Idaho Library Association Conference in Post Falls

IDAHO LIBRARY ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 2010



Image - Exterior of Coeur d'Alene Public Library

Before my preconference session I attended the lunch with Chris Crutcher http://www.chriscrutcher.com/. He talked about his most recent book 'Deadline.' This is a book that starts off with a teenager learning that he has a fatal illness and is going to die in a year. Since Crutcher has worked as a therapist he drew on that background and then talked about how we seize the day, or not. It was an awesome talk. As for the food... bleh or meh. MY session went swimmingly. We had a lot of interaction and I learned as much as they did.



Image - Art, Coeur d'Alene Public Library

The next day Oct 7th., I attended the ILA Business Meeting, and then the Keynote Address by Jess Walter http://www.jesswalter.com/, another author. He recently published 'The Financial Lives of the Poets.' He had us laughing and listening hard. "From Bookmarks Magazine:
Walter's wildly funny, heartrending novel is a clever meditation on the American Dream gone horribly wrong. Readers will be rooting for Matt, "a likable everyman" (Christian Science Monitor), even as he commits one painful error after another. Walter's writing crackles with energy, and though he seems to come close to treating some serious topics (drug use, infidelity, mental illness, and bankruptcy) superficially, his affection for his characters and his shrewd assessment of the Priors' financial and familial collapse circumvent that danger. His free-verse poetry, however, interspersed within the narrative, received mixed reviews. Praised as one of today's best new voices, Walter has penned a scathing indictment of contemporary America." -- http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Lives-Poets-Jess-Walter/dp/0061916048



Image - Story Room Coeur d'Alene Public Library

I followed up this great beginning with an awesome workshop on 'The Character of Leadership' by Phil Eastman http://www.leadershipadvisors.com/. His model of leadership is character based, not trait based and is founded on the traits of Justice, Temperance, Hope, Wisdom, Love, Courage, and Faith. It was awesome and I wish we had a longer time to spend with him. I was able to nab one of the few packets and a copy of his small book.



Image - Exterior Post Falls Public Library

I got back from lunch in time to listen to the panel 'How I Became a Science Librarian with an English Degree and Other Collection Management Miracles.' They had a lot of great ideas including using Worldcat to narrow down to specific libraries, dates, and subject to analyze your collection and/or get ideas for purchasing.



Image - Service Counter Post Falls Public Library

The awards banquet was very fun. I sat at a table with the Kuna Public Librarians and had a ball. The food was inedible, but the company more than made up for it. I think that's the longest I've spent lingering at a table at ILA ever.



Image - Internet Access Post Falls Public Library

Friday Oct 8th started off with a bang. The Academic & Special Libraries division meeting where I took notes. I also became the Chair of the Division at this meeting. Then on to the session on 'Information Literacy' and it's integration into the Idaho ICT Standards. It is focused on k-12 but this will help us. If we can get kids to learn the basics we can then build on them in college.



Image - Exterior Post Falls Public Library

My favorite session of the day was by Jim Jatkevicius and Mike Brown titled 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Developing Effective Patron Conduct Codes for Idaho Public Libraries.' They did a great job teaching us how to create codes of conduct that were enforceable and legal. Much laughter at what can and does happen in a library ensued along with cases and codes for reference for specific items such as sleeping in the library. Lastly I attended 'Free-economics' a workshop about economics research resources available freely on the web. The handout will be most useful.

A fun and interesting conference with lots of great people.

Idaho Library Association Northern Region Meeting

Waterfall on US-95 heading for Moscow
Originally uploaded by J Semenza

Keynote: Dr. Darin Saul ‘Improving the Sustainability of Your Library’
What I got out of it:

• Little things can add up to a big difference i.e. reusable bags, turning off lights, energy efficient light bulbs.
• Check out the LEED system for green buildings (http://www.usgbc.org/)
• Change the default power settings on computers to have them hibernate instead of standby.
• Buy energy rated appliances – including copiers
• Minimize use first
• Double sided printing
• Prefer electronic to paper
• Purchase recycled content
• Lease computers so they are recycled by manufacturers instead of purchase
• Sometimes if you have a large or voluminous amount to recycle special arrangements can be made with the recyclers to pick up and deal with it. i.e. big piles of books

Session 1: Gina Persichini – Rethinking Resource Sharing
What I got out of it:

• More availability fewer restrictions
• User choice on format
• Access from anywhere anytime
• Share resources with all types of cultural institutions (i.e. archives, museums…)
• Do we need to catalog ‘expertise’ or maybe keep some kind of log
• Perhaps more Mr.Oboler type delicious accounts for experts in the area
• No findable object should be totally unattainable
• Offer service for a fee rather than refusing service
• See: http://rethinkingresourcesharing.org/manifesto.html

Session 2: I was teaching this one so …

Session 3: Michael Greenlee – Free Legal Research Tools
What I got out of it:

Review of who produces legal materials

• Federal
• State
• City/County/Local
• Judicial
• Executive
• Legislative

Sources of law on the internet

• Constitutions
• Statutes
• Case Law
• Regulations
  

Sources of law on the net in fee based services

• Practice materials and secondary sources (encyclopedias, treatises, ALR, AmJur, forms…)

Websites:

• State of Idaho http://www.accessidaho.org/
• Idaho Legislature http://www.legislature.idaho.gov/
• Idaho Judiciary http://www.isc.idaho.gov/
• Court Assistance Office http://www.courtselfhelp.idaho.gov/
• Idaho Administrative Rules http://adm.idaho.gov/adminrules/
• Idaho Administrative Agencies http://idaho.gov/agency/agency_a.html
• Idaho Executive Branch http://www.idaho.gov/government/executive.html
• Idaho Governor http://gov.idaho.gov
• Idaho Attorney General http://www2.state.id.us/ag
• USA.gov http://www.usa.gov
• GPO Access http://thomas.loc.gov
• CRS Reports http://opencrs.com
• U.S. Supreme Court http://www.supremecourtus.gov
• Law Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/law
• Electronic Information System for International Law (EISIL) http://www.eisil.org/
• Cornel Legal Information Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu
• Findlaw http://lp.findlaw.com/
• LexisOne http://law.lexisnexis.com/webcenters/leixone/
• Georgetown Law Library http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/
• University of Idaho Law Library http://www.law.uidaho.edu/

P.S. Answers to legal questions often require using more than one source.

Session 4: Ramirose Attebury – Cultural Stereotypes of Librarians in YouTube Videos
What I got out of it:

Probably the most fun session there, certainly my favorite.
8 stereotypes

• Old maid
• Policeman
• Inept (socially awkward or bad customer service)
• Hero/heroine
• Parody
• Really fun/Positive
• Sexy
• Psycho

Lots of research went into the making of this presentation. Stuff about popular culture, feminism …
To change the image of a profession it is suggested that Parody may be more effective than fun/positive.
Psycho is only found in customer service aspect
For a look at her presentation on slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/rosebudy23/librarian-depictions-on-youtube
However, her YouTube video selections are not included. Sorry. Maybe she’ll add that later.

Great conference!
Jenny

ILA: Plugging into the Numbers

by Gillian Harrison of BCR

We collect a lot of data in our libraries. Gillian's presentation began with what kinds of data can be collected and then turned its focus to how to present the data.

She showed charts, graphs, graphics, visuals... and had us assess their effectiveness in presenting the information.

Here are some more soundbites/notes
Before beginning a data project, determine who is going to pull/gather/manipulate the data. Decide which data will be collected and who has the password.

Data can be collected from in-house operations, vendors, professional organizations, Pew (http://www.pewinternet.org) and OCLC.

There are standards for data collection for journals and databases. To see these standards take a look at http://www.projectcounter.org

Make friends with your data. Look for baselines, trends and patterns.

Manipulate your data, simplify, compare and picture it.

Ask yourself, is this data point really valuable? Is it adding to the message or just adding noise?

Define your audience (and their data sophistication) What are you trying to say to them?
Is it an update, funding request, justification/explanation, information, shock or impact?
What outcome are you looking for?

Choose where and how to present the data. (venue, media, voice)

This was a very useful workshop. I am really glad I went cause I have a mountain of data to try and make into useful and useable information. Additionally, I'm going to change the first slide of my Wandering presentation to a better more descriptive graphic.

ILA: Active Learning Potions for Information Literacy

Presentation by Spencer Jardine

This was a great presentation to end the conference with. Spencer had us interacting with each other and him. His handout lists 14 different activities that can be integrated into bibliographic instruction.
1. Listening teams
2. Groups applying the CRAAP test
3. Visual quiz
4. Quick/pop quiz
5. Demonstrations aka demos
6. Worksheets
7. Citation assignment
8. Lecture
9. Think-pair-share
10. Analogies & stories
11. Object lessons
12. Identify the term
13. Jeopardy review
14. Student blogs

Some of these he demonstrated, or rather used us to demonstrate. Unfortunately time ran out and we didn't get to discuss all of them. I really liked the way this session became truly participatory. I guess that says something about active learning techniques.

Jenny

ILA Information Literacy & Instruction Roundtable

Hosted by Sara Seely, Rick Stoddard, Glynda Pflieger

This was an unusual roundtable in that the first draft of the Technology & Information Standards for k-16 was presented. This standard will hopefully be integrated into the state educational standards. While the words information literacy are not used explicitly, the concepts, and goals are integrated. I think this was a lot of work and I am really hoping it gets adopted. If these standards are implemented into the education of our k-12 schools, the students will benefit immeasurably. People who are information and technology fluent are so much more adept at navigating college, life, and difficulties.

I was particularly impressed with the mapping of AASL, ACRL and Big 6 information literacy goals to the ISTE standard. Well done!!

ILA Division Meeting: Idaho Librarian

There are a lot of changes coming to the Idaho Librarian (http://www.idaholibraries.org/idlibrarian). The new editor is Kim Leeder of Boise State University. The IL will be using software that many other open access journals use. It will now be a hybrid with a new section for peer-reviewed featured articles.

Articles for any section (peer-reviewed feature, non-scholarly articles and reports, book reviews) are welcome. Email submissions to kimleeder@boisestate.edu.

I have a concern regarding the Idaho Librarian. Yet, I am hesitant to voice it because I have not submitted anything for publication to them. If I have not been willing to be involved by writing, then who am I to criticise? Be that as it may I'm going to write it anyway. Particularly, since I voiced it in the meeting. The periodical has not been coming out on a regular basis in recent years. If this is because of a lack of articles being submitted, then won't the peer review process bog it down further?

Well, time will tell how this will play out...

Jenny

ILA Keynote Speaker

George Needham of OCLC gave the Keynote address. It was inspiring and encouraging.

Here are a few soundbites from the presentation:

The library's tag line should read: Save Time, Get Better Grades.

Libraries need to be marketed not as Institutions, but as Infrastructure, from frill to neccessity, from altruism to return on investment. There are several online OCLC reports with information and data that can be used to back up the argument so go check them out at: http://www.oclc.org/reports/ In particular, the reports on "From Awareness to Funding," "Sharing, Privacy & Trust in Our Networked World," and "College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries & Information Resources"

To enliven his presentation Mr. Needham included some facts from the Beloit College Mindset List (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/).

"The Mindset List is not a chronological listing of things that happened in 1990, the year they were born. It is instead an effort to identify the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2008. Of course, our students come from many backgrounds and different traditions and these generalizations may not apply to all. The list identifies the experiences and event horizons of students and is not meant to reflect on their preparatory education.

It is also not deliberately designed to make readers feel really old!"

Here are the first five of the sixty entries on this very entertaining list:

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.

George Needham was a very interesting speaker and best of all, he was truly inspiring about the impact a that we can have on our communities.

Bibliographic Software

Endnote
Buy it, install on specific computer
Import from databases - yes
Import from web - no

Endnote Web
Free, web access, can install toolbar for IE or Firefox
Import or "capture" feature works sporadically to capture single references

Refworks
Web access only
Refgrabit captures information identified by ISBN, PMID, DOI

Zotero
Free, Firefox addon, only via specific browser
Capture from website easy

CiteULike
Free, web access
Import using bibtext or capture from web site or some databases]

Susan Swetnam - Carnegie Public Libraries - Lunch

Lunch with Susan Swetnam “Role of Women’s Clubs in establishing Idaho’s Carnegie Public Libraries”

This was a very interesting lunch presentation. She discussed how Intermountain West Carnegie libraries used different types of marketing schema to bring the library to life in their community.

1. Growth, capitalism, show we're an up and coming community with great economic prospects (promoted by Chambers of Commerce and business people)
   
2. Family values, we're emphasizing family values and providing good clean activities (promoted by religious groups)
   
3. Educating against repression (promoted by non-religious groups)
   
4. Women's Clubs used different words, but in seemed that they were raising the educational and prestige tone of the community.
   

I can't wait to buy her book once she publishes it!

Joy on the Job - day two

Fun is one way to bring joy to work

1. gain perspective
2. check belief system (the sun rises)
3. solutions
1. win win
2. talk it out
3. ask for what you need
4. Stress strengths instead of warring with weaknesses
5. Neutral space for problem solving
6. discover joy of great teamwork
1. Create hall of shame to showcase what didn’t work. This celebrates the creative process and the need for trying
7. don’t be a parent at the office
1. you cannot delegate standing up for yourself
8. Get advanced training
1. You are the CEO of your life
9. develop a sound support system
10. humor at work is good
11. enjoy work/life balance
12. develop inner harmony
13. sleep, eat right, workout
1. look for mood foods and power foods
   

Surrender what can’t be changed
Go with the flow
Call on the curious witness
Acknowledge feelings
It will tell when agonizing/fretting over something I have no control over or business about.

What are important employee motivations and morale boosters?
• Valuable contributions by sharing personal gifts, skills and talents
• Respect & fair treatment
• Pay linked to performance
• Rewarding relationships
• Create flow state, discover how to generate it in self
Not boring, not too difficult
Challenges that help learn and grow
• Develop employee strengths
• Flexible hours and other work conditions
• Encourage healthy self expression
• Support the culture
• Feedback, coaching and mentoring
• Adequate resources
• Opportunities for growth & advancement

Effective communication techniques
• Shut up and listen
• Ask: what do you want

Meaningful conflict
• Agree that disagreements are inevitable. No personal attacks
• Difficult people
Hold boundaries, don’t fight back
When personally attacked ask ‘could you please repeat that
4 / 2 breathing
Clench and release frustration

For more info see http://www.joyonthejob.info/

Joy on the Job - day two

Fun is one way to bring joy to work

1. gain perspective
2. check belief system (the sun rises)
3. solutions
a. win win
b. talk it out
c. ask for what you need
4. Stress strengths instead of warring with weaknesses
5. Neutral space for problem solving
6. discover joy of great teamwork
a. Create hall of shame to showcase what didn’t work. This celebrates the creative process and the need for trying
7. don’t be a parent at the office
a. you cannot delegate standing up for yourself
8. Get advanced training
a. You are the CEO of your life
9. develop a sound support system
10. humor at work is good
11. enjoy work/life balance
12. develop inner harmony
13. sleep, eat right, workout
a. look for mood foods and power foods

Surrender what can’t be changed
Go with the flow
Call on the curious witness
Acknowledge feelings
It will tell when agonizing/fretting over something I have no control over or business about.

What are important employee motivations and morale boosters?
• Valuable contributions by sharing personal gifts, skills and talents
• Respect & fair treatment
• Pay linked to performance
• Rewarding relationships
• Create flow state, discover how to generate it in self
o Not boring, not too difficult
o Challenges that help learn and grow
• Develop employee strengths
• Flexible hours and other work conditions
• Encourage healthy self expression
• Support the culture
• Feedback, coaching and mentoring
• Adequate resources
• Opportunities for growth & advancement

Effective communication techniques
• Shut up and listen
• Ask: what do you want

Meaningful conflict
• Agree that disagreements are inevitable. No personal attacks
• Difficult people
o Hold boundaries, don’t fight back
o When personally attacked ask ‘could you please repeat that
o 4 / 2 breathing
o Clench and release frustration

For more info see http://www.joyonthejob.info/

Podcasting - day one

Making some Noise: Podcasting & the Power of RSS

Why RSS?
1. Better consumers of information
2. creating content for users

Student Life blog for institution (hcc central) push rss feeds from library into webct, student life blogs etc…

Articles relevant to course content funneled to own pages

askaninja.com
[Podcasting is a factory for making apple pies for whales]

Library’s are recording book talks, story time, newbooks, blurb reading, local history. Participatory web

To podcast you will need sound reducing microphone headset.

Look for podsafe music

RSS building tools:
• Rss to javascript: http://www.rss-to-javascript.com
• Feed2JS: http://feed2js.org
• Feed Digest: http://www.feeddigest.com/

RSS enabled blog:
Blogger.com
Wordpress.com

Podcasting Tools

• podcasting creation
o studio.odeo.com (free use website)
o audacity.soruceforge.net (free download, don’t forget the LAME mpe encoder download)

This was a fabulous session by Shell Drumm a dynamic speaker with an easygoing style. It was a fun, interesting and informative session!!

But I Didn’t Even Like History - Lunch with author Kirby Larson

Kirby Larson is the author of Hattie Big Sky "a young adult novel she wrote inspired by her great-grandmother, Hattie Inez Brooks Wright, who homesteaded by herself in eastern Montana as a young woman."
http://www.kirbylarson.com/bio.html

A lively speaker who talked about her history, the writing process and her books.

Delightful.

GIS and Libraries - day one

How GIS technology can assist in planning for services in your little corner of the world.

Brief history of mapping technology,

Fascinating demonstration of different web uses of GIS and layers

Websites:
• http://nationalmap.gov
• http://www.census.gov/main/www/access.html
• http://www.insideidaho.org
• http://www.compassidaho.org/prodserv/mapgis-data.htm
• http://www.cityofboise.org/after3
• http://www.giscafe.com
• http://gis.idaho.gov/idaholibraries
• http://www.geolib.org/PLGDB.cfm
• http://www.geolib.org/pdf/MLSGeoMarketSize.pdf
• http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer06articles/colorado-state.html
• http://www.bio-diglib.com/content/1/1/3/

Keynote Speaker ILA - day one

Keynote Speaker: Reaching out to your users with technology

• 90% of those under 35 use Instant messaging, text messaging
• 90% of college students have cell phones.
• Ball state university has a mobile phone formatted web presence
• Digitizing collections, teaching community and helping them digitize their family photos, diaries etc…
• Check out http://www.yourhub.com/NextGen a participatory webnewspaper site that has 4th – 8th graders as reporters and commentators.