Leslie Burger, former ALA President and Director of Princeton
“From Information Literacy to Digital Citizenship: Libraries and the New Democracy”
Thinking from the perspective of a public librarian. Everyone here is academic.
“Libraries for all seasons and all reasons”: no matter what type of institution you are in feeds into the work we do in all of our institutions. In public libraries, doing much of the pre-literacy work: teaching them how to read, how to listen. The partnership between the school librarian and the public librarian; learning information literacy skills. Find themselves back in public libraries “trying to negotiate their way through the complex world we live in”.
How do we need to prepare our users to be digital citizens?
What is a digital citizen and why do I need to be one?
Do I need a separate passport to cross the web border?
Information in the currency of democracy—Jefferson
Learning on the job how to integrate digital resources into her work. How the world has changed: everyday, public libraries are teaching people how to be information literate but in a very different way—one person at a time. The teach-able moment. Isn’t this something we should be aiming towards everyday?
Information is power = example of the experimentation of prisoners being outlawed based on the information her class extracted in the 60s.
As she reads the 1989 ALA Statement: isn’t it interesting that it is always about how we can compete rather than what we want for ourselves? Hmm.
Top Trends:
• The web as ubiquitous throughout the world, not just in the developed world. It’s not always through computers. People get information in new ways.
• The web has changed the way we do business. Information is widely distributed and openly available.
• Information as a commodity. Not new to librarians: people that know how to find good information have a competitive advantage.
• People are communicating in a variety of ways. Tools that have the potential to change how we use information .
• Information consolidation. Too much available to ever use. Google is not altruistic. It is capitalistic. Sell back to us our own free information, example of Google Books. It might be free now, but it won’t be eventually.
• Library as a trusted resource
• Librarians on steroids—we are better than we were before. Skilled information navigators.
• More content than ever before. Playing on a more
• Librarians as the on ramp to the digital highway for those that don’t have access or can’t afford access. In the economic downturn, more people are turning to libraries. While the Gates foundation supplied significant funds to get many libraries new computers, those computers are now 6-7 years old. The problem when help comes from NGOs—what do you do when the grant is over?
• Information fuels our democracy.
o Taking issue with Melissa Highton’s point that the
o Book recommendation “Digital citenzship—Mossburger” people that are internet savvy participate to a lesser degree?
Concerns about the demise of the newspaper. What is happening to investigative journalism, can we really trust the bloggers???
Libraries were not an essential part of teaching to the test during NCLB. This puts into question about how ubiquitious information literacy is in our K-12 educations. A GAP!
Two issues:
Helping people navigate from the “old way” to the “new way”
How can we augment what is missing in our school libraries, both in terms of IL instruction as well as support their research needs (eg. school libraries closing at 3 pm: do they turn off the need for information for those school students? Of course not. So they turn to public libraries.) Asking faculty or teachers to come to the library to do the assignment at the public library, since that is where students are.
Give me the answer: sometimes they just want the answer and we have to wait for a teachable moment. Dual screens.
Consider each interaction an opportunity to change someone’s life!
Public libraries need to be looking at the K-12 IL standards.
Highlighting a number of public library sites: Spokane, San Fran, Central Illinois.
New Jersey state library: Helping Residents Through Tough Economic Times. COOL.
ALA’s E-Government resources.
Online Information literacy: the role of YouTube for the most basic to more advanced tools. IDEA for Andy for the next video: let’s get MORE advanced, not easier.
Information Literacy for the People:
Monitoring trends: what is going on? What is shifting? What do our services need to look like?
Market!!! We need to get out of the idea that they know to come to us. We need to TELL THEM to come to us.
Make information seeking fun: engage them in the moment.
Tie your information literacy moments to solving real life problems. Let’s be where we are needed and providing instruction in things that people are interested in or challenged by. We learn from eachother.
Reach out to those that need you the most; go for the unexpected. Be where people are and might not expect you to be.
LEAD THE WAY & Never give up.
We are in a values driven profession with the opportunity to change people’s lives.
31 March 2009
LILAC09: Getting the Student Perspective: is Joe Student Paying Attention
Student perspective on Info Lit:
Alison Bestwick, Univ. of Sheffield, student ambassadors to CILASS
Student created film about what students think about Info Lit.
CILASS Channel (They have a student film group—good idea)
Asking how you define information literacy:
Students did not know!
Can they (or other librarians) put the “7 pillars” in order? Understanding higher order vs. lower order skills. They put two into the right place but were discussing info lit in the process, “which is a good thing”.
Students not giving themselves enough credit for what they do already. Student admitted that it is something they already do, they just don’t know. COGNIZANCE
Ask students what they think students should be able to do at certain points in their own careers. GREAT IDEA. It might help develop instruction.
From the video: great to see how the student perspective shifts our own vision of IL frameworks.
Is the term “information literacy” the best way to describe it. Use non-threatening mechanisms. Stop using JARGON. Let’s come up with other ways to describe what we’re doing and do it in a way that is more inviting. From the video: when we don’t use the term information literacy, we get better results.
Asking students how successful they are when they research?
Where do you (students) go to fill in gaps in your own knowledge?
GREAT QUESTION. Add a component to the Goals and Expectations exercise.
Do you feel you are supported in your research?
How confident do you feel in x, y, z, skill?
The Information Literacy Parthenon.
IDEA for ROB: Could your media students make a video for us on IL? Defining it? How they use it? Students want to hear more from other students.
Connection to CCM and Business: how can we market IL? What kinds of promotional materials can we generate?
From the questions:
First time one attendee had seen a student perspective. So helpful.
Suggestion to share the definition with students and get their feedback to how we could redefine it, describe it otherwise?
An interesting comment about students not being information literate but that is not what the video said, at least in my view. They ARE more information literate, just not familiar with the way we ask them to describe it.
How do we make the sessions we do more aligned to what students need? If you ask students, they will say they haven’t had training, even if they’ve had multiple sessions. But they aren’t seeing that as support or helpful. How can we remedy that? Is it how we present our sessions? Is it how we try to make a connections to students?
We make a lot of assumptions about what students need or do. Perhaps our assumptions are off.
Alison Bestwick, Univ. of Sheffield, student ambassadors to CILASS
Student created film about what students think about Info Lit.
CILASS Channel (They have a student film group—good idea)
Asking how you define information literacy:
Students did not know!
Can they (or other librarians) put the “7 pillars” in order? Understanding higher order vs. lower order skills. They put two into the right place but were discussing info lit in the process, “which is a good thing”.
Students not giving themselves enough credit for what they do already. Student admitted that it is something they already do, they just don’t know. COGNIZANCE
Ask students what they think students should be able to do at certain points in their own careers. GREAT IDEA. It might help develop instruction.
From the video: great to see how the student perspective shifts our own vision of IL frameworks.
Is the term “information literacy” the best way to describe it. Use non-threatening mechanisms. Stop using JARGON. Let’s come up with other ways to describe what we’re doing and do it in a way that is more inviting. From the video: when we don’t use the term information literacy, we get better results.
Asking students how successful they are when they research?
Where do you (students) go to fill in gaps in your own knowledge?
GREAT QUESTION. Add a component to the Goals and Expectations exercise.
Do you feel you are supported in your research?
How confident do you feel in x, y, z, skill?
The Information Literacy Parthenon.
IDEA for ROB: Could your media students make a video for us on IL? Defining it? How they use it? Students want to hear more from other students.
Connection to CCM and Business: how can we market IL? What kinds of promotional materials can we generate?
From the questions:
First time one attendee had seen a student perspective. So helpful.
Suggestion to share the definition with students and get their feedback to how we could redefine it, describe it otherwise?
An interesting comment about students not being information literate but that is not what the video said, at least in my view. They ARE more information literate, just not familiar with the way we ask them to describe it.
How do we make the sessions we do more aligned to what students need? If you ask students, they will say they haven’t had training, even if they’ve had multiple sessions. But they aren’t seeing that as support or helpful. How can we remedy that? Is it how we present our sessions? Is it how we try to make a connections to students?
We make a lot of assumptions about what students need or do. Perhaps our assumptions are off.
LILAC09: The Pathway to Success: Using Research Trails for Summative Assessment
Rebecca Mogg (Cardiff University)
The Pathway to Success: Using Research Trails for Summative Assessment
Assumes embeddedness of IL
Design assessments that evaluate IL & what students are doing in their courses—RESEARCH TRAIL.
Coursework submitted with their essay that documents the research process. A required component to the assignment. Includes evaluative reflection of why they included their sources. Also can be used to assess referencing (citations). How is this different than an annotated bibliography? Could it be used as a essay component to the bib?
Why do it?
Draws on higher order skills. We can choose which criteria from the IL outcomes we wanted students to address. Also can be used to assess writing and critical thinking outcomes. Not just for IL outcomes.
Promotes both formative and summative assessments.
Suitable for all level of learners. It depends what you are asking students to evaluate (remember, we set the criteria).
Deters plagiarism.
Promotes problem solving: learn from what works and what doesn’t.
Strong emphasis on the assignment and rubric (see handouts). Students saw the rubric ahead of time. Built on what students already know how to do. In her sessions with students, one session on what they knew already (Google, Library catalog), second session on more advanced database searching, third on mirroring the process students would go through.
Learning objectives—finding and evaluating.
Shared everything they did to find their sources:
What did they use to find it.
What keywords did they use, did they use Boolean, truncation
Include reasons for selection (relevance, objectivity, reliability, currency)
IDEA: Increase the emphasis on currency. Might be an interesting way to connect more to primary source materials—some things don’t go out of date while somethings go out of date almost immediately.
Provided extensive feedback in order to make the assessment summative AND formative. Give them something to take out of the process as well.
Validity: how well did the assessment work.
Reliability: did it connect to the criteria?
Sufficiency: how much time did it take for them to do the assignment and the time she gave to assessing in comparison to what we learned from it.
Validity: concerns about students falsifying their approach in order to meet the criteria rather than conducting a genuine process.
Reliability: students did what was required and the rubric worked well. Reliability decreased as more people participated in the marking of papers. Different assessers have different ideas about what meets/does not meet. (Also a concern when faculty take over the assessment)
Sufficiency: an enormous amount of work on her part.
Does think it is successful. Assessed higher order skills and process rather than strictly product. Student feedback is not as positive. Helped her identify gaps in student understanding and use that information to develop her teaching strategies. The relevance has to be made clear to students.
Questions:
By taking a journal approach, could you deal with the issues of students falsifying their process? Isn’t this where faculty could be partners: creating benchmarks?
Very little discussion about faculty as partners or benchmarks. Essential component to success, especially for students that are not as advanced?
If you do use Grad Assistants or Professors, must collaborate IOT make significant connections between their final work (the essay) and the research trail.
More on promoting problem solving: continue applying what they’ve learned but it is on their own, independent of the instruction.
At Cardiff, a bottom up and a top down approach. It is recognized at the University level and a directive from the top about IL as well as within departments/schools.
To make the activity easier and equally sufficient: list x number of references rather than all the things they look at.
How much help was provided: email, reference, but not additional class time.
The Pathway to Success: Using Research Trails for Summative Assessment
Assumes embeddedness of IL
Design assessments that evaluate IL & what students are doing in their courses—RESEARCH TRAIL.
Coursework submitted with their essay that documents the research process. A required component to the assignment. Includes evaluative reflection of why they included their sources. Also can be used to assess referencing (citations). How is this different than an annotated bibliography? Could it be used as a essay component to the bib?
Why do it?
Draws on higher order skills. We can choose which criteria from the IL outcomes we wanted students to address. Also can be used to assess writing and critical thinking outcomes. Not just for IL outcomes.
Promotes both formative and summative assessments.
Suitable for all level of learners. It depends what you are asking students to evaluate (remember, we set the criteria).
Deters plagiarism.
Promotes problem solving: learn from what works and what doesn’t.
Strong emphasis on the assignment and rubric (see handouts). Students saw the rubric ahead of time. Built on what students already know how to do. In her sessions with students, one session on what they knew already (Google, Library catalog), second session on more advanced database searching, third on mirroring the process students would go through.
Learning objectives—finding and evaluating.
Shared everything they did to find their sources:
What did they use to find it.
What keywords did they use, did they use Boolean, truncation
Include reasons for selection (relevance, objectivity, reliability, currency)
IDEA: Increase the emphasis on currency. Might be an interesting way to connect more to primary source materials—some things don’t go out of date while somethings go out of date almost immediately.
Provided extensive feedback in order to make the assessment summative AND formative. Give them something to take out of the process as well.
Validity: how well did the assessment work.
Reliability: did it connect to the criteria?
Sufficiency: how much time did it take for them to do the assignment and the time she gave to assessing in comparison to what we learned from it.
Validity: concerns about students falsifying their approach in order to meet the criteria rather than conducting a genuine process.
Reliability: students did what was required and the rubric worked well. Reliability decreased as more people participated in the marking of papers. Different assessers have different ideas about what meets/does not meet. (Also a concern when faculty take over the assessment)
Sufficiency: an enormous amount of work on her part.
Does think it is successful. Assessed higher order skills and process rather than strictly product. Student feedback is not as positive. Helped her identify gaps in student understanding and use that information to develop her teaching strategies. The relevance has to be made clear to students.
Questions:
By taking a journal approach, could you deal with the issues of students falsifying their process? Isn’t this where faculty could be partners: creating benchmarks?
Very little discussion about faculty as partners or benchmarks. Essential component to success, especially for students that are not as advanced?
If you do use Grad Assistants or Professors, must collaborate IOT make significant connections between their final work (the essay) and the research trail.
More on promoting problem solving: continue applying what they’ve learned but it is on their own, independent of the instruction.
At Cardiff, a bottom up and a top down approach. It is recognized at the University level and a directive from the top about IL as well as within departments/schools.
To make the activity easier and equally sufficient: list x number of references rather than all the things they look at.
How much help was provided: email, reference, but not additional class time.
30 March 2009
LILAC09: End of Day One
I am just about to shut out the light from an amazing day at LILAC. Let me tell you, American readers, this is a GREAT conference. Every person I met was wonderfully friendly and interesting to talk to. Both sessions I attended were great and in both sessions, the follow up questions shed light on critical or practical issues that make bringing the ideas presented home more feasible.
Tonight, we had a "networking evening" at Caerphilly Castle.
NOTE: The image is from Flickr since my camera is over the Atlantic somwhere. More on my lost luggage below.
The food was very good, it was open bar, and I met a great group of librarians and learned about a number of UK universities I had never heard of before. We also got into a heated discussion about Melissa Highton's talk and the role of Google Scholar in student learning.
I'm having a great time here. Sadly, my luggage did not arrive today so tomorrow I need to go splurge on a pair of "trousers" for tomorrow's evening event. The jeans and sneaks just won't cut it for "smart" dress. Cross your fingers for me that my bag arrives before we leave for Dublin on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, more posts tomorrow.
Tonight, we had a "networking evening" at Caerphilly Castle.
NOTE: The image is from Flickr since my camera is over the Atlantic somwhere. More on my lost luggage below.The food was very good, it was open bar, and I met a great group of librarians and learned about a number of UK universities I had never heard of before. We also got into a heated discussion about Melissa Highton's talk and the role of Google Scholar in student learning.
I'm having a great time here. Sadly, my luggage did not arrive today so tomorrow I need to go splurge on a pair of "trousers" for tomorrow's evening event. The jeans and sneaks just won't cut it for "smart" dress. Cross your fingers for me that my bag arrives before we leave for Dublin on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, more posts tomorrow.
LILAC09: “Enhancing Undergraduate Engagement with Knowledge and Research through Evidence-based Information Literacy Training”
Angela Newton, Amanda Lynch McPhee
Univ. of Leeds
“Enhancing Undergraduate Engagement with Knowledge and Research through Evidence-based Information Literacy Training”
e-BILT:
IL assessment tool for undergraduates
University wide
Results and their implications
SCONUL IL Pillars
Based their questionnaire on 6 of the 7 pillars.
Comparing their data to Sheffield. The cross study with Sheffield enhances validity.
Recruited faculty from each school and provide evidence to each school. Develop best practices for developing IL skills. Kickstarting a larger conversation about IL.
What do you of expect undergraduates students?
Broke into groups, which was AWESOME so I could hear from UK librarians
The conversation was based on NOT recognizing information need but LIBRARY need.
Similarly to our experience, students aren’t very strong at evaluating and comparing information. They find something from a database but they don’t ask whether that is what they want. What’s interesting is that the data presented from the assessment contradicts this anecdotal finding.
Will be conducting a longitudinal study over time. How do students measure over time.
Locating and accessing information remains the biggest area of challenges. Does this connect to their web site at all? Are they conducting usability studies at all?
What you DO with the data that you get is truly exciting. But is the change only in their training vs. how we provide access to information?
Can this be developed as a pre-arrival tool?
Librarian from Darby pointed out that by using Google Scholar, we aren’t demonstrating their need to look any further.
Assessment questions:
Are students prepared to meet the academic demands placed on them?
How can we gauge assessment if we are assuming there is just one right answer? An argument for rubric-based assessment.
Good session. Really interesting.
Univ. of Leeds
“Enhancing Undergraduate Engagement with Knowledge and Research through Evidence-based Information Literacy Training”
e-BILT:
IL assessment tool for undergraduates
University wide
Results and their implications
SCONUL IL Pillars
Based their questionnaire on 6 of the 7 pillars.
Comparing their data to Sheffield. The cross study with Sheffield enhances validity.
Recruited faculty from each school and provide evidence to each school. Develop best practices for developing IL skills. Kickstarting a larger conversation about IL.
What do you of expect undergraduates students?
Broke into groups, which was AWESOME so I could hear from UK librarians
The conversation was based on NOT recognizing information need but LIBRARY need.
Similarly to our experience, students aren’t very strong at evaluating and comparing information. They find something from a database but they don’t ask whether that is what they want. What’s interesting is that the data presented from the assessment contradicts this anecdotal finding.
Will be conducting a longitudinal study over time. How do students measure over time.
Locating and accessing information remains the biggest area of challenges. Does this connect to their web site at all? Are they conducting usability studies at all?
What you DO with the data that you get is truly exciting. But is the change only in their training vs. how we provide access to information?
Can this be developed as a pre-arrival tool?
Librarian from Darby pointed out that by using Google Scholar, we aren’t demonstrating their need to look any further.
Assessment questions:
Are students prepared to meet the academic demands placed on them?
How can we gauge assessment if we are assuming there is just one right answer? An argument for rubric-based assessment.
Good session. Really interesting.
LILAC09: Keynote by Melissa Highton
Melissa Highton, Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University Computing Services, Oxford
Challenging the view and questions about the place of Oxford and Cambridge in a diverse education system.
Learning technologists and information literacy should work together and save the world!
Managing the flamingo: Alice in Wonderland. Every time she tried to play, the flamingo or the hedgehog would be difficult. An analogy for getting all the parts of your library or your IT & Library to work together and get them on the same page.
Maximum leverage.
Oxford’s conference on Digital Literacy
Can you be digitally literate without being information literate? Can you be information literate without being digitall literate? Are they the same? Do they have overlap? If so, in what ways are we letting the two conversations continue together.
Who will write the framework for digital literacy? Use the Wikipedia pages to build a definition of digital literacy.
Oxford & Cambridge:
Autonomy within the organization.
Oxford Libraries: 11 million printed items, the largest library system in the UK
How do you categorize and organize information in such a large system? How do you argue for funding for your needs against the goals of the larger institutions?
Publishing new content, generating new ideas. How do we change information efficiently or effectively? Rethink authority—the authority’s view and perspective changes too!
Lead in new ways of learning.
Encourage student to think differently about information, research, and presentation. How can do a better job getting students to do these things.
What should digital literacy look like in a higher education setting? Should it be taking the place of history? Of literature? Shouldn’t we change our approach of incorporating the literacies into the curriculum rather than thinking it needs to be separated out?
The language of student skills and information literacy has changed very little in the last ten years. We are tied too closely to what we think employers want.
What are the 21st Century skills?
Who should be shaping the debate about digital literacies?
How will institutions change in the recession? Continuing education.
“YouTube is single handedly saving us from boring presentations.”
Where is the differentiation between your content and mine.
We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, to use technology not yet invented, to solve problems we don’t yet have. In staff development, we develop staff for jobs they already have, to use technology we already know, to solve problems we largely already understand. If we are taking this long, if we are struggling this much, then we should acknowledge that some of it has to do with what we do and how we do it. Let’s question that!
The influx of international colleagues. What efforts are you making to accommodate international academic staff and international students? Who is giving advice to students? Are we being aware and effective in those settings and meeting their needs truly? Are we giving training that is consistent?
How are we internationalizing our curriculum?
Thinking about staff:
What do you do when knowledge is power and colleagues withhold that information or are purposefully making it difficult to find in order to hold on to power.
How information can be abused, not just used. See the world around us. Information is used for decision making , incl. bad decisions. We might want to teach the “light” end of infomraiton literacy but make them equally aware of the “dark” end. A Machiavellian approach to IL. Presenting information to show yourself in the best light. Recast what you know about information to manipulate it. What digital natives do already, do they know it? Do they realize the impact of those actions?
High level information literacy skills.
1. Modeling literacy: the role of information in decision making. We must know what the models senior decision makers see, how are those models used, how are those models understood. Interpret and manipulate information in models. Oxford’s Modeling for All
Making use of their gaming skills. Is modeling literacy already present and we need to leverage those skills more carefully and wisely. Digital wisdom
2. Open content literacy: accommodate a diversity of technical platforms. Who licenses it? Who gives permissions? Open educational resources is more than open access. Different levels of comfort around different kinds of materials/content. Use/reuse/ adapt: what is the context of using others’ materials? How much is too much? Support students as they how they use and find open material and understand how to use those licenses AND recognize that students generate material and need to know how to license it as they want! We should be aware of and teaching Creative Commons. Forseeing YouTube as a hub of educational activity, similar to what iTunes (iTunes U) is becoming. How do index open source teaching tools—an opportunity for us all.
Oxford currently offering 500+ lectures (talks and seminars that are a one time thing) and materials in iTunes U with a complementary web portal. Joseph Stiglitz/Gordan Brown
iTunes U as a tipping point at Oxford around podcasting. It is a way of publishing and sharing information. Does that make them digitally literate/information literate/media literate?
The Grand Tour = exposure to the cultural legacy. In the digital age, that is open to EVERYONE, not just the rich and aristocratic. Democratization of information. Grand Tour Learning. Google is NOT making us stupid…it can make us a hell of a lot smarter.
The continuum of openness.
If we are going to solve big problems, we need to pull content and materials out of educational silos . Librarians can help index and break apart those huge chunks of knowledge. We can provide guidance to how that information is shared, is distributed, is licensed or not.
Questions:
Open educational resources and the spectrum of reactions to these initiatives. Are we touting our horns too soon? MIT’s courseware is spotty, not comprehensive, and at times not maintained. Is podcasting the same as truly sharing resources?
Know what content you have and what content is available. Find a starting place and grow it. Quite the same as the research process: steps, looping back, changing, iterative. Leveraging the University’s goals: publicity, marketing.
How do you deal with competition of big institutions putting up a lot of content? What is the incentive for smaller institutions that only offering a few lectures?
Just as a side note: I feel pretty young in this room and the twitter stream is pretty quiet. But Melissa Highton was terrific! Very thought provoking and very exciting. I am officially excited about this conference.
Challenging the view and questions about the place of Oxford and Cambridge in a diverse education system.
Learning technologists and information literacy should work together and save the world!
Managing the flamingo: Alice in Wonderland. Every time she tried to play, the flamingo or the hedgehog would be difficult. An analogy for getting all the parts of your library or your IT & Library to work together and get them on the same page.
Maximum leverage.
Oxford’s conference on Digital Literacy
Can you be digitally literate without being information literate? Can you be information literate without being digitall literate? Are they the same? Do they have overlap? If so, in what ways are we letting the two conversations continue together.
Who will write the framework for digital literacy? Use the Wikipedia pages to build a definition of digital literacy.
Oxford & Cambridge:
Autonomy within the organization.
Oxford Libraries: 11 million printed items, the largest library system in the UK
How do you categorize and organize information in such a large system? How do you argue for funding for your needs against the goals of the larger institutions?
Publishing new content, generating new ideas. How do we change information efficiently or effectively? Rethink authority—the authority’s view and perspective changes too!
Lead in new ways of learning.
Encourage student to think differently about information, research, and presentation. How can do a better job getting students to do these things.
What should digital literacy look like in a higher education setting? Should it be taking the place of history? Of literature? Shouldn’t we change our approach of incorporating the literacies into the curriculum rather than thinking it needs to be separated out?
The language of student skills and information literacy has changed very little in the last ten years. We are tied too closely to what we think employers want.
What are the 21st Century skills?
Who should be shaping the debate about digital literacies?
How will institutions change in the recession? Continuing education.
“YouTube is single handedly saving us from boring presentations.”
Where is the differentiation between your content and mine.
We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, to use technology not yet invented, to solve problems we don’t yet have. In staff development, we develop staff for jobs they already have, to use technology we already know, to solve problems we largely already understand. If we are taking this long, if we are struggling this much, then we should acknowledge that some of it has to do with what we do and how we do it. Let’s question that!
The influx of international colleagues. What efforts are you making to accommodate international academic staff and international students? Who is giving advice to students? Are we being aware and effective in those settings and meeting their needs truly? Are we giving training that is consistent?
How are we internationalizing our curriculum?
Thinking about staff:
What do you do when knowledge is power and colleagues withhold that information or are purposefully making it difficult to find in order to hold on to power.
How information can be abused, not just used. See the world around us. Information is used for decision making , incl. bad decisions. We might want to teach the “light” end of infomraiton literacy but make them equally aware of the “dark” end. A Machiavellian approach to IL. Presenting information to show yourself in the best light. Recast what you know about information to manipulate it. What digital natives do already, do they know it? Do they realize the impact of those actions?
High level information literacy skills.
1. Modeling literacy: the role of information in decision making. We must know what the models senior decision makers see, how are those models used, how are those models understood. Interpret and manipulate information in models. Oxford’s Modeling for All
Making use of their gaming skills. Is modeling literacy already present and we need to leverage those skills more carefully and wisely. Digital wisdom
2. Open content literacy: accommodate a diversity of technical platforms. Who licenses it? Who gives permissions? Open educational resources is more than open access. Different levels of comfort around different kinds of materials/content. Use/reuse/ adapt: what is the context of using others’ materials? How much is too much? Support students as they how they use and find open material and understand how to use those licenses AND recognize that students generate material and need to know how to license it as they want! We should be aware of and teaching Creative Commons. Forseeing YouTube as a hub of educational activity, similar to what iTunes (iTunes U) is becoming. How do index open source teaching tools—an opportunity for us all.
Oxford currently offering 500+ lectures (talks and seminars that are a one time thing) and materials in iTunes U with a complementary web portal. Joseph Stiglitz/Gordan Brown
iTunes U as a tipping point at Oxford around podcasting. It is a way of publishing and sharing information. Does that make them digitally literate/information literate/media literate?
The Grand Tour = exposure to the cultural legacy. In the digital age, that is open to EVERYONE, not just the rich and aristocratic. Democratization of information. Grand Tour Learning. Google is NOT making us stupid…it can make us a hell of a lot smarter.
The continuum of openness.
If we are going to solve big problems, we need to pull content and materials out of educational silos . Librarians can help index and break apart those huge chunks of knowledge. We can provide guidance to how that information is shared, is distributed, is licensed or not.
Questions:
Open educational resources and the spectrum of reactions to these initiatives. Are we touting our horns too soon? MIT’s courseware is spotty, not comprehensive, and at times not maintained. Is podcasting the same as truly sharing resources?
Know what content you have and what content is available. Find a starting place and grow it. Quite the same as the research process: steps, looping back, changing, iterative. Leveraging the University’s goals: publicity, marketing.
How do you deal with competition of big institutions putting up a lot of content? What is the incentive for smaller institutions that only offering a few lectures?
Just as a side note: I feel pretty young in this room and the twitter stream is pretty quiet. But Melissa Highton was terrific! Very thought provoking and very exciting. I am officially excited about this conference.
Greetings from Cardiff
I have made it to Cardiff for LILAC. Cardiff is a lovely city. If my luggage had arrived with me, I would have taken photos and uploaded them already but USAir decided my luggage was too exiting to pass up. My fingers are crossed that it will show up this afternoon.
It is pretty exciting to be attending a UK conference on information literacy. I haven't had the chance to attend an IL focused event like this in the States. I am amazed at how many librarians are here with so many different job descriptions, from so many institutions.
The conference is just underway and I will be blogging the talks much as I did at ACRL. We are presenting on Tuesday afternoon and I just found out that our session is fully booked! WOW.
Great to be here. Blog posts of sessions will be forthcoming.
It is pretty exciting to be attending a UK conference on information literacy. I haven't had the chance to attend an IL focused event like this in the States. I am amazed at how many librarians are here with so many different job descriptions, from so many institutions.
The conference is just underway and I will be blogging the talks much as I did at ACRL. We are presenting on Tuesday afternoon and I just found out that our session is fully booked! WOW.
Great to be here. Blog posts of sessions will be forthcoming.
25 March 2009
24 March 2009
IL for the RD
Library Society of the World is so clever. They are embracing the full power of user generated content by allowing us to celebrate our own successes. We all have stories we want to share and now you can as a Shover and Maker.
My story is in terms of information literacy. Sometimes it is hard to be banging the IL drum. Sometimes it is hard to walk into classes and try to engage students. Sometimes it is hard to be creative and inquisitive. But then you have moments where you see the lightbulb go on. When you see students get that you are talking about much more than the library. That you are talking about thinking about information and how we use it. That it is IL for the RD (real deal).
It's great to get these successes out in the open. Rock on Josh Neff and Steve Lawson. You are helping every librarian feel the power of their contribution to the field. And that can only lead to more energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and innovation.
My story is in terms of information literacy. Sometimes it is hard to be banging the IL drum. Sometimes it is hard to walk into classes and try to engage students. Sometimes it is hard to be creative and inquisitive. But then you have moments where you see the lightbulb go on. When you see students get that you are talking about much more than the library. That you are talking about thinking about information and how we use it. That it is IL for the RD (real deal).
It's great to get these successes out in the open. Rock on Josh Neff and Steve Lawson. You are helping every librarian feel the power of their contribution to the field. And that can only lead to more energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and innovation.
20 March 2009
ACRL2009: What do I wish were different?
ACRL was terrific. Not only because I attended a number of great sessions but more so because I met some really interesting and creative people with whom I hope to collaborate or at least keep my eyes on in the future.
But, now that I am back from ACRL, there are a few things that stick out at me about it as a conference. Steve Bell asked me what I think ACRL needs to do to improve. Here are four things that I think would make it more attractive, educational, and effective as professional development.
1. Tracks that mean something: I think ACRL could take a few tips from Computers in Libraries in terms of creating clear tracks for session themes. It’s very difficult to identify with the themes of Casting a Net, Feeling a Buzz, etc. How about tracks geared towards Teaching and Learning, Technology and Usability, Leadership and Assessment? I’m sure someone far more creative than I could devise catchy titles for these tracks. But offering tracks that enable attendees to focus their energy or diversify their experience would be very helpful.
2. What about the little guys? I wish ACRL would devote more attention to College libraries. While we are all in academic libraries, some issues are particular to smaller institutions with smaller staffs serving smaller communities. While I love seeing and hearing what big institutions can do, thinking about applying their ideas or programs at smaller institutions can be paralyzing. Can we create opportunities for smaller institutions to share and collaborate within the larger organization?
3. Let’s discuss! The Roundtables are excellent for short discussions of interesting topics but I would get a great deal from more discussion with peer institutions. Perhaps offering presentations that then turn into discussions? Discussion groups are well attended at Midwinter and terribly valuable. I wish we used that model more at ACRL’s own conference.
4. Get Digital: I can’t stress enough how I wish there were more emphasis on technology at ACRL beyond CyberZedShed. Despite how many exciting things academic libraries are doing with technology, ACRL is not showing itself to be a place to showcase those initiatives or teach and discuss their value. Younger librarians will turn elsewhere and that does not bode well for the future of ACRL or for keeping librarians abreast of changes and creative ways of using technology.
I love attending ACRL but as I move forward in creating innovative programming and implementing technology in ways that address my faculty and students’ needs, I wonder whether ACRL will be the place where I share my stories about that in the future. I hope so.
If you made it this far in the post, what about you? What do you think ACRL could do to improve?
But, now that I am back from ACRL, there are a few things that stick out at me about it as a conference. Steve Bell asked me what I think ACRL needs to do to improve. Here are four things that I think would make it more attractive, educational, and effective as professional development.
1. Tracks that mean something: I think ACRL could take a few tips from Computers in Libraries in terms of creating clear tracks for session themes. It’s very difficult to identify with the themes of Casting a Net, Feeling a Buzz, etc. How about tracks geared towards Teaching and Learning, Technology and Usability, Leadership and Assessment? I’m sure someone far more creative than I could devise catchy titles for these tracks. But offering tracks that enable attendees to focus their energy or diversify their experience would be very helpful.
2. What about the little guys? I wish ACRL would devote more attention to College libraries. While we are all in academic libraries, some issues are particular to smaller institutions with smaller staffs serving smaller communities. While I love seeing and hearing what big institutions can do, thinking about applying their ideas or programs at smaller institutions can be paralyzing. Can we create opportunities for smaller institutions to share and collaborate within the larger organization?
3. Let’s discuss! The Roundtables are excellent for short discussions of interesting topics but I would get a great deal from more discussion with peer institutions. Perhaps offering presentations that then turn into discussions? Discussion groups are well attended at Midwinter and terribly valuable. I wish we used that model more at ACRL’s own conference.
4. Get Digital: I can’t stress enough how I wish there were more emphasis on technology at ACRL beyond CyberZedShed. Despite how many exciting things academic libraries are doing with technology, ACRL is not showing itself to be a place to showcase those initiatives or teach and discuss their value. Younger librarians will turn elsewhere and that does not bode well for the future of ACRL or for keeping librarians abreast of changes and creative ways of using technology.
I love attending ACRL but as I move forward in creating innovative programming and implementing technology in ways that address my faculty and students’ needs, I wonder whether ACRL will be the place where I share my stories about that in the future. I hope so.
If you made it this far in the post, what about you? What do you think ACRL could do to improve?
15 March 2009
ACRL2009: Green Speaker Robin Chase
An incredibly inspirational talk!
Robin Chase, CEO of GoLoco and Founder of Zipcar
Located in Boston---would love to have her come to Champlain.
Social entrepreneur
How libraries can play a role in a world of increasingly scare resources
From the negative to the positive.
2020 and 2050 goals:
Her emphasis on CO2 emeissions: the only way we are going to make it is if we
If we all bought fuel efficient cars, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% in 10 years.
If we shared a ride 1 in 10 trips or didn’t drive 1 in 20 trips, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% this WEEK.
“That is the difference between infrastructure and behaviour”
Founded in 2000, today there are 300,000 people using 5000 cars across N. America and London. Averted 6000 lbs of CO2 just this year.
Sharing can make gigantic differences: the anatomy of sharing.
Simple sharing: person to person.
Simple sharing institutionally: one company’s assets to many. If you pay me, I will share. Carsharing has a negative connotation: if hotels were called bed sharing, they would be considered very differently. I have my own personal fleet of cars anywhere I go. Different cars for different moments.
Sharing 2.0: Personal collaborative: many to many.
Wikipedia as making use of excess mental capacity. A sense of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge.
Couchsurfing: beds all over the country, 1 million beds in 231 beds.
Excess capacity in our cars: GoLoco ride boards meets facebook meets paypal. Creating our own public transportation system. If we just started getting in the habit of asking someone if they need a ride, no matter where you are going.
It is messier and much less predictable, uses much less stuff. We know how to do a better job, we just don’t have incentives.
Lower ROI threshold: potential for success is broader, faster uptake, higher participation. Higher social value.
Collaborative consumption, but let’s think about
COLLABORATIVE PLAY
COLLABORATIVE WORK
Let’s start to think more about
COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLABORATIVE FINANCING
Example: Vienna, 500 wireless nodes of internet access. Opening capacity on our routers (mesh networking). Turn our cars into mesh networks. There is more that we want to do with our wireless devices in our cars (EZ Passes)
Moving into vehicle miles travel taxes: people will pay to use roads. Multipurpose devices into cars. Keep communication local. Reaching broadband through people, not governments!
We have a feeling of scarcity: we focus on closed proprietary assets “It’s mine” so I have to pay for it all and deal with it alone. I have to bare the costs.
The Architecture of Abundance: we pay for what we use. We share costs and infrastructure. “Farming” for best innovation. Draws unexpected benefits. Because Twitter is an open platform, PEOPLE came up with how to use it powerfully. The minds of many.
The take home:
1. Identify excess capacity
2. Find or build platform for sharing: what’s out there and how can we leverage it?
3. Reap Unexpected benefits
Libraries as vessels for brains and willingness and desire to engage new ideas. Libraries have an opportunity to engage in the educational component of the crisis of climate change. What does that look like at my library?
Sharing does not mean we don’t act in our individual best interest. Every dollar, we need to maximize it.
Inspirational. And while she is presenting ideas that are challenging and scary for many people because it requires a paradigm shift. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great idea. Or that it can’t be done.
Different rule sets for small or large scales. Example from Omnivore’s Dilemma.
We are going to build a technological and environmental infrastructure. Yes, there are costs to building this infrastructure that might seem counterintuitive to the mission but if we evaluate excess capacity and we evaluate the cost and benefits of that infrastructure, then there is reason to use that existing infrastructure.
Recreate access to information beyond the platforms we already have.
Robin Chase, CEO of GoLoco and Founder of Zipcar
Located in Boston---would love to have her come to Champlain.
Social entrepreneur
How libraries can play a role in a world of increasingly scare resources
From the negative to the positive.
2020 and 2050 goals:
Her emphasis on CO2 emeissions: the only way we are going to make it is if we
If we all bought fuel efficient cars, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% in 10 years.
If we shared a ride 1 in 10 trips or didn’t drive 1 in 20 trips, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% this WEEK.
“That is the difference between infrastructure and behaviour”
Founded in 2000, today there are 300,000 people using 5000 cars across N. America and London. Averted 6000 lbs of CO2 just this year.
Sharing can make gigantic differences: the anatomy of sharing.
Simple sharing: person to person.
Simple sharing institutionally: one company’s assets to many. If you pay me, I will share. Carsharing has a negative connotation: if hotels were called bed sharing, they would be considered very differently. I have my own personal fleet of cars anywhere I go. Different cars for different moments.
Sharing 2.0: Personal collaborative: many to many.
Wikipedia as making use of excess mental capacity. A sense of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge.
Couchsurfing: beds all over the country, 1 million beds in 231 beds.
Excess capacity in our cars: GoLoco ride boards meets facebook meets paypal. Creating our own public transportation system. If we just started getting in the habit of asking someone if they need a ride, no matter where you are going.
It is messier and much less predictable, uses much less stuff. We know how to do a better job, we just don’t have incentives.
Lower ROI threshold: potential for success is broader, faster uptake, higher participation. Higher social value.
Collaborative consumption, but let’s think about
COLLABORATIVE PLAY
COLLABORATIVE WORK
Let’s start to think more about
COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLABORATIVE FINANCING
Example: Vienna, 500 wireless nodes of internet access. Opening capacity on our routers (mesh networking). Turn our cars into mesh networks. There is more that we want to do with our wireless devices in our cars (EZ Passes)
Moving into vehicle miles travel taxes: people will pay to use roads. Multipurpose devices into cars. Keep communication local. Reaching broadband through people, not governments!
We have a feeling of scarcity: we focus on closed proprietary assets “It’s mine” so I have to pay for it all and deal with it alone. I have to bare the costs.
The Architecture of Abundance: we pay for what we use. We share costs and infrastructure. “Farming” for best innovation. Draws unexpected benefits. Because Twitter is an open platform, PEOPLE came up with how to use it powerfully. The minds of many.
The take home:
1. Identify excess capacity
2. Find or build platform for sharing: what’s out there and how can we leverage it?
3. Reap Unexpected benefits
Libraries as vessels for brains and willingness and desire to engage new ideas. Libraries have an opportunity to engage in the educational component of the crisis of climate change. What does that look like at my library?
Sharing does not mean we don’t act in our individual best interest. Every dollar, we need to maximize it.
Inspirational. And while she is presenting ideas that are challenging and scary for many people because it requires a paradigm shift. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great idea. Or that it can’t be done.
Different rule sets for small or large scales. Example from Omnivore’s Dilemma.
We are going to build a technological and environmental infrastructure. Yes, there are costs to building this infrastructure that might seem counterintuitive to the mission but if we evaluate excess capacity and we evaluate the cost and benefits of that infrastructure, then there is reason to use that existing infrastructure.
Recreate access to information beyond the platforms we already have.
14 March 2009
ACRL2009: Finding your career path
Map Your Path to the Mountaintop: Planning Where You Want to Be in your Career.
Steve Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services at Temple University
John Shank, Instruction Design Librarians, Penn State. Director of their Teaching and Learning Center.
Brian Matthews: User Experience Librarian, Georgia Tech.
Lauren Pressley, Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest. Lauren was in my focus group this morning. More on that in a later post.
This was the BEST SESSION at the conference. AWESOME!
Using media to incite interest. Hip music, Andy says. Great vibe in the room. People excited, chatting. It’s a nice change.
Using interviews—David Lee King. Try stuff. Technology.
Using a Q & A approach, both to panelists and of the audience. So refreshing!
Encouraging us to think about what WE, I want. Not thinking in the box but thinking about what my path is. A multigenerational panel and multigenerational audience.
Each panelist has a “Catch Phrase” that defines their thoughts about their career path. Share your own catch phrase. Great assignment for the blog.
Steve Bell’s post in ACRLog: Are you at where you want to be in your career?
Be strategic. Know where you’re going.
Karen Coombs—publishing and presenting leads to co-authoring a book.
Q1: Describe the strategy that defines your career path up to this point.
• Comparing ourselves with others. There will be times when you do well and times when you don’t. It’s a long road. Persist!
• Pairing my personal strengths with my profession. Capitalize on what I do best. Utilizing my skills and my knowledge and matching research to my day-to-day activities.
• Aspirational: the goal to be transformative in what you are doing. People that effected their professions. How can we make things better? How do faculty and students perceive the library rather than are they using it the way we want them to? “Take risks. Ask crazy questions. Push services in a different way.”
• Pick up as many skills as possible. Do things that are interesting so that I can take on more interesting projects. Making a difference within the profession at large.
• Experiment, Try New Things, Be Daring. What kinds of sacrifices are you willing to make? Not just 9-5.
• Things can get in the way: try again.
• Share your story and where you want to go with people. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you want.
• The faculty path in LIS education. They need very bright, motivated, people.
• Fake it til you make it: you will figure it out.
• Embrace opportunity. Don’t miss seeing the forest through the trees.
• Find the gap and then fill it. Ask for help.
• Play your career like you would play good poker.
• Know what you want and what you don’t want.
Such a positive feeling in this session! People sharing. Engage the audience.
Write about what is interesting to. Don’t think about whether it is interesting to others. Think about what interests you!
Q2: What role has publishing and presenting played in your career strategy?
• Blogging as a role in the career. Paying attention to the field and synthesizing so you have an opinion. Leads to more acceptable forms of publication.
• Sharing your knowledge, expertise, and experience with your colleagues. Technology increases that opportunity. Will blogging start to infiltrate the traditional tenure process?
• Develop your voice through blogging. Write for the widest audience possible. What is the best venue for your article? What is the outcome you want? What do you want to achieve and accomplish?
• Publish or present even if you don’t have to.
• My contribution to the discussion: don’t undervalue the role of presenting. Put yourself out there and see what comes. You never know what will come to you.
• You don’t have to publish and present on traditional library topics. Offer what you know and love. Don’t limit yourself.
• Give presentations regularly.
Q3: What’s your perspective on innovative and entrepreneurship in developing your career strategy?
• If something makes your mind “itch”, be aware of that. If something makes you uncomfortable, think about that. Act on that. Don’t ignore it.
• Learn as much technology as possible.
• Stepping away from what you know (the echo within the library community). Find conferences and opportunities that are different than what you know.
• Take advantage of collaborative relationships. Creativity across different disciplines and professions. Grow ideas that come from different spaces.
• Risk: trying new things. Stakes are low for taking risks but the payoff is great for users.
• Talk to people. Ask people what they are interested in? “Bromantic”--Andy likes this term.
• Go somewhere where you can do everything to try lots of things.
• Learn things you don’t know and teach someone what you learned.
• Be entrepreneurial within your institution.
Q4: What’s the next step in your career?
• Do what you love and it won’t feel like a job.
• Help my institution be the best that it can be. Build on new skills and new opportunities.
• How can we still be edgy and progressive while being an administrator?
• Don’t miss the vistas on the way to the mountaintop.
• Enjoy working with other people, meet people. Partner with others. Share with people what you want to do with your career.
Steve Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services at Temple University
John Shank, Instruction Design Librarians, Penn State. Director of their Teaching and Learning Center.
Brian Matthews: User Experience Librarian, Georgia Tech.
Lauren Pressley, Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest. Lauren was in my focus group this morning. More on that in a later post.
This was the BEST SESSION at the conference. AWESOME!
Using media to incite interest. Hip music, Andy says. Great vibe in the room. People excited, chatting. It’s a nice change.
Using interviews—David Lee King. Try stuff. Technology.
Using a Q & A approach, both to panelists and of the audience. So refreshing!
Encouraging us to think about what WE, I want. Not thinking in the box but thinking about what my path is. A multigenerational panel and multigenerational audience.
Each panelist has a “Catch Phrase” that defines their thoughts about their career path. Share your own catch phrase. Great assignment for the blog.
Steve Bell’s post in ACRLog: Are you at where you want to be in your career?
Be strategic. Know where you’re going.
Karen Coombs—publishing and presenting leads to co-authoring a book.
Q1: Describe the strategy that defines your career path up to this point.
• Comparing ourselves with others. There will be times when you do well and times when you don’t. It’s a long road. Persist!
• Pairing my personal strengths with my profession. Capitalize on what I do best. Utilizing my skills and my knowledge and matching research to my day-to-day activities.
• Aspirational: the goal to be transformative in what you are doing. People that effected their professions. How can we make things better? How do faculty and students perceive the library rather than are they using it the way we want them to? “Take risks. Ask crazy questions. Push services in a different way.”
• Pick up as many skills as possible. Do things that are interesting so that I can take on more interesting projects. Making a difference within the profession at large.
• Experiment, Try New Things, Be Daring. What kinds of sacrifices are you willing to make? Not just 9-5.
• Things can get in the way: try again.
• Share your story and where you want to go with people. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you want.
• The faculty path in LIS education. They need very bright, motivated, people.
• Fake it til you make it: you will figure it out.
• Embrace opportunity. Don’t miss seeing the forest through the trees.
• Find the gap and then fill it. Ask for help.
• Play your career like you would play good poker.
• Know what you want and what you don’t want.
Such a positive feeling in this session! People sharing. Engage the audience.
Write about what is interesting to. Don’t think about whether it is interesting to others. Think about what interests you!
Q2: What role has publishing and presenting played in your career strategy?
• Blogging as a role in the career. Paying attention to the field and synthesizing so you have an opinion. Leads to more acceptable forms of publication.
• Sharing your knowledge, expertise, and experience with your colleagues. Technology increases that opportunity. Will blogging start to infiltrate the traditional tenure process?
• Develop your voice through blogging. Write for the widest audience possible. What is the best venue for your article? What is the outcome you want? What do you want to achieve and accomplish?
• Publish or present even if you don’t have to.
• My contribution to the discussion: don’t undervalue the role of presenting. Put yourself out there and see what comes. You never know what will come to you.
• You don’t have to publish and present on traditional library topics. Offer what you know and love. Don’t limit yourself.
• Give presentations regularly.
Q3: What’s your perspective on innovative and entrepreneurship in developing your career strategy?
• If something makes your mind “itch”, be aware of that. If something makes you uncomfortable, think about that. Act on that. Don’t ignore it.
• Learn as much technology as possible.
• Stepping away from what you know (the echo within the library community). Find conferences and opportunities that are different than what you know.
• Take advantage of collaborative relationships. Creativity across different disciplines and professions. Grow ideas that come from different spaces.
• Risk: trying new things. Stakes are low for taking risks but the payoff is great for users.
• Talk to people. Ask people what they are interested in? “Bromantic”--Andy likes this term.
• Go somewhere where you can do everything to try lots of things.
• Learn things you don’t know and teach someone what you learned.
• Be entrepreneurial within your institution.
Q4: What’s the next step in your career?
• Do what you love and it won’t feel like a job.
• Help my institution be the best that it can be. Build on new skills and new opportunities.
• How can we still be edgy and progressive while being an administrator?
• Don’t miss the vistas on the way to the mountaintop.
• Enjoy working with other people, meet people. Partner with others. Share with people what you want to do with your career.
ACRL2009: Greening Up the Conference
KUDOS ACRL for creating a greener conference and for sharing how you did it! This panel presentation shared the how and the why of greening up the conference. Again, here are my notes. But before you look at them, I wanted to say GREAT JOB to Tory Ondralo, the conference coordinator. Tory is a star and it was her hard work that made this conference a more environmentally friendly place.
Also, this kind of initiative comes from conference attendees demanding it. If you are attending other conferences, ASK what they are doing to go green!
Communicating green initiatives with the conference attendees:
1. Branding (Green leaf logo)
2. Wide distribution through conference literature (C&RL News, American Libraries, Cognotes, Footnotes)
3. Green Pledge = Green water mark on badges
Inform and influence conference behaviors and practices
Is ACRL making any efforts to quantitatively assess the impact of the conference?
The Green Pledge:
Shaping conference behavior. 80% of attendees signed the pledge. AWESOME!
Reduction of Paper: encourage the use of the virtual conference, institutional encouragement to NOT include handouts. A noticeable effort among attendees that ACRL is trying to green up the conference. Recycled paper and soy based ink at no additional cost. Change from a postcard rather than a tri-fold, vendor reductions.
Giveaways: Shower timer.
TORY: All stats on reductions and efforts including costs.
Robin Chase, a green speaker. Sharing books is much like sharing cars. The carshare business model as similar to a library.
Hotels: Hotel Vintage Park. Initiatives the are exemplary. Why did I not stay there?
Only stayed for a half the presentation but such an important issue and the efforts made by the committee and especially Tory Orlandro deserve great recognition and gratitude.
How can we get more presentations about green practices within the library?
Also, this kind of initiative comes from conference attendees demanding it. If you are attending other conferences, ASK what they are doing to go green!
Communicating green initiatives with the conference attendees:
1. Branding (Green leaf logo)
2. Wide distribution through conference literature (C&RL News, American Libraries, Cognotes, Footnotes)
3. Green Pledge = Green water mark on badges
Inform and influence conference behaviors and practices
Is ACRL making any efforts to quantitatively assess the impact of the conference?
The Green Pledge:
Shaping conference behavior. 80% of attendees signed the pledge. AWESOME!
Reduction of Paper: encourage the use of the virtual conference, institutional encouragement to NOT include handouts. A noticeable effort among attendees that ACRL is trying to green up the conference. Recycled paper and soy based ink at no additional cost. Change from a postcard rather than a tri-fold, vendor reductions.
Giveaways: Shower timer.
TORY: All stats on reductions and efforts including costs.
Robin Chase, a green speaker. Sharing books is much like sharing cars. The carshare business model as similar to a library.
Hotels: Hotel Vintage Park. Initiatives the are exemplary. Why did I not stay there?
Only stayed for a half the presentation but such an important issue and the efforts made by the committee and especially Tory Orlandro deserve great recognition and gratitude.
How can we get more presentations about green practices within the library?
ACRL2009: Information Literacy Pecha Kucha
I am trying to capture the amazing ideas that moved around the table during today's lunchtime roundtables. Camille Andrews at Cornell facilitated an really great conversation. Many thanks to her. Here are my disjointed notes on the conversation.
Berkley’s Mellon Grant
Alternative IL Standards. Great conversation on this in ili-l.
Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative: weeklong institute with campus faculty working with partners on improving assignments.
Blending multiple literacies: technology, media, IT, research fluency
What are the NEW MEDIA LITERACIES? Macarthur foundation: Digital Media and Learning. How are their differing criteria in media literacy than information literacy?
Craig Gibson “Prisms Around Student Learning,” Educause.
Colbert on Wikipedia: True Enough
The argument that students have an assignment so Do students really need to know how to find x, y, and z? They are so savvy…do they need traditional instruction anymore? Do they need us to tell them how to use our resources?
How to get librarians away from how-to and into thinking about concepts.
Let’s spend time thinking about keyword development: what are they going to search?
How unique we are to have an embedded program—the fact that I don’t have to fight for seeing students, that I have to struggle on what to cover when! WOW—I need to be in programs that are looking to embed.
Rather talk to them about how to use a book, how to drill a bibliography, how to evaluate a source.
Is anyone asking students what they want to know to do? How are we building our assumptions about what they need to know?
IL Resources
• “35 Standards Based Activities for Information Literacy: Mary McDonald”
• Doug Cook, “Library Cookbook”
• “Information Literacy meet Library 2.0” by Peter Godwin
Getting in touch with the faculty: Letting faculty know that they are teaching information literacy and they don’t even know it.
Berkley’s Mellon Grant
Alternative IL Standards. Great conversation on this in ili-l.
Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative: weeklong institute with campus faculty working with partners on improving assignments.
Blending multiple literacies: technology, media, IT, research fluency
What are the NEW MEDIA LITERACIES? Macarthur foundation: Digital Media and Learning. How are their differing criteria in media literacy than information literacy?
Craig Gibson “Prisms Around Student Learning,” Educause.
Colbert on Wikipedia: True Enough
The argument that students have an assignment so Do students really need to know how to find x, y, and z? They are so savvy…do they need traditional instruction anymore? Do they need us to tell them how to use our resources?
How to get librarians away from how-to and into thinking about concepts.
Let’s spend time thinking about keyword development: what are they going to search?
How unique we are to have an embedded program—the fact that I don’t have to fight for seeing students, that I have to struggle on what to cover when! WOW—I need to be in programs that are looking to embed.
Rather talk to them about how to use a book, how to drill a bibliography, how to evaluate a source.
Is anyone asking students what they want to know to do? How are we building our assumptions about what they need to know?
IL Resources
• “35 Standards Based Activities for Information Literacy: Mary McDonald”
• Doug Cook, “Library Cookbook”
• “Information Literacy meet Library 2.0” by Peter Godwin
Getting in touch with the faculty: Letting faculty know that they are teaching information literacy and they don’t even know it.
13 March 2009
Percolating the Power of Play, ACRL 2009
We just finished presenting our paper, "Percolating the Power of Play" at ACRL. What a terrific turnout for 8 am! We were very fortunate to have such a terrific group of presenters before us, " We're Not Playing Around: Gaming Literate Librarians = Information Literate Students" from three librarians at Washington State University-Vancouver. I am especially glad to have met Nicholas Schiller. He and I seem to be eye-to-eye in our thinking that by talking to students about how they play games can and will help them understand how information literacy is already a valuable part of their lives.
Also great to see Jenny Levine in the audience! It was her creation of the ALA TechSource Gaming and Libraries Symposium that hatched the idea of an info lit game at Champlain in the first place. As I look back at my thoughts on that conference, I am reminded of how much I expanded my view of gaming from it and how much working with gamers has expanded my view of the role gaming can play in libraries and information literacy instruction.
If you want to have a look at our slides, please do and feel free to ask questions! The audiece asked some terrific questions, which is always the best part of presenting!
I am off to my next session. ACRL Rocks.
Also great to see Jenny Levine in the audience! It was her creation of the ALA TechSource Gaming and Libraries Symposium that hatched the idea of an info lit game at Champlain in the first place. As I look back at my thoughts on that conference, I am reminded of how much I expanded my view of gaming from it and how much working with gamers has expanded my view of the role gaming can play in libraries and information literacy instruction.
If you want to have a look at our slides, please do and feel free to ask questions! The audiece asked some terrific questions, which is always the best part of presenting!
Percolating the Power Of Play
View more presentations from Sarah Cohen.
I am off to my next session. ACRL Rocks.
11 March 2009
Starred Items
It's a busy week for me as I am heading to Seattle but there are a few things I've starred in my Google Reader that I'd love to share and hear comments on.
--This story about Vivek Kundra is certainly interesting and important. Who is this guy? And where was coverage in the major news media? Or in the library blogosphere? The Chief Information Officer has a huge role to play in the digital world and especially in an administration that is touting itself as digital. What is it that we want to see IT look like in the US? In government? These are questions I am posing in my Seminar in Contemporary World Issues but I pose them here as well.
--I love this post on the ACRLog, partly because there is so much to read from it. But also because ssmith (I wish I knew their real name!) shared experiences that are particularly familiar to me. As she said, it is refreshing to know you are not alone. Which leads to my next star...
--K.G. Schneider wrote this marvelous post about the impact the world situation is having on her in her efforts to write. I am so grateful for her sincerity and openness. It is difficult to process all that is going on in the world and it is also difficult to articulate its effect on us. It's hard to even realize that it has an effect. Admittedly, I am having a bit of an opposite experience. I am finding it easier to eek out time for writing and for myself, perhaps because I am not spending as much time in my Reader or surfing the news. Or perhaps because it is one of the only things I do have control over in these crazy times. But the important thing I take away from this is that the influx of information effects us all in different ways. The same is true for our students or our colleagues. I so much appreciated this reminder.
--Finally, I grabbed this post last week from the Chronicle on Wikipedia and the future of expertise. We are thinking about restructuring our first year, first semester IL session to talk with students more about Wikipedia and this might be an interesting way to do it since this piece really addresses questions about authority and credibility. I haven't delved into this as much as I would like yet but I will.
And that's it, I think. I am off to print my plane ticket. Hope to see you in Seattle.
--This story about Vivek Kundra is certainly interesting and important. Who is this guy? And where was coverage in the major news media? Or in the library blogosphere? The Chief Information Officer has a huge role to play in the digital world and especially in an administration that is touting itself as digital. What is it that we want to see IT look like in the US? In government? These are questions I am posing in my Seminar in Contemporary World Issues but I pose them here as well.
--I love this post on the ACRLog, partly because there is so much to read from it. But also because ssmith (I wish I knew their real name!) shared experiences that are particularly familiar to me. As she said, it is refreshing to know you are not alone. Which leads to my next star...
--K.G. Schneider wrote this marvelous post about the impact the world situation is having on her in her efforts to write. I am so grateful for her sincerity and openness. It is difficult to process all that is going on in the world and it is also difficult to articulate its effect on us. It's hard to even realize that it has an effect. Admittedly, I am having a bit of an opposite experience. I am finding it easier to eek out time for writing and for myself, perhaps because I am not spending as much time in my Reader or surfing the news. Or perhaps because it is one of the only things I do have control over in these crazy times. But the important thing I take away from this is that the influx of information effects us all in different ways. The same is true for our students or our colleagues. I so much appreciated this reminder.
--Finally, I grabbed this post last week from the Chronicle on Wikipedia and the future of expertise. We are thinking about restructuring our first year, first semester IL session to talk with students more about Wikipedia and this might be an interesting way to do it since this piece really addresses questions about authority and credibility. I haven't delved into this as much as I would like yet but I will.
And that's it, I think. I am off to print my plane ticket. Hope to see you in Seattle.
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