It's Academic

While the 2011 PaLA Conference is still fresh in everyone’s mind, I wanted to share some photos that I took of some of the presenters.

Larissa Gordon

Larissa Gordon had the honor (or was it the horror?) of presenting the first CRD session at the conference. She talked about how the librarians at Arcadia University are collaborating with the Program Coordinators for the First Year Seminars and English 101 to establish Information Literacy goals and Student Learning Assessments for both of these courses. Larissa’s PPT slides: Assessment as a Collaborative Activity

Dr. Kelly Heider

Dr. Kelly Heider, the Education Librarian at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, spoke about Service Learning and more specifically about a Service Learning opportunity that the IUP library offers to education majors, Wild about Books. The best part about this session was that attendees were given the opportunity to brainstorm about how they could develop their own Service Learning Programs.

Kristen Yarmey-Matthew Ciszek-Tara Fay

A Safe Space on Campus was the topic of the presentation given by Kristen Yarmey, Digital Services Librarian, and Tara Fay, Faculty Specialist, The University of Scranton; and Matthew Ciszek, Head Librarian, Penn State Shenango. A copy of their slides can be found on Slide Share: http://www.slideshare.net/kristenyt

Unfortunately, attendance at Sunday’s sessions was less than expected. I guess that a lot of people have good intentions and indicate that they will attend, but then get a later start than they intended or become involved in some other aspect of the conference.

Monday featured two CRD sessions at each time slot so apologies to the presenters in the three sessions that I missed.

Bonnie Imler-Michelle Eichelberger

Bonnie Immler, Information Technology Librarian, Penn State Altoona, and Michelle Eichelberger, Systems and Electronic Services Librarian, Genessee Community College, presented the results of their research that used video screen capture with undergraduate students. Here are their PowerPoint slides: UndergradResearchBehavior.

Also in this time slot was A Librarian’s Guide to Near Field Communication presented by Sheli McHugh and Kristen Yarmey. A copy of their slides can be found on Slide Share: http://www.slideshare.net/kristenyt

Paul Process-Jacqueline Fritz

Walking the Information Media Tightrope, presented by Paul Proces, New Media Librarian, and Jacqueline Fritz, Faculty Liaison, Learning Technologies, focused on the media literacy program at Bucks County Community College. To learn more, visit the Media and Instructional Design Space (MInDSpace) on the college’s Web site.

Russell Hall, Reference Librarian at Penn State Erie, shared the results of his survey of Academic library managers  in his session titled, Nature, Nurture and the Pennsylvania Academic Library.

Amy Ward-Clinton Baugess

In their session, Going Mobile with Lincoln, Amy Ward, Cataloging Librarian, and Clinton Baugess, Reference & Instruction Librarian, shared how the Musselman Library at Gettysburg College created a marketing campaign to promote accessing the library’s website through mobile devices. After their presentation, they provided attendees with an opportunity to identify who their target audience would be and how they would create their own marketing campaign.

Gaining Insight Presenters

Librarians Ronalee Ciocco, Natalie Hinton, and Kaitlyn Lynons from Gettysburg College, and Theresa McDevitt, Michele Corcoran, and Beth Farabaugh from Indiana University of Pennsylvania shared ways that they used to successfully gain insight about their patrons’ viewpoints, including surveys, focus groups, usability testing, and floor plan drawing.

In the session, Demonstrating the Value of Academic Libraries, Rachel McMullin, Humanities and Information Literacy Librarian at the Green Library shared how West Chester University is collaborating with academic departments to assess information literacy using rubrics. For more information, go to her Information Literacy Research Guide. Melissa Gold, Science Librarian at Millersville University explained how she created a curriculum for the Ganser Library using the process of curriculum mapping. Here are her PowerPoint slides: Curriculum Mapping. Colleges and Universities have recently begun to utilize online Assessment Management software. Scott anderson, Information Systems Librarian, explained how the Ganser Library Millersville University is using WeaveOnline and Dick Swain, Director of Library Services, showed how West Chester University is using TracDat and LibPAS.

Marshall Breeding

One of the highlights of the PaLA Conference each year is the College & Research Division Luncheon and this year was no exception. I had the honor of meeting and introducing Marshall Breeding, Director for Innovation Technologies and Research at the Vanderbilt University Libraries. His presentation titled, Beyond the ILS: Introduction and Future Directions, described the emerging products and services for library automation that aim to address the new realities that include increased emphasis on delivering access to electronic resources and digital collections.

Wednesday morning featured Donna Mazziotti, Public Services Librarian, and Teresa Gretano, English Professor, from The University of Scranton in a session titled, Rethinking Information Literacy. Based on the research that they gleaned from a course that they co-taught on Rhetoric and Social Media, their presentation made a case for an updated definition of Information Literacy that takes into consideration the effects of social media practices on students’ information seeking behavior.

Darla Bressler and Kathryn Yelinek, Reference Librarians at Bloomsburg University, presented Shush No More: Accommodating Noise in Today’s Library. There session featured time for attendees to discuss what has/hasn’t worked for other libraries. Here is a link to their PowerPoint slides: Shush No Moreand to their Sush No More Handout.