Crayons & Paper

The deadline for submitting our ACRL LibGuides poster to campus printing services draws near. After determining which poster format to use, keeping in mind the printer guidelines, we hit a blank wall, literally. It's amazing how overwhelming a blank eight foot canvass brimming with expectation can be.

Earlier this week we had a break-through concerning poster design and layout. Confident it will be visually appealing and properly support our abstract and outcomes; we are now suffering with a few lingering qualms about size; text box size, font size, graphic size and readability sizing to be exact. The problem? We are judging said readable size on a poster that is eight foot by three foot currently depicted in miniature on our computer screen (see rendering @ 25% below).



While we know the font sizes range from 40 to 60, the long view is overwhelming (if not microscopic). Sections by section representations increased to 50% and 100% are helpful for specking pixel distortion, but not particularly helpful viewed across the room to gauge that readability factor.

This afternoon I decided the best way to allay this finicky concern was to create a physical representation of the poster. Luckily, I have easy access to just the tools in the Instructional Resource Center and commenced using crayons (it needed to be in color), white bulletin board paper (its three foot wide), and a yard stick to make a "to scale" map of a corner of our poster. Though I garnered several odd looks, I was working at the reference desk, I was soon able to color, cut, and tape my way to virtual poster success. I taped the finished product to the desk, stepped back the requisite three feet, was able to read all of the text, and could judge sizing of graphical elements to be suffice.

The mock poster is now patiently awaiting the verdict of my fellow presenters. To be honest, I am flush with success and wondering if I should tinker a bit more with the file in question. Maybe it could be bigger ...

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.

Preparing to present

There is an interesting blog post over at In the Library with the Lead Pipe concerning presentations; Presentation = Speech + Slides, by Derek Badman. Conversation regarding power point is ongoing, consider: Should we use ppt? Should it be brief? Be careful not to overfill your slide. Don't read your presentation to the audience. Don't pass out handouts before the show. Don't use handouts at all. And who can forget Life After Death By PowerPoint, by Don McMillan on YouTube?

I will never forget the first time I viewed a PowerPoint presentation in library school. I was so enthralled by the presenter's use of every single bell and whistle available; I missed the entire point of the presentation. With ALA Midwinter Meetings just around the corner followed closely by ACRL's 14th National Conference and any number of state and national conferences and workshops, 'tis the season for viewing and presenting. It's time to once again take a look at how we craft our presentations - and to look at them from both a presenter and audience point of view.

More Conference Musings

I'm going to add my two cents worth regarding our conference. First, thank you to my colleagues here at Library Cloud for such gracious and kinds words about me. I'm blushing!

Ohio academic library folks are so blessed to have such a great organization as ALAO. I've said it before, the people are a critical factor in its success. My two colleagues, Diane and Karen, are definitely included in that. While I may have helped them ease into ALAO service, serve they have done fantastically for the past several years. I was truly overwhelmed at the honor of being selected as the Jay Ladd Award winner for 2007; but much of my "success" in ALAO has been because of the people I got to work with and their willingness to let me voice my opinion and try new things and allow me to grow and build each position I held. I have to admit, the two positions I enjoyed the most were being Membership Coordinator and PR/Outreach Coordinator (hence why I was always carrying a camera around!). The members I got to know and the institution liaisons I got to work with were just amazing. The numerous boards I served on; each was unique in its make-up and implemented some really great new services such as our website, our electronic newsletter and our online elections. Not to mention their willingness to help the planning committee at the conferences. I loved it all, but especially the people!

The conference this year had some really great programs and I am unashamedly proud of my assistant, Pat Wood, who presented a program on cultivating quality student workers and who also presented a poster session with one of our Student Assistants, Janah Shumaker. I have made sure our campus knew about our successes this year!

One of the most intriquing programs I attended was one by Linda Dobb, who is Excecutive Vice President of Bowling Green State University. She planned on talking about innovative collaborations, but instead spent some time talking about a new initiative of Governor Strickland. The University System of Ohio (USO) is a new hot topic for Higher Education in Ohio. Obviously, many mindsets will have to change and new collaborations developed to accomplish this, but Linda really pushed our librarians to ensure that academic libraries become part of the planning and dialogue that should be occuring at our respective institutions. I had heard about it somewhat in relation to our consortium, OhioLINK, but my campus has not really mentioned it much. I foresee many conversations to be held in the future over this new mandate. Since I have a technical college and a branch of Ohio Stae on my campus, I can imagine that each will approach it in different ways. I will be curious to see how it will play out and how exactly my library will be able to help.

I really enjoyed Joe Janes' presentation as well as the panel discussion which followed his keynote address. The panel had no fear of no questions; our audience kept them coming throughout the hour. I saw Joe taking notes during the panel discussion; I hope Ohio librarians and their perspectives become a future column in Library Journal.

Programs on various technologies were also plentiful; I enjoyed the folks from University of Akron-Wayne College and their discussion of Community College 2.0. My hats off to them for being so adventurous and offering so many new services for students. The program on creating tutorials on academic integrity at Miami University Libraries was interesting, too. May you continue to add more courses and expand your tutorials! I definitely may steal some of your ideas!

Congratulations to all the presentors and to the poster session presenters. It is a leap of faith to put yourself and your project and progam on the line; rest assured that there were folks who learned from your sharing of knowledge!

Way to go, ALAO and the planning committee!

ALA: Poster Sessions

This year marked the 26th Annual ALA Poster Session. The 2007 Annual Poster Session Abstracts booklet presents a history of the sessions stating that they "cover a broad range of subjects grouped according to such areas as management, collection development, technology, reference, and library services to special groups." (More information about poster sessions may be found here.)

There were six specific sessions of twenty posters scheduled throughout a three day period, June 23rd - 25th, totalling 120 posters of different ideas and topics from a diverse group of presenters. Poster sessions were in the exhibit hall, and even though a last minute change of location from one end of the hall to the other made finding them a bit challenging, I was very pleased with the interest generated.

My first poster session, Keep Blogging Along: Side by Side Library Blogs, was 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 24th, part of Poster Session IV: Outreach: Posters on Interlibrary Cooperation, Library Services to Special Groups, and Reference, and Information Services.



Presenting a poster is a great opportunity to converse one-on-one with people who are interested in your session topic. I had occasion to talk at length with current and budding bloggers about projects that worked, ones that did not live up to their potential, and how to determine the difference. There was significant interest in the blog widgets, particularly in how I was using LibraryThing in conjunction with the library specific blogs in IRC (unbeknownst to me, there was a session prior to poster time slot featuring a speaker from LibraryThing), as well as time management and blog purpose.

A Tale of Collaboration: The Art of the Picture Book Conference was 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 25, part of Session V: Connections: Posters on Cooperation with Non-Library Institutions and Agencies, Interlibrary Loan, Library Use Instruction, and Public Awareness.



Thanks to everyone who stopped to talk and my apologies, again, to the last dozen or so people who did not get one of the blog poster session information/handout CD's. As promised, I have posted the CD information from both sessions online:

• Keep Blogging Along: Side By Side Library Blogs
• A Tale of Collaboration: The Art of the Picture Book Conference

Tags: 2007 ALA Annual Washington, D.C., Poster sessions, ALA, Academic Library Blogs, Academic Libraries and collaboration

ALA in Washington, DC

It is that time of year, I will be taking a break from blogging for vacation and to attend ALA's Annual Conference in Washtington, DC. ALA annual is always a great experience with opportunity to attend not only ACRL meetings and sessions, but also children and young adult literature sessions by YALSA and ALSC, and various technology sessions by LITA.

Falling under the shameless self promotion category, I will also be presenting two poster sessions at the conference:

• Keep Blogging Along: Side By Side Library Blogs
  Sunday, June 24th: Session IV, Table 19
  1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

• A Tale of Collaboration: Art of the Picture Book Conference
  Monday, June 25th: Session V, Table 10
  11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Focusing mainly on blogs currently used for the IRC, the blogging poster session will also briefly discuss Library Cloud as a professional development tool. Stop by and say "hello."

Tags: ALA, ALA Annual Conference, ALA poster sessions

Procrastinators beware

Have you been putting off your ALA Poster Session Proposal? I have been mulling over a couple of different ideas secure in the belief I probably had until later this week to submit. After all, last year I submitted on Super Bowl Sunday and that was early February. This morning I double checked my dates and tomorrow, January 31st, is the deadline for the 2007 ALA Annual Poster Sessions, to be held in Washington, DC, June 23, 24, and 25th.

Online submission information is available:

• ALA Poster Sessions
• How to apply
• Frequently asked questions
• Information for presenters

If you have not seen anything at previous conferences that interested you, what better reason to submit an idea of your own? I was lucky enough to present at New Orleans last year and decided nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Tags: ALA, ALA Annual Conference, ALA Poster Sessions, ALA Washington, DC