KLMLibrarian

Two inspiring reads

2013-01-06T19:55:15Z

During vacation I read two books that truly inspired me as we go into 2013. Two must-reads are: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit, by Brenda Ueland, and Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life. I have been staring at the blank pages for my thesis for about two years now. Ueland inspired me to pick up the pen again. Note: a pen, as many inventors stress the importance of kinesthetic learning and experience. Sometimes when you are stuck, you just need to doodle. She writes that we all are talented, worthy and have something to say. Her encouraging words to find my true voice were inspiring, especially since it was written in 1938! I then read Tharp's book. Her creative exercises are invigorating, though the egg movement exercise might be a bit too much for me. Creativity can be recognized, cultivated, and encouraged. I personally loved her box approach for developing a piece. She puts every scrap of inspiration, research, and idea into a box; she stresses that memory fails, and that we need objects and ideas collected, and label the box with a few key words/her motto.

These two books found me at just the right time in my life.

Sticky Messages Extension Presentation

2012-10-09T03:29:56Z

Here is my presentation on Sticky Messages as a repeat from the 2011 conference, since it was such a hit! :)

I also presented at the National eXtension Conference last week, and they recorded the session.

Literature Review 101

2012-10-09T03:22:06Z

Here are some resources from my talk at the Extension Program Conference 2012.

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Literature Reviews 101 on Prezi

Social Media Citations

2012-07-26T21:43:13Z

There has been a lot of talk lately about the death of citations, or need for revision. I am all for revising the clunky standards for something more flexible that maintains some way to track down the original research. These days research is evolving, and often we might want to cite a tweet or other social media. Here are some guides for citing tweets, Facebook, and blogs:

Twitter
Did you know that there is a form for citing tweets? You may want to use this to list influential tweets in a paper or blog post you are writing. Here are two forms for citations: APA and MLA.

MLA
Last Name, First Name (User Name). "The tweet in its entirety." Date, Time. Tweet.

Example:
To cite this twitter post: https://twitter.com/UMNExt/status/213663805819981825 in MLA, you would cite it like this:
University of MN Extension. "Video on cleaning your home after a flood: youtu.be/Mc8UZHM_1Y4. 15 June 2012, 9:06 a.m. Tweet.

APA
Twitter handle (Author). (Year, Month Day of tweet). Full text of tweet [Twitter post]. Retrieved from [fill in your website here].

Example:
To cite this twitter post: https://twitter.com/UMNExt/status/213663805819981825 in APA, you would cite it like this:
University of MN Extension. (2012, June 15). "Video on cleaning your home after a flood: youtu.be/Mc8UZHM_1Y4 [Twitter post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/UMNExt/status/213663805819981825.

Facebook

How to Cite Fan Pages, Group Pages and Profile Information from APA

Blogs
How to Cite Blog Posts from Ann Norby in YD Update.

Redesigning the Nature of Life Handout

2012-06-13T14:08:08Z

The summer before College of Biological Science students start their freshmen year, they do a 1 week intensive retreat at the Itasca research center. A few years ago we were able to get a handout in the resources section of their 3-ring binder. However, over the years, it became out-of-date, and it was a time for a quick refresh, as we only had two days to work on it.

In reviewing past examples, I came up with some things to keep in mind during the redesign. Here are the elements of a good handout, in my opinion:

They are not a copy of the slides, rather they supplement the session

The handout uses a clear and easily readable type

The information naturally flows from one point to another

There should be a balance of white space to give the eyes a rest; this also can serve as a note-taking spot

Use images

Include your contact information

Have clear sections or headings, so attendees can follow along with the presentation

Where can they go for additional information? Include references, websites, etc.

Make the handout part of an activity, if possible. Engage the audience at different points with the handout.

Include the date created and contact, for easy updating later

Keep it to one page

Here are some of the previous handouts and comments on their design.

Design 1. It includes our branding, but was text heavy.

Design 2. This is a faculty handout. (I couldn't find the student one quickly, but the same design.) It uses a lot of color and images, and might be a bit too busy. We also found that the folks putting together the packets just photocopy, rather than print from the original file, and used black & white. This quickly degraded the quality of the images and made the contact information hard to read.

Design 3. This is a draft of the content we wanted to include, switching to mostly black and white. Still too text heavy, boring layout and too much white space.

Design 4. This was our final version for this year. The front page has the important information, our contact info and the liaisons the students will mostly be working with while at UMN. Before we have the middle empty, and that was too empty, so we made a word cloud based off of the text on the back and previous handouts. The back is a newspaper advertising-like layout. It has sound bite bits of information, and a few icons to break up the text. We also added a few grey blocks to break up the text as well.

Now on to redesigning for next year, as I will have a year to work on it, rather than dashing something off at the last minute. Also, I would like to work with the library staff at Itasca, to see how they might use the handout as an activity and build around that.

Active Learning Techniques for Librarians

2012-06-08T17:38:01Z

Recently, I have been disappointed by instruction books that are a collection of techniques, but when you boil them down, really it is only a couple of strategies that are just reworded and reworked. That is until today, when I read Active Learning Techniques for Librarians by Andrew Walsh and Padma Inala. This book had an excellent introduction of active learning, and over 50 separate examples that you could implement in the classroom tomorrow. Here are a few of my favorites that I will try this fall:

I will do it: ask students to write down 3 things they learned, how they plan to apply the knowledge and a date, and how you will continue learning. Then mail or e-mail the sheets back to the student at an agreed upon time.

Lightening the learning climate: Have students 'make fun of' a topic you will cover in class, or the opposite, such as the worst way to find resources for my paper.

Poster tours: For group assignments have students create a poster wit htheir thoughts/findings. Then students circulate and write questions on their peers' posters.

Start,Stop, Continue: A great way to get feedback midstream, as students to write on post-its what they think you should stop doing, start doing and continue doing.

Show Me, tell me: This capitalizes on childhood memories of playdough, and being creative. Have students mold or draw their current stage of the research process/ model/ how they feel about the lit review.

Spot the mistake: Have students take notes when you make mistakes (on purpose and not) and then compare with a partner and discuss how they would approach such a mistake.

What I especially appreciated about each learning activity is the author's list common pitfalls, so you can plan for them and not be caught off guard.

Extension Center Meetings

2012-06-06T17:33:23Z

This spring I was able to expand my network, by attending Extension Center-specific conferences and meetings: Youth Development, Family Development, and Community Vitality. These conferences were a great way to hear about future directions of various groups, what current research is going on, and chat with staff, not just educators, about how I can help them more. I can't wait for next year and meeting more staff!

On top of that I was awarded a 6 week leave to work on a survey of Extension staff on their information needs and professional development interests. I am very excited to work with some talented folks in Extension to design the survey and make it happen this fall!

Outreach to ESL Students

2012-02-14T20:35:28Z

Every time I teach an ESL instruction session I learn something new about myself and the students. I truly appreciate teaching this group of students as they are so inquisitive, invested, and appreciative of any assistance. Yesterday I noticed that many students were silently repeating my directions afterwards. They were working on their pronunciation of library and research terms. The library comparison handout I created based off of John Hickok's from "Knowing Their Background First" in International Student and Academic Libraries: Initiatives for Success. This provided an excellent jumping off point for discussion, including different types of reference tools, such as encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. as a place to gather background information and formulate research topics. Many student were surprised to find that they can chat with a librarian 24/7.

Throughout the tour we chatted about the differences between their home libraries and the UMN. Many from China and Korea were disappointed that textbooks are not provided in the Libraries. At many of their home institutions textbooks were provided by the library for the term. The hardest part of the class always comes down to doing a search in the library catalog or a database. Students often have a hard time grasping that you need to distill their ideas down to concepts and type in the concepts not complete sentences with fillers. Multiple examples and working one-on-one with students seems to help, along with a revised handout that is more direct.

International Students and Academic Libraries outlines many things that we current do:

International Education Week displays and events: We have an open house and frequent displays around the Libraries

Orientation: We offer orientation sessions for international students, along with in-depth classes for graduate students the week before semester starts

One author had interns work on a leisure reading collection in Chinese. I could see this expanded to Chinese and Korean here at the U, if funding was provided

The topic discussion and evaluation by Amy Hofer and Margot Hason Golden Gate University was interesting: moving from a librarian to a peer critique using too broad, too narrow or just right (after a discussion of Goldilocks and the Three Bears).

Many authors talked about outreach to specific student groups; this is an area we can grow in at UMN.

Another author created case studies around academic integrity, such as: Is it okay to include sources you didn't actually use in your paper? Are hiding books in the library for your use only, okay?

Other areas that we could inprove in are: online guides for international students, popular materials in their native language,

I have a lot to learn about working with ESL students, and as I discover new sources and approaches I will share them here.

AASL Conference

2012-01-04T20:54:50Z

I received an exhibitors pass through Metronet to attend AASL. Overall, similar to what I remember of PLA, and smaller than ALA. It was inspiring to chat with media specialists while waiting in line for an author's book, which I often donated to my local K12 school libraryl; hearing about all the job cuts and struggles with testing was disheartening, however the wonderful creative instruction they do is inspiring. I volunteered to be a room monitor, so I was able to attend a few sessions as well:

Divergence Convergence: Learning in a transmedia, cross-genre, multimedia world
Thinking, teaching, technology
Eduscapes.com
Aasl standard lessons
Create lists of resources before approaching teacher, videos, photographs, wiki, etc. Not the specific tech but the genre (not flickr but photos)
Voice thread -
Book convergence culture- media convergence, participatory culture, collective intelligence
Encyclopedia of life
Google earth collaborative
The 39 Clues books, cards, website, social network... Can you have students create cards or game for another series
Instead of book review, short one and annotated list of good websites to go with it, info on characters, time period, setting, etc.
Skeleton Creek good example of transmedia storytelling, go back and forth between book and video, like Easter eggs and DVDs, click all over and explore
Dark Eden is another example
Fahrenheit 451 graphic novel
Wonderstruck
Anne frank house graphic novel
1776 illustrated version, with documents, maps, etc.
Cathy's key has packets, phone numbers to call, cards, etc. work with objects,
The amanda project
Dark effects has an evidence packets, be a patient in the medical facility
Bran Hambric(?) music for each chapter
voki create avatar, record voice, type paragraph and will read it, and can embed
Oral history projects with a twist: Clara kitchen recipes from depression era,
Greatest engineering achievements of the 20 century website
The house of power, lost audio
maximum ride website
Read write think - profile creator to think about public- private info
CBC digital archives
Frontline series
Inanimate Alice- interactive story
Copper, web comics
Story bird, create own comics
Zebrafish
High impact world without oil- game
Sarah's key - two stories intertwined ww2
Hennietta lax - cancer nonfiction
Alice (Alice Roosevelt)' mrs. Tom thumb, lady in a blue dress all historical fiction

Empowering students through self-assessment
Move role from teacher to student
Clear learning objective and students should know them
Don't have to rewrite curriculum, look at activities, change student log, to graded log?
Keep it simple and small: start with a class, and be strategic, not the hundreds of lessons in a school every year
Student view and teacher view
Glogster digital poster
Given at the beginning, so students can continually assess their learning though out the lesson/project
Ratings log graphic organizer
Assessment = assistment is what the student heard, assist me is what self assessment is about
When you do peer critiquing you get better at evaluating yourself
New York is developing a common core crosswalk with formative assessments

Char Booth Presentation

2012-01-04T20:47:22Z

These are a few notes from the Char Booth workshop at Macalester earlier this year.

Library as indicator species, evolution or extinction? #clicreflect
1930's library posters digitized them in flickr - LOVE THEM, great inforgraphics
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68103485@N05/sets/72157627663869267/

how are libraries like card catalog? How evolving? Time of crisis and transition?
Library definition is rooted in place, content, container, not people, services, misses library as concept, why libaries exist?

Experience of website, building etc. For intentional, knowledge leads to culture of library, accumulates memory (library tradition) (i.e. Our magrath giving away plants tradition)

Blue island public library, Illinois sf theater

Our own collective librarian identity? Probably some positive ones, since in the profession. What is our library memory?

3 paradigm shifts: reader centered, collection centered 60's libraries concrete blocks, digital has transitioned collection to learner, its about facilitating the process of learning, not comfy chairs

Working within communities of practice- knowing about characteristics of departments and their library memory, defraction

Catalog cards as scratch paper, some of our most valued users this is a very sad trend, nostalgia and complete unawareness

3 library: destruction (crusaders, Iraq), decline (now, decreased funding) displacement now (internet)
Library closure on google timeline, upward trend of reporting in media and happening, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/a-look-at-recessions-and-their-impact-on-librarianship/

What do all these formats represent? Curatorship, knowledge, convince, if we define ourself as the content created, uh oh go away with card catalog, remember the value of yourself,

library bill of rights: we want things to be free and open, our concept

Outreach ideas
hotdog cart mobile library
Diy marketing, buttons
Maker- breaks with old materials
Library bootcamp
A cycle of revolving research, uc irvine tutorial
Skill shares- faculty outreach, what works and doesn't
Professional development collection
Curriculum mapping, rubrics for faculty, implementation plan
Lib guides, talking about open access, what access when leave, how learn in your field in professions?
Muddbrary- organic gardening, teaching moment

Information awareness + disciplinary engagement + scholarly conversation
Research literacy, you know it's successful if provided research therapy, neutral support, aren't grading,

threshold concepts

Ask a librarian radical reference info

Libraries are indicative of values, and struggling to protect, need to adapt, evolve,

How to Break past container assumption that everything on google? what does it mean, who wrote it? What mean for social justice? Work in advocacy
Critical library instruction, book

There should be something in the library to offend everyone

Bethels gate count as much as dining services

Earth day setup box statue how much printing cost, etc.

Technology Toolkit
Concept mapping- collaboration, assessment, productivity
Poll everywhere- assessment, collaboration, visualization
Smart sync - assessment, communication, productivity,
Prezi - students loved it, play
Google docs - pre assessment, collaboration, play,
Bubbble.us - no login for a mindmap
Slide, look at other books on subject
Qr codes
Handouts- more space as a worksheet, documentation, collaboration,
Lib guides-
Wiki- collaboration,
twitter- post topics , respond back,
Dropbox - file sharing,
Jing- screen capture
Join me- screensharing
Popplet - visualize
Mail chimp- electronic newsletters
Libx- browser extension

Activities
Introduction, why I'm here, why you are here, pageant video
Should out what you are an expert in? Group together, group subjects, organize items
Keyword musical chairs- trade papers or mind maps,
Interview neighbor about topic, tell 1 thing about neighbors topic
Citations by jeopardy
Personal whiteboards
Pod groupings , 2 people per table

Love give people choices, judgement calls

Brick and Click 2011

2012-01-04T20:44:30Z

These are just some random personal notes I took at B&C11 this year.

Library as place
Your campus living room
Old dark, cold building
What did our library users want? Surveys and ask
no new funding and fewer staff, did it with our skills
Love the neon Ask ? Sign
Always 2 people on desk
Got rid of walls and put in glass area
Cafe with just drinks not popular, now food and busy
1% of funding for fun stuff : games, movies, graphic novels; ppl learn dif ways
No one working on electronic acquisitions, now do
Tell faculty before you cut journals, resources, allocation formula,faculty decide what % of departmental is journals, books etc.
Program destination on campus, put them on the map with the university, took a position from acquisitions to program coordinator, 122 programs 14,000 people
Authors and artists celebrating faculty and staff, host extravaganza have a band, 10 tables about service and win prizes, free food and pop, 5,000 people between 10-3
future plans: libqual, paint stairwells, expand writing center students to distance students, new books plan, 5 ipads for checkout, presentation rehearsal space
Large chocolate bars with info on it rather than a handout
Mandated that distance students treated the same way

Qr codes
Abeline Christian university - custom Qr code generator to push out info, on displays and catalog
Signs around campus, handouts , online research guides
I like the signs for around campus
Signs for reference with code to digital encyclopedias etc.
Bitly doesn't say where scanning codes, create different codes for different locations
Library walking tour with videos
How to assess Qr code usage? Usefulness?

Have a fail whale for classroom presentations

Library and athletic partnership
My strategy- where's Waldo, be everywhere
Athletes have own tutors, support staff, academic advisers
Office hours, orientations, arrange library game days to support students
Slam: students, libraries, and athletes in motion
Coogs on the go library guide

Speaking to the masses
PowerPoint and screen casting
Captivate allows branch narratives

Evaluation with Non-traditional Audiences

2011-12-30T20:37:13Z

These are a few highlights that I took away from Extension EFANS presentation on Effective evaluation with non-traditional audiences by Cindy Tong (Horticulture) and David Wilsey (Forestry). They both were speaking about evaluation of non-native English speakers who attend workshops and other programming.
Cindy:

Creating culturally-sensitive evaluations, measure impact and suggestions for improvements.

One of the main difficulties is evaluating in written form if attendees are not used to written language (i.e. hmong). Unfamiliar with scalar evaluations (excellent, good , fair, etc.), in addition they want to blend in and avoid disrespect the organizers.

Tried written evaluations, DOTS surveys and oral surveys, similar problems with written language, and the oral survey encountered problems with talking in front of groups. This next year they are going to answer the questions in small groups first. To learn more, read their article in the Journal of Extension.

David:

Nested Challenges: it is one thing to get information and another about information quality.

Three strategies used:

inclusive: what is important and what indicates success , what is culturally appropriate (qualitative/quantitative, individual/group, active/passive)

Adapt: too much information, too little information, overly structured

Experiment: used a ballet method/votes to gather information, more info in his prepub article

David does event mapping, to show intervention points on where you can interject information gathering, love tree rings to gather how old folks were 20-30 in this tree ring area with blue and pink push pins and ties into the forestry topic; when you disaggregate tools then you loose the ability to pinpoint to a specific population

ALA 2010 Highlights

2011-10-30T20:22:06Z

This past ALA I was busy running around to meetings, so I attended very few presentations. However, I got the most ideas, inspiration and connections through visiting the poster sessions. A few that stood out to me were:

International Scholars and Information Literacy Skills: Outreach and Instruction by Nikhat J. Ghouse
I particularly was interested in hearing more about the 4 weeks intensive English immersion research component; more info can be found on her LibGuide.

We are currently revising an Online Privacy workshop, so I was very interested in Casey Schacher's Privacy: A Year-Long Outreach Campaign poster.
Their integration across campus through events, posters, videos and workshops was a well thought through campaign.

Playgarism: Get your game on had the most unique and eye-catching layout. I am definately going to keep tabs on this project! It has a great foundation.
Brian Sullivan of Loyola University New Orleans showed me examples of ingographics he created with students during instruction sessions using a few new tools to me: Creately, Gapminder, Google Public Data Explorer, Many Eyes, Prezi, Stat Planet, and Tagxedo. I am definitely going to try this with a class this year!

Since we hired an Instructional Designer I have been interested in ID. Lauren Olewnik's poster, Deliberate design an instructional face-lift, provided a nice walk through of redesigning a course-integrated instruction session.

In the past I skipped over the posters, but I won't make that mistake again. Looking forward to more great posters in 2012!

What does good food mean to you? Food Day October 24 @ Coffman

2011-10-21T13:24:41Z

Schedule of Events
Food Expo

Held in the Great Hall of Coffman Memorial Union
9am - 5pm: Expo booths open
11am-1pm: Food provided by Birchwood Cafe and Common Roots Catering

11:30am: Good Food Rally Mayor R.T. Rybak to lead the Good Food Rally!
Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul are signing a joint proclamation, declaring October 24th as annual Food Day in the Twin Cities! Mayor Rybak, a representative from St. Paul and other local leaders will be a part of the Good Food Rally at the Food Expo at 11:30 AM on October 24th in the Great Hall of Coffman Union.

Food Day Sessions all day
Held in the Campus Club, Room ABC, 4th floor of Coffman

7pm: "Dirty Work" Film Screening (Science Teaching and Student Services building, Room 230) Trailer: http://vimeo.com/30026208

The Importance and Relevance of Metadata

2011-10-18T22:04:48Z

Yesterday I attended the Embedded Metadata: An Explanation with Real World Uses workshop remotely, as an Art Libraries Society of North America- Twin Cities partnered event. The workshop was led by Greg Reser, metadata specialist at the University of California, San Diego, and you can find the materials on the website. I am not an art librarian or visual resource professional, however we all are impacted by metedata, or the lack there of. Ever tried to make a mixed CD or playlist for someone and had difficulty finding that song on your computer or in your stack of CDs? Why? Lack of metadata.

For me I run into this more with keeping track of articles downloaded and various Word and PDF documents. Sure, I can name things accurately, but wouldn't it be better if it could have a bunch of labels and descriptors rather than just a file name? Enter products like Adobe Pro, which I am just starting to use and very excited about the ability to embed data within the document. No longer do I have to rely on RefWorks or Zotero to tag items, but I can do it myself.

A few highlights from the workshop for me were:

On Flickr click on EXIF Data- here is where your data will appear if you embed it within your image!

Ever lost original images on your computer? Bulkr is a free tool to download metadata from Flickr.

XnView, Bridge and NikonView all allow you to embed metadata fairly easily for a novice like me!

Many of the programs will break a name such as Mastel, Kristen into two tags, so to keep them together use quotations. (Hopefully this will improve.)

I finally know what DiCOM means when my husband uses it! It is the metadata schema that is used in the medical fields.

Look for the recording in the near future. It was very approachable and applicable no matter if you digitize images, work on a digital repository or just have a bunch of stuff you need to organize on your computer.