Information Literacy Librarian

E-Books and Access: Upholding Library Values: Part 1

2011-12-08T10:34:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed the first part of Sarah Houghton's ALA TechSource workshop. See my notes below for an overview of the discussion. The slides and related readings are available at http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/12/continuing-the-conversation-e-books-and-access.html

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People know we have books, but don't know that we have ebooks.
What image are we projecting to the outside?
Are we projecteing our digital content?
Ebooks are more than digitiized text. Integrated media.
People expect it to work on any device.
Users are frustrated with downloading of ebooks.

The Big Players: Content
These are the major ebook content providers at the moment. The list changes frequently. There are other content providers not listed here.
OverDrive: leader in popular ebook content.
3M Cloud Library: physical presence in library via checkout terminals
MyiLibrary: popular content
eBooks on EBSCOhost: This is one of the content providers we are currently using in my library
Safari: technology ebooks
ebrary
Gale Virtual Reference Library: reference ebooks. We use this one quite a bit at my library.
books24x7: a company to keep an eye on
axis 360: From Baker and Taylor, making a big play in market
FolletShelf: popular in school libraries
OneClickdigital: audio ebooks from Recorded Books

SH suggests posting ebook FAQ and device compatability on library website.

Free eBooks
Open Library
Project gutenberg
LibriVox: audiobooks of public domain books recorded by volunteers. (I love this site, but the quality of audiobooks varies)
Podiobooks
Many more...

Big players: Devices
Amazon Kindle
Barnes and Noble Nook
Sony Reader
+all tablets, smart phones, laptops and desktops (I use my iPad and iPhone but am considering a reader.)

The big players: Operating Systems
Kindle
iOS
Android
Windows

The big players: Formats
ebook: EPUB, PDF, MOBI, TXT, RTF, HTML, Kindle, Daisy
eAudioBook: WMA, MP3
Advocacy with ebook providers is essential.

Copyright
Corporate terms of service: company defined, overrides copyright law. Usually is what limits ability to transfer to device, etc.
Digital Rights Management (DRM): software that enforces the terms of service and copyright law.
Digital Millenium Copyright Act: makes it a criminal offense to circumevent technological measures that protect copyrihgted content, eg digital rights management. Penatly for violiting DMCA is greater than penalty for copyright violation.
Some libraries are negotating with content publishers directly, not providers.

What happens when your leasing, not buying?
Most library vendors only lease digital content. Some make it sound like you are buying but you are not. "bibliopocalypse:" We don't own it forever.
Overdrive marketing uses words like buy, purchase and sale, but contracts use words like license and subscribe.
READ YOUR CONTRACTS.

Liscening terms to consider
Cost: platform, conent, add terms (min purchase), difference between cost to library and to consumer (provider charges much more to library than consumer for same content), difference between costs for pCopy (print book) and eCopy.
Accessility: some vendorrs have not made ebooks or platforms accessible. This is a potential legal problem for the library.
Collection access: access to entire or partial catalog. do certain publishers limit terms of access; can content be removed; what publishers and authors are not included?
Termination: Under whhat conditions? Pro-rated refund?
Some publishers are difficult to deal with: Simon and Schuster (doesn't sell ebooks to libraries), MacMillan (doesn't sell ebooks to libraries), Penguin (pulled content from overdirve), HarperCollins (limits number of checkouts)
Some people expect all books to be available as ebooks, but not all books are digital.
You can negotiate terms!
Contracts and prices are not confidential.
Terms of ServiceTerms of service can legally override copyright law. Companies can put anything they want into the terms of service.

eBook Readers
Considerations: Device rules (what collections will you be able to access on this device), Software rules (format compatibility, DRM compabitle), Content rules (will all pieces of content work?)

Reader lending
From 4 scenarios outlined by Mary Minow
-You can lend an empty reader or a reader loaded with public domain content and/or content with permissions to share (creative commons)
-A decvice loaded with ebooks licensed from a vendor can be lended. Be sure you are following terms of service.
-Do not lend a device with unauthorized content
Considerations: initial cost +ongoing cost, cost of device + titles

Summary: Digital Collections
Digital collections provide access when you are closed.
Make users aware.
How DRM affects user access.
Device support

SH's final thoughts: "Advocate for your users."

Tall Texans 2011

2011-07-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

I recently participated in TLA’s TALL (Texas Accelerated Library Leaders) Texans Leadership Institute. The Institute took place at the Montserrat Retreat Center in Lake Dallas, Texas.

Facilitators

Maureen Sullivan, recently elected ALA President-elect, and Jack Siggins, University Librarian and George Washington University, facilitated the institute. Six of Texas’ established library leaders served as mentors: TLA President Jerilynn Williams, director of the Montgomery County Memorial Library System; TLA President Elect Sherilynn Bird, director of libraries at Texas Woman's University; Cindy Buchanan, systems administrator of library media services at Aldine Independent School District; Dr. Ling Hwey Jeng, director of the school of library and information studies at Texas Woman's University; Dr. Rhea Lawson, director of Houston Public Library; and Darryl Tocker, executive director of the Tocker Foundation.

What happens at TALL Texans?

Sessions

We covered roughly 4 topics a day. Sessions were led by either Maureen or Jack. I will be posting my notes from many of these sessions. Most days also included Mentor Discussions, in which the mentors shared an experience related to a selected topic and answered participant questions. Each day ended with personal reflection, time we could use to reflect on and process the day’s learning. The next day began with a community review, a review of the previous day’s topics. Optional events were planned for each evening: Evening 1 – game night; Evening 2 – discussion of the shared reading*; Evening 3 – book discussion.

Learning Partners

On the first full-day, we formed learning partners, providing us each with somebody to discuss what we were learning and how we might use the new knowledge. Learning partners were expected to daily check-in with each other.

Personal Action Agendas

Each participant left the institute with 2 action agendas, an action for within TLA and a workplace action. There are really no restrictions or requirements for defining an action agenda. It can be as ambitious or as modest as you like. Example TLA Action Agendas are service on a TLA committee or presenting at a district meeting.

Scrapbook and T-shirt

Extra-curricular activities included the creation of a class scrapbook and the design of a class T-shirt.

Guidelines for learning

During the first session, Maureen introduced us to these guidelines to enhance learning:

Participate and contribute
Practice active listening
Expect, respect and work with differences
Venture out of your comfort zone
Question and test assumptions
Assume self-responsibility
Offer timely feedback
Maintain confidentiality

2011 Themes

A different participant will give you a different list of themes, but here are a few ideas that I saw pop up in multiple sessions.

Trust: It is the key to communication, relationships, collaboration, leadership, and influence.

Active Listening: Give the speaker your undivided attention. Don’t start forming your own response until the speaker is done talking. Confirm your understanding by paraphrasing what the speaker said.

Involve the naysayers: Really listen to their concerns and try to understand where they are coming from.

Overall, it was a rewarding experience. I encourage all Texas library employees and advocates to apply for the class of 2012!

*The shared reading was "Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis" by Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky from the July/Aug 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review. The article full-text is available in Business Source Complete.

Information Visualization and Keyword Searching in Library Instruction

2011-05-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

Matt Conner and Melissa Browne, University of California, Davis
May 7, 2011
2011 LOEX Conference

Download the Powerpoint Presentation
Visual Literacy is the ability “to produce and consume images.” Matt Conner and Melissa Browne promote the concept of Information Visualization, which “represents data with visual designs that assist comprehension and insight.” To illustrate the connection between vision and cognition, Conner used the example of the blind who have had their vision surgically restored, but are unable to process what they see (reminded me of the movie At First Sight).

Undergraduate Search Behavior

Search strategies: Undergrads use either single word or long natural-language search statements. This works in Google, but not in most library databases. Undergrads also use the same tools and strategies regardless of the information need.
Reading habits: Most students don’t read articles thoroughly, but prefer to skim.
Cues: Students also prefer to look at sources with more “graphical/visual representations.”

Their conclusion: “It’s more difficult than ever for students to translate subject knowledge into appropriate search strategies for scholarly research!” Their hypothesis: “Information visualization techniques improve students’ abilities to conceptualize topics and generate terms for academic online research.” Conner and Browne are currently conducting a study with Undergraduates to test this hypothesis

3 Pedagogies

Keyword matrix: This keyword matrix is a little different than what I have used in the past. In this matrix the topic goes in the middle row and the student brainstorms general terms in the top row and more specific terms in the bottom row.
Google’s Wonder Wheel: I’ve used the Wonder Wheel for concept mapping and development of research topics, but I haven’t tried it for keyword generation.
EBSCO’s Visual Search: An alternative to the traditional search results display, Visual Search helps to narrow results with an emphasis on subject headings. Ebsco is one of the the few database providers that offer a visual search option. For my own research, I prefer the traditional view, but this presentation inspired me to try out the visual search option with students.

The Study
The presenters are currently conducting a study of the three pedagogies. As of the presentation, only about a third of the results have been analyzed. The following results are based on the data analyzed as of the presentation.

How students generate search terms: 1. Google 2. The topic itself 3. Course materials
The most difficult part of research: 1. Credibility 2. Narrowing (Information overload) 3. Relevance

Preliminary results of the study reveal:

No significant difference in the number of search attempts.
No significant difference in time spent searching.
Students “expressed great enthusiasm” for the term-generating tools.

Conner and Browne also made the following observations.

“Students did not rely on keywords.”
Students reacted to information. They used links instead of keywords to further their search.
“Adapted results to fit preconceived pattern for paper.”
“Wide variation is search strategies.” Examples of search strategies include “termers,” who frequently modify their search strategies, and “limiters,” who rely on database limiters to modify searches. Students were not using advanced search strategies such as phrase searching or truncation.
“Student’s assessment of search success did not match always match the investigator’s assessment.”

Discussion
Based on the preliminary findings, the Conner and Browne state that “Information visualization techniques appear to help students with conceptualizing topics but don’t really impact keyword search strategies.”

Ensuring Valid and Reliable Assessments of Student Learning Workshop

2011-05-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

Megan Oakleaf, Syracuse University
Thursday, May 5, 2011, 1:00pm - 4:30pm
2011 LOEX Preconference

The first part of the workshop focused on outcomes and performance assessment. The second part covered rubrics.

Outcomes
Megan Oakleaf briefly discussed the necessity for "clear, meaningful, transferable, learning outcomes." How will students be able to use what they learn in other contexts. Ensure that the outcomes are relatable, but not overwhelming.

There are a lot of different formulas for writing outcomes, but all good outcomes begin with active verbs. See Assessment-as-Learning.

Performance Assessment
Oakleaf stressed active learning. She briefly discussed the "Understanding by Design" approach before discussing performance assessment. Performance assessments “focus on student’s tasks or products/artifacts of those tasks.” These assessments “simulate real life application of skills.” I was surprised to learn that your instruction/learning tool can also be your assessment tool. It seems so obvious, but I had never thought of it that way. For example, observing students completing a class activity such as a database search can be an assessment. Develop a checklist and check off as a student meets the criteria. She used the example of tallying how many students locate an appropriate article. In our introductory workshop, we could keep track of how many students are able to locate on book on their own in our find-a-book activity.

Rubrics
Rubrics “describe student learning in 2 dimensions:” indicators/criteria and “levels of performance.” Oakleaf introduced us to the RAILS (Rubric Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) project: www.railsontrack.com.

Rubric Creation Process

Reflecting: "why did we create this assignment/assessment?" "What happened the last time we gave it?" "What is the relationship between this assignment/assessment and the rest of what students will learn?"
Listing: "What specific learning outcomes do we want to see in the completed assignment/assessment?" "What evidence can students provide in this assignment/assessment that would demonstrate their learning.". "What are our expectations of student work? What does it look like?"
Grouping and labeling: "Can we group our brainstorms in categories?" "How can we label them?" The labeled groups are now the "criteria."
Creating: Draft the performance descriptions. Define the highest level of or best possible student performance. Define the worst and other developmental levels as needed.

In order to avoid the most common rubric design flaws, describe what a student at that level ‘looks’ like.

Rubric Norming Process
Oakleaf recommends norming rubrics when multiple graders will be using the same rubric. This will limit discrepancies among evaluators.

Think aloud about an example. Criterion by criterion, share how you came to your performance rating.
Raters independently evaluate examples.
Raters come together to identify similarities and differences in scoring patterns.
“Discuss and reconcile inconsistent scores.”
Repeat steps 2-4 new samples until consensus.

Closing the Loop
Based on your assessment, “Enact decisions to increase learning.” Assessment is useless if you don’t do this.

Pirate maps, tattoos, and flus: Using a problem-based format to teach information literacy skills

2011-05-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

Kerri Shaffer Carter and Emily Buzicky, Westminster College
Friday, May 6, 2011
2011 LOEX Conference

Presentation: http://prezi.com/j99m8dqg5khw/pirate-maps-tattoos-and-flus-using-a-problem-based-format-to-teach-information-literacy-skills/
Download the handout.

Problem-based learning (PBL) in library instruction is an attempt to provide instruction that more closely resembles the research process. In problem-based learning,“students are presented with an ‘ill-defined’ problem or issue ‘prompt.’ “Students work in groups to identify problem, research issue, and present a solution or hypothesis.”

Kerri Shaffer Carter and Emily Buzicky modeled the session after the problem-based format.
Session Timeline:

Introduction to problem-based learning
“Use scenarios and prompts to create a PBL lesson plan
Sharing
Debriefing (student reflection and instructor feedback)

During the session we had the opportunity to develop a PBL lesson plan. We were given a few sample scenarios and possible prompts. We were also given questions to consider, such as learning objectives, what foundational knowledge is required, and what resources will students be provided with. We developed the following rough lesson plan in about 20 minutes.

Class: Economics (non-business majors)
Time: 2 hours (I wish!!!)
Objective: Students will develop a research topic. Students will select the most appropriate research tools.
Prompt: Examine the Home Values Graph. What caused the various declines and inclines in home values? As a group, select one of the issues, events or trends represented in this chart for further research. Select at least three search tools that are appropriate for your chosen topic.
Materials: Home Values Graph and a list of possible search tools.

Collaboration among students is a significant component of PBL. The presenters admitted that it is “messy.” In my group work, we realized that it could be unpredictable. There is no right or wrong answer and each group will come up with something different. It will be necessary for the librarian and/or instructor to check-in with each group in order to answer questions and provide guidance.

Bridging the Gaps: Transliteracy as effective pedagogy for information literacy

2011-05-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Lane Wilkinson, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Friday, May 6th, 2011
2011 LOEX Conference

Presentation: http://www.slideshare.net/lanewilkinson/loex-2011-transliteracy?from=ss_embed

Lane Wilkinson defines transliteracy as “the ability to read, write, and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media.” It is how we navigate information sources and understand how the sources fit together. It originates with the Transliteracy Project, a study of online reading. Transliteracy encompasses new media, new linguistic competencies, new literacies and what Wilkinson calls the Descriptive Literacies (see slide 27). He used the Twitter hashtag as an example of a new linguistic competency.

Wilkinson offered these “three keys for library instruction."

“Effective information use requires several information sources.” Students will continue to use Google and Wikipedia and we need to teach them to use these sources effectively. “Address non-library resources at the start.”
“Information sources do not stand alone, they interact.” Library instruction needs to emphasize the similarities between library and non-library information sources.
“Navigating across information resources requires transferable skills.” Students search by discovery. Take advantage of this “mental model” and teach how popular and scholarly information sources are similar. “Understand transferable skills”

“Make overt connections.”
“Provide links to specific applications.”
“Focus on the purpose of strategies.”
“Include time for student reflection.”
“Consider how strategies might be adapted.”
“Provide feedback to students.”
“Provide opportunities to apply, re-apply and re-teach.”

Interfaces change. Teach skills that are interface-independent.

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students use Wikipedia to complete a research question worksheet before coming to library instruction.

To sum it all up: Transliteracy is the application of information literacy skills.

Learn more at the Libraries and Transliteracy blog: http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/transliteracy-loex-2011/ and http://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/

Instruct, Engage, Influence: How Educators Can Become Agents of Organizational Change

2011-05-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Melanie Hawks, University of Utah
Friday Morning, May 6th, 2011
2011 LOEX Conference

The conference opened with plenary speaker, Melanie Hawks, author of Influencing Without Authority. I picked up the following tidbits from her presentation.

The effects of long-term influence are not immediately evident.
Understand the environment you are trying to influence. You will have to adapt to the environment before you can influence.
Think of your co-workers as customers. Customers want what they want and have options.
You can’t predict the results. Develop relationships with the people who have influence.
A great way to influence, is to first approach people with an offer of how you can help them.
Stress the common goal.
She has attended Influencer training which discusses “vital behaviors.” A vital behavior is a single behavior that often leads to other wanted behaviors. It is simple, clear, direct and benefits the person performing the behavior.
A “Call to Action” is an advertising strategy informing people of what you want them to do. It is also important that you make it easy for them to do it. She used the example of the Buckle Up America campaign. The logos are simple and to the point. It is easy to understand what is wanted. Car manufacturers also make it easy by providing seat belts for every passenger and warnings when you’re not buckled up.

Student Response Systems in Library Instruction

2009-03-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, Evelyne Corcos and Vivienne Monty published a study of student response systems in library instruction. Their article, “Interactivity in Library Presentations Using a Personal Response System” appeared in EDUCAUSE Quarterly. Personal response systems (PRS) (aka student response systems or audience response systems) allow students to use wire-less clickers in order to respond to instructors’ questions. An instructor poses a multiple-choice question and students respond by clicking the appropriate button on wire-less, handheld “clickers.” The instructor can display the live results to the class or to him/herself.

In Corcos and Monty’s study of personal response systems (PRS), York University students participated either in traditional library instruction or PRS-enabled instruction. The librarians selected PRS as a means of increasing student interactivity in library instruction. Students in the PRS classes ranked instruction as more enjoyable and engaging and better presented and organized. The librarian in the PRS classes enjoyed knowing students were active by their clicker responses. Nevertheless, PRS did present challenges in time involvement and technical difficulties. Corcos and Monty recommend “a standardized routine for setting up the PRS equipment and software.”

Pros

Immediate feedback
Opportunity for formative assessment
Tailor instruction based on responses
Identify areas of low comprehension
Anonymity reduces student embarrassment

Cons

Technical difficulties
Pre-set questions reduce flexibility
Requires more preparation

The authors don't list this as a con, but it seems to me that keeping up with the clickers could be a hassle. How do prevent students from accidently taking the clickers home? Anyways, I would still love to try them.

My Latest Project

2008-07-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

I’m Back! It has been almost a year since my last post. I didn’t drop off the face of the Earth, but have been consumed by my latest project, creating life. My little girl was born March 26. I’m still adjusting to life as a working mother, but I plan to continue the blog. I doubt I’ll post as often as I did before my hiatus, but I will try to post regularly.

For you other/potential Parent Librarians, here are a few resources I have found helpful.

ACRL Balancing Baby and Book Discussion Group: lists.ala.org/wws/rss_request/babyandbookdg
I attended the group’s first meeting at Midwinter, but I missed the Annual meeting. The Listserv has been quiet so far, but it is pretty new, so hopefully it will grow.

Libparenting: groups.yahoo.com/group/libparenting
A quiet Yahoo Group, but has occasional discussions.

Pregnancy and Parenting Search Engine: www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=018242335511370675646:yhqfdetbe4u
Search some of my favorite pregnancy, parenting and baby sites.

Various bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/amygf/Parenting and http://del.icio.us/amygf/baby

If you know of additional resources, please post a comment!

10 Easy Ways to Engage Students

2007-08-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

In a College Teaching article, Tara Gray and Laura Madson provide the following 10 tips for engaging students.

Always

1. Maintain sustained eye contact.
2. Ask before you tell.
This is closely related to the Socratic Method, which I discuss in this post: Any Questions.
3. Create a structure for note taking.
I call this Guided Notes and mention it in this post: Have Topic Will Travel.
4. Let the readings share your lectern.
This might be possible if you can convince an instructor to assign a reading before the classes’ library workshop. I don’t think it is possible with open workshops.

Sometimes

5. Use the pause procedure.
Pause so that students can compare and discuss notes for 2 minutes.

6. Assign one-minute papers.
This is a popular assessment method in library workshops. Here is a great handout on one-minute papers: www.csupomona.edu/~biology/teaching_bytes/one-minute-paper.pdf.

7. Try think-pair-share.
I have had success with this method. Read more about it www.wcer.wisc.edu/archive/CL1/CL/doingcl/thinkps.htm.

Hold Students Accountable Daily

8. Quiz daily.
Many libraries use pre- and/or post-quizzes for assessment purposes.

9. Use clickers or colored cards.
This upcoming semester, I plan to try out Numina II SRS (aa.uncw.edu/numina/srs/). It is a free, web-based student response system.

10. Call on a student every 2-3 minutes.

Gray, Tara and Laura Madson. “Ten Easy Ways to Engage Your Students.” College Teaching 25.2 (2007): 83-87.

Teach Like An Expert

2007-08-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

In a LOEX Quarterly 2-part series, Eric Frierson applies 6 principles of the effects of expertise on instruction to library instruction. These 6 principles were taken from How People Learn.

“Experts notice features and meaningful patterns of information that are not noticed by novices,” so teach information in chunks.
“Experts have acquired a great deal of content knowledge that is organized in ways that reflect a deep understanding of their subject matter,” so help students see the ‘big picture.’
“Experts' knowledge cannot be reduced to sets of isolated facts or propositions but, instead, reflects contexts of applicability: that is, the knowledge is ‘conditionalized’ on a set of circumstances,” so help students understand how and when to use the information learned.
“Experts are able to flexibly retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attentional effort,” so make each step clear.
“Though experts know their disciplines thoroughly, this does not guarantee that they are able to teach others,” so study pedagogy.
“Experts have varying levels of flexibility in their approach to new situations” so teach students to be flexible as they apply the information learned in different situations.

In summary of part I, Frierson states:

“Think of ways to chunk instruction into pieces that fit together to form a whole, providing students with organizing ideas to help them recall strategies associated with one another. Describe how each chunk fits together to explain the big picture of library research, and then find a way to say that to students. Finally, think about how and when students will be using these tools. Tailor the instruction to frame the tools in those ‘how’s and ‘when’s.”

Bibliography

John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, eds. “How Experts Differ from Novices.” How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington DC: National Academy Press, 1999. http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/ch2.html

Eric Frierson. “Instructional Design with Expertise in Mind (Part 1)” LOEX Quarterly, Winter 2007: 4-5+

Eric Frierson. “Instructional Design with Expertise in Mind (Part 2)” LOEX Quarterly, Spring 2007: 4-5+

Art of Persuasion: Strategies for Effective Communication with Chief Academic Officers

2007-07-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

2007 ALA Annual Conference
June 25, 2007
1:30-3:30
Moderator: James P. Honan
Panelists: William W. Destler, Elise Bickford Jorgens, and Dominic Latorraca
Program description at www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlevents/acrlatannual/ACRLannprog.htm#presprog

Thanks to this sluggish shuttle buses and the fact that this session moved from the room printed in the program to one even more difficult to find, I missed the panelist’s opening comments, but this was a very informative program. The panelists all had some great insight into the minds of college deans, VPs and others in upper administration. It was also great to hear from CAOs (Chief Academic Officers [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Academic_Officer]) who valued and supported libraries. The CAOs on the panel offered the following suggestions for working with CAOs on your campus. Unfortunately, I was in the back and couldn’t see who was saying what.

Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t just submit an inflation-based bill

Include descriptions of how you will improve services in your budget requests
Show how the funds will support the library’s strategic direction and that of other departments
Back up your requests with requests with research and support
Can you convince others?

Show how your proposal will solve a problem. CAOs appreciate this because they are constantly seeking solutions for various problems.
Don’t just say “Higher education is moving in this direction.”

Is your CAO a natural ally?
Don’t go around your CAO. Deans and etc. don’t like surprises
Provide ideas on how to make the transition to future of higher education

Library’s Role in Conversations about New Programs and Faculty

CAOs expect libraries to reallocate funds out of resources for declining programs into resources for emerging programs.Evidence of this will help with requests for additional funds.
When departments are preparing proposals for new programs, remind them it is their responsibility to include learning resources in the proposals

External Funding Sources (like Friends of the Library)

Beware of the donor’s goals
Today’s libraries distinguish themselves through their special collections.Target these collections in fundraising.

Merging of Libraries and Technology

Role of librarians will change from providing the best information to helping students shift through the deluge of information and picking the best information
Libraries will be doing more information literacy instruction. Libraries need to carve out their areas that will always be academic because these areas will always have a strong teaching component.

Questions and Answers

Libraries and learning outcomes assessments

Libraries can be included in general and department specific learning outcomes. Libraries are frequently included in critical thinking learning outcomes
Find out how the library can help other departments assess their learning outcomes.
At one of the schools represented, the library dean serves on the General Education Curriculum Committee, which is drafting assessable learning outcomes

Approaching a new president

Invite him/her to the library. Provide examples of the ways students access information and show off technology and special collections
Check with the your supervising academic officer first and invite to join
Know how you will answer if asked what you need
Frame your strategies for working with the new president around what you know about him or her (what did they do/support at their previous institution)

Provide a lot of information when presenting case for keeping a high tech library high tech
CAOs use benchmark data heavily. Phi Beta Kappa and other organizations can be allies.

I had to leave at this point so I wouldn’t be late for my shift at the NMRT booth. But I picked up on some themes.

CAOs are in risky positions. They will listen to you if they believe you can make their job easier. They also place a lot of value on evidence, like what you have done already and hard data.

They see the roles of libraries and librarians changing. As technology makes more information easily accessible, they expect libraries to provide evaluation expertise and instruction. CAOs also expect their libraries to develop special collections that set the library and school apart.

CAOs receive demands from many directions. It is the library leadership’s responsibility to educate them about libraries and keep them informed. Libraries cannot expect automatic handouts. We must provide evidence and sound arguments for our requests and be willing to propose compromises. Nor can we be bashful. We must display and flaunt our innovations, successes and triumphs.

Read more coverage of this session at www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/06/26/ala.

What Being a Very Important Person is Like: Serving on ALA Council

2007-06-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

Several people who are thinking about running for ALA Council have asked me what it is like. Even though I have been an ALA Councilor for a full year, I am still learning. The best way to find out is to attend Council sessions. For those who can’t attend the sessions, the following reflects my experience as a new (and learning) Councilor. You can find a description of Council and councilor duties at amyferguson.net/Documents/Councilor_job_description.rtf. Oddly, I couldn’t find this document on the ALA website, so I have posted it on my personal website.

The first thing potential councilors must be aware of is the time commitment. While most ALA conference attendees went home Monday or Tuesday, councilors had to stick around until Wednesday. Below is the 2007 Annual Conference Council schedule. We had a similar schedule at the Midwinter meeting in January. That’s another thing; Councilors are expected to attend Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting each year of their three year term. ALA Councilors also serve on ALA-APA (ALA Allied Professional Association) Council. However the half hour information session and hour long council session are small additions to the general council schedule.

9:00-10:00am Sunday ALA Council/Executive Board/Membership Information Session (NOT Required)
No action takes place during this session. Like the title suggests, the session is for information only. The Treasurer, President, and a few others presented their reports and received a few questions.
10:00-10:30am Sunday ALA-APA Information Session (NOT Required)
Similar to the above session, but shorter.
10:45am-12:15pm Sunday ALA Council I (REQUIRED)
I missed this session. But I e-mailed the Council Secretariat, so this was an excused absence. I don’t know what happens if you get an unexcused absence or too many absences. Detention?
During Council I, II, and III, ALA Officers and some others presented their reports. Some of the reports include items requiring Council action, such as the budgetary ceiling recommend in the Treasurer’s report. Resolutions, such as the Resolution on Funding for the National Library Service, are also discussed and voted on during these sessions.
10:15-11:15am Monday ALA-APA Council (REQUIRED)
I missed this session, but it is the same people and procedures as the general ALA sessions.
8-9:30pm Monday Council Forum (NOT Required)
A slightly less formal setting for Councilors to discuss items from the next day’s agenda. It seems to shorten Council sessions slightly by giving the few councilors in attendance a chance to debate and fine tune upcoming resolutions.
9:15am-12:45pm Tuesday ALA Council II (REQUIRED)
4:30-6pm Tuesday Council Forum (NOT Required)

8am-12:30pm Wednesday ALA Council III (REQUIRED)
The only difference between Council III and the other 2 sessions is that Memorials, Tributes, and Resolutions are presented.

Participation on ALA council also requires knowledge of parliamentary procedure, which is very complicated and sometimes confusing. In fact, ALA employs a professional parliamentarian during meetings to provide assistance and guidance. Here is just one example of the confusion born out of parliamentary procedure: If someone motions for an amendment to the resolution being discussed, discussion on the motion as a whole ceases so discussion of the amendment can begin. We must discuss and vote on the amendment before we can return to the whole resolution. Whether or not the amendment passes, we must still vote on the resolution itself. This got even more confusing during Council III when an amendment to an amendment was proposed.

I can see where parliamentary procedure can be necessary to ensure fairness and organization, but I still wish it was simpler. ALA uses Alice Sturgis’ Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, commonly referred to as Sturgis. An introduction to Sturgis is provided during the Council Orientation for New and Reelected Councilors at Annual and Midwinter. I attend these sessions when I can because I am a long way from being comfortable with Sturgis.

In addition to the time and complication of council, sessions can also become tiresome thanks to a small number of people who talk a lot (you know who you are). A few resolutions passed with little or no discussion. But others elicited lengthy debates. Some discussion is good because it provides background, clarification, clears up misunderstandings and exposes the strengths and weaknesses in a resolution. I have changed my initial “gut” decision after hearing sound arguments. This usually occurs at the beginning of the debate. Unfortunately, some people insist on sharing their opinions long after it appears everybody has made up their minds.

Sometimes the debate isn’t even about the resolution. A motion to form a task force to study e-Participation in the association instigated a discussion on the value of e-participation and not on the formation of a task force itself. When it was eventually pointed out that the task force would study these issues, councilors continued to make recommendations to the not-yet-formed tasked force. Couldn’t these recommendations be made once the task force is formed and directly to the task force instead of on council floor?

I can’t find where it is stated, but only Councilors can speak on the Council floor. When a councilor moved to Suspend Rules so an ALA member could speak, the motion was defeated. Yet, when somebody moved to Suspend Rules for the ALA President-Elect to speak, the motion carried. Go figure.

For most of this post I have been critical of Council and you are probably thinking ALA Council should be avoided like Fergie on helium. But I still encourage you to run. First, the council roster needs a shake up. Some councilors have served multiple terms and it is not a very ethnically diverse group. (Take a look at the photo gallery.) Our conservative, change-resistant council also needs some innovators and responsible risk takers.

Furthermore, serving on ALA Council provides the rare opportunity to benefit libraries and influence ALA’s direction. If you don’t like the way ALA is going and want to change it, run for Council. In addition, many items passed during Council benefit libraries and librarians. In my mind, the most obvious are the items that will be forwarded to congress, such as the resolution to provide adequate funds for the National Library Service digitization project. Passing resolutions like this puts ALA’s position on the record. Hopefully, congressmen and women realize they can’t ignore an organization as big as ALA.

And one more thing, being an ALA Councilor also puts you in the category of “VIP.” I thought I was pretty important before, but I guess I was wrong, because I didn’t receive the VIP Housing Form for annual and midwinter until I was a councilor. A VIP block is set aside at each conference hotel for councilors and other VIPs. I have never stayed in these rooms so I do not know if they are different from non-VIP rooms. But rooms set aside for councilors will not be released for general members until ALA is confident all Councilors have housing. Pretty handy when the hotels are filled by the second day of registration.

You can also get a better understanding about the inner workings of Council by visiting the following sites.

The Council Page on ALA: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/council.htm
Council Actions: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councilactions/councilactions.htm
Council Agendas: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councilagendas/councilagendas.htm
Council Documents: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councildocuments/councildocs.htm
Council Minutes: http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councilminutes/ac2006.htm
Council Reports:
http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governanceb/council/councilreports/councilreports.htm

And some other blog postings I found about ALA Council

http://freerangelibrarian.com/2004/01/19/jim-caseys-ala-council-report/
http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=205

I hope I haven't scared you away from Council. It truly is an interesting and rewarding experience. I encourage you to throw your hat in the ring by completing the form at https://cs.ala.org/potentialcandidates/.

Undergraduate Research Engine via Google Custom Search Engine

2007-05-31T11:38:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: The Undergraduate Research Engine now has its own site at www.research-engine.net.

The coolest thing to come out of Google the past year is the Custom Search Engine. Libraries, organizations, and individuals can now provide their searchers customized search results, pointing them to selected sites. Google’s latest Librarian Central newsletter has a couple of good articles about the custom search engine: Editorial Value Meets Algorithmic Search and Google Custom Search Engine: A Powerful Tool for Knowledge Experts.

Inspired by ALA’s custom search engine, Librarian’s E-Library, I decided to create a custom search engine for my students called Undergraduate Research Engine. Its purpose is to help them find free authoritative sources online appropriate for college-level work. While I designed it specifically for my students, it is generic enough to be used by lower-level students (maybe even upper-level) at other colleges. In fact I have been using it for my own searches because I find the results more trust-worthy.

Sites Searched by the Undergraduate Research Engine

I set it up to search the entire Google index, but to rank listed sites higher. At this moment, it includes 44 sites. However, this number is misleading, because I told it to include all .gov and .edu sites. I realize some .gov and .edu sites aren’t as good as others, but a large number of the best sites out there fall into these 2 categories. It would be very time consuming and use up the 5000 site-limit to enter all the good .edu and .gov sites. I trust the Google algorithm (to a degree) to keep poorer sites further down the list. I did not include .org sites because there are too many non-profits with agendas. The infamous MartinLutherKing.org site is an obvious example.

This means all the good .org, as well as .com, .net, etc., sites will need to be entered individually. That is way I have opened up the engine to Volunteer Contributors. The more librarian-selected sites submitted, the better the search engine will be. To volunteer, go to the Undergraduate Research Engine and click “Volunteer to Contribute.”

Why does this engine exclude Wikipedia?

So far, I have excluded 2 sites from the search results: MartintLutherKing.org and Wikipedia. I don’t think MartinLutherKing.org needs an explanation. I excluded Wikipedia because I tell my students it is okay to get background information from Wikipedia, but it isn’t appropriate to cite it. Yet Google frequently lists it as a top site in search results. We talk about how their teachers look at their works cited list to see how well they did their research. After the submitted sites list is built up, I may remove Wikipedia from the excluded list, depending on the feedback I get. While I trust Google’s algorithm, it might be necessary to exclude other inappropriate sites that rank highly in search results.

More Custom Search Engine Features

Limits or Refinements: You can also include customized refinements to help your users limit and refine their searches. You can label submitted sites with refinement labels or allow Google to search the results for the chosen refinement. Since our students frequently have persuasive/argumentative assignments, I created 2 refinements: Ethics and Viewpoints. A student searching for “organ transplantation” will see these 2 limits at the top of their results and can select one to refine their search. I will add additional refinements as I think of them.

Add to your website: Google also provides a gadget to add a custom search engine to your own home page. You can get the code for Undergraduate Research Engine at gmodules.com/ig/creator?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcoop/api/018242335511370675646/cse/favv6aufpec/gadget. Go to amyferguson.net to see what this looks like.

Tips for Adding Sites

So, you have set up your own custom search engine, or maybe you volunteered to contribute to Undergraduate Research Engine, and you are ready to add sites. Google Documentation provides some guidance at www.google.com/coop/docs/cse/sites.html, but here are my 2 tips:

Use URL Patterns: I used the pattern *.edu/* to add all .edu and .gov sites to the list: You can also use this pattern to match sub-domains. *.bbc.co.uk/* will search www.bbc.co.uk and news.bbc.co.uk. A similar pattern www.example.com/* works to search all pages of a website.
Use the Google Marker: Add the Google Marker to your bookmarks or links toolbar. Then, each time you visit a site you would like to add to the search engine, you can click on the Google Marker to add it to your site. No need to enter the search engine’s control panel to add sites.

Volunteer to Contribute

If you would like to help make Undergraduate Research Engine the best engine it can be, volunteer to contribute by visiting www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=018242335511370675646%3Afavv6aufpec and clicking “Volunteer to Contribute.”

My Online MLA Lesson

2007-04-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

My library has finally produced an entirely online version of one of our workshops, Research 3: The MLA Format - Avoiding Plagiarism and Documenting Sources. Students who need library credit, can complete the entire workshop, beginning at http://www.rlc.dcccd.edu/library/infolit-ol/selfenroll.htm. Since this is our first semester doing this, we are requiring students physically submit items to the library. It should be possible to submit everything electronically. Nevertheless, we want to see how well the learning activities work before we add another layer of complication.

The full workshop is only available to our students; however, the interactive lesson is available freely on the web at http://www.rlc.dcccd.edu/library/infolit-ol/mlasl/. I designed the lesson and would really appreciate some input-What works? What doesn’t?

The lesson explains different concepts of the MLA format. Each section also includes an interactive activity for students to apply the information and a self-check question to test how well they learned the concept. Students can retry the self-check until they get it right.

An instructor at any school can have their students complete the lesson. At the end of the lesson, students can print a score summary to submit to their instructor.

P.S. I designed the lesson with LessonBuilder3 by SoftChalk. My general knowledge of HTML was helpful, but not necessary, and I don’t know Flash.

PowerPoint Extreme Makeover

2007-03-30T08:20:00.000-07:00

I recently watched an online video by Dean Shareski about making PowerPoint shows for presentations. I learned about it in a posting by Steven Bell on the ACRLog. Shareski provides a lot of good advice for those of us that use PowerPoint shows as a teaching aid. I found his advice on images the most helpful.

Use only high-quality images (photos), NOT clipart. Good teaching often brings storytelling into play. Select images that appeal to emotions. Anybody that has studied adult learning theory and student motivation knows that engaging student’s emotions can be a powerful motivator. Many of Shareski’s examples from PowerPoint makeovers illustrate this.

He supplies some places to find high-quality images, like Flickr and Google Images. But most of the images found this way would require permission to use. I need images that can be used semester after semester and posted to the web. On my del.icio.us page, I listed some sources I use to find open source images: del.icio.us/amygf/images.

Unfortunately, I am having trouble finding open source images of college students and research. I’d particularly like to find pictures of college age people working at a computer, some looking frustrated and some looking happy. At least, I want images that convey research can be very frustrating if you don’t know what you are doing, but we will learn how to make it rewarding, maybe even fun. Please post a comment if you have images that I can use or know where I can find some. Thanks!

Council III

2007-02-07T17:46:00.001-08:00

Council III
Originally uploaded by AmyGF.

I am back from ALA’s 2007 Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington. In addition to serving on Council, I am also on a round table executive board and on an Association committee. So, I spent a lot of time in meetings. Good thing Seattle is home to the original Starbucks and our unofficial coffee capital, because jetlag and the busy schedule made caffeine my new best friend. I did make time for some of the receptions, where there was good food (and free drinks). I only made it to one ‘informative’ session, “Digital Gaming in Library Instruction.” I will post my notes on that soon.

Here is a picture from one of my first Council sessions. "Council is the governing body of ALA." Basically, Council sets all policies for ALA. For example, we voted to make changes to the ALA Policy Manual, as recommended by the Policy Monitoring Committee. We also passed non-binding resolutions, like a Minimum Salary for Professional Librarians Resolution. A list of all actions taken by Council at Midwinter '07 should go up on this site eventually. Councilor-at-large James Casey posted his notes from Midwinter, including Council Meetings, online.

I came back a little bit more comfortable in my understanding of Council, but I still have a lot to learn.

Embedded Librarian

2007-01-08T14:44:00.000-08:00

"The Embedded Librarian"
By Karen M. Ramsay and Jim Kinnie
Library Journal Apr. 1, 2006

In this short article, 2 librarians at the University of Rhode Island describe their attempts to reach students, particularly distant students, through technology. A few faculty have embedded librarians in their online courses, where librarians provide timely research advice and answer reference questions. In addition, they are providing IM (Instant Messaging) reference through AIM and Yahoo! Messenger, which has proved to be popular. Jim Kinnie also wrote this for the conference proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning.

Review of r-library

2006-10-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

A new software, called “r-library" ($14.95 US) by Riveted claims to be “Your ultimate research tool.” But it is little more than an enhanced web browser. In “r-library,” you can browse the internet, save webpages, highlight these webpages and take notes on them. But, it doesn’t appear to work with Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It provides a “citation creator,” but you still have to enter all the citation information into it. There are already free citation generators, like NoodleTools' NoodleBib that do this for free. Its primary sources are free internet sites. It completely ignores library tools in favor of Answers.com and Wikipedia. The only online database it links to is Questia, available for personal subscriptions. It does nothing to lead researchers to databases available for free from the library.

You can create a report from your saved webpages which includes the text you highlighted, source information (including the date you saved the page) and your notes. In the tutorial, the section on “Generating Reports” states, “You can now copy & paste any of the information or save it as a text file or .doc file.” Um, isn’t that plagiarism?!

Sure, if you take the time to read the “Acceptable Use Policy," you learn that Riveted “will attempt to terminate service to anyone who we become aware is repeatedly using our services in violation of copyright law.” But plagiarists have no fear! In the policy, Riveted admits that it does not police and “IT IS YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY TO USE THE SERVICES IN COMPLIANCE WITH ALL APPLICABLE COPYRIGHT LAWS.” Capitalization is theirs.

Summary

Pros:
-Save, highlight, and take notes on a webpage
-Generate reports of the above which include date of access (important for citing)

Cons:
-Doesn’t work with PDFs
-Promotes poor research skills
-Encourages plagiarism

This is a commercial product with no academic value. I like the idea, but the product as it is now will only appeal to the lazy student who doesn’t know better. It could be used with the databases, but I would not recommend it to the average student. Free trail available at http://www.riveted.com/rlib_TryIt.aspx.

Presentations on Blogs and Wikis

2006-10-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

The second session I attended at the TLA District 5 meeting was on Blogs and Wikis.
“Wikis, Briefly Considered” by Mark Gilman
“Blogs: Rethinking Library Outreach” by Davin Pate
The PowerPoints for this presentation provide some good general information on these two hot topics. They are available online at http://www.infinitevistas.org/tla/.

Top Hits of the Reference Playlist

2006-10-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

September 23, I attended the Texas Library Association District 5 meeting. The first session I attended was “Top Hits of the Reference Playlist” by Valli Hoski. These are the websites she recommended during the session. I have starred her favorite sites.

General Reference
*The Internet Public Library: www.ipl.org/
Internet Library for Librarians: www.itcompany.com/inforetriever/
Librarians Index to the Internet: lii.org
Onelook Dictionaries: www.onelook.com/
RefDesk: Reference, Facts, News: www.refdesk.com/
*Worldcat.org: www.worldcat.org

For Kids
FirstGov for Kids: www.kids.gov/
KidsClick!: sunsite.berkeley.edu/KidsClick!
*KidsSpace: www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/
TeenSpace: www.ipl.org/div/teen/
*Fact Monster: www.factmonster.com

Science Fair
*Cyber-Fair: www.isd77.k12.mn.us/resources/cf/welcome.html
*IPL Science Fair Project Resource Guide: http://www.ipl.org/div/projectguide/
Science Fair Central: school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/
Science Fairs Homepage: http://www.cdli.ca/sciencefairs/

Legal Information for Consumers
FindLaw: www.findlaw.com
NoLo Guides and Auntie NoLo: www.nolo.com
Project Avalon: Law, History, Diplomacy: www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
CrimeLibrary: www.crimelibrary.com

Business Information for Consumers
Business.com: www.business.com
Hoovers: www.hoovers.com
MarketWatch: www.marketwatch.com
BigCharts: bigcharts.marketwatch.com/
BankRate.com: www.bankrate.com

Improving Teaching in Your Program

2006-09-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am posting my last session summary from Immersion ’06. The remainder of time was used for working on our final products. In the program track, we developed action plans. Some example action plans from a previous Immersion are at http://informationliteracywactc.pbwiki.com/ActionPlans. At the Closing Plenary, we developed fun activities in groups. My group was Written/Student. We wrote a personal ad looking for an information literate student. Pictures from the Closing Plenary are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/amyferguson/tags/immersion06closingplenary/. I tried to get pictures of each group. I also took pictures of the Immersion Faculty performing their activity based on The Wizard of Oz musical.

July 31, 2006
Lead Faculty: Randy Hensley and Beth Woodard

In this session we got to draw with crayons and play with play dough. Randy started the session talking about authenticity and including creativity (like using crayons and play dough) as ways to improve student engagement. (I wonder if he uses crayons and play dough in IL instruction.) He suggests using Parker Palmer’s writing, national characteristics of student populations, and local data to reframe teaching in programs. One can do this by taking advantage of developmental and practice opportunities, organizational change, or leaving (as a last resort).

Beth concluded the session by encouraging us to write a personal teaching/philosophy statement. It is important that what we do aligns with what we believe about teaching. Completing a teaching perspectives inventory helps one write this statement. I found this teaching perspectives inventory with a Google Search: www.teachingperspectives.com. It is not the same one Beth provided us and I haven’t tried it, but it looks promising.

Assessment of Information Literacy Programs

2006-08-30T14:27:00.000-07:00

From Immersion '06, July 31, 2006

Faculty Lead: Debra Gilchrist

For assessing a program, as opposed to student learning, Deb reframed the 5 questions from her “Assessment-as-Learning” sessions.

“What do you want the instruction program to be able to do? What does it do when it meets student needs and/or supports student learning?” (Outcome)
“What factors does the program demonstrate or exhibit if they are meeting the outcomes? What will be happening?" (Indicators)
“How will you gather your data or evidence?” (Assessment)
“How will you determine if you have achieved your outcomes?” (Criteria)
“How will the discussion or evaluation of the data occur? Who will be involved?” (Change)

It is important that the assessment leads into a cycle of continual improvement. Deb’s cycle of Outcomes/Indicators/Assessment/Criteria/Change reminded me of the Plan/Do/Check/Act cycle used in my organization. Deb recommends using ACRL’s “Characteristics of Programs of Information Literacy that Illustrate Best Practices” when establishing program outcomes.

Campus Cultures

2006-08-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

From Immersion '06, July 30, 2006

Faculty Lead: Craig Gibson

A culture includes a combination of explicit knowledge (factual and recorded) and tacit knowledge (attitudes and beliefs). The “five core academic values of faculty” are 1) collegiality, 2) autonomy, 3) academic freedom, 4) specialized expertise, and 5) reason/scientific method.* They see librarians as “process, procedure oriented; rule-bound; service role rather than educational one; not seen as equals;” and “not aware of instruction that librarians already do.”

The campus culture also consists of a student culture, a library culture, and an administrative culture. In order to integrate information literacy into the curriculum, we need to “tap into all the cultures” and “bring them together.” Gibson quoted the “core changes strategies within the academy” from an article in The Journal of Higher Education (July/Aug. 2002) by Kezar and Eckel: “senior administrative support,” “collaborative leadership,” “robust design” (a collaborative and evolving blueprint of the future), “staff development,” and “visible actions” (actions that “show the culture is changing”). He emphasized robust design and visible actions.

* Barbara Walvoord. Academic Departments: How They Work, How They Change. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, v. 27, no. 8. San Francisco: Josey Bass, 2000, pp.15-17.

So Whatsa Program?

2006-08-25T13:35:00.000-07:00

At Immersion, July 30, 2006

Faculty Lead: Craig Gibson

Program Structure: From the Systems view, “structures consist of interrelated parts.” “Structures make sense, are visible to all the parties involved.” An IL Program structure is not linear, but a “spiral curriculum” (“Structures develop a progression of knowledge.”) An IL program structure consists of a horizontal scope (how many) and vertical scope (how long) that promotes the “Diffusion of Innovation.” Traditional Bibliographic Instruction helps the student finish the assignment but does not connect with the course. In an Information Literacy program, learning opportunities are embedded in the course. To get to an IL program, we can begin by leveraging the one-shot session. (See Clueless in Academe)

Leadership Orientations

2006-08-23T10:56:00.000-07:00

At Immersion, July 30, 2006
Faculty Lead: Karen Williams

We began with a Leadership Orientations questionarre. Most in the room scored either as a Structural or Human Resources leader. According to Karen, these are the two most common frames in librarianship. A few scored as Symbolic, but only 2 scored as Political leaders. These four leadership frames: Structural, Human Resources, Symbolic, and Political come from Bolman and Deal's book that is used in the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute. Reframing is important because it broadens our perspective, helps manage complexity, and “provides a basis for effective and informed action.”

**It is crucial to create an Information Literacy Vision.**

There was then a discussion of what a leader is with views from several authors. Karen’s view of leaders:

Storytellers (Boyett & Boyett 1999)
“design learning processes” (Senge 1990)
“work with all in a community of leaders” (Barth 1992)
“take risks and are open to change” (Bennis 1997)
view mistakes and failure as learning opportunities (Bennis 1997).

Karen suggested we create leadership growth plans. She recommends Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook.

Our activity was an Opportunity Assessment: “Know your audience, focus on the change makers, and know their turf, use their issues.” It was also suggested that we draft short “sound bites” and a back-up plan.

Leadership Tools

From Senge’s Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (1994), the needed tools are: “personal mastery and self awareness, systems thinking, shared vision, mental models and team learning.”

There was a short discussion on change, including John Kotter’s (1996) process of creating change and human reaction to change. The session ended with a very brief overview of Force Field Analysis and the Ease/Impact Model.

Changing Paradigms

2006-08-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

An Immersion event, July 29, 2006

Faculty Lead: Karen Williams

Bibliographic Instruction and Information Literacy are actually two different things, and most of what we do is still bibliographic instruction. According to Karen, the goal of bibliographic instruction is “to teach how to find information in the library” and the goal if information literacy is “to be an effective user of information in any format and place.” In an information literacy program model, information literacy is integrated into the curriculum. A librarian does not have to be present for information literacy instruction to take place. Changing from an “instruction paradigm” to a “learning paradigm,” as described by Robert B. Barr and John Tagg will allow information literacy instruction to be scaleable.

Assessment-as-Learning

2006-08-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

During Immersion, Debra Gilchrist presented 3 workshops on assessment, 2 general sessions on assessment-as-learning and 1 on program assessment. My notes from the first 2 sessions are below. I will post my notes from the session on program assessment later.

Assessment as Learning Pt. 1 July 29, 2006
Faculty Lead: Debra Gilchrist
Deb’s 2 rules for assessment: 1) Work backwards from what you students to be able to do and 2) Assessment is about student learning.
Deb’s “5 questions for assessment design:

“What do you want students to be able to do?” (Outcome)
“What does the student need to know in order to do this well?” (Curriculum)
“What activity will facilitate learning?” (Pedagogy)
“How will the student demonstrate the learning?” (Assessment)
“How will I know the student has done this well?” (Criteria)

Deb’s outcome writing formula: Verb phrase + “in order to” + impact phrase
An example from Deb: "Develop topic relevant vocabulary in order to search databases with maximum flexibility and effectiveness."
Bloom’s Taxonomy is helpful in writing the verb phrase that describes what you want the student to be able to do. The impact phrase explains why you want the student to be able to do it.

Assessment-as-Learning Pt. 2 July 30, 2006
Faculty Lead: Debra Gilchrist
This session began with a brief review of the outcome formula. In the formula, the verb phrase is the skill and the “in order to” statement is the application or impact. Deb believes outcomes are fully measurable. Recall from the “good learning outcomes” slide that they are measurable/“judgeable.” Measurable outcomes are quantitative and judgment outcomes are qualitative. A judgeable outcome is where the instructor can see that the student has improved (I am thinking this means behavior wise). Assessment test like SAILS and ETS can provide a benchmark. The best assessments include a critical thinking element. Debra than shared some documents demonstrating IL assignments and outcomes that librarians have helped faculty develop and self-assessment students utilize in library workshops.

At Pierce College, the library provided a faculty workshop where they analyzed assignments with faculty. The faculty submitted assignments in advance and the librarians identified what IL concepts students needed to know in order to complete the assignment. They then worked with faculty to revise outcomes.

At Pierce College they assess only one out of five outcomes each year so that each out come will be assessed at least once over an eight year period. More important outcomes may be assessed more often than less important ones. At first they only assessed 1 in 10 sessions (10%), now they assess 1 in 4 (25%).

PS. Be sure to check out Pierce College's Library Instruction Program. Notice that Information Competency is on of the college's 5 core abilities. Pretty cool, huh?

Immersion Opening Plenary

2006-08-10T06:37:00.000-07:00

Following is a summary of the first session at Immersion '06. My notes from other Immersion events will be following soon.

Opening Plenary June 29, 2006

Faculty Lead: Craig Gibson
After all the faculty introduced themselves, the program begin with discussion on the definition of information literacy that included the “7 Ages of Instruction,” a jig-saw reading activity on 5 articles that defined information literacy and Christine Bruce’s “Seven Faces of Information Literacy in Higher Education.”
For the next part of this session, we watched “The Deep Dive,” a fun Nightline clip about an innovative design company called IDEO. IDEO immerses itself into a design problem and uses play to foster innovation. Their five brainstorming rules are:

“Defer judgment”

“Encourage wild ideas”

“Build on the ideas of others”

“Stay focused on topic”

“One conversation at a time”

“Be visual”

“Go for quantity”

Immersion '06

2006-08-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

Simmons Conference Center
Originally uploaded by AmyGF.

Well, I got home from ACRL’s Institute for Information Literacy Immersion ‘06 in Boston a few days ago and I am dripping wet after being thoroughly immersed in Information Literacy for nearly a full week. It was an intense, but great experience. Not only did I learn a lot, but my perception of Information Literacy has changed and I’ve gotten so many ideas I want to try out.

I participated in the Program Track and our final product was an Action Plan to bring home. While my Action Plan still needs some work, it lays out some goals that I believe we can achieve within the next year.

Some pics from Immersion are available at www.flickr.com/groups/acrlimmersion2006/. Most of these pics are from the Teacher Track, but it still gives you good idea of what the whole program is like.

I’m still working on my summaries of events, but those will likely appear shortly.

ALA Annual 2006

2006-07-21T14:08:00.000-07:00

I attended the following events at ALA this year:

Serving the Underserved - Distance Education & the LIS Degree
Speaker 1 discussed how the profession views distance education. Many look down on distance education programs, but most graduates of distance programs are satisfied with their education and employers are happy with distance LIS graduates. Speaker 2 explained how distant students can receive the same level of education as traditional students by researching LIS programs, using internet communication tools, participating in library associations, and work experience. Speaker 3 listed the pros and cons of distance education. Speaker 4 discussed distance education from an instructor’s perspective.

Ethical and Legal Issues in Reference Discussion Group
In this informal discussion, librarians chatted about the role of libraries and librarians in detecting/preventing plagiarism. We also pondered how to handle purchased items that turn out to be plagiarized or fabricated (as in Frey’s A Million Little Pieces). Although it was an interesting conversation, there were no grand revelations.

Making Assessment Work for You: How Information Literacy Tests Can Help Support Library Programs
Speakers discussed the development and use of 2 assessment tools: Project SAILS and the ICT Literacy Assessment. I was late and missed Carolyn Radcliff and Joe Salem discussing the development of Project SAILS. Much of Wendy Holliday’s presentation on Utah State University’s experience with SAILS and assessment of information literacy is in the document at library.usu.edu/instruct/english-assess-infolitreport.pdf. I thought it was interesting that SAILS scores showed no significant differences in freshman and sophomores, but the few seniors who participated did do better than underclassmen. Their citation analysis was also interesting. Of the few students who did provide citations, they were mostly websites and 16 websites accounted for 49% of the citations.
I cannot recall anything about Teresa Egan’s presentation on the development of ETS’ ICT Literacy Assessment, however, there is a lot of info about this test at www.ets.org/itcliteracy. Lesley Farmer discussed her experience with the ICT assessment. From her experience, the test focused too much on technology and not enough print IL, it was time consuming, and not aligned with the curriculum. They also experienced technical difficulties while administering the test and had to have the campus’ firewall turned off.

The Long Tail: The Internet, Culture and the Mega-Store
This was the most interesting session I attended at ALA 2006. Chris Anderson, author of the recently published The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, discussed the “long tail” and how libraries contribute. Anderson’s “long tail” describes the shift in consumer purchases away from a heavy focus on popular products to a focus on niche products with less mass appeal. For example, when I was a teenager, I bought most of my music CDs at Wal-Mart. My purchases were limited to products available in Wal-Mart, mass produced and mass distributed. But thanks to online stores, like Amazon, I can easily find and purchase less popular works, such as music by Sherie Rene Scott or O’2L.

If you graph product purchase versus popularity, a tall spike (of popular products) occurs with a long tail of niche products following. While no one niche product sells more than any of the popular products, all together, the niche products sell more than the popular products all together. The long tail affects entertainment, publishing, advertising (think AdWords), credit cards and even “libations” like beer. You can read a little more about “long tail” at www.longtail.com/about.html and in Anderson’s original article on the subject at www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html.

The “long tail” can be seen in libraries through interlibrary loan, online databases, and Google Book Search. Interlibrary loan and online databases provide users access to a much broader access to materials than what they have at home or even in their libraries. Google’s Book Search helps users become aware of books that they might not have been aware of. Select slides of Anderson’s PowerPoint from this talk are available on his blog at www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/06/t_minus_15_and_.html.

Events I Did Not Attend
I did not attend the following events, but resources related to these events and other blog summaries are available online.

ACRL President’s Program: The Emperor Has No Clothes: Be It Resolved That Information Literacy is a Fad and Waste of Librarians’ Time and Talent: acrlblog.org/2006/07/04/the-great-debate-is-information-literacy-a-fad-and-a-waste-of-time/

Drug Foods, Fast Foods, and Feasts: A Social Science of Eating: acrlblog.org/2006/06/30/anss-program-at-ala-is-food-for-thought/

Go Where They Are (And Go Now!): acrlblog.org/2006/06/29/go-where-they-are-and-go-now/

I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can: Building a Career When Personal Responsibilities Demand More of You: www.geocities.com/ccnmrt/2006annual/

The Power of Personal Persuasion: bryanloar.blogspot.com/2006/06/power-of-personal-persuasion_24.html

Publish, Don’t Perish: Helpful Hints for Authors: acrlblog.org/2006/06/26/help-with-publishing-can-keep-you-from-perishing/

LITA Events: litablog.org/category/ala-2006/

If you have a link to resources or summaries of events from ALA 2006, please share!

N'Awlinz

2006-06-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

I returned from ALA Annual a few days ago. Everybody in New Orleans was very welcoming. I don’t think we have ever received such a warm reception. The French Quarter didn’t receive much damage from Katrina and was just like I remembered it. But librarians who made it out to the ninth ward and other damaged areas said it was worse than they had imagined. Refer to the following articles for more about the current state of New Orleans and ALA in New Orleans.

“Ten Months After Katrina: Gutting New Orleans:” www.justiceforneworleans.org

June 27 Times-Picayune article: www.nola.com/entertainment/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-6/115138795910710.xml

CNN Video: www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/us/2006/06/26/callebs.nola.convention.affl

I attended the following events and plan to post summaries soon. Event descriptions are from the conference program. There were also a lot of great looking events that I didn’t get to attend and I will be looking for summaries of those events too.

Serving the Underserved - Distance Education & the LIS Degree
Date: 6/24/2006 10:30 AM -- 12:00 PM
Location:Morial Convention Center room: Rm. 342
Meeting Type: Open
Description: Social and technological changes in recent years have created a virtual revolution in the field of LIS education. Currently there 12 institutions that offer ALA accredited degrees that can be completed entirely on-line. Many others have extensive distance education components. Four Spectrum Scholars and an LIS professor will discuss the advantages, challenges, and unique “classroom” dynamics that this phenomenon creates, particularly for students from underrepresented groups. Moderated by Mark Puente, 2003 Spectrum Scholar.

Ethical and Legal Issues in Reference Discussion Group
Date: 6/24/2006 1:30 PM -- 3:30 PM
Location:Hotel Intercontinental room: Poydras
Meeting Type: Open
Description:
Amy’s note: Topic was Plagiarism

Making Assessment Work for You: How Information Literacy Tests Can Help Support Library Programs
Date: 6/25/2006 8:00 AM -- 10:00 AM
Location:Morial Convention Center room: Rm. 286-87
Meeting Type: Open
Description: Standardized tests are being used to measure the information literacy competencies of K-16 students. Results from these tests can have a profound effect on how administrators look at information literacy. What are these tests assessing and how can we use these tests to our advantage? This program will present a panel of testing experts and practitioners who will discuss how these tests work and how test scores can be used by librarians as data to support library programming.

The Long Tail: The Internet, Culture and the Mega-Store
Date: 6/26/2006 10:30 AM -- 12:00 PM
Location:Morial Convention Center room: Rm. 298-99
Meeting Type: Open
Description: Speakers will discuss information commons and new strategies for libraries.

Information Literacy for the 21st Century Learner

2006-06-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

I recently viewed the teleconference, “Information Literacy for the 21^st Century Learner: Reaching At-Risk High School and Community College Students,” provided by the College of DuPage’s Library Learning Network. The program focused on a project with the same name by the Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges (NILRC). A major component of this project is the Needs Assessment Instrument, which is available for others to use free of charge.

Other Things I Learned About

Standards: In developing this project, NILRC not only referred to information literacy standards, such as those by ACRL and AASL, but also considered general education standards: the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) and the Center for Educational Policy Research’s Standards for Success. SCANS considers the skills required to succeed in the modern work world. The report lists 6 “Functional Skills Needed for Effective Work Performance,” including “Information Management: Acquires and uses necessary information.” The purpose of the Standards for Success project was to define the skills students needed to successfully complete entry-level university courses. Several of the standards, provided in Understanding University Success, focus on the ability to locate and use information.

Instruction Design: Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe discussed the Kolb Cycle of Experiential Learning, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, and ARCS Motivation Theory.

Any Questions?

2006-05-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite teaching strategies is the Socratic Method. I like this method because questioning the class for ‘original answers’ fosters critical thinking. For example, instead of telling the students the steps in a 5-stepped research process, I ask them a series of questions that leads them to discover the 5 steps as a class. I start by writing 1 through 5 on the board so the students will know we are looking for five steps. Then I ask them “When you have been assigned a topic to write about, how do usually begin your research?” Almost always they will say, “The Internet!” I will then ask them a series of questions, such as “How many results do you get?” or “How good are the results?” until they admit that maybe the web is not the best place to start. I then write “Internet” in the fifth spot so we remember that this is the last step. Next I will ask something like, “When you first start your research, what do you need to know about your topic?” I usually get answers like “what it is” or “background information.” After that I ask them “Where can you find this type of information?” I ask questions until we have all 5 spaces completed.

I first learned about the Socratic Method at an instruction workshop. In the workshop, we received a handout titled “Introduction to Socratic Pedagogy.” Unfortunately, the handout does not appear to be online, but here are some helpful tips from the handout.

Prepare your sequence of questions before class
Vary question difficulty and pace
“Ask a variety of questions on the same concept.”
“Set up patterns”
“When a student asks a question or if we ask a question, don’t answer it yourself.”
Don’t ask questions that end in “Right?”

Interested in a TLA Distance Learning Interest Group?

2006-04-12T11:13:00.000-07:00

Denise Landry-Hyde is looking to establish a Distance Learning Interest Group within the Texas Library Association (TLA). She states, “With the rapid growth in distance learning throughout the country, there is an increasing need within the state for a group that focuses on the needs and requirements of this learning community.”

If you are a TLA member in good standing, please “sign” the petition to form this Interest Group by e-mailing Denise Landry-Hyde at Denise.Landry@mail.tamucc.edu. If you are not a member of TLA, you can join TLA at www.txla.org/html/memoptions.html.

Library Instruction Teaching Tips

2006-04-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

At their Library Instruction Teaching Tips page, the Library Instruction Round Table of ALA provides brochures with teaching tips in the following areas:

Not only do these brochures provide teaching tips, but each also includes a bibliography. Despite being created in 1999, the information provided is still relevant, even in “Technology in the Classroom.”

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these brochures. If you don't already have it, you can download for free at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Classroom Management Systems Comparison Chart

2006-03-31T08:19:00.000-08:00

I have a dream of a library classroom where the instructor controls the computers students use. No more students checking their e-mail or MySpace page. No choice but to pay attention (or sleep). The instructor can even direct all student computers to the same website. Several software/hardware products, called Classroom Management Systems, make this possible. The Teaching Methods Committee of ACRL provides a list comparing many of these products at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/about/sections/is/projpubs/classroomcontrolsys/classroomcontrol.cfm.

Someday my dream will come true.

PS. If you have experience using a Classroom Management System, please post a comment with your opinion of the system you use.

Internet at School

2006-03-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

"The Internet at School: A Tool or a Crutch?"
By Peter Alexander, Correspondent, NBC News
MSNBS
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11727321/from/ET/

This article states, "With the facts now at their fingertips, teachers say it's less important that their students can store information in their heads and more important that they know where to find it and what to do with it."

Why does that sound familiar? Oh yeah, we call that 'Information Literacy.' Anyways, it is nice to see that others recognize the importance of information literacy today, even if they don't call it that.

Laughs for the Stressed Librarian

2006-02-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

There are just some days (and patrons) I could not get through if I didn’t look at the humor in the situation. Here are a few sources of humor that help me make it through those kinds of days.

Blogs
bitter librarian
http://bitterlibrarian.blogspot.com/
“The true tales of a public librarian. Advocating for victimized librarians everywhere. Names have been changed to protect the confidentiality of guilty parties.”

A Librarian's Guide to Etiquette
http://libetiquette.blogspot.com/
“A polite librarian is a good librarian.”

Library Mofo
(Warning: Contains language that may be offensive to some!)
http://community.livejournal.com/library_mofo/
“The Society for Librarians* who Say Mother****er.” Or those of us who feel like it sometimes.

Comics
Unshelved
http://www.overduemedia.com/
Daily comic strip that takes place in a public library.

Funny You Should Ask…
Each week this e-mail from Thomson Gale features a humorous reference question. Subscribe at http://www.gale.com/enewsletters/ or view the archives at http://www.gale.com/enewsletters/archive.htm. Not really a comic, but it looks like one.

Of course, we can’t actually take our frustrations out on the patron, no matter how much they ask for it. Just to make sure you are not corrupted after visiting some of these sites, take a look at the Baylor University Libraries’ “Client Service Standards and Behavioral Indicators” accessible at http://www.baylor.edu/lib/librarystaff/. This document will give you a review of good customer service behaviors.

ALA Midwinter 2006

2006-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

I attended the following events at the American Library Assocaition's 2006 Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Combating the Culture of Copy: Information Literacy Intervention for Plagiarism
Presented by Lynn D. Lampert; Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)
Friday, Jan. 20, 2006
Today’s typical college students routinely download information and media. Wikis, blogs, and open-source programming encourage collaboration. Most students do not know what constitutes plagiarism and what is legal. Furthermore, what most faculty recognize as plagiarism differs from many librarians’ stricter definition of plagiarism. The definition of plagiarism also differs by discipline. This session focused on a discipline-based approach to anti-plagiarism instruction. To understand what constitutes plagiarism in a specific discipline, a librarian, along with faculty, can investigate the field’s code of ethics and its literature on plagiarism and academic dishonesty. An academic department’s or an instructor’s specific plagiarism problem provides a “zone of intervention” where a librarian and faculty can work together to prevent plagiarism.

The Instruction Balance
Sponsored by the Teaching Methods and Education Committees of the ACRL Instruction Section
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006
In this participant-driven session, participants discussed questions in a group, and then shared the highlights of their discussion with the larger group. My group observed that of all our responsibilities, preparation (objectives, materials, etc.) takes the most time. Nevertheless, sharing can save time. Templates, shared drives, and online materials, such as PRIMO, LOEX, and MERLOT, provide opportunities to share instruction materials. We also discussed ways to avoid burn-out. Training, including team-teaching, is necessary for less-skilled instructors so that teaching duties are equal among instruction librarians. Members of my group also suggested taking a break, participating in non-library activities on campus, and taking advantage of continuing education opportunities as means of avoiding burnout.

Management of Instruction Services Committee's Bright Ideas Session:
"Hello, Anybody out There? How to Improve Outreach Efforts and Build Positive Relationships"
Sponsored by the Management of Instruction Services Committee of the ACRL Instruction Section
Sunday, Jan. 22, 2006
This session was conducted in a “jig-saw” manner. The session had 6 topics. The table a participant sat down at became their home table. Each participant at all the tables was assigned one of the 6 topics. Then participants moved to tables with others assigned their topic to discuss the assigned topic. My topic was “Outreach to Adjunct Faculty or Teaching Assistants.” We discussed ways to locate adjuncts and TAs and how to broach the subject of information literacy with them. Ideas for finding adjuncts and TAs included: making friends with department secretaries, connecting with them when they come into the library, and attending orientations or training sessions. One can inform them about information literacy when they come into the library for assistance or through letters or e-mails (some colleges have e-mail lists or offices that can be used to reach adjuncts and/or TAs).

After discussions in our assigned groups, everybody returned to their home tables, where everybody shared the highlights from their assigned topics with their home table. The participants at my home table shared the ideas that follow.

Outreach to Students

Integrate into Freshman Experiences or introductory English Courses
Librarian visits student classes to introduce self
Activities during Parents Weekend or Orientation
Poster contest (students designed posters to advertise the library)

Outreach to Graduate Students

Involvement with the Graduate Student Association
Newsletters
Hand out business cards during sessions (helps them see you as a professional)
Have experienced and respected faculty promote the library to them

Working with Non-academic Departments

Work with residence halls
Participate in School fairs
Gain support by serving on campus-wide committees

Partnering with Faculty

Provide them the option to select from various library instruction approaches
Attend social events
Send periodic e-mails, but don’t overdo it

Cool Marketing Ideas

Key chains (light-up or carabineers) with library logo or website are very popular
Other Freebies with library logo or website, including post-it notes, magnets, branded candy and miniature highlighters
One librarian gives new graduate students a coupon for “Free Espresso with a Librarian.” When they return the coupon she treats them to a cup of espresso and spends 20 minutes talking with them.
Temporary tattoos

Got instruction strategies to share?

2005-12-16T13:08:00.000-08:00

Have you got an Information Literacy instruction strategy you would like to share? There is no reason I should have all the fun. If you tried a library instruction strategy that you would like to post on Information Literacy Librarian, please send it to amylib1 @ fastmail.fm. Let us know what has worked for you and what you tried that bombed.

Happy Holidays!

Internet vs. Library

2005-11-22T18:34:00.000-08:00

I like to use this analogy when I am talking to students about the value of library resources in the Internet age.

I usually start by asking students what they do for lunch or dinner when they only have five minutes to eat and five dollars. Every time somebody has said, "Go to McDonalds." I then ask, “Is it healthy?” and the students will usually laugh and shake their heads, “No.” Sometimes somebody will say “You can get a salad,” and I will point out that there are some good things on the web, but for the most part, the free web is like McDonald’s. It’s fast, cheap, and easy, but is unhealthy for your academic career. The free web is fine for everyday things, but you should use library sources for things that matter.

Student Webpage Evaluation

2005-10-31T15:41:00.000-08:00

Today I tried a new approach to teaching web site evaluation and found that it 1) increased student involvement and 2) students already use the criteria we teach to evaluate websites.

In the July 2004 issue of portal: Libraries and the Academy, Marc Meola wrote an article titled “Chucking the Checklist: A Contextual Approach to Teaching Undergraduates Web-Site Evaluation,” in which he criticizes the typical checklist approach to teaching web site evaluation. He argues that students are more critical than we give them credit and that the checklist approach is ineffective for a variety of reasons. He suggests a “contextual approach” that promotes critical thinking skills. This approach involves:

Promotion and discussion of reviewed sources
Comparison
Corroboration

I particularly liked the arguments in favor of the Comparison method and decided to try it out in my Internet class this afternoon. The comparison method requires the researcher to compare different sources and different types of sources in order to select the most useful. Ideally, the researcher will compare print, electronic, free and subscription sources in order to find the sources that most meet his/her information needs. Unfortunately, time limits and the scope of the class limited us to free websites only.

Earlier in the class, we did a search for '“childhood obesity” causes' in Google. I then asked the students to get into groups of 2 or 3 and to decide which of the first three results would be the best website to use for a research paper. After some time in groups, we came back together and voted on the best one (each group only had 1 vote, so they had to agree on their vote).

Selection of only one site spurred a couple of the groups into debate, because they didn’t just have to pick one, but they also had to convince their teammates that it was the best one. Instead of going with a gut feeling, they had to articulate why one site was better than the others. They also had to weigh different factors. For example, one group selected an older website that came from a more authoritative source. They decided the source was more important than the date.

After voting, I asked each group why they selected a particular site. Although I hadn’t taught them the checklist method, many of them used the same criteria. The winner of the vote was a webpage sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They said they selected this one because it came from a trusted source. They noticed the date, but decided the information was still valid. They also considered Coverage. The winning webpage was very lengthy and discussed many aspects of childhood obesity. However, another team voted for a website that was more concise because it offered all the information they needed. Students were also aware of Objectivity. They stated that no advertisements was another reason they selected the winning site over the other sites.

I think I actually learned more than the students did today. I learned that students do value quality sources of information and they critically evaluate websites.

More Power to Ya!

2005-10-12T20:11:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Maryellen Weimer's Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key Changes to Practice. According to Weimer, traditional educational practices are Teacher-Centered, meaning that these practices benefit the teacher more than the student or learner. Weimer advocates for Learner-Centered Teaching, instruction practices that help students learn how to learn. In her book, Weimer promotes shifts in the following 5 areas of instruction:

Balance of Power
Function of Content
Role of the Teacher
Responsibility for Learning
Purpose and Process of Evaluation

The shift that I found the scariest is the Balance of Power. According to Weimer, sharing power with students increases their motivation and involvement. I won’t go into her arguments, but they are convincing.

I decided to share power with students in my Information Literacy workshops by allowing them to set some of the goals for the workshop. To start the class, I ask students what their goals for the workshop are. This usually takes some prodding with additional questions like “What do you hope to learn?” or “Why did you come?” I type their goals into a Word document and save it. After class, I bring the document back up and ask them to raise their hands if they met goal 1, goal, 2, etc. I count how many raise their hands for each goal so that the document also serves as an assessment document.

Although the goals I previously defined still shape the majority of the workshop, I am able to focus on topics that students want to know about. For example, I usually do not spend much time talking about our Pay-for-Print system, but after a student stated that that was one of her goals, I made sure that we covered that topic. When a colleague of mine tried this same strategy, she learned that the majority of the students in her workshop had a goal different from what she envisioned. As a result, she was able to shift the focus and concentrate on their immediate need.

For the most part, student goals are broad, such as “learn how to do research,” and easily fit into the goals of the Information Literacy program. I have only had to reject a couple of goals because they differed too much from the workshop objective, such as the student in the Library Catalog workshop who wanted to know how to register for courses.

Have Topic Will Travel

2005-09-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today I taught a Research Workshop to a particularly attentive Composition class. I was surprised to see how much they had written down when I collected their Guided Notes*. Most of the time, students just copy what I write on the board, if they write anything. But these students also copied my power point slides and some took additional notes. I think these students particularly paid attention because they already had their assignment and topic.

Frequently, instructors send their students to our workshops before giving the students the assignment or having them select a topic. I assume they are thinking that the students will do better if they know how to research a topic before receiving their topic. However, as I look back on the workshops I have done in the past, students with an immediate information need (assignment and topic) are the most attentive.

I believe this could be loosely related to Constructivist Learning Theory. When students know their assignment and topic, they can immediately incorporate what they are learning into ideas of what they will need to do to complete their assignment.

*I collect the Guided Notes for assessment purposes. After looking at their notes, I returned them to the class instructor so that she can give the students back their notes at the next class meeting.

Google enters IM market

2005-09-19T17:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.google.com/talk/

Google now has its own Instant Messaging software, Google Talk, in Beta. The Developer page states,

"We plan to partner with other willing service providers to enable federation of our services. This means that a user on one service can communicate with users on another service without needing to sign up for, or sign in with, each service. "

What does this have to do with Information Literacy? As much as librarians like to discuss virtual (remote) reference services, it is a service that has not come into its own yet. One problem is that services such as OCLC's QuestionPoint require library users to download a plug-in. Some libraries already use Yahoo or AOL Instant Messengers, but this excludes all library users who use a different IM service than the library's from their virtual reference service. If Google Talk is able to federate with the most popular IM services, a library could provide virtual reference to patrons using a variety of IM services.

Another Librarian Blog?

2005-09-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

The Association of College and Research Libraries defines Information Literacy as “the set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information.” Despite living in the 'Information Age,' many Americans do not possess such skills. Technology and the Internet provide easy access to good information, yet few know about how to find it. Most people are satisfied with the first results of their clumsy Google or Yahoo! search. Frequently, the information they find is mediocre, but they do not have the evaluation skills to recognize this fact.

As information seekers stumble on the surface of the Web, they are unaware of the wealth of information just inches below their feet. Most do not know that their Libraries provide them with FREE access to periodical articles, even some books, through the Internet. In addition, information seekers often overlook the vast information still contained in those old-fashioned things called ‘books.’ But what disturbs me even more, is the knowledge that most Americans remain blind to the fact that Librarians are there to help them untangle the web of information available to them.

As an Information Literacy Librarian at a community college in Texas, I help students (and anybody else who finds their way into the library) obtain Information Literacy skills. To do this, I teach workshops in our Information Literacy program, as well as workshops for individual classes. I also work one-on-one with students completing research for their assignments.

In this Blog, I will be recording my experiences as Information Literacy Librarian. Researchers and Librarians have written a great deal about Information Literacy theory and practice. However, one does not become a great librarian by simply reading the literature. I actively seek ideas that I can implement to improve my instruction skills. Information Literacy Librarian provides me a space to share and reflect on the teaching strategies I put into practice.