OLA Superconference topics! Wish I could attend the first four!

Doubling Down: An analysis of and recommendations for Wilfrid Laurier University Library’s online teaching and learning programme

The Wilfrid Laurier University Library undertook a review of its online teaching and learning strategy. This examination included an analysis of the library’s teaching and learning goals, tools, and organizational structure, a literature review of current theory and methods in online teaching and learning, and a survey of instructional librarians at post-secondary libraries across North America. Our results, which call for more self-service learning options, a stronger online presence for librarians, and a renewed organizational structure for online instruction, are informing the Library’s wider restructuring as it moves toward a student-centered, digital-oriented service model.

Information Literacy Program Innovation Using Blended Learning Course Redesign Models

Blended learning requires a fundamental course redesign to effectively integrate both face-to-face and online elements. Using a project management approach and course redesign models from the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) in the U.S., McMaster University Library implemented a blended learning pilot in five large enrolment undergraduate classes with existing information literacy components, with the goal of enhancing learning outcomes and reducing face-to-face information literacy instruction across the library system by 50%. Using results from instructor focus groups and student online surveys, we will assess this innovation in terms of project management, learning outcomes, workload, technologies and partnerships.

How to Integrate the ILS System, Social Media and Subject Guides

There are many different ways to manage subject data in library system. But how to integrate them, make them work together and have one stop access for patrons is a big challenge. This poster will use one example –GIS (Geographic information system) research project to show the steps. The display will include how we export data from Voyager, import into Pinterest, and then link to LibGuides, which is followed by twitter and links with LibCal. Faculty and students will access GIS resource and related event in one place. It is helpful for research and study. There are many different ways to manage subject data in library system. But how to integrate them, make them work together and have one stop access for patrons is a big challenge. This poster will use one example –GIS (Geographic information system) research project to show the steps. The display will include how we export data from Voyager, import into Pinterest, and then link to LibGuides, which is followed by twitter and links with LibCal. Faculty and students will access GIS resource and related event in one place. It is helpful for research and study.


Creating a Virtual Branch Using WordPress

When creating a new website, Grey Highlands Public Library (GHPL) chose to use the Open Source Content Management Software WordPress to create an interactive web experience that provides the same level of service as a physical branch would. Using Instant WordPress, GHPL developed a new branch website offline on a flash drive before making it “live”. The new interactive website provides a cutting-edge experience for our patrons that is easy for staff to maintain and upgrade. Open Source software allows public libraries to create an easy-to-access interactive virtual branch.

Virtual Orientation to Services for Students with Disabilities

Student engagement, recruitment and retention are critical issues in the post-secondary environment and this applies equally to students with disabilities. Increasingly we are turning to instructional videos that can be accessed online anytime and anywhere. This poster will highlight the work carried out to date on a video project by York’s Academic Innovation Fund. A joint venture between Counselling & Disability Services and York University Libraries, the end products will assist both prospective and current students in navigating their way across campus to various services and in using accessibility software (e.g. Kurzweil).

Use Online Forms in Library Activities

Google Docs forms have been widely used in the library for many purposes, such as collecting registration, feedback, and suggestions. This poster goes beyond that and presents three explorative practices of using online forms to communicate with patrons at McGill University: (A) marketing library services to faculty by creating a checklist using a Google Docs form, (B) assessing students’ information literacy needs by an online pre-test form, and (C) getting consensus on the ranking of journal subscription suggestions within the department by a LimeSurvey form. Issues of using online forms will be discussed.

Beyond Literacy: Exploring a post-literate future

Reading and writing are doomed. Literacy as we know it is over. Welcome to the post-literate future. Beyond Literacy is a thought experiment, which explores the possibilities of a post-literate future -a future in which literacy (reading and writing; visible language) has been displaced, replaced, or exceeded by a new or evolved capacity, capability or tool. It is also an experiment in scholarly communication (www.beyondliteracy.com) and pedagogy. Created by University of Guelph librarian and instructor, Michael Ridley, in conjunction with graduate students at the University of Toronto’s iSchool, the project was co-published by ACRL and OLA.

Entering the Academic Honesty Milieu: Strategies for success

What role can a library play in advancing the academic integrity of its institution? See how Library & Learning Services has been leading academic honesty initiatives at Sheridan College and the impact these have had at both the program and administrative levels. We’ll share practical strategies for implementing a suite of learning tools that can transform an institution’s approach to policy development, prevention and intervention strategies.

Getting Ready for RDA: A Modular approach to training library staff

Resource Description and Access is the new content standard coming this Spring 2013. Libraries will need to address training for staff in all Departments on how to interpret, catalogue and use RDA records. This poster will analyze training needs faced by most libraries and offer a practical guide to implementing RDA applicable to libraries of all sizes. Emma Cross is a member of the Pan-Canadian Working Group on Cataloguing with RDA and the poster will be based on her experiences planning and delivering RDA training at Carleton University Library. Please drop by to discuss RDA and obtain some practical suggestions on implementation for your Library.

Google vs Databases : Comparison of Information Retrieval Systems

We have access to an unprecedented amount of electronic information. In general, it appears that most people have come to rely on search engines as their preferred information source. Librarians and other key stakeholders prefer to access information from subscription based databases. In an objective, evidence based approach we evaluated the effectiveness and efficiency of search engines and databases. The results show a statistically significant difference in search results that will assist key stakeholders to make more informed decisi

Paper-thin tablets are like magic slates for grown-ups.

As a cavewoman, the part of my brain that is capable of envisioning the future is the size of a beetle turd. So when trying to imagine computing devices of tomorrow, I was never able to picture something like this: a tablet thin and flexible as paper.

This reminds me of something I saw a small human child playing with. She called it a "magic slate". She could draw on it with a plastic stylus, and when she wanted to start over, she lifted up the top layer of sheer film, and then returned it, which erased her image. I thought it was a marvel among marvels. But now I see that it was merely what your people call a "toy."

This, is the marvel!

Cavalcade of Webinards

Okay, you can see my page has been dormant for some months. That's because it got cold. I thought another ice age was upon us, and was preparing to crawl back into the glacier from which I first crawled. Maybe then, I thought, I can go back to sleep and re-emerge in a kinder, gentler time, like the times I knew before: People hanging strips of fresh kill over crude fires. People communicating deep meanings through intimate grunts and howls, instead of busy dots on a screen that make me dizzy. But the ice time has not come, and I am stuck here, as always, a fish out of sea. An unfrozen cavewoman librarian. And so I must continue my learning. And I see many online tools at my disposal. And so I will partake. May the cavalcade of webinards begin. Er, webinars. I will watch these on my light box and report back to humanities on which thing I have learned.