info lit - learning2.0

Flash Instruction

November 7, 2010 by 0 Comments

Insider Higher Ed recently had a post on Edupunk, something I first got interested in about three years ago (and from there my interest in Libpunk). This article intrigued me with the idea of flash seminars. You’ve probably heard of flash mobs coming together to do a dance or some other group activity. Flash seminars are an attempt to bring students together for a seminar in a prof’s house.

I’d love to know if this type of seminar is working. I’m not convinced that it needs to be in a prof’s house but announcing an interesting topic through social media and having students converge on one spot moments before the talk kind of appeals to me.

I also wonder if we could do flash instruction. Wanna know how online resources like zotero and delicious can help research and your job search, meet in the cafe at 2pm! (not really, but I do wonder if this kinda of thing would work). Could we create enough of a buzz to generate interest? I’m very tempted to try it out.

Have you ever participated in/organized any flash mob/seminars/instruction? I’d love to know how and if it works!

tech

New Media Fun

November 5, 2010 by 0 Comments

This year we opened the Lyons New Media Centre, which I was lucky to be part of the creation team. This term, I’ve been working with a multi-section class and have been working with the LNMC staff to incorporate new media components/projects into the course. So far, it seems to be quite successful, one section even returning to do an extra project using the LNMC resources that the library helped design.

One of the exciting things about incorporating new media components into library instruction is that it opens the door to teaching more than just a one shot. I’ve been able to have conversations about copyright and have introduced students to creative commons images, something I never have time to do in a one shot.

Does your library have a new media centre? How has the library been incorporated into the centre? How has the centre been incorporated into instruction? Please share your experiences!

 

conferences

IL 2010

November 4, 2010 by 0 Comments

It’s been a crazy fall term – instruction and research consultations are at an all time high, which while great, means there is little time for anything else, include this little blog.

I did manage to fit in Internet Librarian 2010 though. I do enjoy going to this conference – great location, great people, great ideas. I have all sorts of ideas I’d like to try now (many involving QR codes, which kind of surprises me). I did manage to do 2 presentations – one on the videos we created last summer and some preliminary survey results (more to come) and I was lucky enough to be part of the first Failcamp panel.

Failcamp started with 3 panelists talking about their failures and what they learned. I talked about the lack of pickup in our reference pilot in Second Life. I tried to talk about how sometimes projects happen out of opportunities and that these can snowball, for good or bad. I also wanted to stress that just because a project doesn’t work at my institution (which has no distance education or other institutional presence in SL), it doesn’t mean that it will be a failure at all institutions. It’s essential that we know who we’re trying to reach and whether what we are doing is desired by them.

Despite all of the great ideas I took away, I’d have to say, the discussion of our failures was the most enlightening and I took some good advice/ideas home with me. Let’s face it, we all fail. Why don’t we talk about it? Why are we constantly recreating the wheel? Yes, it’s great to hear how well things worked, but what didn’t? What should I avoid if I try a similar project – or maybe I should avoid the project all together? I’m hoping that Failcamp and the other sessions in the Fail stream, will start a revolution. Admit your failures! Learn from them! To help this revolution along, share your fail stories at failbrary.org.

odd stuff - social networks - social software

Old Spice on libraries

July 14, 2010 by 0 Comments

Well, I have lots to catch up on (Digital Odyssey, the Great Debate) but they will have to wait a little longer before getting blogged. This, however, could not wait. Andy Woodworth noted that the Old Spice Man was replying to tweets via video. He decided to ask him to promote libraries. Mad re-tweeting ensued and the final product turned out to be this. Kudos to Andy for taking the initiative and thinking outside the box. And yay to the power of social networking to help bring attention to it.

Update: Here’s an awesome parody of the Old Spice commercials. They really nail it on the head. Well done!

conferences - Uncategorized

More conferencing

April 28, 2010 by 0 Comments

Another late conference post. I recently attended and presented at Computers in Libraries. It was another great conference (despite the fact that my laptop died while I was there). Mobile was one of the hot topics – so hot in fact, that I didn’t get to one of the sessions because the room was so packed. I’m particularly interested in hearing about what people are saying about mobile as OLITA’s Digital Odyssey theme is Going Mobile (June 11 at Ryerson). There were also great sessions on ebooks, infolit and too many others to remember. There was so much good stuff that at one point, I wanted to attend 4 out of the 5 sessions in one time slot. There were great conversations, in the lobby and in via twitter. One of the more interesting conversations I had with people (virtual and real) revolved around gen X leaders. While I have my own issues with stereotyping generations, there does seem to be a trend where people around my age aren’t stepping into the management roles. We’ve got lots of great leaders but people seem to be shunning management in a lot of cases and I haven’t pinned down why exactly. I’m a full believer that leadership and management aren’t necessarily exclusive, but what will this apparent apprehension to take leadership roles mean for the future of librarianship?

So, one conference down, four more to go (and a bunch of others I wish I was going to, like LOEX and STHLE). Up next week is a talk at the Ontario Association of Library Technicians conference. I teach a distance course for Library Techs and I’m looking forward to seeing them and their conference. Then, we’re hosting WILU at Mac May 12-14. This will be followed by the CACAL great debate at CLA in June and finally OLITA’s Digital Odyssey which I’ve been planning. Then vacation – I’ll need a rest after all of this!

conferences - ola - OLITA

Superconference 2010

March 8, 2010 by 0 Comments

A very late post for OLA’s 2010 Superconference. This year was a little bit different for me. I didn’t get to attend too many sessions this year and that’s because I took my new role as OLITA President. This meant a little more behind the scenes activity, more talking with vendors and meeting all sorts of great people. We’ve got a great OLITA council this year and I look forward to working with them as we re-examine our strategic priorities and make sure they’re aligned with OLA’s new strategic plan. Digital Odyssey is also quickly coming! This year it’s Going Mobile and will be held at Ryerson June 11. We’ve invited Jason Griffey to be our keynote – it’s going to be great! Be sure to keep an eye on the OLITA website for details. Ok, well, I’ve slipped into talking about OLITA rather than the conference, so back to the conference. As always, it was a great conference (complete with obligatory snow storm) and a big congrats to all the people who put so much work and effort into making it a wonderful conference!

Uncategorized

Day 5

January 29, 2010 by 0 Comments

Final day for Library day in the Life. Today was budget day. Started the day with a meeting on the state of my library budget. This was followed by email, rss feed time. Then a teleconference on OLA’s budget. I spent the rest of the day getting a lot of email done, recorded teaching stats and other fiddly things. It doesn’t sound like much but it takes time.

Uncategorized

Day 4

January 29, 2010 by 0 Comments

A little late, but here’s how day 4 went. Meeting to debrief on an instruction session I helped out with. Met with my blended services mentee (we’re training library staff to go on the reference desk, removing librarians from the desk to allow for more instruction, etc. and moving services to a single service point). Lunchtime meeting. Taught blended services staff the basics of database searching. Tried to catch up a bit on email, feeds, etc. And that’s that.