Here's a nice photo of the 2007 College and Research Division Board members:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11126910@N05/1600739858/

From left to right...

Back row: Vickie Kline, Martha Stevenson, Barbara Burd, Linda Neyer, Bonnie Oldham
Front row: Amy Deuink, Tina Hertel, and Christy...

SquirrellyLibrarian: Joe Janes is my new hero!

If you ever have a chance to hear Joe Janes speak, take it - he's a riot. I just heard him speak on Reference 2.0 at Internet Librarian. Check out my blog for more:

SquirrellyLibrarian: Joe Janes is my new hero!

Vickie

Just Nuts about Rainie!

I had the good fortunate to hear Lee Rainie at both PaLA 2007 and Internet Librarian 2007.

If you'd like to find out more about the latest research from Pew Internet & American Life Study, check out my blog.

Vickie

State of the State Networks
James Hollinger, Acting Director of Library Development, Office of Commonwealth Libraries
Chris Matire, Director of Strategic Partnerships, PALINET
Dan Iddings, Executive Director of PALCI
Joseph Scorza, Executive Director, HSLC


James Hollinger spoke first.
-Looking at and discussing Open Source initiative for ILS, following Georgia PINES - possibly using one library card for entire state, bypassing need for ILL.
-Also looking at content management technologies for library web sites (like Oregon's).
-Commissioner of Libraries is interested in providing leadership in preservation of library materials; developing a model for what a position might look like; what kind of leadership role can they provide; next few months should flesh out more
-Continuing education
-Providing network for small, rural libraries


Joe Scorza
-Access PA Millennium System - subsidized; now have over 80 libraries and adding 4-5 a month; separate databases, centralized authority control
-Access PA Digital Repository- have approx. 40 projects http://www.accesspadigital.org/
-Federated Search - WebFeat Enterprise Edition, signed in April 2007; licensed as well as freely available databases; can search across metadata collections; are setting it up to search all Access PA Digital collections; primarily a public search tool; four interfaces, including Academic, recognizes IP; implementation Fall 2007; looking at a geo-location product, can connect from anywhere in PA; Access PA is looking at technology that will push users back to their own libraries
-Power Library - will be integrated into federated search systems; will provide access to both the new and old interfaces
-AskHere PA Virtual Ref Service - 80+ libraries participate; over 47,000 questions since inception; Chat2 most recent software development (screen readers, Chat Lite)


Chris Martire, PALINET
-Collaborative efforts, 614 members, 4 areas: ed and consulting, technology leadership, consortial savings, member outreach & support
1-Education and Consulting 50-60 % of classes are 'Live Online'; participate in WebJunction (training managed by OCLC); Network Education Exchange - bring back other workshops back to our area too; Access PA training
-Consulting - Disaster Preparedness; PALCI Libraries & Philadelphia Alliance for Response (Fidelity Foundation & Heritage Preservation)
-PA Advisory Committee on Collaborative Digitization; Laura Blanchard, Part-Time Coordinator, new approach to determine digitization priority; will be a Technical Issues Working Group (will be holding a Digitization Expo)

2-Technology Leadership: Podcasts (http://blog.palinet.org/podcast/; Open Source Initiatives (software LibLime - Koha and Evergreen software, can get a discount; will be announcing other applications in a Technology Sandbox, cooperative effort with NELINET- DSpace, etc.); Gates Opportunity Online Hardware grants - administer for PA; Technology Workshops (emerging technology, Web sites, specific workshops, etc.)

3-Consortial Savings - work closely with state groups: KLN, PALCI, VALE (NJ), MDL (MD) for academics; WorldCat on the Web Group Offer, negotiated a significant discount; establishing new groups: Hospital-wide groups serving smaller, private hospitals

4-Outreach & Support: PALINET Support Center (recruiting for additional staff); RLG Transition (for those libraries that had not been members of OCLC); bolstering communication via Member Spotlight Series & PALINET News E-Newsletter (weekly); PALINET Leadership Network - beta prototype at ALA in June 07, launching to members in early 2008, Walt Crawford will be taking a leadership role in the Leadership Network; PALINET Conference in Oct. in Baltimore (looking at a catalog futures)


Dan Iddings, PALCI
-New staff, John Barnett, new Full Time Director working in areas of collections, development; New offices in Library Services Building in Pittsburgh; New programs; New newsletter!

-RapidILL - fast delivery of journal articles less than 24 hours; unmediated/automated discovery of article suppliers; unmediated delivery of articles to requesters; unmediated delivery of articles held in open source collections, delivery in less than 30 minutes; 6-8 libraries currently involved, including U of Penn and Marywood, Drexel, Lycoming, Rutgers, Kutztown
-membership now 72 libraries
-new from PALINET, PACSCL & PALCI (3Ps) - Pennsylvania Digital Library, conceived by the 3Ps, implemented by the University of Pittsburgh's Univ of Library System, is now functional


Demo of the Pennsylvania Digital Library - Mike Bolam and Brian Gregg from U of Pitt
-statewide digital metadata depository
-have built on Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and are asking folks to let them know of digital collections so that they can be 'harvested'
-Institutions can register their collections online, but if you're a member of AccessPA Digital project, your materials will be going into it automatically
-If not registered with Open Archives Initiative, need to be sure that your data is OAI compliant; go to your vendor if not sure (strongly recommend registration with OAI) - it's a good thing; then register with their site
-Once you're registered, it is up to individual library to make sure records are displaying properly, etc.
-Need more data to be able to massage the system
-When you think of searching the system, think of it as a type of union catalog; it only contains the data records, doesn't store the content, the better your description, the better your results; they can work with proprietary or copyrighted materials since only accessing metadata
-(Google had not been finding this stuff)


Q & A
-Can we let Google know or have them work? Will be looking at. Perhaps Google Scholar?
(Side note from Joe Scorza: Entire AccessPA database will be loaded into Google Books.)
-Commericial resources like Readex and Gale will not be harvested.

-Open Source: is everyone working together on these initiatives? Yes, they are talking among themselves; are aware of what each other is doing. There is some overlap...
Are creating some platforms to create some synergy...

-ILL - AccessPA is now using ILLiad

-Rapid ILL - works within ILLiad; designated groups (contact DanIddings for more info)

DMCA, TEACH, and Copyright in Higher Education

by Becky Albitz, Electronic Resources & Copyright Librarian, Penn State


Brief History of Copyright
Copyright are rights granted by U. S. Congress to an author or creator of an original work; does not require registration with the U. S. Copyright office, although registration has its benefits (to file an infringment suit and collect damages, for example). U. S. Constitution Article 1, Section 8; codified in the Copyright Act of 1976; updated in 1998 to take care of digital stuff and bring the U. S. in compliance with other countries' treaties.

You can actually (as the public) can do a lot with copyrighted works, covered under Fair Use.


Doctrine of First Use (Section 109)
-permits you, as holder of a copyrighted work, to sell, lend, rent, or dispose of the physical manifestation of that copyrighted work without permission
-you do not own the copyright to the work, just the physical object
-does not apply to personal copies of computer programs and phonorecords


Doctrine of Fair Use (section 107)
-the stuff we do in higher education
-reserves in libraries falls under this category
-4 factors: 1) purpose and character of use, whehter such use is of a commercial or for nonprofit educational purposes; 2) published or unpublished (published weighted more); 3) amount and substantiality of the portion used (how much? CONFU was an attempt to prescribe, but not accepted by ALA); 4) actual market effect


Court Cases establishing Fair Use boundaries
1-Basic Books v. Kinko's Graphics Corp (educational vs. for-profit use) (Supreme Court decision)
2- Sony v. Universal Studios (Betamax) and Newmark, et al. v. Turner, et al. -- when can you make copies of movies and shows on TV; the technology became the issue. For personal use; were not available for sale.
3- Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (how much is too much?) Time to Heal, autobio by Gerald Ford. Time got first serial rights, but Nation published 400 words, the core of the work.
4-Ludlow Music v. JibJab (copyright infringement or parody?) -"This Land is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie's estate sued; settled out of court; lawyers posted their letters online, parody was motive. Tune was actually in the publicd domain. Never got to court, and there was no settlement.


Permitted copying (libraries and archives) - section 108
ILL, individual patron use, preservation of unpublished works, replacement of damaged, lost, or stolen published works, or whose format is obsolete

There is a push to update this with, with the Section 108 Working Group; Librarian of Congress can accept or reject the report


Performance and display - Section 110
-big areas for problems in libraries - vido, dvds and films - are exempt from copying

When can you show a film
-in a regularly scheduled class
-in a classroom or similar place
-if tape off TV, can keep for 40 days
-has been updated under TEACH
-Movie Licensing, Inc. will sell licenses for showing commercial films

-essentially can't show film in public places


DMCA
-passed in 1998, updated 1976 copyright law
-prohibits circumvention of technological protection measures
-prohibits alteration of info embedded in digital works (watermarks, e.g.)
-limits online service providers' liability; someone at an institution has to be designated for take-down notices; have to take down material only

-more info: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

-Exceptions to anti-circumvention prohibition: every 3 years, Librarian of Congress may make exceptions for certain classes of works; newest wrinkle: in 2006, permitted circumvention of copyright protection of a/v works included in the educational library of a college or university's film or media studies dept. -- media studies of film professors may circumvent -- very specific; has to be listed as a film course; has caused a lot of problems; film industry did NOT like this exception, probably reason exception was kept so narrow


Bono Copyright Extension Act
-passed with DMCA; extended copyright from life of holder +50 years to 70 years before stuff goes into public domain
-extension challenged in the Supreme Court-Eldred vs. Ashcroft; Supreme Court refused to hear the course, because Congress has the sole right to change copyright


TEACH Act
-passed in 2002 to address concerns surrounding distance education not addressed inthe DMCA
-primarily makes changes to section 110
-institutions may choose to be TEACH Act compliant or not
-TEACH can be used along with fair use- neither is mutually exclusive


To be TEACH Act compliant
1-have to be a nonprofit accredited educational institution or a governmental agency
2-have a policy on use of copyrighted materials
3-provide accurate information to faculty, students and staff about copyright
4-your systems may not interfere with the technological controls for the materials you want to use
5-the materials you want to use must be specifically for students in your class
6-only those students in a class may access the material...
and lots more! (see PowerPoint)


If you do all this stuff, you can use copyrighted materials, print, audio, and video, without seeking permissions or paying fees, BUT TEACH Act is intended to justify use for distance learners, not to replace face-to-face classroom interaction and is NOT to be used as justification for electronic reserves.


Licensing and Copyright
-When you sign a license for an electronic resource, book, video, etc., you give up your copyrights.
-Contract law trumps copyright law
-Know your rights under copyright, and negotiate to have those rights reinstated in the contracts you negotiate!

Understanding the Problem Before You Solve it: Effective Resource-Based Assignments
Terry Mech, King's College, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Terry began with the statement that Middle States is concerned with the teaching and learning experience. Terry next 'assessed' our assumptions about effective library assignments.

Osmosis - many faculty and students evidently believe they can learn by osmosis.

Full-time students spend about 16 hours a week, about 10% of their total time in a week. Many studies have shown that little learning takes place in class (including in our 50-minute one-shot sessions).

So how do students become info lit? He referenced a study called "Connecting the Dots" which found that a well-designed resource-based assignment increased student retention and learning and their sense of what they can accomplish.

Today's students -- no less intelligent than previous generations. However, they have diverse learning styles & preferences; are visual & kinesthetic learners; have a positive view of technology & their ability to use it.

Students of today --
need to see 'big picture' before disaggregating, expect customization & choices; low threshold for boredom; aliterate, read less; self-assured & self-focused; 'prove it to me' mentality; wants something in exchange; multi-taskers; take word of their peers over the word of the expert; hate busy work; responds well to 'coaching'; like to know the payoff, don't like getting frustrated; weak general knowledge & facts; impatient

Today's students:
-Like structure & clarity
-Like immediate responses
-Like to solve problems
-Like to apply to 'real situations'
-Like collaborative work
-Like to share what they know

35% of college students report large gaps in at least one area, and 86% report some gaps in at least one area. However, employers/instructors are more dissatisfied with high school's skills prep; especially with students' ability to read and understand complicated materials. So students are aware of shortcomings, but not of scope of their shortcomings.

Kolb Learning Style Inventory
4-stage learning cycle
-Concrete experience
-Active experimentation
-Reflective observation
-Abstract conceptualization

Students 70% are active learners 30% are passive learners
Faculty 46% are active learners 54% are passive learners

Scherdin 2002 studies show that librarians, like most faculty, are mostly introverts

Faculty socialization: faculty share a strong belief in education, yet most never really aspired to be college teachers. Many faculty by nature do not enjoy the social interaction central to teaching (Bess, 1982). Grad schools produce subject specialist not undergraduate teachers.

In past not as many students went to college; those that did, taught themselves to learn, but perhaps because more and more students are going to college.

Faculty view teaching as a very private act; don't like "unwelcome intrusions." Most are at the very least not totally comfortable with classroom teaching.

Higher Ed's dark secrets:
- Despite our rhetoric about higher order learning, most faculty still focus on knowledge acquisition (Cashin & Downey, 1995).

Why give assignments?
-Students acquire and refine critical skills
-Reinforce lecture and other materials
-Preparation for future learning activities
-Assess what students have learned
-Apply previous learning in new situation
-Acquire the disciplines' conventions
-Allow students to explore their interests
-Allow them to work at own pace
-Able to use resources not in the classroom
-Encourage independent learning & self-discipline
-Makes the best use of class time

Terry shared his handout, a trait analysis of effective assignments. He emphasized that learning objectives should reflect what you want them to be able to do and to learn. It's important that faculty understand what assumptions they are making about students' ability. Tell them what their evaluation criteria; have to know what hoops they are trying to hitting; a rubric is ideal - difficult to write well - however, it makes grading much easier.

Effective assignments break large projects down into smaller tasks; don't waste students' time.

VERY IMPORTANT: Many faculty teach the subject, not the student.

Active learning
We comprehend:
10% of what we hear or read, but almost 90% of what we do

Faculty dread
grading/evaluation, disappointment of worse work; nuisances of late/sloppy work; plagiarism

Librarians observe
students are not prepared; students do not understand assignment; students read into assignment or unsure how to proceed

Librarians wonder
what does it take to get a copy of the assignment; how much help do we give students before we send them back to the instructor; why are we hesitant to give instructors feedback on their assignments

Sample assignments, from Lynn Cameron
Worst: Term Paper: Write a 15 page paper due the final day of class
Best: Broken down by week, give instruction where to look for resources; how to cite; not necessarily a paper -- could be an pamphlet; define terms (peer-reviewed, substantial); tell students what to consider (issues, for example); begins with the learning objective (Stoloff: ex: in order to write more effective literature reviews, students will read and evaluate reviews written by other students ... to determine what makes an effective review.)

Suggestions for librarians
-give faculty feedback on assignments
-work with your teaching center
-focus on faculty who enjoy and talk about teaching
-search out innovative faculty
-remember that real change takes time

Lots of Q & A
Here's a revolutionary idea: don't do instruction without an assignment! Can do it nicely,
-do not despair

Innovative fauclty tendencies
-interdisciplinary
-internally focused research (what can I do locally)
-non-traditional background
-identify with the intutitional mission
-are older (more secure)
-enjoy teaching at all levels
-talk about teaching (Holland & Latiolais 2007)

Pop Quiz! Terry went over the T and F answers which examined our assumptions

Information Literacy Trends: Within the Virtual World of Second Life
Alexia Hudson, Penn State Great Valley/Donna Upshaw, Avatar Persona

What is Second Life?
An online, virtual 3-D multi-user, avatar-based "virtual world"developed by Linden Lab
More than 9.9 million 'residents' as of October 10, 2007
Membership is free; your avatar provides a catalyst for individuals to assume a "Second Life"
Alexia staffs the online virtual reference desk within Second Life

Why are people interested in Second Life?
It's fun, first of all. Can do all sorts of things virtually; quadriplegics for instance can 'fly' in Second Life.

Second Life Demographics
~63% are between 25-44 years of age; avg. age is 33 (in adult grid)
~42% are women
-US constitutes about 26.5% of residents followed by Brazil, Japan, German, the UK, France and Italy (there is a translation device called 'Babbler' which doesn't work in Japanese yet)

Type of info you have to give to register - name, credit card, has to be real name because of cultural norms which are tracked

Real Businesses & Educational Institutions
-Virtual Currency is called Linden Dollars, is exchanged for services & items in SL
-Current exchange rate $1 = $186 L
-Business Week featured first millionaire in Second Life in 2006
-Electric Sheep Company is one of the companies specializing in developing and managing virtual networks

Ed institutions using SL:
-Harvard Law School
-NYU
-Penn State, etc.

Penn State Second Life Pilot Project
-ETS (Ed Tech Services at PSU) purchased several virtual islands within SL (Penn State Isles)
-http://ets.tit.psu.edu/gaming/ - Penn State Educational Gaming Commons Blog
-Penn State began investigation in 2005
-They believe avatar based learning applications will become the 'norm' for the next generation of Penn State students

Second Life's Connection to Librarianship and Info Lit
-at Penn State, have used in 2 courses:
Operations Management and Information Science Seminar, total of 43 students; built a virtual library for students

Trends
-Students & their employers identified the library as the place for info & instruction of Second Life
-Librarians gave students a space in Second Life to play with and learn aspects of SL
-Virtual Reference/Distance Ed: time in SL given course-related instruction, reference consultations, and providing resources (landmarks) to qualified SL locations for Research projects

It's essentially a tool for distance education, only avatar-based. For example, a class will meet online in a room with avatars. There is more classroom interaction with avatars since it doesn't require the bandwidth that webcasting does.

May need to add more RAM on computer to sustain gaming environment. Crashing computers is a fairly common occurrence.

The pilot courses using Second Life are synchronistic, not asynchronistic; students have to be there at the time the course meets.

Probably not appropriate for vision-impaired students because SL is so visually oriented.

Lots of questions from the audience; for many of us, this is a new concept and people are trying to 'wrap their minds' around Second Life.

Can be highly addictive in terms of time; do have to manage your time.

Is a highly monitored environment; 'Big Brother is watching' -- socially inappropriate behavior is monitored and banned.

Learning Ecology
--can simulate a possible 'real world' business scenarios prior to implementation
--fostering a unique learning environments

Who and What Comes After the Millennials?
College & Research Division Luncheon
Lee Rainie, Project Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project

Millennials = digital natives, born in 1989 and later. Haven't had to learn to use technology, have always used it. Reviewed some important dates. Blogs came into their own in 1997, but really came into their own after 9/11 in 2001, and again in 2003 (with Howard Dean's presidential campaign using blogspace). Folksonomies/tagging: many users, one item; one user, many items; many users, many items. Twitter - short form blogging; people can sub to your Twitter. (Technology staff at Penn State uses it!)

Lee showed us a video on YouTube on the power of the Web, by Prof. Mike Wesch at Kansas State University.
Five hallmarks of new digital ecosystem
1. Home media gadgets are ubiquitous
2. The Internet is the computer -- people are using online applications. Broadband users have grown in numbers; they use the Internet different than dial-up users.
3. New gadgets allow people to enjoy media, gather info, and carry on communication anywhere. Wirelessness is its own adventure. 88% of college students have cell phones; 81% of college students own digital cameras. Think of it as a way of communicating with their friends.
4. Ordinary citizens have a chance to be publishers, movie makers, artists, song creators, and story tellers. Over half of online teens have a social network site, but more and more are putting up some privacy restrictions. Four out of 10 teens have created something online. Many teens are 'tech support' for their families. 33% of college students keep blogs as an online diary, for their friends. Much higher content creation rates for young people than for older folks.

But here's the good news -- the things that engaged students in past still engage them. They are not techno-snobs; they are actually quite compliant and willing to work with you in whatever way you want. You don't have to move into their ecology totally.

Time spent with media, among 8-18 year-olds; almost 8.5 hours a day engaging in some form of media (including newspapers, magazines, and books) but packed into about 6.5 hours a day. How do they do that? Multitasking! Students live in a state of "continuous partial attention" which adds to their stress and distracts them from completing tasks well. (Linda Stone) Counterargument -- you're more efficient, using new info.

Millennials' relationship to information changes. Volume: long tail grows. Velocity -- smart mobs shine. Valence -- "Daily Me/Us" gets made. Kids are adept at screening out content that is not meaningful to them.

Millennials' learning experiences change. Boundary between education and entertainment breaks down. Experiential learning increases. Collaboration grows. Amateur experts arise. Just-in-time research becomes common. Cut-and-paste papers are more likely.

Students' social world changes. Human ties are being built around looser, rather than denser network groupings. People have partial membership in multiple networks and rely less on permanent memberships in settled groups.

5. Everything will change even more in the future.
J-curve laws:
Computing power doubles every 18 months - Moore's law
Storage power doubles ever 12 months
Communications power doubles every 2-3 years - Gilder's law (Spectrum power)

New Internet is being built to accommodate new uses. Security online wasn't an issue with original Net. New Web and new applications -- voice recognition, touch (haptic) activities and new displays, search will continue to improve (collective intelligence is being used). Semantic web -- Tim Berners-Lee's new passion.

Where does this leave us? We're in a metaphorical cloud or fog of data.
What's coming after Millennials?

Metaverse Project - when so many people are online, there will be 4 hallmarks:
1) virtual worlds will be much more common
2) mirror worlds - e.g. Google Earth
3) Augmented reality - e.g. Smart door knob, more stuff will have more data
4) Life-logging - Nike and iPod link

Q & A
Net Neutrality issue of new Internet? Because Internet Pew is nonpartisan, they don't actually have a position on this, but they are surveying the designers of the new Internet. Are asking them if Internet will remain as open as it is know. Suspects the community will be divided.

Launching a Redesign of your Library's Web site? What do your users want?
Bonnie Oldham, U of Scranton, Tina Hertel, Lehigh University

Part 1, Bonnie Oldham
Library Dean Charles Kratz had suggested getting input from users; got internal grant money and IRB approval for their focus groups.

Target groups
-faculty
-grad students
-traditional undergrads
-works study students
-distance learners
-students with disabilities

Very labor intensive -- 900 letters, over 300 emails, about 26 users
Moderators: grad students in the School Counseling Program; focus groups held in library
Librarian had online interview with distance learners and students with disabilities

Results were audio-taped and transcribed by moderators

Key Themes:
1 - Ease of use
2 - Home page style issues
3 - User name and password
4 - Database access page

Followed up focus groups with Web usability testing. Observed participants completing a set of tasks using the Library's Web site; used Camtasia Studio screen recorder. Was an amazing experience; many could not find the article to which they had a citation.

Redesign process
-librarians reviewed all input and then examined other Library Web sites to compile a list of desirable features
-committee met with official University PR committee
-when had a draft of page designed by professional designer, went back to users and surveyed about new page

First version; they liked fact that all the important links were on left side. Left some white space for important notices to users, e. g., a database down for maintenance.

Important feature was implementing single sign on for users; eliminated need to have remote user links. About six months after implementing page, got a tab on University portal page. Had just the links that were needed, not the bells and whistles.

Actual timeline was almost 2 years for new page to go live.

Part II, Tina Hertel
Accessible Web Design

Tina mentioned that students with disabilities are often not kept in mind when Web page is designed. She referred users to her handout with summaries of the law.

Ten Quick Tips from the Web Accessibility Initiative
1- Images & animation -- Some folks do use text-only, turning off images. Make sure content is still available to them. Important to consider context, to make sure that context that picture conveys is not lost to this user. Can turn feature on in Dreamweaver to add 'alt' tag to provide more info. Tag does convey info to user what the image is, that is, a link or image. Always have an alt attribute when there is an image. Use an empty alt attribute if the image doesn't contribute anything (like a spacer line); then screen reader won't read it. But if you don't have an alt attribute, and the screen reader will say there is an unknown image.

2 - Image maps - always use client-side image maps, NOT server-side image maps. If you're scripting, that is server-side.

3- Multimedia

4 - Navigation - make sure Web page is keyboard accessible; tab key allows users to jump from link to link; enter key allows users to 'click on a link'; mouse only options limit users. Drop-down images are problematic if you use Java script, be sure to use 'on focus' option. Annoying things for users are text like: click here, more, link, link to, go here, more -- doesn't give any info on where the link is going; provide context. Appearance: underline and color are standard conventions.

5 - Structure, content, organization - try to keep content separate from structure. CSS helps with this. It's OK to use tables with screen readers; they've gotten smarter. Dreamweaver can distinguish if for layout or content purposes.

6- Graphs & charts - in alt attributes, convey what kind of info chart contains.

7 - Scripts, applets & plug-ins

8 - Frames - bad. Don't use them. If you do use them, use appropriate titles, have no frames option, have alternate navigation options. Cascading Style Sheets take care of this.

9 - Tables - can use them. For complex tables, there are newer accessibility codes.

10 - Check your work and validate it. Bobby has been bought out; now called WebXACT. Plug in URL and check accessibility of page. Free online version will evaluate one page at a time.

Tina's favorite pages for accessibility (from her handout) are Web Accessibility in Mind and Dive Into Accessibility.

Where Angels Fear to Tread: Devising a Lean and Mean Reference Collection
Gumberg Library, Reference Dept., Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA
Allison Brungard & Sandra Collins

What to do about the print reference collection? Considerable maintenance, not much usage. How they went about it, what was involved. Not how we done it good, but 'don't do what I did.' Criteria: Currency, significance, and relevance.

Sandy spoke first. Budgetary considerations were a large part of it. Reference is prime real estate; library wanted an information commons. Collection had not been weeded for a time. Has been a reorientation to how to do reference; standard reference works like Sheehey and Katz are simply not being used, even by reference librarians. Are the materials timely? Do we even know what's there, if it's outside of our subject specialty?

Another question they asked was whether more of the reference collection should circulate. Probably, since librarians aren't really using much of the collection. Avoid like the plague Internet guides -- out of date once they're published. Bibliographies in the Zs should be in the subject areas. Obsolete formats -- why get phone books, CIA Fact Book, when available online.

How did they do this? First began by updating Reference Collection Development Policy to reflect new priorities. Collection has outgrown the space, and they needed to deselect (not 'weed'). Does the item deserve to be in Reference? If not, then where does it belong? Needed to create a consensus among reference librarians and went to liaison librarians (bibliographers). Took about 4 months to this point.

Wanted to keep process relatively simple, a few basic questions/priorities. Don't tell me what was done in past; does it belong in this collection? The process for weeding Reference was a pilot for weeding the entire collection.

How was the weeding actually done? Allison spoke to this. They wanted a lasting record of how the process was done. They started with 9400 records (not individual titles), imported 6800 records into an Access db of all Reference titles. Assigned different librarians different LC call number ranges. Had to be able to share the db to work on it; on a shared server.

Only decisions that could be made about a title:
1) Keep in Reference
2) Move to stacks
3) Withdraw completely

Had to allow for some flexibility; set a terminal date for decision making. In hindsight, should have had a field for over sized; did hold them up a bit.

Positives ('Blessings'):
-taking ownership of a large, multi-departmental project
-increased confidence that you can go over to the shelves and pull something that would be worthwhile
-did provide a blueprint for weeding rest of collection

Negatives ('Curses')
-too many stakeholders means that the project can get bogged down
-some who feel slighted by project can create discord; internal politics
-some will want more or different choices than those offered by the project parameters; some people can't make a decision (notes field was kept purposely small)

Had to take into consideration the human element; had to work with folks to help them make decisions. Had to get them to focus on whether or not the book belonged in the collection; not questioning relative worth of book, just its relevance to the Ref collection.

Project is still ongoing. Continue to add new books to database. Updating the collection now involves pricing print vs. electronic. If electronic, then becomes an Electronic Resources Committee decision. Bought the Gale Philosophy, Religion, and Literature Center, but is still librarian-directed.

Recommendations:
-Communicate expectations; have participants try out the process and report back by a specified deadline
-Get organizational buy-in
-Clarify decision-making authority; who has responsibility
-Set solid deadlines but have a back-up plan
-Limit the number of decision makers

One year later...
-Kept 35% of Reference books; withdrew 10% of materials, rest (55%) went to general collection
-Have more room for tables
-Most books not yet moved; backlog in tech services
-First electronic purchases on the horizon: Narrowed choices to Gale & Oxford collections

Q & A
Was usage tracked? No, hadn't done that. Would have been helpful. Did ask, "Have you ever had a question about that?" as criteria. One library made tick marks on inside of cover when used book for a transaction. One library tracks usage in library instruction. Is this really use if users aren't using.

-LN

The Challenge of Open Access for University Presses (Tuesday, 2:45 to 4:00)
Sandy Thatcher, Director, Pennsylvania State University Press

University presses were founded in the late 19th century to help alleviate a problem of market failure, namely, insufficient demand in the commercial marketplace to sustain a publishing operation on the basis of sales alone. Now, in the face of another type of market failure --insufficient funds to sustain library subscriptions to STM journals -- calls have come forth to change the economic model of publishing from sales-based to grants-based, offering the fruits of knowledge for free to all users with an Internet connection. This session will examine both the challenges and opportunities that the variants of 'open access' present to university presses, as they seek to fulfill their traditional mission of disseminating knowledge, far and wide, while remaining sustainable as businesses.

(Thanks to Christie Roysdon for the reminder!)

Soaring to New Heights!

Here's a link to the full Conference Program.

In addition to the CRD workshops posted by Bonnie yesterday, here's a few more that will be of definite interest to PA academic librarians:

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 14
2 - 3:15 pm - Academic Librarianship by Design: The Blended Librarians' Perspective on Enhancing Library Instruction
John D. Shank, Instructional Design Librarians, Penn State, Berks Campus
Sponsor: Library Instruction Round Table

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15
9 - 10:15 am - Low-Cost Techniques for Creating an Interactive Web Site
John Houser, Senior Technology Consultant, PALINET
Sponsor: Electronic Resources Round Table

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16
9 - 10:15 AM - The Impact of the Internet on Politics
Lee Rainie, Project Director, PEW Internet & American Life Project
There have been many predictions about the impact of the Internet on
politics. Is the Internet the lever for direct democracy? Or is it a wedge
for political polarization? Either conclusion may prove too simple. To
understand how technology might reshape politics, consider what has
been learned from the initial decade of online campaigning, and how
various fears and hopes have fared.
Sponsor: College & Research Division

PaLA Annual Conference: October 14 - 17, 2007 at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, State College.

Here is a list of Conference Programs being sponsored by the

College & Research Division:

SUNDAY 10/14/2007

2:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Students as Library Advocates: Friends of the Academic Library
Presenters: Amy L. Deuink & Marianne Seiler
Moderator: Bonnie W. Oldham

SUNDAY 10/14/2007

3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Beyond Browsing: Online Tools You Can Use

Presenter: Tina Hertel
Moderator: Bonnie W. Oldham

MONDAY 10/15/200

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Where Angels Fear to Tread: Devising a Lean and Mean Reference Collection
Presenters: Allison Brungard, Sandra Collins, and M. Diana Sasso
Moderator: Christine Roysdon

MONDAY 10/15/200

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Launching a Redesign of Your Library's Web Site? What Do Users Want?
Presenters: Bonnie W. Oldham & Tina Hertel
Moderator: Barbara Burd

MONDAY 10/15/200

12:00 PM - 1:45 PM

College & Research Division Luncheon
Presenter: Lee Rainie
Moderator: Vickie Kline

MONDAY 10/15/200

3:30 PM - 4:45 PM

Information Literacy Trends Within the Virtual World of Second Life
Presenter: Alexia Hudson
Moderator: Vickie Kline

TUESDAY 10/16/2007

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
The Impact of the Internet on Politics
Presenter: Lee Rainie
Moderator: Vickie Kline

TUESDAY 10/16/2007

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Understanding the Problem Before You Solve It: Effective Resource-Based Assignments
Presenter: Terrence Mech
Moderator: Mark Podvia

TUESDAY 10/16/2007

10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Gone Fishin':
Using the Fish! Philosophy to Shore Up Employee Morale and Improve Customer Service
Presenter: Sandra Janicki & Ed Zimmerman
Moderator: Tina Hertel

WEDNESDAY 10/17/2007

9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
DMCA, TEACH and Copyright in Higher Education
Presenter: Becky Albitz
Moderator: Christine Roysdon

WEDNESDAY 10/17/2007

10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Blogging, Wikis, RSS and More in the Classroom
Presenters: Clara Hudson & Megan O'Malley
Moderator: Tina Hertel

Final Thoughts

Attending my first ALA Conference was a great experience. Before the conference, I was a bit overwhelmed, but once I got there I found that it was just like any other conference I had attended, but on a much larger scale. I was fortunate to be able to attend with three of my colleagues who are veteran conference goers--Margaret Craft, Bonnie Strohl, and Narda Tafuri. I woud definitely attend again.

While in Washington, DC, I was able to spend some time visiting with my daughter and son-in-law, Lynn and Donald, and I was able to do a little sight-seeing. Lynn and I toured the National Building Museum where there is currently a wonderful David Macaulay exhibit. This building is where all of the U.S. Presidents have held their Inaugural Balls since 1885. Here is a photo of me with the White House in the background.

Garrison Keillor was the speaker at the closing session. He talked about libraries and librarians for about 45 minutes and was delivered with his usual dry sense of humor. (cf. his article on libraries in Salon which touches on some of what he said to us.) This session was taped for broadcast on C-Span and the auditorium was packed. I was fortunate to be able to attend the Awards Ceremony and the Inaugural Banquet later that evening in support of Charles Kratz, the Dean of the Library at the University of Scranton, who is joining the ALA Executive Board. I saw Barbara Cole from Commonwealth Libraries and Debbie Malone, Library Director at DeSales University and Co-Chair of PaLA's Legislative Information Committee.

This morning I attended "Once Upon a Furl in a Podcast Long Ago: Using New Technologies to Support Library Instruction." This was a panel of four librarians: Joan Lippincott gave an overview of emerging technologies and library instruction; Kathy Burnett is teaching future librarians at Florida State Unviersity how to use technology tools in the classroom; Kathryn Shaughnessy is using the tools with Social Justice students who are in Third World countries; and Heather Tompkins shared lots of tips about using the social web tools.

Poster Session - This afternoon was devoted to my poster session, "You Asked, We Responded: Redesigning an Academic Library's Web Site Based on User Input." Several people who are thinking about redesigning their Web sites asked quite a few questions. When I get back to the library, I'll add a picture.

Although I never did manage to hook up with Barbara Burd, I did see several more librarians from Pennsylvania, including Christie Roysdon and Evelyn Minick. There are two Internet cafes here at the conference and there is a kiosk at the hotel that also has some computers with Internet access which have made my ability to blog while I'm here possible.

I went to an interesting program this morning, "Harnessing the Hive: Social Networks and Libraries," sponsored by MARS. There were 3 speakers. Matthew Bejune talked about his Wiki research. He said that libraries are using Wikis mainly for collaborating with other libraries or with library staff, but few are using Wikis to collaborate with their users. This is where he focused his research. He created LibraryWikis as a companion to his upcoming article in the September 2007 issue of Information Technology and Libraries. Matt was followed by Meredith Farks, aka Queen of Wikis, who maintains Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki and who is the Distance Learning Librarian at Norwich University in Norwich, VT, spoke about "Knowledge Management." She demonstrated several ways that libraries are using Wikis. Her presentation can be found at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/. The final speaker was Tim Spalding, creator of LibraryThing, an online service to help people catalog their books. He describe LibraryThing as social cataloging. Libraries are starting to incorporate LibraryThing into their online catalogs. Currently only one library, the Danbury Library in CT is using this, but Tim said that within the next month more will be added. For more info about how your library can incorporate social cataloging, go to http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/. On the negative side, I overheard some people chatting as I was waiting in line in the rest room the they were unhappy with Tim's criticism of Library of Congress Subject Headings.

I went to two interesting programs this afternoon. The first, sponsored by ACRL, was on gaming. James Paul Gee, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, explained the many ways that video games incorporate good learning principles. Some of these principles include the following: 1) they lower the consequences of failure; 2) they encourage players to think about systems and relationships, not just isolated events, facts, and skills; 2) learning is embodied and affective (emotional). He encouraged librarians to not just read a story to children, but to play a video game with them. George Needham, Vice-President Member Services at OCLC, then spoke about what librarians can learn from gamers. He suggested that we should rethink how we deliver services. IM and text messaging are ways that we can hit people where they are, when they really need it.

The second program was sponsored by LITA. It was a panel discussion with the librarians from the "Google Five" libraries and Adam Smith, Product Developer from Google. They gave an update on the status of this project. There were some problems like unbarcoded books, brittle paper, and binding; but, the librarians all seemed to feel that these were minor and that the benefits far outweighed the problems. Dale Flecker, from Harvard University, suggested that because of the project text mining would become a new research field.

I was able to spend about an hour visiting the exhibits this morning. While I was there I met some other PA librarians, Lynn Moses from Commonwealth Libraries, Merrill Stein from Villanova, and Joe Fennewald from Penn State Hazleton. I didn't find the booth with the Wheel of Acronyms yet, but I'll keep looking!

ACRL 101 - This was a great program! Very well organized. Pam Snelson, ACRL President gave a welcome and invited us to get to know a little bit about our neighbors. Then she gave an overview of how ACRL is organized (more acronyms!) Mary Jane Petrowski, ACRL Associate Director, told us how we can get involved in the Association and she broke this down by how much (or how little) time we could spend being engaged. We also heard from Jo Ann Carr who told us where we could find a home in ACRL, and if one doesn't exist, then they would build one for us! Louise Sherby, ACRL Representative to the 2007&2008 ALA Conference Program Coordinating Team explained how that committee organized the programs. She also gave us some tips on finding things in the Program Guide. And Julia Gelfand, Past Chair, ACRL Science & Technology Section gave us some tips on navigating the Exhibit Hall. The 'official' program being over, we were free to speak with representatives from many of the Sections. ACRL is creating a New Member Wiki and the surveyed us for things that we thought might be helpful to include. On our way out we participated in a Jelly Bean Assessment. We voted on whether or not we found the program "useful" by depositing jelly beans in jars. When I left, the "useful" jar was filling up fast and the "not useful" jar was empty.

I just noticed that my last posting is time stamped 5:41 AM. Yikes! It was more like 8:45 AM. The computer terminal from which I'm posting this message says that it's 3:51 AM so please disregard the time stamps on these postings from the Conference.

ALA has a lot of acronyms. There are 2 pages in the Program Book devoted to defining them. At yesterday's Conference 101 program, they told us that there is a game in the Exhibit Hall called Spin the Wheel of Acronymns. I might want to check that out because I learned what quite a few of these acronyms mean at the first program that I attended this morning, RUSA AND ASCLA 101. My next stop is ACRL 101. I do know that acronym stands for Association of College & Research Libraries.

Conference 101

I got to this program 10 minutes before it was scheduled to start and there wasn't a free seat available. The room was set up with 15 tables, 10 chairs at a table. At least 50 more people eventually were seated around the room. Some dragged in chairs from another room. The President of the New Members Roundtable gave a little commercial about joining the Roundtable. Then a guy named Michael (I didn't quite catch his last name) went through the program book telling us page numbers for all of the important things that we should know about--maps, schedules, freebies. He said that, being the librarian that he is, he organized all of the cards that he got in the mail from exhibitors by booth number. Silly me, I wasn't even going to bring mine! Diner was great. We ate at a tapas restaurant. It's a good thing that we had reservations because it was very crowded.

Well, I'm here at ALA. Margaret Craft and I came together. We checked in to the hotel, but we can't get into our rooms until 4:00pm. We walked the 2 blocks to the Convention Center. It's 3 blocks long! After we picked up our badges, we wandered around a bit and found the Internet Cafe. I'm going to Conference 101 at 4:00pm which is a program for first time attendees. This evening we are being taken to dinner with one of the library's vendors.

I will be attending the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Since this is my first conference, I thought that some of you might be interested in my experience. I'm not there yet and I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed by how large it is. There are so many programs, meetings, and events that ALA has created an online Conference Planner to help you schedule your days.

Our recent workshop, "Logging the Academic Life" at Lehigh University, was a great success. We had about 60 attendees turn out on a hot, summer's day to hear Scott Carlson of the Chronicle of Higher Education and Richard Sweeney from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, our two keynote speakers, give two highly entertaining and stimulating presentations.

Folks also attended one of the three breakout sessions, one by Suzanne Kellerman, Penn State, and Chris Raab, F & M, on their experiences digitizing student newspapers, a second by Richard Griscom, Univ of Penn, and John Osborne, Dickinson College, on what their institutions are doing towards digitizing the best student scholarship, and the third by Julia Maserjian, Lehigh University, who showed us some of the nifty projects faculty, students, and library staff are collaborating on.

Look for a more complete write up of the workshop in an upcoming issue of the PaLA Bulletin.

Photo of Chris Raab and Sue Kellerman by Bonnie Oldham