Assessment exercises for institutional libraries are frequently a double-edged sword; they’re as readily used to justify cuts as they are to bolster budgets. This NISO virtual conference provides expert insights into how data gathered in the normal course of activities can be leveraged to demonstrate value to the parent institution. Data represent the raw material for building your case. What data are available? How is their quality? What is the appropriate context for persuasively presenting that data to deans, provosts and other administrators? This virtual conference will address the very hot topic of library assessment in the context of a changing educational environment and features a complete roster of expert speakers, including:
Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University
Nancy Turner, Assessment and Organizational Performance Librarian, Temple University
Jocelyn Wilk, University Archivist, Columbia University
Elisabeth Brown, Director of Assessment & Scholarly Communications Librarian, SUNY-Binghamton
Ken Varnum, Senior Program Manager for Discovery, Delivery, & Learning Analytics, University of Michigan
Jan Fransen, Service Lead for Researcher and Discovery Systems, University of Minnesota
Kristi Holmes, Directer, Galter Health Sciences Library, Northwestern University
Starr Hoffman, Head, Planning & Assessment, University of Nevada – Las Vegas
Carl Grant, Chief Technology Officer and Associate University Librarian for Knowledge Services, University of Oklahoma
The preliminary agenda and pricing information for this event may be found at:
As a bonus, register for the virtual conference and receive an automatic registration for the follow-up training webinar, Making Assessment Work: Using ORCIDS to Improve Your Institutional Assessments, on Thursday, April 28!
The scholar-centric nature of the questionnaire ensures that potential changes in research and teaching inform our thinking, not only about academic libraries and scholarly publishing, but about changes in the educational enterprise more broadly.
My note:
By showcasing the diminishing role of physical presence and the increasing research using online methods, this study clearly proves that the 4/5 years debate if the reference librarians must sit on that desk (and answer the most popular question “where is the bathroom”) is futile.
What the study does not show, since it is conducted in its traditional (conservative) form, is that the library is NOT only the traditional library, where faculty and student search for information (being that in its physical appearance or in online access), but the library entails services, very close to the ones offered by IMS.
I see a discrepancy between literature (where libraries compel much more proactive approach regarding services) and the structure of this survey, which focuses on the traditional (conservative) role of the library as a gatekeeper to online resources [only]. Besides entrenching in 90’s practices of information literacy and/or “dressing up” old-fashioned information literacy with the new cloths of “digital literacy”as I witness at my workplace, the faculty must have been surveyed on the skills in metaliteacies, which the library can [must] provide, as per literature.
This article explains how the University of Nebraska Kearney Calvin T. Ryan Library improved their social media strategy by using an RSS 2.0 feed to update and sync social media tools and create a slideshow on the library’s home page. An example of how to code a well-formed RSS 2.0 feed with XML is given, in addition to PHP, HTML, and JQuery utilized to automate the library home page slideshow.
My note: such use of social media + blog was exactly what I have been proposing to the SCSU library for several years to no avail.
In order to sync content, and coordinate those channels, libraries can turn to enterprise solutions, such as Gremln, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or Hootsuite; however, a simpler approach is to utilize an RSS (Really Simply Syndication or Rich Site Summary) feed to disseminate content to various social media channels.
using a WordPress blog for news and events in the library that grew to include items of potential interest to the campus community connected to the library. Categories were created to describe posts in more detail, structure content and link related posts, such as “Library Info” or “E-resources”.
Please join us for this free webinar and learn fun and effective ways to develop technology skills amongst library staff:
Technology Training for Library Staff: Effective and Engaging Training Programs
Wednesday, January 27, 11:00am-12:00pm PST
Registration Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/lpbeog1w500a&eom
How can we get library staff excited about learning new technology skills? How can libraries be better prepared to help the public with technology questions? How can staff go from tech shy to tech savvy? Designing an engaging technology training program can help all library staff get up to speed.
Join us for this free webinar to learn about two fun and engaging staff technology training programs in public libraries. Our guest panelists will share details of their programs, including success stories and lessons learned.
The Estes Valley Library dedicated six months to bringing every staff member up to technical literacy through trainings that were hands-on and fun. Tech Guide Diana Laughlin will share their Technology Competencies, the process they created for staff learning, and the way they approached staff accountability.
The Sunnyvale Public Library designed the True Tech Ninja program. Adult Services Librarian Rachel Schmidt will share how they created a gamified program to teach technology skills through seven stages. Team work was encouraged and rewarded, and library administration played a key role in motivating staff to learn.
This webinar will be recorded and archived on the TechSoup for Libraries website. Please register for this webinar to receive an email notification when the archive is available. Email questions to cschimpf@techsoupglobal.org
tech ninja training. 7 ninja skills. your first mission is to master the library web page. complete these three tasks.
(my note: using gaming and gamification techniques). and this is how this library improved their web site – through gamification and including ALL parties, whereas this SCSU library has a web committee, where a regular LRS employee (heaven forbid a regular student) to gain participation on its web page is very much the same as to gain access to the federal reserve.
@TechSoup4Libs
“Would you like fries like that?” aka the art of up-selling: Tell patrons about services they might not already know about! #ts4libs. like for example the digital literacy instruction and other technology technology sessions, which some of the LRS faculty offer, but for some reason, they fail to be promoted by the LRS librarians.
Technology Skills for Library Staff: Effective and Engaging Training Programs
Dear Plamen Miltenoff,
Thank you for attending our webinar! You can view the archive materials for this webinar by clicking the links on the right. Additional resources can be viewed at the links below. Be sure to sign up to receive the TechSoup for Libraries Newsletter.
But Urban argues it’s a good fit for the evolution of the library, while maintaining its purpose: to connect people to knowledge. An evolution, which remains unnoticed by other libraries, including university ones.
Get off the train in Florence Italy and you’re in a city-wide free wi-fi hotspot with better bandwidth access and speed than most home modems in the USA. There’s no reason that wi-fi access shouldn’t be provided as a benefit of being a citizen of the wealthiest (yet still incredibly backwards) nation on Earth.
On Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 6:20 PM, Cody Behles (cbehles) <cbehles@memphis.edu> wrote:
We are implementing a drone lending program at my institution. I am familiar with the University of South Florida case, but does anyone else have a drone lending program in their library (preferably one that is not being held up by the FAA)?
Games and gaming as a type of collection and library service is growing in libraries around the world. This growth has led to many questions about library practices related to this type of collection. You are invited to help clarify library practices related to tabletop game collections by taking this 15 minute survey.
The purpose of this survey is to gather information from all types of libraries on how they are cataloging, processing, and circulating their tabletop game collections. Your information is valuable no matter the size or scope of your local collection. This information will be included anonymously in an article on library tabletop game collections and made available in a digital repository. Our goal is to use this information to guide best practices for tabletop game collection development and circulation in libraries.
