From Innovation to Transformation: Managing the Transition from Print to Electronic Journals


Patrick Carr, the Electronic and Continuing Resources Acquisitions Coordinator at East Carolina University, spoke next. He began by recapping the problem currently faced by libraries: rising serial subscription costs of roughly 10% a year and flat library budgets. Expenditures for serials consume an ever-greater percent of the library budget, and libraries have been faced with essentially two alternatives: consortial buying partnerships or pay-per-view access. Consortial partnerships have become the dominant model for acquiring e-journal content.


At Mississippi State University, where Patrick previously worked, the Library was able to increase the number of journals they subscribed to via their "journal expansion project." By working with liaison librarians and faculty subject experts, they identified duplicate titles and titles to be cancelled, and swapped them for desired titles. Working with vendors like Wiley and Elsevier, they were able to add new subscriptions for less or only slightly more money.


Patrick commented that the pay-per-view model isn't really a mainstream model. It requires libraries to develop accounts whereby authorized users can download articles at the library's expense. The problem with this model is that it's difficult to keep control of costs. However, some institutions have adopted this model, providing their users with access to journals they would normally be unable to use.


With regards to providing users with content, Patrick noted two trends.


Trend #1) Every user his or her access point
There is no one correct way of approaching or accessing information. For example, users might find their information via the OPAC, A-Z Journal lists, a metasearch engine, link resolvers, and so on.


Trend #2) Toppling information silos
There is a greater reliance on using a single knowledge base (a la VuFind, metasearch, etc.) to access information. The number of libraries using metasearch continues to grow as more and more librarians accept the reality (to paraphrase Jane Burke) that a federated search engine is a necessity, not a luxury.


Patrick next discussed the administration and support of e-resources, which are closely allied. In particular, he discussed several standards/initiatives that will impact e-resources:
1 - Electronic Resources Management Initiative (ERMI) - Its goal is consistent, industry‐wide e‐resource management guidelines.
2 - Shared E-Resource Understanding (SERU) - This is a pragmatic alternative to license
negotiations. Patrick shared an instance when instead of renegotiating an unacceptable license agreement, he was able to persuade the vendor to accept the standard SERU license agreement. He was happy, the vendor was happy.
3 - TRANSFER - This refers to a code of practices dictating what happens when an e‐journal transfers from one publisher to another (not a pretty situation as every tech services and public services librarian knows)
4 - Knowledgebases and Related Tools (KBART) - Provides guidelines for the effective interaction between members of the knowledge base supply chain (e.g., publishers, aggregators, link resolvers, libraries).
5 - Cost of Resource Exchange (CORE) - Its goal is interoperability between the acquisitions'
data in a library’s ILS and ERM system.


He noted that "effective e-journal management requires personnel capable of adapting to and mastering a complex and constantly changing array of tools, interfaces, and workflows," and he demonstrated this complexity by showing us a flowchart taken from an article by Rick Anderson and Paoshan Yue, "Capturing Electronic Journals Management in a Flowchart" (Serials Librarian 51:3/4: 101-8, 2007).


One piece of e-journal management is evaluation. Formerly, when evaluating a print subscription, librarians had a pretty clear-cut decision: either maintain a subscription or cancel it. With e-journals, there are more questions to be answered:

• How many 'simultaneous users' does the library need to pay for?
• What interface is best when there are several to choose from?
• Should the library subscribe to individual titles or to a package?
• Should it subscribe to archives or just current issues?
• Should access be by IP address or password?
• And so on...

He next talked about the impact of e-resources on the print collection, noting that libraries are devoting less space to housing print materials and more space to areas for patron collaboration. Some of the challenges faced when weeding the print collection include identifying titles, evaluating the quality of online access, finding environmentally responsible means of disposing of the print, and (very important) avoiding negative PR.

Finally, libraries need to ensure that they will have perpetual access to their electronic journals. Libraries should become members of some initiative to ensure this such as LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe) and Portico, a non-profit initiative developed with support from JSTOR, Ithaka, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Library of Congress.

Last of all, Patrick (who holds an MA in English) shared a poem by Samuel Beckett with us that sums up his belief that we need needn't be afraid to "Fail Better!":

Ever tried.
Ever failed.
No matter.
Try again.
Fail again.
Fail better.

Blogging "In the Transition Zone" - Part I, Judy Luther
Well, I'm finally getting around to blogging the excellent CRD workshop, "In the Transition Zone: Making the Move from Print to Electronic Journals," held in Grantville on Sept. 12. (I know, I should have live-blogged at the event itself, but I didn't, so that's that.)

Joe Fennewald, PaLA president-elect, opened the day by giving what Judy Luther called the absolute best 'pitch' to join an association she had ever heard. And I assume she's heard a few. (At PaLA Leadership Orientation this week, I suggested that Joe film his spiel for YouTube or some such and post it to the PaLA web site; it was that good.) Joe also distributed "Funds for the Future" brochures, which were snapped up by attendees apparently inspired to at least donate money to PaLA to support its advocacy work if not actually join it.

Judy Luther, president of Informed Strategies, gave her presentation entitled "Crossing the Digital Divide: Navigating the Changing Landscape." I had never heard Judy speak before and found her very engaging and easy to listen to. She compared an earlier study on growth in electronic resources with a newer one she recently completed with Rick Johnson for ARL, entitled, The E-only Tipping Point for Journals: What's Ahead in the Print-to-Electronic Transition Zone. Much of her talk was based on this study. The rate of change in ARL libraries from print only to electronic from 2002 to 2006 has exceeded her predictions, but there still remain some glitches or "bumps in the road" as she termed them. This quote from the study nicely sums up the problem:

Publishers and libraries today find themselves in an extended transition zone between print-only and e-only journals. The persistence of dual-format journals suggests that substantial obstacles will need to be surmounted if the transformation to e-only publication is to be complete. Approximately 60% of the universe of some 20,000 active peer-reviewed journals is available in electronic form. Online journals are popular with readers; online use of library-provided journals exceeds print use by a factor of at least ten, according to a University of California study. While electronic formats offer powerful attractions for users, the costs of supporting hybrid collections are straining library resources and the economies of the e-only collection are still speculative.

Just as libraries currently support hybrid collections, publishers are investing in both print and online publishing. A declining number of mostly smaller publishers still offer their journals only in print and a growing number of journals are available only in electronic form. But today’s norm is dual print and electronic publication of a title. A few publishers, having adjusted their pricing to the dual-format model, are trying to hasten the day when they can discontinue print and the associated costs. But most are either navigating a gradual transition or holding onto print.

Judy noted the difference in organizational perspective between libraries and publishers. Libraries have moved more quickly to e-only, while publishers are moving more slowly to drop the print. Publishers are still designing their publications as print ones and are challenged by the whole idea of metadata. She noted that XML is vastly preferred to PDF format for making this transition.

Factors affecting libraries' migration to e-only:
1) The readiness of readers to accept e-only
2) An e-only pricing model
3) Perpetual access and archiving provisions, such as those offered by LOCKSS and Portico
4) The management of e-only. For example, libraries should consider using SERU as an alternative to e-resource licenses. SERU stands for Shared Electronic Resource Understanding: "publishers and librarians agree on the products for which they wish to reference SERU and forgo a license agreement"

Factors affecting publishers' migration to e-only:
1) The readiness of readers
2) Assessment of risks of e-only option; for some publishers it means the potential loss of revenue, especially in clinical areas
3) Workflow and production issues
4) Distribution issues

She cited MIT's Technology Review as a good example of how more can be done with online publication but noted that change is and will be incremental.

Judy answered questions at the end of her session. Someone asked about the relationship between aggregators and publishers as more publishers are publishing electronically. She noted that there is lots of tension between the two groups. Aggregators do offer lots of content to libraries that could not afford it otherwise, and while the visibility is good on aggregator databases, it is also riskier for publishers, many of whose subscriptions are dropping 8-10% a year (for "core" publications in the Wilson indexes). If publishers are smart, they are imposing embargoes.

Someone else asked about the relationship between Open Access and e-only publishing. Judy said Open Access relies on e-only publishing but is not a business model. It works OK in the sciences, but not so well in the humanities and social sciences because of funding.

PaLA Bulletin to be indexed by LISTA!

News flash! PaLA has signed an agreement with EBSCOhost to have the PaLA Bulletin indexed in Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts. Work should begin sometime this summer to begin the indexing and abstracting of the last 2 years' issues.

Getting the Bulletin indexed in LISTA will benefit all members but especially academic members who must 'publish or perish' in order to obtain tenure and get promoted. Having a presence in LISTA will benefit those who have written articles for the "It's Academic!" column by making their articles more visible and accessible.

Our thanks go to our hard-working PaLA staff, especially Glenn and Ellen, and to the Executive Board for moving PaLA to the next level!

IMLS Grants to Bolster Library Education and Library Programs

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal program, has awarded grants totaling $20.3-million to 31 institutions to train librarians and to support library programs across the country. The grants, which were announced last week, are going mostly to colleges and universities.

In Pennsylvania, there were two awards given:

Drexel University - Philadelphia, PA
Grant Category: Research
Award Amount: $224,386; Matching Amount: $42,086
Contact: Dr. Jung-ran ParkAssistant Professor(215)899-1669; jung-ran.park@ischool.drexel.edu
Project Title: "Modeling Interpersonal Discourse for Digital Information Service: Evaluation of the Question-Answering Service of the Internet Public Library"
This Early Career Development grant will provide support for Assistant Professor Jung-ran Park to analyze interpersonal communication between librarians and the public in digital information service. Using transcripts from the Internet Public Library’s Question Answering Service, the researcher will study patterns of communication employed by librarians and the public in their email and real-time chat interactions and provide an empirical model for assessing the impact of interpersonal communication on successful digital information reference. Such a study carries the potential to enhance one of digital librarianship’s core skill sets.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA
Grant Category: Continuing Education
Award Amount: $391,400; Matching Amount: $418,061
Contact: Mr. Paul VanderwielDirector, Human Resourcesvanderwielp@carnegielibrary.org
Project Title: "Management Skills Workshop"
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will conduct a staff development program that identifies and nurtures future leaders within the library's ranks in a year-long professional development program. Graduates of this program then enter a second tier of training that develops executive leadership skills and teaches nonprofit management skills. At the end of this three-year project they will produce a case study and educational training materials based on this model that will be available to other libraries.

Carnegie Mellon University Libaries 'Library Arcade'

Check out I'll Get It! and Within Range, 2 fast-paced games guaranteed to sharpen your reference and classifying skills. The games were developed by graduate students from the Entertainment Technology Center, in collaboration with the University Libraries, with support from the Buhl Foundation.

I'm not usually into games, but I found these fun (once I figured out how to play). I can see using them with students.

Linda

CRD's 2008 SPRING WORKSHOP

How to Hit a Research Homerun: Tips and Tricks from Some Heavy Hitters


Brian Mathews, The Ubiquitous Librarian blogger and User Experience Librarian at Georgia Tech, spoke about his experiences doing focus group studies. He is all about engaging library users. Tour Guides and Campus Celebrities are two of the groups that he targets to populate his focus groups. He doesn't record, but he does make use of ice breakers and other activities to stimulate conversation. He uses 10 new undergraduates each year to be "mystery shoppers." The thing that Brian said that resonated with me the most is that "things are always changing because the students are always changing."



Judi Briden, Digital Librarian for Public Services and Brain & Cognitive Sciences Librarian at the , discussed some of the methods used in Studying Students: The Undergraduate Research Project at the University of Rochester. Not only did she talk about the various approaches that they used for their qualitative research, but she also shared some of the techniques that they used to stimulate creativity. Judi emphasised that "my library is not your library," but that much of what they did could be adapted to suit any size library.


"Ask-the-Experts" Panel Session

Panelists (l to r): Joe Fennewald, Head Librarian, Penn State Hazleton; Marianne Goodfellow, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology, Lebanon Valley College; Brian Mathews, User Experience Librarian, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Panelists (l to r):Judi Briden, Digital Librarian for Public Services, University of Rochester; Tim Wherry, Associate Professor and Library Director, Penn State Altoona; Nancy Dewald, Reference Librarian, Penn State Berks.

CRD members enjoying the Altoona Curve baseball game.

Blended Librarian Webcast: Opening New Windows of Opportunity: Creating Breakthrough Instructional Experiences

I just got an email that Brian Mathews, the Ubiquitous Librarian who will be speaking at the CRD Spring Workshop in Altoona on June 9, is a guest of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 3 pm. EST, hosted by PA librarians Steven Bell and John Shank, co-founders.

Brian's 'event' is called 'Opening New Windows of Opportunity: Creating Breakthrough Instructional Experiences.' Brian will "speak on 'breakthrough opportunities' as he shares his latest ideas on creating interactive library experiences for students. This session will feature tactics for engaging students in both the classroom as well as in digital environments. Brian will also discuss possibilities for the library and librarians to become a more integrated part of campus and will highlight his ubiquitous 'push-out' philosophy."

The event is free, but advance registration is required. You also need to be a member of the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community. Here's a link to the Web page with a link to join. Sounds interesting.

Library Association Newsletters

I've been doing some research into how library association newsletters are indexed in the library science literature for PaLA and have come up with the following chart. (Click on it to get a larger view; unfortunately, Blogger doesn't let you upload Excel spreadsheets, so I couldn't hyperlink the URLs.)

You'll see that 11 of the 21 associations that publish newsletters are indexed in the library literature. It's also interesting that only 7 of the 21 do not allow open access to their newsletters.

More to follow.

Best Wishes, Barbara!

The CRD Board bids a fond farewell to Dr. Barbara Burd as she steps down from the Board at the end of the 2007 -2008 academic year. Barbara will be leaving her position as Library Director for Misericordia University to assume a new position as Executive Director for the Library and Instructional Technology at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. It sounds like an exciting opportunity for her, and we wish her all the best of luck!

We'll miss you, Barbara! Thanks for serving on the Board and please keep in touch.

LN

Happy New Year!

And a warm welcome to our new Chair of the College and Research Division, Christy Roysdon!

Vickie

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.