WAAL09: Fake it 'til you make it with government documents

"Fake it 'til you make it with government documents"
Nancy Mulhern, Wisconsin Historical Society
Michael Current, UW Lacrosse

Usa.gov (was First.gov)
-- Top choice for starting points
-- Yahoo type subject directory
-- Official search engine for free government websites (plus images, news, maps...)
-- Faceted search
-- For popular, current information retrieval

Wisconsin.gov
-- News
-- Subjects
-- Agency index
-- Search engine
-- For popular, current information retrieval

Google.com/unclesam
-- Searches .gov, .mil, and other U.S. federal, state, and local (?) sites
-- May use less now that Usa.gov is so good
Catalogs:
-- CGP: Catalog of U.S. Government Publications = http://catalog.gpo.gov (was "the monthly catalog") - supposed to include all pubs back to 1976 - use Ex Libris' Aleph software - SuDoc sorting works!
-- Worldcat.org, WisCat, BadgerCat
-- Local library catalog

Official access:
-- www.GPOaccess.gov - supports their own staff too - documents by government branch - moving over to FDsys (Federal Digital System) which is already live - full text search (faceted) of unaltered official versions - currently back to ~1994

Country information:
-- CIA World Factbook - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook - updated at least annually
-- State Dept. Background Notes - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn - update data provided
-- Library of Congress Country Studies (formerly Army Area Handbooks) - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs - most were last updated in early 1990's

Statistics:
-- FedStats - http://www.fedstats.gov - homepage doesn't look like much - by topic, geography, agency - search function
-- Statistical Abstract of the United States - http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab - lots more than statistics - annual, all online back to 1879 - summary data for social/political/economic - pulls in data from other organizations (ex: Am Vet Med Assn = pet ownership)

Strategy:
-- Think of the associated agency, not individual "author"
-- Challenge: what did the government call it?
-- Tutorial: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ala/tutorials/agency.html
-- State gov agencies usually mirror fed gov

Census:
-- American Fact Finder - http://factfinder.census.gov - multiple variables - only 1990 and 2000 - "custom table" - slow between 10am-2pm
-- Historical Census - http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus - different questions were asked each time - ex: in 1940, how many people were born in Rumania, by state/county?

Other:
-- State Information - http://wikis.ala.org/godort/index.php/State_Agency_Databases
-- Wisconsin - http://www.getfacts.wisc.edu/?geo-mcd - from UW-Madison Applied Population Lab - multivariable - to municipality/tract/block group/basin/watershed (unless privacy could be invaded, for 72 years)
-- Bureau of Labor Statistics - http://www.bls.gov - ex: Unemployment: Mass Layoffs, CPI Inflation Calculator
-- Science.gov - http://wwww.science.gov - "Usa.gov for science" - includes Agriculture, Food, Biotechnology, Animals, Plants, Ecology, Genetics... - faceted results - includes Agricola and PubMed article records

Historical Laws & Congress:
-- Keep in mind that agency names change, and come in/out of existence
-- Century of Law Making - http://lcweb2.loc.gov/amem/amlaw - (1774-1875) - digitized documents - search function
-- Thomas Congressional Information - Library of Congress - http://thomas.loc.gov/cp111/cp111query.html
-- Google Book Search - Google afraid of being sued for posting government info after 1923 even though it isn't copyrighted - can still get limited preview or snippet -
-- WorldCat.org - more historic documents being added

Faking it:
-- Resources above
-- Agency approach
-- Robust referral to gov doc specialist - WHS, UW-Madison Memorial Library, Milwaukee Public Library

WAAL09: Tapping the Creative Spirit to Spur Innovation

"Tapping the Creative Spirit to Spur Innovation"
Kathryn Deiss, ACRL Content Strategist

• http://kathryndeiss.pbwiki.com/ - presentation posted


• How do you develop a creative environment?


• New stuff - how do we get it? Depend on creative part of the mind - how tap it?

Who's creative?

• Audience: everyone, (usually people say: musicians, artists, writers)


• "Creative Inventions" lightning round (60 seconds) - create an invention using your card and someone else's (items like: ping pong balls, wind chimes, empty 35mm film canister, thermos, bubble-blowing kit, milk crate, waffle iron, gerbil wheel, whistling tea kettle, cassette tape player, cell phone, water pitcher, bicycle helmet, corkscrew, wallet, measuring spoons, compass, slinky, cupcake liners, camera, mousetrap, spray paint, ice cube tray, mickey mouse ears, bandana, zipper, skateboard)


• Everyone is creative - process of generating novel ideas that are likely to be useful

Creative process:

• Difficulty = we don't know where we are:


• problem/opportunity > divergent thinking > convergent thinking > decision point


• Most people truncate early part, and don't generate enough ideas


• Problem/opportunity identification - generate ideas - analyze options - choose - implement prototypes - incubate and get feedback - revise and reintroduce


• We say "but if we put out a prototype and then take it away, patrons will get mad" - not a good reason not to do it

Tools & practices - creative spaces - attitudes & frames of mind

• Tools:


• Precise observation - ex: some libraries doing "ethnographic research" of students like they're tribes - U. Rochester Research Project published "Studying Students"


• Penetrating questions - why do we think this? what happens when we do this?


• Absence of judgment - suspend in idea-generation period - not "it didn't work last time" or "that won't work"


• Faith in your resources - group's creativity can do it


• Stages:


• Preparation - sitting, waiting, being open, groundwork of processes to bring people together for sparks


• Time off - don't jump into decision; incubate inside


• The spark! - leap on it


• Selection


• Elaboration - what could idea look like? brainstorm on the one idea


• Brainstorming rules:


• Someone records it all


• Rapid


• No Voice of Judgment


• Quantity over quality


• Wilder the better


• Build on the ideas of others


• Other ways:


• Silent brainstorming (individual, on piece of paper; round robin sharing - get more ideas because introverted people participate)


• Visual brainstorming


• Brainwriting - circulate pieces of paper with ideas among participants


• Bodystorming


• Mindmapping - there are software programs to help, or can do manually


• Think of something at work you'd like to change or understand better - Being in this situation is like [add metaphor] - spin off - feelings associated - how affect communication


• Changing perspective:


• Can we put to other use? adapt? modify? rearrange? substitute? reverse? combine? ...


• Effective group creativity requires diverse points of view - not nasty conflict, but multiple perspectives


• Incubation - like seeds in the soil, like eggs in a nest, like bread rising - "you know, I was thinking..."


• Scott Adams (Dilbert) went to work for IDEO - to improve "the cubicle" - modular, fun, customizable - (photos) which would you rather work in? - IDEO carves furniture out of styrofoam and says "how's this?"


• (photo of big conference table room) - what's wrong with this? - (alternative: what looks like my old housing co-op living rooms)


• Zephyr Innovation Incubator - Illinois - lots of little toys for customers/staff to play with while brainstorming


• Imagine a place that stimulates you (art gallery) - qualities/characteristics: changes periodically, thought-provoking, sometimes beautiful, emotion-provoking - how can your work place better reflect that space?


• Creativity is messy! - we don't have patience for "fooling around" - but you have to, to get the new!


• Have to be willing to break the rules!


• Use unexpected detours to your advantage - others may think that you're distracted and not doing "work"

Killers:

• we can't


• it won't work


• we tried that before


• we don't have the money


• they won't let us


• what if it's too successful

WAAL09: Transformative Technology: Screencasting and the Use of Jing at UW-Madison

Transformative Technology: Screencasting and the Use of Jing at UW-Madison
Steve Frye & Ian Benton, College Library at UW-Madison

• http://www.jingproject.com/ - quick download


• We're not here because we work for Techsmith - more interested in how this technology can change what we do - link on handout to comparison of screencasting tools


• What do you think of when you hear "transformative technology"? Changes what you do, or how you do it; NOT hype - it's use is immediately apparent


• Examples from audience: internet, e-mail, online circulation / OPAC, telephones, automobile, IM


• What are the steps for changing a tire? Those who know in the audience list steps - so everyone else can now change a tire, right? I think we just need more information - Steve explains in detail using all kinds of words that most people probably don't know - now how many people could do it? OK, let's try YouTube... - now how many people could start doing this? - lots and lots of people raise their hands - is YouTube transformative technology?
  We librarians are bicycle repairpeople - when they ask us how to do something, we send them tons of words - or, we could send them a screencast with video and sound (shows example for finding a specific article)
• When you try to describe a visual process with a textual description, you must translate
  
• Jing videos can be created in real time, at the reference desk


• Patron responses (unsolicited) are VERY happy - (shows examples)


• What is a screencast? Much bigger than what we've shown - Wikipedia definition


• Techsmith has video on homepage to show you the value of Jing (shows) - same company makes Camtasia, but Jing is free and fast and has free hosting - just a link, no file transfer necessary


• Removing a barrier to communication (the long list of words and steps and jargon) - no technological hurdle


• How many times have you described a process, and had the patron say "but I that exact thing!"


• Question: what about kinesthetic learners? Answer: They need to follow the process, because my video doesn't provide them the materials they want


• Anyone challenge our assumptions? Audience: Not sure if it's transformative; used to co-browse and be there in realtime with user


• There could certainly be instances in which Jing is not the right tool for the job


• Instruction librarians showed interest


• Ian uses it to send in tech glitches, rather than just describing


• Staff use to send explanations to each other, too


• College Library: Dec 2007-July 2008, soft roll-out in evening reference; Aug 2008 - Official Jing training - not mandatory, but it's a useful tool


• If desired, could be a re-usable object, both for librarians and for users


• Statistics: 1,400-1,550 chat reference calls in 1-2 months; 15-25% use Jing - needed to upgrade


• Jing Pro = low cost for institutional use, had to upgrade to get enough storage space; now enough for UW-Madison's entire campus library system


• Steve doesn't think he's ever had a patron who couldn't get the Jing video to work


• Embed function doesn't seem to be robust


• Most library staff initially didn't record sound - patron response was favorable


• Nice to tell patrons ahead that there's audio, in case they need to turn it on or off
  (Show chat transcript, time involved in recording Jing, then continuing chat)


• Documents normal human interaction, not perfection


• Can also share with patrons, so they can make videos themselves


• Can transfer between Pro and free Jing


• Online "help" files are robust


• If interrupted, just push "pause" and continue video again


• (Demonstrations of making, playing, saving video)


• We consider these videos as disposable - don't agonize over its organization; probably easier to create a new one


• Question: Does this work the same on Mac as on PC? Answer: Yes.


• Jing also captures still images, and then there's some extra tools (arrows, boxes, highlighting)


• Question: General screencasting - any pushback from vendors on demonstrating the use of their databases, say if posted to YouTube? Answer: Haven't heard anything yet...


• Video length limit = 5 minutes; suggest not going over 2 1/2 minutes and not trying to explain more than 4 concepts per video


• Question: Does Jing save time on the desk? Answer: Ian's chat transcript data shows that it doesn't, actually lengthens chats


• When sending, ask patron to "tell me if this doesn't work"

WAAL09: Tale (Tail) of the Tyger

Tale (Tail) of the Tyger
Rev. Dr. David Joyce, President of Ripon College

• What do you think of when you hear "Ripon"? Harrison Ford, Rippin' Good cookies, and now "The bike thing"

Goal: Appreciate the worth in yourself and others so that you can influence and create your own future

• We spend too much time picking things apart, and not enough time putting things together


• "Nothing endures but change" - Heraclitus (500 B.C.)


• The rules are changing in this economy - old ways of doing things don't necessarily work - can't just look to the past - it used to be that if stocks were down, then bonds were up - not right now!

Fear-based decision-making:

• We instill fear in others to control what they do or don't do


• How much do we do or not do because we're afraid of what might happen?

Transformational Process:

• May be considered "inefficient" because time intensive - I meet with senior staff 4 hours each week to do this process


• #1 Mutual Worth - Begins with belief that "you have worth"


• #2 Authentic Interaction - What's going well? - everyone tends to jump to problem-solving too quickly - sometimes what's going well might be in our personal lives


• #3 Appreciative Understanding - everyone has a skill set, and they have more skills than you know - if you only look at those like you, all you'll get is those like you


• #4 Progressive Integration


• #5 Continuous Improvement


• #6 Transformation

Decision-making:

• Motivation (memory, emotions, attitudes) > Decisions > Behaviors > Perceptions > Trust or Distrust


• Ask open-ended questions


• Listen


• Paraphrase


• Instead of "Yeah, but" say "Yes, and"


• Enablers: awareness, reason, freedom, skills

The Bike Thing (Velorution):

• Ripon College is growing, and we were running out of car parking


• 1,100 students; 7,800 town residents > unhappy with students parking on streets


• "Creative Interchange":


• #1 Wish statement - "I wish/I would like it if... we didn't need to pave more green space to create parking lots for cars"


• #2 Another person paraphrases, then offers an idea - "We could give all incoming students a bicycle"


• #3 Next person paraphrases, then offers 4 reasons why they like the idea for every 1 wish statement


• #4 Continues until solution arrived upon - give out about 200 bikes per year

WAAL09: Digitization on Demand: ILL Operations Participating in Institutional Digitization

"Digitization on Demand: ILL Operations Participating in Institutional Digitization"
Angela Milock, Laura Rizzo, Eric Robinson - WiLS (Wisconsin Library Services)

• How it all began... WiLS was already scanning masters theses, special collections, etc. for document delivery - thought they could start saving their scanned documents to make them available to everyone


• Models? Found existing Digitization-on-Demand (DOD) and Print-on-Demand (POD) programs at other institutions - Cornell, Penn State, U Michigan


• Where deposit? UW Digital Collections - http://minds.wisconsin.edu/, Google Books & CIC Hathi Trust > OPAC


• Which items to digitize? Started with: Special collections, Music Library


• Turnaround time? Walked through detailed workflow; appears to be faster for ILL to do it than Digital Content Group (therefore, less expensive)


• Partnerships? Special collections, some institutions with Kirtas/Booksurge/Amazon


• Paying for service? WiLS mainly emulated Michigan: cost passed on to requester, posted per page cost, $30-160; Cornell: Amazon ($20-40, 1-4 days); Penn: $26 paperback; WiLS just tries to cover costs; Surprised to find that people at our own institution willing to pay for digitization of materials they already have physical access to


• Requests? Web form, OCLC


• Usage? Huge differences from institution to institution, based on how easy it is to find out about materials/service; people *are* willing to pay; WiLS filled 6 in first 3 weeks (not even announced yet!) vs Michigan ~20/year (multiple communication steps) vs Penn = 1 total in 2 months vs Cornell = heavy POD usage of selected 6,000 titles (Amazon helps!)


• Copyright? Tricky U.S. vs non-U.S. laws; needed clear guidelines > "Cornell matrix"; wanted to be safe from litigation > very conservative (use Google's policy: pre-1923, author death year + 70 years - "are they dead enough?"); other institutions follow different policies


• Technology? WiLS: b/w 300 dpi, grayscale/color 600 dpi; existing ILL/Special Collections scanners; some institutions send to Kirtas scanners (turn pages automatically; Google's probably look like this too); is the scanner up to the challenge? WiLS had nice new scanner but it would


• New tasks? Barcoding and item records on the fly if needed, whole document and each page separately so works with page-turning model


• Total planning time? WiLS took 7 months from idea to reality


• Why? Access more convenient, seamless, removed digitization selection decisions, cost-effective


• Hey, you! Any UW System school can deposit their materials in http://minds.wisconsin.edu/

Questions

• Did WiLS not scan materials in Special Collections or the Music Library before you intiated this program? Answer: Went from part (article or chapter) to whole (500+ pages, rare, fragile materials).


• Are Cornell & Penn shipping rare books or doing in-house? Answer: Apparently, they *are* shipping at least some rare materials.


• Some requests denied? Answer: Yes, holding library has that power.


• How delivered? Answer: Preferred delivery method of institution; mounted, hosted PDF version if that's the normal manner.


• Payment details? Answer: If university doesn't cover costs, then patron can use Google Shopping Cart (all communication goes through their local institution)


• Don't need institutional affiliation to request materials? Answer: Correct.


• Is your copyright policy posted? Answer: Not yet.


• What about duplication from one library to another? Answer: We may get fewer requests for duplicate items as things become findable online.

WLA 2008: Constructing Questionnaires and Questions: It's Harder Than it Seems

This presentation by Thomas D. Walker (UW Milwaukee) covered the fundamentals of questionnaire construction.

Surveys are instruments to gather data for empirical analysis.

Some questionnaires can accidentally turn into "fishing expeditions", and ask too many questions.

There are three crucial tasks:

• sampling the population
• determining the medium - f2f 1 to 1, in groups, written form
• designing the questionnaire

Advantages to written Questionnaires:

• more cost effective than interviews, especially with large sample sizes or large regions
• most cost effective medium for large numbers of questions
• can be easier to analyze, depending on the construction of the questions; some aspects can be automated (#2 pencil)
• are a familiar medium
• can reduce bias associated with oral questionnaires
• can be less instusive than oral surveys (more anonymous)

Disadvantages to written questionnaires:

• lower response rates (equals lower confidence levels)
• questions are usually very focused -- no elaborations are possible ("well yes, but ..." qualified answers aren't possible)
• no visual cues (no body language observable by interviewer)
• hard to know who's fillig it out
• may not be suited to certain populations (jargon, reading level issues, language, etc.)

Developing a questionnaire:

• Define:
• what kind of info is required?
• from whom do you need data?
• Break down complex problems into very simple ones

Questionnaires:

• should be introduced to let the respondent know what the purpose of the survey is, who will analyze it, and whether the results will be made public
• should conclude by expressing appreciation
• should be designed at a relatively early reading level

Good questions are...
clear
concise

Non-threatening questions...

• seek truth on sensitive issues by using a clinical, anonymous distance
• gain the confidence of the subject
• do not lead in one direction or another

Seek one kind of info, not two or more:
"Are you satisfied with the hours and facilities of the library?"

If choices are provided, ensure they include all possibilities.
"Which of the following services do you use? -ILL - Reference -YA"

Offer mutually-exclusive choices; don't provide choices that overlap

Logical sequence

• group questions logically
• establish a logical flow within a group
• possible characteristics: general to specific; positives versus negatives; time sequence
  

Rewording to validate

• Some large-scale studies may benefit from the validation of data by means of question repetition
• Most of the time, surveys we do aren't this large

Make no assumptions
"How satisfied are you with DPL's provision of access to large-scale bibliographic databases?"

Does not suggest an answer; doesn't lead the person to an answer

Avoid jargon and acronyms

Should not be tied to other questions; avoid especially in written questionnaires

Adhere to the Rule of 5

• Likert scale 1 - 5
• Rankings

Direct questions:

• True / false
• Multiple choice
• Likert scale
• Ranking

Advantages to direct/closed questions:

• easy to answer
• easy to code
• responses are uniform
• success of closed quesitons depends on the quality of the questions

Scaling

• Likert scale
• spectrum between two poles

Open-ended questions

• unstructured
• sentence completion
• word association

Advantages of open-ended questions:

• more flexible
• richer data (hard to analyze)
• may lead to other variables (other questions you want to ask in a future questionnaire)

Disadvantages of open-ended questions:

• hard to code/analyze

Confidentiality:

• statements assuring confidentiality are desirable and may be required
• inform respondents that thier responses are voluntary and their anonymity is assured
• if children are involved in any way, extra precautions must be taken

Question order:

• don't start with sensitive questions
• lead logically and unthreateningly to sensitive questions
  
• request demographic data at the end
  

Return rates from online surveys of distance education students are dismally low.

WAPL - Continuing Education in Your Pajamas-New Technologies Bring New Opportunities

John DeBacher started with a great visual image for the title of the program. I saw him in the hall in advance to capture this photo...he actually wore this to the introduce the program.

The first presenter was Anna Palmer from the library school at UW-Madison. There are still three courses which require physical presence on campus. The electives can be done online. Courses are available before or after starting the program. If you register as a "special student" the cost is half the regular price.

The school offers continuing education courses including courses for the Library Director Certification Program. CED credits are cheaper and are graded on a pass/fail basis. They use the same software for CE and online courses. They use Desire to Learn (D2L) which is branded with Learn Wisconsin.

Anna demonstrated with a course called "Core Elements of Children's Services." [I have a close friend who has taught using D2L, and I have seen both the student and instructor side.] It is asynchronous teaching with assignments and deadlines. It is web based and very intuitive. There is technology support for both students and instructors. There is a phone help desk from 6 am to 1 am. It does require 56K connection, Windows 98 or better.

The University offers "Education to Go" classes are skill specific. Cost is $85, and there are about 75 courses offered. All are 6 weeks long and the start once a month. They are offered through an outside vendor. They do have interactive elements and some of the structure is similar to the D2L structure. It does have a final exam which is required to receive credits for the course.

Bob Bocher talked about the tools which DPI provides. Bob did not appear in pajamas (since he wears none). The product the state uses is from Sonic Fpundry called MediaSite. The tool synchronizes the view with the sound. It is real time, and it is archival. The site has about 15 presentations included on the site. It requires a specialized PC and camera to produce programs. The PC includes the software. It takes some time to train staff to do the technology issues to schedule and connect, plus uploading PowerPoint. It is helpful to have two people: one to present and one to run the hardware.

Bob showed a demonstration of an erate training program. The state has a license, and hosts them on their own site. For many other customers the vendor hosts the program. The program is not as flexible. There is no chat or other interactivity.

John DeBacher showed WebJunction. He particularly plugged the Rural Sustainability aspect of the project. It does require speakers/headphones and a microphone is good. (South Central found inexpensive ones for about $5.) John then logged into an archived presentation. He also whistled the theme from Jeopardy while it loaded. He then showed the courses section of the website. The state counts these opportunities as continuing education for certification purposes.

Jean Anderson from South Central Library System talked about OPAL. They have a site license for 50 people, but can ask Tom Peters for more space, and there is an auditorium which can host large crowds. She showed it on the large screen, including some input from staff back in Madison at the SCLS office.

WAAL 2008: Where are we? Academic librarianship in Wisco

Panelists:

• Kim LaPlante, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
• Mary Rieder, UW Colleges
• Ed Van Gemert, UW-Madison
• Pat Wilkinson, UW-Oshkosh
• Pete Gilbert, Lawrence University
• Moderator: Gretchen Revie, Lawrence University

Role of library in higher education today

• Kim:
• WI Tech Coll system served 400,000 students last year
• NWTC 43,000+ students, 6,000 FTE
• Education: what you want, how you want it, where you want it
• #1 teaching IL skills - find, evaluate, use - librarian is most important resource in the library
• #2 gather materials - not so much in-house, but provide access; currency (ex: nursing or computer tech within past few years); get copyright permission to put online; video streaming online; cover many counties so has to be widely available
• #3 fostering innovation; disseminate to admin and faculty re: trends, directions to take, grants
• Mary:
• Similar to Tech Coll, with multiple campuses/libraries (13) across state; 50 library staff (~3/library, not all FT)
• Lots to do, little staff time to do it
• Large and growing online student population (1,100 now)
• Undergrad support vs. faculty research
• Started online document delivery, use SCLS and UB forfor ILL
• Non-traditional students doing research from work - needed proxy server
• Online library support has been done from one campus, but will need to hire more
• Templates for course Library Course Pages - citation guides, databases, catalog, ILL, websites - faculty can customize if want
• Coursecasting - podcasting audio of lectures, campus activities (ex: poetry readings), access can be restricted to students
• IL - wide range of students; life-long skills
• Copyright education for instructors
• Pete:
• Googled phrase "role of library in higher education" - found article from 1982, Australian perspective
• Dependent upon educational objectives of institution
• WAICU - 19 private schools - Marquette to Nashoda Seminary - most 1000-2000 students - overall 57,000 students; 1/4 4-year students in state - more diversity and non-traditional students (25+ years old)
• Independent schools: Personal connections, innovate with faculty, mission-driven, about teaching and learning primarily for undergrads, individualized learning, undergrads doing research with faculty
• Pat:
• Utilitarian definition of academic librarian
• Means by which HE gets certain amount of scholarly information to students and faculty
• 11 comprehensive colleges within UW System (2,500 to 10,000 students)
• Academic libraries no longer have a near monopoly - once operated in information-scarce environment; now information-rich
• Grappling with having to demonstrate our effectiveness now that libraries didn't need to 30 years ago
• Admins contact me and ask about # of books in library to put in reports - that doesn't tell anyone anything
• Ed:
• We'll hear more about similarities than dissimilarities today
• We have an incredible wealth of educational opportunities in this state - marvel at how and why that came about
• Over 45 libraries on the UW-Madison campus [well...]
• UW-Madison started 2 years after statehood, library collections go back further than that
• Sister states benefit from multiple research universities
• Wisconsin Idea - Charles Van Hise 1904 - boundaries of university extend beyond boundaries of the state
• My grandfather's time: extension staff, lumbering - natural resources, Now: information technology
• Support for big science, and digital arts and humanities
• Important for quality of life in Wisconsin
• People think "grad students and faculty research" but it's also undergrad education
• Less about internal focus, than external - how library serves needs of campus, city, state
• Article in Chronicle from Monday - UW-Madison difficulty retaining faculty and staff, scary article

Changes made in past 3-5 years to accomplish mission in HE? Considering?

• Kim:
• IL - more guides, online tours, virtual ref, more lab staff, hired coordinator for 3 campuses, customized guides for 3 programs, video streaming
• for students who are used to doing their own Myspace and Facebook pages
• Increasing tools at regional centers so anywhere in district students can get what they need
• Cataloging learning objects alongside books, journals, etc.
• Using Delicious account to bring students to recommended sites
• Library blog with RSS feed
• In Facebook - not alot of fans, but we are there - incorporate resources within so if seen, they can use
• Innovation - joined a lot of committees, not just to market library, but to help out as researcher about new technology, trends; More integrated with curriculum dev process
• College-wide online discussion with reading lists, instructors discuss articles posted by librarians
• Want to increase team teaching of librarians and faculty
• Want to make our interfaces more user-friendly; nextgen wants easy, nontrad want intuitive; Voyager 7 this year
• Instructor development role - want to help train re: libraries, work with existing faculty, being added to search teams, so can market library before they're hired because so busy when they start
• Mary:
• Tried some of those things
• Wisco virtual ref consortium - dropped out - staff small, hard to cover shifts - started to get questions about resources we didn't have
• Tried chat and IM ref, our students tend to like email because you can get to it on own time
• New strategic plan - assessment is big - survey a few years ago re: user feedback on Voyager catalog, and lots of changes were made, more streamlined; more campus surveys; 1st LibQual only 118 respondents (not as many as hoped) - will put into report for Library Council
• Budget cuts - created our own licensed resource purchasing cooperative; more collaborative purchase decisions
• Some students want to talk, others to be quiet - customizing spaces
• Online social networking hasn't really gone big with us
• Some of our libraries have LibraryThing and Google Books lists
• May become a baccalaureate granting institution, and will need to support this
• Want to tell faculty what we have, so they can tell students what we have
• Want to digitize non-copyrighted materials
• Want to look at internal and external funding sources
• Pete:
• Wayne Wiegand was my advisor in grad school - key phrase was "the library in the life of the user, as opposed to the user in the life of the library" - to achieve ubiquity, we try to customize our resources/services for users
• Signs and business cards: "Ask us"
• We're also spending a lot of time asking them - formal through SurveyMonkey, and informal through flipchart in library with question: "What one change would you like to see in the physical building?" that users write on
• We ask ourselves "So what?" - what if we just stopped doing this? what would happen? because we have to stop something if we start something new.
• IL causes increased reference statistics - make appointments for reference conferences, allows us to prepare more than drop-in desk questions
• Going to where the students are, virtually - Moodle course management system on campus (free version of D2L, Blackboard) - created a library module to search catalog, will add federated searching, will be doing Delicious and RSS; working with faculty to use PURLs to link to articles
• Librarians and art faculty talking about digital image provision to studio students - work on things as people ask for them
• Senior experience - every department has to have a culminating experience; opportunity to integrate library across curriculum
• Building new campus center - "living room" - library is like that right now; what will new role of library be? Remote services? Domino effect on other buildings - incorporate learning commons into library?
• Pat:
• Sharper, more public focus on faculty research
• TOC service
• Desktop document delivery - Promised to faculty that we'd get anything they wanted as fast as we could - $10,000/year - BadgerCat helpful as discovery tool, some UW funding
• Less cumbersome for students - added MS Office suite, wireless, laptop checkout, allow people to do things from homepage
• Tried minor physical improvements - quiet study, group study, new archives area (work with classes doing research)
• More fun, fewer rules, no fines for overdues, murder mystery/IL, coffee/cookies during finals, custom-printed mousepads
• Not only tried to handle cuts well, but have tried to improve services - got through to admin, they were happier with us
• Not buried under IT in identity
• Stress one-system, one-library - role of UW-Madison as flagship very important, elsewhere that doesn't happen
• Reducing footprint of materials, to make room for information commons
• Conscious transition to digital resources
• Integrate with CMS
• Increased funding, strengthening cooperative collection development
• Ed:
• Started 1971 as student assistant in library
• Recent strategic planning exercise - not so important what directions and outcomes were - process on large campus (300 FTE) was interesting and informative - wouldn't hesitate to do again
• Strategic partnerships - with faculty, students, other system institutions on digital collections, highlight work by faculty, with Google - transformative work for libraries
• We can do big things, and we can change the world, that's part of our role - will continue to be
• Library space is a physical asset; over 1 million square feet at UW-Madison; reduction of print, want to repurpose, also landgrab on campus; how partner with faculty, centers, etc. or it will be taken from us
• Have lost 5 million dollars in journal collections from budget cuts; ILL/document delivery has done a great job
• Lorcan Dempsey - critical of libraries not "in the flow"
• NIH requirement of uploading publications to PubMed Central - libraries have taken central role, partnered with research admin
• Culture of Sharing workshop last weekend - 50 students, starting Students for Free Culture org on campus - told it was the 1st such symposium in U.S.
• Building collections based on buildings and people not appropriate; need to support multidisciplinarity
• Librarians designed learning outcomes for learning objects - instructors bring images, skeletons, etc. - how help them place into CMS, provide ubiquity

What skills and abilities help librarians thrive?

• Kim:
• Instruction skills with enthusiasm - they just have to share!
• Someone with imagination who has ideas they want to try
• Mary:
• Need IT skills because we're not that well supported, do our own web design
• Multi-tasking - reference in person, circulation, email reference, committee work
• Marketing resources, services, what we can do for faculty/admin/community
• Networking with community - Campus Reads, library boards, helps at budget time
• Ed:
• Social intelligence - build into position descriptions - work as team, partnerships with limited resources and time regardless of subject expertise
• Pat:
• Ability to work in ambiguous situations, take a risk, take initiative; 30 years ago, libraries were run top-down
• Business communication skills - we like academia, and we need to focus our communication on what people need to know, not what we want to show them
• Pete:
• Creativity - thinking energy - I have 9 pages of brainstorming from staff about better serving campus
• Responsivity - reference "house calls"
• Connectivity - knowing people by name, who's doing what

[Image: http://www.mywcpa.org/colleges_universities.php]

WLA 2007: Conference Wrap-Up

As a follow-up to MATS' blog coverage of the 2007 WLA Conference, presenters' handouts and PowerPoints are starting to show up at the WLA conference web site.

If more presentation materials are found elsewhere, we'll link to them here; if you know of some, please send us the links by adding a comment to this post.

We had a great time "blogging the con", and hope to round up more MATSians to blog the WAPL Conference next spring!

Thanks to Amanda, Nanette, Beth and Pete for all the bloggy goodness!

WLA 2007: WisconsinEye.com

The first I learned of this new C-SPAN-like broadcasting network was from the WLA conference brochure's directory of exhibitors, two days ago: "WisconsinEye is a statewide public affairs network providing independent, nonpartisan coverage of community and civic life, beginning with gavel-to-gavel coverage of state government in Madison."

Then Thursday morning, Bonnie Shucha at WisBlawg passed along an announcement of the partnership between WisconsinEye and BadgerNet, the state's network of "voice, data, and video services to state agencies, local governments, UW campuses, technical colleges, private colleges and universities, public and private K-12 schools, and libraries."

When I made it into the exhibit hall for the first time late Thursday afternoon, it was my intention to seek out the WisconsinEye booth and find out a bit more about this venture. I found Chris Long, President & CEO, ready to talk, with a back-drop of streaming news playing on both their website and a television, and maps of cable and BadgerNet coverage areas within the state.

Chris is a former C-SPAN staffer, who was pursuing a PhD in Mass Communications at the UW-Madison when the opportunity to lead WisconsinEye came up last year. The idea for the network originated over ten years ago, within state government. After some initial research into existing models, it was determined that such a network should properly be established as a non-profit, with no state funding or state-funded staff, unlike other systems across the country.

Anyone in the world can watch the fascinating machinations of the Wisconsin legislative, judicial, and executive branches at http://www.wiseye.org/. Cable subscribers can currently tune in for free to Channel 200 (Charter) or 163 (Time Warner), although the long-term financing plan is to sell broadcast rights to these companies - and they may need to hear your voice as a subscriber to be convinced of the value of WisconsinEye, so speak up and get involved, if you like what you see.

As a sample of their intended "civic life" coverage, you can also go to their website to catch recorded author talks from the Wisconsin Book Festival!

WLA 2007: Green Bay Press Gazette

Library conference draws 1,000 to KI Convention Center
The Green Bay Press Gazette

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