CMCIG Spring Workshop

Virtual Education Collections:
Issues & Best Practices

The 20th Annual Spring Workshop sponsored by ALAO's
Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group

Friday, May 23, 2008
8:30 am to 3:30 pm @ OhioNet
1500 W. Lane Avenue, Columbus, Ohio

Continental Breakfast Provided.
Lunch is on your own, a box lunch option is available

Join ALAO’s Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group as the experts share their virtual collection development knowledge and experiences.

• Learn how to select and manage electronic resources
• Learn about electronic resource options for education
• Learn about OHIONET’s library support and services
• Be prepared for the NET Generation!

Scheduled to speak are:

• Anne Gilliland, Assistant Director of Library Systems, Database Management, OhioLINK will share best practices for developing a virtual collection - acquiring, cataloging, circulating, and maintaining virtual (electronic, digital) resources. She will also provide an overview of OhioLINK’s future plans in this area, especially those that may impact education collections.

• Cynthia Duchane, INFOhio Project Coordinator, will go over resources INFOhio provides for the K-12 community that can be utilized in education courses. She will highlight the resources that are also available via OhioLINK when students go on to continue their education. She hopes to share information about the 12-13 transition project INFOhio is working on with several K-12 and OhioLINK representatives, including Mary Cummings.

• Mary Conroy, Electronic Resources Coordinator, OHIONET, will highlight electronic resources for academic libraries, their selection and evaluation, vendor negotiations, and copyright issues. She will provide an overview of OhioNet’s services and workshops for cataloging, collection management, and electronic collections.

• Mary Cummings M.A, M.S.L.S. Librarian, Shawnee State University, will share free and fee audio and multimedia Children’s Literature resources and talk about how users can create podcasts of children’s literature.

Workshop cost? For ALAO/OCLIS members, cost is $30 with a box lunch and $25 without a box lunch. Cost for non-members, includes option of a 1 year ALAO Memberhsip with dues of $30, is $60 with a box lunch and $55 without a boxed lunch.

There is a registration limit of 30. Registration deadline is May 9, 2008.

For more information, visit the Workshop Website.

Thinking Outside the Book

I received an email yesterday from Carol Smallwood, editor of Thinking Outside the Book: Essays for Innovative Librarians, with the information McFarland has given this book a tentative release date of June/July 2008. The reason this title is of particular interest to me is I contributed two essays to the book.

Below is the book description from the publisher:

"Professionals in all areas of librarianship will find inspiration in the essays collected here—each of them innovative tips for increasing circulation, enhancing collections, and improving flexibility. With extensive experience in the nation’s top libraries and media centers, the 73 contributors describe what really works based on their real-world experiences."

"Organized by subject, the essays offer succinct and practical guidelines for dozens of tasks. Topics include preparing and delivering distinctive presentations; forming a successful grant proposal; creating a traveling multimedia exhibition; organizing effective community partnerships; writing blogs; hosting authors; creating cybertorials; and preserving local culture." - McFarland Publishing

More information, including early reviews and a table of contents, are located on the McFarland web site. Promotional materials have been sent to various contributors for conferences and contributors have been offered materials for marketing, hence this blog post.

My essays? They are included in Chapter IV, The Internet (Outreach & Information: Blogs in the academic Library) and Chapter VI, Hosting Library Events (The Art of the Picture Book Conference: Partnership Beyond Library Walls). I am very excited about this opportunity and will undoubtedly be showing my copy of the book to all asunder.

Tags: Thinking Outside the Book, Carol Smallwood, McFarland, Librarianship

YouTube: "The Librarian Song"

I read, actually read and listened to, two very different things regarding librarian's and searching this morning. The first was an ACRLog post There's More to Finding Than we Thought that discusses a Pew Internet & American Life Project study concerning search engine users.

The second, a YouTube video featuring "The Librarian Song."

"First she, showed it to me
Then she, did it with me,
And she smiled so happily when I could do it for myself."

"She's the interactive kind,
When there are things to find,
My librarian, she's so fine!"

"Song from the Joe Uveges - When Freedom Calls concert on November 2, 2007 in Colorado Springs." (YouTube - The Librarian Song)

ALAO Newsletter

Hot off the presses, or should I say the Internet, is the March 2008ALAO Newsletter (Vol. 26, No. 1). Featured in this issue:

• President's Report
• Vice-President's Report
• Conference Update
• Leadership Retreat
• Dates to Remember
• Membership News
• Election Results
• Government Relations team
• Interest Group / Committee News
• People / Library News

Congratulations to Rob Withers, Miami University, who was elected as Vice-President/President elect of ALAO. Other winners are Alison Ricker, Oberlin College (Secretary), Angel Jackson, Columbus State Community College (Membership Chair), Ione Damasco, University of Dayton (Board member), and Stephena Harmony, University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College (Board member).

Better late than never

Over at Walt at Random, in early January blog posts and subsequent discussion centered around Walt Crawford's new book Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples. My curiosity was tweaked when a January 19th post, Academic Library Blogs: Who's Included, presented an alphabetical listing of the blogs included the (okay, my) IRC blog at Ashland University Library was named. After ordering the book for our library, having the wrong blog book arrive necessitating return, and the correct book still on order from Yankee, I ordered the book for myself through Amazon; it arrived today.

I have not yet read the book, but did turn quickly to the page describing the Instructional Resource Center Blog, Ashland University Library (p. 155 for those interested). With one notable exception, a comment stating "no apparent links from either home page," all is well. The IRC blog is linked from both the IRC what's new page and IRC site map. I am looking forward to reading the information presented on other academic library blogs, as well as the metrics and standouts of each. As we continue to work on a new library web page, this title will provide resources for what other academic libraries are doing with their blogs.