According to Anne

Hot off the Press

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:07:47 -0500

Just found in my mailbox: 2 advance copies of the October 2009 American Libraries. Why do I care? There's a feature article in there called "E-Readers in Action," by yours truly. I'm very excited about this article for several reasons, but primarily because it's the first "big" look at the Sony Reader pilot project that we've been working on at Penn State. You may remember that we had a few rumblings back in the beginning, but now that an entire academic year has passed, and we're well into a second, it's awesome to be finally sharing some of the results and insights that came out of the project.

I don't want to turn this post into a spoiler, so I'll keep it short. Look for the new issue in your own mailboxes in the next few weeks, and don't hesitate to let me know what you think!

Full Speed Ahead

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:39:43 -0500

This semester I have scheduled blogging time on to my calendar each week with the hope that maybe I'll use it. Here I am, 45 minutes into that hour, and I'm just beginning a post. No need for recap of the 7 months since I last spoke here. Life and work right now are FULL SPEED AHEAD.

No time to wrap my head around the fact that we're already closing the books on week two of the new semester. Only enough time to look ahead to what's coming - it's gonna be a great one!

Moving forward with a galloping pace - 6 classes to teach next week (hoping to use the response system); the Annual Open House the week after - followed by more classes (I've lost track of how many sessions I've got on the books - at least 20 so far I think); team teaching LST 083S - it's the same First Year Seminar as last year with a new look and feel. Got it on the books officially, and we're trying it out as a jam-packed 5-week course, meeting from 9/29 - 10/29, twice a week, culminating with a multimedia presentation which is being assisted by the Digital Commons and Ellysa Cahoy, ETS Faculty Fellow and library colleague. Late October brings a season of travel - heading to Monterrey for Internet Librarian, where I'll be co-presenting a session on handhelds that includes the Sony Reader project. Immediately after that is Charleston, at which I'm presenting in an E-Books pre-conference November 4th. Throw in there two book chapters due this fall, and you'll see why there's no looking back!

Nothing Like a Meme...

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:39:49 -0500

...to get me back into blogging.

My friend Ellysa posted an interview meme, along with the offer that she would pass along the meme (and new interview questions) to anyone interested. Of course, I had to take her up on it!

If you'd like to try this too, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I'll respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions.)
3. You'll create a new post on your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the questions Ellysa sent me (along with my answers):

1) Why did you decide to become a librarian?

I'm not sure whether becoming a librarian was a decision...it's been more of a process. All of the makings had been there for a long time - love of books, people, learning, analysis, etc. - I just had to find the right outlet to put them to work. As a clerk at a Christian bookstore, and then through an internship as a senior English major, I found my calling.

2) What is the best part of your job?

Wow, there are so many good parts. I like that no day is the same, and that shopping for books is a job requirement. My favorite part of my job by far, however, is in the classroom. I love teaching (which was a big surprise to me when I discovered it!) and I love introducing something to students for the first time. I make an effort to make each class session new and different, and to make a connection with the students which will lead them to view me as a valuable resource, and, at the very least, to remember that the library is a helpful and inviting place.

3) Name a leisure reading title you've recently added to the collection, and want to read.

I just put in an order for Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. I've been wanting to see the film based on this book, but - as with most book/movie adaptations - I'm suspecting that the book is much better. It's been a long time since I read a good romance . I'm looking forward to this one.

4) Look ahead five years. Where do you see yourself?

Wow this is a tough one. Professionally speaking, in five years I'll have tenure...for over a year...YAY! There will be much rejoicing over that :) Because I'm good at organization and communication, I imagine that I might be moving in the direction of administration. But I really don't want to put words in the mouth of the fortune teller.

Personally speaking, I'd really like to DO something with this cooking thing I love so much. So this might end up being a professional rather than personal goal.

Who knows? My home will be warm and welcoming always, and no one who comes to visit will ever go hungry.

Another bit in the category of "who knows?" Maybe there will be a mini-me by then, but like I said, there's a certain element of mystery about the future...most times I like it that way:)

5) And just because they don't all have to be library-related...What are you going to enter into the Grange Fair this summer?

Well, Ellysa, you HAD to ask :) To preface this, last year I entered white bread, canned peppers, and eggplant and squash, knitted leg warmers, chocolate cake, and pecan pie - and the pie won first place in its category!!

This year, I hope to enter...

- the knitted shawl that was supposed to be done by December, but now I just hope to have finished in time for the Grange.
- something else knitted.
- Many vegetable specimens, including eggplant, squash, tomatoes, peppers...
- canned goods: peppers, apple butter, apple sauce, and whatever else I come up with early in the season
- probably some more bread, perhaps rosemary this time.

Cat's out of the Bag - in a Big Way!

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:23:38 -0500

So, I've been dying to blog about this topic for, oh, 9 months now. (is it just me or do all good things come to fruition after the standard pregnancy period?!)

The Penn State University Libraries have sent out press releases this week announcing our year-long pilot project to experiment with the Sony Reader in a variety of different academic settings. I am in the very exciting position of being a co-project leader for this endeavor - no small task!

This whole project has evolved into something that is truly exciting, beyond my wildest imaginations of what it could be. We have an awesome project team that works together to troubleshoot and has come up with amazing ways of handling these private market-geared devices in a public services setting.

This fall, Readers are deployed to 2 Honors English classes, 1 Library First Year Seminar, and to the library's leisure reading lending collection. I am one of the instructors for the First Year Seminar, and have to say it was incredible to watch the students' eyes light up as they learned of their potential to help change the way higher ed. thinks about books and their relationship to research and the classroom.

I am so glad to be able to start blogging about this project. I promise to be as vigilant as possible in providing updates and announcements. There is already a buzz about this project, and it's only been a few days.

First, Sony Insider picked up on the project. Since then, so has LISNews and publisher Joe Wikert. Today, there is commentary in the MobileReads Forums, Teleread, and a guy named Jeff Rutherford, who is writing in response to Wikert's post.

I'm sure I've missed others, and am excited to see how the dialogue unfolds. I, for one, am going to try to remain unbiased in my posting - strictly informational whenever possible - until we have some findings to share. Stay tuned....

What is Democracy?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:52:53 -0500

I was responsible for today's LST097 lesson, "Organization of Information." In preparation for the day, the students were required to read chapters 1 & 3 from Everything is Miscellaneous, by Weinberger. I used these chapters to set the stage for a quick lesson in CAT searching.

Points I pulled out from chapter 1, "The New Order of Order."

"If only there were a way to arrange the stuff in stores so that every possible interest could be captured." - This quote set the stage. Isn't it everyone's desire to be able to walk into the place that houses what you want (whether it be a store, library, or something else) and easily find what you are looking for? - Students cited many different reasons they liked their own favorite stores: good service, easy-to-find products, specialization in a type of product, spontaneous discovery...
The Library has a lot to do with how our world is organized, and it all stems back to Library of Congress subject headings (according to Weinberger - and I think he has a point or two to make here!) - There are many different ways to organize things, subjects being a primary way. Beyond that there are paper catalogs, shelf finding aid systems, or online methods of organization, which leads us to...

The CAT. The way the public - our students - access that which has been organized by catalogers using the Library of Congress cataloging system.

I did a CAT demo here, hopefully effectively illustrating the technique of moving from keyword searching into subject searching - showing students how to find out what subject terms to use, and how to access the books they need and that are relevant. - it was a very quick demo and so the students went away with our great Savvy Searching in the CAT guide.

The next step was to move beyond the CAT, and what LC subject headings have to offer us, and into chapter 3 of Weinberger, "The Geography of Knowledge." This chapter started with Dewey, who was definitely a bit out there, as was his system, but he also held the core tenet that library patrons needed to be able to walk into a library and know where to find what they were looking for. No more one library arranges things by size, another by color, and another by date acquired...Libraries are for the people, they're democratic.

And what Dewey did way back then set the stage for - jump in your time machines and travel with me to the 21st century - what companies like Amazon.com are doing now. We live in an age of the Democratization of Information.

Pause here: I ask the class what this means. No response. So I ask what democracy means. Also, no response - not even lightbulbs in eyes. One student finally offers that it's people choosing our own leaders.

Close - and yes, that is a part of it. I explained Democracy as "anything for the people, by the people - something that we create together." Information creation is now democratic.

Which brings the question of, "What's next?"

Who will be the authors of our information?

Who will catalog that information?

How will we access that information?

I emphasized how exciting this state of being is. We all - and they all - have the opportunity to influence how information is created and accessed on a daily basis, and will chart the course for future interactions with knowledge.

Some heads nodded, others spun. I'm happy to say that no one had glazed eyeballs :) One student astutely pointed out that "Hey wait a minute! Doesn't that mean that anybody can post whatever the heck they want, even if it's not right?" (ahhhh, teachable moment!)

I closed with this: "Information creation, storage, and access is changing, and you will be a large part of how that comes to pass..."

My hope is that I inspired the students, helped them to understand more about the system we currently have in place @ the library, and sparked thought about what new systems might look like.

Blog topic for the week: How do you think library materials should be organized, and how should patrons/customers gain access to them?

Feel free to join the LST class in posting on this topic...I look forward to reading their, and your, ideas!

First Year Seminar. Day One. Survived.

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:42:08 -0500

Emily, Dan, and I just got done with our first 50-min. class. First days are always whirlwinds, but I think this year was the most hectic ever. And when my head is left spinning, I know my students' heads are. Here was the agenda:

Meet @ Central Pattee and walk to classroom
Roll call - introductions - Lots of students from Philly this year. Many from State College. One from China who's never been abroad before. Several nicknames to remember!
Syllabus introduction - Syllabus is Bible (we redesigned this year and the format seems to be working well).
Explanation of Blogging assignment/assignment of teams/instructions for weekly reports - Students seem eager to blog, anxious about grading criteria (already had ? about length of posting), and a bit frustrated with getting MT4 working for them. We anticipate a 3-week learning curve.
Sony Reader project intro/description of study/consent form administration - Students seem to <3 their Readers and are eager to put their own content on the devices. Battery Suck, here they come! Great research material - here we (the instructors) come!
Assignment of first blog post topic - Describe a memorable (or not so memorable) trip to the library (any library). What made the visit memorable?
Post-class troubleshooting time - most people had to rush off so there will be furious emailing between now and next Wed.

Anticipating many emails this week. I can already tell that doing the class in this format will allow me to get to know my students better, and will help them to know one another more.

About our Image

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:25:45 -0500

Librarians definitely have a tough hill to climb when it comes to changing/improving our image. And unfortunately, children (the ones who have the power to some day maybe think differently of us) are often fed atrocious images of what libraries and librarians are like.

In my morning perusal of selection materials, I came across the review for The Librarian from the Black Lagoon (this particular review is for the DVD version of the 1997 publication). OK folks...go no farther...right?

Well, it happens to be a starred review in Booklist. The description goes on...

First, children are presented with what they expect/fear about visiting the school library for the first time. Among other horrible things, there is a "mean librarian Mrs. Beamster ("The Laminator"), who puts kids through a laminator if they talk..." WHAT??!!

OK...I have to admit, that part has me in stitches, but if I were 4 and reading about that.....

Well, just look at the kid on the cover! He's obviously not happy to be there...

The kids in the story apparently end up actually visiting the library and finding out how fabulous it is, complete with knock-knock jokes. But I really wish this type of portrayal would stop haunting us...

Anticipation

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:05:24 -0500

I LOVE this time of year. As much as I may be prone just like everyone else to groaning about how quickly August rolled around, I must admit that I have this closet love of all things "Back to School." There's a bustle about town - and Walmart; the hallways of the libraries smell like fresh wax; students everywhere are worrying about what color backpack to buy and whether to bring a pencil or pen (or maybe now a laptop) to the first day of classes. When I was growing up, from age 5 - 22, I could never sleep the night before school started. It wasn't because I was scared. It was because I was excited, and I wanted, above all, to be prepared.

Fast forward not so many years, and here I am - FACULTY!!! (I still haven't shrugged the little voice in my head asking, 'How did that happen?!') Next Wednesday, August 27th, is my first day of school. For the second Fall in a row, I will be team teaching the Libraries' first year seminar with my colleagues Dan and Emily. The seminar (woops! I just almost typed seminary - I hope not!) is titled Research Skills for the 21st Century. We hope to deliver on that title for the 19 DUS students from Discover House who have enrolled.

Last year when the three of us taught the course together, we pretty much did it up "old school." Lecture - activity - homework assignment in class and readings/assignments in between, all culminating in a final project powerpoint presentation at the end. Our students liked the class, and learned a lot, but these methods of learning, communicating, and presenting didn't seem to jive with the 21st century portion of our course title.

Fast-forward to today. We're doing some really exciting things this Fall. First of all, we're thrilled to be part of a Libraries' pilot project, testing the Sony Reader and its application in an academic environment. (Disclaimer - I am also a Project Leader for this endeavor so I have both the administrative and participant viewpoint.) Today our students received an email message instructing them to come to the library to pick up a Sony Reader which will contain their course readings. The readers also have some interesting titles just thrown on. We want to see how they use the devices. Will they add content of their own? Will they bring them to class every week? What features are helpful? What functionality would make a device like this better-suited to academia? I can't wait to see and hear their reactions!

The other new thing we're doing is (hopefully) encouraging a community of learning in and out of the classroom by requiring the students to create a blog on the Blogs @ Penn State platform. They will have to do a weekly entry on an assigned topic, and each week a different pair of students will be charged with monitoring the feed and summarizing the high points for the rest of the class at the start of the next session. Signing up for a blog was also a pre-assignment, and so far no questions about how to do it. This is either scary or encouraging - probably both!

Throughout the course, students will learn about where libraries and research have been, and where we are going. They'll learn how to look for a book (and use it!), as well as how to create an online research desktop. Lots of readings will come from Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger, and there will be others as well. We are hopeful that we'll be able to distribute things "on the fly" for students to just load onto their Sony Reading devices.

I am hopeful that our students will embrace these new opportunities and experiences - if not today, down the road when they have the chance to reflect and think "I'm really glad I took that class. It made me a better researcher/thinker/person/student/etc."

Stay tuned for more. I am committed to at least one weekly reflection on how the class is going :)

Summer Camp Lightning Talks

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:07:39 -0500

LDSC day #`1, blog post #2. I am now surpassing my most prolific blog rate...which is, well, usually never.

Wikis, All
Allan Gyorke
Useful for class collaboration
Allow for asynchronous editing
Keeps track of edits history which allows for backtracking to earlier versions.
Tricks: [[link to new page]]
* for unordered lists, # for ordered lists
=Heading=
==Subheading==

Wiki pages can link to one another

Google Docs, Allan Gyorke
Collaboration on documents such as white papers, proposals, etc.
Intended to build to a single document
Synchronous editing is allowed. Updated frequently.
Tracks changes, and is very much like editing an MS Word doc.
Can be exported to pdf, or MS doc formats.
Google accounts required to use.

Twitter, Robin Smail
(Love her title: "Microblogging 101, or Twitter me this, batman!")
posts = 140 characters or less; if you're good at this, you're called a twhooshmeister...
Useful for:

Following colleagues
Immediately update others
Bringing your social network with you
Community engagement

The experience:
Everyone starts out thinking "that's the dumbest thing" (I'm kind of relieved to hear that because I was there, like, yesterday.)
Eventually this will grow to "I can't stop" (Not sure I believe this yet...we'll see...)

Many popular microblogs:
Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, FriendFeed, Swurl

Good uses:
Mashups w/ other technologies
establish presence

Bad uses include:
Personal, one-one conversations (a pet peeve of mine!)

Applications:
tracking of events using the # tag which creeates a timeline and conversation that can be tracked
news sometimes happens/arrives faster on twitter than anywhere else (!)
getting advice - e.g. product likes and dislikes (companies are actually listening!!)
Mashups (I don't really understand this yet) - Twittermaps, twitscoop - learn more at twitter fan wiki

Blogs, Chris Stubbs

Note: most of the audience has a blog using Blogs @ Penn State platform.
Moveable type - movin' on up to v4.2
Templates will be different

Chris is bravely venturing into "live demo" territory.

Wow! Templates look GOOD! Capabilities allow for a web site/static page, in addition to blogging. Content can be edited right from the site - looks user friendly. Tabs can be added to the home page. Templates are easier to find and work with. I'm excited to try it out!

End "live demo."

Template creation will be easier to do...Anxious to learn how to do it!

Podcasting, Tim Perry
iTunes U - home to podcasts and educational information
method of downloading media and placing it on the web

Benefits:

enhancing distance learning
personalize learning experience
can use to reinforce lecture content - supplemental material to what was presented in class
appealing to a variety of different learning styles

Concerns:

Will students use podcasts in place of class attendance?
COPYRIGHT - using jingles, song clips, video clips can get you/students into trouble; Teach act can help w/ that, but things are kinda fuzzy...
ADA compliance - podcasts don't work for deaf students, so closed captioning would need to be made available.

See: podcasts.psu.edu; digital commons; iTunes U@PSU

Digital Commons, Chris Millet
Integrating Pedagogy into Digital Media; Enabling Students/Faculty
14 campuses have gotten on board in one year! (Amazing!) - all campuses soon + more @ UP (probably in the Library!)

Lots of great applications available, such as Grageband, iMovie, Final Cut - Workshops available on all. (I think I need to take these!)

Will likely be a Digital Commons Conference in Nov-ish...another camp! :)

Educational Gaming Commons, Brett Bixler
EGC began last year to bring interested people together to stimulate research, develop ed. games, create an affiliate program, and implement the educational gaming commons lab...

ets.tlt.psu.edu/gaming

Phase II happening now - working on design of a physical gaming lab at UP in Findlay of East Halls (cool!)

Flickr & del.icio.us, Stevie Rocco
(Note: these are two of my favorite tools!)
Ideas:

having students share images in flickr groups (can be public or private)
Utilize advanced search function to find creative commons licensed photos
RSS feeds of particular links in del.icio.us
try aggregating course links with unique tags so that students can follow important resources/readings

Zotero, Ellysa Cahoy
(she did this presentation PC-handicapped AND did a "live demo" - you go girl!)

zotero = del.icio.us on crack :)
Sounds easy to use - brings everything together in one place - can it be true?

**live demo**

Zotero is installed as an extension; can be portable if put on a USB drive.
Ellysa's getting data from the web...going to scholar and searching for "do"...then she clicks the folder that appears in her url box, tells the dialog box what to put into zotero, and it just does it!

Now in MS word - places cursor - clicks insert citation - zotero pops up and you can select what you want to place - voila!

Next creating bibliography - some more quick clicking - and bam! Just like Emeril!

**end live demo**

Coming soon - the ability to share collections, information, etc. There is an ETS whitepaper on zotero available on the web...

Adobe Connect, Mark Heckel
Mark is taking us into adobe connect...

**hands-on live demo**

(note: I have NEVER been in so many active chat venues at once!)
It's great to be able to record sessions for later use/reference.
Mark is demo'ing the ability to create breakout groups - we're all presenters now! Mark can then bring all of the breakouts back together into one place (enhancement of v.7.2)

Lots going on in this classroom - Someone is uploading a file!

(Question - How does an instructor maintain control in this environment? - it is likely much better for certain types of audiences)

Bringing Social Media Together: Custom YouTube Channels, Twitter, and the ETS Blog, Cole Camplese
Focus - using social media to bring communities together.

Web 2.0 - the Architecture of participation - can enable communication through new media/formats/methods

Cole is talking about ways that ETS is utilizing a variety of social utilities to enhance communication and organizational collaboration.

Some methods:

TLT Coffee reads postings daily
Daily content fills RSS feeds and influences Google search results
Blog tweets - analytics have shown that twitter has become the #1 traffic source for ETS blogs (!)
http://youtube.com/psutlt - channel w/out normal time restrictions - SO many people are on YouTube, there must be room for us (note: millions of people are watching Charlie Bit my Finger...wtf?!) But the point is these things spark loads of comments and video responses
TLT has posted several videos with remarkable response, and people outside of Penn State have begun following the youtube posts therefore expanding the audience for what ETS is doing

Lightning talks - good stuff!

Camping @ the Library

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:37:58 -0500

Attending Teaching and Learning w/ Technology's Learning Design Summer camp in the library today. Cool name badges..."Hello, I like teaching because..." is what mine says. Lots of moo stickers too :)

First presentation of the day: Cole Camplese and Scott McDonald are presenting "Community Engagement: How Disruptive Technologies Enabled New Social Learning." They taught a grad. level class organized around community, identity, and design. Students used blogs, live question tool, and other social tools.

Things to think about - classes contain both technologists and theorists. There will be people who struggle with the technology, and there will be people who excel and get bored with the technology explanations...

Course used...

Student Blogs - gave students their own space/identity. not bound by rules/procedures of the space. Had students use Google Analytics to monitor readership of their blogs.

Pligg: Social Aggregation software which brings all of the students' blog posts into one community. Social rating site that brought posts into one community. Students could then comment on one another's posts and vote on them as well. Course community site got 1000s of hits per week, vs. the 5-10 hits per week on individual blogs. Vote count was used to determine the overarching questions used to drive each week's discussion.

Students were in groups, and each group had an assigned technology to follow, incl. Facebook, Twitter, etc. Twitter created an interesting phenomenon. Twitter provided a vehicle for engagement and interaction that was surprising. (Editorial comment - I too am surprised by this. My sense is that most of our students have never heard of Twitter.) Twitter became like "passing notes" in class - but the notes were substantive, not recreational.

I think it's an interesting argument that technology enhances engagement. Right now, I'm listening, blogging, tweeting, and IMing all at once, and I'm feeling a bit fatigued...and not sure whether I'm more engaged, or just busier. I'm going to keep trying it today...the jury is out.

ALA - Fully Recovered

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:12:27 -0500

Wow! It's been two weeks since I returned from the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA, and I think I'm finally fully recovered. The first week back was spent shaking off the jet lag; week 2 was plowing through the pile on my desk and in my inbox...

Before I left, I mentioned that this is my first ALA as a 100% contributor rather than as a receiver. I think I radically underestimated how much this would truly change my conference-going experience. A quick re-cap of my days...

Thursday - After one airplane re-route (I consider just one a success these days), I arrived at LAX (which was not my initially intended destination) around 5pm Pacific...Two hours and a Disneyland bus ride later got to my hotel, which was quite thankfully right next to the convention center. Late dinner. Bed.

Friday - Up, registered. Immediately ditched the hideous orange tote. (Funny thing about those: ALA always advises us to blend in with the locals so as not to be mugged....). Beth was arriving at 2pm, had no meetings to attend, so took the opportunity to visit Downtown Disney. Looked close on the map. Was not close. Must've walked 6 miles...and it was hot. Was the first and last time I set foot in Disneyland.

Beth arrived on time and we made a few tweaks to our presentation plans for the next day. Attended the ACRL/IS soiree where we met up with some other Penn Staters. ALA is a great time to network w/ them, as we don't get to see one another often enough, even though we work @ the same University. Ended the night with dinner @ PF Chang's (If there is a non-chain, non-resort in Anaheim, I did not succeed in finding it!).

Saturday - Meeting with RSS/EPDRC from 8 a.m. until 10:30, then RSS exec with new chair orientation until 12:30. Everything they told us could have been accomplished with a web page, as most of it was just a list of links to look at later. Nevertheless, was very interested to see how things operate in an exec. meeting. Of the 30 people present, 6 were eligible to vote...and then they had to take things up the chain to the RUSA exec. committee, which would take things to the ALA exec... Food chain is very long, bureaucracy deep. I hear some committees are looking at meeting virtually. I hope they succeed in getting that through...

At 4 p.m., Beth and I facilitated a discussion group for ACRL/IS dealing with how to use the Social Web to promote and enhance information literacy. The room was full and discussion intense. It's always hard to get people to share with the group...if you ever want to see a nervous person, ask an instruction librarian (who presents in front of people regularly) to share something with his/her peers! It seemed like people learned a lot. Many shared their notes with us, and we'll be working with Emily now that we're all back to incorporate the discussion notes into our discussion paper. I'll let you know when it's published!

We scheduled a dinner at Alcatraz Brewing that night to celebrate. AB was about 3 miles from the convention center...far enough to warrant a cab. Problem was cab drivers in Anaheim seem not to know anything outside of Disney! It took 30 minutes, several phone calls, and much yelling to arrive at the restaurant. Shaking my empty wallet at the cabbie, I swore never to leave the resort premises again, unless walking or driving the car myself! (Hey, that'd be a great business! "Short trip car rental" Maybe I'll look into it...) Alcatraz was okay. Definitely a chain, and definitely not the authentic experience I'm used to getting at a brewery, but so nice to see colleagues from PSU and other libraries around the country. Also had a surprise visit from a friend who's stationed in CA at San Diego...very good to see him!

Sunday - Another 8 a.m. This time a breakfast with my co-winners of the EBSCO travel awards. It was really an honor to be among this great bunch of people. Went from this to another meeting...recap of Sat's RSS/EPDRC with my co-chairs. One's cycling off as co-chair, I'm coming on board. I"m excited...this is a fabulous committee that wants to do work to provide professional development opportunities for colleagues in the field! Had some extra time, so had an impromptu meeting with Rob, a colleague at UT - Austin who wants to work on establishing a leisure reading collection at her campus. I'm very excited about this, as we're committed to working together, though long-distance, to tread and hopefully conquer this new ground for academic libraries.

After lunch, I presented a poster that Wendy and I created about going "beyond library walls" and strengthening your library's out reach programs to campus communities. I was thrilled with how many folks attended the session. And how many great contacts I made while there! I have to admit that I'd been skeptical about the benefits of presenting in this format, but the informal atmosphere set the stage for great conversation, business card exchange, and ideas to be born. I'm sold on it :)

Packed up the poster and went back to the hotel for one more coffee, this time w/ the outgoing chair of the RUSA award committee I'm on (I'm incoming for this one too). Once we'd finished with our torch passing, and catching up on our libraries' goings on, I was definitely ready to crash. Mexican dinner with friends first (after another lost cabbie cuz I didn't learn my lesson last time).

Monday - Airplanes all day. Last leg delayed and then luggage lost. Didn't care...glad to be home...bed @ midnight.

Impressions: Being a contributor seems to make for a more social (in the professional sense) conference...lots of networking, informal meetings, brainstorming. I did miss hearing good presenters a little bit, but have had such a hit-or-miss experience with them in the past that it probably wasn't the biggest loss. I do hope to make it to at least one next time! Anaheim is a concrete block...no desire to go back unless it's as a day-trip from San Diego, to which I would return promptly. Posters are a fabulous opportunity to both share and learn.

March of the Librarians

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:44:31 -0500

This weekend the March of the Librarians finds many of us in ~~sunny~~ smoggy Anaheim, CA. I'm excited about this conference. It marks a change for me. This is the first conference at which the majority of my participation is as an active contributor, rather than as an information receiver. I'll be presenting--twice. I'm also moving into the co-chair and chair positions of my two committees. I'll miss the ability to soak in the wisdom of the various headliners here, but I'm also looking very much forward to the collaboration and networking that awaits! P&T process, here I come!

For those who might have the time, please join me and Beth Roberts - Emily Rimland is a contributor in absentia - for our ACRL/IS Discussion Group, "Using the Social Web to Enhance Information Literacy." Taking place Saturday, 4-5:30 Marriott Salon a-d.

Poster Session, "Beyond Library Walls: Strategies for Successful Library Outreach on Your Campus," is taking place Sunday, 1-2:30 in the exhibits hall, Table 20.

Hope to see you there!

A New Direction

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:24:12 -0500

I really need to get better at this blogging thing. I've been super busy! And really, I should get used to taking a few minutes to share what's going on, because most of it has been fairly interesting of late.

To this point, I've really been searching for direction with my writing, both on the blog and in my own personal research agenda. But from here on out, I'm going to do my best to document my focus on literacy at the university level, which is being carried out through my development of the University Park Leisure Reading Collection. I want to know why our students do or don't read, what we have and haven't been doing to promote literacy at the higher ed level, how literacy is changing--there seem to be two distinct literacies developing when it comes to reading. Like some other university libraries, I want to experiment with electronic reading devices, and examine their current capabilities and potential for future impact.

And all of that, I hope to share with you here.

Keep reminding me! Your comments on and off blog are always appreciated!

Come have Fun at the Library

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:01:49 -0500

Today is National Gaming in Libraries day. It is sort of the icing on the cake to National Library Week.

In academia, we don't tend to do a whole lot to celebrate either event, but this year is different. Today, all afternoon, anyone who wants to can stop by the student lounge in the basement of Pattee Library, and blow off some steam with some Wii, Nintendo, or PlayStation action. We've got Rock Band, people!

I'll save the article on what I really think about gaming in the libraries for another day...today, I'll just say stop by, have some fun, and celebrate your Penn State Library as a great place to be. I tried my hand at a race car game earlier, and I have to admit, it was a nice way to relieve some stress :)

Check it out! Today, 1-5 pm.

Happy Awesome Day!

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:38:43 -0500

I'm one of many librarians who uses Facebook both personally and professionally. Many students have joined my 'friends' list--I have 378 at Penn State now(!)--and one of the side effects of this is that I'm constantly being asked to add applications, join groups, and attend events with people I've met once in class or at locations I've never heard of. Most of the time, I have to admit I delete these invites before I've even read them. There are just too friggin' many! I'm trying to save myself from the Facebook fatigue the Ellysa talked about not too long ago.

But today, I had an event invitation that made me look twice because it brought a giant smile to my face. It was an invitation to celebrate the fact that it's Awesome Day. Ya, sorry bout that link. Apparently it's a VERY new day known to an exclusive group of people (at least until now), as that's the only relevant (?) match that appeared in my Google search results.

Anyhow, here's the invite:

"For those of you who don't know the 19th of every month, has been proclaimed for nearly a year now as "Awesome day". This is a day devoted to having a fucking awesome time no matter whats going on. You can celebrate any way you like, but there is one thing all must follow, if you see anyone who is feeling down/sad/pissed/angry/lonely/etc. then you must approach them, give them an energized and hearty high five, and wish them a motherfucking happy awesome day!!!(complete with exclamation). So yeah."

Ah, the fun of college! BTW, this event has 7,016 confirmed guests, its creation originated in Georgia, and it takes place all day every 19th "EVERYWHERE" in case you're interested.

So from me to you, have a mf happy awesome day!!!!! "So yeah." I will be heartily giving and accepting high fives all day :)