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Refurbed Card Catalog becomes Awesome eReader Storage

March 17, 2011 By

How many of us have emply card catalogs gathering dust in the back halls of our our libraries? Linn McDonald, Library Media Specialist at the Bloomington Jr. High School in Illinois, came up with a creative way to take one of these treasured relics into the digital age. “I have received many many positive comments from fellow librarians as well as faculty and students in our school.” she says, “We found that both our Nooks and our Kindles fit in the drawers with their covers on.”

Linn adds that “the cabinet is perfect for organizing our eReaders as we have them in groups of six, and each column in the cabinet has six drawers. Most ebooks can be purchased once and placed on up to six Nooks, so each column represent one group. Each group is registered under a separate email address. That way, it’s easier for us to keep track of what books are on each group. I have labelled each column/group with a separate name. Our 4 groups are Eliot, Maya, Voltaire, and Beatrix, with each Nook in the group labelled as Eliot1, Eliot2, and so forth.”

She also mentions that they are balancing the use of thier Nook collection by checking out three groups to reading teachers and one group to individual students who return a form signed by a parent or guardian. The reading teachers are using the Nooks with groups of six students. “Some struggling readers, some very high-level readers – so we can reach a wider range of students in our school. Some groups are creating video or podcast book trailers after finishing their book. I’m sure other ideas will follow as we use these with our students.”

Thanks for sharing with us, Linn, and please keep us up to date on those new ideas!

Marianne Lenox

As the Staff Training & Volunteer Coordinator for the Huntsville - Madison County Public Library in Alabama, Marianne is responsible for planning, directing, maintaining and implementing a comprehensive staff training and volunteer program for her library. She consistently strives to provide learning opportunities, professional information and technical training to ensure both better library service and the professional development of the Library’s staff and volunteers.

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Filed Under: e-readers, Feature, Free Stuff, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

On Sunshine, Smiles and Kittens

February 18, 2010 By

This post is not going to be about workplace violence, even though it’s recently been heavy on my mind. On February 17th,  an Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at The University of Alabama in Huntsville opened fire in a staff meeting killing  three coworkers and injuring three more. Dr. Amy Bishop is now charged with those crimes. My library is in Huntsville, everyone who works here knows someone at UAH.

Nor is it going to be about conflict management, though I’ve got a fairly good presentation on that topic and can talk about it for hours.

While this post is about workplace etiquette, it’s not a broad guide. There are plenty of those available.  I’d like to step back even further and discuss one small thing we can do at work to reduce daily stress and create a better work environment for everyone.

I remember staying after school one day in elementary school to help a teacher pack up her room at year’s end. As I said goodbye, the teacher handed me an old poster with ragged corners. “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours” quoted the poster, complete with rays of sunshine on a kitten. She told me she wanted me to have it because she’d noticed how quick I was to smile at the other children, always cheerful and ready to help. She spoke of kindness and courtesy, manners and graciousness. It has a huge impact on me, I would even call it empowering.

In 2006 I attended a SirsiDynix Webinar with Pat Wagner called “Library Conflict Management for Consenting Adults Turning Enemies into Allies” in which she mentioned that libraries should have a “civility clause” for employees.  Soon after, I conducted a little experiment in the staff-only halls of the library. Moving through the building, I pulled up my the corners of my mouth and set a smile there. Every single person who passed said hello or wanted talk about something. The next day, I set a frown before I roamed the halls. A couple of people said I looked tired, one even asked what was wrong. It was as if the energy around me changed instead of just a few facial muscles, I was really struck with the results. Many times since I’ve heard someone make a nasty remark or slam a door in anger at work and wish we had a policy for Being Nice.

Call me Pollyanna, it’s been done before. I’m a firm believer in the power of positivity. When doing research on a class for managers on giving evaluations, I relied heavily on The Power of Positive Criticism by Hendrie Weisinger. He writes of emotional intelligence, being improvement-oriented and guarding self-esteem in those around you.  The book had a profound effect on the way I deal with people in every aspect of my life and I recommend it often to others.

Too often we forget simple courtesy in the workplace. Don’t wait until you have to bring in a conflict resolution arbitrator or consult the attorneys on harassment law. It’s too late when you’re forced to hire grief counselors.

You have the power to give someone a smile today.  It’s free and it feels good. Who knows? You might just get one back in return.

Funeral services for Dr. Adriel Johnson, Dr. Gopi Podila and Dr. Maria Ragland Davis begin today.


Image credit: The Huntsville Times

Information about UAH’s Department of Biological Sciences Memorial Scholarship Fund may be found here.

Marianne Lenox

As the Staff Training & Volunteer Coordinator for the Huntsville - Madison County Public Library in Alabama, Marianne is responsible for planning, directing, maintaining and implementing a comprehensive staff training and volunteer program for her library. She consistently strives to provide learning opportunities, professional information and technical training to ensure both better library service and the professional development of the Library’s staff and volunteers.

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Filed Under: The Training Life Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Congratulations to MLIS Graduate Paul Signorelli

January 5, 2010 By

Paul Signorelli at ALA Midwinter 2009 in snowy Denver, CO

ALA Learning contributor Paul Signorelli graduated in December with an MLIS  from the University of North Texas. I asked Paul about his experience getting the degree through an online program and here is what he had to say:

I thoroughly enjoyed the University of North Texas MLIS program. The instructors are first-rate, accessible, engaging, and supportive. The courses help students remain grounded in the traditions of the library and information management professions while also improving our skills and immersing us in the contemporary issues and challenges we face. I also should add that the experience of learning about online learning by being engaged in a well run distance learning program was extremely stimulating and rewarding.

For those of you who do not know Paul, he has a wealth of experience in libraries and in training. I asked Paul what it was like to go back to school after already having so much experience in libraries. Here’s what he said:

As just about anyone in the ALA Learning Round Table will tell you, one of the best ways to become—and remain—good at what we do is to engage in workplace learning and performance from every possible vantage point. Being a student in an online graduate-level program after working in libraries for many years reminded me at a visceral level why I love libraries, why I love training-teaching-learning, and what it feels like to be a participant in a great learning program. It was a lot of work, and it was well worth it. I feel completely re-energized and inspired by the entire experience, and attribute a lot of that to the level of instruction offered through the University of North Texas.

Congratulations Paul!

Lori Reed

Lori Reed, Managing Editor of ALA Learning, has more than 15 years experience in training and is the Learning & Development Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library where she oversees the learning & development of a diverse group of staff at twenty libraries. Lori’s passions are performance consulting, learning strategies, and e-learning. Lori is coauthor, with Paul Signorelli, of Workplace Learning and Leadership: A Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lori also blogs at LoriReed.com and can be reached at lori[at]lorireed.com.

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Filed Under: LearnRT News Tagged With: , , , , ,

Curiosity Rules!

September 17, 2009 By

Phrenology bustI am fascinated by brain science, or I could say my brain is fascinated. There is a heightened and growing knowledge of how that astounding organism really works. As I’m reading John Medina’s Brain Rules (the book, which goes much deeper than the website), I keep thinking of the recent study released by the Department of Education, which compares the effectiveness of face-to-face, online, and blended learning delivery. The meta-analysis of over 1000 studies conducted between 1996 and 2008 seems to provide a solid basis for the conclusion that online instruction is “more effective in improving student achievement than the purely face to face instruction.” I wasn’t all that surprised by the findings, but I wonder if the basic comparison is all that meaningful. Is it the online versus face-to-face dichotomy that is the important distinction? Or is it innovative versus traditional approaches that make a difference in a person’s learning?

Levine neuro-developmental systems.There is often an underlying presumption that the traditional, on-ground classroom offers a quality instructional experience. I can attest that I have had very inferior f2f classes and I’m sure I’m not alone. Even with a good instructor, there are serious limitations to traditional teaching methods. When I returned to graduate school in mid-life, I was dismayed to realize what a struggle it is for my brain to absorb auditory information delivered in a 1-2 hour lecture format. Having read Dr. Mel Levine’s A Mind at a Time just before entering grad school, I grasped that I wasn’t stupid—it’s just that my learning strengths did not mesh with this age-old form of teaching. Levine identifies eight key neuro-developmental systems of the brain, illustrated here. Individual variation in the strength of these systems is huge; a math “genius” may be strong in sequential ordering yet dismal in social thinking; a socially gregarious person may be strong in language but weak in higher thinking. Our traditional educational system emphasizes attention controls and higher thinking and undervalues social thinking and spatial controls. As Medina says, “our schools are designed so that most real learning has to occur at home.” Levine’s work has generated a non-profit organization that seeks to deliver knowledge to All Kinds of Minds.

In the Online Learning Study, the front-runner was actually the blend of face-to-face and online. I would guess that the blended approach provides the greatest variety of learning options, allowing learners to engage their strongest neuro-developmental systems. And perhaps purely online delivery won out over f2f because instructional designers are trying harder to be innovative and deploying more tools to address different learning styles. I’m not comfortable with Secretary of Education Anne Duncan’s summary of the report that we need to “incorporate digital content into everyday classes.” It’s not the digital component alone that provides the learning magic. There are many teachers in on-ground classrooms who are experimenting with new strategies to engage students in-person.

Medina sums up his book with this declaration:

“The greatest Brain Rule of all is something I cannot prove or characterize, but I believe in it with all my heart ….it is the importance of curiosity.”

We need to be designing learning to stimulate and satisfy curiosity. Whether that is accomplished online or in-person is secondary to the essential Brain Rule.

Betha Gutsche

Betha Gutsche has been a virtual librarian ever since receiving her MLIS from the University of Washington Information School. Immersed in the online community of WebJunction, she has cultivated community connections through forums, live online events, and writing stories about the library community. She has delved into e-learning design, curriculum development, needs assessment, and all things connected to social learning in the online world. Betha is the editor-in-chief of the Competency Index for the Library Field. She is now the manager of Project Compass, a program working with public libraries to augment their service to communities impacted by tough times. Underneath it all, Betha is an artist and loves to raise awareness of visual literacy and introduce people to the power of image.

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Filed Under: E-Learning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Online tutorial pedagogy and design (with a few examples)

October 23, 2007 By

“The potential benefits of online tutorials are many. Instruction can be scaled, increasing the ability of library staff to reach large groups of students. The variety and styles of web-based tutorials can accommodate different learning styles by using image, audio, and text simultaneously or in combination (Hook). Tempelman-Kluit found online tutorials to be a potential way to “reach those users who cannot or will not come into the library.” Because such users are increasingly able to fulfill academic assignments using full-text resources found online, and because users are increasingly expecting to be able fulfill assignments utilizing online resources, libraries find that online tutorials make sense in terms of adapting instruction to users’ needs. Those same users often have expectations about access in a time frame that doesn’t incorporate waiting for answers, or visiting the library to ask a question during hours the reference staff is traditionally available:

“Online tutorials are a lifeline when reference assistance is unavailable or when a user is accessing library resources from off site . . . [they] allow users to learn when it is most convenient for them to do so. And because tutorials are self-teaching, they allow a patron to internalize information at his or her own pace.“ (Hook)

Additionally, online tutorials, when teaching skills related to online resources, take advantage of situated cognition. Hook writes, “knowledge should be acquired in the same context in which it will be used.” Placing users on the computer, within the browser they will use to access online resources, and where they can instantly put to use what they have learned, makes educational sense.”

The text above is the beginning of a section of an Independent Study that one of my former students, Sara Zoe Patterson, completed over the summer ’07 semester. The completion of this (including a nice bib/webliography) and several examples of how she incorporated screencasts/online tutorials into a school library/media center homepage can be found:
http://eden.rutgers.edu/%7Esarazoe/howto/

I’m sharing this for a few reasons:

  1. I like her bibliography/webliography as it list some great sources of research in this area and, to me, goes a long way to take screencasting and online tutorials from the “flashy” to the necessary.

  2.  She makes use of a technology called Jing. While we both have our reservations about this service; I think it’s one we should keep an eye on.

  3. She also makes use of Spresent, another technology that I think is worth a look.

  4. Lastly, I think her work shows nice specific uses of the technology in a school library/media center environment

Steve Garwood

Filed Under: Cool Tools, E-Learning, Screencasting Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,