What I took away from AzLA

I went to the annual AzLA conference this week held in Mesa, AZ. I was really impressed with a number of presentations I was able to attend. Here are a few highlights:

• Who Is Driving the Higher Education Train? Including the Academic Library in the Assessment Process
  • Presented by Trevor Smith, my former Intro to Information Technology (IRLS571) professor, & his colleague Gail Staples. This was a discussion of assessment of information literacy at the program level; librarians at Cochise College developed an assessment plan based on the college’s structure assessment process that involved looking at the bibliographies found in student research papers.
  • Results showed use of overwhelmingly poor information resources. Steps were taken to improve library instruction and over the past few years results of the assessment have shown significant improvement.
  • Key lessons learned: assessment can be done using few resources if we partner with faculty to assess assignments that have already been created and/or graded; a key way to improve the effectiveness of information literacy initiatives is to create a structured assessment plan; assessment has the benefits of increasing the visibility of the library’s role on campus, enhancing faculty support of library instruction in classes at all levels, and building stronger relationships with faculty and how information literacy can be incorporated into the curriculum.
• Library Magic: Getting and Keeping Your Students’ Attention during Instruction
  • Presented by Mary Evangeliste & Leslie Sult, my two favorite UA Librarians (see my other recent post on their presentation at SIRLS). They discussed how to utilize classroom management, incorporate different learning styles into your instructional strategies, and use modeling and demonstration to improve student learning outcomes. They covered a number of things. Some key points are – don’t overload your students; when you only have an hour or even less be sure to just pick two or three things you want them to walk away with. Also, don’t just teach content; teach your students how to apply that content by allowing them to practice.
  • Key Lessons Learned: remember why you got into librarianship in the first place, know why you are teaching the students & and have a passion for doing what you’re doing; read The First Days of School and The 11 Commandments of Good Teaching.

  
  

• Podcasting 101/InfoTech Interest Group Meeting
  • This presentation by ASU’s Tammy Allgood & Matthew Harp demonstrated how ASU has created podcasts for a number of purposes for distribution through its Library Channel, including virtual tours of the libraries, exhibit information, and interviews with librarians and other players on campus.
  • Key Lessons Learned: podcasting is really very simple and requires minimal equipment and technical skills; placing podcasts on a blog as ASU has done is an effective way to enable their syndication; podcasting ought to be utilized as a technology for marketing the library’s resources and events; it has the ability to improve the library’s image as a fun and relevant place for its users.

Two Days of ALA Madness – Day Two

• Sunday I slept through the 8am PR Forum, which is a shame because that was something I was really looking forward to. Sleep was probably a better option for me in the long run, though. So the first session of the day was 10:30am.
• Titled Partnerships Produce Successful Cultural Programs, put on by the ALA Public Programs Office. This was a great presentation about PPO’s collaboration with the National Library of Medicine in creating travelling exhibitions. The exhibitions Frankenstein and The Changing Face of Medicine have been to academic, public, and school libraries around the country. I thought it was a fantastic idea for collaboration. Listening to the librarians talk about the success of the exhibits, which were displayed for eight weeks along with library-sponsored lectures, discussion groups, and film viewings, was inspiring. I also found it interesting that this was something taking place in large academic libraries as well as public libraries. It seems that academic libraries have the opportunity to be cultural centers on campus, and to offer extended educational programs to their students and the greater community. Most academic libraries don’t seem to take advantage of this; much of it could be due to the time constraints and budget cuts – creating these sorts of programs is not a priority. But it could be well worth the time; it could gain the library greater prominence on campus as well as increase campus support.
• Went to lunch with co-worker Brenna and fellow student Paula at an Irish Pub. good food but took a very long time to be served.
• Headed over to program Crossing the K-12/College Divide. Picked up the handouts and the presentation was interesting, talking about ways the Maricopa Community College district has reached out to highschools and their students. But I only made it through 20 minutes before getting extremely tired and not feeling so good, so I headed back to the hotel for a nap. Knowing I had a long night ahead of me I really appreciated that 2 hours of sleep.
• Woke up and got ready, then went with Brenna for a glass of wine at the hotel bar before walking over to the NMRT reception. Ran a few minutes late, and I blame Bush because 5 blocks were closed because he was at the Ford Theater and we had to take the long way to the Hyatt. Got to the reception and heard people from different ALA affiliations, then – Hooray! – LSO was presented with our Student Chapter of the Year Award. A big group of LSO Officers from 06-07 got up there and NMRT’s Terry Buckner presented our award. It was very cool to be recognized for all our hard work.

• Leslie Kent Kunkel, SIRLS Assistant Director, very generously treated us all to drinks at the Hyatt’s Martini Lounge. We then went back downstairs for the NMRT/3M Reception where free food and drinks were enjoyed as well as some dancing. I also got to see two friends I’d met in Prague, Emily from UNC and Kim from D.C. A very fun celebratory evening.

• Soon after 11pm most people had to leave to catch the Sunday metro. I went back to the hotel bar where I met one of my roommates, then Paula joined us and later Marissa (Illinois) and Xima (Santa Barbara) who were SIRLS grads and some of their friends. Another very late night, but it was great seeing people I don’t otherwise get a chance to see.

Overall a good conference experience. I squeezed in some good programs as well as networking opportunities. Don’t know if I’d want to do the conference in two days again, but if it’s that or nothing it’s well worth it.

Quick notes on the woes of travel the next day:
Woke up Monday, went to breakfast with my roomies at the Waffle Shop, then took the Metro to Union Station where I had to wait around for an hour but caught the train to BWI. Big mess at the airport with confusion over my ticket, and made my flight by with just 5 minutes to spare. Then sat on the runway for an hour and half before take-off, watching the ridiculously awful film Wild Hogs. Landed in Dallas at 5:25, the moment the flight back to Tucson was supposed to take-off. Fortunately, I thought at the time at least, it was delayed an hour. Then it was delayed another hour. Delayed until almost 9 then it’s announced the flight is cancelled. Luckily Shelley and Pat from my library were on the same boat as me. We got on standby for the next flight out – 75 people on standby we didn’t stand a chance. That flight gets delayed until 10:45. In the meantime we got some guacamole and drinks at an airport restaurant. Didn’t get on the next flight, of course. Transferred to standby for another flight and actually made it – wahoo! We were very close to staying overnight in the hotel and leaving at the 1pm flight the next day. Made it back to Tucson but our luggage didn’t (fortunately it arrived the next day). Finally got home in bed 2am and boy did I sleep well.

Two Days of ALA Madness – Day One

I just came back from ALA Annual in Washington, D.C. Monday night. Due to limitations at my work I was only able to take Monday off, so I arrived in D.C. Saturday morning at 7:30AM and headed back yesterday in the late morning. Here’s how it went, starting with Saturday:

• I didn’t sleep on the redeye flight, but got two hours of sleep Saturday morning before heading off and starting my day. Amazingly the tiredness didn’t hit me until late afternoon. I trugged along with the goal of doing as much as possible without completely overdoing it.
• I went to the EBSCO Academic Luncheon, meeting a friend from UNC who I had met on the recent Prague seminar. Got a great free lunch and learned about the new EBSCO packages and interfaces. Also got a free CD to play around with and literature on their new products.
• Went to a session titled Transforming Your Library, and Your Library’s Future, with Technology. It was a panel session; the panelists discussed technologies including automation (central sorting systems, automatic retrieval systems, compact shelving, self check-out/in, etc.), new methods of delivery (North Carolina State delivers books by segway!) and evolved OPACs with features such as reviews, RSS feeds, etc. There is even a library that has links to Amazon from its OPAC, something that could be controversial. It was good and I took some notes on libraries that are doing this sort of innovation to keep an eye on them.  Ones mentioned by the speakers were Plymouth State’s new beta site and Cook Memorial Library for its allowing comments and interaction between users and library staff (although on quick glance I wasn’t able to find this feature…).

• Went to the ALA Membership Forum, where the topic was “Should ALA Take a Stance on the Iraq War and other ‘non-library’ issues?” Anyone was able to speak at the “pro” or “con” mic, but nearly everyone that did was an ALA Councilor or someone holding office in ALA already. I noticed this and found it interesting today when I read John Berry’s column in Library Journal and found him questioning the same thing. It would be nice to hear more outside voices that don’t get much of another chance to speak out. Granted, I was there as a student and didn’t speak out, but to be honest I haven’t clearly defined my opinion on the issue and didn’t want to take a stance just yet. My intuition tells me yes, ALA should take a stance. While the war is considered non-library issue, think of all the libraries, librarians and information workers it’s affecting in the middle east. All the librarians and families of librarians it’s affecting here in the states. The huge war expenditures that affect federal budgets and so indirectly affect financial support of libraries. And it seems from what I gathered that historically, ALA has taken a stance on these issues.  But the opposing arguments made some good points. We don’t want to alienate library users who may have a different stance on the war. We also have military libraries and have to think about the troops headed out to war; we certainly don’t want ALA’s stance to become a barrier between the information users and the information providers. One of our roles is to keep the public informed. We should carry literature on the atrocities and war crimes associated with the Bush administration, but as far as ALA taking an official opinion I have to say I really don’t know…
• Stayed for the ALA Membership Meeting. The non-library issue topic continued. Other topics raised were school libraries and how the No Child Left Behind Act is causing big issues for school librarians. Also how libraries can serve those troops coming home from Iraq. One thing I thought about bringing up but didn’t (standing up in front of ALA bigwigs is something I’m just not ready for) is the closure of military libraries. Fort Huachuca, close to home, was the first in what will be a trend. I know ALA President Leslie Burger has written an official letter of concern regarding this but is there anything else ALA can do? This could be something to address in the day of library advocacy on Capitol Hill, which I will be missing unfortunately.
• Went to the opening session where honorary members were presented, Leslie Burger gave a welcome, followed by speakers Vartan Gregorian and Bill Bradley.  I met up with former classmate Coni and co-worker Wendy.  The session was decent but the sleepiness was hitting me at this point, as well as being hungry.
• Met up with some other students for dinner.  Followed by some drinks.  At the restaurant/bar we had a good group of about 8 students, and met some other librarians in the courtyard including Jennifer from Princeton and Ken from Boston College.  Both are now my MySpace and FaceBook friends, respectively.
• Although the party was continuing, I headed back for the hotel just before 2am to try to catch up on some sleep.
  

Presentation of LSO’s Student Chapter of the Year Award!