It's Academic

PaLA CRD: help newer librarians become leaders!

March 16, 2010

(Above: 2009 PALS Attendees)

The College and Research Division (CRD) of the Pennsylvania Library Association would like to sponsor two attendees to the PaLA Academy of Leadership Studies (PALS) to be held June 6-9, 2010 at the Radisson Penn Harris, Camp Hill, PA. We invite nominations and applications from academic librarians who have less than six years of experience and who have the potential to become the next generation of library leaders in the state of Pennsylvania. The CRD will pay for Academy registration for the two librarians chosen and will work closely with them as they continue to enhance their careers. Further information about the Leadership Academy can be found at:

http://www.palibraries.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=102

If you are interested in applying or in nominating someone to be sponsored by the CRD, please send the following by April 1, 2010 to Tina Hertel at tina.hertel@lehigh.edu:

• A letter of interest
• A letter of nomination from your supervisor
• Current resume of the nominee
• Statement indicating PaLA membership or intention to join at the end of the program

Nominees will be informed of the CRD’s decision by April 16, 2010.

Please call or email me with any questions or concerns about the process.

Thank you.

Tina Hertel
College & Research Division

Connecting Research and Writing Through Students

November 4, 2009

by CRD of PaLA

Connecting Research and Writing Through Students

Tuesday, October 20 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Speakers: Greg Skutches, Tina Hertel, Kenzie Bartlett, Deborah Streahle (Lehigh University)

Moderated by Christine Roysdon

The innovative TRAC (Technology, Research and Communication) Writing Fellows Program at Lehigh University is based on the “tried-and-true notion that collaboration among peers is one of our most effective and efficient methods of learning.” Greg Skutches described the evolution of the TRAC concept over his initial year as the Coordinator of Writing Across the Curriculum at Lehigh. He stressed that his rather unique placement within the Library and Technology Services unit, as opposed to the usual WAC placement within an academic college, enabled him to imagine a program that encompassed not only writing, but also the research process, the use of technology, and faculty development.

The program tests the idea that student writing mentors embedded in courses can knowledgeably and empathetically interact with peers on assignment drafts and research progress, and can even help faculty fine-tune assignments. Fellows chosen are talented undergraduate student writers from across the majors, nominated by faculty, and selected through a highly competitive application process. As a group, they are enrolled in a semester-long training course that encompasses not only writing, but also library research and instructional technology.

Tina Hertel has developed the library research aspect of the program. She noted that in the first year she presented the big picture of the information environment, but now has adopted a more practical focus. She has observed that the TRAC students tend to be good researchers who are sometimes surprised by the methods used by fellow students.

The two TRAC fellows, Kenzie Bartlett and Deborah Streahle, have been thinking about how the libraries can be better integrated into the student research process. They emphasized the importance of just-in-time librarian visits to courses with assignments, and the need to simplify and streamline the navigation of library systems.

Christy Roysdon

When Students Go Mobile: The Effects of Smartphones on Information Literacy and Academic Library

November 3, 2009

by CRD of PaLA

When Students Go Mobile: The Effects of Smartphones on Information Literacy and Academic Library
Featuring Kristen Yarmey-Tylutki, Digital Services Librarian, Weinberg Memorial Library, The University of Scranton and moderated by Erin Dorney

Smartphone – phone with computing ability

Over 50 thousand apps for iPhone as of last year

In 2008 smartphone sales in North America grew by 63%

Lost of apps are student-designed

Mobile librarians and libraries – Joe Murphy

How do these impact the research process? Information literacy?

It’s hard for students to find big blocks of time for research – mobile helps them break it up into chunks

Looking at 2000 ACRL standards for information literacy – 5 standards

What did mobile phones look like in 2000? Cell phones called people, stored contacts, could text but many people didn’t. A lot has changed since then!

Standard One: “The information literate student defines and articulates the need for information”

Free apps vs. authoritative, more costly apps (in terms of reference resources)
Talk to vendors about providing mobile interfaces
Think about subsidizing cost of authoritative mobile apps
Devices can be used to both collect and analyze data
Can confuse students – new set of formats (print, electronic, mobile, website, app, device specific?), third-party developers w/ somewhat sketchy documentation.
Cost and benefit – students pick free over pay, website over print, w/smartphones, they will probably choose mobile over computer-based.
It needs to be affordable and accessible to students in order for them to use it

Standard Two: “The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently”

New ways of searching – the ACRL standards assume word-based searching, but now we have different input types – pictures, barcodes, audio keywords, location
These options can make searching easier for students, but we need to know how to help them and incorporate this into information literacy
No extra typing – fewest keystrokes possible = no long search strings, Boolean, etc.
Mobile raises expectations – traditional services won’t be enough
On a smartphone, we only see the first 3/4 results in a Google search – will students scroll down or click to the next page?
Extracting information – lots of note taking tools out there and microphones built in (i.e. Margins, tools to convert spoken notes into written notes)
iPhone can’t run different applications at once – this is a problem but should be fixed (Palm Pre does it)

Standard Three: “The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system.”

Ebook apps – more time for reading in their lives, but is it “deep reading?”
All in one devices are fabulous but also distracting
Students are going to want to use things that are designed well
Mobile research look at more items but spend less time on/with them
Discussing research with peers

Standard Four: “The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.”

Syncing mobile and computer applications

Standard Five: “The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally”

Privacy issues, personal information – outward flow of information, educate students about what they post to the web and how it can impact their future
“Collaboration has become a fact of life” – Kristen YT

Standards hold up well, but there are some new themes relating to smartphones

Is dividing literacy between information and technology helping or harming our students?

Continuous partial attention – we need to be informed – education, psychology, sociology

What’s next? Plans to talk with students about how smartphones are being used by students. Looking for collaborators!

Q: Tools for libraries to mobilize? SMS is first step, in terms of resources, haven’t seen it written about yet

Q: Multi-literacies? Kathleen Tyner

Q: What about faculty using smartphones? Mixed bag, some embrace, some still don’t want to talk about Google. New generation of faculty will help with this transition. We don’t have to push it, but some will be interested.

Avoiding Certain Doom: Integrating Information Literacy Through Collaboration

October 22, 2009

by CRD of PaLA

Avoiding Certain Doom: Integrating Information Literacy Through Collaboration
Alison Gregory, Assistant Professor, Snowden Library, Lycoming College

I had the good fortune to be the moderator for this session of the 2009 PaLA Conference on Monday, October 19. This topic was of particular interest to me since I recently became the Information Literacy Coordinator at The University of Scranton. To begin, Alison highlighted several of the articles on the extensive list of recommended readings in her handout that address why librarians should collaborate with faculty and how they should do it.

Before she shared how she collaborated with faculty at Lycoming College, Alison asked attendees to write down an assignment from their institutions that they considered to be “doomed” and then had us share this assignment with a neighbor.

Alison’s first example of collaboration was from an entry level political science course. The professor’s goal was for the students to increase their critical thinking skills. Alison collaborated with this professor to develop a problem-based learning assignment in each of three content areas for a total of six classes that met in the library. The majority of this class time was spent doing research. When students asked a question, Alison often answered them with another question. Rather than providing the students with the name or the call number of a specific book in which information could be found, she would suggest types or categories of resources that might be useful. Instead of a one-shot, “sage on the stage,” Alison said, “It became very Socratic,” and as a result one-third of the course was devoted to library research.

The second collaborative endeavor that Alison shared involved a faculty member in the History Department who had previously “banned” Wikipedia as a source. She worked with this professor on an assignment that required students to contribute to Wikipedia. They selected topics that were either missing or were stubs (a term used by Wikipedia for incomplete articles). Students were required to use primary and secondary sources to write their entries, and the professor had to approve the entries before they could be posted. Students came to the realization that others might cite the information from one of their entries. Their classmates were not “experts” on these topics, yet their entries might be treated as authoritative by someone. As a result of this assignment, the students in this class had a better appreciation of why not to use Wikipedia as source material for a paper.

After sharing her experiences, Alison then suggested ways for those of us in the audience to collaborate with faculty at our institutions:

1. Be reasonably familiar with a variety of pedagogies so that you can knowledgeably discuss them.
2. Let faculty know that your priority lies in improving student skills.
3. Be willing to be a sounding board and be willing to put in your 2 cents, for example, “I heard about an assignment that might meet your goals for this project…”

Then she came back to those “doomed” assignments that we had shared. She gave us the task to think about some potential alternatives, not for the assignment that we had written down, but for our neighbor’s “doomed” assignment. Some of us then shared these alternative ways to improve a specific assignment. This active learning assignment gave us all something concrete that we could take back to our own libraries. I know I did!

The State of the State Networks 2009

October 21, 2009

by CRD of PaLA

The State of the State Networks 2009

Susan Pannebaker, Director, Office of Commonwealth Libraries
Joe Scorza, Executive Director, HSLC/Access PA
John Barnett, Assistant Director, PALCI
Catherine Wilt, President, and Ann Yurcaba, Director of Regional Services, Lyrasis

I always try to go to this session each year to get a sense of the overall library community statewide. It’s basically a ‘show and tell’ session for the different speakers to review last year’s developments and ‘coming attractions’ (or coming disasters?).

Susan spoke first; unfortunately, she has no good news to tell us. Budget essentially went to $3 million from $11 million. Will know more about the final outcome in the next few weeks. Things will be lost, no doubt. They are establishing priorities. However, some good news. They are starting a state partnership with WebJunction. Will subsidize some of the online courses, which will help with staff development. Can also develop some courses; let them know if there are courses you’re interested in.

Joe Scorza was next. Spoke about programs “which may possibly continue; may possibly continue in different forms.” They don’t know yet what programs are going to go away.
1) 77 libraries are currently using Millennium System, which can automatically update AccessPA database
2) Access PA Digital Repository – ContentDM – 67 collections (approx.) – work with Pittsburg site to harvest data; host the websites. Approval process; currently no cost (may change?) – U. S. Civil War Collection at State Library, for example
3) POWERLibrary – over 40 databases currently; ceased development with WebFeat, looking at an alternative front-end interface for federated searching
4) Ask Here PA Virtual Reference Service – used by Gov Rendell himself; averaging over 500 questions a day; 70+ libraries; users very happy about it; 50% of activity supports school-age children
4) Access PA Online Training – had been using eCollege, but will be switching all training to WebJunction system; will no longer be doing live training, much more cost effective

John Barnett spoke next, from PALCI. They currently have about 75 member libraries, 70 in PA, 3 in NJ, 2 in WV (includes branch campuses). Traditional focus has been on resource-sharing (ILL); EZborrow and RapidILL. Also work with collection development, disaster preparedness, electronic resources. 28 institutions currently participate in RapidILL. 60 institutions now participate in EZBorrow. Number of books borrowed continues to grow. Sept. 2009 was busiest month so far, despite losing 4 schools. Uses Sirsi Dynix but are developing new software (Relais, a Canadian ILL) – May/June 2010 roll-out. Will eliminate ‘groups’; but will target other collections, too, like e.g. open archives / open access collections.

RapidILL – developed by Colorado State U libraries; electronic delivery of journal articles predicated on 24-hour turnaround. Over 129 participants in US, Canada, East Asia, members are grouped into ‘pods’. Cosmo pod (60 members) allows for ‘cross-podination’. There is a PALCI pod, but you can ‘qualify’ to be members of different pods.

Other resource-sharing efforts – reciprocal ILL photocopying, and faculty borrowing privileges; members of IDS of PA.

Electronic resources:
ACS, Annual Reviews, ACM, eBrary, IEEE, MathSciNet, Opinion Archives, ProQuest, Reference USA, StatUSA; and adding more. Are looking at e-books right now.

CD & Management: CCD Task Force
-Shared print journal archive
-Focuses on print science journal collections by major scientific socieites: APS/ AIP, ACS
A-im is to have complete print runs to 2000; let libraries weed collections older than 10 years
-‘Dark’ archive for safe-keeping; ‘light’ archive for ILL
-Should be in place by Fall 2009

Disaster preparedness
-fostering collaborative approach to disaster preparedness
-received $25K LSTA grant to provide consortium-wide disaster preparedness raining and continuing ed; 6 regional training sessions planned; subcontracting with Tom Clareson, Lyrasis, to provide training
-MayDay activities – take 1 day out of year to do one thing for disaster preparedness
-Alliance for Response – goal is to do a state-wide program. In Pittsburgh, they have had discussions on mold-prevention, fire prevention, insurance and risk prevention, etc.

Digitization
-not so much the mechanics, but the ‘big picture’
-Digital collection guidelines for PA
-Pennsylvania Digital Library search interface (meta-data harvestor); PALCI supports Lyrasis mass digitization project

MINES for libraries ‘ Measuring the Impact of Networked Electronic Services’
-ARL protocol for determining electronic resource use, by whom and for what purpose
-provides info on electronic resource use; under development
-ARL has to work with systems people in your library

EBook collections
-also under development
-looking at

LOCKSS network – developing a PALCI network. There are 7 PALCI members currently participate in LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe)
-will be surveying members

Cathy Wilt and Ann Yuracaba of Lyrasis spoke next.
Lyrasis = Solinet, PALINET + NELINET; integrating services.
Ann is ‘Legacy Palinet’ representative.
What’s in it for PALINET members – more services
1900 PALINET members; more than 4000 members overall

New service development:
-Digital services; want to support the other regional orgs. Received a grant to digitize PA libraries, based on open-access
-Enterprise-wide library computing – RFP for open source options. Examples: Drupal, Evergreen
-Collaborative collections – what will model be for delivering materials in future?
-Leadership
-Strategic Plan 2010-2012
-Consortial ‘deals’ with vendors
-Education: hundreds of classes, on-demand, etc. Expanded offerings: Ebooks (free seminar); Information Literacy, Management 101, Open Source, etc.
-Consulting: Strategic planning, Leadership and management, grant-writing assistance
-Technology – ‘Tech Squad’; open source support
-Preservation & Digitization
-‘My Lyrasis’ account coming soon; also has job bank