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Cliff April 24th, 2008

I was honored to be able to speak to the first class of PINNACLE, the year-long training program for Georgia’s up-and-coming library leaders. It was a great crowd of mentors and mentees, and I got to meet some amazing librarians. Over lunch we traded Reference Desk horror stories (a favorite past time of librarians), and was able to learn more about the PINNACLE program.  So a big “Thank You!” to the PINNACLE organizers for inviting me!

I was lucky to get there, because the sign for the library is at ground level behind the parking spaces, which means that if any cars are parked along the street you can’t see the sign. So there I was, trying to find the library, peering into the windows looking to see if there were stacks of books (since there were no blue-and-white library signs along any of the roads). I guess you can find the library, as long as you’re the only one hoping to use it! And of course, inside was a hand-crafted “no cell phones” sign–the paper cell phone’s display has the word “NO” on it!

After the event, I wandered to a local art shop to peruse the beach scenes, and I was amused to find that one artist paints the copyright symbol next to his name when he’s signing the paintings. I knew better than to take a picture, but I just got a kick out of it.  I’m not really sure that painting the symbol protects him more than if he just signs his work, but then again, I’m not aware of how someone could break his copyright–I mean, if they’re going to go to the trouble of mass-producing and selling his work, they’ll probably be able to remove the copyright notice, right?

• Libraries , presentations
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Cliff April 23rd, 2008

Getting actual quantitative assessment of library instruction is something that most librarians hate to do–it often eats up our too-precious time with the students.  And yet, I find myself dissatisfied with the “how’d I do?” opinion polls that we’ve used in the past.

So as part of our annual goals here at MPOW, we’ve created an online form for students to fill out as a pre- and post-test.   The results write to a tab-delimited text file using ProcessForm 3.0.

By including a hidden date and timestamp, we’re able to separate classes as they are added to the text file, and then import them into a spreadsheet for analysis.  Couple this with the students’ institutional ID number, and we can compare pre- and post-test scores while keeping the students’ anonymity intact.

With a little help (read: enforcement) from friendly professors, this test could be self-administered before and after the library instruction session to prevent eating into precious library instruction time.  Additionally, the test could be performed pre- and post-library instruction, and then again at the end of the semester.  Let’s see how much they really retain!

I welcome comments, criticism and suggestions! A big “thank you” to Andy and Sherrida for making this happen, and feel free to steal the code from the assessment form.

• Libraries , teaching , technology
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Cliff April 15th, 2008

I’m back at work.  I had a blast at CIL2008, and took plenty of photos of the DC area and my friends.

Since I’m overloaded here with doing the Technology and Electronic Resources positions (and on the search committee for the ER person…and trying to prep for upcoming talks…and trying to prep for the graduate class I’m teaching this summer), I’ve been a little lax in blogging.  I’m working on all sorts of cool stuff, and I’ll tell you all about it once I’ve actually completed some of the projects.

To be continued….

(muhahaha)

Oh, and just FYI, listening to Star Guitar on the Metro is teh awesome.

• CIL2008 , me
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Cliff April 8th, 2008

It’s both exciting and intimidating to see many of the ideas that I plan on talking about today being discussed by other presenters.  I don’t want to beat the audience over the head with these concepts (user-centric services, a library catalog that doesn’t suck, etc.), but at the same time I think that the fact that we’re all repeating these things means that we’re all on the same page and we agree about this stuff.  It’s the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and there are some excellent, intelligent, and well-squoken wheels here.

That’s why I love the ITI conferences.  This is my second one, and I get to meet and interact with folks who I admire and who challenge me to think in new ways about libraries and library services.  Many of the ideas that I’ve brought to my library have been formed from interactions with the folks that I see at these conferences, whether online or in-person.  It’s easy to become worn down with the day-to-day struggle of trying to fix code or perform usability studies, so it’s very refreshing to come to a conference like CIL and meet those amazing people who are doing amazing things at their libraries.

I was able to attend Jenny’s session on Hi Tech/Hi Touch, and really felt like I should go back and look at our services again to see where I can increase the “human principle” in our library’s services.  I posted my notes from that presentation, but went back and set it to private, lest I clutter up folks’ RSS feed readers (my bad!).  After all, she can say it much better than I.

I attended Library Web Presence: Engaging the Audience with folks from Penn State and Temple, who created widgetized undergrad pages, and showed off their use of LibGuides (respectively).  Again, I set my notes to private after second thoughts–again, my bad!   After that was website tune-ups with Jeff Wisniewski, Learning Commons with Tombrarian, and User-Generated Content with Roy Tennant (sitting next to the poster-child for that session, Meredith).

I skipped out after the last session to meet my Dad, who I don’t get to see that often.  He was in town justifying a honeybee study to EPA (eee-paaaaah!). We went to Ruth’s Chris with my friend Sarah and Dad’s entomologist Rob (shouldn’t we all have our own entomologists?).  It was an amazing meal and some fun philosophical conversation about relationships, religion, and the meaning of life (and bugs).

I’m really looking forward to today (Day 2).  Wish me luck on my session!!!

• CIL2008
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Cliff April 7th, 2008

I can honestly say, that us Librarians are not the best wayfinders in the world.  I wonder if it’s the fact that many of us are shy, or whether we just are willing to stand on a street corner and wait for someone to rescue us:  “Come!  The conference is this way!”  Needless to say, I spent a little time this morning running around asking questions for a pleasant group of lost librarians (myself included).  It’s amazing how often we tell our users to “Ask a Librarian” for help, and yet we’re afraid to ask for directions. Hmmm…

Additionally, I somehow got financially messed up ala Metro–I paid about $26 for what I thought was a 7-day pass, and I got off the subway to discover that I wasn’t allowed out because I owed them $1.60.  I’ll be spending a little time this mornining figuring out exactly what I bought.  This just goes to show that when there are flashing lights and rushing people, the last thing that you want to do is read the fine print and look like an idiot.  Either I should have done my research ahead of time, or they should change the Metro system to be easier.  I wonder who’s going to win that one?

• CIL2008
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Cliff April 5th, 2008

My bad luck in commercial flights appears to be congenital, because one flight was cancelled and another delayed.  Luckily, I’ll be able to make the whole conference this time (unlike IL2006).  But I think this journey will be quite interesting for other reasons as well.

First, I’m going to be teaching Sunday School tomorrow.  I’ll be staying in DC with my friend Sarah.  The Sunday School class that she teaches (with her masterful M.Div. degree) is doing a series on world religions.  When she first asked me if I’d be willing to teach about Paganism, I had that knee-jerk reaction:

“Are you guys learning how to convert Pagans?”

“C’mon Cliff, it’s me.  Hello.”

“I know, I know, just checking…”

Given Sarah’s strongly liberal religious leanings (she and I agree on most metaphysical concepts), I know that I have nothing to fear.  So I plan on going in and sharing some of the basics of Paganism, the major branches, and the few unifying themes of the Pagan religions (taken from a well-timed episode of the Deo’s Shadow podcast).  From Sarah’s description, I have nothing to fear and lots to look forward to.  I’ll promise not to hex them if they promise not to stone me.

After that I’ll be spending Monday - Wednesday at CIL2008!  I’m looking forward to seeing some old friends, meeting some new friends for the first time, and meeting in person folks that I’ve been trading blog posts with for a while (here’s hoping I don’t go all geeky fanboy on that last group!).  Thursday through Sunday will be time spent with Sarah, Jason and their St. Bernard dog Bruno, as well as visits with friends who live in the DC area.

• CIL2008 , Paganism , Spirituality , teaching
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Cliff March 24th, 2008

Anyone who has ever met me in a library context knows that I go on and on about asking the user.  Well, I’m in the middle of conducting usability studies.  I’m not only asking the user, but *watching* the user (because sometimes what they say is not what they do).   I just completed Phase 2 of 4, and with the help of three great folks, we’re hoping to finish it by July 1st.  Details will follow, and hopefully publication will come thereafter; but for now, I’m swamped in data.

• Libraries , research
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Cliff March 7th, 2008

• humor
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Cliff February 26th, 2008

I must say, it was a real treat to be able to present at the South Georgia Regional Libraries‘ Staff Development Day in my hometown of Valdosta, GA.  I presented Using the “C” Word: Change and the Future of Libraries, which covers Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and adjusting to the rapid pace of change in libraries.  The audience was excellent, had some good questions, and showed real enthusiasm for improving their libraries’ service.  It was great to hear some of the things that folks were interested in doing at their libraries (and a big thanks to Chuck for playing tag-team with answering questions after the talk!).  I was also lucky enough to watch the library staff do a SWOT Analysis of their libraries; I have done this before in my own library, but it’s always neat to see it from an outsider’s perspective.  I’m really looking forward to what SGRL will produce in the upcoming months!

• presentations
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Cliff February 23rd, 2008

My home computer has crashed.  Anyone with more than one minute’s experience with a computer will have experienced a devastating crash.  Luckily, I had enough of these in my past that I purchased online backup, and am in the process of retrieving my files.  It’s slow-going since I have to download about 33 gigs of data, so until I get everything fixed, my posts and photos are on a bit of a pause. Wish me luck.  And patience.

• me , personal information management
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