ACRL 2011: Videos!

From the ACRL Insider, two 2011 ACRL Philadelphia Conference videos - the Closing Ceremony Montage and the All-Conference Reception's "Faces of ACRL." See anyone you know? I do!

"Relive your ACRL 2011 experience, or see what you missed, in these videos that were shown at the conclusion on the conference in Philadelphia. And make sure to mark your calendar for ACRL 2013, to be held April 10-13, 2013, in Indianapolis!" -- David Free, ACRL Insider, 5/18/11

ALA 2010: EBSS Higher Education Committee

A current member of ACRL's EBSS section, my first official ALA Annual meeting was the Higher Education Committee on Saturday morning. I managed to arrive on time at the wrong hotel, luckily met and chatted with two other EBSS committee members - both curriculum materials center librarians - that made the same mistake, and then hopped a Gale shuttle bus to the correct hotel arriving with much chagrin a half hour late.



The Higher Education Committee has been working on a wiki project for the last two years. It has expanded significantly since its first inception; the wiki format was ideal for growth.

"At the 2008 ALA Midwinter Meetings in Philadelphia, PA, the Higher Education committee elected to utilize a Wiki for it's newest project, a Wiki and/or web page resource committed to supporting librarians new to working with Higher Education faculty and practitioners/administrators. This resource will be largely, but not limited to, Internet resources. Entries will include a brief supportive annotation describing significance, sponsorship, and other information as deemed necessary." -- EBSS Higher Education Wiki

One week prior to the meeting, we made our project live! It will soon be available via the ACRL web site, but I'm pleased to provide the address here for a preview. Topics included in the wiki are:

• Accreditation
• Curriculum Materials Centers
• Distance Education
• News Sources for Higher Education
• Promotion and Tenure
• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
• Services to Administrators
• Statistics and Data Resources

I was particularly pleased to have the Curriculum Materials Centers page, it came in handy when preparing the collection and budget for the new AU Columbus Center IRC. At this point, I am not sure if there are plans to open the wiki for comments and/or additional submissions (feel free to submit recommendations as blog comments). Time will tell. Sad to see the wiki "completed," are they ever really finished, other projects are in the works for this committee.

Revisiting ACRL 2009

While unloading my 2009 ACRL green bag Friday morning I realized that while I blogged about my poster, I had not discussed any sessions attended. Well that instance and, I am chagrined to acknowledge, an email from a friend asking me how I liked the ACRL conference; he read the poster session blog post but didn't see anything about the conference. Let me remedy the oversight!

First things first, let's talk about the bag. There was a lot of discussion and dissing of the green ACRL/EBSCO bat. Put me on the plus side; I like the bag from this conference. I find it just the right size because I cannot overload it and can immediately reach inside for what I need. No, it did not have pockets or any other bag amenities. But to be honest I rarely carry the conference bag at the conference, I have my own bag fulfilling that function. I use the conference bags at home and work. It was certainly a step up from the neon orange bag at ALA last summer.

New to me, Cyber Zed Shed sessions soon became my favorite conference function. At twenty minutes, fifteen to present and five for questions, they allowed speakers to present their information quickly and concisely and provided opportunity for audience questions. I missed the afternoon Zed Sheds do to the poster sessions, but the crowds seemed to increase, an illustrating the popularity of these presentations.

• iMacros, Todd Quinn, Northern State University
  This may be more than I am able to handle without opportunity to practice first. Check out his LibGuide for more information on the topic.
• Sprout, Memo Cordova, Boise State University
  Though Sprout has now moved to a fee based service, users are able to create three widgets. Cordova has a blog with more information insight from the conference.
• Library Subject Guide Widgets, Michael DeMars, California State U. Fullerton
  Great ideas for subject library guides
• LibStats, Jason Coleman, Danielle Theiss-White, Melia Erin Fritch, and Laura Bonella, K-State Libraries
  Reference desk statistics and google apps; for more information visit their google apps page complete with presentations

The only thing I found missing from this ACRL conference (and the one prior) was information for education librarians beyond ERIC, instruction and curriculum materials. As an education liaison and curriculum librarian managing a materials center supporting children's literature courses, I have a vested interest in juvenile collections and collection development. For that reason, I often find ALA Annual, with its plethora of public and school library sessions, more beneficial. This ACRL conference was better than the last one I attended, I will look forward to Philadelphia in 2011.

Now, I can take one more thing out of my ACRL bag!

LibGuides @ ACRL

There were seven different LibGuides presentations, in session, panel, poster, and Zed Shed format, at ACRL last week. Marc Bertone at Springshare has put together a Conference Presentation LibGuide (ACRL Tab) with information about each session. The listing is alphahbetical, ours is near the middle of the page, and has links to poster images, slide shows, and guides created to support presentations. Additionally, there are links to presenters LibGuide profiles (though my profile link is suspiciously absent from our listing).

Interested in more LibGuide links?

• LibGuides Help Page: Conference Presentations: ACRL
• Guides to Go: Using LibGuides to Deliver Information
• AU LibGuide: Learn About Our LibGuides
• AU LibGuide Home Page

ACRL Conference: Poster Session

Poster sessions, what a rush at ACRL! I thought I knew what to expect. I was prepared for the session. Prior to the conference a few panic laden printing glitches were overcome, our poster was finished on time and accompanying business cards (200 of them) with online materials were ready. The day of our presentation I scouted out our poster's location in the pavilion, they had moved poster tables between Friday and Saturday, and I was ready to talk about our LibGuides. In retrospect, I failed to take into account two things; (1) poster sessions at ACRL are the scheduled sessions for that time period and (2) the vast interest in LibGuides at this conference.

Sara, Kathryn, and I spent an invigorating fast-paced hour talking to excited and inquiring librarians about LibGuides. Questions covered an array of topics ranging from ease of use to integration capability with content management systems; there were even questions regarding how we made our poster! Thank you to everyone who stopped to talk, I enjoyed the conversations and idea-sharing.

Feel free to visit our LibGuide about our use of LibGuides created to support this ACRL poster, a previous presentation at the Learning, Libraries, and Technology Conference, and to highlight how Ashland University Library is utilizing LibGuides.

ACRL Poster Session

Sara Klink, Kathryn Venditti, and I will be presenting a poster on LibGuides at ACRL in Seattle ... very soon. Our poster presentation, Guides to Go: Using LibGuides to Deliver Information, is scheduled for Saturday from 2:45 PM - 3:45 PM. With the hard part behind us, actually being accepted to present, we are now concentrating on creating the poster.

We recently received an email with poster size details; they are 4 feet high by 8 feet wide, as well as guidelines for preparing the presentation. Much of what is detailed is common sense, including specifications for font and heading sizing. Armed with content and guidelines, the most difficult decision we have to make at this point is the layout of our poster. Ashland has a quality printing service that does a great job with professional projects of this nature. However, a phone call to reveals their printer will accommodate items up to 38 inches wide; posters are to be 48 inches. The first of many meetings on Wednesday resulted in narrowing our configuration options.

Option one:
Two 8 foot sections, one 3 foot high with a 1 foot header

Option two:
Two 2 1/2 foot sections and a 3 foot section 4 foot high.

Both options have inherent pros and cons for display and preparation purposes, especially taking into consideration the collaborative nature of the project. Option one allows for the header to be highlighted and a more seamless poster, option two will be automatically the correct height and theoretically provide each of us a section and both options will present a minor challenge affixing the poster to the board. As we consider the possibilities, both options have been created in Publisher and saved on a network drive. We can work both individually and collaboratively; with a healthy dose of brainstorming added to the mix I have high hopes for the end product.

Not so early birds

Did you register? Are you going to ACRL in Seattle? Along with many fellow ACRL members, I waited until last Friday to register for the 14th National Conference and take advantage of the $70 early bird pricing. Though a not-so-early-bird, registration was a breeze and even remembered to select volunteer and the All Conference Reception on my form. Thanks to my conference and flight buddy, fellow Library Cloud contributor Betsy, I already had a hotel reservation; a big change from ALA when I never seem to register soon enough to book a hotel room through the conference site. All that remained were our airline reservations from Columbus to Seattle, in my experience something that though usually costly is mostly a straightforward process. At least it was until this time.

I began with the usual suspects, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and AAA. It soon became apparent I was not to only late-bird who registered and began pursuing the airlines. Flights were available, but had only single seats remaining or were exorbitant in price ($450+) and flight time (upwards of 10 hours & some overnight). After twice selecting a flight only to receive a message indicating the price had increased between the time I first viewed it and clicked "select," something I have never seen before (false advertising?), I determined availability and demand were in fine form and abandoned my quest for the afternoon.

Tuesday afternoon I returned to the scene of the crime garnering the same results. A few more options, but most included flights via Georgia with extensive lay-overs. I finally went directly to the airlines and with Continental was able to book a reasonably priced trip with timely departures and limited layovers. Since our flight was verified later Tuesday afternoon, I can now say I am attending the ACRL conference, will not have to walk to get there, and will have somewhere to lay my head after a day full of conference activities.

Now, all I have to do is finish working with my poster session partners designing our LibGuides poster presentation. It's our first at ACRL and we are very excited!

ACRL Web Survey

ACRL is redesigning their web site, conforming to the new ALA template. A second call for member opinions is being sought via a web survey:

Dear ACRL Member,

We are redesigning the ACRL web site and need your opinions to inform our work. If you have not yet completed the web survey (available at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspxsm=CVIZ0TycpRnoWWXCs4M0lw_3d_3d), please take our 10-minute survey by 4:30 p.m. CDT, Friday, January 16, 2009.

We thank you for your time and appreciate your opinion regarding the proposed ACRL web site changes (viewable athttp://acrl.ala.org/staging/).

Jon Stahler, Web Services Manager
Association of College and Research Libraries

SPARC & ACRL at Midwinter

SPARC and ACRL Announce Slate for Denver Forumon Open Educational Resources:

Washington, DC & Chicago, IL – December 15, 2008

Four pioneers from the Open Educational Resources community will offer their insights into “The transformative potential of Open Educational Resources (OER)” at the next SPARC-ACRL Forum, to be held during the 2009 American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Denver, CO.

The forum, hosted by SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), will introduce OER and the philosophy behind them to the wider library community, highlight examples of how different constituencies are currently advancing OER on campuses, and offer suggestions for how libraries can further engage to support OER.

OER are a logical extension of what the library community supports in the Open Access movement, and underscore the need for the larger playing field on which scholarly communication takes place to be made more equitable. OER focus not only on journals, but also on full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials or techniques that are critical in the learning environment.

Forum presenters will include:

• Richard Baraniuk, an architect of the Cape Town Open Education Declaration which aims to accelerate efforts to promote open resources, technology and teaching practices in education; founder of Connexions, an environment for collaboratively developing, freely sharing, and rapidly publishing scholarly content on the; and Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Rice University.
• David Wiley, also a leader of the Cape Town Declaration; Chief Openness Officer for Flat World Knowledge, a new approach to college textbooks offering rigorously reviewed textbooks online free of cost to students and Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology & Technology at Brigham Young University.
• Nicole Allen, leader of the Student PIRGs’ Make Textbooks Affordable campaign, which aims to develop a textbook market with both a vibrant used book market and a plethora of learning content that is priced and sold fairly.
• Mark Nelson, Digital Content Strategist for the National Association of College Stores, the trade association representing the higher education retail industry. He facilitates NACS three-pronged digital course materials strategy—partnerships, enhanced trade infrastructure, and education and awareness.

The 18th biennial SPARC-ACRL Forum will be held from 4:00 – 5:30 PM on Saturday, January 24, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Centennial D. The ACRL Scholarly Communications Discussion Group will also host an open conversation about issues that surface at the Forum from 4:00 – 5:30 PM on Sunday, January 25 in room 403 of the Colorado Convention Center.

The Forum will be available via SPARC podcast at a later date. For more information, visit the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc. - Jennifer McLennan, SPARC

New ACRL website

Fresh from my email inbox this morning, a notice asking for input concerning the new ACRL website:

Dear ACRL member,

On Monday, September 22, ALA launched a new version of its Web site (www.ala.org). Since the launch of the new ALA site design, ACRL has been refining a prototype design for its website. ACRL recognizes that users of our site may have information needs that differ from those who visit the main ALA site. After drawing on the experience and knowledge gained during the ALA Web redesign process, we are now surveying ACRL members to determine the best way to serve you.

Please assist us by completing a short survey available at http://tinyurl.com/5wm35c. The survey takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

We appreciate your help as we work to improve the ACRL Web site.

I just finished taking the survey and am happy to report it does not take much longer than the 10 - 15 minutes advertised and provides opportunity to work with the new site template on their staging server. It's very clean and follows the new ALA web site template making it more user friendly working between the two sites.

ERIC @ AERA

The following was posted to the EBSS list by Nancy Cawley, Communications Lead, ERIC Project. Since Nancy asked for help in getting the word out regarding recent ERIC initiatives and features, here is the information:

"The library community plays an important role in getting the word out about ERIC's new features and initiatives. ERIC is seeking your help in informing members of the education research community about opportunities at the AERA Annual

Meeting to learn more about developments that will enhance access to research: The new Find in a Library feature that permits access to libraries’ full-text holdings or WorldCat as part of an ERIC search at http://www.eric.ed.gov; An initiative to obtain author permissions to release digitized full text of some 340,000 microfiche documents developed between 1966 and 1992; Citation management and other support tools for researchers within the My ERIC personalized space; and The option to include a structured abstract as part of the easy online submission of a conference paper or research paper."

"The research-oriented features and activities described above, and more, will be discussed in two special AERA presentations: (1)ERIC: Advances in Access to Education Research and Information Special Interest Group: Communication of Research Presenters: Luna Levinson, U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences; Christina Dunn, Director, National Library of Education; Lawrence Henry, CSC Program Manager, ERIC Tuesday, April 10 12:25 p.m. to 1:55 p.m. Sheraton/Michigan/Level 2, and (2) ERIC: Your Education Research Tool Presenter: Larry Henry, CSC Program Manager, ERIC Wednesday, April 11 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Marriott Chicago Downtown Northwestern Room (6th floor). "

"ERIC is also exhibiting in Booth #608 in the Hyatt Regency Exhibit Hall."

AERA is the American Educational Research Association and their 2007 annual conference is being held Monday, April 9 thorugh Friday, April 13th in Chicago.

Tags: EBSS, EBSS list serv, ERIC, AERA, ACRL

Read this: Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries

ACRLog has posted this article link, ACRL Summit Report On Changing Role of Academic Libraries Now Available, to the following essay, Changing Roles of academic and Research Libraries. The essay was "derived from a Roundtable on Technology and Change in Academic Libraries, convened by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) on November 2-3, 2006, in Chicago" (ACRL, 3/20/07). ACRL is soliciting, née welcoming, "comments, thoughts, reflections, and reactions" submitted on their blog posting.

A response to the essay was prepared by Julie Todaro, ACRL VP/Pres-Elect and is linked from the article. Unfortunately, the link is broken (I tried it just a minute ago) and leads readers to ALA's infamous web redesign message and Todaro's ACRL VP page is comprised mostly of "coming soon."

I am sure the link will be updated.

Tags: ACRL, ACRLog, Changing Roles of Academic and Research Libraries, Academic Libraries

Conference Bloggers

ACRLog is looking for ACRL Conference Bloggers; check it out if you are interested. There are specific topics to be covered (tech services, new librarians, new technology in libraries, and community college libraries) and a deadline for volunteering of February 16th.

I would be willing, even happy, to volunteer if I can find a hotel with a vacant room (as opposed to pitching a tent in the convention center). All of the conference hotels are booked and I have not had the best of luck with various online travel sites, Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, and Hotwire to name a few. The same thing happened with ALA midwinter last year in San Antonio. My hotel, though nice, was quite a distance from the Convention Center and there were no conference shuttles until the last day. I realize conference planners have to err on the side of caution when reserving blocks of hotel rooms because if the rooms are not used, they often take a financial hit. But there has to be a better way. I am still hopeful about attending ACRL, but if I find nothing today I may just turn my attention to ALA annual and register early.

Just my little gripe for today.

Tags: ACRL, ACRLog, ACRL conference, ACRL hotel accommodations

The cheese stands alone

In the last several days, various library bloggers have been posting about their plans to attend ALA's Midwinter Conference meeting (festivities) in Seattle January 19 - 24. Unfortunately, a trip to Seattle is not in my immediate future and I admit to some professional jealousy at being left behind. Last year I attended my first midwinter meeting in San Antonio last January and enjoyed the experience. As a newly appointed member of an Ad-Hoc EBSS committee I was able to meet and learn from my peers.

This year is professional development rich for academic librarians; there is an ACRL conference offering as well as ALA Midwinter and Annual (and a whole plethora of others). How do you decide what conference to attend? Not being able to take advantage of the midwinter meetings made my choice simple. If I am thrifty, I should be able to attend ACRL and ALA Annual. Additionally, both of those conferences are relatively close in proximity to my current residence in Ohio, making the travel costs less exorbitant. Though, with that said, I am sure there are many happy west coast librarians eager for midwinter in Seattle and bemoaning a cross country trip to Baltimore or Washington, DC.

Either way, safe trip to all who are traveling. And, if you are looking for something to read on the plane, Walt Crawford has posted Cites on a Plane on his blog for your enjoyment.

Tags: ALA Midwinter, ALA Seattle, Conferences, Academic librarians

C & RL News: ACRL Program Summary

Sometimes, after reading a new acquisition, do you ever revisit the review that prompted you to make the purchase and wonder if you and the reviewer read the same book? This happened to me somewhat recently with several juvenile ARC’s I picked up at ALA in New Orleans. In most instances, my opinion of the books in question closely mirrored the professional reviews. When I retrieved the most recent edition of C & RL News from my mailbox a few days ago I was pleased to see a ACRL session Publish Don’t Perish: Helpful Hints for Authors. The following summary is by Jan Kemp, Lamar University:

"The program “Publish, Don’t Perish: Helpful Hints for Authors” was cosponsored by the ACRL New Publications Advisory Board and the ACRL College Library Section Research Committee. The speakers included Tony (Charles A.) Schwartz (Florida International University), Marie L. Radford (Rutgers University), and Patricia Glass Schuman (Neal-Schuman Publishers).

Schwartz described some of the ways librarians can identify and refine a worthy topic for research, for example, a subject thought to be complex is actually simple or a subject previously thought to be simple is actually complex; and something that is generally considered to be good is bad or vice versa. He noted that when faced with the requirement to publish to meet tenure requirements, a librarian would be well advised to select a subject area they know well and to focus on a research question for which they already know the outcome and the conclusions. He suggested that only after meeting the requirement for publication should a librarian embark upon research in an unfamiliar area.

Radford’s presentation included tips on how to increase “writing productivity and enjoyment,” including write in short, regular sessions; solicit and welcome suggestions from others; work to your interests; and develop the habit of using a writing notebook to save ideas. She also emphasized the importance of time management, using Stephen Covey’s time management matrix to illustrate the need to spend time in planning and writing to lessen time spent “writing on deadline” in a crisis mode.

Speaking from the perspective of the book publisher, Schuman recommended that writers begin by determining the purpose the book will serve, the audience for the book, and why the book is needed. Schuman offered a list of “important topics for today’s library publishers,” including “acquisitions, management, marketing and public relations, and digital/virtual reference,” among others. "–C & RL News, September 2006

I particularly enjoyed Dr. Radford, she was an engaging speaker who didn't pull any punches. Beyond her handouts detailing her "Radford Rules for Increasing Writing Productivity and Enjoyment," she addressed time management and barriers keeping potential authors from writing. What resonated with me was her assurance each person in attendance was already involved in an interesting project at work that would be suitable for an article. A published author, renowned presenter, and blogger (Library Garden), Dr. Radford stressed the importance of writing every day.

This ACRL session is one of the reasons I wanted to investigate blogging with a partner. I agree that every librarian is involved in interesting projects, but it is often hard to take the time and practice the craft of writing daily. A blog partnership is beneficial, taking away some of the stress of having to 'carry the load' alone. Plus, it is a nice collaborative project.

Tags: ACRL, ALA Conference, "Publish Don't Perish", C & RL News, Academic Librarian, Librarian blogs