THE LATERAL LITERAL LIBRARIAN

Professional Reading 1 - ALIA PD Scheme

2008-09-12T21:06:00.000+10:00

Quote of this post - "I'm afraid you can't see the forest for the trees." (idiomatic phrase)

We all have to deal with IT people whether we work in a University, Public, special or school Library. I.T people have to deal with people who do not speak their language.
Lisa A. Ennis points out a few handy tips in her article: "Talking the talk: Communicating with IT". Computers in Libraries, September 2008, p.14-18. Accessed 05/09/08 via Australia/NZ Reference Centre: Ebscohost.

These are basic tips, but sometimes the simple is overlooked because we simply don't think the fix could be so simple and we overlook the obvious. Just like the idiomatic phrase: You can't see the forest for the trees. The fix-it solution is right there in front of us, but we cant see it.

1. Is the power on and plugs in the power point and the power switch on? [Lots of us have hilarious stories, I know a fellow that was a Systems Tech at a Uni and he had an irate lecturer who became even angrier when asked basic simple questions. When he arrived at the office, it was to find that the computer was not switched on at the wall. This would highly likely be the most common of all and the most embarassing. CHECK IT'S PLUGGED IN PROPERLY.
2. Make sure all cables and leads are sitting in the connection properly. Especially if you are trying to print.
3. REBOOT. If all else fails, reboot, reboot or restart, restart. (not with your boot)
4. Record the steps you followed, (even better do a Print Screen) and email this to the Systems techs.
5. Keep the computer cables and your speech, verbal or written, clean.
6. Install software responsibly (in some places this is always the case as only I.T. staff can do this).
7. Learn some basic technology and some basic troubleshooting tips: i.e. is the log-in to the computer or the program CASE SENSITIVE, Is CAPS LOCK ON and should it be OFF or vice versa.
8. Does the software program do what you want it to do?
9.Back up your data. {Have at least one hard/print copy of every document}
10. BE NICE.

The basic tenets of communication also help when communicating with IT people, also known as the 5 "WH;s" of communicating -
WHO:
WHAT:
WHERE:
WHEN:
WHY:
and then the little word HOW:

Another word which comes in very handy when communicating either face-to-face, via phone or via email whether it's the Manager of a department or the Volunteer in your organisation, this is: RESPECT. In your work capacity, staff in another building are your Internal Customers. Always treat other staff with the same respect you give your external customers. :-)

ARTICLE SOURCE: SLQ DATABASE

PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES

2008-08-31T16:25:00.003+10:00

PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES [STRATEGIES FOR NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS]
Quote of this post – “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end”. Ursula K. Le Guin
SELL = TELL (just a few strategies currently implemented in the library that I work)
INDIVIDUALS

Magic Moments at the point of new customer registration. Are you making the most of the the first time the customer walks into your library and when you have joined them and given their new card asking “ Was there anything in particular you were looking for today?”
Are the customers borrowing a book on Scrapbooking – Do you have a papermaking workshop coming up that you can promote?
Are the customers borrowing books about parenting? – Do you have a parenting workshop coming up that you can promote?
Does the customer have a baby that is sitting up age? Do they know about the B2R or Early Literacy initiative in your library service
Is the customer borrowing Junior Easies for their little one? Do they know about your regular Storytime.
Does the mum with high school child looking for assignment information know about the Online Databases?
Are you talking to and pointing out workshops to customers whilst slipping a relevant brochure of an upcoming event into a book of every customer that you serve?
Are they a regular customer? Are you making an effort to remember their name so that when they walk through the door each visit, you can say “Hello Mr.Smith, how are you today?’
Do you promote the Author Profile/Alert service well? Take an interest in your customers that read a popular author and place reservations on new releases; If they have email, offer the alert service.
Do you provide easy process for customers to write down their feedback whether positive or negative, are your staff just as quick to get customers to fill these out when they give the positive, and not only refer them to the feedback forms when they have a complaint.
Do you use all means available to you to promote? We use blackboards to hang out at the front of the library and promote the event that is on ‘TODAY” and use the word “FREE” when there’s no charge.
Promotion in School Newsletters, local Shopping Centres or Day Care Centres (particularly if it’s a parenting workshop).
Promotion of Senior Events in Retirement Villages, Seniors newspapers or Seniors Groups Newsletters.

GROUPS

Need a ready crowd for a function/event; invite your local school, Kindy, Nursing Home residents, Respite Care Groups such as Blue Care.
Do you have a free space in your library that a Community Group or free Health Service could use? It is a great way to have people visit your library that never did before, such as the elderly lady who came for her BreastScreen and said "I didn't know the library was so close and this is the first time I have been here"; examples of groups that use library spaces are BreastScreen Qld, Early Learning Years Network, Diabetes Education, Dog Bite Prevention, Busy Lizzie recycling promotion, Neighborhood Watch Groups, and even Local Councillors have a space to meet with constituents in some public libraries.
Do you send your event brochures in internal mail to all other libraries within reasonable travelling distance to make sure a key event is promoted outside.
Do you contact your local Friends of the Library group regularly to tell them about upcoming events?

ONLINE PROMOTION

Virtual Tours – if you are fortunate enough to have one in your Library Service, make the most of these and use on council documents to promote internally to councillors and promote to anyone you know that is travelling to visit your library so that they can see what the building looks like and know what they are looking for when driving along {University Libraries were leading edge and at the forefront of this technology, creating the Virtual Tour concept many years ago, some do this better than others}

THE 4 R’S OF PUBLIC LIBRARY ONLINE SERVICE PROMOTION
o RESEARCH – access to hundreds of full-text articles via the SLQ databases and your local library log-in
o RENEW – get online to keep track of your library loans and renew them instead of having to return them before you are finished.
o RESPONSE – receive an email alert when the latest release of your favourite author arrives in the library
o RESERVE – as soon as you receive your email notice, get online and reserve the latest release of your favourite author

Is your key event of the month listed on the Website Events Calendar/What’s On?
Can the customer readily and independently subscribe and unsuscribe to a What’s New or What’s On? (University Libraries were leading edge with this technology and have had this function available to students for well over 5 years now, but Public Libraries are starting to catch on).
Is your key event of the month listed in the local Council Newsletter that is delivered to every household letter box?

NETWORKING

Do you make the most of every possible opportunity to increase your contact list and available Networks
Do you share these contacts with other branches/campuses within the service you work for?

Having worked in both the University Library (10 years) and in the Public Library (2 years) environments and with my combined 12 years Library experience, I have learned that if you don’t know that they know, TELL THEM and keep TELLING them about all the Services you offer.
The thing I love most about Public Libraries is that people from all walks of life and at every stage of the life span visit you, from newborns right up to elderly. Also, you just never know what difference you will make to someone’s life in the course of ‘doing your job’.
It is so nice to get personal feedback from elderly customers that you taught WebMail to months after the class, such as this one: “ I want to thank you again for the lesson you gave me, it’s opened up a whole new world of communication for me, my daughter is overseas, and I have just lost my wife to breast cancer, so to be able to communicate with my daughter means the world to me, so God bless you and thank you.”
For more Public library focused partnering Strategies and professional development tips, see also:
http://lllibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/05/which-strategies-do-you-use-to-build.html#links

What is Library Literacy and how do you best impart this to public library users?

2006-09-23T11:54:00.002+10:00

What is Library Literacy (information literacy) and how do you best impart this to public library users? OR Information Literacy analogy for Public Librarians.

Quote this post: “Education today, more than ever before, must see clearly the dual objectives: Education for living and educating for making a living.” James Mason Wood

INFORMATION ROADMAP (An example information seeking journey, from Map A to Map H)

A. PLAN YOUR JOURNEY (What do I want/need to know?)
* Phrase your information question so that you are asking for information about what you really want to know? Be as specific as you can if you are asking for help to find this information.
* If you are searching for a new book by a popular author, ask if it’s a standing order, some libraries will automatically receive copies of all new titles by particular authors.
* If you know the publication details (saw it in Women’s Weekly book review) then bring these details with you to the library. When you know the publication details you can start at Map D below.
* When you have no publication details and are wanting information on a specific topic, you start at Map B.
* For example if you want to know how to get an International Drivers’ licence to drive around in Europe, that’s what you ask for, not Where are your travel books on Europe?
* To identify key concepts with research topics, use a thesaurus for alternative terms such as teenager, adolescent, youth, teens,
B. WHERE HAVE YOU COME FROM? WHERE ARE YOU NOW? (What information do I already have?)
* What do you already know about the subject?
* What sources of information do you already have?
* What types/sources of information do you wish to find? Journal articles, newspaper articles, books, conference papers, genealogical websites, local history.
* What ‘concept’ terms or search terms will you use to find the information you are looking for?
C. WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING, WHAT WILL YOU KEEP SO YOU KNOW YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN THERE? (When I find sources what do I need to write down?)
* Bibliographic details: Books: Title, Author/s, year of publication,(edition if not first edition), place of publication and publisher, (pages if relevant such as direct quoting)
* Journal articles: Article title, article author/s, Journal title, Year, volume, issue or number and pages.
* Websites: Title of website, author of website/web document, date website/web document was authored, web address of site/document, date you accessed website/web document.
D. WHAT’S THE BEST VEHICLE TO GET YOU TO WHERE YOU WANT TO BE? (Which search tool will I use and why?)
* Library Catalogue
* Online Databases
* Internet search Engines
E. HOW DO I DRIVE EACH TYPE OF VEHICLE? (How do I search this tool? Where are the Instructions, Tips, Online Help or Frequently asked questions, so that I can learn how to use this tool?)
* My public library catalogue
* Other Shire council catalogues
* Search SLQ catalogue
* Search AustraliaFirst (Kinetica) catalogue
* Online databases through library subscriptions (check your library website under online reference or Electronic sources)
* Internet search engines
F. WHAT IF THE INFORMATION I WANT IS NOT FOUND HERE? (What if my library does not hold the item?)
* Visit a library that does hold the item if you require it urgently and can travel
*Place a reservation on the item through the online catalogue [fees may apply]
* Place an online Request for an inter-library loan (library outside of the Shire or local area) [fees may apply]
* Ask for a referral
G. HOW DO I CHECK OUT THE QUALITY OF THE TOWN? (How do I know the information is any good?)
*Who wrote it?
*Are they qualified?
*What is the publication date?
*Is it biased?
*Is it up-to-date?
Other important evaluation criteria
H. LOST? Ask for help, you may be looking at the wrong map, driving an inappropriate vehicle (need to use the library catalogue to look for books in the library, not Google,) or you may need to alter your plan of journey (initial question may have been insufficiently phrased).

Remember: not every journey goes according to plan, sometimes you need to retrace your steps and sometimes you end up on sidetracks. It’s the same with finding information, every information need is unique and while some processes are common to every journey, there will also be unique requirements which will not necessarily be found in the usual way. If in doubt, ask your librarian.

What time-saving strategies do you and your staff use?

2006-09-01T07:21:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week – "Time equals Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste of your life, or master your time and master your life."
- Alan Lakein

What time-saving strategies do you and your staff use?

Email – [It is important that time-saving strategies are used with email because in the library sector, email tends to ‘monopolise’ the work functions of staff]
The email in-tray is often fuller, but not more important, than the paper in-tray, (if you don’t count publishers blurbs & catalogues)
1. Action your email as you go, i.e. if you read it and want to keep it or don’t need it, either put it in a folder or delete it at the same time. Have a folder called ‘hard basket’ if it’s something you can’t decide where to file, or something that could go into 2 folders. Otherwise you re-read it down the track before you action it and this becomes double handling of email. [I know some people who worked with a very large email in-box, i.e more than 100 messages in their in-box, (not because they had just returned from leave). {These were also the people who had cluttered desks and were paper-chasers which = time-wasters].
2. Ask friends and family to send the ‘inspirational’ and ‘joke’ emails to your home email account and not work email (in fact, if you check your organisational policy on the use of email & Internet, you will find that this is a breach of email policy. They clog your email and if you forward them on, they are clogging someone else’s email as well as breaching email use policy). If it has been happening and you want to stop them coming in, just reply and request that they no longer send to your work address, if the request is ignored, then block the external sender from your work email account.
3. Use the ‘flagging’ features of email: Flag messages that need a reply if you cannot reply immediately.
4. Set up filters. This does 2 things, puts the messages you may keep immediately in the folder (filed automatically) and when you go on leave, mail is more manageable when you return and will save your time when you return.
5. Use ‘out-of-office’ when on leave and be very specific about how emails will be dealt with in your absence. For example: “I am on leave from …. To ….. If your request is urgent please contact …………….. . If your request is not urgent, I will be in touch as soon as possible upon my return. (Also set up a voicemail message if you have a direct phone line to your desk).
6. Set up ‘glossaries’ or ‘autotext’ for ‘common’ emails that you send out to the Faculty or Internal staff. i.e rosters, reminders to order for following term, reminders about Researchdoc registration and renewal, reminders about general policies, etc. You could also use your ‘sent items’ folder, but then you have to sort these to find them.

In-tray
1. Allow a specific time each day to action items in your desk in-tray. (these are just as important as your email in-tray, and shouldn’t be neglected, i.e. why should an email item from a faculty staff member be actioned before an item from a faculty staff member in your in-tray?)
2.Publishers blurbs and print catalogues are a thing of the past – (unless there is no online equivalent). Most publishers now provide email alerting services. Encourage your faculty members to subscribe. This provides a more streamlined ordering process, whereby you can forward to your Acquisitions or Collection Manager with all the required information and again eliminates paper chasing (you also have a record in your ‘sent’ folder of what was ordered and when).

Working documents – eliminate the paper chase
1. Do you keep items that you are currently working on in Manilla folders or some other appropriate folder?
2. Do you regularly attend meetings and have a folder specific to each meeting or working group you participate in?

Choosing an appropriate presentation method/software program
1. Are you going to do any calculations with the data? Choose Excel instead of Word, items like a marking sheet or anything which requires sorting or filtering. Often, MSWord is used when MSExcel would be more appropriate. Keep in mind that Excel saves time with autocalculations and autosorting and filtering.
2. Are you doing a brochure? Word could be used, but so could Publisher
3. Are you doing a presentation? Powerpoint is most suitable for this purpose, allowing you to readily do Handouts for the group.
4. Do you need information recorded which you will need to access time and time again? Perhaps it should be stored in an Access database, e.g. Programs & courses with Infolit embedded.

Filing print

1. File cabinet for printed documents which don’t have a file copy on your computer.
2. Always print out a back-up copy of every electronic file on your computer, so that if the unthinkable happens and there is a system crash and you forget to do a file back-up of the document, then at least you will have a print copy. (all the time you spent working on the document and think-tanking wont be completely wasted).

Filing in Windows Explorer –
1. If you have the ‘list’ view on within Windows Explorer your files are sorted alphabetical by filename, which makes it easy to find a file. Alternatively, use the Search function to find a file.

Scheduling your day
1. Use the tried and true method of only scheduling 70% of your day for ‘appointments’ and leave 30% for UFO’s (Unidentified Future Objectives; those things you just don’t know about), the unscheduled additional items to your day.
2. Prioritise according to the Urgent/Important rule:
1= Important/Urgent,
2=Important/Not Urgent,
3= Not Important/Urgent
4= Not important/Not urgent

Multi-tasking
1. Weeding while doing returns (if it’s Ugly, worn, and not a classic delete, particularly paperbacks)
2. Shelf-read while shelving
3. Solicit people for Workshops while issuing books to patrons
4. Weeding while shelving – duplicates which follow the MUSTIE principle or just need more room on shelves, send to another branch within your service if possible
5. Repairs at desk – all circ functions up-to-date, such as returns and DVD’s, then do repairs
6. Set up Filters in your email, so that emails are “filed” immediately where you want them.

Does anyone else have some multi-tasking tips to share?

What should we ask in an online tutorial evaluation form?

2006-06-17T08:08:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - "The less you know, the more you think you know, because you don't know you don't know." -- Ray Stevens

What should we ask in an online tutorial evaluation form?
1. Questions may vary depending on purpose, but it’s ideal to establish a picture of the respondents, how much do you want to know about the users: ages, sex, year of study, have they used an online tutorial before,
2. Look at content and determine if there are specific sections or aspects you want feedback about.
3. Do you want feedback about the ‘look’, ‘feel’ and ‘ease of use’?
4. Include instructions about how to complete evaluation and the purpose of the evaluation
5. Build a ‘thank-you’ in to acknowledge respondent’s time

Please take a moment to complete the evaluation form. Your feedback is valuable as it helps us to improve the online services we offer.
STUDENT STATUS
1. What is your current status?
* First year * Second year * third year * Honours * Graduate Diploma (etc)

2. How many times have you received library training room instruction at this University?
*1st time *2nd time *3rd time *4th time or more

3. Have you received library instruction at another institution? *no * yes If yes, where?

4. This tutorial will help me complete my course assignment.
*Strongly Agree *Agree *Disagree *Strongly Disagree

5. This tutorial will help me do research in other classes.
*Strongly Agree *Agree *Disagree *Strongly Disagree

TUTORIAL CONTENT
1. Tell us one thing that you learned from this tutorial.

2. Was there anything that you think should have been covered, but was not?

3. Are there any sections which you would like expanded? Please be specific.

4. What parts of the tutorial were most useful?

5. Were there any parts of the tutorial which confused you. If yes, which parts. Please be specific.

TUTORIAL DESIGN
1. The tutorial is well structured and logical:

*Strongly Agree *Agree *Disagree *Strongly Disagree

2. I found it easy to find my way through the tutorial

*Strongly Agree *Agree *Disagree *Strongly Disagree

Any other suggestions?

Analysis of Survey - WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR FEEDBACK?
* Nothing, because it’s all bad. (Why evaluate in the first place?)
* Put it in a “staff only” report, which seems a waste of time
* Put it on the website or tutorial so everyone can see what others have to say.
* Use it to ‘improve’ the tutorial. Will you add the feedback to a database? When will you act on the feedback, once 5 students say the same thing, or 10 students?

I draw on my experience with surveys as well as other sources for my ‘posts’. I would like to acknowledge the following websites as sources of content for the evaluation form and principles of surveys discussed in this post:
http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/forms/leoeval.shtml
http://library.otterbein.edu/Forms/ieval.htm
http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/vl/forms/evaluation.htm
http://www.lts.rmit.edu.au/renewal/evaluate/table4.htm
http://www.ccac.edu/library/services/dm/eval.html

How do you integrate information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘structured’ programs?

2006-06-07T19:31:00.000+10:00

Quote this Post - “Begin—to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this and thou wilt have finished.” ~ Decimus Magnus Ausonius

How do you integrate information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘structured’ programs?
So, you have an opportunity, now it’s down to planning and doing:
Planning with Faculty staff in ‘structured’ programs:
1. Use your University Teaching and Learning philosophy as a guide
2. Does your library have a Teaching and learning framework and plan?
3. Do you know the Infolit Standards for your University Council, or have a library organisation which has endorsed infolit standards.ie. In Australia we use the Information literacy Standards endorsed by the Council of Australian University Libraries & Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) known as the ANZ Information literacy framework http://www.caul.edu.au/info-literacy/
4. Use this as your framework, look at the learning outcomes, decide which year to introduce each competency or standard, I prefer competency, (may vary depending on discipline), keep in mind that it is a ‘framework’ and there may be gaps between competencies and learning outcomes, also it is limited in providing a framework for assessment.
5. When choosing infolit course content, writing learning outcomes and assessment grids, be sure to make sure there are no gaps, work backwards from assessment (all of the competencies & outcomes you are going to assess, then choose content and then choose learning outcomes). This will ensure that you are not assessing anything that hasn’t been covered and that you are assessing real learning outcomes.
6. You will need TIME, plenty of butchers paper, or use MS Powerpoint to Storyboard your ideas, or MS Excel to ‘spreadsheet’ plan if you like this method. I have the Australian Standards compiled in an excel file, completed in March this year. If you would like to use this gratis, please contact me.
7. Are there any online course management tools which you can use to facilitate the ‘incorporating’ of the infolit competencies week by week with course content. Tools such as Blackboard have been used by some Australian universities. This tool has the facility to include ‘tests’ week by week to see how the students are going.
8. Create a pool or ‘database’ of online assessment questions – use all of your teaching team librarians to do this; give each person a standard, or criteria and ask for six different quiz questions and answers. Ensure that you ‘log’ these in some central database in the library, so all librarians can ‘use’ these at anytime in infolit planning. For example: Standard 2.2 Constructs and implements effective search strategies:
Question:
Which boolean operator do you use to ‘combine’ terms and narrow results:
[AND ] [ OR ] [ NOT ]
Answer:
AND OR NOT

9. Does your library have an online tutorial which is based on the Information literacy standards? Can it be ‘linked’ to from within online course management programs such as Blackboard, or are portions of it suitable – this is the beauty of a ‘modularised’ online tutorial.
10. Some institutions use the term ‘Workbook’ when incorporating infolit into curriculum and this usually is associated with ‘implanted’ infolit, and while better than nothing is not the ideal method. If you find that a separate module is what you are offered, call it something ‘inspiring’ rather than a workbook. How about “Information Competency Module” or “Information Research Basics” or something else that inspires learning, or ‘Information Highway module’ or ‘Information Research Module’. Get those creative juices flowing!
11. The beauty of structured programs is that you can ‘stage’ or introduce at different year ‘levels’ the different information competencies to form an information competency scaffold tailored to your discipline. Information scaffold was coined by Brabazon, Tara (2004).
"Bachelor of Arts (Google): Graduating to information literacy," Keynote Paper, IDATER on-line conference on e-learning in Science and Design Technology, Loughborough University, August 2004 (URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd/docs_dandt/research/ed/elearning/Lead%20papers/BrabazonPDF.pdf)

I personally like the term - Information Competencies Scaffold. What do you call it at your institution?

Is this for real? Gaming in libraries!

2006-05-24T11:51:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - A "great" teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers
Is this for real? Gaming in libraries!

There is a fast developing trend to introduce playstations in public libraries and ‘gaming’ concepts into information literacy classes in academic libraries. What about online gaming? Online gaming is the next logical sequence in this direction. Online gaming is where youthA from Australia plays a game with YouthB in the USA. What fun? As with all ‘new’ ideas, they come with the pros and cons. Have you considered the long-term benefits of such a move, are there major drawbacks? The millenial, or X-generation equipment or concept might be just the thing to get the not so bookish teenagers using your library and then (gasp) borrowing some books? What are your ‘policies’ or ‘rules of gaming’? Do your users book? Are they library card holders? How long can they use the ‘game’ or Internet?

Have you read the article written by Ameet Doshi? Let's play games in our infolit classes! Have competitions to see which groups can find the 'answers' first, (working in pairs or teams of 4). Ask the ‘winners’ to tell the rest of the class the process they used to find the article. Have some ‘questions’ on a ‘Database Game’ sheet. Ask the students to find the answers. Will you let go of your “show and tell” teaching method to give this a go? Will you tell them which database to use or give them a tip to work out which database the answer can be found in?
This is along the same lines as the SLQ (State library of Queensland) database challenge, whereby library patrons can enter a competition to answer specific questions using a particular database. What a brilliant idea! The users have the chance to win something, while at the same time learn more about the database. Who says adult learners can’t learn through play?! Doshi, A (2006) states that librarians and patrons would all agree there needs to be more two-way, conversational information literacy skills lessons, and not the one-way instruction, “this is the best way to do this” type of class. He also states at the end of the article – “Libraries should be doing things to induce gasps of amazement”. So come on everyone, tell us, what are you doing (gasp) that rates as amazing?

SLQ Database Challenge - http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/news/whatson/events/challenge06

Doshi, A (2006), HOW GAMING Could Improve Information Literacy.
Computers in Libraries; Vol. 26 Issue 5, p14-17, 4p

First Year University students and the Google Degree – Are your students Googling their way to a Degree?

2006-05-19T11:22:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week – “In the dim background of our mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start. “ William James

First Year University students and the Google Degree – Are your students Googling their way to a Degree?
Do you need solutions to assignment problems? Are you happy to see your students Google their way through a Degree? Do they only ever use the Internet to search 'Google' and type the minimum words and use the first 10 results? Do they know how to evaluate information regardless of the search tool used? Do you determine your assessment pieces and the learning outcomes first and then work backwards for course content? Have you read the article written by Tara Brabazon,
"Bachelor of Arts (Google): Graduating to information literacy," Keynote Paper, IDATER on-line conference on e-learning in Science and Design Technology, Loughborough University, August 2004 (URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd/docs_dandt/research/ed/elearning/Lead%20papers/BrabazonPDF.pdf)
There are some clued up academics out there supporting their students and acknowledging the valuable input of librarians and information literacy content within the curriculum in very practical ways and Tara is one of those. In her article she offers suggestions on how to bridge the gap between operational literacy and critical literacy, and it's all about being explicit in your assessment pieces and Tara terms this the Information scaffold. How simple, but powerful and effective this is! How do you convince your colleagues and fellow academics that they can eliminate assignments with Reference lists compiled entirely of web sites found on Google. There are strategies which can be used to maximise the critical thinking opportunities of students. The assessment pieces 'spell out' for students which types of information sources are required. They then must 'think' about the source and be 'critical' about it. How many of you when completing your degrees had access to the Internet? Did you only ever need to search the library catalogue for books because that was all that was available? The University student of today now has many 'search tools' available to them, and they need to be guided and 'taught' that all of these tools find different sources of information. Otherwise they will continue to use the 'quick' method which is 'Google' or 'Google Scholar'. Do your students understand the difference between Primary, Secondary & Tertiary information sources? Do you encourage the use of Tertiary sources such as Subject-specific encyclopaedias to help students choose a topic of research. It is a valuable tool which assists students who are new to a faculty or discipline, to focus a research question and appropriately define their research topic within the particular discipline. (Quarton, B. 2003)
An annotated bibliography covers so many aspects of the Information literacy standards, but how are the following competencies developed and introduced in the course and are they assessed? It is well documented in the literature that infolit is much more effective if there are marks attached because students then think ‘Oh, this has marks, so it must be important.’ Quarton, Barbara (2003) argues that unless students are 'required' to do these things, search appropriate tools such as the catalogue and journal databases, and plan the search process, then it is very unlikely they will do so of their own accord. A small minority may, but isn't it the majority who use Internet search engines and no other search tools. How about setting an assessment piece for first year undergraduates that requires the submission of all of these competencies, and allocate marks for each section.
What did you say? “This is just what I need in my course, but don’t know where to start?”
1. Check out the Infolit Standards for your University Council, or a library organisation which has endorsed infolit standards.ie. In Australia we use the Information literacy Standards endorsed by the Council of Australian University Libraries & Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy (ANZIIL) known as the ANZ Information literacy framework http://www.caul.edu.au/info-literacy/
2. Use this as your framework, look at the learning outcomes, decide which year to introduce each competency or standard, I prefer the term ‘competency’, (may vary depending on discipline), keep in mind that it is a ‘framework’ and there may be gaps between competencies and learning outcomes, also it does have limitations in that there are no assessment examples, but this is where you can 'think tank' with other academics in your discipline to come up with assessment criteria.
3. Contact your Liaison librarian or Information literacy librarian – perhaps there are already other courses within the Degree or program which have these competencies fully integrated. Your liaison librarian would be an excellent person to speak with initially.

Brabazon, Tara (2004). Bachelor of Arts (Google): Graduating to information literacy, Keynote Paper, IDATER on-line conference on e-learning in Science and Design Technology, Loughborough University, August 2004 (URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd/docs_dandt/research/ed/elearning/Lead%20papers/BrabazonPDF.pdf

Quarton, B. (2003). Research skills and the new undergraduate. Journal of Instructional Psychology, (30)2, p.120, 5p.

How did I create my blog? And Why did I create my Blog?

2006-05-13T11:44:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week – “It is not enough to have a good mind, the main thing is to use it well. “ -
Rene Descartes

How did I create my blog? And Why did I create my Blog?

How to:
Step 1 – I decided to read about Blogs. I conducted a literature search using different search engines. I also used my State Library of Queensland database subscriptions to find published journal articles. I also found the ‘About” website very useful - http://www.about.com. I read and found out how Blogs are used, why they are used, who is blogging, what I needed so that I could create a blog and the different software available.

Step 2 – Which software? After reading the literature, and analysing the Blog software comparison chart, published July 14, 2005 in the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm
(this is also linked to within the article by Gardner, S, Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool? http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/050714gardner/index.cfm),
I decided that Google’s Blogger http://www.blogger.com/ was the best fit for my purpose of a combined personal & professional development blog. It also met my criteria of limited programming knowledge and minimal system requirements.

Step 3 – What would my Blog be about? And what would I call it? I conducted a search using various search engines and the terms: librarian blogs, library blogs, and so on. Have you seen the Laughing Librarian’s Blogga Blake song? It’s worth a look. I played it over and over for the tune, and then to see the different types of Blogs that are out there. I was going to have an “information literacy” title, but when I did a search on this, there were already a few out there by different derivates, so I decided to ponder some more. A few days later, I had the ‘Lateral’ thought. My creative side kicked in and I wanted something catchy that starts with L to make a three-L logo, with Librarian as the third. I searched for: lateral librarian blogs and none were to be found, then along came literal and look out Blog Land, “The Lateral Literal Librarian” has been born.
Step 4 – How did I create this blog?
Finally, I begin with http://www.blogger.com/
1. Create an account
2. Name your blog
3. Choose a template

I originally chose a different template, then a few weeks later changed it to the one I have now.

Step 5 – How do I drive this thing?
Next came learning how to drive the ‘Dashboard’, (aptly named because there are so many things on the dashboard of a car that tell you what you’re doing with the car if you know what they are for, and there are lots of things on the Blogger dashboard and you need to learn their purpose).
There are 4 tabs, Postings, Settings, Template, View Blog and all have different submenus and associated functions. I needed to learn which one did what. So, I explored these and had lots of fun.
Postings – this is where you ‘create’ a new post, Edit an existing post, Moderate comments made, or view the ‘Status’ of your postings for the session.
Settings – this is the largest section of the Blog and where you spend most of the time in your initial setting up of your Blog.

* Basic – Title, Descripton, and so on.
* Publishing – What’s your URL going to be? And so on.
* Formatting – How many posts to a page, what date format do you want and so on
* Comments - Did I want the ‘Comments’ feature enabled?, Who would I allow to comment? And so on.
* Archiving – Will your posts be archived weekly or monthly, do you want your posts to have their own page?
* Site Feed – Do you want your site feed enabled so that people can subscribe to your Blog? This is the RSS component, but there’s more work you need to do.
* Email – enter email addresses
* Members – who are the members of your blog?

Template –
* Edit your current template – this is where you get to be a HTML whiz and change some things, add links, add Categories or topics, add your RSS feed code, add a Copyright footer, and add Metatags such as meta keywords and meta description in the header so that your Blog can be found by search engines. {this is where a large proportion of my time was spent for the first month}
* Adsense – Only if you want advertisements on your blog
* Pick a new template – Do you want a new look and feel to your Blog?

Step 6 – How do I edit this template?
This was the steepest learning curve in the whole process. I wanted some ‘Categories’ or ‘Topics’ on my Blog. The template didn’t have this in-built, so how could I add this. I knew it was possible, because I had browsed individual Blog pages to look for ideas and saw that other blogger blogs had some nice features that I wanted, including the RSS feed. I used Blogger’s help feature, which led me to a myriad of articles. I found code scripters which did an initial scripting of HTML for me based on the categories or topics I initially chose. A few times I had the < > displaying on the web page, but managed to adjust the code and fix it up. Phew! What an effort, but that’s just the start.
I spent some time reading the code and noticed at the bottom there was a spot for me to add a Footer, so this became my Copyright statement.

Step 7 – Can you keep up the ‘posting’ of articles?
It is time consuming, so don’t do it if you aren’t prepared to post regularly. People just won’t come back to your blog, neither will they subscribe to it. My Blog was born in February 2006 and it has been added to 3 separate Library, Librarians or Information literacy websites. Now the pressure is on to perform. Where do I get my ‘post’ ideas from? Most of my posts so far have come from personal experience and reflection and so are reflective. However, this post has come from a very recent activity, whereby I read the literature and I have referenced these at the end of this post, just like one does when publishing a journal article. Some of my ‘post’ items are ‘seeded’ from discussion lists, and the “contributors” are acknowledged. I will also post ‘outside’ my background when I read through the ‘folders’ of literature in my filing cabinet and email Folders. I am interested in public libraries also, particularly the funding, leadership, and outreach aspects. The leadership & management posts are based on articles I have read and my preferred styles of leadership. We all have room to develop personally and professionally and this blog is definitely proving a valuable tool for me.

Why Blog?:
I created this Blog for a number of reasons. I wanted to find out more about emerging technologies in libraries as I am currently a full-time mum looking for librarian work in my local area. I wanted to be as ‘current’ as possible on returning to work. I also have a lot to contribute to the library arena having worked in an academic library for 11 years. When you are in the daily rush from one task to another and have a family which also means a busy home life, there is limited time to reflect and often is something which rarely happens. This blog has given me the opportunity to indulge in many hours of reflection upon what was, what should have been, what could have been, what would be good, and what can I share, were the many directions I took when deciding what to ‘post’ (write) about. It has helped me personally and professionally and inspired me to ‘read’ about what others are doing. I also keep my ‘searching’ skills refined as I need to rely quite heavily on Internet-based literature as the subscription databases which I have access to are limited in title coverage.

Why not blog?
1. It can be time consuming if guidelines aren’t established. In my experience, I write my ‘posts’ when my boys are sleeping. I write ahead of time in Word, so that I can keep my blog alive.
2. If you can’t type, then a Blog would be a challenge, but not impossible. You could view it as an opportunity to improve your typing skills.
3. You need your own personal computer with Broadband (speed) Internet, so that you can ‘post’ when you wish.

MY BLOG READING LIST
Bartlett-Bragg, A. (2003). Blogging to learn. The Knowledge tree An e-Journal of Flexible Learning in VET, (4) Retrieved March 6, 2006, from http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition04/pdf/Blogging_to_Learn.pdf.

Ferdig, R.E., & Trammell, K.D. (2004). Content Delivery in the Blogosphere. The Journal: technology horizons in k12 education, February, Retrieved March 6, 2006 from http://thejournal.com/articles/16626.

Fichter, D. (2003). Why and how to use blogs to promote your library’s services. Marketing Library Services, 17(6), Retrieved February 21, 2006 from http://www.infotoday.com/MLS/nov03/fichter.shtml.

Instone, L. (2005). Conversations beyond the classroom: Blogging in a professional development course. Paper presented at the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference 4-7 December, 2005, Brisbane. (Retrieved February 29, 2006 from (http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane05/blogs/proceedings/34_Instone.pdf).

Manuel-Coggins, S.A. (2006) 6 Tips for beginning bloggers. Retrieved March 6, 2006 from http://weblogs.about.com/cs/blogcreatetools/a/beginblog.htm

Quible, Z. K. (2005). Blogs and Written Business Communication Courses: A Perfect Union. Journal of Education for Business, 80(6), 327. Retrieved March 13, 2006, from Business Source Elite Ebsco database.

Richardson, W. (2004). Blogging and RSS - The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web Tools for Educators. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools
The Media and Technology Specialist's Guide to Electronic Tools and Resources for K-12 Information Today, Inc, 11(1), Retrieved March 3, 2006 from
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/richardson.shtml.

Stiler, G. M. & Philleo, T. (2003). Blogging and blogspots: An alternative format for encouraging reflective practice among pre-service teachers. Education, 123(4), 789-797. Retrieved March 13, 2006, from MasterFILE Premier Ebsco database.

Volke, S. Encouraging interaction online: the emerging roles of blogs/wikis/RSS in fostering and encouraging user participation. Paper presented at the VALA Connecting with users, 13th Biennial conference and exhibition 8-10 February, 2006, Melbourne. (Retrieved March 6, 2006 from http://www.vala.org.au/vala2006/2006pdfs/67_Volke_Final.pdf).

Williams, J.B., & Jacobs, J. (2004). Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 20(2), 232-247. Retrieved March 12, 2006 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet20/williams.html.

How do you implant information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘flexible’ programs?

2006-05-08T11:23:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - “As regards obstacles, the shortest distance between two points can be a curve.”
~ Bertolt Brecht
How do you implant information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘flexible’ programs?
What is a Flexible program? A program is the same as a Degree, Diploma, etc. A course is = to a subject/unit of study. A flexible program is defined as a course of study largely determined by the student, where from first year they choose elective courses, within the particular course requirements, but it is essentially student-centred. It is problematic for information literacy initiatives because you never know what the majority of students will choose to study and it is difficult to employ a stepped/graduated approach from 1st year through to 3rd year in any particular program. This is the beauty of working with a Faculty that either has a core course which every student must complete and even better when programs are structured. A structured program is where all students of a program complete the same courses except for final year when elective courses are undertaken. So, you have an opportunity, what will you do?
 Initial planning with Faculty staff in ‘Flexible’ programs:
 Keep in mind that if your Faculty does not have 'structured' but flexible programs, there is only so much 'scaffolding' of infolit that will be possible.
 It’s also a short window of opportunity on the academic calendar for ‘re-writes’ or ‘new course’ developments. You need to make the most of these opportunities and again the time-frame is usually very tight so don’t expect to produce the ‘Taj Mahal’ initially.
 You could choose one course from each stream with historically high enrolments [I have done this to some degree of success, and some infolit is better than none]. Look at all course levels, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and Honours level Research methods courses. A research methods course is an ideal opportunity to implement infolit.
 Keep an eye out for Writing / Communication /Critical thinking / Literacy courses, these lend themselves to information literacy initiatives.
 Do you have an ‘Ask Your librarian’ service? Do you receive more than 5 questions per term for a particular assignment? Review the assignment and where it fits into a program. Follow this up with the lecturer, this course might be a candidate for infolit. Contact the ‘course developer’ to meet with them re: your concerns, but have some ‘solutions’ on hand. Do you need help to brainstorm solutions, run this by your ‘information literacy’ librarian, teaching/instructional team or your supervisor. Put your questions out to a wider group, such as an infolit ‘discussion group’. Collective wisdom is so wonderful! If you hit a red light with the course developer, perhaps a library web guide which covers only the specifics of the assessment would reduce your duplicated effort in repeating the same thing over and over. Remember to make use of any general online tutorials when possible!
 Do you have a ‘system’ that all Information Desk staff can use to log ‘problematic’ assignment questions. i.e. limited resources available, poorly worded or designed assessment which needs clarifying with an academic, etc. Liaison Librarians could regularly check this in order to become aware of these before they become Ben Hurs. Librarians on the desk could first check the ‘logs’ by course code to see if the issue has already been logged. Perhaps your internal Action/Request system could be used? Do you have another system used to ‘log’ technical/computer problems which could be duplicated for ‘Information Desk’ issues? Does the volume of ‘problematic’ assignments warrant this? The advantage would be that it’s included in the ‘system’ and becomes a ‘quantifiable’ statistic, and everyone could see that it is a ‘logged’ and known problem, rather than 5 different people, including casuals, separately emailing the librarian. [Another waste of staff time].
 Ask your Faculty staff if they know about the Infolit standards – show them where these are on the library home page.

Whither the practicalities of information literacy. How do you collaborate with Faculty? Who teaches, Who marks, How do you keep track?, What’s your l

2006-05-05T12:59:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - “Creativity consists of coming up with many ideas, not just that one great idea.” Charles Thompson

Whither the practicalities of information literacy. How do you collaborate with Faculty? Who teaches, Who marks, How do you keep track?, What’s your limit? Are your library facilities able to support long-range developments?
How do you collaborate with Faculty? –
Are you new to a Faculty and need to know what your Faculty is doing with courses or programs in terms of information literacy. What are you going to do? Do you have access to a database or other information literacy map which gives you this information? Have you conducted an Infolit audit or survey of your Faculty? This could be as complex or simple as desired. Why not try an email survey, email the document as an attachment and ask for responses within a specific time-frame. Keep in mind the ‘marking’ times or busiest times of the year or otherwise they might ignore it. Ask the Faculty for the most suitable time to conduct a survey, School Secretaries are a wonderful source of knowledge for the administrative side. Perhaps give the option of either printing and hand-writing or saving to file and typing the responses. There is plenty of ‘literature’ on conducting Faculty infolit surveys, so have a look at these for some ideas. Keep a regular visit schedule happening and let the Faculty know about all things library that impact on their teaching and research activities. Build existing friendships and new friendships.
Look for invitations to Faculty events, such as Faculty retreats or planning days, Faculty seminars & workshops, Faculty Education Committee meetings – there may be opportunities to mention different things here, such as when a new course proposal is put forward, ask if there are plans for integrating information literacy in the curriculum. [have specific examples in mind when you ask this question].
Here are some suggestions for faculty workshops:
Give the workshop participants a reference list with incomplete, and/or inaccurately styled references; include websites (more than other sources) and ask the question - How many of you see this all the time in student assignments? Or if you know an academic who could provide a real example, it would be great to have a 'legitimate' paper that you could use (without student name on paper) instead of a contrived one. It would be getting academic staff interested from a 'known' and experienced angle. You could then highlight the need for students to learn 'early' in courses the required standard of a Reference list, the referencing style, as well as the need for a variety of references. This is where librarians can work with academics to teach these 'information competencies' or information literacy skills. Other suggestions have been to survey the attendees to determine their level of information literacy competence. There have been suggestions on the ili-l list. Also, different library websites have infolit surveys available, choose a few that most suit your needs.
This one from Bernadette Doane, “Rather than introducing "Information Literacy" first, I pass out a brief "quiz" with questions related to 5 (or 6) basic info literacy standards. The questions are those I would expect an information literate student to be able to answer (but not at the highest level). The following question could be used as it relates to "using effective and efficient strategies for locating needed information:"

The best place to look for an introduction to a topic such as astronomy is:
a. the online catalog
b. an encyclopedia
c. a journal
d. don't know

Or this one for "using information ethically and legally:"

Which of the following requires a footnote or citation giving credit to the author or source? (Check all that apply)
a. summarizing a book chapter
b. using information freely available from the World Wide Web
c. stating factual information that can be confirmed by several different reference sources
d. writing about your brother's ideas on leadership
e. none of the above “

Who teaches the Infolit/Library classes? This depends on the content and the academic. If the academic is ‘happy’ to teach the ‘theoretical’ parts that’s a great start. The ‘practical’ or tool parts, i.e. catalogue, databases, etc. should be librarian taught, but if the academic is with you in the tutorial this sends a message to the students that it’s important, and also the advantage to the academic is that they also ‘learn’ anything new in databases/services. I have had a number of very positive experiences team teaching with academics, especially when it came to discussing ‘research’ articles as opposed to ‘trade’ articles etc. This is where team teaching works really well, when the academic is on hand to deal with the ‘theory’ and ‘discipline-specific content’ of the course and the librarian supports the learning by showing how to ‘limit’ to these types of articles, etc.
Who marks assessment? This is primarily an academic task and is extremely time consuming, be wary of involving librarians in actual marking, but developing the marking criteria is a key LL role. Hats off to all academics involved in marking. I have been involved in marking workbooks, and it took 1 hr per workbook to mark, [admittedly, this was because the marking criteria were not aligned closely with the assessment pieces and by the end of my involvement with this marking, the workbook and the criteria had heaps of red ink on them]
Tips:
* Do a ‘prototype’ – ask another librarian, or the academic, or ‘someone’ to do the workbook and then ‘mark’ it so that you see how it goes before rolling it out to the classroom.
* Include marking criteria in an excel spreadsheet, so that marks allocated are ‘automatically’ totalled. Perhaps Faculty staff use a particular program to do this, but whichever way, the ideal is to ‘reduce’ workload and effort.
* It’s a good idea to be involved in the first run of marking so that you can see if the content, assessment pieces/activities and marking criteria gel, and then hand over the marking to academics in following offerings. MAKE THIS CLEAR FROM THE START. Perhaps only mark a certain ‘proportion’ of the first round. Make updates as required and make sure these get changed in the Faculty ‘master’ course content.
* How do you successfully keep track of every course? What is problematic is ensuring that all of the course content for every infolit course is updated each year. I have had time to reflect on this aspect since I am not in the daily grind at the moment, rushing from one thing to the next. When academics and librarians leave the institution, if infolit knowledge goes with these people, it puts things at a stalemate. To avoid multiple time wasting with every new person having to ‘personally’ track the courses with ‘workbooks’ or other assessable components, record this valuable data in a database of some description. An ‘information literacy plan’ that each individual librarian composes is not going to give you this data if there is no ‘heading’ to cover this, or if it leaves the library when they go. It’s good to have a ‘central curriculum database’ or library infolit course curriculum database which all courses with infolit infiltration, whether assessable or not, such as ‘activities’, workbooks, Blackboard, or other infolit components. Consider establishing an MS Access database. You want something sophisticated enough so that a new Liaison Librarian can ‘filter’ or sort the list to find courses that pertain to their Faculty, School or program. Things to include as a starting point, (but not limited to):

 Faculty – Faculty of Education
 School – Sometimes not relevant
 Program - Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) (ED92)
 Stream – (mostly flexible programs)
 Course Code - EDB006
 Course name - Learning Networks
 Modes of offering - campuses and Distance
 Type of infolit - What are the different types of information literacy infiltration into course curriculum] incorporation, your institution may already have these defined
 Library tutorial time - 1hr or 2hr [ideally the database would be able to calculate total hours of teaching time for a particular program]
 Librarian lesson plan file location
 Assessment type: annotated bibliography, essay using 15 different sources, etc
 IL Standard and associate Learning outcomes: 1.2.2, 1.2.3
 Marking criteria for 1.2.2: 5 marks for Differentiates between information sources, (journal article, book, chapter in a book, conference proceedings, newspaper article and web document, etc)
 1.2.2 – 1 mark – found at least 3 different information source types of those covered in course content and identified database(s)
2 marks – found at least 5 different information source types of those covered in course content and identified database(s)
3 marks – found at least 5 different information source types with appropriate comments regarding the database(s) used
4 marks – found at least 10 different information source types with appropriate comments regarding the database(s) used and explains why those databases were used
5 marks – found at least 10 different informaton source types with appropriate comments regarding the database(s) used and explains why those databases were used and discusses further the limitations of each database used
 Marks for 1.2.3 – 3 marks total
1 mark – Correctly identifies at least 3 article types, scholarly, popular, peer-reviewed
2 marks – correctly identifies all article types covered in course content and assessment
3 marks – correctly identifies all article types and discusses or reflects extensively, raising further applicable criteria and demonstrates critical awareness
 The above 3 headings and associate examples are rudimentary for ‘sample’ purposes; your criteria and mark allocation would depend on content, assessment and academic – these would evolve in your planning with the academic
 Evaluation of library session: link to document used or file location
 Evaluation of Course content and IL components: link to document used or file location

What’s your limit?
How many courses can 1 librarian reasonably teach per term? How many courses does 12hrs per week limit you to? This should be determined from the beginning by librarians and library management. You can’t promise what you can’t deliver. If all the librarians need to run classes during weeks 2-6 of term, how well does your existing library and training room facility support this? What contingencies are in place when rooms are double booked? How many rooms are required to support the maximum uptake of infolit? Are there any other facilities on campus that could be used?

Articles to read or share with faculty staff:

Black, C., Crest, S. (2001). Building on a successful information literacy infrastructure on the foundation of librarian-faculty collaboration. Research Strategies (18)3, p215-225.

Brabazon, Tara (2004). Bachelor of Arts (Google): Graduating to information literacy, Keynote Paper, IDATER on-line conference on e-learning in Science and Design Technology, Loughborough University, August 2004 (URL: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/cd/docs_dandt/research/ed/elearning/Lead%20papers/BrabazonPDF.pdf

Quarton, B. (2003). Research skills and the new undergraduate. Journal of Instructional Psychology, (30)2, p.120, 5p.

Wu, D., Roldan, M. (2004). Building context-based library instruction. Journal of Education for Business, 79(6), 323-327.

Which strategies do you use to build positive partnerships and foster lifelong learning in public libraries?

2006-05-02T09:30:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - “It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it as the founding of a public library” Andrew Carnegie quotes (Scottish born American Industrialist and Philanthropist. 1835-1919)

Which strategies do you use to build positive partnerships and foster lifelong learning in public libraries?
*Are you and your staff current and ‘with it’ with regards client groups needs and interests
*Survey your clients - Are your clients getting what they want?
*Evaluate your programs/services – Are your programs achieving their aims?
*Are you subscribed to publishers web alerts to facilitate collection development?
*What's happening in the field? Read the literature - subscribe to online journals, database TOC alerts, or search alerts for topics of interest
* Another strategy is to use articles read from TOC alerts to learn the ‘language’ of partner groups
* Gain an understanding of community groups and objectives
* Keep up-to-date with technology
* Find out what others are doing – Subscribe to relevant Internet discussion groups
and Attend Conferences
* Visit library websites
* Let your council ‘hear’ you and ‘see’ you; prove your worth
* Get involved with Library organisations and support groups
* Tell everyone and anyone about libraries

TECHNOLOGY TRAINING
1. Basic computer skills training aimed not just at one age group, but open to all library users, so that we get the ‘social mix’ happening. {of course the more computers, the more successful this would be, this is where building a closer partnership with the FOL and grant applications activity would be important}
2. Computer basics - Need to know how to ‘operate’ a computer first, before using Internet and email.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS – How do you turn an underutilised collection into a ‘happening’ collection?
1. Run a poster competition (or other competition) for target age group. Choose a related theme and perhaps the winner(s) paint the theme, or they are mentored by a well-known or budding local artist.
2. Some libraries have raised funds with FOL groups running an exhibition, such as art exhibitions with a ‘prize’ for the entry judged ‘the best new art” or other relevant award aimed at the different age groups.
3. Ensure that the ‘collection availability” i.e the days & times advertised on the Internet, printed brochures and the collection signage are aligned.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES: [Build on the ideas raised by baby boomers and gatekeepers (visionary leaders) February, 2006 issue of The Australian Library Journal article; ‘Wanting it now: baby boomers and the public library of the future’]

ENHANCE THE SOCIAL ASPECT OF LIBRARIES
1. Consider a grant to build a Café or Bookshop or training area or combination of these in unused or underutilised space with the public entrance from within the main library so patrons come into the library building. For example, is there an area external to the building which is ‘drab’ and not used and wouldn’t involve too much cost to remove, perhaps it can be recycled and funds raised contribute towards refurbishment plans.
2. Discussion groups – Which groups currently get together to discuss what they are reading? Which groups would enjoy personal face-to-face discussions, Which groups would engage with electronic discussion boards, or a blog of relevance.

ENHANCE THE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
* Writing – retirees have time to now write the book they always wanted to write but need help. Also fits other user groups; mums who’d like to write kids books, etc. Ensure these happen regularly.
* Publishing – we have the knowledge to teach the community about the Publishing cycle and Internet searching tips to find out requirements of publishers with regards ‘manuscripts’ or ‘draft copies’ for publication opportunities
* Training & Database sessions – laptops & projectors which could circulate in branches (depending on funding availability) so that ‘group’ training could happen more readily and successfully, build on the ‘learning’ aspect of libraries.
*Keep relevant for Teenagers (the Friends Of Libraries of the future)- Sound walls (listening posts), playstations, Youth Blog, Sports equipment, Games afternoon (traditional variety, charades, hangman)
* Possibility of self-paced online learning programs similar to LearningFast http://www.library.act.gov.au/learn/learningfast

ANTICIPATING LONG-RANGE COLLECTION REQUIREMENTS

* Do we hold books and magazines which support those topics unique to retirees including; investments, shares and the stock market, travel, gardening, health, fitness, technology, personal computing, keeping up-to-date with computer hardware/software; Brainstorm with branch staff more topic areas. Subscribe to relevant ‘publishers’ alerts which cater for local community specific needs (perhaps identified in a survey) and forward to Collection Development Librarian as recommendations.

FUNDING

* Do you have the council committee on side? Do they understand the importance and relevance of the library to the community?
* FOL – Do the friends of the library have a website? Another promotion vehicle to target web users.
* Partner with other community organisations to build on the existing promotion and financial support of council’s libraries.

WHAT ARE OTHER PUBLIC LIBRARIES DOING?
* Also try to ‘visit’ virtually, or (in-person) other public libraries and have a look at what they are doing? I used this strategy in the Uni environment too. Perhaps a team member or branch trainee could do an Internet bibliography of sorts which details what other libraries are doing in a particular area. e.g youth blogs in city libraries, or discussion groups used in State Libraries of Australia, etc.
* Discussion lists are a great source of ‘collective wisdom’. Ask a question on some lists, and you receive a myriad of useful, creative, successfully tried ideas.

WHICH LIBRARY ORGANISATIONS SUPPORT YOU?
Local and National
* Local and National Friends of Libraries Organisations –
Friends of Libraries Australia http://www.fola.org.au/
* Public Libraries Australia http://www.nla.gov.au/apln/membership.html
* Queensland Public Libraries Association (QPLA) http://www.connectqld.org.au/asp/index.asp?pgid=14709
* Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) - http://www.alia.org.au/
* Your State Library

International Associations
* Chartered Institute of Library and Information professionals (CILIP) http://www.cilip.org.uk/default.cilip
* American Library Association (ALA) http://www.ala.org/
* ANZIIL – Australian and New Zealand Institute for Information Literacy http://www.anziil.org/
* The Library & Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa: -http://www.lianza.org.nz/

WHICH CONFERENCES DO YOU ATTEND?
* Alia Biennial - http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2006/
* Queensland Public Libraries Association / State Library Queensland -http://www.cairnslibrary.com.au/QPLASLQ.htm
* New Librarians Symposium - http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2004/presymppapers.html
* Lifelong Learning Conference CQU - http://lifelonglearning.cqu.edu.au/2006/index.htm
* Computers in Libraries - http://www.infotoday.com/cil.htm
* Internet Librarian International -
http://www.internet-librarian.com/previous/index.html
* VALA Biennial - http://www.vala.org.au/previous.htm
* LIANZA - http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/conference2006/
* Information Online - http://www.information-online.com.au/
* IFLANET - http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla73/index.htm
* More - http://www.fiu.edu/~hastyd/lcp.html

Would anyone like to comment and add strategies which you have used and developed?

Article References
'Wanting it now': baby boomers and the public library of the future. Australian Library Journal, Feb2006, Vol. 55 Issue 1, p54-72, 19p;

DEVELOPING SOCIAL CAPITAL: AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND FRIENDS OF LIBRARIES. By: Ferguson, Daniel. APLIS, Mar2006, Vol. 19 Issue 1, p26-30, 5p;

How do you define the different types of information literacy course content? Integrated, implanted, complementary.....

2006-04-26T10:09:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week – “A man who reviews the old so as to find out the new is qualified to teach others.”
Confucius 551-479 bc: Analects

How do you define the different types of information literacy course content? Some suggestions below drawn largely from my own experience and my observations of the 'infiltration' within my workplace:

1. FULLY Integrated (synonyms: blended, combined):
a Content: Information literacy (IL) competencies are discipline specific and scaffolded throughout a program or degree
b Learning outcomes: IL outcomes are explicitly stated within course learning outcomes of every course in scaffold
c Assessment: Information literacy competencies are explicitly assessed
d Marking criteria: IL marking criteria are linked to assessment and covered in course content. Marking is completed by academic.
e Teaching: can be delivered by either the academic or librarians. Team teaching is the ideal whereby academic discusses any discipline specific and assessment issues and librarian covers ‘library specific’ issues such as ‘search tools’, etc. Ideally, an academic would always be present for all tutorials.
f Example: Bachelor of Education taught with Blackboard. Each core course across the program has week by week IL course content. The content is not duplicated between courses, but is scaffolded, so that students progressively learn the information literacy competencies (standards).
2. PARTIALLY Integrated (synonyms: blended, combined):
a Content: Information literacy competencies are discipline specific and covered sporadically in a program or degree. i.e. only particular courses are targeted.
b Learning outcomes: IL outcomes are explicitly stated within course learning outcomes of particular courses.
c Assessment: IL competencies are explicitly assessed
d Marking criteria: IL marking criteria are linked to assessment and covered in course content. Marking is completed by academic.
e Teaching: can be delivered by either the academic or librarians. Team teaching is the ideal whereby academic discusses any discipline specific and assessment issues and librarian covers ‘library specific’ issues such as ‘search tools’, etc.
f Examples: Specific courses within a program have IL content in either a Study Guide or Blackboard course, or other week by week course content. Some courses within a program have no IL course content. Infolit content, activities and assessment in an Honours research methods study guide which are allocated marks or explicitly assessed is an example of partial integration with assessment.

3. PARTIALLY Integrated (synonyms: blended, combined) NOT assessed:
a Content: Information literacy competencies are discipline specific and covered sporadically in a program or degree. i.e. only particular courses are targeted.
b Learning outcomes: IL outcomes are not necessarily explicitly stated within course learning outcomes of particular courses.
c Assessment: IL competencies are not explicitly assessed.
d Marking criteria: IL marking criteria are linked to assessment and covered in course content. Marking is completed by academic.
e Teaching: can be delivered by either the academic or librarians. The academic is not necessarily available in library specific tutorial sessions.
f Examples: Specific courses within a program have IL content in either a Study Guide or Blackboard course, or other week by week course content. Some courses within a program have no IL course content. Infolit content, activities and assessment in an Honours research methods study guide which are allocated marks or explicitly assessed.

4. Implanted (synonym: attached) AND assessed:
a Content: Information literacy competencies are linked only to some components of course content or covered sporadically in course content,
b Learning outcomes: IL outcomes are not necessarily state within the course learning outcomes of the course.
c Assessment: The IL outcomes are assessed, but not necessarily explicitly.
d Marking criteria: IL marking criteria may or may not be linked to the assessment or covered in course content. Marking is completed by academic.
e Teaching: can be delivered by either the academic or librarians. The academic is not necessarily available in library specific tutorial sessions.
f Examples: IL content is covered at ‘specific’ times, or ‘specific spots’ in course content; Week 6 or Week 8, or some other specific ‘week’ of a course. A course within a program may have an assignment(s) with marking criteria which includes ‘specific’ components of IL content, but only assesses ‘targeted’ or specific IL competencies. A course on ‘Communication and writing’ which has a specific ‘module’ in Week 3 of term covering some IL competencies, with some, not all of these, assessed in marking criteria. The marking criteria may or may not include all of the IL competencies covered in course content.
5. Implanted (synonym: attached) NOT assessed:
a Content: Information literacy competencies are linked only to some components of course content or covered sporadically in course content,
b Learning outcomes: IL outcomes are not necessarily stated within the course learning outcomes of the course.
c Assessment: The IL outcomes are not assessed.
d Marking criteria: There is not necessarily any IL marking criteria, but may be implicit as part of course assessment.
e Teaching: The IL content can be delivered by either academic or librarian and is usually librarian. The academic is not necessarily available in library specific tutorial sessions.
f Examples: IL content is covered at ‘specific’ times, or ‘specific spots’ in course content; Week 6 or Week 8, or some other specific ‘week’ of a course. A course within a program may have an assignment(s) with marking criteria which includes ‘specific’ components of IL content, but the IL component are not assessed. A course on ‘Communication and writing’ which has a specific ‘module’ in Week 3 of term covering some IL competencies, but none are assessed in marking criteria. The marking criteria does not include any IL competencies covered in course content.
6. Complementary:
There is no IL content or IL assessment in course. Some IL topics may be covered in library session, but usually focuses on ‘tools’ such as databases. These are usually one-off library tutorial sessions (eg. residential school workshops, lecturer request for specific databases for specific course)
7. General (also known as generic or non-specific):
There is no discipline specific content or discipline specific assessment. The Information Literacy content may or may not be based on Standards; for example an online information literacy tutorial, voluntary face-to-face tutorials which mostly cover ‘search tools’. [Whatever you do, don’t underestimate the value of online information literacy tutorials, especially if they are built on the IL standards/rubric, as these are great for Faculties with large Flex or Off-Campus offerings. It can also be used to conjunct with Introduction to University programs, such as ‘Study Abroad’ students, TESOL, or Tertiary Preparation programs.]

Your ultimate goal is to achieve number 1, but it’s not always possible. Whichever way you choose to define these, be sure that it ‘gels’ with all of the IL initiatives currently occurring in your institution.
1. Regularly ‘re-visit’ your definitions to ensure that they are still applicable to the current environment, particularly if your reference services or instructional librarian team gains new team members. All of the librarians on your team need to understand the ‘terminology’ and be able to work with this. If people don’t feel comfortable with a particular definition or feel it means something else, consensus needs to be reached.
If you use the above ‘definitions’, please acknowledge your source, similar to the “Creative Commons” licence – © Suzanne Yule: The Lateral Literal Librarian http://lllibrarian.blogspot.com/

Anecdote of my information literacy infiltraton within a ‘flexible’ program faculty

2006-04-20T11:47:00.000+10:00

“I do not like to repeat successes. I like to go on to other things.”
~ Walt Disney
Anecdote of my infolit infiltraton within a ‘flexible’ program faculty
What is a Flexible program? A program is the same as a Degree, Diploma, etc. A course is = to a subject/unit of study. A flexible program is defined as one which is largely determined by the student, where from first year they choose elective courses, within the particular course requirements, but it is essentially student-centred. It is problematic for information literacy initiatives because you never know what the majority of students will choose to study and it is difficult to employ a stepped/graduated approach from 1st year through to the final year in any particular program. It also can have a large proportion of Off-campus students due to external offerings. These are also majority online courses. This is the beauty of working with a Faculty that either has a core course which every student must complete or structured programs where all students of a program complete the same courses except for final year when elective courses are undertaken.
* Look out for seminars & workshops, Faculty Education Committee meetings – there may be opportunities for infolit planning with Faculty staff. If you are ‘active’ with the Faculty, with your visits and keeping them up-to-date on email, when they have a need, they will contact you, of that you can be sure. The challenge is being prepared, getting help with other tasks when the opportunity arises is a big ‘make’ or ‘break’ thing, so let your supervisor know EVERY TIME you are contacted by someone for infolit course development.
* Be ready for the question – “What can you do for us/me?”
* Liaise with HR staff in Faculty to ensure that all new staff members have a ‘library orientation’ as part of the staff induction process. This way you get the ‘jump’ on possible new infolit advocates – at least you meet all the new staff, both general and academic and can make a time with academic staff for more in-depth discussions about the library and what you the librarian can do for them.
* Research Methods courses - I had the opportunity to work with an academic and incorporate infolit 'activities' into a Research Methods Study Guide. A previous librarian had done the ‘groundwork’, there was a lot of infolit theory and concepts, but no practise or activities, and unfortunately neither of us could convince the need for allocating marks, and again I didn't have the opportunity to spend anywhere near the time I would have liked to on this. But at least where there's a start made, others can improve on this as time goes on. [providing a new lecturer doesn't come along and totally revamp the course & remove the infolit components, although you’d have to wonder about the teaching philosophy of someone who does this].
To improve this component I would have shown the academic literature which supports the argument for allocating ‘marks’ for infolit tasks – literature repeatedly argues that infolit is more successful when ‘marks’ are allocated as this sends a message to the students, this is important we are getting marks for this part. Also the time and effort spent on learning these competencies is rewarded. I would have started ‘small’ and asked for 5 marks out of total marks. Better some than none.
* Writing or communication courses along these titles – Communication and critical thinking, Critical thinking lends itself to developing the ‘evaluative’ and ‘higher order’ of information finding, using and evaluating; Professional & technical communication
* I have worked closely with an academic at her request to help with incorporating infolit into a ‘rewrite’ of a course titled ‘Cultural Industries’. This lecturer was brilliant in her grasp of infolit concepts and a module in the Study Guide was titled, Doing Research, Writing and Referencing. This module covered topics such as intellectual property, copyright, plagiarism, background reading, defining topic, Search statements, keywords/synonyms, boolean operators, Information sources, Evaluating sources, Referencing – Style required for course, What are the elements of a reference in a Reference List? and putting the reference list together.
The module also supported my personal philosophy of teaching [or is that learning] from ‘end to beginning’ with regards references. This was all covered in Week 4 of term.
To improve this component I would have given the academic literature which supports the argument for allocating ‘marks’ for infolit tasks – literature repeatedly argues that infolit is more successful when ‘marks’ are allocated as this sends a message to the students, this is important we are getting marks for this part. Also the time and effort spent on learning these competencies is rewarded. I would have started ‘small’ and asked for 5 marks out of total marks. Better some than none. Also, this ‘module’ perhaps could work better broken down over a number of weeks and interspersed in course content of earlier and later weeks. I would also discuss eliminating ‘screen captures’ of the catalogue which demonstrate ‘boolean’ concepts because with every upgrade of any catalogue or database it is immediately high maintenance to keep updating, so that students don’t get confused. Wherever possible, use ‘graphical representation’ with text and diagrams to illustrate concepts. I would then move on to 'spread out' the concepts within the course content to move from 'implanted' to 'integrated' information literacy.
* Information systems management with e-commerce applications – with this course, the lecturer was developing an assignment that required the students to include different types of journal articles in the References of an assignment. This would have been a great opportunity to look at course content and opportunities for including infolit content, such as the ‘differences between, scholarly, trade, popular magazine articles’ and ‘evaluation criteria’. My family relocated to another part of the State and my husband transferred, so I didn’t have the opportunity to bring this to fruition.
* Human computer-interaction – was also looking at ways to incorporate infolit into this course. The lecturer involved was brilliant and the students did a lot of 'teamwork' assessment, so perhaps a Blog would be a good 'tool' to use to introduce infolit and build on the 'team' aspects.
*Online teaching opportunities - with Faculties that offer External courses, most teaching is online, so look for ways to 'improve' or 'faciliate' these online courses and by doing this you can open the door to information literacy.
*Use your 'online information literacy tutorial' as much as possible because the ground work is already done - some 'areas' are not necessarily critical if not given a subject-specific example, e.g. "how do I read a citation?" but some are such as "Which information sources will I use?" This section could be expanded or 'disciplinised' [not really a word I know but sounds good] because it's the 'sources' and 'level' of information that changes significantly between disciplines.

All the best to LL’s involved with Flexible Faculties! It can happen, it all comes down to that commodity we are always short of, TIME! As well as academic interest and open opportunities! The 'online tutorial evaluaton form' post has been re-schedule for a few weeks time.

Anecdote of an online library tutorial overhaul; when, why, how and who says?

2006-04-13T19:23:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”
~ Walt Disney

Anecdote of an online library tutorial overhaul; when, why, how and who says?

When – In October 2003, the initial planning began. (I must add that I began this ‘project’ knowing that I was most likely leaving the organisation. I had concerns about whether any of what I was doing would come to fruition. Did it happen? read on).

Who says – Simple simon
I was instrumental in commencing an overhaul of an online library skills tutorial in an academic library. It came about due to a request for me to present something at an in-house library teaching team meeting. So, we (my supervisor & I) agreed to a presentation regarding the online tutorial as I knew there were major issues which needed addressing. The idea was to elicit feedback and responses from the Liaison Librarians and other members of the teaching team and compile these and commence work on the overhaul.

Why – Issues with original tutorial
 It became problematic as it had a lot of ‘search tool’ instructions and screen captures and therefore very quickly became dated when there were upgrades to Virtua catalogue, or to online journal databases.
 Duplication of some concepts.
 Interface clunky and non-adherence to online design principles, students could not return to the ‘Home’ page easily. This is an extremely important online design principle. {The original design was due to the fact that librarians were at the time ‘on their own’ with technological and instructional support so it was rudimentary of necessity, but over time, we gained instructional designer and most importantly senior management support to give this tutorial the professional presentation, as well as ongoing maintenance that it deserved}.
 components were added to this tutorial which were not ‘vetted’ by the teaching team and therefore the tutorial was also growing beyond ‘manageability’ and needed to be weeded. (sounds like collection development doesn’t it).
 It was found over time, that not many students were using this wonderful resource, based on hit rates. Why? because it wasn’t a user friendly interface? or because they don’t want to do an online tutorial, they want a ‘real person’ to explain it to them.
 Support - I think there were some who wanted to see this tutorial ‘deleted’, but as a Liaison librarian responsible for a large proportion of ‘flex’ or distance students, I was an advocate for keeping it, but overhauling it. Librarians spent a lot of time going over and over the same concepts with multiple distance students, how wonderful to get them started with an online tutorial when you established that they really had no idea where to start. {Again this was due to technology constraints at the initial ‘birth’ of the tutorial and probably higher levels of management didn’t 'appreciate' the merits of an online tutorial for distance students, not to mention the other advantages}.
 There were no assessment or evaluation items included. Self tests are important so that students can ‘check’ they have fully grasped the concepts. Evaluation or Feedback from students is also extremely important, so that ‘improvement’ can be made, because let’s face it, nothing is perfect, first time round. As librarians, we learn very early that most things we do are ‘evolutionary’, not ‘revolutionary’.

The teaching team provided excellent feedback and thus began the planning stage with a small (3) member taskgroup.

HOW – Initial planning of the overhaul
1. Use powerpoint to complete a ‘storyboard’ of levels and content. I started ‘mapping’ using Excel the sections we would include, the content we already had, removed duplicate content and the terminology. This became tedious, so began, step two.
2. Content formulation based on the ANZIL and CAUL information literacy standards. The ‘question posing’ formula came about due to many years of student questions, and my recollection of these. I had also developed a 'word' guide which I regularly emailed to Off-campus students, which was titled: Where do I start? The students often commented how useful this was, and the guide content was eventually incorporated into the website. Also another issue was that ‘librarian-ese’ or library science jargon was not helping us ‘bridge’ the gaps for first year University students. It also came from a personal viewpoint that in a library we rarely asked the students what would help them (due to time and money constraints to conduct focus groups or similar). So, without the advantage of this, the next best was to try to think like a '‘newbie’ and use questions that students would ask us, either at the desk or individually, rather than use the traditional ‘heading’ format.
For example:

Using/Searching the catalogue [changed to] How do I find books?

Search tools [changed to] What tools do I use to find information? A sub-menu was:
Why would I use one tool and not another?
Ask the following questions to assist in selecting search tools: What is the Content? What is the purpose? What is the scope? And so on.

Analyse your topic [changed to] How do I start researching for information?

Using/Searching journal databases [changed to] How do I find journal articles?

Searching the Web [changed to] How do I find good web documents?

Evaluation Criteria [changed to] How do I know the information I have is good?

Primary/secondary/tertiary information sources [changed to] What level of information should I use?

And so on. I also consulted with other librarians to elicit feedback.
3. Interface - My vision was to use a structure similar to the ANZIL template that my institution played a key role in designing at the time, or rather the Electronic services Librarian spent many hours in consultation with Instructional designers. This was launched early 2003. We Liaison librarians also provided feedback regarding this template. I consulted with the Electronic Services librarian as to the feasibility of the library using a similar template for the ‘New’ tutorial and this was given the thumbs up and positively accepted. To have a look at the type of interface, visit the Anziil website - http://www.anziil.org/ It was to have 'breadcrumbs' also, so that students could see at what section they were currently, and easily return one step, or 2 steps if they needed.
4. The design was to be modular so that particular ‘sections’ or modules could be ‘slotted’ into online courses which use an online course management software such as Blackboard.
5. Assess student learning or ‘self tests’ attached to each section so that students could practice what they had learned while completing the tutorial, or at any point.
6. Online evaluation form - to elicit student responses, not the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ variety of evaluation, but blank box for student feedback to each question as well as a ‘picture’ of the respondent. The principle here is to develop a reasonably brief form so that students will respond and to also acknowledge each student that responds, by way of a ‘thank you for your submission’ or similar.
This next one comes from further reflecting on this post.
7. Interactivity? Is there any mechanism for giving patrons interactivity? What about a Tutorial Blog. Students can see what others are saying and the 'Comments' posted by librarians.

Did it happen? Yes it did. Congratulations to the librarians who persevered and made it happen!

Next post: online evaluation content - a sample.

Upcoming Posts - what will she write about next?

2006-04-12T16:49:00.000+10:00

Titles of my upcoming 'posts':

* Anecdote of an online library tutorial overhaul – who says, why and how?

* What should we ask in an online tutorial evaluation form?

* How do you integrate information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘flexible’ programs?

* How do you integrate information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘structured’ programs?

* What are the different types and levels of information literacy integration?

* To Blog or not to blog?

* Whither the practicalities of information literacy. Who teaches, who marks, How do you keep track?

* Anecdote of infolit infiltraton within a ‘flexible’ program faculty

* First Year University students and the Google Degree – Are your students Googling their way to a Degree?

* What are Australian University libraries doing with Infolit? - A brief external audit with hyperlinks

* What are Australian University Libraries doing with Blogs? - A brief external audit with hyperlinks

* INFORMATION COMPETENCY SCAFFOLD – What do you teach to create information literate and competent graduates?

*What are my top 10 journal recommendations for information literacy librarians and why?

Is Information Literacy lip-service or a full-time concern in your library?

2006-04-12T14:14:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19th Century German Poet, Dramatist & Scientist
Is Information Literacy lip-service or a full-time concern in your library?
I have come to the conclusion that the implementation of information literacy initiatives for a Faculty is as successful as the time available to the librarian to allocate to this aspect of the multi-faceted role of a Liaison Librarian (LL). [All you need to do is read the position description of the present day LL and you wonder how they do all that they do, makes me wonder how I did all that I did in a 36 1/4 hr week.If you want to know have a look at www.seek.com and look at the librarian position descriptions for jobs currently advertised. The responsibility of some of these positions is astounding, almost like mini managers. Make sure you negotiate for the top level of pay with these top level responsibility positions]. The librarian needs time to 'think', 'plan’, 'reflect', 'assess', 'evaluate' information literacy and in most libraries, due to time constraints this is a very slow, infiltration into Faculty curriculum. It cannot be done properly without investing huge amounts of time and effort not only in the initial planning stages, but each term when the librarian teaches, evaluates and assesses any infolit which is required to backup the 'curriculum'. Most University libraries these days are fully supportive of their librarians’ Infolit initiatives, but what is lacking is an empathetic understanding as well as internal contingencies such as extra staff to appropriately cover LL’s for the TIME involved - INFOLIT is a FULL-TIME task. If an LL is also expected to devote large proportions of time to other in-house projects, infolit won’t happen in a hurry. Do you have an Information Literacy Librarian on your Reference Services team? Perhaps they could be doing the initial planning with you and then some, but only 1 person can be in 1 place at any one time. Oh! Utopia would have an infolit librarian AND a LL attached to every Faculty! {Now there’s a thought I just have to put in writing, a University Teaching Graduate Diploma in Information Literacy, these ‘infolit teachers’ could then be employed by each Faculty!} Of course there are Teaching & learning Advisors or Instructional Designers within most Universities, however their role is multi-faceted also, not specialising in information literacy and your curriculum. Of course the LL would still be needed to keep the infolit teachers and course academics up-to-date with library-specific issues. Library managers, particularly in academic libraries, need to take stock of infolit expectations and the time each librarian allocates to infolit. What I am trying to say is, How can anyone expect a BMW plan when there is only ever enough time for a horse & cart approach. Librarians need to sleep too. I know of 1 or 2 librarians who never had anything to do on weekends so they lived, ate and breathed infolit 24/7 and therefore had hundreds of plans which never came to fruition because there’s never enough hours in a day. However some of us make different choices and choose our partners and families to spend time with outside of work time. Anyway, it seems that time is the biggest factor for everyone, librarians and academics alike, so keep this in mind when starting any planning and get it in writing from your supervisor as to the ‘time’ allocated to each LL to devote to Information literacy Initiatives. Is this in a teaching and learning philosophy, What happens when you are called on to 'teach' or 'plan' infolit for more than the allotted time? i.e more than 10hrs per week during first weeks of term. Is there a contingency in place for the 'overly-infolitted-liaison-librarian?
Titles of upcoming posts:
* How do you implant information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘flexible’ programs?
* How do you implant information literacy into Faculties that offer ‘structured’ programs?
* Whither the practicalities of information literacy. Who teaches, who marks, How do you keep track?
* Anecdote of infolit infiltraton within a ‘flexible’ program faculty
* First Year University students and the Google Degree – Are your students Googling their way to a Degree?
* Anecdote of a library skills tutorial overhaul – why, how and who says?
HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL!! Chocolate is good in moderation, like most things, especially work!

Where should I apply for a job as a librarian? Public, Special, TAFE or University library!

2006-04-06T13:29:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - Don't spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you have now was once among the things you only hoped for. (The Vatican Sayings, Epicurus)

Where should I apply for a job as a librarian?

Things to consider when you are applying for a job in a library, whether a special,
public, TAFE or University library:
A SWOT analysis while most often is conducted internal to the organisation, it would seem only sensible to look at the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of each sector in order to determine which one best suits your preferences. Perhaps you have worked a number of years in other industries and are now a qualified librarian. The following questions have been posed as a starting point. Consider marking each question with a S, W, O, or T when analysing a particular workplace. It would be a good idea to have these on hand when you interview for a job.

Geographical location - What is the cost of living in the town/city?
Do you see yourself enjoying the lifestyle?

What is the size and reputation of the organisation?
Are they quality accredited? Do they follow an industry Standard or Quality system?
What is the external collaboration and support status? i.e. other libraries
What is the internal collaboration and support? organisational culture and senior management support
Is there a Union which represents this sector?

FUNCTIONS
What is the main function of the library?
Who are the primary clients?
Do you agree with the philosophy of this service and Client service charter?
Is this where you see yourself in 5 years time?

BUILDING & SPACE
What is the space and building like?
How old is the building?
Is it acceptable to work in?
What is the flooring and window covering like? Is this important to you?
Are there offices available for professional staff?
Are OHS requirements adhered to with spacing of desks?
Is the office area right beside a noisy machinery plant room?
How often is the air-conditioning maintained and cleaned?
Do you have your own phone and desk?
Is the staff room pleasant?

FUNDING
Are there sufficient to build core collection of both print and electronic resource provision?
Is the funding Federal or State?
Has there been any budget cuts in this sector or organisation?
Are there external funding mechanisms in place? i.e Friends of the Library, Government grants, etc.

TECHNOLOGY
What level of technological expertise is required of a librarian?
Which types of technology are used in the organisation, i.e. IBM or Apple Mac system, Windows XP,
photocopying facilities card operated machines, log file printing,
reader/scanners for vision impaired,
CD-ROMS, DVD's?
Are there sufficient on-site OPACS?
Are there training facilities available?
Is there a self checkout machine?
Does the organisation have systems staff on site?
Does the organisation have a web master?
Do they implement 'accessibility' issues in the web site? {Users with disabilities}
Does the organisation have a web presence?
Are the users able to access the library catalogue from home?
Is there a range of electronic databases available?
What innovations is the library involved in? i.e. Blogs, Podcasts, RSS or Learning Management Systems such as Blackboard.

STAFFING AND STAFF EXPERTISE
What is the 'organisational structure'?
Is it a single person library? Could you work in 'isolation', or would you prefer to have immediate support from colleagues?
Do the staff in management positions have some form of management Degree or formal leadership training?
Are they qualified to do the job? Look for those who have completed a management Degree or other accredited leadership training.
Check out the qualifications listed beside the names of people you are considering working under or with.
Are job descriptions available for all staff members with clear lines of responsibility?
Is the remuneration consistent with awards applicable within the Industry serviced by the library?
Are staffing levels sufficient to provide an efficient service?
Does the organisation have a high staff turnover rate? This may indicate a problem with management styles or excessive workloads.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Is there a formal 'performance review' and 'staff development' process? What is it and how is it used? - Ask this question at interview
Does each professional staff member receive equal opportunity for professional staff development training such as conferences, workshops, etc. i.e. 1 conference per staff member per year, or 1 workshop per staff member per year. Is the immediate supervisor responsible for soliciting requests or is this a 'central, equitable process' whereby a 'committee' approves staff requests for training?
Is higher education study leave supported by this organisation?

PAY RATES & STAFF RECOGNITION
What is the rate of pay for librarians?
Is it consistent with Industry or Award rates? Have a look at the ALIA pay rates. Are staff recognised by the organisation for achievements?
Is higher duties paid to staff who are requested to perform duties for section managers for leave periods?
Do staff look happy? Do they seem tired and harassed?

Lastly, happy job hunting. There are wonderful innovative leaders out there!

Biblioliteracy - What's a Bibliography, citation or reference list?

2006-03-30T11:06:00.000+10:00

Quotes of the Week - "Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand." Chinese proverb
"Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three." Confucius

We as librarians tend to focus a lot on the 'keywords, journal database searching and less on the result of the searching which is a reference list, or bibliography to support the research, whether it's a 1000 word assignment, Honours paper or a Masters thesis, the end result is a well cited paper or presentation. In the University sector it would seem we are doing faculty and students a disservice if we do not place importance on the end result. Let's teach from the end to the beginning - show students that information seeking, finding, using and evaluating is done with the core competency being that of a well referenced paper, or well researched scientific report or presentation. How do students do this well if they don't first fully understand the different types of references, or the Referencing style which is expected? Give examples of well referenced and poorly referenced papers so that the learners have 'standards' to work with. Academics could provide this or librarians could consult with teaching staff. This would be the start of information literacy education, as I see 'referencing' competence as a fundamental competency in higher education and we could be using it as the pivot or foundation for teaching information competency. I was a sheep and followed the traditional method of teaching the 'analyse your topic' bit first, but now after reflecting upon and reading the literature, feel that it isn't an ideal teaching or learning method. Isn't it better to start from 'concrete' and current knowledge before moving to the abstract and unknown. Isn't a large proportion of higher education and assignment submission woven around finding appropriate references? Teach citations first, because many high school students don't know that there are so many different information sources (they could learn all about these, from the citation list), and the different parts, how to identify, etc.) They will also learn from the start to use the Reference list of each article to find other articles, to find 'expert' authors in the field, etc. Then, move on to the commonly accepted beginning of infolit classes, 'analsying topic / identifying information need'

Stage 1 - the challenge is working out how long to spend on this and who introduces it, academic or librarian

1. Citations/Bibliography/Reference List - elements of a well-rounded reference list, elements of each citation in the reference list and distinguishing between different information sources through the reference list (supports learning from the concrete, and known to the unknown)

2. Give them a mini bibliography with elements missing so that they have to find the missing parts, highlighting the importance of using an information management tool or personal 'filing' method with a checklist to ensure all the information for a citation is recorded.

3. Get them to choose the search tool to find the 'citation' information, (perhaps supply with a small list of possibilities) and ask students to justify why they chose that tool.

Stage 2
Start traditional infolit - keywords, etc.etc. When we have no prior knowledge of authors, or citations, you need to do 'keyword' or subject searching, etc.etc.

My reflections as well as a comment from a colleague in the field has prompted me to work on an Information Competency Framework which also incorporates the CAUL Infolit Standards. I have made a start and this is the introduction - "This framework has been developed on the premise that our role in higher education, particularly libraries, is to develop information competence in University Graduates. This framework does not support the notion of teaching them absolutely everything about one particular library. When students leave University, things unique to the library like the call number system, locations, selection of databases, etc. will be different but the things that remain the same no matter where we are in the world are the ‘competencies’, those skills which can be transferred, those intrinsic information competencies and critical thinking abilities that the student takes with them." The things unique to the library will be discovered at point of need (powerful learning) either through peers or the Information desk or Circulation service points. Who said information/reference desk service is a dinosaur?

What is your leadership style?

2006-03-24T13:18:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
~ Dwight Eisenhower

I read a brilliant article written by Rooke, D & Torbert, W (2005) about leadership which helped me understand the actions and 'modus operatus' of one of my previous supervisors whom in my opinion was very much the opportunist unfortunately. I have also had the experience of working for a manager who was more a Diplomat, and therefore easily swayed by the opportunist. I also have had the pleasure (allbeit brief) during my working life of working for a supervisor who was of the Achiever variety. This lady was the circulation supervisor at the time & is currently the Enquiry Centre Manager. If you are a manager of staff, and experiencing high staff turnover, perhaps it's time to take a look at your leadership style, at least have a read of this article, it may just enlighten you as to why good staff don't stay. If you read the article and see yourself at the bottom leadership style, perhaps you need some formal management training. Why not keep a journal of your actions and decisions? Start a Blog, so that you can reflect on your management strategies and style, acknowledge the pattern and then work out strategies to change your leadership style - strategies which are of the Achiever or Strategist variety. After all, it's not soldiers in a computer war game, or pawns on a chess board that you are responsible for, it's real people, with real skills, real goals, real career paths which should be supported responsibly, and ethically lead and managed. As the saying goes to 'err is human' but to be repeatedly calculating and manipulative is serial-minded opportunistic leadership which needs addressing. Perhaps management is not your forte' and best left to those who are real 'management in the making' and keen to better their skills and those of their subordinates and climb the ladder of leadership styles, not the $corporate ladder. Wouldn't you ultimately like to be a Strategist? If it seems too big a challenge, then perhaps you need a career change, like being a popular magazine gossip columnist, perhaps that's where you really fit?
What's my leadership style? - Achiever who can think outside the box!
These 7 leadership styles are also discussed in the following .pdf article. http://www.nsw.ipaa.org.au/00_pdfs/cooper.pdf

Rooke, David., & Torbert, William - 7 Transformations of Leadership.
Source: Harvard Business Review; Apr2005, Vol. 83 Issue 4, p66-66, 11p,
1 chart, 2c

Biblioliteracy - Bibliographic slip up!

2006-03-16T11:59:00.000+10:00

Quote of the week - "After all is said and done, more is said than done." [Author unknown]
Have you ever been confronted by someone who is in desperate straits trying to find the missing piece of a bibliographic reference because when they originally found the article, it was ages ago, and noboby told them they'd need to keep all the pieces together so that when it came time to publish it would be a cinch, and furthermore this paper is due in today! In my 11 years in an academic library, I remember going to the nth degree for a number of students, researchers and academics to help them find the 'missing piece' of a reference, more often than not, they left with big smiles, because most of the time it was our library catalogue and databases where they originally found the article. Well, I hope you are all very kind to everyone who does this, because guess what, I have just done it myself. What, a librarian? Yep, I'm afraid so. Alas, I don't currently have Endnote or any other bibliographic software loaded on my computer. Must do this! I have recently been researching Blogs and the use of blogs in the education and library environment. I intend to Blog about this in coming weeks, but however, I want to write a properly referenced, full length article of the non-asignment type. So, the other day, I started compiling the reference list comprising the articles I currently have, and guess what, some pieces were missing! I retrieved 2 articles from an electronic database, but had no idea whether it was from vendors such as Proquest, or Ebsco. I had a hunch it was from Ebsco, but didn't know the exact database; MasterFile Premier or Business Source Elite? Oh why didn't I make sure I had ALL the information in the first place! {My access is through the State Library of Queensland subscription databases, by the way, Thanks for this wonderful service, it helps non-working by choice librarians keep up-to-date}. So, what did I do, I had to log back in and then look up the HTML version of the article which gave me the database name. What does it take to get this through the head? We can talk till we are blue in the face about this "keep all your bibliographic information from the start", but as the saying goes, 'to err is human'. This little experience has got me thinking though, should we teach 'from finish to start', or 'end to beginning'. Perhaps we need to give students the exercise of compiling a mini reference list, and give them some incomplete citations (subject specific or course specific). When they discover they can't finish without the missing piece, they will then have to find it. This will get them thinking about the most likely 'tool' and also using the 'tool'. What a learning experience this would be! Has anyone tried this? Did it work?

Is citation count a good basis on which to give a particular author credit or favour?

2006-03-09T13:06:00.000+10:00

Quote of the Week - A computer is almost human - except that it does not blame its mistakes on another computer. {Author unknown}

To the question of citation counting. The answer would seem to be a resounding no. I asked myself this question after reading an article whereby an author of a library-related article outlined in the course of the article, quite a number of flaws with literature written by other librarians. An author may have been cited 20 times, but this is not conclusive the author was cited favourably. The paragraph in which the author was cited and indeed, the articles written by the author should be evaluated in order to determine if the author is truly an expert, whether they have delved deeply or just written superficially about the topic. Be wary of crediting someone on the basis of citation count alone. If someone has been cited 100 times, it might be the case that 90/100 times another author may have highlighted flaws, or discrepancies and incomprehensive observations on the part of the original author's research or article. This question was raised many years ago by Garfield, (1978) in his article entitled, "Is citation analysis a legitimate evaluation tool?"
The following is an abstract of this article: "The general adverse criticism that citation counts include an excessive number of negative citations (citations to incorrect results worthy of attack), self-citations (citations to the works of the citing authors), and citations to methodological papers is analyzed. Included are a discussion of measurement problems such as counting citations for multiauthored papers, distinguishing between more than one person with the same last name (homographs), and what it is that citation analysis actually measures."
Citation searching has its place and is a very powerful research tool in order to track research in a field or research done by a particular person. To use a quantitative numbers-based process alone is shoddy and it is advisable to use other methods to evaluate the quality of what is written; expert panels, peer reviews, etc.

Why teach an 'old dog' tricks they already know?

2006-03-05T14:36:00.000+10:00

Isn't this insulting to the dog? How about University students? Wouldn't you be insulted if you had to re-hash 'information skills' that you already developed, because at the age of 45 years, having held a number of jobs in your time, one of which was in public relations, you now find yourself back at Uni to do a Teaching degree and spend time learning skills you already know. This is just one of many students who may be enrolling in University courses [subjects] and whom have Intermediate Information Literacy skills but are required to start at beginner level. This is a case in point for Pre-testing, or Entry Level testing of Information literacy Skills in Undergraduates. The article by O'Connor, accessed 3 March 2006, showcases methodology and instrument types which could be useful. Is it sensible for an Intermediate infolit level student to be doing 2 first-year courses which both have 'embedded' or 'incorporated' infolit skills? This gives credibility to the 'Generic Information Literacy' case, whereby students could be 'credited' for skills they already have. They could start a Bachelor of Education and alongside this, begin the Intermediate or Advanced Information Literacy Skills course. Throughout the year students could undertake the Assessment activities and then at the end of the year a more 'formal' type of assessment which would indicate the success of the student and the success [or otherwise] of the Information Literacy course. At the end of the degree, students could undertake an 'Exit-test' of information literacy skills. Wouldn't it be nice?
O'Connor, L; Radcliff, C and Gedeon, J. Assessing Information Literacy Skills: Developing a Standardized Instrument for Insitutional & Longitudinal Measurement.
Manuel, K. (2003) Assessing student learning: Strategies and lessons from the library instruction classroom.
Another interesting approach - Mogg, Rebecca

Why Generic Information Literacy? Equity and Graduate Attributes!

2006-03-03T12:37:00.000+10:00

When I say 'generic' I mean 'general' to a Program or course of study, so there would be some 'subject specific' examples for the students, however, I also mean 'transferable' skills. Wouldn't this be a more 'equitable' approach to incorporating information literacy into University degrees and ensuring that ALL, not just some, students, have been exposed to information literacy standards which they can transfer into not only their working life but into everyday life. Owush-Ansah (2004)argues in his paper that it's too common a practice in academic libraries whereby some students don't receive any infolit skills training and others get a double dose because the approach to infolit is not a campus wide approach. It's one thing to teach students how to use "Expanded Academic ASAP via Infotrac", but another thing entirely to teach them "Why use it?" Is it really necessary to spend the first year teaching tools, or should we be teaching "Why would you use this tool instead of that tool? Perhaps we need to rethink 'structured' databases, and 'structured' classes and let students do a bit of the 'discovery' for themselves. Maybe we should teach them about 'Scope Notes' and "Help" screens and how to help themselves, because this is what you do in the 'REAL WORLD' when you don't have access to every fulltext, online database imaginable! Debra JONES (1996p.2 of 7)agrees with this premise as she states that the focus of library instruction should be to teach real world learning strategies that apply in the workforce. The real challenge for librarians is to design classroom activities which teach the students to Independently interrogate the database or search tool and have fun at the same time! What about the fundamentals such as starting broad, mapping out a search strategy, finding alternative terms, using 'broad' searching strategies in the database and then focusing or narrowing a search using Truncation, Wildcards, Phrase searching, or using limit options. These are the things that remain the same, but the databases or search tools which students may have access to upon leaving Uni does not remain the same. If they understand the Fundamentals, they can then transfer these to any 'Interface', anywhere, anytime. This remains the same in the face of meta-searching or federated searching, because how do they understand the "results" if they don't know how the results are retrieved. Some librarians are heading in a sensible direction with these activities. How and when do they learn to think critically about information, to evaluate it, determine if it adds to the body knowledge, whether they need a primary source or secondary source, whether the newspaper article is biased, and the legalities of information use and sourcing and referencing? Equity is an important issue in the information literacy agenda and should be addressed more closely by those in a position to promote and implement a University wide information literacy course. Do ALL students receive a minumum standard and consistent level of exposure to these important graduate attributes at your institution?
Owusu-Ansah, Edward K. (2004)Information Literacy and Higher Education: Placing the Academic Library in the Center of a Comprehensive Solution. Journal of Academic Librarianship, Jan2004, Vol. 30 Issue 1, p3-16, 14p; (AN 12560937)

Information Literacy - What is it?

2006-02-26T20:49:00.000+10:00

"Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start!" What is information literacy? Information literacy has been defined as many things, with it commonly being placed under a 'lifelong learning' umbrella. What is it really? CAUL Standards are defined as:

Awareness of information needs
The information literate person recognises the need for information and determines the nature and extent of the information needed.
Search strategies for information
The information literate person accesses needed information effectively and efficiently.
Evaluation of information and its sources
The information literate person evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into their knowledge base and value system.
Storage and retrieval of information
The information literate person classifies, stores, manipulates and redrafts information collected or generated.
Use of information
The information literate person expands, reframes or creates new knowledge by integrating prior knowledge and new understanding individually or as a member of a group.
Socio-cultural, ethical and legal information practice
The information literate person understands cultural, economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access, and uses information ethically, legally and respectfully.
Lifelong learning context of information literacy practice
The information literate person recognises that lifelong learning and participative citizenship requires information literacy.

These standards have learning outcomes attached to them. So, are you information literate? Who will ever be completely literally information literate?
Although information literacy programs are seen to be a cost effective way of assisting clients, they can also be extremely resource intensive. It takes time to plan, deliver, and assess the outcomes of an information literacy program, and time = money. In the academic library environment, huge amounts of time are spent planning, delivering and evaluating information literacy programs, but not much 'assessing' seems to happen. How does the evaluation process become useful or effective if the 'learners' are not assessed on the learning outcomes? This is a trend in majority of 'online tutorials' to 'Teach what we practice, but not practice what we Teach.'

I personally think that we can learn a lot from Teacher librarians who are at the forefront of teaching information literacy to potentially future Uni students. What we need is for this phenomenon of information literacy to start at the beginning [preschool] as a continuum and flow through to High school, so that first year students are starting University with similar 'literacy' levels. This sounds good in theory, but putting it in place is another thing entirely. But, still, "let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start." Advocates of a generic University level information literacy course might actually have hit the nail on the head, as this would be a good universal way to 'teach' information literacy to ALL students, not just those that are 'lucky' enough to have lecturers that support information literacy, librarians who have 'struck it lucky' with 'structured' programs and opportunities to embed information literacy into subject specific courses. Wouldn't the time & effort involved in establishing a core 'infolit' course in which every student enrols be better than the 'hit & miss" approach? After all, when a student leaves University, those fancy flash databases may not be available to them, then where will they go, if they haven't learnt to find the tools for themselves? "Let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place to start."