and Library Instruction: Fantasyland or Adventureland?

LIRT provides a forum for conversation and professional development in library instruction and information literacy, key components to lifelong learning. Critical thinking competencies are essential to this process.  As librarians move beyond “how to” instruction sessions, incorporating educational principles and practices, such as critical thinking, will help leverage their collaborations with user communities.  Join us as we explore how libraries can promote successful information literacy outcomes through theory-based instruction, practical critical thinking activities, and faculty-librarian partnership in pedagogy.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/517

And

Ignite, Interact & Engage Adult Learners: Maximizing the Learning Outcome

Audience involvement promotes learning.  Explore tips and best practices for successfully igniting curiosity, promoting interaction, and engaging adult learners regardless of delivery platform: face-to-face, online, or blended.  Discover how to effectively transform existing training into a different platform.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/244

ALA 2012 – Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 – Hot Topics in Community College Libraries / National Council for Learning Resources Report

Hot Topics in Community College Libraries / National Council for Learning Resources Report

Hot Topics of interest to community & junior college librarians will be discussed; followed by a membership report from the National Council for Learning Resources (NCLR), the CJCLS voice in the American Association of Community Colleges.

Session URL:  http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/290

My notes:

• NCLR – National Council for Learning Resources
• an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges – a president and VP level association
• NCLR is a library voice at AACC
• many places faculty aren’t  aware of all the free resources out there
• this is an opportunity for librarians to be at the table linking resources and helping faculty find resources that will help them in their instruction
• new statement on OER – Open Access to Educational Resources (etextbooks)
• some faculty report that vendors tell them their classes won’t transfer if they don’t use one of the big 5 publishers’ books
• can work with bookstores to have them make profit off of printed copies of OER books
• flatword knowledge is one oer project
• Rice
• University of Minnesota
• CA = OER Center for CA
• oerconsortium.org
• using ebook chapters rather than textbooks, but have to have unlimited simultaneous users (or at least enough)
• discussion of lending tablets and ereaders

I had also been interested in seeing:

Evaluation of Reference & User Services Committee Discussion Forum:  The How, What, and Why of Reference Evaluation and Assessment

As the number of reference statistics decline, librarians look to measure the value of reference interactions more qualitatively. The Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program (WOREP, retired at the end of 2011), the READ Scale (Reference Effort Assessment Data), and LibQual are among the tools that have been used. This discussion forum will address the how, why, and what of evaluation and assessment of reference. Participants will discuss how evaluation and assessment are being done and funded; we’ll talk about the why—what’s behind both librarians’ and administrators’ reasons for collecting this information; and finally the what—what is being collected, what is the workload, and what decisions are being made with this data.

Discussion conveners are members of the Evaluation of Reference and User Services committee. Join us for a lively conversation on evaluation and assessment of reference.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/630

ALA 2012 – Saturday, June 23rd, 2012 – Reference Resurrected: Models for the 21st-Century College Library

Reference Resurrected: Models for the 21st-Century College Library

The shift from traditional reference desk activity has become an accepted reality in most academic libraries. Librarians now offer a variety of reference services including live chat, “roving” reference in the library, embedded or personal librarian service for classes, and research services in residence halls, gyms, and campus centers. This program will focus on the challenges that college libraries face in deciding how to provide and assess reference services that best meet local needs without straining resources.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/164

My notes:

Part 1:

• models of embedded librarianship – mindmap – hugh
• 1^st speaker from a residential campus – so focus is on physical presence
• virtual embedding for us is usually in the CMS (D2L)
• course related model of embedded librarian – attends the course, knows exactly the user’s need
• not scalable – can’t be in every class
• model of being liaison to academic department (we do that at Normandale)
• story of a librarian going on a 3 week field trip with students about social stratification
• colocating in the resident halls
• serve on student organization committees
• not scalable, but still made lots of connections with areas around campus
• just hired a e-learning librarian

Part 2:

• david consiglio – not a librarian, but manages some librarians – bryn mar
• changed how delivering some ref services, changed who delivers, and what they ask them to do
• stats person, sociologist
• had years of data collected at the reference desk
• had lots of categories – certain hours were more about paper in the printer and where’s the bathroom
• reference is a vital service, but should also be efficient
• cut reference back to just biggest hours from staff
• people realize that’s their chance to get a librarian, so questions are more ref oriented.
• More appointments, more instruction sessions
• who is sitting at the desk is not always a ref lib.
• Noticed from data that most in depth ref were not walk up
• set appointments
• asking the reference librarians to also be instructional technologists
• he sees reference librarians being more and more hybrid, at small schools like his
• look into MISO survey
• doing a big qualitative survey on how  students would change the library
• example where librarian is both embedded librarian and embedded technology support

Part 3:

• scott – franklin & marshall college
• residential liberal arts college
• research appointments are highly used
• doing a lot of marketing/outreach

This time slot had many I was considering. I was also interested in:

From Studies to Stacks, Food to Facts: Using Data to Plan the Changing Face of an Academic Library

Assessment, Assessment, Assessment.  This presentation covers a span of 12 years of a mid-sized academic library and the progress achieved, detours made, and pending projects. The presenter will illustrate planned changes that occurred due to the institution’s strategic plan and the impact of three surveys (1999, 2004, & 2009), and the “unplanned” changes that had to be implemented immediately due to external forces and national trends.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1228

And

The Current Status of Academic Librarians: The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?

Given the current fiscal environment, how do we, as academic librarians, maintain or improve our status in order to position ourselves for the future? Is this really the “best of times” where we can redefine our profession and seize the opportunity to reevaluate and retool our responsibilities and workflow or is it the “worst of times” where we experience continued economic uncertainty, the effects of workload creep, and a barrage of new initiatives facing us?

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/163

And

Assessment Discussion Group (ACRL)

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1072

And

Give Them What They Want, Not What We Assume They Need: Developing a User-Centric Mobile Library Website

Learn about the user studies Georgia State University Library conducted to guide the included features on its library’s mobile website, and gain tips for engaging in user-centric design of your own mobile site. Poster presentation will include data used to inform the mobile site content (drawn from a user survey of undergraduates, graduates, and faculty on the desired features for a mobile library site as well as Google analytics), graphical shots of the mobile site, marketing of the mobile site, and post-development user study data (yet to be conducted at this juncture) to inform any redesign/adaptations of the mobile site.

Session URL: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/2530

And

Are Virtual Reference Services Worth the Effort? What ROI Analysis and User Evaluations Tell Us

Are virtual reference services worth the effort? The answer to that question is a definitive “yes,” but how do we know? A panel of experts discusses ways to look at return-on-investment and evaluation of virtual reference (VR) services and various methods used to assess their effectiveness. Real-life examples of ways this has already been done will be presented as well. Panelists represent a cross-section of different libraries and each will share their unique perspective.

http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1062