Weekly reader

Leading British Universities Join New MOOC Venture
"Earlier this month, one of Britain’s top newspapers noticed a glaring absence on the British education scene: MOOC’s. “U.K. universities are wary of getting on board the MOOC train,” read The Guardian’s headline. Two institutions, the Universities of Edinburgh and London, have recently signed on to offer massive open online courses via the American company Coursera. Yet in Britain, said the newspaper, “there is scarcely a whiff of the evangelism and excitement bubbling away in America, where venture capitalists and leading universities are ploughing millions” into MOOC’s." -- Marc Parry, Wired Campus, 12/13/12

Let's (Not) Do the Numbers
"Over the weekend I had a fascinating conversation over Twitter with Aaron Tay, a brilliant young academic librarian at the University of Singapore. (I’m not the only one who thinks he’s smart; Library Journal named him a Mover and Shaker last year.) We were discussing Library Journal’s recent report, covered right here in Inside Higher Ed, about students’ views of academic libraries." - Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 12/4/12

Common Craft: Online Citizenship
"Sometimes communicating via computers can feel anonymous and make people lose touch with the impact of what they say online. This video highlights the problems this causes and explains a basic idea: that our words matter, online and off." -- Lee LeFever, Common Craft Blog, 12/4/12

Why Women Should Lead Boldly
"For many years, we’ve known intuitively that having women in top leadership positions means superior organizational performance. Today, a body of data from prestigious research organizations documents the positive impact women leaders have on their organizations." -- Sharon Hadary and Laura Henderson, SmartBlog on Leadership, 12/3/12

Badges, We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges
"Inside Higher Education published a story on changes at the University of Oxford’s libraries, implying that the changes were treating librarians like baristas, who apparently all wear “large bright badges offering help to customers,” at least in the UK.(Is that an American thing as well? Whenever I see baristas I’m often still a little groggy waiting for my caffeine that I don’t notice.)" -- Annoyed Librarian, 12/3/12

Google Zeitgeist 2012

Google has released their Zeitgeist 2012 video; more information about 2012 Search Trends worldwide is also available.

"2012 was a year of big moments, from global games to historical elections and everything in between. With this site, we've analyzed over one trillion queries to showcase what the world searched for." - Google Zeitgeist 2012

Weekly Reader

A People's History of MOOCs
"Massive, open to all, a democratic space that offers people from all walks of life exposure to the greatest thinkers of our time, and while we’re at it, a fabulous branding opportunity - welcome to the nineteenth century municipal public library." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 11/29/12

Hukkster: The New Pinterest?
"Over the last year or so, the hottest topic has been Pinterest – the pinning, the secret boards, brand elements, driving ecommerce -- it’s on everyone’s mind. Instagram has made a bit of a splash lately, but not of the same caliber, and many have been wondering, when’s the next hottest platform going to come?" -- Christina Giordano, Social Media Today, 11/30/12

The Uneven Value of Academic Credit
"The tight hold American colleges and universities have on academic credit—what it is worth and who awards it—is about to undergo a well overdue stress test. Two announcements in as many months have the potential to perhaps finally better define the value of credits in higher education. The first is the announcement by the American Council on Education that it will review a handful of free online courses offered by elite universities through Coursera and may recommend that other colleges accept credit for them." -- Jeff Selingo, Next, 11/25/12

End of Course Evaluations: Making Sense of Student Comments
"At most colleges, courses are starting to wind down and that means it’s course evaluation time. It’s an activity not always eagerly anticipated by faculty, largely because of those ambiguous comments students write. Just what are they trying to say?" -- Maryellen Weimer, Teaching Professor Blog, 11/28/12

Weekly Reader

In Classroom Experiment, All Discussion Happened via Twitter
"Students at George Mason University shifted their feet and chatted outside a classroom here on Tuesday morning, waiting for Stephen Groening’s class on cellphone cultures to begin. On tap was not an ordinary classroom discussion about the assigned readings. Instead, the entire conversation would take place by Twitter, and students were nervous." -- Alisha Azevedo, The Wired Campus, 11/16/12

What Katrina Can Teach Libraries about Sandy and Other Disasters
"Disaster plans used to seem like “kind of a bother” to Lance D. Query, Tulane University’s director of libraries. Then, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, flooding Tulane’s Howard-Tilton Memorial Library with more than eight feet of water. “I look at them much more carefully now,” says Mr. Query." -- Jennifer Howard, The Wired Campus, 11/14/12

Mozilla's Popcorn Maker Brings Video Remixing to the Masses
"Mozilla has released Popcorn Maker 1.0, the company’s mashup-creating, video-editing suite for the web. Popcorn Maker makes it easy to pull just about any content on the web into a video container you can then publish back to the web. Despite the interactive nature of the web, video on the web remains little more than glorified television in your web browser — a passive experience in the midst of the otherwise interactive online world. It doesn’t have to be that way. HTML5 makes video into just another HTML element — editable, hackable, remixable." -- Scott Gilbertson, Webmonkey,  11/2012

The ALAO Newsletter is now available, Vol. 30 No. 4 (Dec. 2012). Included in this issue:

• President's Report
• Vice President's Report
• John J. Burke Wins the 2012 J. Ladd Award
• 2011/12 ALAO Honors & Awards
• Membership Update
• ALAO 2013 Research Grant
• Diversity Scholarship Reflection
• Interest Groups and Committees
• People and Library News

ALAO members are encouraged to submit news and information for People & Library News.

Weekly Reader

OhioLINK Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Shared Services"OhioLINK, the Ohio Library and Information Network, today celebrates 20 years of pooling resources to provide more than 600,000 college and university students, faculty and staff with access to millions of books and other library materials. OhioLINK is a consortium of 88 Ohio college and university libraries, plus the State Library of Ohio, that work together to provide information for teaching and research. OhioLINK’s membership includes 16 public/research universities, 23 community / technical colleges, 49 private colleges and the State Library of Ohio." -- Zoe Stewart-Marshall, What's New OhioLINK, 11/1/12

Course Management Companies Challenge MOOC Providers
"Two software companies that sell course-management systems, Blackboard and Instructure, have entered the race to provide free online courses for the masses.
On Thursday both companies plan to announce partnerships with universities that will use their software to teach massive open online courses, or MOOC’s. The companies hope to pull in their own college clients to compete with online-education players like Udacity and Coursera."-- Alisha Azevedo, The Wired Campus, 11/1/12

How Teens Do Research in the Digital World"The teachers who instruct the most advanced American secondary school students render mixed verdicts about students’ research habits and the impact of technology on their studies." --  Kristen Purcell, Lee Rainie, Alan Heaps, Judy Buchanan, Linda Friedrich, Amanda Jacklin, Clara Chen, Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Research Center, 11/1/12

Just for Fun: Happy Halloween

Zombies Explained - The Redux 10/22/12

*I hadn't seen the update, HT to the Distant Librarian



Weekly Reader

Pearson Moves Deeper Into Online Education with $650 Million Purchase
"Pearson, a publishing and education company whose products include books, newspapers, and online services, announced a major acquisition on Tuesday that will deepen its commitment to becoming a major player in online education.
The company, which owns the Financial Times and the Penguin Group book publisher, shelled out $650-million in cash to buy EmbanetCompass, a business that provides support services to colleges and universities that are moving their programs online." -- Kathrine Mangan, The Wired Campus, 10/16/12

Managing Your Digital Footprint (Repost)
"It’s NEVER too early to start managing your digital footprint. Colleges and future employers will certainly Google your name to see what you’ve been up to. You want them to find a productive, creative online life–not the embarrassing photo from that last party you went to!" -- Jen Hurd, Bib 2.0, 10/22/12

Augmented Realities in Learning - Hype for Now?
"I don’t have enough time for thinking these days – which is  not a very good thing.This thinking beyond ourselves is what the game of learning is all about, and how we do this is how we augment the true cognitive capacities of our minds, regardless of what technology-enhanced sphere that thinking takes us into." -- Judy O'Connell, Hey Jude, 10/23/12

ALAO Conference

If you are attending the ALAO Conference this week at the Roberts Centre in Wilmington, OH, be sure to visit the Research and Publications table for information about the ALAO Research Grant program, 2013 ALAO Research Grant application process, and the grant application. A member of the Research and Publications Committee will be available at key times throughout the conference.

(Multi) Weekly Reader

Participate in Open Access Week with Help from ACRL
"Let ACRL’s Scholarly Communication Toolkit help you prepare to lead events on your campus during Open Access Week, October 22-28, 2012. Open Access Week , a global event organized by SPARC, is an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research." --  Kara Malenfant, ACRL Insider, 10/12/12

A Fair Use Victory for Scholars
"When there’s not a lot of good news around, it was uplifting to check Twitter late last night after a full day and find out that a federal judge has upheld fair use in an important case. Judge Harold Baer denied the Authors Guild et al’s motion for summary judgment (making quite a hash of their arguments in the process) but affirmed that what the Hathi Trust is doing is legal for three main reasons." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish,10/11/12

LCA Comments on Author Guild v Haithi Trust Decision
"The Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) (whose members are the American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries and Association of College and Research Libraries) welcomes Judge Baer’s decision yesterday that the HathiTrust Digital Library’s (HDL) use of digitized works is a fair use permitted under the Copyright Act." -- Kara Malenfant, ACRL Insider, 10/11/12

ACRL 2013 Virtual Conference, Cyber Zed Shed, Poster, Roundtable Proposals
"ACRL is now accepting Cyber Zed Shed presentation, poster session, roundtable discussion and Virtual Conference webcast proposal submissions for the ACRL 2013 conference to be held April 10-13, 2013, in Indianapolis. Submit proposals via the online form by Nov. 9, 2012."- Margo Conahan, ACRL Insider, 10/11/12

Our Strategy: Be Regenerative
"I was deeply involved in writing a strategic plan this summer. Actually—technically—it was a response to Virginia Tech’s long-range plan, but still– it is a vision for the future of our library. Many people contributed to this effort and we knocked it out in 90 days." -- Brian Matthews, The Ubiquitous Librarian,10/4/12

Students Think They Can Multi-Task: Here's Proof They Can't
"With easy access to all sorts of technology, students multitask. So do lots of us for that matter. But students are way too convinced that multitasking is a great way to work. They think they can do two or three tasks simultaneously and not compromise the quality of what they produce. Research says that about 5% of us multitask effectively. Proof of the negative effects of multitasking in learning environments is now coming from a variety of studies." -- Maryellen Weimer, Teaching Professor Blog, 9/26/12

Banned Books Week

I generally don't duplicate blog posts, but I'm willing to make an exception for Banned Books Week. Here's information from the IRC News and Information Blog featuring resources for Banned Books week on the IRC Pinterest Page. 

Source: bannedbooksweek.org via IRC @ on Pinterest

Bill Moyers: The Bane of Banned Books

"In honor of the 30th anniversary of the American Library Association’s “Banned Books Week,” Bill talks about the impact libraries have had on his youth, his dismay over book challenges in modern times, and why censorship is the biggest enemy of truth." -- Bill Moyers, The Bane of Banned Books, 9/25/12

 

* Post originally published on the IRC News blog.

ALAO Conference: Oct.15 Deadline

Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO)
38th Annual Conference

Friday, October 26, 2012
Roberts Centre
123 Gano Road, Wilmington, Ohio 45177

Conference Web Site:
http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conf2012


Keynote Speaker: Lisa Hinchliffe
Current Co-Chair of ACRL's Value of Academic Libraries Committee.  Hinchliffe will address the multitude of challenges academic librarians face in responding to user needs as well as economic, technological, and accountability demands, and focus in on the dual imperatives of providing value to our users and then documenting that value which can serve as touchstones to understand and serve our institutions. 

Reception: Thursday Evening (10/25/12)
Join us for an open reception Thursday evening at the Roberts Centre. Enjoy savory canapes, succulent fresh fruit kabobs, tasty snacks, tantalizingly scrumptious desserts and a full cash bar.  Be there from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to share in the conversation and fun!

Hotel Room Discounts: October 3
Traveling to the Roberts Centre Thursday evening? Book your hotel room prior to October 3rd to recieve the ALAO Conference rate.  To book your room, call 800-654-7036 and ask for the "ALAO Conference Rate."  Hotel information is available on their web site @ http://www.holidayinn.com/hotels/us/en/wilmington/ilnoh/hoteldetail

Directions to the Roberts Centre
Visit the Roberts Centre web site @ http://www.robertscentre.com/index.asp

Conference Registration Information
Registration is open, but closes October 15th. Check out these links for more information:

• ALAO Conference Registration
  http://www.alaoweb.org/events?eventId=518633
• Researcher Revolt Preconference
  http://alaoweb.org/events?eventId=536226
• Participatory Librarianship Preconference
  http://alaoweb.org/events?eventId=536222

The ALAO Conference web site is available @ http://alaoweb.org/conferences/conf2012. Register now to join in the national conversation on having an impact and communicating our story! 

Weekly Reader

Active Learning and Teaching the Teacher
"Ever since I attended ACRL’s Immersion Teacher Track about a year ago, I’ve been trying to incorporate more active learning strategies into my classes—and surprisingly, it’s been a lot of fun! One unintended benefit of these activities has been the opportunity for me to see inside the minds of students by seeing and hearing how they reason their way through this crazy journey we call research." -- Veronica Wells, ACRLog, 9/19/12

What Libraries Should Be: A Values Proposition
"I am finally getting around to reading Andrew Delbanco’s College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be, and was struck by a list he provides in his introduction of “qualities of mind and heart” that are necessary for citizenship and which colleges should help their students develop. Quoting them in their entirety, they are: A skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past; The ability to make connections among seemingly disparate phenomena; Appreciation of the natural world, enhanced by knowledge of science and the arts; A willingness to imagine experience from perspectives other than one’s own; A sense of ethical responsibility." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 9/19/12

Advice to New Teachers and New Students: Learning is a Quest
"Three new teachers at the front end of academic careers, about to face their first classes as teachers, want to know from somebody at the back end, “What’s most important for new teachers to know?” I don’t hear myself saying anything very coherent. I don’t want to give what new teachers frequently get: pat answers and banal suggestions that seem to be helpful without actually being so." -- Maryellen Weimer, PhD , Teaching Professor Blog, 9/12/12

FOMO (The Fear of Missing Out) and MOOCs
"It’s that feeling of anxiety that you get when you look on Twitter and see all your colleagues are headed out to conferences, concerts, parties, or movies. If you don’t go, you worry, if you don’t do something, if you don’t have your own status updates and Instagram photos to share, opportunities are going to pass you by." -- Audrey Watters, Hack (Higher) Education, 9/19/12

2012 ALAO Preconference Workshops

Participatory Librarianship:
Shaping Conversations to Advocate the Impact of Our Academic Libraries

How can academic libraries use participatory practices to impact their own academic communities? How can we spark, encourage, and sustain conversations for learning, as well as build rich, meaningful community engagement? Together, through small and whole group conversations, we will examine existing effective practices and strategies. We will brainstorm new possibilities for elevating the role of the library to an integral affinity space that cultivates and nurtures the evolving needs of our higher education communities.

The Unquiet Librarian, Buffy Hamilton, a 2011 LJ Mover and Shaker, will lead small groups in interactive conversations about maximizing and communicating value by framing our services and programming through a lens of participatory librarianship. We will follow the World Café model, which promises a fun, visually-rich, stimulating workshop with plenty of energizing take-aways from the shared energy and collective wisdom of our colleagues.

Interested in learning more? View this PDF of the workshop.
Preconference registration: http://www.alaoweb.org/events?eventId=536222


Researcher Revolt:
What Faculty Want from Publishers, Libraries and the Open Access Movement

The issue of open access is changing the landscape of scholarly communication. There is increasing demand for public access to research and an intense debate on the best way to accomplish this goal. Historically, libraries have supported faculty and institutions in their research, but are becoming increasingly involved as the research and publishing communities attempt to navigate in the new world. It is essential, however, that libraries align their efforts to what researchers want and need. This session will convene a panel of faculty from a variety of disciplines and schools to speak to their experiences with open access. Join us as we discuss how academic libraries can best support our institutions in the changing landscape of scholarly communication.

Faculty Panel includes:

• Dominique Belanger, PhD, Director of the Wright State University Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
• Tschera Connell, PhD, Head of Scholarly Resources Integration Department at The Ohio State University Libraries
• Sebastiaan Faber , PhD, Professor of Hispanic Studies and Director, Oberlin Center for Languages and Cultures, Oberlin College
• David Mark Goss , PhD, Professor of Mathematics at The Ohio State University and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Number Theory
• Mason Posner, PhD, Chair of the Department of Biology and Toxicology at Ashland University
• Moderated by Alan Boyd, Associate Director, Oberlin College Libraries

Interested in learning more? View the workshop PDF
Preconference registration is available: http://www.alaoweb.org/events?eventId=536226

Weekly reader

Welcoming Words to the Latest Class of Library Science Students
"Right now across the country, there are new graduate student arriving in the classroom (both real and virtual) to start their academic journey towards a Master’s degree in Library Science. It’s hard for me to believe that I only graduated six years ago and have only been on the job in a librarian capacity for five years (this September will be my fifth year anniversary). It certainly has been a roller coaster ride for me in those five years and has taken me in directions that I didn’t think I would be ending up. After struggling with a previous career in commercial horticulture and a misfire by way of a year in law school, it is been a relief to finally find my niche in the world." -- Andy W, Agnostic, Maybe, 8/27/12

How Should Academic Libraries Communicate their Own Value?
"A common complaint from my librarian friends: too often users fail to appreciate that the resources they use online are only available to them because the library has purchased them. This is aggravated by confusion about what an academic library is. Researchers actively using library resources online may not think of themselves as using the library because they have not recently visited the building. Libraries need to overcome such confusion to ensure that the contributions they make to the university are fully appreciated. Demonstrating value is key if libraries are to be able to continue to claim their share of institutional funding." -- Stephen Barr, Higher Education Network, 8/20/12

Study Finds PA's School Librarians Spread Thin
"School librarians do more than shush students – they help teachers with reading curricula, encourage kids to read outside of school, and they’re proven to be linked to high student achievement. If they have the time. About 73 percent of the commonwealth’s public schools have taken part in a study that reveals school libraries are hurting for funding and resources." -- Mary Wilson, State House Soundbites, 8/22/12

Students find E-Textbooks "Clumsy" and Don't Use their Interactive Features
"Several universities have recently tried a new model for delivering textbooks in hopes of saving students money: requiring purchase of e-textbooks and charging students a materials fee to cover the costs. A recent report on some of those pilot projects, however, shows that many students find the e-textbooks “clumsy” and prefer print." -- Angela Chen, The Wired Campus, 8/20/12

Weekly Reader

Five Characteristics of Learner Centered Teaching
"In May I finished a second edition of my Learner-Centered Teaching book. Revising it gave me the chance to revisit my thinking about the topic and look at work done since publication of the first edition ten years ago. It is a subject about which there is still considerable interest. The learner-centered label now gets attached to teaching strategies, teachers, classes, programs, departments and institutions. Like many trendy descriptors in higher education, with widespread use comes a certain definitional looseness. Active learning, student engagement and other strategies that involve students and mention learning are called learner-centered. And although learner-centered teaching and efforts to involve students have a kind of bread and butter relationship, they are not the same thing. In the interest of more definitional precision, I’d like to propose five characteristics of teaching that make it learner-centered." -- Maryellen Weimer, PhD, The Teaching Professor Blog, 8/8/12

Story Tutorials for Speakers: 4 Smart Lessons
"Storytelling's a critical skill for today's speaker. A story well-told can do more to put your big idea across than all the slides and handouts in the universe. But it takes practice and planning to tell good stories." -- Denise Graveline, The Eloquent Woman, 8/23/12

Beloit Mindset List
"This year’s entering college class of 2016 was born into cyberspace and they have therefore measured their output in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future, and are entering college bombarded by questions about jobs and the value of a college degree. They have never needed an actual airline “ticket,” a set of bound encyclopedias, or Romper Room. Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1994, are probably the most tribal generation in history and they despise being separated from contact with friends. They prefer to watch television everywhere except on a television, have seen a woman lead the U.S. State Department for most of their lives, and can carry school books--those that are not on their e-Readers--in backpacks that roll." -- The Mindset List, Beloit College

Participatory Culture, Participatory Libraries
"There’s a choice academic and public libraries face. One  is to focus entirely on providing access to the published information that our community members want. The other is to make libraries a platform for creating and sharing culture." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 8/13/12

Look, it's another QR code post

I often 'forget' that QR codes don't have to lead users to web pages; options exist for text messages, general text, and an assortment of other resources. The IRC has provided QR code signage to users for a few years now (see here and here and here); it's been a generally successful tool to send LibGuide, IRC Blog, and IRC and library web site content to mobile devices and tablets. A new academic year seemed like the perfect time to expand use of QR code signage to a few more floors in the library. Well, that and a request from another librarian regarding development of signage to highlight our recent library catalog interface (web pac pro) update. The result? We now have a series of signs for each library floor featuring QR codes.

The new signage moves beyond directing users to web resources. Each has a set of three QR codes (all traditional black & white) featuring the library catalog, information about collections located on each floor and our new text a librarian service. To help students understand - and use - the signs, accompanying each QR code is an image depicting the type of result to expect after scanning. The top QR code leads to the library catalog and features a mobile device screen shot of the catalog; the second QR code returns brief text detailing the collections located on a particular floor and is accompanied by a cell phone image with instructions; the third QR code supports our new text a library service by automatically opening a text message on the users phone.

Signs were printed in color, laminated (because I can), and posted on the stacks end caps for viewing as users exit the elevator on each floor of the library. I used the QR Code and 2D Code Generator (Kerem Erkan) for this project as the Kaywa QR Code Generator was requiring account creation prior to use.  Overall, I'm pleased with the results (as is the librarian who requested them) and will be curious if they generate any increased usage of our texting service.

ALAO Conference: Registration Open

Academic Library Association of Ohio (ALAO)
38th Annual Conference
Friday, October 26, 2012
Roberts Centre ~ Wilmington, Ohio 45177

Registration is now opened for ALAO 2012!
http://www.alaoweb.org/conferences/conf2012 




The 38th Annual ALAO Conference will feature programming spotlighting ACRL's Value of Academic Libraries report. Our keynote, Lisa Hinchliffe, Associate Professor and the Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the current Co-Chair of ACRL's Value of Academic Libraries Committee and a Past-President of ACRL. Following the keynote a panel comprised of university administrators, David R. Hopkins, President, Wright State University, Thomas Skill, Associate Provost & CIO, University of Dayton, and Whitney Womack Smith, Faculty Director, Miami University Hamilton, will offer insight on the greatest challenges and threats to academic libraries and suggest how they think libraries can make the biggest impact.

In addition to concurrent sessions, lightning sessions, posters, round table discussions, vendor exhibits, and plenty of time for networking on the day of the conference, the 2012 Conference Planning Committee is pleased to offer two pre-conferences on October 25.
The Scholarly Communications Preconference, "Researcher Revolt: What Faculty Want from Publishers, Libraries and the Open Access Movement," will feature Kevin Smith, Scholarly Communications Officer at Duke University Libraries, as keynote along with a panel of faculty from a variety of disciplines and schools who will discuss their experiences with open access.

The World Cafe Preconference, "Participatory Librarianship: Shaping Conversations to Advocate the Impact of Our Academic Libraries," features 2011 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, Buffy Hamilton. Hamilton, who authors "The Unquiet Librarian," will lead small groups in interactive conversations about maximizing and communicating value by framing our services and programming through a lens of participatory librarianship.
Detailed program information, venue, and hotel information are available:

• ALAO Conference
• Scholarly Communications Preconference
• World Cafe Preconference
• Roberts Centre
• Conference Hotel

It's never to soon to register! Registration information:

• Special discount rates are available for students, retirees and early registration. Early registration is available now through September 19.  
• Registration closes on October 15. Registration questions may be directed to Sheryl Gannon via email: sgannon at brownmackie.edu 
• ALAO Conference Registration
• Scholarly Communications Preconference Registration
• World Cafe Preconference

Register now to learn about current trends, technologies, services and strategies!

* Announcement information originates from the ALAO conference planning committee.

2012 ALAO Conference

The 2012 ALAO Conference program, Impact Factor: The Value of Academic Libraries, is now available on the conference web site. Scheduled for October 26, 2012, the keynote speaker for this conference is Lisa Hinchliffe.

As noted on the ALAO Blog, you may now view pre-conference information,  a preliminary schedule, presentation & poster abstracts, and vendor information.

Weekly Reader

7 Secret Advantages of the Speaker Who Smiles
"That speaker over there who's smiling...does she know a secret? Yes, seven of them: the secret advantages of the speaker who smiles. Ron Gutman summarized much of the research about the benefits of smiling in a 2011 TED talk, and I've reviewed it to share with you the points most relevant to speakers, along with some smiling tips I share with my trainees." -- Denise Graveline, Eloquent Woman, 8/1/12

Ron Gutman: The Hidden Power of Smiling

Does PowerPoint Help or Hinder Learning?
"I’ve had some nagging concerns about PowerPoint for some time now. I should be upfront and admit to not using it; when I taught or currently in my presentations. Perhaps that clouds my objectivity. But my worries resurfaced after reading an article in the current issue of Teaching Sociology. I’ll use this post to raise some questions and concerns about the role of PowerPoint both in the classroom and in student learning experiences." -- Maryellen Weimer, Teaching Professor Blog, 8/1/12

Confronting the Career-Development Conundrum: 5 Tips for Busy Managers
"Career development appears at the top of many lists. Unfortunately, they tend to be lists focused on what employees desperately want but are not getting from managers.As for managers, most appreciate the value of career development and really wish they could do it more frequently and more effectively. But let’s face it: A manager’s day-to-day reality is a kaleidoscopic blur of meetings, responsibilities and shifting priorities. Helping employees to develop and grow is one of many activities that is continually pushed out in time to that elusive “someday” that too rarely comes." --Julie Winkle Giulioni, SmartBlog on Leadership, 8/8/12

Weekly reader

The Future of Higher Education
"A majority of technology stakeholders polled in a Web-based survey anticipate that higher education in 2020 will be quite different from the way it is today. They said university-level education will adopt new methods of teaching and certification driven by opportunity, economic concerns and student and parent demands." -- Janna Anderson, Jan Lauren Boyles and Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 7/27/12

Professional Digital Practice in Academia: From Online Networking to Building Apps
"In my previous post, I explained the concept of digital sociology and presented four aspects I considered integral to this sub-discipline: professional digital practice, sociological analyses of digital use, digital data analysis and critical digital sociology. In this post I focus on professional digital practice, or using digital media tools for professional purposes: to build networks, facilitate public engagement, receive feedback, establish an e-profile, curate and share content and instruct students." -- Deborah Lupton, Impact of Social Sciences, 7/24/12

Dropping Out of MOOCs: Is it Really Okay
"I’m starting to get more than a little grumpy about MOOCs, what with all the hype about the revolutionary disruptions and game-changing tsunamis. I’m tired of the mainstream media punditry and their predictions that Stanford University’s experiments with online education (and by extension Coursera and Udacity) will change everything; I’m tired of Silicon Valley’s exuberance that this could mark the end-of-the-(academic)-world-as-we-know-it – a future that its press, its investors, and its entrepreneurs are all invested (sometimes literally) in being both high tech and highly lucrative." -- Audrey Watters, Hack Higher Education, 7/23/12

The GoodReads Bullying Drama
"In case you wanted to take a break from libraryland drama but wanted some other kind of related drama to occupy the space, there are things afoot in and around the literary social community, GoodReads. There’s a lot to sift through (especially as someone who is not familiar with the site, its social dynamic, or posting policies), but in doing my research into the matter over the weekend I found what I considered to be the best summary of the current state of drama." -- Andy W, Agnostic Maybe, 7/22/12

Are you setting board covers on Pinterest?

When first working with Pinterest, I liked the idea of the most recent pin being the default board cover.  It was rather 'blog-esque;' but I admit being guilty of re-pinning to items to move them into a more prominent area. A few months later, Pinterest added the option of choosing your board cover (it can be easily changes). I was able to pick a favorite image to draw interest to any given board.  I've featured three boards for expanded interest, to encourage input from students; What we're reading will include additions by IRC student workers; Mock Caldecott Panels will be introduced this fall with invitations to participate in the conversation planned as part of the session; and Cumulative Tales will be used during a scavenger hunt and is already linked to a LibGuide.

Source: Uploaded by user via IRC @ on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via IRC @ on Pinterest

Source: Uploaded by user via IRC @ on Pinterest

I want the boards to be immediately recognizable, so I've been experimenting with creating and setting permanent "covers" for three boards. Using a combination of personal photographs of the IRC and library second floor, clip art students (signed releases are required for actual students), and word art, I developed a simple conversational board cover using PowerPoint and saved the slide as an image.  I'm satisfied with the results - and the combination of set covers verses newest image displayed covers. Time will tell if the students feel the same.  Is anyone else manipulating their board covers on Pinterest?

Weekly reader

Still Here
"Sometime last year, the New York Public Library (NYPL) retired its pneumatic-tube system, which had been used to request books for more than a century. This change was made without ceremony or fanfare; I learned of it unexpectedly, when I walked into the catalog room prepared to deliver a call slip to a clerk behind a large wooden desk, only to find a notice directing me elsewhere. For a few moments, I stood there, unmoored, before moving along as instructed. That pneumatic call system had changed little since the library’s open-ing in 1911." --Mark Lamster, Metropolis Magazine, 7/20/12

Opening Ceremonies
"A lot has changed since I first started working at the Little College on the Prairie. When I arrived, one of my first tasks was to explain to the community how to use the online catalog, which arrived a month or two before I did. Searching involved typing commands and search words into one of a handful of terminals that were surrounded by the card catalog that we weren’t quite ready to dispose of. A few years later, we were able to search for articles through those terminals with their beady yellow characters. The library filled with the chatter of dot matrix printers. We dabbled in CD-ROM-based databases until the Web became the standard means of delivery. It’s a long way from the days when the H. W. Wilson indexes and Psychological Abstracts filled the shelves near the reference desk." -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 7/18/12

 Tweet Summertime

"For our public librarian colleagues it is a busy summer reading with and taking care of all the children out of school for the summer.  For us school librarian folks, summer can be an opportunity to re-charge through professional learning.  At my school district’s Summer Conference, one of our keynote speakers was Angela Maiers, @AngelaMaiers,  who passionately spoke about the power of social media in today’s world.  Because of a session with her, I was pecked by the Twitter bird, and have become an avid fan.  If you haven’t already been pecked, as literally millions have, maybe I can entice you to join the Twitter universe with some ideas and information I’ve learned from my favorite tweets and tweeters."-- Debra Marshall, ALSC Blog, 7/14/12

6 Ways to Drive More Pinterest Engagement
"Are you engaging your fans on Pinterest? Pinterest has been growing at an amazing pace. Recently, comScore reported that Pinterest grew by 4377% since May 2011. This is because people like to be engaged with images. The good thing about Pinterest is that every new post is an image around which a lot of engagement can be driven. So there’s great potential to drive a lot of engagement on this social media network." -- Mitt Ray, Social Media Examiner, 7/17/12

more with Pinterest

One of my newer LibGuides supports a freshman level phonics class. The professor developed an introductory scavenger hunt, highlighted with an embedded Glog in the LibGuide, which requires her students to visit the library, become familiar with the IRC physical space and collections as well as online resources.  During the term, an assignment activity requires students to locate pattern books, also known as cumulative tales, in the juvenile collection. Subsequently, the LibGuide includes a Pattern Book tab providing additional information (reference resources, catalog links, and samples). While revising the guide, I decided to develop a Cumulative Tales board on Pinterest; the board presents examples of cumulative tales currently in the juvenile collection.

I work primarily with Amazon and Barnes and Noble for pinning book covers as Pinterest does not recognize book cover images (size)in our library catalog. After pinning the image, I provide a catalog link in pin descriptions with the call number and book location. However, when electing to pin larger images, they were often watermarked with a copyright statement. Discussions with our campus copyright advisor helped me refine use of these resources with attribution. Changes to Pinterest over the last few months, including updated guidelines and a code snippet that protects images (users see "This site doesn't allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!").

An increasing number of sites are providing 'pin it' buttons with their share buttons (like LibGuides). Today when working with the Cumulative Tales board I noticed both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have added Pinterest to their share options for books.

Amazon's share button details book title and a persistent link in the pin description. If electing to not use their text, attribution is noted on the pin and the link directs users to the title. In my opinion, the best reason to use their pin button is the image promoted is NOT the 'click to look inside' image.

Barnes and Noble's share button works in a similar manner, I did note some of the older titles pinned smaller images with an abundance of white space around the image. There was not an option to select a different image on the page when using their 'pin it' button. In both instances, if using the Pinterest book-marklet, a number of book image options display. Pinterest continues to refine their product and it seems more sites are facilitating it as a 'share' choice along with Facebook and Twitter.

New blogs to read

One of my every summer projects is working with the juvenile collection; shifting books in the stacks (because you never know what letter of the alphabet is going to need more room), adjusting shelves (because I'm shifting books in the stacks), cleaning shelves with disinfectant wipes (because you can only imagine), weeding books (is it historical or just old with outdated information), and contacting faculty with questions about titles in their subject areas, all made a bit more difficult because of the finite space (but, I digress). I am always satisfied when the job is complete and I can make new signs for the stacks. Finishing this job for another summer means the collection is ready for new books, of which selecting, purchasing, and reading is a great job perk. So, while in the weeding mode, it is time to review blog and news feeds in my reader.

I find it oddly easy to be complacent about outdated feeds, after all, I can simply mark them read and move on to the next entry. But there is the nagging feeling of wasted time and it bother's my happy librarian's soul to proverbially waste the space better suited for something else. I've gone through my reader and removed blogs that have not posted in the last six to eight months, have changed their locations and/or feeds, contain topics that are no longer of interest to me, or are duplicates of Twitter (feeds) and Facebook (likes) I'm also following. Now it is time to add new blog feeds to my reader, starting with library blogs. 

A good place to start for library blogs is  Salem Press Library Blog Center; they have several categories of library blogs detailed with short biographical blurbs about blog authors and contributors. For the last three years, Salem Press has sponsored the Library Blog Awards (and in all honesty, we see an increase in traffic during their voting) and I enjoy perusing their nominations and winners. I viewed the academic blog list, quirky library blogs, and newly discovered blogs and chose to add these blogs to my reader (yes, the list is alphabetical).

• Agnostic, Maybe
• Bib 2.0
• Confessions of a Science Librarian
• Hey, Jude
• K-M the Librarian
• Lucacept
• Thoughts from a Library Administrator
• Virtual Dave ... Real Blog
• The Waki Librarian

As you are reading my list, feel free to add library and educational technology blog recommendations in the comments.

Weekly reader

Do Librarians Need to Know Anything?
"A kind reader sent me this link to a blog post that’s mostly about the changing face of librarianship. It’s sort of about the Spectrum scholarship, the success of which is why the racial and gender makeup of librarianship has plummeted from its former 90% white women to the significantly more diverse 88% white women." --  Annoyed Librarian, Library Journal Blogs, 7/9/12

The Revolution: Top Ten Disruptors of Education
"New online learning models are bursting from startups and top universities, bridging the educational divide. We are in the midst of a revolution that will bring high-quality education to hundreds of millions of people who have never had access to this level of learning before. These tools will reach those in developing cities and countries but also foment a revolution in the U.S. classroom as they change our perception of what learning can be."-- Jack Hidary, Huffington Post Education, 7/6/12

How to Move Towards a System that Looks to 'Publish, Then Filter' Academic Work
"Every week there’s something new in the open access debate. A couple of weeks ago the Finch report concluded that all publicly-funded research should indeed be made available free online (hurray!). But it favoured the so-called ‘gold’ model of open access, in which the highly profitable academic journal industry carries on as normal, but switches its demand for big piles of cash away from library journal subscriptions and over to authors themselves – or their institutions (boo!). Campaigners such as Stevan Harnad questioned why the Finch committee had not favoured the ‘green’ model, where authors put copies of their articles in free-to-access online repositories – the answer being, it was assumed, a successful blitz of lobbying by the publishing industry."-- David Gauntlett, Impact of Social Sciences, 7/10/12

Innovation Advice Inspired by a Children's Magazine
"A seminal memory of childhood for many Americans of my age was the arrival of the magazine Highlights for Children every month. The magazine was chock full of goodness, but my favorite part was the Goofus & Gallant cartoon. For those who didn't have the pleasure of reading the magazine, the cartoon taught life lessons through contrasts. Not surprisingly, Gallant was always polite, did his chores, and thought things through, whereas Goofus wasn't polite, didn't do his chores, and definitely didn't think things through." -- Scott Anthony, HBR Blog Network, 7/3/12

Protect Yourself from the Newest Hacking of Pinterest Accounts
"It is unclear how hackers are getting access to Pinterest accounts, but in the last three days there has been a number of signs that hacking is again becoming a problem on Pinterest. --> Updated 7/9: Based on user experiences, if you have been hacked, the first thing you should do is change your Pinterest password. This worked for at least one of the Pinterest users who posted in our comments."-- Josh Davis, L.L. Social, 7/7/12

LibGuides & Pinterest

When revisiting Pinterest a few weeks ago, I noted an academic library - Valencia College West - pinning selected LibGuides to their boards. Yesterday I spent a bit of time tweaking images pinned to the IRC & LibGuides board, in some cases adding QR codes to pages with limited pin-able images, to better reflect the content. What I did not notice until editing a guide this morning was that Springshare has added Pinterest  to the Bookmark & Share menu (see below).

When selected, the Pinterest icon provides users with images from the guide that are available to pin; even better, it's possible to pin the main LibGuide page and/or individual tabs/pages within guides. Yes, it is still possible to use an installed Pin it button, but if students are using a lab or classroom computer (sans Pinterest) they may not be able to install to their browser. LibGuides facilitates Pinterest use immediately; students can pin after instruction sessions, directly from LMS embedded course guides, and while perusing the library's LibGuide collection.

Kudos to Springshare, they consistently keep LibGuides up-to-date for librarians and users.

Screencast-O-Matic, now downloadable

Creating tutorials for a library module in a new online education course (very exciting) last month, I noticed Screencast-O-Matic is now downloadable for Windows PCs!  The Screencast-O-Matic download page provides general information, with accompanying screencast. The screencast, embedded below, details pro account login. Keep in mind, a pro account is not required to download and use the free version with the same usage stipulations as the online free version (length, editing, and watermark).

I downloaded Screencast-O-Matic to my work (Windows 7) and home (XP and Vista) computers. After successful installation, it is quick and simple, pin it to your start menu or create a shortcut on the desktop. Here's what I discovered:

• Each time it's accessed, you are prompted to Enable Pro Features. Upgrade options detailed in the video are not part of the free download.
• It is possible to continue using use the free version.
• It tooks seconds to open the recording pane/screen, there was little time needed for the java to load.
• Functions available are the same as the web version; record, adjust the microphone (or mute), select screen size, enable web cam, and close.
• Finished screencasts may be uploaded to Screencast-O-Matic, published to existing YouTube accounts, or saved MP4 to your system.

Overall, it's the same great free product on my desktop that it is on the Screencast-O-Matic web site. I'm experiencing a bit of a conundrum; the beauty of using Screencast-O-Matic is I do not have to download anything to my computer to create screencasts. However, now I have viable options online and on my computer.

Now, if only I could use it on my iphone.

Weekly Reader

On Creating Joy at Work
"When was the last time you were overjoyed by an inspired act or outcome at work? For too many managers, the very thought of joy at work is laughable. For employees? It’s not only laughable, but a notion left for dreamers — certainly no place for it in the cubicle nation." -- Shawn Murphy, Smart Blog on Leadership, 7/5-12

Where Wal-Mart Departs, A Library Succeeds
"A vast building in McAllen, Texas, was once home to a Wal-Mart -- but no longer. When the discount superstore moved to a larger location, it left behind a vast empty building. The community took advantage of the space and converted the warehouse-like building into a public library." -- Carolyn Kellogg, Jacket Copy, 7/3/12

Copyright for Librarians and Teachers in a Nutshell
"You may have wondered whether you hold the copyright to work you’ve put many hours into creating on the job. Who holds the copyright to works created by teachers or librarians? Short answer: In general, when employees create works as a condition of employment, the copyright holder is the employer." -- Carrie Russell, American Libraries Magazine, 7/2/12

QR Codes, Don't Believe the Hype
"Growing up it was Pokemon cards, in my early teens it was the constant use of MySpace and now, the latest trend to be hyped into oblivion, is QR codes. QR codes or quick response codes are the square barcodes that can be read by QR code scanners and smart phone cameras. They have been plastered on everything from billboards and magazines to business cards and t-shirts." -- Matt Thomas, Social Media Today, 7/5/12

Pinterest Provides Attribution for Pinned Sites
"Did you recently view an online Pinterest that really caught your attention? Well now, you don’t have to hunt through the web to find out more information about the product. Pinterest is now giving users access to online information about their product, by adding permanent links on pins from sites like Flickr, YouTube, Behance, and Vimeo. And in doing so, they are giving credit to companies that were blindsided by their products being mass-promoted on its site." -- Jessica Passman,  Daily Deal Media, 7/2/12

Weekly Reader

Interlop: Untangling Complex Systems
"I just wrote a memo to a group of budget people explaining (again) why it takes library staff with good technical skills, time, and lots of patience to make sure that when you click on a button in a library database to find an article, you actually find the article. Since it’s all online, now, it’s much less work, right?" -- Barbara Fister, Library Babel Fish, 6/29/12

99 Favorite Reads, Picked by Teens
"This list resulted from conversations I’ve been having with my teenage friends, former students, girls I know from where I volunteer as a visiting writer, Skypes with classes and teen book groups, library visits, nieces and nephews, my kids and their friends, and teens who contact me about Birthmarked. I love hearing about what people are reading, and I’m interested in the difference between what I find teens are reading and what people think they’re reading or think they should be reading." -- Caragh O'Brien, MacKids Blog, 6/28/12

Grazing in the Stacks of Academe
"The heat comes quickly in the summer. By early June, working at home with no air-conditioning, I have no concentration. Everything feels close and impolite and loud. So I go to Butler Library, on the southern end of Columbia’s campus in Morningside Heights. What began as a diversion has become a self-preserving summer thing: not just Butler, but the Butler stacks, the stillness capital of my imagination." -- Ben Ratliff, New York Times: Arts, 6/27/12

Lawn Boy: the College Years
"We’re on the road, my son Crawford and I.  It’s time to visit colleges, and our schedule is brutal.  Hot car, blinding sun, 12 colleges in 10 days, Ann Arbor to Sewanee. Onward we drive, Zevon on the stereo, afternoon into night, our mission fueled by gas-station coffee and Doritos. When we stop, it is for college admissions tours, barbecue, and, on one occasion, a broken alternator belt. I don’t even like to think about how far we have traveled." -- Carl Elliot, Brainstorm, The Chronicle, 6/27/12

Pinterest Legal Concerns: What is Lawful to Pin?
"A serious problem seems to be emerging in regards to Pinterest and a violation of the legal rights of content creators and their intellectual property. The problem lies in the fact that you can use the work of others to build your own brand without attributing their work to them or compensating them. Just as with posting photographs on your blog without permission, using copyright images for promotional postcards, or stealing another's article and attaching your own name, new light has emerged that reveals pinning photographs as illegal." -- Tara Hornor, Social Media Today, 6/26/12

A Look at Internet Use on Moblie Phones
"17% of cell phone owners do most of their online browsing on their phone, rather than a computer or other device. Most do so for convenience, but for some their phone is their only option for online access." -- Aaron Smith, Pew Research Center Publications, 6/26/12