ALS Academic & Special Libraries blog

Sea Change for Illinois Library Systems

2010-05-18T14:13:00.003-05:00

It’s difficult for me to write this, but in response to the budget deficit in Illinois, the Alliance Library System will be eliminating all services with the exception of delivery and resource sharing. In addition, MITBC services will be suspended until funding is re-established. The consultants are wrapping up projects for the next 2 weeks and notifying our members. Overall, 22 ALS and MITBC staff members will be laid off as of Friday, May 28th, and there will no longer be a consulting and continuing education department.

This is a sea change for libraries throughout Illinois—North Suburban Library System made the first announcement about service reductions on May 11th. Unfortunately, the other systems will be making similar reductions as their reserves become exhausted. Kitty Pope, ALS Executive Director, wrote in her announcement RE: Change in ALS Core Services,

“Thank you for participating in our campaigns, contacting legislators and supporting our cooperative efforts. Unfortunately, we have run out of options; the storm is upon us, and we are in survival mode. Other Illinois library systems are on different time lines as to when they will run out of money, but they are all in trouble. There is no safe harbor from this storm.”

My time at ALS has been short, but I’ve loved every minute of it (well, except for this last part.) I’ve enjoyed learning about all our library types. From publics, I’ve learned that I can understand the budget cycle, read a budget and appropriate ordinance, and calculate a levy. From schools, I’ve learned that information literacy is a high priority, and that school librarians are working to stay relevant and indispensable in these tough economic times. From specials, I’ve learned that we have a diverse community of medical, historical, prison, and corporate libraries with needs that are as diverse as they are. And from academics, I’ve learned the value of tailoring networking and CE opportunities.

It’s been all libraries, all of the time—for that I am truly grateful.

Postscript: There's been an updated memo on May 20th detailing the most recent developments.

CARLI’s Copyright Workshop

2010-05-07T12:47:00.002-05:00

I attended CARLI’s copyright workshop presented by Dwayne K. Buttler last week. Professor Buttler serves as the first Evelyn J. Schneider Endowed Chair for Scholarly Communications at the University of Louisville and holds a faculty appointment as a Professor in University Libraries. His program on Copyright and Digital Libraries, focused mostly on copyright basics with a little about the TEACH ACT and streaming media thrown in.

Even though he focused on many of the basics, this copyright workshop was different than any I’ve attended before. My first hint was his list of what “copyright probably oughta” be. With the proliferation of electronic resources, the importance and value of “cumulative development of enduring knowledge” should not be discounted, and without a sea change, copyright law creates “a nation of scofflaws, law breakers, ne’er-do-wells, and pirates”. This backs up Buttler’s stated goal “to teach good faith and reasonable practices” in regard to fair use.

Whoa—this deviated from every other single day copyright sessions I’ve attended. (Maybe I haven’t been attending the right ones!) Most of them reviewed copyright but made me feel like the complexity of copyright law necessitated that I steer faculty toward copyright free materials. Buttler discussed the ambiguity of copyright law and urged the use of risk analysis. He also talked a lot about transformative vs. derivative when considering Fair Use. Of course, the four factors are still relevant and every instant needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, but transformative vs. derivative is a key element. I think this article, Fair use and transformativeness: It may shake your world, by Joyce Valenza in School Library Journal covers a lot of the same issues Buttler discussed.

Buttler also cited the recent YouTube controversy regarding a series of parodies using film clips from the movie, Downfall. Constantin Film, the movie’s copyright holder, sent takedown notices to YouTube regarding the parodies. YouTube removed the videos and only reinstated them after the video makers filed claim disputes. The controversy is very well addressed on the Center for Social Media’s Hitler Hates Fair Use – Downfall Meme Comes Full Circle. In the meantime, Brad Templeton made a video using a Downfall clip to chide Constantin Film and YouTube over this incident. If you haven’t seen Hitler, as “Downfall producer” orders a DMCA takedown, I would recommend it.

Information Literacy Summit - Problem Solving in our Communities

2010-05-05T16:24:00.002-05:00

I attended the Information Literacy Summit at Illinois State University on April 20th. This year’s theme was “Problem Solving in our Communities: Everyday Information Experiences.” It was my 6th summit (there have been 9), and I my perception is that information literacy is evolving in Illinois. The earlier summits focused on IL basics—definitions, developing plans, locating resources and then morphed into best practices/applications. Now the direction seems to be shifting again—this time toward integrating IL into Gen Ed requirements and developing an awareness of IL as lifelong critical thinking skills.

There were two questions in the first session I attended on Critical Inquiry that really clicked for me. How can librarians help students create an identity as a researcher, and secondly, how do we become part of students learning communities? I’ve been thinking a lot about the second question lately, but had never fully articulated the first. (Thanks Jennifer and Joyce, presenters of the session, for solidifying it for me!) I think these are two of the core questions that all librarians will be considering as the profession continues to be influenced by technology trends.

More information about the summits and presentation is available through their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/infolitsummit.

More about IACRL: Year of the Librarian

2010-04-19T17:11:00.001-05:00

I wanted to highlight one more presentation I attended at the recent IACRL conference. I’ve already mentioned the Google Wave session from IACRL preconference in the March 29th post, and the Copyright Program in the April 8th post.

R. David Lankes, one of the keynote speakers, has put up his presentation “Year of the Librarian: the Future is Ours for the Taking” on his blog at http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/blog/?p=986. Not only are the slides there, but his recorded presentation is also included.

His stated “mission of librarians” is to “improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.” He sees opportunity for librarians to identify the gaps of knowledge, provide their navigational skills to bridge these gaps, and weave relationships within communities.

To me, this sounds a whole like what we’ve been calling knowledge based consulting here at ALS. Our consultants are building relationships and making connections that result in “a new fabric of understanding”.

Some of the tools that we’ve created since starting knowledge based consulting include our Library Toolkit, Technology Training Wheels, and our continuing education series like: Going Green, Personal Management, and Tough Times. In fact, this blog was a direct result of a need expressed by our librarians to keep up with current and emerging trends with academic and special libraries.

What else is going on at ALS this week:
Information Literacy Summit at ISU is tomorrow, April 20.
Thursday, April 22, is the Special Librarians Luncheon at Caterpillar Business Resource Center Library in Peoria.

Copyright Program at IACRL

2010-04-08T10:48:00.004-05:00

I wanted to highlight a few of the programs I attended at the recent IACRL conference. I’ve already mentioned the Google Wave session from IACRL preconference in the March 29th post, but here’s another.

I attended “Copyright on Campus: Coordinating the Confusion” by Christine Ross, Director of Collection and Research Services and Scholarly Communications Officer - University of Illinois at Springfield. It was the first program of the conference—there were some issues with the room—but Christine did a great job discussing the efforts of UIS to coordinate copyright issues on campus and beyond.

UIS does a lot of distant education, and confusion about rights and accessibility has increased as more resources move online. Conversations on copyright issues lead the Provost to create a campus-wide copyright committee. This committee has taken steps to address copyright confusion, and there are some resources available on the UIS pages including:
· The Copyright and Fair Use policy
· The Guidelines and Procedure for Copyright Compliance in the Use of Library Materials
· Video from their Copyright Compliance Coordination Committee (C4) entitled Copyright on Campus
· LibGuide for C4 resources

I hope to develop a module in Technology Training Wheels focusing on copyright issues related to Web 2.0 such as Creative Commons, the TEACH Act, and streaming video. Hopefully it will be developed by early summer. Watch http://technologytrainingwheels.pbworks.com/ for more details!

Learn More about Mobile Library Apps from Boopsie

2010-03-31T07:54:00.001-05:00

Public and academic libraries are invited to attend an informational webinar and demo from Boopsie. Boopsie creates custom mobile applications ("There’s an app for that!"). You can mobilize your library for on-the-go patrons seeking easy access. Powerful catalog search, real-time integration, reading lists, your blogs and tweets, and much more. http://boopsie.com/home/

This webinar will be held on two more occasions to allow all interested parties an opportunity to attend.

Thursday,April 1, at 2 pm

Wednesday,April 7, at 10 am

For more information and to register, login to Library Learning (L2).

Google Wave session from IACRL preconference

2010-03-29T14:32:00.002-05:00

At IACRL last week, I attended a preconference session on Google Wave presented by Ray Schroeder from the Center for Online Learning, Research and Service (COLRS) at University of Illinois Springfield. Ray and his team have been using Wave in online learning since the preview version was launched late last year. I’m still not completely sold on Wave, but I see the potential. I secured a Wave invitation in November 2009, but have been unhappy with the instability of the platform. After taking to Ray and his team, I found out that a lot of my connectivity issues stem from my use of Internet Explorer—Chrome is recommended as the browser of choice and is a significantly more stable platform for Wave. I also learned that:

Since Google Wave is in real time, if you are typing a “blip” (post) anything you type will be visible to others looking at the wave. If you are editing your blip, others can see what you are typing as you do it.

Wave has some problems with embedding certain links. For example, Ning and Blackboard will break your Wave and you will be unable to continue adding to it. It also difficult to recreate a Wave once it’s broken.

Waves can be posted to a website. This is a neat feature that allows publication of a Wave even as the Wave continues.

Ray and his team have created some great resources too. In the Ning network, they have Get Your Head in the Clouds which has a Wave section and Wave Collaboration in Learning . They also have a blog at http://uisgooglewave.blogspot.com/ which has terminology and additional resources.

I will continue to monitor Wave but I’ve begun to explore other Wave-like experiences as well. I’ve used wiggio.com to some success and can see the benefits of a single copy application. Ray feels that the multimedia aspects and the Google name will make Wave big by the end of 2010, but I must admit that I have my doubts. I think the amount of information presented in Wave can be overwhelming. It’s kind of like being in a room of relatives who are all talking really loudly and having many different conversations. I also don’t think Wave is very intuitive—the learning curve is very steep and this will make it difficult to implement. Only time will tell if Google Wave is the trend of the future, so we’ll have to wait and see…

Waiting for payments

2010-03-23T08:20:00.004-05:00

As the state of Illinois continues to struggle financial, so do state funded institutions. Illinois library systems took a 17% cut at the beginning of the FY10 fiscal year and are still waiting on 2/3 of their allocated funds. (“State Funding Shortage May Doom Library Systems”) Illinois universities are waiting on more than $840 million in overdue payments, but with the state’s $13 billion deficit, options are limited. (“Ill. Universities Struggle Without State Payments”)

Some are touting “Community Colleges as Economic Saviors” but lack of funding could jeopardize their impact on economic recovery. As my former college president used to point out, funding for community colleges is like a 3 legged stool—funds come from three sources: local taxes, tuition, and state funding. If one leg of your stool is shortened, your base is unbalanced and it’s a precarious foundation.

So what's the plan? Governor Quinn has created a website, www.budget.illinois.gov, where voters can view the fiscal year 2011 budget plan or propose a solution for solving the state’s budget crisis. So far they've received 12,000 comments, but without the commitment of legislators to confront these difficult budget issues, the state of Illinois will continue to do business as usual.

Personal Learning Networks

2010-03-19T09:24:00.003-05:00

I participated in a trivia fundraiser for a library over the weekend, and I noticed that there were a lot of librarians on the teams. At first, I attributed this to the fact that this was fundraiser for a library, but then I started to think about a comment my step-father made to me. When I told him I was going to participate, he joked that he had been on this team at last year’s event, but didn’t perform very well. He thought that they were looking for “some talent” and that I had been asked as a “ringer”.

All of this ties into what I’ve been reading this week. Seeking The Killer Connector For A Social Academic Library Site from ACRLog discusses how academics are working to make their web sites more social. As with all disciplines, librarians are looking at ways technology can assist with our connections with our users. I also listened to 24 Minute Video on Crap Detection 101: 21st Century Literacies by Howard Rheingold. (Thank you Stephen Abram for the redirect!) The truly powerful piece for me was when Rheingold began to talk about the social aspect of information literacy and personal learning networks.

It’s funny, but I had only heard the term, personal learning networks or PLNs, a few months ago. I was reading one of the blogs in which I subscribe and followed a link to a site that kept referring to the term. I was interested enough at the time to read more about PLNs, but I felt that they were just another term for life-long learning. PLNs are “the people and information sources that help you accomplish your goals” (David Warlick) but what I’ve breezed past was the relationship to social networking. As Warlick so aptly writes “there are techniques for finding people and resources worth of your connections. They include, but are not limited to, socially maintained lists of bloggers and other resources, blogging search engines, news searches, and social media sites.”

For me, both of these pieces focused on building relationships. This made me think that PLNs may be the “connectors” that we are seeking. Librarians and libraries need to be part of the social media so that users can connect us to their PLNs. But can librarians sell the point that they are a critical connector in PLNs?

At the trivia night, we had a lot of fun with family and friends, but it was interesting to see the respect my occupation had with new acquaintances on my team. It was amazing to me that I was accepted as an expert because 1. I was a librarian and 2. I had been recommended by another team member. The librarian stereotype has some negative connotations, but also some positive ones—librarians are thought of as smart, knowledgeable, and well read. As social networking sites continue to blossom, it’s important for librarians to be where they can capitalize on their reputations and relationships.

Oh, and yes—we won the trivia night competition—if only bragging rights.

Other PLN resources:
http://thingsonasticknews.blogspot.com/2010/02/thing-50-personal-learning-networks-pln.html
http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/

IACRL on March 25-26

2010-03-12T13:17:00.001-06:00

In anticipation of the upcoming IACRL conference, the Spring 2010 Newsletter is now available. If you haven’t registered for the conference, registration is still open. This year’s theme is “Thriving While Surviving: The Complete 21st Century Librarian.” It will be in Springfield from March 25-26. I’m also registered for the pre-conference on Google Wave, and I look forward to seeing other ALS librarians at the conference!

MLA Webcast at ALS March 24

2010-03-05T07:37:00.002-06:00

Please join us on March 24th from 1-3pm for a MLA Webcast: Now’s the Time-Understanding the Electronic Health Record Maze and Health Sciences Librarians’ Roles. The goal of this program is to clarify the terminology surrounding the emerging electronic health information environment and to illustrate how and why health sciences librarians can and should become engaged with the efforts to achieve the national 2014 goal of instituting an electronic health record for each person in the United States.

For more information on this webcast or to register, please see L2.

*The sponsorship of this webcast site has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine,National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NLM-N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Privacy and the Internet Age

2010-03-01T10:01:00.003-06:00

Looking over the headlines this morning, I saw the Inside Higher Ed news bulletin on the Professor Suspended Over Facebook Venting. I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback by someone assuming privacy on a social networking site, but it really brings home the fact that you must assume that everything that is recorded in some way (memos, email, posts, videos) could potentially be read/heard by someone other than the intended audience. The Internet makes it very easy to view or transfer information—not just scholarly materials and research.

This professor had less than 35 Facebook friends, but somehow her comments found their way to university officials. There were two recent posts that were construed as possibly threatening. In the first on January 21, she wrote, "Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete hitman? Yes, it's been that kind of day..." In the other comment, posted one month later, she wrote, "had a good day today, DIDN'T want to kill even one student :-). Now Friday was a different story."

Even before the most recent university shootings, these types of comments would have to be considered in poor taste. Regardless of their appropriateness, it raises awareness of a need to be cautious when writing, texting, or posting in the Internet age.

NLM ending support for Go Local Program

2010-02-25T11:16:00.001-06:00

The National Library of Medicine announced last week that they are ending support of the MedlinePlus Go Local Program. In addition to economic reasons, they cited “the changed Internet environment, coupled with declining use” in making this decision. The announcement can be found at http://nnlm.gov/mcr/news_blog/?p=5453

Textbooks and Libraries

2010-02-18T15:51:00.001-06:00

Bonnie Imler recently wrote an article in American Libraries about “Troublesome Textbooks” that sounded a familiar strain—how to address textbook requests. She has found that more and more students are visiting the library to inquire about borrowing textbook for classes. At first, she attributed this to students confusing the library with the bookstore, but soon began to realize it was more about expectations—libraries circulate books, textbooks are books, therefore, libraries should have the college textbooks available for loan. Unfortunately, her response to create a handout for students called “Looking for Textbooks?” was less than satisfying and misses the big picture.

Today, there was a response entitled “The Case for Textbooks” from Krista McDonald and John Burke from Miami University (OH). MU has also encountered textbook enquires, but after applying S. R. Ranganathan’s “Five Laws of Library Science,” they have “decided to work with our students, faculty, other academic support departments on campus, and the campus bookstores to create in both of our libraries ‘Textbooks on Reserve’ collections, which are updated through a combination of faculty and student donations and library purchases.”

Fortunately, some of the comments focused on what I think is the elephant in the room—the cost of textbooks and innovative ways to address textbook issues such as web 2.0 technologies and open sources. I would like to see more librarians exploring resources that provide open source textbooks and more discussion the role of libraries in the use and development of open source textbooks at academic institutions.

Social Media and CEOs

2010-02-10T15:23:00.003-06:00

Interesting perspective by Beth Kanter on “Should CEOs and Executive Directors Use Social Media?” ALS has done some informal surveys on the topic, and for most of our special libraries, social media is not supported or accessible. It was no surprise last year when Wired wrote an article called "CEOs are Social Media Slackers" but I keep expecting a shift to take place and more acceptance at the corporate level. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm still hopeful! I like Beth’s article because she gives some examples of how some CEOs are doing social media well, and she shares recommendations on how not to do it. She also lists tips and resources for CEOs considering social media.

Upcoming luncheons scheduled

2010-02-04T16:09:00.001-06:00

We’ve added a luncheon for our special librarians and one for our academic librarians this week to L2.

First up is the Special Librarians Luncheon: Sustainability & Social Responsibility on Thursday, April 22, 2010. The luncheon will be at Caterpillar, Inc. - Business Resource Center (Peoria) and the Caterpillar Sustainable Development Group will present a program on Sustainability & Social Responsibility. There will also be a roundtable discussion on "Pull vs. Push Information for our Customers". The focus of this discussion will be on what to deliver, how to deliver the information, customer preferences for delivery methods, etc. Caterpillar will lead off with samples of their projects, screenshots of websites if applicable, etc.Sign-up is through L2 at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=9594

On Thursday, June 10, 2010 at Alliance Library System, we will host the Academic Librarians Luncheon: Information Literacy Assessment. Jennifer Sharkey, Coordinator of Information Literacy Instruction at ISU’s Milner Library, will present a program on information literacy assessment: how IL assessment improves performance, assessing IL across the curriculum, and best practices in IL assessment. Sign up is on L2 at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=9609

Both events have a charge to cover lunch costs. Save the dates—these are great opportunities to attend a program of interest with other special or academic librarians!

2010 Horizon Report

2010-01-27T07:30:00.004-06:00

The 2010 Horizon Report was released on January 19th, 2010. For a brief summary of the report, read the article from Wired Campus on 'Horizon Report' Highlights 6 Technologies to Watch in Education.

IL Snapshot Day - February 10th

2010-01-26T09:10:00.008-06:00

On Wednesday, February 10th, Illinois Libraries are asked to participate in a library advocacy project and take a Snapshot of their services and statistics for use in a statewide advocacy campaign. Interested in participating?

****Website now available with resources--includes press releases, logo, forms, etc. http://www.ila.org/snapshot/

Here’s more information from the Shawnee Library System’s page:
"Snapshot: One day in the Life of Illinois Libraries" is a library advocacy project to focus attention on the value of the services Illinois libraries provide to the state’s residents.

Please join us on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 and participate in "Snapshot: One Day in the Life of Illinois Libraries" by collecting statistics, comments, and photographs from your library. The purpose of this event is to provide indisputable proof that libraries consistently provide invaluable services to our community.

To collect the comments from the public, a "Patron Survey" form will be available shortly.

Click here to download the "Library Statistics" form that you will use to track general library activity.

Follow this link to an "Online Survey" form where libraries are requested to record their statistics by Monday, 15 February 2010.

Also included in this survey, ILA requests that you to submit your Top Five Comments from Your Library Users.

Photos are being collected at this Flickr page.

After all this data is collected, ILA will create a Web site similar to this one created in New Jersey, where state wide results will be displayed. We will also create templates which will assist you in presenting this information to your local elected official.If you have questions in organizing your Snapshot Day, please contact Denise Zielinski dzielins@dupagels.lib.il.us at the DuPage Library System.

January 20th - www.saveillinoislibraries.com

2010-01-19T10:31:00.001-06:00

As the economy continues to grind on in low gear, the resulting pain is only intensifying. Public and school libraries woes have been increasingly in the news, but for the most part, academic institutions seemed to be holding their own. Yes, California universities have been ravaged by their state’s budget issues but they seemed like an anomaly rather than a trend. That is until the state of Illinois’ budget crisis brought to the forefront this dilemma—without the promised funding from the state arriving in a timely manner, U of I would be instituting mandatory furlough days.

Today’s post from the LISNew blog’s, the Library Ecosystem, brings together the interconnectivity of libraries. It’s like the canary in a coal mine—we need to heed the warning and understand that the demise of any type of library threatens us all. Type doesn’t matter; all will succumb if we are unable to recognize our connectivity and advocate our importance together.

Now the state of Illinois’ inability to pay its bills has put in jeopardy the key services that Illinois library systems provide. Illinois’ Regional Library Systems are unfunded, and no money has been received this fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2009. Money was allocated by the General Assembly, but payments have not been released. Illinois library systems have already suffered an almost 17% reduction in funding this fiscal year, but the lack of payments has resulted in systems securing lines of credit to keep them up and running.

The impact on libraries in central Illinois will be profound. Without Illinois library systems, libraries of all types across the state will be affected by no van delivery therefore no resource sharing, no staff training or professional development, no Consultants or professional assistance, no advocacy, no state wide public relations or marketing, no system websites to share information, and no assistance with writing grants, special projects or group purchases.

To bring this critical issue to the attention of our elected officials, www.saveillinoislibraries.com is organizing a campaign to contact Governor Quinn and Comptroller Hynes. To participate, visit the www.saveillinoislibraries.com website on January 20th. An easy to use form will pop up on the front page. The goal is 3,000 e-mails each to Comptroller Hynes and Governor Quinn. To make the campaign viral, there is an opportunity to send information about the campaign to additional email addresses. Without cash - and soon - systems are in mortal danger.

The year of the E-Reader?

2010-01-12T14:49:00.003-06:00

The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been fueling blog speculation about 2010’s electronic trends and devices. Posts featuring e-readers seem to be popping up on many of my favorite blogs. I thought Fast Company’s prophesy that “e-readers are doomed” (DOOMED I SAY!!!) from 2010: The Only Year of the E-Reader may be a bit premature. I agree that e-readers reach a niche market, but with amount of print material available, they probably won’t be going away that soon. As more multifunctional devices become available, it doesn’t mean that they will do everything well. It kind of reminds me of the Spy Kids watch that can do everything except tell time. Sometimes things are so overloaded with gadgets that they don’t serve their original purpose. Anyway, lots of new e-readers are coming, and I’m interested to see is the Kindle will be able to keep up with these new devices.

Additional posts at:
Cornflower on Consumer Electronics Show 2010 – Gadget Envy
American Libraries on Color eReader from Qualcomm

Longshot's podcast on MLA

2010-01-08T08:15:00.004-06:00

Sarah Long, Director of the North Suburban Library System, interviewed Carla Funk for her Longshots podcast on January 5th, 2010. Carla is the Director of the Medical Library Association and talks to Sarah about the benefits of membership. The episode entitled: The Medical Library Association Makes Changes in Light of Recession also discusses "the ways MLA offers continuing education, how the association is funded, and the challenges the MLA is facing during these difficult financial times."

The new year

2009-12-30T06:58:00.002-06:00

Hard to believe another year is ending and that we are closing out another decade. Since I'm a list person, I thought I would close out the year with a few lists from my favorite blogs.

The first is from webworkerdaily.com and includes 10 Things to Do Before the New Year.

Another is from Forrester.com and has Predictions for the Groundswell in 2010

Finally, Talking Tech Friday's suggests the Noughtie List on Kottke.org which contains a collection of the “best of” lists for the last decade.

Have a great new year!

Hybrid Education 2.0

2009-12-29T11:54:00.001-06:00

Here’s an interesting article from Inside Higher Ed on Hybrid Education 2.0. Carnegie Mellon University has been developing their Open Learning Initiative which is similar to the MIT OpenCourseWare Project but focuses on being more responsive to individual student needs. They have received four million in private funding and could possible secure more grants from the federal government. Their concentration is on introductory level courses and “how the open-learning software could be used in conjunction with classroom education to speed up the teaching and learning process.” Carnegie Mellon’s approach is not to use Web 2.0 tools to promote collaborative activities but to use computer programs to reinforce vocabulary and key concepts with activities that adapt to the learner. Instructors can then monitor the learning activities and customize their instruction to target the identified needs of the students.

I was a bit disappointed with the responses to this article. They’re very defensive and there seems to be a lot of soapboxes out there. Hello—we are talking about a hybrid here. Isn’t this pretty much what good instructors are doing right now except they are quizzing students in the classroom setting and grading students during their prep time? I know that several of the faculty members at the community college where I formerly worked integrated online quizzes and activities into their courses. Why not save the valuable prep and instruction time to develop and deliver instruction customized for the learners and save the tedious jobs of grading and analyzing the results to a computer program? The next step would be customizing these online activities to individual student learning needs. This is not a bash on professors or community colleges; it’s a way to incorporate technological advances into the learning cycle.

texting & tweeting in education

2009-12-17T08:21:00.004-06:00

Why does this article, "Texting, Tweeting Ought to be Viewed as GR8 Teaching Tools, Scholar Says", bother me so much? Is it because:

Web 2.0 technologies are not being adapted at most schools?

I feel that school librarians (even the great ones) are being overwhelmed by the day to day activities and can hardly cope.

The cynic in me says “Like that will ever happen...”

Am I just tired and need a break?

How do others feel about this? Is this something that schools (or even academics) are doing or considering? I would be interested in knowing—this is a plea to save me from my inner Scrooge (bah humbug!)

SLA members vote no

2009-12-10T12:43:00.005-06:00

As I reported in October (A rose by any other name), the Special Libraries Association (SLA) was considering changing its name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals (ASKPro). Members voted in November and December and today SLA announced that its membership has rejected the name change. More information can be found at SLA says "no" to ASKPro and on the SLA blog.

Another year, another top 10 list

2009-12-08T14:20:00.004-06:00

ReadWriteWeb posted their Best Products of 2009. Among the top 10 lists, you'll see the big names like Bing, Twitter, Facebook, and Chrome as well as some I had never heard of like Feedly, DBpedia, and Echo.

CARLI proposed bylaw changes

2009-11-25T07:53:00.000-06:00

If you haven’t yet voted on the CARLI Bylaws changes, voting began on Monday, November 16th and will continue through 5pm on Friday, December 18th. The CARLI Board of Directors considered and unanimously recommended adoption of a series of changes to the Bylaws of the consortium at its September 25, 2009 meeting. The full text of the proposed changes as well as a brief news release is available online. An affirmative vote of two-thirds (2/3) of Governing members is required to adopt these recommended changes.

IL Webcast December 3

2009-11-25T07:06:00.000-06:00

Steven Bell and John Shank, co-founders of the Blended Librarians Online Community and their guests, Laurel Cornell and Carrie Donovan, invite you to join them for the live webcast, “Collaborating With Faculty on Information Literacy Instruction: Using Visual Methods to Enhance Student Learning” which will take place on Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 3 pm. EDT.

Event Description: Students’ ability to create visual work is important in their understanding and learning of complex concepts. While visual literacy is a growing phenomenon of interest amongst librarians in a variety of settings, visual methods for teaching are centered around the learner’s ability to take in new knowledge and express it in an original, visual form. In this session, two members of Indiana University’s Visual Methods Research Group will explain their research in exploring visual teaching methods, as well as their collaborative efforts to integrate information literacy into an undergraduate course using visual methods.

Although this event is free, advance registration is required to reserve a virtual seat. More information and the registration page is at: http://home.learningtimes.net/library?go=2266281
If you are not a member of the Blended Librarians Online Community, you will need to join in order to register (no fee to join).

MLA News Technology column

2009-11-24T07:55:00.003-06:00

MLA News is looking for authors for their technology column. Here’s the information:

Are you starting to plan your goals and activities for 2010? Include writing for the *MLA News*! Writing provides a great opportunity to either share expertise you already have or delve into a topic you've been wanting to learn about--and earn AHIP points in the process.

Address a Technology topic that assists hospital, special, and academic medical librarians.
Columns present a brief overview of important technology concepts and issues facing professionals in 2010. Maximum length: 700 words.

Examples of topics we're interested in for 2010 include:
Open source catalogs
SMS Text Reference
Crowd sourcing / "wisdom of crowds" (definition of concept, online examples or websites that support crowd sourcing of problems)
Pocket Virtual Worlds
Top iPhone/iTouch apps for librarians
Google apps for Health Sciences Librarians
VOIP options and applications
Online project management software - Such as Teamworkpm http://www.teamworkpm.net/ <http://www.teamworkpm.net/>

Your own topic suggestions are, of course, welcome as well. Please be sure your suggestion is a new topic.

Please request past columns or instructions to authors from Lynne if you would like to review them before making your decision to author a column. Please include a short writing sample (or link to the sample) with your reply if you've never authored a Technology column before.

If you are interested please contact:
Lynne M. Fox, AMLS, MA, AHIP, Education Librarian,
Health Sciences Library, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado Denver
Mailing address: Mail Stop A003, 12950 E. Montview Blvd., Aurora, CO 80045
303-724-2121, 303-724-2166 (fax), lynne.fox@ucdenver.edu, http://hslibrary.ucdenver.edu/

Additional MLA guidelines for authors are available on the MLA web page.

UIUC strike over

2009-11-23T16:34:00.003-06:00

In a news release today, the members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), have voted to ratify the tentative contract agreement reached between the GEO and University of Illinois (UI) Board of Trustees bargaining teams in Urbana on November 17. The contract has been forwarded to the Board of Trustees.

UIUC Strike

2009-11-16T08:14:00.001-06:00

After months of negotiation, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) at UIUC has gone on strike. The GEO, a part of the American Federation of Teachers/Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 6300, AFL-CIO, represents teaching assistants and graduate assistants on the UIUC campus. They estimate that approximately 23% of undergraduate classes at UIUC are taught by TAs or GAs, yet their salaries draw only 6.5% of state funding. Details about the strike appear in Inside Higher Ed BlogU's, The Education of Oronte Churm.

Blended Librarians podcast

2009-11-10T15:41:00.003-06:00

I just attended a Blended Librarian webcast hosted by LearningTimes. Ellysa Stern Cahoy and Anu Vedantham, presented, “Digital Literacy, Digital Storytelling and the Role of the Academic Librarian” and it was a great overview about the use of multimedia on campuses. Ellysa stated that approximately 42% of class assignments at Penn State now require a multimedia presentation. Ellysa shared her research on student acquisitions of digital literacies while Anu, discussed her experiences in the Information Commons at the University of Pennsylvania Library.

Much of what they said reinforced my own perceptions of Web 2.0 technologies. In fact, Anu’s belief that it is essential for librarians to be able to comfortably use Web 2.0 technologies in order to meet the evolving needs of their communities mirrors my own. Both have created resources online (link to Ellysa’s and Anu’s) for their presentations and the session was recorded and should be on the Blended Librarian website shortly.

Google Wave

2009-11-05T10:03:00.002-06:00

There’s been a lot of discussion on the LITA listserv about Google Wave lately. (To access LITA-L archive, go to http://lists.ala.org/wws/arc/lita-l.) Since it is in "limited preview" mode, I have yet to see Google Wave in action, but like many, I am intrigued by it. I’ve added Google Wave as a QUICK STOP in our technologytrainingwheels.pbworks.com wiki and linked to a brief (2:14) video and the Complete Guide to Google Wave. I would be interested to know if any of our ALS libraries have requested and received an invitation to join Google Wave and how they are using it.

Upcoming MLA webcast at ALS

2009-10-22T16:22:00.001-05:00

The Alliance Library System is a site for the next MLA Webcast: “Cut the Cord: Connecting to our Mobile Users.” The goal of this webcast is to familiarize information professionals with current and emerging mobile technologies, innovative initiatives using mobile devices, useful mobile software applications, and funding options for projects using mobile devices. For more information and registration, please visit L2 at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=8607

The sponsorship of this webcast site has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NLM-N01-LM-6-3503 with the University of Illinois at Chicago. There is no charge to attend the webcast at the ALS site.

October 22 - Special Librarians Luncheon

2009-10-19T07:30:00.003-05:00

The Special Librarians Luncheon is coming up October 22 at State Farm in Bloomington. The theme for the meeting is "The Changing Corporate Library=New Tools, New Space". Sign up information is available on L2 at http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=6450. Maps are available on the registration page. The library is in the Corporate Headquarters building and parking is permissible in any of the lots except the 2 hour lot.

The results of the ALS special librarians survey on social networking is available at: http://technologytrainingwheels.pbworks.com/f/Specials+survey+Oct09.pdf

A rose by any other name…

2009-10-16T15:52:00.001-05:00

The Special Libraries Association (SLA) is considering changing its name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals (ASKPro). This process began in January 2006 when the Board of Directors voted to approve funding for alignment research and the association embarked on an attempt to understand the changing environment of the profession. In June 2009, “the board concluded that the alignment research conducted over the past three years revealed a clear challenge posed by SLA's name: executives who make hiring decisions and allocate budget dollars do not understand what it means. Furthermore, they do not recognize or appreciate the contributions that special librarians and information professionals are making now or the potential they hold for building more successful organizations in the future. This disconnect endangers the jobs of our members, and we are determined to act.” http://www.sla.org/content/SLA/governance/namechange/notice.cfm

You can read some of the early comments at http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/2009/10/align-in-09-step-1-action-you-can-take-now-to-increase-your-value-in-the-workplace-.html or by following #slaname on Twitter. The SLA membership will vote on this proposal in a special electronic referendum that will begin on 16 November and end 9 December. The result will be announced in early December.

Greater Midwest Region's Hospital Administrators Campaign

2009-10-12T16:49:00.005-05:00

October is National Medical Librarians Month, and the Greater Midwest Region is supporting hospital librarians by re-instituting the Hospital Administrators Campaign. The Advocacy Working Group of the Regional Advisory Council has produced an advocacy letter to hospital administrators informing them of the invaluable services medical librarians provide.

Information about participating in this effort is available at http://nnlm.gov/gmr/member/advocacy/index.html

ILA Conference 2009

2009-10-09T16:32:00.005-05:00

The ILA Conference was in Peoria this week, and I was fortunate enough to be able to attend. The awards presentation was last night, and it was inspiring to see the wonderful award winners graciously accepting their accolades with humility and awe. I love being a librarian, but some days even I wonder, “Am I making a difference?” It’s great to see librarians being recognized for their achievements.

I can’t say enough about the importance of professional organizations. ILA gives our Illinois library community (librarians, support staff, trustees, and library supporters) a voice. It provides an opportunity for professional development, interaction with our peers, and opportunities to grow, teach, and lead. Not only do our professional organizations need our support, they need our talents and leadership. If you aren’t a member, consider joining. Once you join, contribute by attending conferences, participating in committees, and advocating for libraries. The effort you expend will be returned seven fold.

The library's third place

2009-09-29T08:50:00.003-05:00

David Lee King recently blogged about his concept of the website/digital branch being the 3rd place at http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/09/22/rethinking-the-3rd-place/. Third places are "anchors" of community life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.
Other “places” include:
1st place—home
2nd place—workplace
The system consultants have been discussing the need for a web presence for all libraries. Some libraries have been resistance because they feel their patrons don’t use the Internet and just come to the physical library place.

It is my belief that “if you build it, they will come.” The same philosophy applies to facebook, twitter, blogs, mobile texting, etc. If you make it easy for your patrons to see and contact you, they will. If libraries want to be seen as anchors in their communities, they need to be visible. Utilizing Internet resources to highlight library services requires some time commitment, but these services require no fees and could have a great impact on reaching new and existing patrons. Librarians don't always have to be on "public time". Everyone needs time to recharge and unwind, but a virtual identity is becoming essential for libraries just like it is becoming "must have" for everyone else.

1 year anniversary of ALS Academic & Specials Librarians blog

2009-09-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe, but September marks the 1 year anniversary of this blog! When I first started, my intention was to post ideas and topics relevant to our special and academic members. I think that I have been able to fulfill this intention, but I’ve also found that it helps me develop a better understanding of the issues and concerns of special and academic libraries. I’ve learned a lot during this year, and I hope to continue to highlight key topics for our member libraries.

Join the Campaign to Save Illinois Libraries

2009-09-18T15:19:00.001-05:00

In response to the recent cuts to system funding and library grants, the Illinois library community is launching a campaign to secure the future of Illinois libraries. You can keep up with the campaign and find out what you can do to help by visiting us on Facebook or Twitter, or by going to SaveIllinoisLibraries.com. The campaign is just beginning: be sure to check back regularly for updates!

Pew Report - Public Evaluations of News

2009-09-15T08:48:00.006-05:00

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press just released their report, Public Evaluations of the News Media: 1985-2009 at http://people-press.org/report/543/ and the results are pretty dismal: “The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans’ views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.”

It seems that local TV news, daily newspapers, and network TV news are still considered accurate, but other news sources were rated poorly. Could this be because “the partisan gap has widened since 2007 in opinions about whether news organizations are not professional… and are often influenced by powerful people and organizations?” Are American seeing news agencies are politically aligned because of the expanded choices in TV and Internet news sources? Is this an opportunity for librarians to promote information literacy and critical thinking skills like those suggested by Mary W. George in her post “Great Expectations”?

Impact of withdrawing from InterLibrary Loan services

2009-09-09T11:00:00.004-05:00

I just read an article in American Libraries about Cash-Strapped Ohio Library Drops Out of WorldCat ILL. Even though Cuyahoga County PL is a public library, it affects all WorldCat ILL libraries. If libraries continue to withdraw from WorldCat ILL and this is the start of a trend, there are several issues that come to mind:

How will libraries fill ILL requests—will they fill them at all? What will the effect be on library users? Will we see a change in the role of LLSAPs? How will libraries change cooperative collection development practices? Can OCLC weather these changes?

Libraries continue to see big cuts to budgets. Ohio has seen an 11% cut to public libraries. Illinois just experienced a 16% reduction in per capita for public libraries and library systems and a 3% per capita reduction for school libraries. Hawaii libraries have yet to figure out a way to address a $5.7-million cut in funding. Academic and special libraries are not insulated from these issues and may be seeing the same concerns spilling over into their own.

Not surprising – huge demand for broadband grants

2009-09-03T09:02:00.002-05:00

I saw an article in eschoolnews.com about the requests the federal government received for the first round of broadband stimulus money. The amount of requests in this round: approximately $28 billion. The stimulus allocated $7.2 billion in total funding for broadband projects, and the government has $4 billion in loans and grants initially available.

The Illinois State Library (ISL) and the Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO) explored submitting an application on behalf of Illinois libraries but were unable to complete the application in time for the August deadline. Of the 45 public, school and academic libraries responding, there were requests for more than $1.9 million in equipment and facility upgrades to enhance broadband services to patrons. The ISL and DCEO have agreed to continue discussions to develop an application for Illinois libraries in a future broadband funding round. There are still two more rounds anticipated.

Why all the interest? This is the first time the federal government has made a concerted effort to expand internet access to rural and underserved communities. A recent report from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) suggested the US ranks 28th in the world in average internet connections speeds and is not making significant progress in building a faster network. As a rural resident, I can attest for the lack of high speed options in my small predominately agriculture community.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service will pick the winning applicants and announce them in November.

Constitution Day, the September Project, and Libraries Remember

2009-08-25T08:49:00.004-05:00

Constitution Day is coming up on September 17, and as required by law, educational institutions that receive federal funds are required to implement “an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution, on a date designated by statute as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.” Of course, there are a variety of resources available including:
National Constitution Center
Constitution Day 2009 at ConstitutionFacts.com
National Heritage Center for Constitutional Studies
Constitution Society

Libraries involved in planning for Constitution Day may also be interested in participating in the September Project and/or Libraries Remember. The September Project was organized in 2004 to highlight freedom and community in libraries throughout the world during the month of September. “This grassroots project favors free over fee, public over private, and voices over silence.” Libraries Remember focuses on commemorating September 11, 2001 by inviting libraries remain open for 24 hours on September 11 as a representation of “freedom of expression, celebration of diversity, a playing field that is level, preservation of heritage, and commitment to the future.” Both have websites where you can register your libraries activities.

House Bill 49 now Public Act 96-0498

2009-08-20T08:41:00.003-05:00

After several attempts, the amendment to allow academic libraries to dispose of withdrawn materials in a variety of ways has been passed. The amendment to the State Library Act and the State Property Control Act is available at: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/fulltext.asp?Name=096-0498
A history of the bills action in this session is available at: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=49&GAID=10&DocTypeID=HB&LegId=40060&SessionID=76&GA=96

Here’s the main change to the act:

“An agency covered by this Act may sell or exchange books, serial publications, and other library materials that have been withdrawn from its library collection through a regular collection evaluation process. Those items may be sold to the public at library book sales or to book dealers or may be offered through exchange to book dealers or other organizations. Revenues generated from the sale of withdrawn items shall be retained by the agency in a separate account to be used solely for the purchase of library materials; except that in the case of the State Library, revenues from the sale of withdrawn items shall be deposited into the State Library Fund to be used for the purposes stated in Section 25 of the State Library Act.”

Blogging

2009-08-07T15:53:00.001-05:00

This is the time of year where I’m out visiting our member libraries, so I haven’t had much time to monitor my favorite blogs. However, I bookmarked a great little post from last fall by Hugh Mcguire called Why Academics Should Blog. What captured me is simplicity and resonance of the 9 points he makes. Even if you wonder—is anyone reading this stuff—you begin to notice that it just doesn’t matter. By expressing your ideas and opinions, you begin to organize and consider topics more fully and therefore, increase your understanding. If you are thinking about starting a blog but just haven’t taken the leap—maybe this will persuade you that it’s an endeavor worth the effort.

Marketing materials requested

2009-07-31T08:51:00.001-05:00

Do you have a great marketing idea? The ILA Marketing Committee is gathering public relations materials (newsletters, brochures, bookmarks, program fliers) from all types of libraries for attendees to view at the 2009 Inspiration Station at the ILA Annual Conference. Alissa Williams from Pekin PL, an ALS library, is coordinating.

To submit materials for the Inspiration Station please send at least thirty copies of your materials by October 2, 2009 to: Alissa Williams, Pekin Public Library, 301 S. Fourth St., Pekin, IL 61554.

Results - ALS Academic Librarians Programs Survey

2009-07-27T11:38:00.007-05:00

Thanks to everyone who responded to the academic librarians’ survey that I sent out on July 6th. There were 34 responses, and I appreciated the assistance in program planning.

The survey indicated that:

programs specifically directed at academic librarians should be offered 1-2 times/year (73.5%)

morning programs 9-noon (with an optional luncheon) are preferred (35.3%)

months most convenient for academic librarians to attend programs are:
March (44.1%)
June (44.1%) or July (50%)
November (44.1%)

popular topics for programs include:
Assessment (72.7%)
Web 2.0 technologies (57.6%)
Marketing of library services (45.5%)
Digital resources (write-ins for eReserves, digital collection development, digital copyright)

Notification preference is by email (94.1%)

I am planning an assessment program for November 2009. I will check the CARLI schedule closely to avoid scheduling conflicts. If anyone would like to volunteer to host future sessions, or suggest speakers, please contact me. I’ll send additional emails as the speaker, date, and location are set. Thanks for your input!

CARLI members and EBSCO databases

2009-07-24T13:09:00.002-05:00

I saw on the CARLI news blog today that CARLI is expanding their access to EBSCO databases for members. In addition to Academic Search Premier and Business Source Elite, all CARLI member institutions have fully subsidized access to 11 additional EBSCO databases including several of my favorites: Health Source: (both Consumer and Nursing/Academic Editions), MAS Ultra: School Edition, and Newspaper Source. As budget and economic uncertainties continue yet again this year, this benefit not only provides more resources but may assist members with current and future budgeting considerations.
For more information, see Additional EBSCO Databases Available to CARLI Members

New copyright tools for educators online

2009-07-21T17:05:00.001-05:00

ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) has released two new copyright tools for educators. With the Fair Use Evaluator, users input their situations by using a form that helps users understand how to determine if an item meets “fair use” requirements. The information inputted can then be converted to a time-stamped PDF document for the users’ records.

The Exceptions for Instructors in US Copyright Law guides users through a series of questions and answers about copyright law specifically related to Section 110(1), the “face to face teaching” exception and Section 110(2), the TEACH Act (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act).

Both of these interactive copyright tools are available under a Creative Commons license for institutions such as libraries, schools, institutes, and universities to modify (adding their own, local copyright information and contacts) and use to educate their users about the limitations and exceptions in U.S. Copyright law.

For more information, see: OITP releases new online copyright education tools

Medical Journals and ghostwriting

2009-07-10T14:54:00.001-05:00

Michael Wold of OSF St Mary’s Medical Center library sent me a link to an article in the July 8, 2009 edition of Heartwire by Michael O'Riordan entitled “Sen Grassley asks medical journals about ghostwriting.” The prospect of companies ghostwriting articles and presenting them as medical research is beyond “troubling.” It would call into question whether independent research is being conducted and could skew other research projects. Makes me wonder: how much medical literature is research and how much is marketing?

WIU and Illinois Regional Archives Depositories

2009-07-06T09:59:00.004-05:00

I attended an archive program two weeks ago which was sponsored by Western Illinois University. The program was very informative and our hosts, Jeff and Heather, were great. Everyone in attendance (there were 14 of us) seemed to enjoy the day—I know I sure did!

One of the things I learned is that WIU is part of IRAD and is committed to assisting others with their archival expertise. The Illinois Regional Archives Depository at Western Illinois University is one of seven Illinois Regional Archives Depositories (IRAD) in the state which is administered by the Illinois State Archives. The WIU depository houses county and local government records which have been appraised as having long-term value and been transferred to the Archives custody. The 16 counties served by the WIU-IRAD include: Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Knox, McDonough, Mercer, Peoria, Pike, Rock Island, Schuyler, Stark, and Warren.

Even though this was a program on the Basics of Archives, Jeff and Heather presented us with lots of new information, and we had several exercises to practice new skills. One of the ideas I particularly liked was the form WIU uses to indicate why an item is included in the archives. It's a standardized form that is slipped into each book and the form makes it easy to see at a glance the reason the book has been archived. Jeff has graciously agreed to let us add it to our Library Toolkit and it's now available under Archive Notes for Books (Courtesy of WIU).

I enjoyed the program and appreciated the opportunity to meet others with the same interests and challenges. I look forward to attending future programs sponsored by WIU’s Archives and Special Collections.

Alliance’s Trail to Learning-Casts and Syndicated Sites (ATLAS)

2009-06-30T08:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Alliance Library System (ALS) introduced ATLAS (Alliance’s Trail to Learning-Casts and Syndicated Sites) in an online program and launched the site: http://www.atlaspodcasts.org/. The ATLAS project was funded through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant, from the Illinois State Library, a division of the Office of Secretary of State, through the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

There are a lot of interesting aspects to this grant, but I have been intrigued by the podmap. The podmap is designed to link podcasts not only with a searchable database but with an interactive map. As podcasting expands and becomes more prevalent in libraries, this podmap has the potential to serve as a directory for locally produced and relevant audio, image, and video files. Currently, the Alliance Library System has no directory of podcasts, standardization of access, or way to notify users that new podcasts are available from our libraries. This may also foster collaboration and innovation by making them accessible in a single place.

Lori Bell, ALS’s Director of Innovation, was instrumental in developing this grant, and I believe there are many applications for podmaping at ALS and throughout the state. More information about the grant is available at: http://www.atlaspodcasts.org/about/.

Kindles and libraries

2009-06-25T09:39:00.000-05:00

I’ve been watching the news stories about Kindle use in libraries with interest. There was a thread on collib-l earlier this year about the mixed messages from Amazon about loaning Kindles. The concern focused on Amazon’s terms of use agreement and whether libraries could lend Kindles with pre-loaded books. Some libraries are loaning Kindles (with books) and others are not. On June 5, there was an article in Library Journal about a study being conducted at Brigham Young University Library on the use of Kindles for faculty interlibrary loans (Brigham Young Library Tests Kindle as ILL Option for Faculty). Unfortunately, after the article was published, BYU suspended the study. University officials were uncomfortable with the oral permissions they received from Amazon and want to obtain written permission instead (At BYU, Kindle Program on Hold, But University of Nebraska-Omaha’s Program Going Strong). Kindles has raised a variety of questions about copyright and terms of use agreements and these questions persist.

E-textbooks

2009-06-22T14:47:00.003-05:00

Is your institutions considering e-textbooks? Check out (pun intended!) this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education: 6 Lessons One Campus Learned About E-Textbooks. Northwest Missouri State University recently ran a pilot study using Sony Reader and they offer lessons for any university considering digital textbooks.

Library closings

2009-06-19T16:27:00.003-05:00

I was at a Capital Area Consortium (CAC) meeting today, and one of the discussions centered around library closings. Karen Douglas from the Passavant Hospital Library suggested reading the post : "Why is the Hospital Library Disappearing?" from the Krafty Librarian. Instead of a lament about how libraries and librarians are undervalued and unappreciated, it is a call to reassess library services and recommit to the needs of library users. In our tough economic times, Michelle's comments are relevant to all libraries:
"Now days academic medical libraries are feeling the pinch of the economy and they are being asked to do more with less. How they respond will predict their outcome. If they become complacent or ignore the future issues, they will encounter many of the same problems as hospital libraries and librarians have been dealing with for quite a while. Time to stop thinking about your users coming to you, but how you can come to your users. That may not prevent all closures and cutbacks like those hospital librarians who were cut despite the wonderful services they provided. But to do otherwise will almost assuredly land your library in the same spot as the hospital library that still relies on card catalogs and has no links to their electronic collection."

blogs as course managment systems?

2009-06-04T09:39:00.002-05:00

On the ALA listserv collib-l, there has been discussion of using blogs instead of traditional course management systems (CSM) like Blackboard or WebCT. I was aware of some colleges using open source options like Moodle, but for academics to seriously consider blogs—that just seemed too much of a leap. However, there was a recent article in the Chronicle (June 1, 2009) on just this topic: Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard. After having technical difficulties with Blackboard this year, CUNY invited a keynote speaker to discuss blogs as an option to better run their online classrooms. Since their technical issues seem to be over, the urgency for change is probably gone, but it’s great to see that conversations on Web 2.0 technologies are happening on the academic level.

Discovering the Value of Web 2.0 Tools

2009-05-27T12:21:00.002-05:00

Discovering the Value of Web 2.0 Tools is a new handout available in the Library Toolkit on the ALS Consulting page. Web 2.0 is the popular term for the second generation of Internet technology and applications that emphasize open communication and content sharing. Examples of Web 2.0 include blogs, wikis, RSS, and collaborative tagging. During our April Special Librarians Luncheon, one of the issues that came up was “why would my library or institution be interested in Web 2.0?” Discovering the Value of Web 2.0 Tools was created to help libraries answer the questions:

What is Web 2.0?
What benefits does Web 2.0 offer?
What are the cost and value considerations for Web 2.0 technologies?
How can Web 2.0 technologies be adapted at my institution?

This and other documents & resources for librarians, staff members, boards & administrators are available in our Library Toolkit.

ACRL Health Science Interest Group

2009-05-19T15:43:00.004-05:00

The ACRL Health Science Interest Group has been approved by the ACRL Executive Committee. A listserv is being established but in the meantime there is a Google Group at: http://groups.google.com/group/acrl-health-science-interest-group.

In terms of becoming an “official” member, the interest group will be added to the dues renewal starting in September, so if you would like to join, you should be able to add your membership if you renew/join ALA/ACRL after September.

The group will have its first official meeting at ALA Chicago this summer. Thanks to Clarissa's posting, we now know they will be meeting Sunday, July 12 from 3-4pm in the ACRL Suite.

Copyright – fair use in podcasts

2009-05-18T16:38:00.001-05:00

The American University Center for Social Media, in collaboration with Washington College of Law's Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and the Stanford University Law School Fair Use Project has added a video to promote its Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. The video, titled Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend, explains how online video creators can make remixes, mashups, and other common online video genres with the knowledge that they are staying within copyright law as outlined in the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. The press release is available online.

This is a topic of interest here at ALS since we are starting to create our own podcasts and some of our member libraries are also experimenting. While viewing the video and full text of the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, I found that the American University Center for Social Media has other resources available on their Fair Use and Copyright section.

Archives Training at WIU

2009-05-15T10:03:00.001-05:00

If you haven’t see the notice in L2, Western Illinois University will be sponsoring an archives training workshop on Friday, June 26, 2009. WIU Archivists Heather Richmond and Jeff Hancks will present a full-day workshop on the essentials of evaluating, arranging, describing, and storing archival materials. This workshop will take place in Macomb and participants will have the opportunity to learn about archival basics and network with colleagues. Registration costs just $10, including lunch and all materials. Registration is limited to 15 participants.
For more information or to register, contact Jeffrey Hancks, Archives and Special Collections, Western Illinois University Libraries, at JL-Hancks@wiu.edu.

Corporate culture and Web 2.0

2009-05-08T10:28:00.001-05:00

At our last Special Librarians luncheon, we were discussing Web 2.0 technologies and one of the issues that came up is that some institutions are slow to adopt based on fear. Fear that Web 2.0 technologies are uncontrollable, fear that staff will socialize endlessly and not do any “real” work, fear that Web 2.0 technologies have no business application. I am working on a bookmark that addresses these fears and it will pull from corporate examples and quotations. In the meantime, here are two articles from Mashable: the Social Media Guide on Social Media 101: How to Get Your Business Involved and Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?

The passing of TILT

2009-05-04T14:55:00.001-05:00

Michele Ostrow of University of Texas Libraries has announced they will be taking down TILT (Texas Information Literacy Tutorial) effective August 14, 2009. The open public license version will be available until May 2010, and then that will be taken down as well.

TILT (http://tilt.lib.utsystem.edu/) has been a popular IL tutorial and was well known due to its open publication license. Unfortunately, UT hasn’t had the staff resources to update TILT for years and no longer uses TILT as part of their information literacy program.

Although written for college students, it could be used by anyone wanting to improve research skills. The tutorial was modular and each module included a lesson, interactions, and a quiz. The design allowed users to finish each module in about 30 minutes.

At various times, I considered using TILT with classes, but never did. I can’t help feeling nostalgic about the passing of TILT and wonder if this marks a change in information literacy instruction in general.

ACRL news

2009-04-23T10:35:00.005-05:00

Last week ACRL launched an “updated, user-centered design of the ACRL Web site”. This redesign was prompted by the changes in the ALA Web site in September 2008. From the April 21 ACRL Update:

"In redesigning our Web site, we listened to our members and incorporated a wide variety of feedback in order to increase accessibility and usability," said ACRL President Erika Linke. "As a result of the hard work of the ACRL membership and Web team, our new online presence provides a greatly enhanced user experience for all of our visitors."
The redesigned site features a variety of enhancements, including updated site organization for ease of navigation, direct access to committee and section information, and eye-catching highlights of upcoming events and services. The new site additionally features dynamic content updates to keep information current and relevant. A variety of RSS feeds for content, such as upcoming events, provide an additional means for visitors to stay up-to-date with ACRL activities.

In a related item, College & Research Libraries News is looking for cover illustrations of images from library collections to feature on upcoming covers. If you have items in your collection that would make an attractive C&RL News cover, the complete guidelines for submission are available at: www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/coverart.cfm.

Return on Investment

2009-04-13T10:05:00.000-05:00

Back in December, I blogged about the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s study to demonstrate the library's value to the institution. Since then, the economy has continued to decline and libraries may be more motivated to assign value to the benefits they offer. For more on measuring RIOs in libraries, here is a great article from In the Library With a Lead Pipe entitled: Are You Worth It? What Return on Investment Can and Can’t Tell You About Your Library

YouTube announces YouTube EDU

2009-04-03T14:02:00.003-05:00

YouTube has announced a new channel, YouTube EDU, which includes only videos submitted by colleges and universities. For more info, read the article, YouTube Creates New Section to Highlight College Content, from the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus.

Other academic video sites include Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars, Free Online Course Materials MIT OpenCourseWare, and TED (which is not technically speaking an academic site but useful to academics).

In the newly launched, Academic Earth, videos are recorded from class sessions at academic institutions and can be "graded" by users. MIT OpenCourseWare has open access videos on academic subjects from MIT while TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) brings together some of the best innovators in the world.

Experiences in tenure

2009-03-27T11:38:00.004-05:00

Tenure has always been a mystery to me. My academic career as community college librarian was a "professional-technical" position and not a tenured one. Still, the argument about whether librarians should be faculty has intrigued me to look at tenure and what it offers. Leslie M. Phinney (formerly an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UIUC) writes about the tenure process in the Inside Higher Ed article, What I Wish I'd Known About Tenure. Her advice to "look for a match between your values and the institutional rewards, as that will lead to the most success and career happiness" is excellent and applicable to any job seeker.

Core competency musings

2009-03-24T14:30:00.009-05:00

Last month, ALA released their “Core Competencies of Librarianship” at the midwinter conference in Denver. I’ve been thinking a lot about core competencies as they relate to continuing education. Core competencies can be defined as the skills, knowledge, and personal attributes that contribute to an individual’s success.

I first started thinking about core competencies back in 2003 when the State Library of NC created guidelines to assist libraries in establishing technology competencies. I was at a small public library on the NC coast and was a participant in the Master Trainer Program. Even though I left NC at the end of 2003, I used the guidelines to establish competencies at my community college library in Illinois. Developing core competencies can benefit libraries by:

Assisting in recruitment, interviewing, and orientation

Defining continuing education & training needs

Identifying responsibilities for job descriptions

Adapting performance evaluations

Transforming libraries into learning organizations

I recently had another job change and am now a library consultant at the Alliance Library System. As part of our continuing education & training, we recently started a wiki called Technology Training Wheels based on 23 Things. As I was researching Learning 2.0/23 Things, I found an article written by Helene Blowers, former Public Services Technology Director for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) and the creator of Learning 2.0. She wrote that “in our library’s experience, providing a staff core competency program to support the sea changes that have already happened is a wonderful complement to a self-paced discovery program like Learning 2.0.” (Blowers, Helene, and Lori Reed. "The C's of Our Sea Change: Plans for Training Staff, from Core Competencies to Learning 2.0." Computers in Libraries. 27.2 (February 2007): 10-15.)

This article really brought home the connection between competencies and continuing education, and I will continue to urge libraries to adopt core competencies for their libraries. To assist in this, WebJunction has created a library staff competency collection with links to competencies from several library agencies. If your library is feeling overwhelmed by technology, perhaps developing core competencies will help address the issue.

Thursday, March 26th is Spring Break for Academic Librarians

2009-03-19T08:52:00.002-05:00

Please join us for this informative day-long event geared toward academic libraries. Lunch will be provided. For your opportunity to participate, be sure to sign up in Library Learning (L2).

In the morning session, Diane Velasquez, Assistant Professor for the Graduate School of Library & Information Science at Dominican University, will speak on copyright issues covering the basics, the TEACH Act, and recent changes in copyright law. In the afternoon session, Elizabeth Clarage, Director of Collections Services at CARLI, will present an overview of the CARLI Book Digitization Initiative. All sessions will be at the Alliance Library System in East Peoria.

Our agenda:
9:30 Registration/Coffee & Pastries
10:00 Welcome
10:15 Copyright Issues
12:00 Lunch (ALS will provide lunch)
1:00 CARLI Book Digitization Initiative
2:00 Break
2:15 Around the table discussion
3:00 Wrap Up

Upcoming HILC meeting - March 19th

2009-03-16T17:34:00.003-05:00

HILC (Heart of Illinois Library Consortium) will be meeting at OSF St. Francis Medical Center North Building on Thursday, March 19th at 1pm. HILC is a local (Bloomington, Canton, Galesburg, East Peoria, Normal and Peoria) medical library consortium that meets quarterly in the area. I will be doing a program on the origin, creation and development of Technology Training Wheels. Contact Bobby Murphy at 309-655-2790 if you are interested in attending.

Deep web

2009-03-12T09:10:00.004-05:00

The Online College Blog recently posted a list of 100 Useful Tips and Tools to Research the Deep Web. As you know, the deep web refers to the Internet content available but buried and not accessible with standard search engines. It is also sometimes called the invisible or hidden web.
Several of the tools listed are ones I sometimes use including:
Kartoo kartoo.com A visual search engines that provides a web of topics in an attempt to visually show relationships. Sometimes this is very helpful in searching.
OAIster oaister.org Searches the digital archives of over 12 million resources. Its now available as a database in OCLC FirstSearch. OAI=Open Archives Initiative
Digg digg.com Contains a listing of user selected sites. This has an RSS feed that I feed onto my iGoogle. Lots of technology articles are listed and something usually catches my eye.

Recharging the Corporate Library with Public Library Ideas

2009-03-05T14:54:00.005-06:00

Here is a link to Nancy Maloney's article on WebJunction entitled: Recharging the Corporate Library with Public Library Ideas. Nancy has participated in Synergy: Illinois Library Leadership Program, and she writes about the multi-type nature of the program and the benefits that result. As a Synergist myself, I would like to reiterate her perspective about thinking cross library type. Focusing on the similarities of libraries instead of the differences allows for a broader view and helps generate ideas that are "outside the box".
Here's an excerpt:
"After 15 years as a corporate librarian, it has been refreshing to spend time with my public library peers. The Synergy Illinois Library Leadership Program as well as involvement in my local library system has invigorated my approach to business librarianship. Special librarians generally work within larger organizations that have little interest in the nuts and bolts of library work. Our response to customers’ daily needs is driven by the business environment. While aligning ourselves with the customer is fundamental for good service, we risk losing perspective by focusing on putting out fires.
The corporate library must be more than a service group if it can survive in challenging times. It is essential to position the library as an enduring and responsive institution within the organization. We can gain inspiration by looking toward the public library as a model for corporate library service, especially in challenging economic times."

Opposition growing to Fair Copyright in Research Works Act

2009-03-03T16:26:00.002-06:00

ACRL joined ALA, the Association of Research Libraries, and many other library and research organizations in the opposition of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, recently reintroduced in Congress as H.R. 801. The legislation would reverse a mandate by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that all research funded by NIH grants be made freely available in PubMed Central within one year of publication. Text of the letter is available on the ACRL Web site.

Evidence Based Medicine blog

2009-02-23T13:39:00.003-06:00

I found a new blog today for evidence based medicine. It's "a blog for medical students, faculty, researchers and librarians about their use of clinical literature, Web 2.0, evidence-based medicine sources, search strategies." The blog, EBM and Clinical Support Librarians @ UCHC, is created and maintained by Kathleen Crea who is an Information Services Librarian at the University of Connecticut Health Center.

Are we ready for E-textbooks to replace print?

2009-02-23T08:33:00.005-06:00

Digital textbooks are becoming more interactive and as the cost of college textbooks have increased, so has the proliferation of e-textbooks. The National Association of College Stores estimates that 18% of students have purchased one and the cost is about half of a tradition print textbook. Northwest Missouri State is piloting a program to go entirely book free. NPR has profiled them in their story, Paper Cut: Missouri College embraces E-Textbooks.

TED Talks - What is TED?

2009-02-12T17:03:00.006-06:00

I saw on a collib-l thread this week a query about using TED as the basis for a discussion series to be held in a library. So what is TED? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference to bring together people from those three worlds. This site http://www.ted.org/ makes the best talks and performances from TED available to the public, for free. More than 200 talks are now available and have been released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. How cool is that! I'm currently focusing on the theme: "rise of collaboration".

Upcoming Information Literacy Summit 2009

2009-02-06T13:49:00.004-06:00

The keynote is entitled “The End of Information Literacy” and will be presented by Gail Bush, Ph.D., professor in the reading and language department, director of the school library program, and director of the Center for Teaching through Children’s Books at National-Louis University. Breakout sessions vary by location.

DATES & LOCATIONS

Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.) Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills

Friday, April 17, 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.)
Illinois Central College, East Peoria

Monday, April 27, 9 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (registration begins at 8:30 a.m.)
John A. Logan College, Carterville

Links to the online registration forms will be available on www.morainevalley.edu/infolitsummit beginning February 2. Please
Registration fee: $20. Includes materials, continental breakfast and lunch.

SLA-IL Chapter meeting 1/28/09 minutes

2009-02-03T14:13:00.003-06:00

The Special Library Association-Illinois Chapter meeting (1/28/09)was held last week via video teleconferencing at 6 locations throughout the state. More than 50 SLA Illinois chapter members attended to hear the speakers representing the IL Regional Library Systems, the Illinois State Library, WebJunction, and the Illinois Library Association outlined their resources and services that are specifically geared towards special librarians. The minutes of the meeting are available at: http://www.slaillinois.org/node/521

Moraine Valley CC ACRL Award winner

2009-01-28T10:12:00.005-06:00

ACRL recently announced the recipients of the 2009 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award and The Moraine Valley Community College Library, Palos Hills, Illinois was the community college winner. Congratulations!

The award recognizes the staff of a college, university, and community college library for programs that deliver exemplary services and resources to further the educational mission of the institution. The Moraine Valley Community College Library was recognized for creating an environment that fosters numerous relationships with partners outside those traditionally associated with libraries. Each winning library will receive $3,000 and a plaque, to be presented at an award ceremony held on each recipient's campus and special recognition at the ACRL President's Program during the ALA Annual Conference at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, July 13, 2009, in Chicago. Visit the ACRL Web site for additional information on the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512

2009-01-28T08:28:00.003-06:00

Section 512 of the DMCA established a safe harbor for user generated sites freeing them from liability for storing or transmitting users' infringed materials if certain conditions are met. However, the notice-and-takedown procedure that it created has been under fire as copyright holders, trying to stop the proliferation of videos and audios, send notices without any real examination of the allegedly infringing item.
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/copyright_in_the_age_of_youtube

2009 Emerging Technologies in Higher Ed

2009-01-26T07:53:00.004-06:00

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years.

In defining the six selected areas for 2009 — mobile devices, cloud computing, geo-everything, the personal web, semantic-aware applications, and smart objects — the project tapped into an ongoing discussion among knowledgeable individuals in business, industry, and education, as well as published resources, current research and practice, and the expertise of the NMC and ELI communities.

The January 20,, 2009 press release is available at http://www.nmc.org/pdf/PR-2009-Horizon-Report.pdf. The 2009 Horizon Report can be accessed at www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf.

Illinois State Library announces LSTA grants for FY10

2009-01-21T15:11:00.003-06:00

The Illinois State Library has just posted the FY2010 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant offerings. The Illinois State Library administers LSTA funding as part of a competitive grant program. LSTA grants are available for the development of projects that specifically provide and focus on library service, new initiatives, and library activities. All types of libraries (academic, public, school and special) and regional library systems in Illinois are eligible for funding.

Descriptions of the new grant offerings, applications, deadlines and other information can be found at the Illinois State Library's website:
http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/library/what_we_do/servicestechnologygrant.html

Draft of economic stimulus legislation

2009-01-16T13:40:00.004-06:00

The U. S. House of Representatives released "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." This is the first step in passing an economic stimulus package to help America through the current economic crisis. Price tag over 2 years: $825 billion.
Inside Higher Ed declared that "a rough estimate by Inside Higher Ed suggests that tens of billions of dollars could flow to colleges and their students." http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/01/16/stimulus

Bob Doyle of the Illinois Library Association writes: "Libraries could benefit in several ways from specific funds provided in this legislation. There is also potential for libraries to be included in several of the programs as the process moves forward. Programs Libraries benefit from:Education for the 21st Century K-12 Repair and Modernization Higher Education Repair and Modernization Rural Community Facilities Program State Broadband Development Community Service Employment for Older Americans National Endowment for the Arts Head Start/Early Head Start."

The full text is located at
Bill – http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf
Report – http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryReport01-15-09.pdf

Higher Education less affordable for Illinois students

2009-01-12T15:22:00.002-06:00

National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education which promotes public policies that enhance Americans' opportunities to pursue and achieve high-quality education and training beyond high school published its Measuring Up report for 2008. The state of Illinois received a "F" for affordability which was due to the decline in state investment and the decline in family ability to pay.

Return on Investment Study from UIUC

2008-12-30T11:31:00.003-06:00

The administrators at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently conducted a study to demonstrate the library's value to the institution. The study's goals were to "document quantifiable data that would be meaningful to the university community and to develop a simple methodology that other institutions could replicate." Originally they had planned to do a 10-year longitudinal study, but when they could not identify a decade's worth of reliable usage data, they focused on the academic year 2006.
Kaufman, Paula T. The Library as Strategic Investment: Results of the Illinois Return on Investment Study. LIBER Quarterly. Volume 18 (2008), No. 3/4.
http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/issues/2008-3_4/?000269

End of year lists

2008-12-23T09:00:00.002-06:00

As we near the end of 2008, I can't resist linking to a "best of" list--this one is for the most popular free windows downloads of 2008:
http://lifehacker.com/5110552/most-popular-free-windows-downloads-of-2008/

CARLI digital imaging grant workshops

2008-12-22T11:24:00.003-06:00

The CARLI Digital Collections Users’ Group announced Thursday that registration is open for “State of Confusion: Writing Your Digital Imaging Grant,” a workshop on best practices for writing digital imaging grant applications. This grant writing workshop will be offered twice and is meant to help libraries prepare for LSTA digitization grants. The workshops will be:
February 24, 2009, at the Illinois State Library in Springfield (with a “snow date” of February 26)
March 10, 2009, at the Illini Center in Chicago (with a “snow date” of March 17)
Workshops will run from 10:00am – 3:00pm. http://www.carli.illinois.edu/news/109/65/Registration-open-for-State-of-Confusion-Writing-your-Digital-Imaging-Grant.html

SLA IL meeting January 28

2008-12-15T09:27:00.005-06:00

There will be a SLA IL Chapter meeting on January 28 from 12-1:30pm. ALS members can participate via VTel in the Valerie J Wilford room in East Peoria. Registration in now open in L2: http://www.librarylearning.info/events/?eventID=5111

The SLA IL Chapter meetings brings together Illinois Library Systems, ALA, ILA, and the Illinois State Library to present resources for Special Libraries within our state. Resources from the power of networking, to continuing education, advocacy support, grant opportunities and much much more. Each of the participating Library Systems will host the meeting. Lunch is part of your registration.

Plan To Close LIS Library at UIUC

2008-12-10T10:35:00.003-06:00

Citing low usage, officials at UIUC are recommending the closure of the Library & Information Sciences Library at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as reported by Library Journal yesterday. Caroline M. Nappo, a doctoral student and Information in Society Fellow at University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, is circulating a petition to save the space. This is one of the top rated graduate school's of Library and Information Science in the country. What impact will this closing have on the program and it's ranking?

Information Literacy and the Public Agenda for Higher Ed in IL

2008-12-08T07:26:00.002-06:00

After a successful lobbying efforts, digital information fluency and information technology skills in secondary and postsecondary levels of education have been included in the Public Agenda for Higher Education in Illinois. Sherrill Weaver, President of NILRC (Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges) and Professor & Chair of Library Services at Oakton Community College, stated "once passed, the Public Agenda is only an opportunity to have input on policies and budgets. Our success in actually getting policies in place and funding for them will depend on school, academic, and public librarians working together to develop effective educational and training program plans throughout the state. We will none of us have the resources alone to do this in the difficult economic times ahead. We must use our professional organizations to collaborate and coordinate our efforts if we are to have a significant impact on the lives of the people we teach and serve."

Below is a link to the latest draft of the Public Agenda for College and Career Success. This document will be presented to the Illinois Board of Higher Education for approval at its December 9 meeting in Chicago. http://www.ibhe.org/Board/agendas/2008/December/PublicAgenda.pdf

Audio - Visual learning via Podcasts

2008-12-03T08:14:00.004-06:00

I'm taking a workshop on podcasting via the Internet and we just had our first session yesterday. It is called "Producing Great Audio and Video Podcasts" and it's a certificate program directed by Jonathan Finkelstein from Learning Times. Yesterday, we discussed the definition of podcasts (video or audio recorded session available via the Internet that can be viewed at the leisure of the learner, accessible by RSS feeds, and usually sequential) and discussed the possible uses for podcasts. Jonathan did a great job utilizing the audio, polling, posting, and chating features of Eluminate and keeping the discussion interactive and relevant. This is a three part workshop and I highly recommend it. I believe it will be offered again, so check L2. In addition, the U of I-Chicago is offering a series of online workshops on podcasting. Info is available on the Consulting page.

Inside Higher Ed had a post this morning on the effectiveness of including audio/visual instructor comments when grading. The post mentions a study which seems to indicate that the addition of an audio/visual component can significantly impact student learning. To read Inside Higher Ed's post, go to http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/03/audio

Free broadband? FCC votes December 18

2008-12-02T07:20:00.003-06:00

After 2 years of debate, the FCC has scheduled a full vote at their Dec. 18th meeting. The plan, first proposed in 2006, would allow airwaves to be used for wireless broadband across the USA. USA Today reports that "under terms contemplated by the FCC, the winner of the AWS-3 auction would have to reserve at least 25% of network capacity for free broadband." FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been leading the debate throughout 2008 with renewed vigor as the change in the White House, the commission and the Congress neared. If the measure is approved, free broadband could be available within a year. Link to the USA Today article: FCC to vote on free broadband Internet across USA

Controversy at COD

2008-11-24T15:36:00.004-06:00

The College of DuPage is facing a division between the board of trustees and the faculty and student bodies. The Board is proposing an overhaul policies that not only change the college governance, but impact academic freedom in the classroom. Inside Higher Ed's article, Power Grab at DuPage, details these concerns.

Big news for catalogers--RDA draft now available

2008-11-19T17:19:00.003-06:00

The Joint Steering Committee (JSC) for the Development of RDA (Resource Description & Access) has the full draft of RDA now available for review in a PDF format from www.rdaonline.org/constituencyreview. The deadline for responses is February 2, 2009. For more information, please visit http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rdafulldraft.html

New copyright guide on fair use in education

2008-11-18T09:18:00.005-06:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education announced last week that American University's Center for Social Media has released a new guide that offers free legal advice to clarify copyright issues.

The guide is entitled, The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, and "identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community’s current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials, wherever and however it occurs: in K–12 education, in higher education, in nonprofit organizations that offer programs for children and youth, and in adult education."

Article from the Chronicle of Higher Education "Panel Issues Guide to Using Copyrighted Material in the Classroom"

Plagiarism template from NoodleTools

2008-11-12T09:08:00.005-06:00

NoodleTools has updated their template on plagiarism on their website. It has examples of Academic Integrity Policies, Acceptable Use Policies, Honor Codes, and Statement on Plagiarism.

Gates Foundation plan for Community Colleges

2008-11-12T08:45:00.003-06:00

The Gates Foundation will be focusing on completion rates and will direct the majority of their attention on Community Colleges. Inside Higher Ed reported today that "the plans represent a dramatic expansion of the foundation’s already considerable work in education and could evolve into an unprecedented philanthropic focus on community colleges."

Last day to register for Stephen Abram program at ALS

2008-11-12T08:42:00.003-06:00

Please join us Wednesday, November 19, at Alliance Library System in East Peoria as one of the most influential people in librarianship, Stephen Abram, VP-Innovation of SirsiDynix, presents “Library Strategies for Transformational Times: After Library 2.0.” After his address, stay for lunch and a panel discussion on technology applications in ALS libraries. For more information and to register (by November 12), visit Library Learning (L2)! An interactive and printable flyer can be found here.Stephen Abram was listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries and has received numerous honors. He is Vice President-Innovation at SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute where he continually attempts to predict the future for all types of libraries and their vendors. A librarian, author, and association leader, he adds to his dizzying pace by giving more than 50 international keynote speeches annually at library and information industry conferences. Stephen has long been a friend of ALS, and we are thrilled that he is finally visiting!

Librarians vs IT Departments

2008-10-28T10:30:00.001-05:00

MC Library Tech Talk this week linked to a great Tech Therapy podcast from the Chronicle of Higher Education concerning an issue that concerns many librarians: the relationship between librarians and IT professionals. (Tech Therapy is a bi-weekly podcast by Scott Carlson, a Chronicle reporter, and Warren Arbogast, a technology consultant, that talks about the headaches, anxieties, and general problems that people have with technology on a college campus.)

The episode (33) is only about 13 minutes but what really strikes me is this quote from Arbogast: "Academic mission and administrative goals should drive IT strategy and decision-making—not the other way around." I've felt that this is often at the heart of (and I'm generalizing here) most conflict between librarians and IT staff. If technology is driving decision making instead of the mission and goals driving technology development, you have an inversion that is not meeting the needs of your institution.