Maternity leave
I will be out of the office on maternity leave from September 8 through November 30. This blog may or may not be updated during that time–it depends on how demanding the baby is! You can continue to contact me by email [mhenry4(at)uh(dot)edu] or call the library information desk at 713-743-1050 for service.
Ithaka report on faculty and librarian survey
While not strictly instruction related, the new white paper from Ithaka is getting a lot of buzz among librarians and is probably well worth reading (I haven’t had time to look at it closely yet). The report, titled “Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education,” certainly sounds interesting, as the following excerpt from the introduction indicates:
For libraries in particular, a deep understanding of the information needs of a scholarly community and how existing services mesh with these needs is essential in order to effectively serve and remain relevant on the modern campus. To succeed in the internet age, libraries must be aware of which traditional roles are no longer needed and which potential roles would be valued, and strategically shift their service offerings to maximize their value to local users.
This document might not be at the top of your holiday weekend reading list, but we should probably all bookmark it for consideration this fall.
Information literacy logo debuts
IFLA recently announced the winner of its design contest for an information literacy logo. The image, which is available for download, incorporates a stylized book and a circle, representing study and knowledge and information.
2008-09 Conferences
UH librarians will soon submit requests for travel funding for the upcoming academic year. Here are a few conferences that promise content likely to interest teaching librarians:
- EDUCAUSE 2008, October 28-31 in Orlando: conference focused on higher education and information technology
- 8th Annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, November 7, Maryville, Missouri: small academic library conference with some great-looking sessions
- 28th Annual Conference on the First-Year Experience, February 6-10, Orlando: not a library conference but worth attending if you work with a lot of first-year students
- ACRL 14th National Conference, March 12-15, Seattle: a favorite conference of many academic librarians, sure to include several sessions relevant to teaching librarians
- LOEX 2009, April 30-May 2, Albuquerque: well-regarded conference on library instruction and information literacy
Since I’m now officially in collections rather than instruction, I’d like to encourage you also to consider professional conferences in your subject areas. I’ve really enjoyed attending the American Academy of Religion annual meeting for the past two years and would plan to go this year, too, if I weren’t going to be busy with our new baby.
Different perspectives
In honor of the opening day of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, I’ve been looking at sources for news from China. Of course, the internet gives us wonderful opportunities to talk to students about finding different perspectives on current events. It’s a simple thing to access the English-language website of Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, and comparing its coverage of the Olympics to that of an American or other non-Chinese news source could be an interesting information literacy activity. Exercises like this can also incorporate databases like Lexis-Nexis that cover international news sources and might be especially fun for students capable of reading news stories in foreign languages.
“Chasing Our Long Tails”
Earlier this week Barbara Fister posted a really good essay on ACRLog, in which she uses a recent study about how the Internet has changed citation patterns as a jumping-off point for a discussion of undergraduate research habits. She has a number of thoughtful and provocative things to say about how students cope with information overload and how library tools could be improved to help them find the materials they need. I’d like to pull a quotation that sums up her argument, but the essay is really rich, so you should just go read it yourself!
ACRL Instruction Section Mentoring Program
We hear a lot about mentoring in our profession, and the Instruction Section of ACRL has developed a program to address this issue. Its mentoring program pairs experienced instruction librarians and coordinators with librarians newer to the field and facilitates mutually beneficial relationships between them. The program is so popular that mentee applications aren’t being accepted for a few months, but those of you interested in applying to be mentors can fill out the form today!
Open access reading
A number of education-related journals publish in an online, open access format, meaning anyone can read them for free. Lists of these journals can be found at the Directory of Open Access Journals and the American Educational Research Association “Communication of Research” page. You can use these journals for easy exploration of instruction topics of interest to you. (Just remember that open access doesn’t mean open season–copyright still applies!)
Online graphical dictionary
If you’re a visual learner or an instructor who is curious about this learning style, you should take a look at Visuwords, a sophisticated visual dictionary. You can look up any word you’d like, or opt for a random word, and Visuwords will display a dynamic image of related terms, with color- and shape-coded connections indicating the relationships between them. (One problem with the resource is that it relies in part on a user’s ability to distinguish between colors.) Mousing over a word leads to a concise definition and usage example(s).
Stop, collaborate and listen
Earlier this week Inside Higher Ed featured a story about “Research Methods ‘Beyond Google’” that describes a great faculty-librarian collaboration project at Cornell University. The Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative enables teams of faculty members, librarians, information technology specialists, and teaching experts to work together to develop research-based assignments. Check out the comments section for other examples of collaboration. (And check out this video if you don’t get the title reference–or just need a laugh!)
