The Next Chapter

Very cool!

2012-03-21T14:33:20.712-05:00

Very cool!

There's a nice post on this same subject over ...

2012-02-01T12:28:34.837-05:00

There's a nice post on this same subject over at No Shelf Required titled "Life after the Statistical Abstract".

http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/2012/01/21/life-after-the-statistical-abstract-alamw-discussion-summary/

This is all very exciting! I am particularly inter...

2011-11-05T10:20:51.049-05:00

This is all very exciting! I am particularly interested by the "disapproval plan". Really innovative thinking and I can't believe it's taken this long. Maybe the timing is right now because more libraries need to weed now with the impact of electronically available material?

As well, I fully support any effort to move the LCC library forward in its collecting of, use of, access to electronic books in the most efficient and effective manner.

This conference sounds amazing and reaffirms for me that the specialized, smaller conferences really provide a better ROI than the fun and useful larger, broader conferences.

I can't wait to hear more about the sessions y...

2011-11-04T07:57:07.126-05:00

I can't wait to hear more about the sessions you have attended! Enjoy the rest of the conference

"The presentation slides should be posted on ...

2011-10-31T16:35:07.468-05:00

"The presentation slides should be posted on the MLA website soon."

OR NOT.

Thanks for these updates. As someone who did not attend this year, its nice to see that there were many useful and insightful speakers and programs.

This is great stuff. I can't wait to put it t...

2011-07-19T08:47:45.387-05:00

This is great stuff. I can't wait to put it together with what I learn at the jing workshop today.

The highlight of the day for me was Steven Bell...

2011-05-12T14:54:44.040-05:00

The highlight of the day for me was Steven Bell's talk about change and innovation. Here is a link to his handout.

I particularly liked his emphasis on that fact that change can start small. Some examples he gave from Temple University Libraries were putting plants on the window sills in the library, putting chairs in spots where students were always seen sitting on the floor, using stencils and paint to put "Quiet Study Zone" on the pillars in areas where students often complained about noise.

These improvements came from staff observing how people use the library and proposing improvements and from a culture of openness to suggestions from staff in all areas of the library.

He also pointed out that the theme of the conference, Innovate, Collaborate, Connect, should be turned around. Through connecting and collaborating, we can innovate. He talked about the myth of innovation coming from an individual dreaming up a novel idea in a vacuum. Innovation comes from people working together to solve problems.

How can we encourage this culture of innovation here at LCC Library? How can we work to make sure all voices are heard and listened to?

Here are some books he recommended that will be on my summer reading list:

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Culturetopia

The art of innovation : lessons in creativity from IDEO, America's leading design firm

Karl and Kelli, thanks so much for posting about T...

2011-05-12T12:55:18.859-05:00

Karl and Kelli, thanks so much for posting about Thursday! I think the rest of us were really curious to hear how it went.

Karl, I am glad you said aloud that the meeting ran concurrently with LOEX... and I saw in the survey that came out via email that MLA maybe realizes this is a problem. Next year, if I understand correctly, LOEX is back in Michigan? It'll be interesting to see how this is resolved.

Kim brought up during our weeding discussion today, the session brought to us from Northern Michigan University. As she pointed out, 50% of their collection had to be discarded by 2013 (I believe that was the end date). This was a show and tell sort of session.. where are they at this point.

The details of how many works are gone, or where they went aren't as interesting as the subtext and issues encountered.... it seems that although processes were in place, communication was not! Library staff were questioned by outraged community patrons and faculty (although students apparently understood all along why the project was taking place). Even within the library, it was clear, from this talk, that many librarians were NOT on board with the project.

The take away from all of this? Regardless of project, the importance of CLEAR communication with all parties involved remains certain. Furthermore, all projects need follow up communication. If we learn nothing else from our colleagues at NMU, we learn that just because an email was sent at some point, doesn't mean that all recipients understood, or even read said message.

Something to think about!

-R

At Friday's AL2011 luncheon the keynote speake...

2011-05-11T19:15:55.148-05:00

At Friday's AL2011 luncheon the keynote speaker was Steven Bell from Temple Univ. I enjoyed his presentation about "Innovation". He used a mix of his experiences, story telling, videos, testimonials, professionals' ideas, etc.

Innovation has many definitions depending on who you talk to or listen to. What I took away from his presentation is that for innovation to happen there must be a customer focus. Innovators connect with others to collaborate for innovation. They spend time finding out what a problem is before trying to design something new to take care of it.

Also, there is much value in any small changes that you make. These small successes are innovations in bits and pieces -- which is way better than nothing or waiting for the large change to occur!

Suzanne B. and I also attended a session titled "Using Google Like a Librarian". I got a number of good ideas from this session about piloting or providing a similar workshop for our faculty or even students!

I agree with Kelli that Rick Anderson was compelli...

2011-05-11T10:40:32.384-05:00

I agree with Kelli that Rick Anderson was compelling and provocative, but I didn't feel like he had much to offer in terms of solutions. My favorite session of the day was given by Debbie Morrow, Science Liaison at GVSU. I connected with her in two ways, one, she's the science liaison, two, she was talking about giving instruction to science students!

While her presentation itself was not earth shattering, what I found most interesting was the way that GVSU librarians do their instruction intake. Their form is like a "menu" of information literacy topics and each one is directly tied to either Gen Ed goals, program goals, or graduate level goals. Debbie did admit that many instructors want the library to cover everything (!), but the real power of their form is that all of the info lit pieces are directly tied to institutional goals!

She spend a good amount of time talking about her experience that she happened upon working with an instructor who wanted her to handle two classes (3hrs apiece) of intro engineering students. Some of her strategies for this daunting task were brilliant. Not to get into specifics, but the take away for us...setting the stage, providing a compelling scenario that engages the students and gives them a clear focus; citation as who, what, when, where, and the WHY is the students evaluation...I thought that was brilliant.

While the session was a bit uneven, she admittedly stepped in for a colleague, and I thought she did well, even attempting to engage us all in dialog with one another. Thanks Debbie for forcing us out of our comfort zone!

Oh yeah...my dinner on Thur. (marinated tofu steak) was incredible!

(third time trying to comment- I just realized I h...

2011-05-10T18:50:24.831-05:00

(third time trying to comment- I just realized I have to be logged in as myself) *fingers crossed!*

So… as I was saying again- my favorite session on Thurs was actually the keynote speaker, Rick Anderson. His talk was very engaging, and he focused on the libraries’ first principles- the most basic one being Access to information. He also mentioned connection, and efficiency- making things helpful to our patrons. Rick gave a long list of items that may prevent us from achieving our principles (some of which I did not fully understand as a young librarian). After the coming of the internet age it has seemed like librarians are less needed: circulation is down dramatically, and reference services are underutilized. He emphasized the fact that we need to change ourselves, not our users- rethink the way we are collecting- focus on bibliographic instruction, create a more user-friendly catalog, etc. Students are using the library space to study, but few are really using the reference desk as a starting point for research. I learned that Google now is more like ask.com, allowing users to just type in their question (without having to pull out keywords) and get an answer.

Though Karl and I did not fully agree with everything Rick said, I believe he made some good points and delivered them well. Gave me something to think about…

The breakout sessions, in comparison, were ok. Most of the sessions I attended were more like show and tell than actually teaching me something (maybe that’s the way they are supposed to be?). I was rather disappointed that the session on digitization that I had planned to attend was replaced by another that I was less interested in.

Overall, it was nice to connect with fellow librarians, such as one of my classmates from SI. It was also a treat to spend the day in such a beautiful venue and to enjoy some fine dining!!

That is my two cents-

Kelli

I think my favorite session was the one on roving ...

2011-05-09T13:14:00.806-05:00

I think my favorite session was the one on roving reference by two librarians from Wayne. It was very neat that the goal was not just to provide reference but to also gain a greater understanding of what was going on with their patrons in order to guide redesign - both policy and physical.

Some of the things that the Wayne librarians found were easily addressed to everyone’s benefit. They connected with students that wouldn’t likely have met and improved the learning environment for those they didn’t. It was a great take on the topic.

We just had a complaint about noise on the 4th floor which made me think that we could learn a lot by doing something similar. To really get out and see what is happening seems critical to improving service.

Susan

You know my avoidance of Facebook... but I gotta t...

2011-02-22T11:20:05.040-05:00

You know my avoidance of Facebook... but I gotta tell you, I really like this idea! -Rachel

Looks pretty but that's too much for me. I nee...

2010-10-27T09:44:44.295-05:00

Looks pretty but that's too much for me. I need less interaction in the morning... and certainly NOT while brushing my teeth. :)

I'm all for using libguides for anything and e...

2010-10-21T15:13:02.324-05:00

I'm all for using libguides for anything and everything that seems useful now, or even has the potential to be useful at some point. The more we play with the tool, the more we should be able to verify how it can be used most effectively to serve our students.

I do not even remember writing that! However, I...

2010-10-20T10:33:09.422-05:00

I do not even remember writing that! However, I'm thrilled that it is a coherent and useful post...
-Rachel

I really like all these ideas and I've tried o...

2010-10-13T13:51:47.605-05:00

I really like all these ideas and I've tried out the "awesome highlighter" and it is pretty awesome!

Well, I roll out the white board and draw a bunch ...

2010-10-13T13:50:26.806-05:00

Well, I roll out the white board and draw a bunch of boxes while talking about fields and records and how keyword searches everywhere, drawing arrows to all the boxes. Then I explain how one of those fields is the "subject" field and I say to them while drawing an arrow to that one box, "so, if you select a subject you're automatically narrowing things down to articles that are about that particular topic." Or something like that.

Thanks for sharing these ideas for instruction! ...

2010-10-12T10:07:04.444-05:00

Thanks for sharing these ideas for instruction!

I signed up for an Animoto account and will take a look at it. Off the top of my head, we might be able to use it for students to create short videos with images and keywords they have brainstormed to search for information about a topic.

Screenjelly could be used by students to report back to the class about searches they have done. Or during IM reference, it could be used to demonstrate how a search in done in a database. When you go to Screenjelly one use listed is to "report a bug," so maybe it could be used in helping troubleshoot database access problems with a patron.

I'll report back about Amimoto and Screenjelly after I get a chance to try them out...

I really hope this went well!

2010-09-16T13:36:53.330-05:00

I really hope this went well!

For all the grief I gave you, this is actually pre...

2010-09-16T11:54:39.538-05:00

For all the grief I gave you, this is actually pretty cool. :) -Rachel

I think most instructors at LCC fall into the firs...

2010-09-13T10:42:53.785-05:00

I think most instructors at LCC fall into the first two categories, but I'm sure there are plenty who are missing out.

Karl, we're librarians. You know we break down...

2010-08-31T18:09:35.891-05:00

Karl, we're librarians. You know we break down into the "Early Adopter" camp ("This is the next best thing to sliced bread! Students are clamoring for it!") or the "Latent Luddite" camp ("Yeah, it's not bad... if you're INTO that kinda thing. Now when *I* was in school....")

You're either "fer it" or "agin it" but you can't be both.

I say this all tongue in cheek, of course. Librarians get the idea of middle ground.. we understand shades of gray. However, how do we as Institution, handle variation? There will never be enough money to supply all materials in all formats.

Spend the money on print and carry on the rich tradition of academia or spend it on e-books and plant ourselves in the Now? Or, do both (as we do) and hope we've figured out the mix, knowing that someone somewhere won't have exactly what they need?

Well that was good timing, huh? It IS an interesti...

2010-07-01T11:42:20.013-05:00

Well that was good timing, huh? It IS an interesting idea... I look forward to reading some (just some, it's summer after all!) of these.

-Rachel

Oh yes, let's talk about this. I've got RE...

2010-06-08T12:44:00.736-05:00

Oh yes, let's talk about this. I've got READ 114 coming in two days... and as the instructor said, they haven't been in a library in at least 10 years, if at all. What will grab and hold their attention?
-Rachel