Thursday, December 22, 2011

e-book chapter, and 2011 wrap-up

It's been an exciting week.  Today I am "done" with work until the new year, and it's looking like an exciting 2012.

Here's a quick rundown of the past 10 or so days:

1)  Went to the Detroit Center last Wednesday to "float" during a grants workshop hosted by the UM Library and the Nonprofit Enterprise for Work for local non-profit organizations.  It was exciting to see how library and database resources can be used for organizations who are doing such important work.  My days at the Mott Foundation came back to me as we moved fluidly through the Foundation Center's website looking at funder's and grants that applied to the non-profits missions.  It was a really cool experience to be there and see yet another facet of what the Library does.

2)  Almost have finished "dscribing" part my Community Information Seminar from last semester.  Dscribing means taking the lecture slides from the course and ensuring that all of the content and images are "open" for use by others.  We collect lecture slides from our guest speakers, they decide the level of licensing they want (Creative Commons) and we publish it.  When we're finished, you can view the course here (http://open.umich.edu/education/si).  Topics included information technology development, the Open.Michigan movement, social media use in Egypt, local informatics, and more!

3)  I'm published!  As part of my SI 641: Information Literacy for Teaching and Learning class, we had to observe 20 hours of instruction, teach two face-to-face lessons, and create a project related to information literacy.  Then, we were asked by our Professor, Kristin Fontichiaro, to write a chapter for a book about one or more of our experiences.  The book, Information Literacy in the Wild, was edited by Kristin and includes a forward by School of Information Dean  Jeffrey MacKie-Mason.  You can download it free via Smashwords or in .pdf format.  Please feel free to share widely!

4)  Finally, I'm going to take a break next week and start blogging again after the new year.  Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season and best wishes into 2012!

Thursday, December 15, 2011

connect2edinfo - becoming a professional

Becoming a professional is a lot of work.  Not only is there an actual lot of work to do inside of work, but there's a lot to do outside of work, too.

I decided a while ago that I wanted to change my Twitter name, that I wanted to create a website, and - after matriculating into the Higher Education program - that I wanted to change my blog's domain name.  Whew! 

You might ask why... and the answer is strictly professional.  My old Twitter name - abundntsunshine - meant nothing, particularly because I live in Michigan where we don't have a lot of sunshine.  I wanted to create a website because, hey, that's what information professionals do, right?  And, I wanted to change the blog domain name from being solely about libraries to being more inclusive of my interest in higher education (not that I believe we shouldn't still live.love.libraries). More than anything, I wanted to create a cohesive online profile.

So then the challenges started.  Not only would I have to come up with a semi-creative and relevant Twitter and blog domain name, but I'd have to find the time to change all of the links in various spaces.  Between LinkedIn, my School of Information profile, Facebook, Twitter, and my resume, it's nearly impossible to keep up with everything - let alone change three important pieces of information everywhere.  That's why it's taken me until December to do so.  But I'm pretty satisfied with the results.

Connect2EdInfo is my new Twitter (@connect2edinfo) and blog domain (connect2edinfo.blogspot.com), and my website is simple - alissatalleypixley.com.  It was my attempt to keep my online profile professional, and for it to represent what I'm interested in and what I hope to work on in my career.

It's a lot of work to continually put myself out there in a way that is representative of my professionalism.  But I think it's worth it - more and more people are reading my blog and it's my hope that the new name change will begin attracting broader audiences on Twitter and on the web.  Enjoy (and thanks for reading this self-promoting post :)  - hopefully there are some lessons learned for all.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Changing World of Academia

Last Thursday, I attended the HASTAC pre-conference on alternative jobs in academia.  I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, but the workshop was definitely a learning experience.  It turns out, the pre-conference workshop was primarily populated by Ph.D. students in the humanities, arts, and sciences fields who were considering professional jobs in academia because they either did not want, or were not sure they could get, tenure-track positions.  Now, I am not a Ph.D. student, nor do I have plans to become one, so the tone of the conference initially threw me off.

Then I started thinking about how this workshop would end up affecting higher education in general.  What I deducted was that jobs in administration, and actually all over academia, could become more competitive with more Ph.D's applying for non-tenure-track jobs.  At first, it seemed having a bachelor's degree would allow one to get jobs in higher education.  Then I realized to do what I wanted to do (become a librarian, or obtain another position in higher education) would require a Master's degree.  Having found two master's programs by which I was enthused (Information and Higher Education), I thought I would have a very good chance at contending for jobs in my areas of interest.  Now it's occurring to me that those jobs may increasingly become more competitive due to people with even higher degrees applying.

It's just something to ponder - and not something I'm necessarily worried about.  I still believe that my degrees are valuable - and those degrees do not even display my work experience or service to the community.  But, it was eye-opening to realize that higher education is rapidly changing (at the conference I heard there were something like 600 jobs for every 1000 Ph.D's).  It just reminded me that it's important to stay on top of what's going on in my fields and that it's important to continue to think to the future - the future that is evolving very quickly. 

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Instructional Reflections

As it's nearing the end of the term and I'll be attending the HASTAC Pre-conference Workshop called Alt-Ac: Alternative Academic Careers Workshop in just around an hour (which I'll blog about next week), tonight's post is taken from a draft of a chapter that I'm writing for my Information Literacy course this semester.  For the class, we had to observe 20 hours of instruction and then teach two information literacy-related courses (all of which I did at the UM Library), and then write a chapter about it.  The chapter will part of a book that includes chapters from each student and will be published as an e-book and then also printed by the Espresso Book Machine.  So, with no further ado, here's a portion of my chapter...

What you learned that other people should know about to improve their own practice

Instruction at the library is something many librarians can do by choice.  It’s a requirement for some positions, and is expected that should assistance be needed to instruct or float (walking around to help students stay on track during the session), librarians will step up.  There are library resources for instructors including teaching outlines, informal mentors, and research-based practice on which to draw.  However as a beginning instructor teaching topics on which I needed fluency, I needed to do a significant amount of work on my own.   This pre-work came to be what made me comfortable teaching, and it has played an important role in my teaching effectiveness.  So, to all instructors just starting out (or those who want to revisit their practice), I present to you my lessons learned and recommendations for diving into information literacy-based instruction as an information literate instructor.

1) Observe sessions
I had the chance to observe many types of workshops with different instructors (and one at another local university) and was able to glean an incredible amount from actively observing.  I learned about keeping energy up (especially if you’re teaching undergraduates at 8:30 in the morning), being prepared for the topic, and different strategies such as walking around the room while talking.  Observation time can give you the chance to sort out your teaching style and think about what you like and didn’t care during different types of workshops.

Take the time to sit in on a variety of instructional sessions and don’t be afraid to step out of the box to observe workshops that are in a different field or even location (such as a public library or other university, if you’re an academic librarian).  Ask colleagues in your workplace if you can watch their sessions, or even float if you feel comfortable.  Sit in on technology workshops, citation workshops, database workshops, and other types of sessions that can give you a varied view of instruction.  While you may be teaching workshops on how to format citations, the instructor for that database class might have a teaching style that is more “you.”  By observing different instructors in different settings with different topics, you’ll gain a more rounded view of what instruction means for students and for you as an instructor.

2) Consider your audience
Instructing undergraduates, PhDs, faculty and staff within a few weeks of one another really caused me to think about the audience of the workshop while I was preparing to teach and actually instructing.  Teaching different types of groups requires thinking about the prior knowledge of the participant (while admitting it’s impossible to actually know this - especially when teaching a one-shot workshop), the basic skills they may or may not have, and why they are attending the session.  More specifically, undergraduates may or may not have visited the library before, and one can cautiously assume they are familiar with computers in terms of web browsing, but they quite possibly are only at the database workshop because it’s required for their class.  On the contrary, participants who attend the computer basics workshop are presumably there because they feel they are lacking computer skills and really want to absorb the workshop materials.

3) Conduct background information on previously taught sessions
Most of the sessions I taught had been taught before by many different people.  I was provided with teaching outlines, but this only gave me part of the story.  It was incredibly useful to talk to instructors who’d taught the session before to find out what works well and what doesn’t work so well (for example, some databases might not handle simultaneous use as well as others - and that’s helpful to know!), and how participants might react to the material.  In a database workshop I co-taught, by talking with my co-instructor prior, I knew that one part of the workshop might take longer than predicted, so we needed to keep an eye on the time.  Again, this was useful knowledge to have before getting in front of the class.

Reaching out to other instructors to prep and debrief workshops is an effective way to network with colleagues and improve your instruction.  Looking back up to lesson learned #1, see if you can observe a workshop you’ll teach in the future and then chat with them afterwards to talk through some of the parts that were great or a bit confusing.  Most colleagues should be open to this discussion.

4) Practice, and then practice again (by self and with others)
This might feel like an obvious step to take, but I’ve observed instructors who were clearly not as prepared as they could have been (and I’ve been there too!) - one of the steps for moving through the session was out of place, their designated search didn’t bring up the right results, or they left out a major part of the workshop.  

Prior to teaching, I set aside time at least one week in advance to talk with colleagues and then actually sit down to practice working through the material.  I follow all of the prescribed steps for the workshop (“now we’re going to go to the library homepage, and in the main search bar type ‘Children and Media.’  This will bring up a page that...) and talk myself through what I’m going to say.  When time allows or I’m feeling particularly uncomfortable about a topic, I will practice in front of other colleagues or classmates to get feedback.  By practicing , and practicing, and practicing, I’ve learned that being prepared is huge in feeling effective and comfortable in front of a classroom.  I’ve also learned that you can’t predict everything that will happen, but that by being prepared for what you can control, the moments that you can’t are much easier to handle.

5) Co-teach
Not everyone might agree that co-teaching is effective or even something they want to do, but if you can find a colleague with whom you work well, having a co-instructor can be very useful to learning instructional skills and teaching styles.  I found a co-instructor who’s teaching style and prep style both compliment and supplement mine.  It’s been a great experience to work with someone who has his own teaching identity but who is willing to talk through instructional strategies and sessions (part of the practice part in #4!) and who is there for support during the workshop and after to provide feedback (see #7).  Co-teaching can be a great way to start getting your feet wet in the vast instructional waters.

6) Teach!
Dive in and do it!  Until you start teaching, you can’t possibly start to reflect and improve on what you can do better.  When I started teaching, I did not have a teaching style and was merely trying to get through the material.  By working with a co-instructor, having my mentor observe my sessions, reviewing the workshop evaluations from participants, and reflecting alone I was able to get critical feedback that has improved my teaching.  I found that the more I taught, the more comfortable I got with different audiences (making quips about dissertation writing with PhDs, telling undergraduates that this tool will really save them time - because who wants to spend more time on citations then you have to) and the more comfortable I got in general.  And the only want to do this was to start teaching - ready or not!  

7) Reflect and debrief
This may be the most important step, not necessarily to start instructing, but definitely for becoming a more effective instructor.  Having a co-teach or observer at some of your first sessions (and even as you progress) can make all the difference in being a great instructor.  At the beginning of my teaching, I stayed behind the podium and, as mentioned earlier, just tried to get through the material.  After receiving feedback, I started walking around the room, pointing more to the screen and became more interactive in my teaching style.  I also worked through some of the examples in the workshop that simply didn’t work as well as I wanted.  Additionally, reflection has helped me consider what I need to do more of in terms of preparation -- more practice, more background information, whether I want a co-instructor or not.  These are valuable lessons on which to build for each and every instructional session I teach.  Don’t be afraid to do this outside work - take this time in your office to write notes, or wait til you get home and can sit and think for a few minutes outside of the setting.  It will be critical to improving your teaching to debrief each session, even if it’s only for a few minutes.  Think about what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what you can improve on next time.  A couple of bullet points can put things into perspective.  And if a session had a lot of issues, think about how you can prevent them if possible, and more forward to making the next workshop that much better. 

Friday, November 25, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking this week off from writing to gear up for the end of the semester.  Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving weekend!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Connecting Developments - Detroit Center

Last week was busy and exciting for many reasons.  On Wednesday, I visited another library, which I wrote about here and Thursday I had a chance to go to the Detroit Center, a UM-sponsored center downtown that houses UM projects such as UM Semester in Detroit, School of Social Work Technical Assistance, the Ginsberg Center, and many more that you can read about on their website.

The work at the Detroit Center is something in which I'll be engaged through May 2012.  As part of my internship, I'm required to commit to a project in my second year of my graduate program that not only enhances my own professional development, but also helps fulfill a need in the library.  I've always been interested in outreach and knew that the outreach librarians here at UM were doing interesting work.  Once I learned more about their goals and projects, and started thinking more about my higher education degree, I was even more excited to work with them.

The library is at the Detroit Center to provide research assistance to the projects.  Part of the work we're doing now is thinking about how to connect the correct librarian to the appropriate project.  It's exciting to see things coming together. Other goals for the library at the Detroit Center include providing resources for grants, and helping the project leaders think about how they can use library resources to enhance their work.

This relates to my visit to the nearby academic library last week in one direct way.  One of the Dean's visions was to create more partnerships and collaborations.  UM is not perfect and thus one of my career goals is to create more partnerships between university libraries, university resources, and the surrounding communities that need them.  The Detroit Center is a great example of how this is happening NOW and has a lot of potential to develop further.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Continual Professional Development

Professional practice means something different with each new professional development.  This week, I had the valuable opportunity to visit another academic library, talk with their instruction coordinator, observe an instructional session, and have a conversation with the library's Dean.  Having only spent time at the University of Michigan Library and one public library, this experience was both eye-opening and a great lesson learned.

Each of the pieces of my visit to the other university library was worthwhile in it's own way.  The discussion with the instruction coordinator allowed me to peer into the inner-workings of how another library structures it's staff and views instruction.  The instructional observation showed me how an actual lesson was constructed and executed at another library.  The conversation with the Dean provided me with an inside view of an administrator's priorities and vision for the changing world of academia from the perspective of libraries and higher education. 

The structure of this other academic library was very different from UM's library.  The staff there are tenure-track faculty which allows them different challenges and opportunities within their work.  The person I spoke with discussed their own goals and the goals of the instructional staff, but said that because there is no supervisor telling them what to do, that they have a lot of freedom in their positions and can focus on what they feel is important. 

Another interesting piece of our discussion focused on the instructional goals that this librarian identified.  Information literacy came up several times in the conversation which led me to believe that this was a large focus for his/her work.  Additionally, the focus for this person's work was on the research process and helping students understand that process, as well as sources, in a more embedded way meaning that they believed the focus should not be on "one-shot workshops" but rather on intentional learning that included follow up. 

The instructional observation also provided me a different view of this type of work.  The instructional session was held in a large lab and the instructor "took over" the computers because there was not a large projection screen on which to show the demonstrations.  There was time left over for students to work on their research while the instructor floated around.

The conversation with the Dean was very interesting to me, as I like to take a big picture view of situations.  Without revealing too much, the focus of her/his vision was on partnerships and collaborations.  They believe that the future success of libraries on university or college campuses depends on this.  For me, this was exciting because it's exactly what I want to do in my career. 

I probably could have written about 10 pages of reflection after my visit yesterday in conjunction with my visit today to the Detroit Center (which I'll focus on connecting next week) but for now I'll leave it at this and the overall value add to my professional development.  The greatest lesson I learned was how continually learning and expanding my view of libraries and higher education can only enhance my career.  The networking is key, yes, but especially because it's a great way to see what's going on on the ground in these fields which will continue to inform my work as I move forward.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

New Future Developments

Well, life keeps changing at warp speed.  Lots of changes happen from one day to the next, not to mention how much happens in a week!

Part of the change this week is that part of my next endeavor is set.  Nope, not a job - another degree.  As I began my MSI, and started thinking about what it is I wanted to do long-term, I realized I wanted to be involved in budgeting, managing people, facilitating, project management...and so, I decided I wanted to give myself the best chance I could to go into administration in higher education.  With a little investigation, I discovered that I could most likely complete the 30 credit Masters of Arts in Higher Education in one extra semester.  One extra semester!  I consulted with some professors and colleagues, and decided I had to do this.  So, I applied over the summer and was accepted just last week.  

I'm excited to start pairing my knowledge of information with new knowledge I'll gain of higher education.  When writing my essay to the School of Education, I started actualizing how the two degrees really complement one another and also will provide me with a wealth of job opportunities when I start looking.  My heart is in the library, but there are so many ways that the library could collaborate with other departments - I could help facilitate that.

My real goal for my career is to create partnerships between the community and higher education, and the library is one place this can happen.  But there are other places as well, that I'll be excited to start exploring in my new coursework.

I'm still going to be looking for jobs.  Ideally, I would like a part-time position or a full-time position with fairly negotiable hours (say 35 hrs/week over the fall semester while I finish the ED degree?).  Not a lot to ask in this tough market, I know.  But as I wrote a few weeks ago, it never hurts to ask, so I'm throwing this idea/request to my readers in case they hear of anything to pass along.

Until next time...thanks for reading!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Open Access Week & Organizing

Happy Open Access Week!  Here at the UM Library (where I work part-time), we had two formal events - one small and one large - to celebrate this week of scholarship, information sharing, and participation in open resources.  Open Access Week is, "a global event now entering its fourth year, [...and...] an opportunity for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research" (openaccessweek.org).

On Tuesday, we did just that.  In partnership with the Copyright Office and MPublishing, I organized a brown bag event to bring together people from all positions in the library to discuss open access, what it means to them, and what it means to higher education and scholarly communication.  It was a fairly "easy" event to organize - people from Copyright and MPublishing were more than happy to work with me, and we publicized in the library newsletter and via email to the library.  The turnout was perfect for a discussion - we had several folks from different libraries (some librarians, some staff) and several people from the partnering offices.  It was an incredible opportunity to hear people directly related to open access issues converse amongst themselves as well as with those of us not quite as familiar with the topic.

For people looking to host events or raise awareness, my experience organizing a brown bag showed me that it was a great way to bring people together to have discussions about issues.  It's informal, but provides a space for people to talk - which is often what's needed to start a conversation.  Plus, as the organizer, you get to interact with and learn about a subject or topic that you're interested in.  Open Access week was a great way to make this happen here.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Starting the search

As November is upon us, April seems far away.  That is, until I remember that that is the month in which I will graduate with an MSI, and will want to be employed by then or soon thereafter. 

So the job search is upon me, and the idea of it is looming heavier week by week.  Of course, I've already set aside time to look for and apply to jobs but, of course, somehow those hours get pushed away by homework, work, instruction prep time, or any other number of things that come up.

But it's time to focus - and focus, for me, happens with motivation.  Motivation for the job search happens when I see positions that I want, and want badly.  This week, there happen to be three jobs - in the Ann Arbor area - that would be great.  There's one that I'm pretty excited about, and the other two are jobs that I could see being extremely fulfilling.  I can't be picky as I want to stay in this wonderful state of Michigan and, preferably, in this area, but I don't want to "waste" my investment from graduate school by taking a position with which I won't be satisfied.

That's the balance - wanting (needing) a job but not wanting to settle.  Any tips for finding this balance, applying to jobs, (or any leads on job openings!) would be more than welcome....

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Networking...Pay it forward

I've been really lucky to have supervisors who have helped me begin networking.  One of my former bosses was well connected and put me in touch with an administrator at a nearby library.  Immediately after the initial email introduction, I emailed the contact and expressed interest in visiting the library and observing instruction.  As this was over the summer, I received a prompt reply with an invitation to come sometime in the fall, when more classes would be happening.

And.... it's fall.  Of course the semester caught up to me, and I realized I'd better not lose this contact by getting back in touch too late.  So, Sunday afternoon I sent the message, and Monday morning I had a reply in my inbox by the time I got to my email.  By today, a Thursday, I have a visit set up, including observation and at least one meeting.

There are a couple lessons I've learned from this situation. 

1)  It doesn't hurt to ask: Before my old supervisor left her job, we discussed my future and she immediately put me in touch with those she knew in the area.  Had I been afraid to have this conversation, or afraid to email the administrator, this opportunity would not have happened.

2)  Pay it forward: Besides for the good of the profession, there is no good reason for this administrator (who must be VERY busy) to go out of her way to not only contact me initially but also to respond within 24 hours to a request from me.  I believe that people are inherently good and that it would be hard to turn down a student who wants to visit your library, but I also have to believe that there is a sort of "pay-it-forward" attitude that led to my success in getting this visit set up.  And, really, it all is for the good of the profession.  Presumably, this administrator and my former boss have been in contact and have helped each other in various capacities during their careers; attending to my request for a visit was one way that the administrator paid forward something my former supervisor may have done for her.  To me, this is a wonderful example of networking - knowing you can contact colleagues and make "asks" while being assured that they would do the same for you in a heartbeat.

I'm very lucky with the colleagues I have here at UM, and I will remember these experiences as I move forward in my career to continue to strengthen the library field.


Thursday, October 6, 2011

Pure Observation

And it's Thursday again, and we're back.  It's been another intense week, but a very good one.  A colleague and I taught our second iteration of a Dissertation workshop, and it was awesome just how easily and effectively we were able to work together.  Fantastic!

The real highlight of this week, though, was my observation a class.  Pure, simple observation.  It's been a long time since I sat in a classroom without floating or teaching, so it was a great time to actually reflect on instructional practices without actually being involved. 

This experience helped me realize that pure observation can lead to a different type of reflection than I talked about last week, when I was reflecting on my own teaching.  The observation of others allowed me to step outside myself and think about the instructional practices instead of how I, personally, was instructing.  It helped me focus on the content and praxis of the lesson, and how students reacted to it.  When I was reflecting on my teaching, I had been using a prescribed lesson plan, so most of my reflection was internalized - me thinking about how I was teaching. 

After this experience, I can see now that both are extremely valuable.  I could see how, as an "experienced" instructor who gets caught up in their job, one could forget to sit back and observe others.  I will try to remember this experience as I move forward in my instructional career, so that I can continue to evaluate and reflect on myself as well as others to be the most effective professional possible. 

Thursday, September 29, 2011

And, We're Back! Realizing and Balancing Capacity

It's been a while... for the last time... I promise.  Last I wrote, it was August, right before the madness that is grad school/work.  Now, school has started and work is in full swing.  A colleague in my same position tonight asked, "how many hours are you working this week?" and my number equaled his and we both said, "too much."  It's not that I mind working a lot, because really, the past month has been amazing.  It's more about taking the time to have time for a bit of reflection and knowing my capacity to do things well as opposed to just doing them.

Between last Tuesday and next Tuesday (7 days), I'll have taught 5 workshops.  Whew.  Might not sound like a lot (and I know people teach that much all the time) but what I didn't consider prior to committing to instruct was the prep time.  Now I've taught before, and prepped before, but usually one workshop a month.  Not two a day :)  So, the reflection part of this - AND - the prep part of this all tie nicely into my thinking about capacity.  I know that in order to be a good instructor, prep time is key.  And, that reflection time is key.  And both of those take time.  Luckily, instructing is my job, and my job relates directly to one of my classes (Information Literacy) where part of my requirements are to observe and, ahem, instruct.  So this is actually all great experience.  But looking back on September (wait, what?  September is over?), I realized that most of what I'd done was prep and teach.  Which is good, but I didn't get much else done (homework, wait, what?). 

So, back to capacity - what is the balance between doing a lot and doing well?

I felt over capacity at work last month.  But then I started reflecting; during the last month, I think I became a better instructor.  It felt at the time like I was doing too much, but in reality, I think I was doing the right things too much.  It felt like I was just flying at an unreasonable pace, but that fast pace actually allowed me to not over think or get nervous, but rather just to do my job.  Prep, instruct, prep, instruct.  Reflect, prep, instruct.  And then, all of a sudden, I'm comfortable instructing.  Not that it didn't take hard work, it was just hard to see how that hard work payed off until the reflection came.

So, back to capacity - in the end, I've realized that doing the right things a lot can be very valuable, but that reflecting on that experience is just as important.  My prior knowledge of instruction, paired with my whirlwind month of September did  help me realize that teaching 5 classes in 7 days is not sustainable, but that now I can feel more comfortable teaching in general and helped me realize that I need to reflect to evaluate, learn, and move forward to continue gaining new skills.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Another Interruption

It's been quite a summer.  First, I threw off my few readers with not blogging for a few weeks and then I apologized and did it again.  Well, to put it slightly, I am out of the office for yet another three weeks - unbeknownst to me prior to the knee surgery.

It's been interesting - trying to get back in the swing of things between when I arrived back in July knowing that I'd be leaving at least for a week in August.  And, trying to cover chat shifts and work online from home in between an intensive home rehab program that literally takes as much time as a full time job.  It's frustrating to not be able to work and dig into the projects that are so rapidly approaching as the year begins.  It's hard to leave colleagues short-handed when so many transitions are upon us.  I'm resigned to think right now that it's a part of life, and a part I'm grateful to experience as a 27-year-old grad student without a family, before the school year begins, and in the hands of very capable medical professionals.  I'm resigned to think that "it happens" and that people can hopefully see the effort I'm trying to exert and that I can still be a valuable part of the library when I come back.  I can only hope that at times like these people remember the other things that I've done and will still want to include me on teams, knowing I am reliable.

I actually have little doubt about these things - my co-workers and superiors are very understanding, gracious people and I can only say how lucky I am to have them as a part of my life as I resign myself to the couch 8+ hours a day instead of living the full, intensely busy life that usually is.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Instructional Reflections and Feedback

Last week I wrote about participating in lots of instruction over the coming week.  Well, that was this week, and this week is nearly over!

On Monday, I participated in orientation workshops for incoming freshman (I did this Thursday as well), and also completed a Word for Dissertation workshop.  On both occasions, I had the chance to collaborate with colleagues, which was a great experience.  Co-teaching has allowed me to feel more comfortable with instruction and has also provided me with the confidence that I could probably have done both on my own if I absolutely needed to.  Working with my colleagues was great, though.  It was wonderful to have someone there who could help answer questions or jump in if I forgot something, however it was also simply nice to work with people whom I respect and admire.

The orientation sessions were a nice "warm up" for my later Dissertation workshop.  Talk about different audiences!  I went from working with 18-year-old-incoming freshman to mainly doctoral students of all ages.  The freshman were tired - it was early morning and they were there because they had to be.  The doctoral students were fully interested and engaged as this was something they chose to attend on their own and something they knew would be helpful throughout their long dissertation process.

The freshman orientation provided little to no feedback, other than what we could see.  Some students asked great questions while others struggled to keep their eyes open.  Most participated in our polls via iClicker but other than that, it was impossible to tell how effective of an instructor I was.  I did receive some feedback from my co-instructors, which was helpful because they could do this presentation in their sleep and have a good deal of instructional experience.

The Word for Dissertation workshop, on the other hand, provided more and different feedback.  I not only received tips from one of the facility's main instructors, but also from 7 out of the 9 workshop participants.  The feedback from my instructor was very helpful - she talked about not saying things were simple or easy (because they may not be for everyone!) and also about leading into topics with analogies and in simpler terms.  Extremely useful information that I can carry across my instructional experiences. 

We also received feedback from the participants via an anonymous evaluation system.  The numbers that we received were good - no negative feedback, a few neutrals, and mostly good.  The comments, however, were one of my first lessons of criticism in the way that I could not ask for further information or could not really use the information to be constructive.  I received a comment that said it looked like I was nervous and made a lot of mistakes by having to go back and repeat myself.  I read this comment, and of course, felt a little bad.  The same commenter had said my colleague had a nice presence about him, so he clearly did not see that same confidence in me.  I did, to be completely fair, mess up right at the beginning of my transition... which probably through this person off.  But it was hard to read the comment and not be able to follow up, ask what I might do better, or simply realize that the beginning of my half of the workshop was confusing for people and that I need to practice more for next time.  Which I will, regardless :) 

The point of this post is just a reflection on my instruction this past week.  It also is a beginning thought on how we could make our assessment of the workshops better in a way that might provide more constructive feedback.  I'm pretty sure that there will nearly always be "that person" or people who don't respond at all, but as I am more confident in teaching certain workshops, I would like to evaluate the assessment that goes along with them.  The one-shot workshop model might be something I re-visit when this time comes.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Instruction, Instruction, Instruction (and..... we're back!)

I did the bad blogging thing, I dropped off for several weeks and am now diving back in with the hopes that my few gentle readers will forgive me and again read my posts. 

Interestingly enough, my last post talked about how I was thinking about starting my next instruction project with a colleague and between then and now, we not only taught one workshop but are gearing up for our second on Monday!

The first workshop we taught was on RefWorks, a bibliographic management tool.  We ended up following through on simultaneously editing a Google doc, each creating our own specific outline, and then practicing once before the workshop together.  Of course we each prepared on our own, but knowing that we worked well together, the one practice together was enough.  And the workshop went well!  It was a program we were both fairly familiar with so we were able to get smoothly through the tech parts and trade off well.  Another great part of practicing, at least, was working with my colleagues.  We were able to provide ample and productive feed back to one another both during the practice session and after the workshop which was helpful.  It was also helpful that we are both very able to take constructive criticism so that we could help each other improve.

Monday is our next teaching session, this time on instructing Microsoft Word for Dissertation.  This program is quite a bit more complicated and there are always things that can go wrong with not a lot of explanation.  Because the first session went so well, we decided to use the same planning method as last time.  EXCEPT, we practiced more.  We have had different levels of feedback during each session - all of which have been very helpful in thinking about our session on Monday.  It's been very useful to have the different levels of feedback; by levels I mean our levels of preparation paired with different levels of novice/experts. 

During our first practice session, an expert in instruction and Word for Diss helped us through and showed us how she generally teaches the workshop (effectively).  It was so useful to have this during our first run through because we inevitably forgot content or needed refreshers on the "why" we do this or that.  During our final practice session, we had observers who were less knowledgeable about the program (though still experts compared to the workshop constituents) and who were not experienced in instruction.  Their feedback on the content specifically was very helpful.

This planning workshops thing is getting easier, but no matter how experienced I get, I'll always remember the planning process, and even more importantly as I move forward, the evaluations.

Getting evaluations from the first workshop (which only had a few people) was very exciting because no matter how we thought we did, if our participants didn't learn something, our workshop was less successful.  In the future, after I have more of the workshop content and know-how down, I think it would be interesting to re-look at the evaluations and see if there are questions I'd like to incorporate or take out.  All comes in time, but this instruction thing is pretty interesting.

Oh, and happy summer!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Working Together

So, I finally have a workshop scheduled to teach!  All on my own!  Well, wait... not all on my own.  In fact, I'm team teaching... with a colleague... who is teaching his first workshop too...

We're really excited to get started on instruction, but I really did not know where to begin when I was asked to do this.  I've learned some on this topic, and feel confident that we'll be able to produced a productive session, but it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights moment when I knew I would actually have to conduct a workshop.  My supervisor offered to send me their latest outline of the session that I'll teach, but I didn't just want to do what someone else did because that was the way it was done.  I searched our old instructional outlines and found four more.  Now, where to start with that?

In the planning meeting with my colleague, he had a great suggestion.  Why don't we just start a google doc, go through these outlines, and pick out the things we like?  So that's what we decided to do.  Hopefully after we come up with our own outline, we can add some interaction and our own personal touch.  However, as the first workshop, it might be good to do it, get comfortable and then start playing around.  Any thoughts or suggestions on this? 

Friday, May 27, 2011

Stepping out of the box...How-to

If you thought this would be a how-to guide, my blog title worked and I fooled you just a bit.  I'm actually hoping for some discussion, thoughts and advice.  Here's the context...

This week I was given some more concrete projects on which to work such as finding or creating content for training modules, creating Lib Guides for updated software, and re-thinking how we present hand-outs and guides to supplement our workshops which requires me to research, gather, and decide on effective materials to use - or produce them myself.  It's been interesting to start to see what others are doing with videos, websites and Lib Guides; the difficult part is thinking outside the box and stepping into a new realm of learning using online tools.  In my early research, I've seen some good stuff (on which I'll report in a post later this summer) but haven't yet come across something that really said, wow, this is new and exciting and something I've never seen before and, and, and.  So the question is, motivation?  How to step out of the box?  I'd love to hear suggestions for thinking of new, innovative, and creative ways to make learning fun.

Not that thinking about this and learning as I go isn't fun, because it is.  This is the first "job" I've had where I have the autonomy to think in this way and consider creating new content that has not yet been produced.  It's really exciting, and, what I think being a librarian of the future is all about.

Now, back to brainstorming... :)

Friday, May 20, 2011

Not even going to go there... and here's why.

So, if you are knowledgeable about the "information world," or follow any librarians on Twitter or in the blogosphere, you've most likely seen something about Seth Godin's Monday blog post on "The Future of the Library."  I happened to read this on Monday, and on Tuesday my Twitter feed was full of remarks, comments, posts, responses, criticisms, and so on.

When I originally read the post, I bookmarked it to comment on in my blog this week.  However, after seeing the uproar on Tuesday, I think I learned a valuable lesson... the easy way?  I'd wanted to analyze this blog post, remark on my agreements and disagreements, provide my thoughts on the future of the library.  But then I thought about my credibility.  Just starting to put myself out there, it could be a huge mistake, I realized, to comment on this article without reading responses of my colleagues and those in my networks.  If I want to be viewed in the information and education world as a reliable and innovative source, I absolutely cannot repeat what those who are very visible have already said without adding something new.

Yes, I have thoughts on Seth Godin's blog post.  Yes, they are thought out.  And yes, they've probably already been hashed out somewhere in this vast digital space.  I just cannot, therefore, justify creating a passionate post that ignores what others in the field are saying. 

To me, part of being a strong, successful professional is considering what my colleagues are saying - whether I agree or disagree.  To ignore these people would be to ignore the fact that we all need to work together - on some level - for the success of our field.  To ignore my colleagues would be to ignore what they have learned in their institutions, from their patrons, and from their experience. 


So, before I go running my mouth (or fingers, in this case) about what think, I need to consider what others think.  And, I'm realizing that that takes time, energy, thought, and more time.  To all you who do this consistently - kudos.  And to myself, lesson learned.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Another reason I love my field and the people in it

Librarianship is part of a professional field - the field of information - and while we have the ALA code of ethics it is often up to librarians themselves to to determine their level of professionalism.  In any field this is a balance, but working at a large, liberal, academic library, there is a certain level of freedom in this area.  However, professionalism comes with balance.  In an attempt for a somewhat comical post today, I'll tell my story of how I balanced professionalism.  But the story goes beyond that; it speaks to the good of librarians, the people who use libraries, and the amazing atmosphere of U of M and Ann Arbor in general. 
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On this past beautiful Wednesday evening, I was participating in my recreational women's soccer league as I do every Monday and Wednesday in the spring, summer and fall.  Three quarters of the way through the game, the unexpected happened.  With my toe planted in hopes of scoring our team's first goal, a completely legal side check sent my quad to the left and my shin to the right, with my body immediately withering to the ground in black-out pain.  Having played soccer for 12 years as a teenager, then taking a several year break before picking it up last spring, I was finally feeling strong and good on the field.  So ironically this knee injury would happen now.

However, the irony continued.  I not only live near one of the best research hospitals in the nation, but my primary care physician works in that hospital.  And not only would I try to get an appointment with her that next morning, but I was already scheduled to be in the hospital that next morning at 9:00 sharp - for a website consultation for my job.  Now, while my job is partially instructional technology, we don't often make office calls.  It just so happened that I needed to be at the hospital that following morning, so I decided I would still do the website consult as long as it didn't overlap with an open doctors appointment.  All of my friends thought I was crazy.  "Why are you going to a work meeting - your knee is the size of a grapefruit?"  "Everyone will understand if you cancel..."  I agreed with them, but seriously, if I didn't already have to be at the hospital, I wouldn't have gone to the consult!

So I went.  On the way to the meeting, I called for a doctors appointment.  They had an opening at 9:30 am.   Perfect; it was 8:35.  I got to the hospital, where apparently you can just grab a wheelchair if needed, hopped into a seat, asked the volunteer where I could find the location of my consult, as he cheerfully wheeled me up.  The appointment went just as planned and the woman I was working with even offered me coffee and a  ride to my doctors appointment right down the hall.  She really stood out as a person who was willing to help someone else out and helped me balance that work and life stuff that inevitably happens. 

There was no good reason not for me to go to my consult; it was at the hospital where I needed a doctors appointment.  But I wouldn't have been able to do both the work consult and the doctors appointment without good people.  I know librarians are good people - wanting and willing to work with others when they need something - but this story is really telling of the people who use our services.  This woman went out of her way to make me comfortable and help ME out, when - while it may have looked like I needed it - I could have been OK on my own.  The people at the hospital were all so kind and helpful - making lighthearted jokes and offering to help.  OK, so helping is their job, but the joking and caring tones are not in their job description. 
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This all goes to saying that we learn things every day - I am learning what it's like to be less able.  But the moral of my story is that it is wonderful to be a part of a city and University setting where people use their resources and their privilege for good.  UM is such a large - yet small - community where what goes around comes around.  Over the last two days, I've experienced that first hand, and couldn't be more grateful.

Friday, May 6, 2011

My First (Official) Instructional Experience and Enriching Scholarship

This week at the University of Michigan, Enriching Scholarship consumed my time.  Enriching Scholarship is an annual week-long technology event (FREE to anyone with a uniqname) around the University presented by many departments including Literature, Science, and Arts, the Duderstadt Center, Communications, the Library, and many more.  For a little history on the people who produce Enriching Scholarship, taken directly from the Enriching Scholarship home page:
The TTC is a group currently comprised of staff from these units across campus. An annual initiative of the TTC is Enriching Scholarship, a conference offered for instructional faculty every May, showcasing over 100 workshops and sessions that address the use of technology in teaching and research.
Anyway, Enriching Scholarship is pretty great.  It brings together people who know technology, who want to know technology, and who want to share information about technology.  I attended four sessions - one each day - and learned about Productivity Tips, Tools and Tricks, Embracing Facebook in Your Teaching, Using Everyday Technologies for Teaching, and Find, Use, Remix and Create Open Learning Materials. Each of these sessions brought something new to my work and gave me ideas to move forward as I think about instruction and my professional practice.  


Additionally, I had the opportunity to co-teach one of these sessions: The New Basics: Computing 101.  What a valuable and great experience!  Our session was attended by very receptive folks who gave us great feedback about what they wanted to know and about what they learned in the session. 

While it seems our participants had a valuable experience, I learned a lot too.  Not so much about Computing 101 (though I did learn some tricks and tips too :) but about presentation style, preparedness, and adaptation during workshops.  As this was the first iteration of this workshop, we planned too much (or differently) than the participants wanted or needed.  The first part of the workshop - browsers, bookmarks, tabs, etc., took much longer than expected but it was mostly because people were asking so many (great!) questions.  So, timing of the workshop will need to adjust - either into a Comp 101 and Comp 102 or adding another half hour, or... so many possibilities!

Secondly, I could have been more prepared.  Part of me is always hesitant to actually practice presentations (which I did, but not enough).  I need to get over that and just practice, practice, practice!  Which actually leads to my third point - adaptation.  I had practiced, but only to the point where I could pretty much repeat information - and this did not serve me well when we had to adapt.  I got frazzled and tried to do way too much in the last 15-20 minutes, which I think was confusing for the participants after the first 1 1/4 hours was at the perfect pace.  But, the participants stayed after and asked questions so I think people were truly interested in the topic and glad to be there.

I am excited to reflect on and revamp this workshop with the feedback and observations that were made on Tuesday.  Plus, I got the first instructional experience out of the way and am more confident moving forward knowing what I can do better next time :)

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Next Steps

Last Wednesday, April 20, I finished my first year of graduate school in Information at the University of Michigan.  The final assignment that I had to complete was a project working with the Chelsea District Library, helping them gather information so that they can start revolutionizing the way their library can work with youth in order to empower teens and the Chelsea community as a whole.  It was quite an interesting project that coincided quite a bit with my visit to Chicago's YouMedia Center, that I wrote about a few weeks ago, and one to which my prior knowledge contributed. 

I worked with the Chelsea District Library to find metrics of other successful youth organizations across the state, country and world.  Metrics included such information as what does the program look like/how is it organized?; board members, development, and responsibilities; sustainability; and partnerships.  I put this information into a report that also included recommendations for their own youth initiative, a framework for them to outline their specific goals, and policy information that they will need to consider as they move towards implementation.

It was a very exciting project and I felt very lucky to be a part of it.  It will be exciting to see the model that Chelsea creates as it changes the way it's community thinks about the possibilities of a public library.


Presentation - Chelsea District Library from alissa talley on Vimeo.



Sunday, April 17, 2011

Readings: Semadeni, Blowers and Reed, Fontichiaro,

Wow, final week for blogging for SI 643.  My goal is to continue doing so weekly, with a focus on my library work.  But for now, I'll discuss the readings for this last class...

Semadeni - When Teachers Drive their Learning
Semadeni's article about professional development (PD) in his district was quite encouraging.  The Fusion method of professional development for teachers based on coaching, mentoring and observing simply made sense and seems to be much more effective than what I know about other PD (where teachers mostly sit in a room all day and hear presentations).  The interactive ideas of involving teachers in their learning process in a real way seems effective and motivating.  I also like how time is set aside for this (and he makes great points about the amount of time that teachers don't have outside of school) and also how it provides teachers choice in how they develop professionally.  Finally, the idea of fostering leadership within schools is something I see is lacking - it is quite hard to "advance" professionally in a traditional school system while this method provides teachers with those opportunities.

At first I thought, why are we reading this?  We aren't going to be teachers.  But, we are, in our own ways - we will be in instructors who have a say in how things are run in our libraries and we can bring these ideas of professional development with us.  Why can't librarians do this for each other?  Maybe not in exactly the same way, but in a similar way - coaching observing mentoring.  I bet that anyone in a new position could use an approach to professional development that is highly engaging and where they can direct their own learning.

Blowers and Reed - The C's of our Sea Change: Plans for Staff Training, from Core Competencies to Learning 2.0
This was an interesting article - written in 2007 but still applicable today.  It seems that staff do need to have core competencies when it comes to technology but that very few libraries take the time to do training on things that are assumed people would know.  I like the Four Tier's model and the idea of play - a lot.  When people get to play, they don't think of things as work.  Further, this model pushes collaboration which provides automatic community building among staffs.  The more collaborative and "fun" something is, the more people will want to discover how new Web 2.0 tools can be useful to them and their work.  And, I'm betting that those who needed this instruction in 2007 most definitely need it in 2011.  With all of the new tools available online, it can be overwhelming to jump into one that people have been using for years now (ahem, Twitter). 

This article, in it's own way, applies to something on which I'll undertake soon.  For the Enriching Scholarship, U of M's week-long technology symposium, I'm co-instructing a Computer 101 class.  We'll talk about what a browser is, how to open multiple tabs without closing a browser, what right-clicking can do, how to download something from a website, how to put a usable link into a PowerPoint presentation... etc.  These all may seem like things people know how to do - but they don't and it hinders their efficiency and abilities to understand how to use computers and not fight them in their work.  I'll follow up with a blog post about this in the first week of May :)

Fontichario - Planning an Online Professional Development Module
What I liked most about this article was that it recognized the changing needs of staff and how, even in tough financial times, librarians can do outreach for instruction and purposes of getting others excited about new tools.  Again, the idea of "play" was emphasized and I cannot express enough how glad I was to see it.  Even children don't play enough anymore in schools - their experimental classes like music are being replaced with training for standardized tests.  So, the ideas of adults playing - and passing that passion onto students - is pretty exciting.   Further, this module forces instructors to pave the way for thinking about how Web tools can be used personally AND professionally and to consider the privacy and safety issues which are still being defined overall in the world of the web. 

This week's reading, like many of the others, provides me with resources to consult when thinking about technology instruction and training, and how to truly engage the learners in the process.  Paired with the Fusion model, I can envision a comprehensive PD program involving both social and technological learning.  Pretty exciting stuff :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Webinars!

Welp, I'm not even sure we're supposed to write this week, but it kind of feels wrong not to.  So, I'll do a brief reflection of the webinar experience up til this point.  I've tagged one-shot workshop here too because I realized that a webinar really is a type of one-shot workshop, perhaps even more challenging due to the lack of face-to-face time.  Anyway...

Can't believe that was our last "assignment!"  I have to put assignment in quotation marks because again, it's a really practical thing that I am so glad to have had the opportunity to do.  Because we worked in groups of 4 this time (instead of partners for the book club and workshop), the task was different and more complicated.  Further, being able to speak on a topic for 20-30 minutes instead of being able to have full on discussions and activities as one would in a workshop made doing a webinar definitely a new experience. 

Two things I'll say with authority: 
1) it was so nice to have time to work on this in class.  Even though my group didn't actually do a lot of our research there, we did create our work plan AND got to know one another better during that time.  It was really helpful to have a chance to talk with people with whom I would be interacting in a professional space.
2) I was so glad to have watched another webinar before my group did ours.  I added some slides about the webinar basics, take-aways, and saw some of the technical issues that could and did arise for other groups.  This helped me know solutions to some of these and also helped me see what to avoid.

Overall, I think our webinar went very well.  We got good feedback, with the trends showing that people thought we did a good job and were very prepared.  They also seemed to learn a lot about a topic about which they didn't originally know very much.   Our participants would have liked to see more images in our slides (I agree) and they also had trouble with the sound (apparently we sounded like chipmunks at times).  These would both be things I would fix in the future (adding more images to the slides and investigating sound issues prior to the webinar).  Our group worked very well together and it seems the webinar was a success.

It's also been great watching other webinars!  People have overall done a great job and I've learned a lot about interesting topics.  I saw the webinar on teens in the library on Friday morning and learned about a group I'd never thought to include in libraries- young professionals.  The Saturday morning webinar on visually impaired patrons was also very interesting.  Today's webinar on limited English speaking patrons was a great topic too!  People have done a swell job of being prepared and knowledgeable about their topics which has made the webinars go smoothly.  It seems that the only real negative has been the technical stuff, even getting into some of the webinars.  Unfortunately this is a large barrier because it is a big part of the webinar experience.  The content can be great but if people can't access it, hear the presenters, etc., they can't get the content.  Luckily, I've been able to see and hear all of the webinars I've attended which is great.  It's been wonderful to hear my peers be so professional and have knowledge on such interesting and important topics.  Yay to everyone!

Sunday, April 3, 2011

T...T...T....Twitter

So, Twitter.  I actually can't wait to read people's reactions to this "assignment" (rather, to this professional development opportunity).  The tweets thus far have been interesting, informative, and some of them, kind of funny. 

I joined Twitter circa 2009, started tweeting a bit about ed tech, and then stopped once my job didn't require me to read article after article after article on education.  Before class on Monday, I rejoined the Twitter world and started following some professional library people but also news and tech sites, really trying to get a feel for Twitter before this week's assignment (rather, this week's professional development opportunity).  I tried using TweetDeck and then found that HootSuite might be a better fit for making "streams" and fully utilizing Twitter.  I actually tweeted and retweeted my five #si643 hash tags all week (instead of once an hour on Sunday) so I've been engaging with this social media tool now for a couple of weeks.  I must say, I'm not sure how I feel about it.  Its SO MUCH INFORMATION (talk about info overload, fellow si500-ers) so short it almost makes my head hurt.  I also got the HootSuite app for my android phone, so I'm fully plugged in.  It's been fun seeing what others have posted with the si643 hashtag and I must admit it is fun when someone starts following me and when I get a RT.  I'm even thinking (kinda sorta not really) about changing my name on twitter because it has nothing to do with libraries.  But, we'll wait and see cuz I'm getting a follower-base and don't want to lose that.

As for the part about starting to follow professional people based on the blogger's we followed followers (say that 10 times fast)... I couldn't find two of them on Twitter (Librarian is In, Information Wants to be free - though her blog is down right now and has been for the last 2 hours), one must approve my request (Not so Distant Future), and the other doesn't follow many professional folk (Gypsy Librarian).  I searched the two I couldn't find by name, by blog name, and searched their blogs if I could.  Not so Distant Future actually listed her witter name on her blog (what a concept! ;), and Gypsy Librarian took a minute to find because his twitter name is gyplib and doesn't come up when I searched Gypsy Librarian or his name.  So, needless to say, I had to step outside of the box to find my network of 25 (I can't see Not so Distant Future's followers yet because she hadn't approved me).  So, I defaulted to Bobbi Newman and Buffy J Hamilton - tweeters I know are big time in the Twitter world.  They both have HUNDREDS of followers and follow many tweeters, so I was able to build a solid network of professionals.  One thing that was slightly annoying was that I had to scroll through all of their followers and browse instead of searching for terms within the followers (like library).  I could have used ctrl+F but didn't, so I did a lot of scrolling.  It was interesting to build the network; I tried to find a variety of academic librarians, organizations like ACRL and ALA, and those interested in ed tech. 

I think I'll continue to use Twitter, to get my name out there, and get information, but I might have to spend sometime setting up my HootSuite so I'm not feeling so overwhelmed.  It makes me wonder though, do people always see everything on Twitter?  Do people enjoy getting this much info all the time?  There is always something to miss on Twitter, so how can I keep up with it all?  Another question is, on Hoot Suite, is there a way to remove tweeters from the Home Feed once I put them into a list?  That would be more helpful...

Again, interested to read other's Twitter reactions and maybe get some feedback on my experiences.  I must say though, ultimately, this assignment is great.  If you couldn't tell already, I'm really viewing this as a professional development opportunity - a chance to build a professional network AND get credit for it.  Pretty awesome...

Reflection of March 28, 2011 Class

Class last week was kind of a whirlwind - lots of topics, engagement, and interesting discussion.

First, what a treat to have Paul Courant in class.  It was too bad I was totally and utterly swamped the previous weekend through last Wednesday and sat in the back of the class for the first time all semester.  I'm just going to go on the record and say that I think that Dr. Courant is the person to look to for issues in the future of libraries.  I think his economic background, connections across UM and the world, and his realistic and optimistic views of what's happening today and what needs to happen are pretty spot on.  Not that I agree with absolutely everything, but most of it - and most of all, I respect his progressiveness.  It makes me want to be him one day!  (Look for me, circa 2035 Dean of Libraries? :)   I truly appreciated that he took time out of his incredibly busy schedule to engage with us.  However, what I took away most from his talk was his suggestion to be optimistic and don't list the reasons something is hard to accomplish.  I've actually been struggling with this idea this semester.  I've got some big, wild ideas for libraries (school, public, and academic, and communities) but every time I mention them to someone inside the institution, I'm brushed off.  People will say "well we tried that, people weren't interested," or "too many logistics involved..." stuff to that effect.  I will take his advice and keep it with me as I move around the library world and not let those things stop me!  Anything can be done if it's done right with the right people.  So, there.  :)

After Dr. Courant's informative talk (which I did enjoy - learned a lot about the Google Settlement and DPLA, and more), we discussed embedded librarianship.  This was a pretty interesting discussion, many ideas thrown around and it became clear, once again, that we all have different views of what this means.  Maybe its a good thing!  I think embedded librarianship gives people a chance to define their roles in libraries - something that is continually happening more and more and is needed for us to "stay relevant" (boy I'm getting sick of that terminology :)  Our discussion showed that the embedded librarian term can mean so many things and really opens lots of possibilities.  What's to say people won't be come entrepreneurs in this field?  Create this field?  Work from home and become consultants to people who've never thought that librarians could be useful to them (we even discussed an embedded librarian in the mall...).  Pretty exciting stuff... and lots of opportunity here.

Finally, we talked webinars and found our groups.  I'm pretty excited for this... we've got a diverse group and chose to focus on institutional repositories.  Should be fun and challenging.  As I wrote last week, I've not been a huge fan of webinars in the past, so I'm excited to make a good one.  :)

In short, a busy week (filled with sorrow for Prof Frost, overloaded grad students, and interesting topics) that is leading up to the end of my first year of grad school.  Already can't believe it and am excited to move into continuing to use the skills I've learned in this class in my professional practice.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

How People Learn Chapter 7; Montgomery; Matos, Motley, Mayer; Webinar

How People Learn, Chapter 7 - Effective Teaching: Examples in History, Mathematics, and Science

It was useful to read this chapter about effective teaching across disciplines (plus I just love this book!).  Digging back into How People Learn and being reminded of  that good learning is dependent on pedagogical and well organized knowledge is always a helpful framework when thinking about teaching and learning.  I also love how the authors incessantly remind us that solid learning begins with what student's already know and their questions about the material.

At first I wondered why we were reading this chapter - why do I need to know how to teach history, math and science?  And, well, I probably won't need to know how to teach each of these individually, but I do need to know what helps people learn in different disciplines and different ways.  What I took from this chapter was that different ways of teaching, connecting students to previous knowledge, activities that promote real knowledge growth, and creating communities of learning and practice are cross disciplinary techniques that depend on an expert instructor.  It's not that any teacher couldn't use these with practice and expert knowledge of subjects, but more that most instructors don't use these methods continuously.  I thought that the discussion of history dates and facts vs. research and evidence was particularly interesting.  The idea that "the history" is really just "a history" and that the dates and facts are just a basis (as is computation in math) for the larger picture.  Remembering that people learn differently was also a major point in all of the disciplines.

Keeping these things in mind is helpful when thinking about library instruction because all of those broader concepts apply - prior knowledge, different types of learners, being an expert, and creating community are things that librarians can and should consider while they plan their instructional sessions.


Montgomery 2010 - Online Webinars! Interactive Learning Where Our Users Are: The Future
of Embedded Librarianship


This article was interesting because it simply makes sense.  Librarians can and must become embedded in instruction (be it an academic library with academic departments, a public library with information about public school curricula, or a school librarian with individual class material).  The points made in here that librarians can be active in students learning through technology, can connect directly with faculty, and can have a way to connect beyond a "one-shot workshop" are critical to making embedded librarianship work.  Librarians can prove, once again, that they are integral parts of deep learning and can become embedded beyond the library into departments, courses, and assignments.  Interactive webinars are one way of doing this and they reach far beyond even virtual reference.  They provide a space for people to interact via technology and help the face-to-face happen without needing to be in the same place.  I see this as a potential area where librarians can really excel and be engaged.  A librarian could do a webinar for a course before it starts - "here is what will be helpful to you as you work through this class," "I'll be holding office hours via chat every week at this time," "look for my short webinar before you do this assignment, I'll be online when it's over so you can ask any questions."  Ideas like that are completely doable and exciting to consider :)


Matos, Motley, Mayer 2010 - The Embedded Librarian Online or Face-to-Face: American University's
Experiences


This article provided concrete examples of how embedded and hybrid librarianship works.  It seems interesting that the question remains - "would virtual embedded librarians remain relevant if they still had office space" because to me, the answer is clearly "yes."  I see librarians needed in EVERY space: online for those who don't want to or can't talk face-to-face, via webinar for those who can't make it to a session, in person for those who want to sit down and talk with someone one-on-one.   If a problem is coordination of this, a library could appoint a coordinator for these or develop policy on how to manage time, space, and technologies.  I appreciated this article because it gave me other ways to consider librarianship and best practices for engaging with users.


View a Webinar from a list to be provided - Webinar page on wiki, including link to Webinar Strategies page
I viewed a webinar sponsored by Library Journal and EBSCO/NoveList called "Libraries are Essential: Connecting to Youth in Your Community."  I must warn readers... I spent over an hour trying to download RealPlayer and figuring out how to make this thing work, (also the reason this is posted just at 9pm), so I might be a bit bitter in my overall evaluation.  I have to say that this webinar exemplifies the reason I am not a fan of webinars.  I used to watch them ALL THE TIME in one of my previous jobs, and never felt connected to the presenters.  I have to say, participating in class a couple of weeks ago with Bobbi was the best webinar I'd seen even though we couldn't see anything.  The slides during this webinar were not engaging, I couldn't find a chat transcript so I couldn't see questions or comments (not sure if they were submitted anonymously during the webinar) and I wasn't sure how to contact the presenters to get the materials they discussed during their webinar.  Plus, the presenters didn't seem quite as energetic or prepared as I would have thought.  The first woman who spoke seemed very nervous (maybe she was?) but then maybe webinars are not her best option for presenting information.  I get the point of webinars, I've just yet to see one that's really been engaging and interesting (outside of our time with Bobbi).  Otherwise, it's hard to sit for an hour and not be distracted... 

I must say, though, that this excites me to see my classmates and my own webinars.  Hopefully they (and my group) can change my slightly negative attitude toward this awesome tool.

Reflection of March 21, 2011 Class

During class last Monday we each had the opportunity to present a workshop with a partner (the same partner as for the Book Club assignment two weeks prior).  This was an invaluable activity that - again - brought in professional practice that I know I will use in the near future.  We each had to choose a library ethics topic and present for 20-25 minutes.  It was first interesting to choose an ethics issue - my partner and I looked at the ALA Code of Ethics and chose to present on usefully using library resources.  This may not seem like an ethics topic up front, but effectively providing access to users is actually a major ethical issue.  If users cannot find what they need, they cannot use the material.  Plain and simple. 

One of the major challenges was time.  I know that it was pretty logistical that we only had 20-25 minutes but it was also a good way to learn how to manage time in a workshop.  We outlined our timeline for the session (which was extremely helpful) and made sure to stay on time, but to have to do this reminded me that in the real world, if a session runs over, you've got to be the President, or something, or else people will lose focus and or leave.  So, keeping on time was important and this was a great way to practice this.

It was great to be able to see what others considered important ethical issues - cataloging correctly, use of new technologies, and ebooks/e-subscriptions were the topics in the Diamonds group.  I not only learned "stuff" but I also got to observe other's teaching styles and what they considered to be effective learning.  Most groups had a handout and did some sort of brainstorming or activity which made it clear that people thought those were effective learning methods, and I agree.

It was great to not only plan and present but also observe.  This practical activity was fun and useful; I will be instructing this summer at the library and will most definitely use what I learned during this course and during this assignment.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Reflection of March 14, 2011 Class

Class last week was a blast and so helpful to think about issues which will be upcoming (presentations) and that are current (HCOD).  It was extremely useful to discuss the presentations (one-shot workshops) both in the sense of what we could do long-term (icebreaker-type activities) and what we could do with our classmates.  I learned a lot about what to do when it really is a one-shot workshop and that is the only time that I would have with participants such as the basics (bathrooms!), activities to help folks get acquainted, different ways to help people learn material (connecting it to prior knowledge, activities that will help them process what they've learned, and wrapping up/evaluations. 

What I kind of walked away with, was that the content is actually a fairly small piece of the puzzle.  That's not to say the content isn't important, but it seems like what is more important is how I choose to present the material - not just an hour or 20 minutes of information, but the ways that I intend for participants to be introduced to, and process material.  To me, this means MORE planning, stronger objectives, and more intentional learning.  When Kara and I were planning, we kind of said, well, we know we can talk about this, so how do we want people to learn it?  Anyone who is at at workshop could probably talk about the content for as long as needed (especially with Q and A time) so I learned on Monday that we really need to think hard about the focus of the workshop and what we want our participants to truly walk away with (probably 2 or 3 things that they can actually use!)

Then, onto our HarperCollins discussion with Bobbi Newman.  WOW.  What an incredible experience.  To have such an expert talk with us in such a professional way was pretty amazing.  I am not sure I could have learned everything I did in another way, without reading incessantly for weeks.  Her opinions, facts, and relatively neutral point of view were extremely valuable for me to learn about the issue and hear how professionals discuss such issues.  To be able to ask questions to Bobbi, and really discuss with her this topic was incredible and I appreciate very much the opportunity to do so.  It was also really cool to see our class on the twitter feeds of other well-known folks in the field.  Yay!

As I saw on the syllabus, there were no readings?  So I think I'm good on this part of blogging for the week... :)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Just had to write... a great professional trip to Chicago!

So I went to Chicago yesterday - train left at 7:30am, and I took the train back, returning into Ann Arbor at 12:00am.  A long, long day.  But a good one;  my time there couldn't have been better spent.

I had the opportunity to present at the Educause Midwest Regional Conference, held at the InterContinental Hotel right down town.  My supervisor at the library and I participated in a poster session, where we displayed a poster we'd created and talked to people about it's contents.  Our poster was on assessment of handouts that we provide at the Knowledge Navigation Center, Faculty Exploratory and Tech Deck.  We complete four focus groups earlier in the term to evaluate how people learn new technology and what they like and dislike about the handouts we currently provide.  Of course, the like the longer handout, but want a shorter handout, videos, an interactive handout, and activities.  Needless to say, this was the first phase of our research. 

It was interesting, because during the hour-long poster session I learned several things.  First, I learned more about our project, just by talking about it and answering questions.  I was able to better synthesize what we'd actually done and what we could do in the future.  Second, I learned that not a lot of others have done this sort of assessment of their materials.  To me, it seemed a fairly small task - a few focus groups and analyzing a fairly small amount of data, but it's just something that people haven't done.  Finally, I learned what it was like to be at a conference.  I was a bit nervous at first, but found the whole experience to be great professional development. 

After our session, I traveled down to the Harold Washington Library YouMedia Center   I had a chance to see not only a big, beautiful, old public library (which, ahem, needs to do research on how it uses it's huge amount of space), but also a youth media center in action.  And wow, what a place.  The walls are a bright green, there are flat screens on every wall, a young librarian (a 2008 SI grad) was working with some boys on redesigning and creating their youth center blog while another set of kids practiced their spoken word and recorded music.  IN THE LIBRARY.  This reconfirmed my beliefs that public libraries not only have to redefine themselves, but can and should.  The YouMedia Center was one of the most lively places I've ever seen and kids actually want to be there.  In my mind, this should be a model for other public libraries who are "fighting to survive."  This place isn't just surviving, it's thriving.  And your library can do this too... the MacArthur Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) are scaling this up, and offering an RFP that will end up funding 30 libraries nationwide.  They see the value in sustainable, progressive public libraries, and they're showing it can be done. 

It was so inspiring to see this and it gave me a lot of hope for our profession if we are willing to be creative, step outside the box, help people think about libraries differently, and make this change happen.