adventures in library instruction w/ meredith farkas [podcast]
Posted by: annavan on: 2012/04/25
Our dear Rachel was battling a stomach bug this month, but Jason and I had the great pleasure to chat with Meredith Farkas, head of instruction at Portland State University in Oregon, for Episode 35 of the Adventures in Library Instruction podcast. Our discussion revolved around Meredith’s recent column, “The Guide on the Side“, in American Libraries. We chatted about the evolution of interactive learning objects, as well as the development and placement of online learning objects to achieve learning outcomes and to maximize usage.
Give it a listen, and check out the show notes!!!
Join us for future episodes! If you’re interested, please post a comment on the Adventures in Library Instruction blog or email us! We’d love to have you be a part of our Skype discussion or participate in a one-on-one interview. OR you can record your own a segment of something fabulous you’re doing with library instruction techniques, technology, or methods!
cfp: book chapters on scholarly communication and info literacy
Posted by: annavan on: 2012/02/04
Call for Proposals: Book chapters on scholarly communication and information literacy
Title: Extend and Unify: Outreach and Education for Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy Programs
Book editors: Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Scholarly Communication Librarian at Illinois Wesleyan University and Merinda Kaye Hensley, Instructional Services Librarian/Coordinator, Scholarly Commons at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Estimated publication date: ALA 2013 Midwinter Conference
Publisher: Association of College and Research Libraries. This book will be published in print, available for purchase in various e-book formats, and available as a free downloadable book. Editors of the forthcoming ACRL publications book, Extend and Unify: Outreach and Education for Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy Programs, seek proposals for chapters from skilled librarians or others involved in education around scholarly communication issues who have researched strategies and/or implemented programs on the intersections between scholarly communication (SC) issues and information literacy (IL). This book aims to create a roadmap for librarians to integrate scholarly communication and information literacy programs through instruction, outreach and other educative opportunities. Written for practicing librarians who wish to build a toolkit for integrating scholarly communication issues into information literacy and vice versa, this book will provide essays, case studies, best practices, lesson plans and outlines, and other material for building collaboration and promoting discussion on scholarly communication issues in libraries and in the academy.
Potential topics include:
- teaching strategies for addressing scholarly communication issues by population - undergraduates, graduate students, staff, administration, faculty as well as by academic discipline
- examples of instruction and outreach through embedded librarianship and reference work
- case studies detailing SC/IL program alignment, collaboration, partnerships between SC and IL librarians, student publishing, campus or discipline-specific research conferences
- classroom-based, curricular integration for undergrads or graduate students which could include IL session outlines, lesson plans, outreach examples
- essays focusing on educating students, faculty and/or staff, possibly by discipline, on specific issues e.g., author rights, copyright/Creative Commons, OA/public access or specific types of scholarly or creative work, e.g., data, images, performances, music, multimedia, etc.
- addressing perspectives of faculty, staff, administration including buy-in, engagement, conversational openings, and educational programs
- assessment of SC/IL programming and outreach efforts
Please note: We are looking for diverse perspectives on these issues across types of higher education institutions including community colleges, liberal arts colleges/universities, ARL institutions, etc.
Target audience: The target audience for this publication is both librarians who are responsible for instruction, information literacy, and/or scholarly communication; liaison librarians and/or bibliographers who are responsible for outreach and education of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff in any discipline, and program coordinators for both SC and IL.
Submission procedure and timeline: Authors are invited to submit proposal by March 2, 2012. Proposals should include author name(s), institutional affiliation, proposed chapter title, 2-page summary of proposed chapter and a current CV. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by April 2, 2012. Full chapters (4,000+ words) are expected to be submitted by June 30, 2012. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a blind review basis. Chapters should be unique to this publication – no previously published or simultaneously submitted material should be included. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
All inquiries and proposals should be emailed by March 2, 2012 to scil.book@gmail.com.
picnik: the way of the dodo
Posted by: annavan on: 2012/02/01
The bad news: On January 18th, I did a Picnik Workshop at my Branch. Two days later, Picnik (a Google product) announced it was morphing its resources into Google+. So, okay — Picnik’s tools aren’t really GONE…they’ve moved into Google+ World. I’m not sure how the photo editing will be via Google+’s Creative Kit, but I plan to mess around with it. At first glance, it’s laid out very similar to Picnik’s tool bars.
The good news: Picnik users can use their Premium features for free until they close up on April 19th. Also, the company has released a new feature, Picnik Takeout, which makes it easy for users to download their files from Picnik to desktop. Picnik users also have the option to transfer their photos directly into Google+).
Now….let’s go review those upcoming changes to Google’s privacy policy that go into effect on March 1st…..
adventures in library instruction: Let the Games Begin! [podcast]
Posted by: annavan on: 2011/09/30
This month Jason, Rachel, and I had the opportunity to talk with Theresa McDevitt and Ryan Sittler, editor of and contributor to, the newly published book, Let the games begin!: Engaging students with field-tested interactive information literacy instruction. We discussed the role of games [No technology required!] in the library classroom and their value in instruction design as a teaching tool. Each entry for the sixty [yes, SIXTY] games in the book include objectives, information literacy competency standards addressed, time required, material and equipment, and evaluation tools.
Give it a listen, and check out the show notes!!!
Join us for future episodes! If you’re interested, please post a comment on the Adventures in Library Instruction blog or email us! We’d love to have you be a part of our Skype discussion or participate in a one-on-one interview. OR you can record your own a segment of something fabulous you’re doing with library instruction techniques, technology, or methods!
adventures in library instruction: balance and burnout [podcast]
Posted by: annavan on: 2011/09/12
‘Tis the season for instruction/teacher librarians to teach, teach, and teach some more. I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion Jason, Rachel, and I had during episode 29 of Adventures in Library Instruction. We talked about strategies librarians can take — as individuals and as a department/instruction team — to relieve stress, specifically stress revolving around class preparation, instruction requests, and course schedules.
A few of the strategies we discussed included:
- Determining which classes can benefit from an online/e-learning alternative [strategically incorporated into their curriculum/research process];
- Requesting less shifts on the Ref Desk during high instruction times [we discuss some objectives to successfully implement such an idea!!!!]; and
- Using your schedule to negotiate with the faculty member a later [and possibly more opportune times for the students' research project] instruction dates.
While listening to the podcast, I realized a couple other ideas:
- Just say, “no” or better yet — ask for help! I know that’s an INSANE idea isn’t it? I know when I was trying to heavily market instructional services, I *always* tried to accommodate the faculty member even if s/he requested an “orientation to the library” and there was no research component to the class. Is this the best use of our time? I could use that time to prepare for a class where the students are delving into research, and I’ve been incorporated into the class syllabus at highly strategic times. Don’t get me wrong. I am a big believer in creating a fabulous first impression of the library for students, but I began to rely on my colleagues to take on “general orientation” sessions if I couldn’t do it.
- This leads to bringing more people into your instruction team. I loved it when *anyone* in the instruction team/department led instruction sessions. Yes, those staff sans library degrees were in their leading classes, and the ones I got to see did a fabulous job. I found that they appreciated the experience and it was a great professional development opportunity for them.
- Mark off “planning time” on your calendar. I used this a LOT toward my latter years in academic librarianship. I asked my Team Leader if I could mark off time on my calendar to focus on class preparation. Let’s face it, meetings happen, and if I had to nix planning for a meeting that couldn’t wait, I did it. But for me, having that chunk of time set aside for class prep was a major stress-relief.
Give it a listen, and check out the show notes!!!
Join us for future episodes! If you’re interested, please post a comment on the Adventures in Library Instruction blog or email us! We’d love to have you be a part of our Skype discussion or participate in a one-on-one interview. OR you can record your own a segment of something fabulous you’re doing with library instruction techniques, technology, or methods!
