WAPL - Luncheon: The Writer's Real Life, or Be Your Own Boss! Work at Home and Pray for Universal Coverage

Jay Rath is a Madison area journalist, playwright, and author. He is a third generation writer. Rhonda Puntney (WAPL) chair gave a personal introduction. Jay started by noting that tomorrow's lunch speaker is an athletic coach who would most likely talk about teamwork. He presented the opposing view, since writers work alone.

He quoted Edna Ferber who said: "I hate writing, I adore having written. ..." Much of his work is free-lance which requires knowing about a lot of different areas. He therefore visits the Madison Public Library about every other day.

He joked about rewriting Dickens' Tale of Two Cites for the 21st Century and used "smiley" icons for punctuations of the opening sentence. He then cited some of the stereotypes of writers with references to pop culture portrayals.

It is really hard to capture the essence of a humor talk. Jay was a great speaker, a series of laughs. Great stories. He read sections of both articles and his books.

It was a humorous talk about writing, libraries, and the challenges of the 21st century.

WLA 2007: UW-Madison Libraries/Google Partnership

UW-Madison Libraries/Google Partnership
a presentation by Ed Van Gemert, Deputy Director, General Library System, UW-Madison; and Irene Zimmerman, Head, Cataloging Department and Google Project Manager, UW-Madison
http://www.library.wisc.edu/digitization/.

• What is Google Book Search (GBS)? http://books.google.com/
  
• Wisconsin's involvement

GBS allows you to search the full text of books, if the item is pre-1923

The books in GBS come primarily from 2 sources:

1. publishers
2. libraries

Once you've searched GBS and found a book, you can...

• browse books online under full view, limited preview, or snippet view (if item is post-1923; in copyright)
• search within the book
• find similar titles
• buy the book or request it through interlibrary loan
• download public-domain books

digitization of books is achieved through non-destructive scanning

online items are not preservation quality; it's all about discovery & access to materials

Wisconsin's involvement:

• UW-Madison initiated discussions in early 2006
• established partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society
• contract agreement negotiations from May-Oct 2006
• developed "Statement on Principles and Values"
• the agreement stipulates a university digital copy of each file, including items that are still in copyright
• primary focus areas: Federal government documents, state government documents, historic documents, patent info
• additional books from the genealogy collection from Wisconsin Historical Society, and theses & dissertations
  
• the first shipment of books was sent to Google 3 Apr 2007; materials from several libraries are shipped to Google every 4 weeks
  

Google paid for all the costs of preparation, shipping, and digitization

shared digital repository among CIC libraries (Michigan, Indiana, et. al.)

Project Planning: a project management team was appointed, based on advice from a Google liaison

Determined criteria for inclusion based on size, format, and condition of book

the book's temporary location in MadCat indicates it's checked out

Upcoming issue --how to get links to the digitized book into the book's bibliographic record in MadCat

the more of a book a publisher shows, the more copies of books it sells

WLA 2007: Those Who Can, Teach: Becoming a More Effective "One Shot" Trainer (and Explainer)

Those Who Can, Teach: Becoming a More Effective "One Shot" Trainer (and Explainer)
a presentation by Michele Besant, Director, School of Library and Information Studies Library, UW-Madison; Carrie Nelson, Associate Academic Librarian, UW-Madison; Pamela O’Donnell, Academic Librarian, UW-Madison

Outline of today's presentation:

• Strategies / tips
• Collective wisdom (sharing)
• Debriefing / critique
• Exit with a renewed passion for teaching

Michele's main message:

• less is more (honestly) -- try not to overwhelm learners with too much information
  
• value your teaching -- believe that what you have to convey has value to learners
  
• it's all about the story -- narratives help you make a connection with learners
• have fun! -- if you're having fun, your learners might have fun too

Carrie's concerns: feelings and how they affect our teaching

• reading from a script -- try to break from your script to keep things fresh
  
• giving up control -- try to get comfortable about feeling uncomfortable
• embrace the weirdness -- enjoy the unexpected and unscripted

Pamela's premise:

• what's in a name (a lot!) -- take time to learn each learner's name
• analogies work -- Google is like a very happy dog (retriever); find a way for learners to assimilate new information; something memorable
• fake it -- fake it 'til you make it; if you don't feel "up" about training
• be funny -- it helps make librarians more approachable and engaging

Wisdom of crowds -- tips from the audience:

• this isn't brain surgery; no one will die if you make a mistake
  
• an active learning experience
  
• commitment to your audience will transcend any technical challenge
• teaching to different levels of knowledge in a group session
• clear demos followed by hands-on practice
• a person has to hear a thing 3 times before remembering it; say it different ways
• be prepared; know your stuff, but be ready for seats-of-the pants stuff
• be willing to not have all the answers; turn it back to the group for answers
  
• help relax your students so they're open to learning new things
• help learners make a connection to what you're trying to teach

Michelle: "If you want to learn something, teach it to other people"

find out about your learners, so you can tailor your presentation to their needs

how to learn patience with people who really don't get it -- understand he/she is a person who has a need and/or problem

let go of the expectation that an entire class of learners will reach the same level at the end of the learning session

PowerPoint slides on a handout, with room for learners to take notes

WLA 2007: David Maraniss keynote

I discovered as I was about to blog my first event of the conference that a) my laptop battery is dead, so I need to keep it plugged in to type; and b) wireless access is password-protected in the conference rooms. I couldn't do anything about the former situation, but was happily able to get the login info from conference center staff later in the day.
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I've missed all of David Maraniss' speaking engagements in Madison since *They Marched into Sunlight* was published, so I was pleased to see that he'd be the keynote speaker at this year's WLA conference. He didn't disappoint!

On libraries and his family... "My dad always said his church was the public library."

On a writer's life... "50% is boring - you have to sit in a chair and write. The other half is exciting!"

Maraniss recounted his visits to about a dozen formal libraries and archives, plus informal collections held by individuals, in the course of conducting research for his books on Bill Clinton, Vince Lombardi, Roberto Clemente, the 1960 Olympics, and the October 1967 anti-war protest and Vietnam War battle which are the focus of *They Marched into Sunlight*.

This is a man who understands the value of preserving access to historical materials. In particular, he lauded recently-retired James Danky of the Wisconsin Historical Society, for his invaluable collection of local/alternative press newspapers. As a grad student, I was lucky to have Danky speak in my classes about the importance of libraries collecting locally-produced publications, especially the controversial ones.

The role of both in-person visits and serendipity in the research process came up several times, as Maraniss mentioned a trip to Arkansas where he met Bill Clinton's great-aunt, who happened to possess the personal effects of Clinton's grandmother, including the letters he'd written her over the years; an interview with a lawyer who had secretly maintained the only records of the legal case related to Roberto Clemente's fatal air crash; and a visit to a meeting room in Rome which had just undergone a renovation entailing the removal of wallcoverings that revealed Fascist-era murals, that would have surrounded the 1960 Olympic planning committee. I do wonder about the future of such serendipitous discoveries and contextual understandings, in the digital age.

When asked what in libraries he has found to be most useful, and what has been lacking, he replied, "Not many criticisms... Just want them to stay open and have the money they need to keep doing what they’re doing."
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I bought four copies of *They Marched into Sunlight* and had them signed :)

WLA 2007: Real World RSS: Developing a Current Awareness Service for Your Patrons

Real World RSS: Developing a Current Awareness Service for Your Patrons
a presentation by Rebecca Holz, Health Sciences Librarian, Ebling Library, UW-Madison; Stephen Johnson, Health Sciences Librarian, Ebling Library, UW-Madison; and Andrew Osmond, Health Sciences Librarian, Ebling Library, UW-Madison http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/

~ This slides for this presentation are available at http://www.slideshare.net/eblinglibrary/ ~

Why might RSS be the answer for a current awareness service?

• flexible
• scalable
• portable

Providing RSS feeds of the tables of contents of journals of interest to faculty; some of which are available full text because Ebling subscribes to the e-journal

iGoogle and Google Reader as the aggregators of choice

Methods of communication used by the staff for this project:

• intranet used as a communication tool for staff working on the project (agenda, minutes, report of activities)
• staff blog also used to communicate progress (both of the above create transparency for the project's progress)
• decided to meet once a week for no more than an hour
• set up a wiki to manage the project

Phase 0 -- is this project practical? have others already done something similar we can replicate?

Phase 1
create categories for each journal

Phase 2
Develop bundled OPML packages (an easy way to export all the feeds into a feedreader/newsfeed aggregator)
How to Import OPML http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/bjd/journals/rss/opmlhelp.cfm

OPML means users can import...

• RSS feeds of all journal on a subject
• RSS feeds of onl the top journals in a subject

Phase 3
Develop a shopping-cart-like application; however, the ROI on the programming didn't make it feasible or practical

Phase 4
Develop instructional and promotional plans
Get the word out; show how it can be valuable to faculty and staff

Marketing:

• incorporate into subject guides & portals http://ebling.library.wisc.edu/portals/pophealth/ebph.cfm
  
• elevator speech
• table tents
• brochure

The future:

• more local integration into the library's web site
  
• expansion to news, podcasts
• integrated article retrieval, citation management, and proxy issues
• maintenance issues; missing feeds
• formalized approach to sharing
• continued evaluation