The sun has taken its leave of us, but I must say that as a first time visitor, I’m enjoying seeing Seattle in both rainy and sunny weather. Saturday was another full day, though I’ve felt less pressured than at some other conferences, because I know that much that can be re-visited later on the virtual conference site.

I camped out in the Cyber Zed Shed for a good portion of the day where there were several widget-related presentations (Sprout, Library Subject Guide Widgets, Online Info Lit Tool) that focused on portability, flexibility, and customization. In my opinion, this is definitely where libraries are headed.

I also attended a panel session, Mapping Your Path to the Mountaintop: Planning Where You Want To Be In Your Career which was moderated by Steven Bell. It was informative and inspiring and included input from the audience too. If you missed this one, I highly recommend that you check out the recorded version.

I had dinner at Dragonfish (tasty!) before grabbing a shuttle back to SeaTac for my flight out Saturday night. I will leave Seattle with a lot to think about. And really, the conference is not over, because there are several things I missed or want to review on the virtual conference site. I hoping some of the conversations will continue too.

I started a packed day today at a 7:30am breakfast hosted by Serials Solutions. It began with an interesting keynote by Alison Head of Project Information Literacy, presenting her recent research on the challenges higher education students have in finding appropriate research. See this short video for a snippet of her findings so far. It was fascinating, and I look forward to hearing more in their report sometime after December 2009. The keynote was followed by a brief introduction to Summon, a Serials Solutions product that is currently in beta. In summary, this is NOT federated search, but a pre-coordinated metasearch index of all your library’s resources — digital and print, catalog, database, etc. See here for more details. I really look forward to seeing how this evolves.

Next, I proceeded to the cryptically named Cyber Zed Shed Theater. There I was regaled by Elizabeth Uzelac and Robin Sinn of Johns Hopkins University. They presented Integrating Search and Guides which outlined their innovative integration of several elements to create flexible, re-purposeable research guide content. Check the virtual conference area for their slides.

Immediately following was Jacob Hill of Elmhurst College who presented on Mobile Devices: Low or No-Cost Solutions for supporting mobile device users. He did a great job of illustrating how we can address this issue (rather than sticking our heads in the sand) even in tight times. See the virtual conference area for his slides too.

Session Description:
By using APIs and creating an API for Voyager Online Catalogs, this presenter has targeted a primary use of an academic library (paper writing), and created an AJAX driven research environment to search a topic, view the articles, locate books, find better guidance through libGuides research guides. Chat reference is also imbedded into the guide for assistance with detailed questions, and builds a Works Cited page within this framework.
Presenters:
Barry Bailey, Johnson County Community College, United States

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Session Description:
The Scribner Library animated Subject Map is intended to help users locate books within the library. Books at Scribner Library are arranged and placed on shelves according to the Library of Congress Classification System. You can use the map to help locate any book by call number or to browse for books by subject. There are approximately 400,000 Books shelved inside 157 stacks at Scribner Library. LC Classification contains 21 subject main classes and 224 sub classes. It is the synthesis of these elements that lends the subject map its functionality. The subject map is a Flash-driven user-activated animated display of the synthesis of LC classification and library stacks. It helps users retrieve individual books or locate subject areas in the stacks. The animated subject map is a first of it’s kind.
Presenters:
Tim Donahue, Montana State University, United States

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Session Description:
With the ever-increasing number of distance learning programs, the use of VTT technology is becoming an integral part of providing successful instruction. In addition, VTT can be used to create reference instruction modules that can offer library users easily accessible, on-demand information on utilizing library resources. Our university already uses VTT technology to reach distance learners–many courses are taught entirely through VTT. The technology has a feature that allows lectures and lessons to be captured as videos and uploaded to a server that is accessible 24/7. In addition to offering live, real-time reference and instruction services to our distance learning centers all over FL and the U.S., we have used the technology to create instruction spots that cover a variety of popular topics–the ones we run into most frequently at the reference desk. By using VTT to create videos and provide live reference services to students studying at remote locations we increase our value to students, to the university, and provide distance learners with the opportunity to interact with people that would not otherwise meet.

Presenters:
Jacalyn Bryan, Saint Leo University, St. Leo, FL, United States

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Session Description:
Selling information literacy to students can be a tough challenge. Librarians need to be cognizant of different learning styles, varied levels of technical proficiency, and diverse language fluencies - all while addressing students who first have to be convinced of the relevance to their lives. But one method of presentation makes students sit up and take notice: using clips from film, television, commercials, and popular music as part of the classroom instruction. It immediately grabs students’ attention. This approach is more effective than straight lecture or hands-on only. Research in the psychology of motivation and learning substantiates identifiable characteristics of effective teaching. Some of those elements are embedded in the instructor’s teaching style, others are related to the way a learner’s brain accepts and stores information. The use of humor is one of the top characteristics of effective instructors. The use of popular media in instruction can easily produce laughter, suspense, sadness and emotional identification with characters on the screen. Eliciting an emotional response that is connected to information we want students to learn has been shown to increase the likelihood that information will be retained over time.

Presenters:
Nedra Peterson, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, United States

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Session Description:
Jing is an excellent solution for reference librarians working with students via chat or instant messaging when co-browsing is not an option. The Cal State San Marcos library recently started offering chat reference as an alternative way for students to reach librarians for research help, and we have found that in chat reference interactions, students expect rapid feedback and are often unwilling to wait for long, descriptive explanations. Jing enables librarians to quickly create screen shots and videos that visually demonstrate to students how to get the information they need. Sending a screen shot or video of how to access a database or other information source to the student over IM is usually faster and more effective than typing instructions. Project Jing stores the screenshots and videos on their server so they can be reused in other situations. In addition to virtual reference, screen shots and longer videos with sound are helpful when posted to subject or course guides, in course management systems, or when responding to students reference questions via email.
Presenters:
Pearl Ly, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA, United States,

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Session Description:
By leveraging existing web services provided by the MIT Simile Exhibit project, we are able to create a polished and sophisticated faceted list of business related databases. Use of Simile Exhibit require no code knowledge, no need to run server-side scripts on the local web server, and a minimal investment in development time compared to other methods of creating a database backed, faceted list of resources. Ongoing maintenance is also made easier by creating a single point of update for any resource in the list. Using this existing web service we are able to do more and faster than if we were to try to build the entire application locally.
Presenters:
Corey Murata, University of Washington, United States

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Session Description:
Librarians at Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries used a combination of technologies from the Blackboard courseware system and the Adobe Captivate software to create an interactive experience for graduate students at a distance who could not attend on-campus “Literature Review Workshops.”

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Session Description:
The application of Pidgin for simultaneously managing IM and SMS reference may be of special significance to academic libraries. Research suggests that college-age students prefer to communicate via computer and mobile device, and integrate these communication habits into their other daily activities. Meanwhile, the teaching library philosophy challenges librarians to empower our students by helping them become lifelong learners, capable of recognizing an information need and taking the appropriate steps to satisfy it. At CSUMB, we teach according to learner-centered, outcomes-based models. By leveraging the remote and unobtrusive (though synchronous) nature of IM and SMS communication, our role in the student’s research experience becomes more support- than leadership-oriented; in other words, we become the guide on the side instead of the sage on the stage.

Presenters:
Jacqui Grallo, California State University Monterey Bay, United States

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