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