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Online Northwest 2010

I participated in the Online Northwest conference this year. It was a nice opportunity for professional development and it took place right on the OSU campus. I attended several sessions, but the one I enjoyed most was Jen Klaudinyi’s presentation on the Cooperative Library Instruction Project (CLIP): Collaboration and Curriculum Integration: Presenting shared information literacy tutorials at the point of need.

From the CLIP wiki:

CLIP is a partnership between Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, Willamette University, and Chemeketa Community College whose mission is to design and develop sharable, web-based tutorials to assist in library instruction and information literacy… CLIP is creating tutorials that specifically address the larger ideas of information literacy. The collection might look something like an interactive, online information literacy “text book” from which librarians or instructors anywhere can select and use pieces as they choose.

CLIP is striving to serve librarians and instructors with different needs and resources. Our tutorials are free, already hosted on the web and ready to be used as they are. Simply copy the URL provided with each tutorial and distribute via websites, email, etc. We also provide source files for those who wish to download, customize and/or locally host the tutorials.

CLIP has several information literacy tutorials available at the moment:

• Developing a topic
• Incorporating Sources into your research paper
• What is a library database?
• Generating search terms
• Why you need to cite sources
• Internet searching tips
• Popular and scholarly sources
• Primary and secondary sources
• APA style aid
• MLA style aid

CLIP plans to continue adding tutorials to the site. Anyone can download these and customize them to their department, library, or school (as long as the source is attributed). Text files are available of each presentation. Why continue to remake the wheel, if great tutorials already exist? CLIP provides that opportunity.

What about the rest of the conference?

All presentations can be accessed at the Online NW website. Previous conference posts can be found there as well.

On a side note:

I do have one suggestion for Online NW: please consider having a student rate. $130 is pretty spendy for a one-day conference, especially for those that may be poor graduate students or unemployed. (See: Public Library Association’s national conference in Portland this year — the student rate for the 4 day conference is only $90).

Tags: conferences, information literacy, online northwest, online nw, presentations, professional development

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Technology in the Classroom – Office Parody (Video)

Earlier today I was thinking about how professors can integrate technology into classrooms — how they, instead of fighting it, could use it to promote learning and collaboration.

Then this evening, I read a timely post from Kansas State University Professor Mike Wesch’s blog Digital Ethnography. The post was about a video created by Lynn Schofield Clark’s Innovation in Mass Communications class at the University of Denver. This video is a mini-mockumentary of a professor trying to teach his digital native students about technology. If you are a fan of The Office, then you’ll enjoy this take on a professor trying to teach a class of young students about technology.

Here’s the actual video, “The Class” (which would be an example of how not to integrate technology in class):

By the way – if you don’t follow Dr. Wesch’s blog, I highly recommend you do. And, if you haven’t seen other videos made by him and his students, check out his youtube channel. One of my favorite educational videos from Dr. Wesh (in collaboration with 200 of his students!) is about students today, aptly titled “A Vision of Students Today.”

I also recommend The Machine is Us/ing Us because it provided a timely look into Web 2.0. (Note that this video was created in 2007, so it was right on time/at the cusp of the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies).

Tags: education, technology in the classroom, video, web 2.0

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#libday4: Day in the Life… Project

#libday4 has been a very popular tag in the library world today.

Eh?

#libday 4 = A Day in the Life of a Librarian, Round 4.

Ah ha!

I remember when Bobbi Newman first wrote about her day in the life of a librarian, just over a year and a half ago. It has grown exponentially since then. All it took was one blog post about her day… then it quickly grew into a wiki where others shared their stories… and today I noticed a Day-in-the-Life netvibes page filled with all sorts of social-sharing goodness from twitter, delicious, flickr, friendfeed, etc.

I recommend all MLIS/MLS programs incorporate it into their introduction to the information professions classes. Information/Library science students can learn about real people straight from their own writings rather than from static handouts filled with random charts or book chapters dryly explaining librarian-related tasks.

[Think of this vs. this].

I wanted to write more about how grateful I am to everyone who shared information about their day, allowing others to take a peek into their daily professional lives. I had many thoughts in my head about why this project was a brilliant idea, but I can’t say it any better than Erin Dorney (see blog: Library Scenester).

I especially like her idea of some sort of day-in-the-life spinoff of library school students sharing what they’re learning. Just as professional librarians have a lot to share about the practical things that happen daily, MLIS students have a lot to share from what they are learning in the classroom. I’m not saying this because I am one, but MLIS students are great resources of information about new trends, theories, and so on (for a great example, follow the #lis768 tweets from Michael Stephens’s students at Dominican U).

So as a side note for all graduate and doctorate students – I call on you to share what your day is like in the life of being a librarian/information professional-to-be, what-have-you.  A few folks have posted already:

• Rachel Slough, MLS Candidate, Indiana University SLIS: Lib and Learn
• Karen Cawley, MLS Candidate, Syracuse University—School Media: karenthelibrarian
• Alison Miller, Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management, Syracuse University School of Information Studies: infolibnow.net
• Laura Williams, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University Library Service: Theatre Grad Blog
• Sarah Hogg, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University: Library Trainee in Oxford

Tags: information professionals, librariandayinthelife, librarians, library, MLIS, mls

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Dewey Music: search the Internet Archive’s audio

Dewey Music is the interface of the Internet Archive’s fabulous music library. Grateful Dead fans may know the archive.org’s great collection of the band’s live shows throughout the ages, but there are many more vintage (and contemporary) goodies nestled inside the Archive’s library. Search Dewey Music to find old school live jams or newer music such as, shall we say, one of my favorite bands, Guster and artists like, Deb Talan, and Elliot Smith.

Dewey Music basically searches through this entire list from the Archive’s website. You can listen to, download, remix, and share anything you see on this site legally and for free, which is a bonus. Dewey Music allows you to create playlists, share the music with others via Facebook, and music you choose continues to play as you search. In addition to their general search, you can browse by genre, top rated, most played and newest uploads.

So far, I’ve found Dewey Music’s search features a lil’ buggy. Searches were dropped, I had to hit “go” twice in order for results to show, and the search engine didn’t produce recordings that I could find by directly using the Internet Archive’s audio search page. Despite this, Dewey Music offers a lot of promise, however, to unlocking the fabulous goodness of the Archive’s music library.

Tags: archive.org, audio, free, internet archive, music, public domain

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The Intenet Public Library & Librarian’s Internet Index = IPL2

It’s official: the Internet Public Library (IPL) and Librarian’s Internet Index (LII) merged today. Check out the new and improved website, with ever-so-much-more trustworthy, authoritative, librarian-approved resources.

Tags: internet public library, IPL, librarian's internet index, lii, reference, resources

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