ULS Universe

As you plan your ALA calendar, consider the ACRL-ULS program, Millennials in Graduate School:  How do We Support them? on Saturday, July 11^th from 1:30 to 3:00 PM in McCormick Place West, W-196c. Millennials, those born between 1982 and 1994, are entering graduate school and doctoral programs. Surveys suggest that these students use libraries heavily and are less than satisfied with the experience. What do these digital multi-taskers want and expect?  How can university libraries support their needs?

This program will bring together a panel of speakers to discuss trends in graduate education, the expectations of this cohort and the successful approaches that will engage them. Speakers include Susan Gibbons from University of Rochester, reporting on her latest ethnographic study of graduate students, Joan K. Lippincott from the Coalition for Networked information and Barbara Dewey, Dean of Libraries at the University of Tennessee. The program will also feature a video montage of graduate students making their case to librarians. All attendees will receive a chance to win an iPod Touch!

Check out this page for a complete listing of ACRL programs in Chicago:

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/events/annual09.cfm

A hearty congratulations to all the winners of the ULS 2009 Elections!!

They are:

Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect: Kim Leeder

Secretary: Glenda Thornton

Members-At-Large: Tinsley Silcox and Tanner Wray

Winners have been added to the official 2009-10 rosters at
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/resources/leadership/sectioncommittee1.cfm.

Are your library’s databases accessible to people with disabilities?  Do they comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act or the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines?  How about your other licensed resources, such as ejournals, ebooks, and metasearch engines?  Catalogs, chat software, wikis and other web 2.0 applications?  There is a wiki page on ASCLA’s new wiki to help librarians find and share the answers to these questions.  From this page http://ascla.ala.org/toolkit/index.php?title=Main_Page , go to the link at the bottom of the page for “Accessibility to Library Databases and Other Online Library Resources for People with Disabilities“.  Googling “Accessibility to Library Databases and Other Online Library Resources for People with Disabilities” works too.  There is also a section of the page for librarians to share practical experiences and advice about evaluating resources for accessibility.  This is geared toward librarians who are not experts about accessibility.  Please consider contributing to the wiki.  More information about accessibility of many types of resources is needed.  If it is easier for you to email information you’d like to contribute, rather than to post directly to the wiki, you are welcome to email Adina:

Adina Mulliken, Reference Librarian, Social Work, CFS, MFT, Aging; Library Disability Services; Interim for East Asia & CSD; Bird Library; Syracuse University

C. Derrik Hiatt is the new Electronic Resources Librarian for the Z. Smith Reynolds Library of Wake Forest University. He will assist in managing the Library’s subscription based electronic resources. He comes to this position after having served for 6 years as the Assistant Serials Librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. A North Carolina native, Hiatt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Brigham Young University and a Master of Library Science from Southern Connecticut State University.

Judy Jeng, Head of Collection Services at the Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library of New Jersey City University, has been appointed to serve on the IFLA Standing Committee for Acquisition and Collection Development, 2009-2013. The 2009 IFLA conference will be held in Milan, Italy.

Judy also recently published a chapter on usability evaluation in Handbook of Research on Digital Libraries: Design, Development, and Impact, published by IGI Global, in Feb. 2009.

In March I was fortunate enough to attend the E-Learning Guild Annual Gathering in Orlando, FL, with a couple of colleagues. As our library is moving away from one-shot face-to-face sessions and more towards scalable online instruction, this seemed relevant.

We were the three lone librarians in a conference filled with hundreds of instructional designers from the corporate, non-profit, and consulting sectors. These are full-time e-learning professionals, experts in presenting online content, designing for online learners, and assessment through online mechanisms. We can certainly learn a lot from them.

For one, I’m finding that rapid e-learning tools are fantastic, and there are plenty of them out there. You don’t need to learn Flash or XML to create engaging, dynamic online presentations. A lot of libraries are already using screencapturing software such as Captivate and Camtasia, but not too many have started exploring the more broader world of e-learning tools. At my library we already have Articulate, which is a big one, but I learned about other options such as FlyPaper, Raptivity, and Lectora. These products can be on the expensive side, but there are often academic discounts, and you can always get a trial to test them out and see if they’re worth the money.

Second – which should come as no surprise – designing instruction for online learning is far different than designing for face-to-face sessions. Fortunately, there is a lot of research out there on how to design effective online instruction. Check out Empowering Online Learning, Making Sense of Online Learning, the Online Learning Idea Book, and the E-Learning Handbook. It’s worth taking the time to learn about good design; read up on the challenges, opportunities, and best practices for creating quality online learning experiences for our students.

If you are involved in developing online instructional materials, I highly recommend attending a conference geared towards e-learning professionals. In addition to the E-Learning Guild Annual Gathering, both DevCon and DevLearn are taking place this year.

-Rebecca Blakiston

The University of Southern California (USC) Libraries seek an innovative, service oriented librarian to lead the library services and information support requirements for the Rossier School of Education and the School of Social Work. Reporting to the Director, Public Services Division III, the librarian will participate in a full range of library services, including reference, instruction, collection development and outreach. Working collaboratively with other librarians and staff, the librarian will participate in the USC Libraries’ full suite of reference and instruction services. The successful candidate will be a member of the Social Sciences Collaborative that supports collection development. The Head will partner closely with the two Schools, serving residential and distance learners.

Please see a full position description and instructions for applying at:

http://www.usc.edu/libraries/jobs/librarians

Do you have a story to tell?

Come and share it at Library Worklife!

Library Worklife is looking for aspiring and experienced writers – library employees and graduate students who have stories to tell about their careers, jobs, research, and pathways to success.  Stories can be about:

• You or a great project that you want to share with colleagues – Spotlight
• Advice, testimonials, opportunities and research about advancing your career – Career Advancement
• Why it is important to participate in professional development and continuing education, including state and national certification programs – Certification
• Legal issues facing or concerning library personnel – Human Resources Law
• How to manage library staffing issues, such as training, budgeting, performance appraisals, hiring, outsourcing, and motivation – Human Resources Practice
• What you, your library or your state has done to address pay inequities – Salaries and Pay Equity and Statistics
• How do we attract people to the profession? – Recruitment
• Profiles, standards, innovative approaches, conferences or topics of concern for support staff – Support Staff
• How you manage the two (or more) roles you play on a daily basis – Work/life Balance

Write about your ideas or use some of ours on almost any other topic related to working in libraries.

Submission should range from 200 – 1200 words, although longer articles can be accepted by arrangement.  They can be in almost any style from serious academic research to humorous work-life articles.  Further details can be found at the Library Worklife web page, http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/newsletter.html or by emailing the editor, Jenifer Grady at jgrady@ala.org.

And the best news is… If you commit to writing three (3), count ‘em THREE, articles in one year, you get a free subscription to Library Worklife, a $35 value (for ALA Regular members.)

So come and share your story, at Library Worklife.