Archive for the 'the profession' Category

libraryland learning (summer edition)

Published May 13, 2012 conferences , the profession 1 Comment
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I love talking with my students, faculty, and colleagues, but sometimes I need an infusion of fresh ideas and adventures. That’s why I love summertime. Two major conferences take place in May and June (IASSIST and ALA). Plus everyone reserves the summer months for workshops and off-campus meetings. These may seem like frivolous things to an outsider (or my non-libraryland partner), but I am better able to do and more excited about my job after a fresh infusion of networking and learning.

Take for instance our workshop last week. UNCG’s Liaison Task Force has been asked to look at our liaison duties and develop a possible model for the future. The problem right now is that our workloads have increased dramatically, but we haven’t had an increase in staffing. Same as everywhere, right? Well, we’ve been talking about this issue for a while and haven’t decided anything. Luckily the task force was asked to benchmark with other schools. Rather than just calling up Wake Forest and asking them “Hey, how do you do it?” Steve Cramer called together a joint meeting with the key players from Wake Forest and liaisons from UNCG.

UNCG and WFU Liaison Meeting

The session started off with us brainstorming all of the things we do as liaisons onto sticky notes, and then Roz Tedford and I then grouped them into categories like consultations, faculty outreach, teaching, etc. Next we talked about our workloads with most tasks increasing in work time spent on them.

The category “keeping with the subject area”, which means reading key journals and staying abreast of new research, is an area in decline. Very unfortunate considering we are subject specialists too, in my opinion. I wonder if this is the area to examine in the future: a divide between the liaison (someone who does more outreach tasks or maintains gobi aerts) and subject specialists (someone who can teach upper-level classes and do in-depth consultations). This model wouldn’t be a return to the bibliographer approach; neither the liaison nor the subject specialist would be devoted to just collections. Of course you could have one person be both, but that is more difficult for the bigger departments. I guess the real key is having a flexible system rather than just assuming a one-size-fits-all approach to liaison roles.

The meeting wrapped up with a brainstorming session on what we can do about this issue. In my small group were two tech services librarians who are also liaisons. They expressed discomfort with their expanding duties as liaisons because they felt their primary job duties were suffering. This brought up the tension between specialization and generalization. At UNCG we tend to assume our liaisons are generalists who can move easily between collection work and teaching/patron interactions. It assumes someone with no teaching experience can (and should) teach. Likewise someone with no collections experience can and should do collection duties. The problem I have with that assumption is that it seems to denigrate those tasks. I am not the best collections person, I’m a pretty good teacher. I’ve been doing it for a few years now. Plus (and this is key) I’ve trained and reflected and trained more to get better at it. It is something that I see as being integral to my job so I’ve put extra effort into it. I can’t say the same thing about collections. Does that mean I can’t get better at collections? No, I can train and reflect in that area too. But then we get back to the workload/time issue. When do I get better at a skill I use sparingly? And would putting my time into collections even be useful to the library in the long run, especially if it takes time away from public services (what I do best)?

So, that is where the meeting ended. The conversation will continue this summer, but the important outcome is that we are sharing ideas and thinking through our strengths, our weaknesses, and where we have room for improvement. And that is what summertime should be about!

As I mentioned I have a lot on my plate this summer. Below are the upcoming workshops if you are interested. I will try to blog reflections on each.

May 14-16: Office of Undergraduate Research Workshop on integrating research into undergraduate classes

May 17: Business Librarianship in NC workshop

May 18: NCBIG workshop on assessing library instruction sessions

May 21: NC-LITe meeting (Library Instructional Technology group)

June 1: NCLA Government Resources Section meeting on ASERL and the Census

June 6-8: IASSIST in DC!

June 14: Metrolina Library Instruction Conference

June 22-25: American Library Association annual conference in Anaheim

And then in July I will take vacation. I will not check email. I will sit back and unwind. I promise.

Are we ready for Library 2525?: Lunch with Lauren

Published May 3, 2012 the profession 1 Comment
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This is the final post from my lunchtime conversation with Lauren. She writes about the library of the future much more effectively than I can. Might have something to do with our core competencies and personas! But I want to add a small dilemma. It is something I’ve been thinking about a lot.

I agree firmly with Lauren about the evolving role of librarians from servants to service-providers to collaborators. I see it in the disconnect when I talk with librarians who haven’t moved into a collaborative role. When I talk about my activities, the ones I see as collaborative, I often get a quizzical look and questions about whether that is what librarians are supposed to be doing. For example a few of us have been teaching the introduction to the university courses over the past year. We see this activity as firmly embedded into library practice, especially as these courses are inherently about information literacy. Because of our teaching the library has had been able to give more input into the development of these courses. We are at the decision-making table helping to shape the future instead of reacting to whatever the “real” decision-makers decide.

But here’s my dilemma. We are doing more and more true collaborative work (embedded librarianship, assignment development, curriculum development, developing online journals with faculty) and spending more and more hours on these activities. Collaborative work is taking us away from our traditional service duties especially reference desk work. In the past the value of the reference department has been based on the number of questions we get each hour, each day, and declines in those numbers has led to proclamations that “Reference is Dead“!

What numbers will we use to prove collaboration to skeptics in the future?

This has become a bigger issue at my library because more of our classes are going online and asynchronous only. Two of my core classes that I used to teach each semester are now asynchronous online. Why does this matter? Because I am no longer teaching library instruction sessions for them, and my instruction numbers went down. Does this mean I was any less busy? Heck no. In one class I spent a few hours creating a video tutorial on the OECD.stat geared to their assignment and several more in consultations with the individual students. In the other I had to make my very first “Hi, I’m Lynda” video. (That video may seem old hat to you, but dude it took me forever). These videos were then embedded into the instructional materials in Blackboard and not just sitting on a library website hoping for hits. I felt like I was collaborating with the professor on how we could best integrate the library into the virtual world of these students.

Now, I track numbers of consultations, but in reporting this I only report interactions. I don’t report time spent. We track contact time with students in library instruction sessions, but not how much contact time we spend with the category of “reference desk interactions.” Because I am obsessive I track  the time I spend on each question (both prep and interaction time) and counted all of that up for my tenure presentation this year. I spent over 80 hours in consultations alone. That number is twice what I spent in the library instruction classroom. This does not include any of the work I did on tutorials or otherwise. Tutorials and otherwise don’t exist in the library reporting mechanism.

So, back to my question. As we become collaborators, as we enter more complex relationships, how are we tracking it? What numbers matter most and can best explain how much time we spend collaborating with faculty? If a librarian embeds into a course like Steve Cramer, how does he account for the many hours he spends with those students? What about my political science class? Even if it may seem tangential to my work, it has had a tangible impact on my interactions with political science students (my consultations numbers doubled since I started teaching the class).

Our assessment efforts are a good starting point, but they tend to be based on small samples and are about (as they should be) student learning. They can’t and aren’t meant to demonstrate the breadth of work we are doing throughout the campus. They make the case that students are learning things, but they don’t make the case that a new reference and instruction librarian should replace the one who retired.

Because numbers have been used to prove our lack of worth in the past, what numbers will prove our worth in the future? More importantly if we aren’t tracking those numbers now, what is going to be our library future? Are we even ready for 2525?

Confessions and competencies: Lunch with Lauren

Published May 2, 2012 the profession 2 Comments
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Confession 1: I like trivial pursuit, but I didn’t become a librarian to be a fount of trivia. That’s what Google is for. Or Duck Duck Go.

Confession 2: Beyond my own personal reading, I don’t really care about the future of the book. I mean, I care, but it is not what gets me out of bed and into the office in the morning.

Confession 3: I am REALLY REALLY bad with details. I may be obsessively neat and good at collecting statistics (at work), but I was horrendous at cataloging. Horrendous. Me talking with a cataloger is like a Croatian trying to understand a Macedonian. They can pick up a few words here and there but most of it just sounds like Greek.

Confession 4: I became a librarian because I like talking with people. I found the research life demoralizing and isolating. I tried talking to my cubicle, but you can imagine how that ended up. When I found out that some librarians spent much of their time yacking I knew it was the life for me. And they teach?! And maybe even teach kids like this?! Oh glory be I’ve come home!

PSC 240 Spring 2012

So, why the confessions? Because a few of us (me, Lauren, and Jenny Dale) have recently become obsessed (a bit) with this idea of core competencies. Jenny and I read about it in the book 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam, and she borrowed it from the business literature. Coming from the idea of comparative advantage, you have opportunity costs for every task to which you decide to devote your time. Opportunity costs are the things you give up to do something else. The tasks with the lowest opportunity costs are your core competencies. Vanderkam argues that we should spend our time on our core competencies and avoid or delegate whatever is not core to someone with those core competencies. To give an example: in my house I am much better at cleaning things while DM is much better at fixing things (detail oriented to a fault). If we are following our core competencies, we would split our tasks appropriately. It would take me much more time to fix a cabinet than to wait for DM to do it.  From a time management perspective it is more efficient and increases motivation because you enjoy doing things you do well.

The question we’ve had is how to apply this to the library setting. Jenny and I will flesh this out on a micro-level in an upcoming project, but what if we applied this to the macro-level? What if this is how the library organized itself? How would a library that is divided into the core competencies look? What core competencies would it need for it to function?

This then led into a discussion of the major personas in a library: the grand strategy thinker, the patron-centered talker, the instruction-based performer, and the detailed-oriented producer. If we approach library functions from the angle of core competencies and fit, can we manufacture a library where people are more motivated because they are doing the functions they find most fulfilling? Lauren for example is the grand strategy thinker extraordinaire. She is not only able to see the big picture for the library future, she cares about it more. It is what motivators her to  get up and go, to present, to talk with others, to put in those 8 hours every day. How much more effective would the library (or any organization) be if it approached motivation based on core competencies?

Granted we are mirroring the current roles, but if we try to think bigger than what exists, what roles do we see?  What core competencies would be represented in your library of the future?

Lunch with Lauren: Reference and the Research Process

Published April 27, 2012 the profession 4 Comments
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Whenever Lauren and I have lunch we end up with wonderful and grand schemes for rethinking the library. I always leave with 100 ideas and many things to do. Our first task was to blog about the discussion and see where we overlap in thinking. And the first grand idea up is reference and the research process.

We’ve been talking about this idea since ALA NOLA and it stems from both concerns Lauren has about reference and from my experience with embedded librarianship. I’ve been obsessed with the idea of embedded librarianship for a year or so now because I see it as the future of reference.

Now to clarify, embedded librarianship does not mean just becoming a member of online courses. I see embedded librarianship as deep integration into a class or a discipline or any institution separate from the library. It could be online, but being in a class online doesn’t equal embedded librarianship. It is the activity that you do and the role that you develop that constitutes embeddedness.

Embeddedness implies a deeper level of understanding of the content of the institution in which we are embedded. Yes, we will be the librarian, but the librarian also needs to have a deeper knowledge of what actually goes on within that institution and potentially some subject expertise.

Now there is a huge debate about whether you need training in an area to support a department, and if we are supporting groups in the traditional liaison model, then I don’t think you need subject expertise. As Lauren says you can learn to be good at answering any question. My friend and colleague Jenny Dale is the perfect example. She support English (her background) and Kinesiology (decidedly not her background) and she is fab at both. Steve Cramer is also an amazing business librarian with a Medievalist’s background. But, he has become masterful in his area by teaching himself the content to some degree.

Subject expertise (or willingness to study the area) helps quite a bit, especially if we are trying to integrate our work more into the actual research process of our students and faculty. Here’s why I think this. I support Political Science, which is my background. Many of the questions I get are simple database searches, but a growing number of those database questions have been interspersed with questions like this:

  • “What does decentralization mean?”
  • “What is the Responsibility to Protect?”
  • “Do my variables sound remotely on target?”
  • “What are operational definitions?” (which spawned a post on the death of reference)

Now, anyone at the reference desk could eventually answer those questions using subject dictionaries, but honestly most of the time those reference resources give incredibly vague definitions or definitions that refer to components of an idea and not the idea as it is used in their specific class. You could refer them back to their professors, but typically students ask these questions in the moment of actual need (or avoid their professors for various reasons).

For deep embedded librarianship subject expertise, and some kind of passion for the field, is critical. How does this relate to rethinking reference? Well, while I think embedded librarianship is the future, it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to have this level of expertise in our cash-strapped libraries. And of course working the desk is entirely different. But what if our training for the desk revolved more around thinking in terms of disciplinary areas and less in terms of tools?

At UNCG we have classes in Social Science or Humanities information sources, but those tend to be focused on the tools and databases of those disciplines. They are less focused on the commonalities of research within those larger areas. What I want to know is how research is actually done within the field? What are the key things that matter? What is the research lifecycle? And most importantly, when does the library figure in?

For our reference intern training starting last fall the intern coordinators (myself, Amy Harris, and Jenny Dale) instituted this approach in our first training sessions. We taught three sessions that were non-department or tools specific: science research, humanities research, and social science research. I only have the slides for social science, but you can get a picture of what we were trying to do. I should mention this is a work in progress, so suggestions are welcome!

Some of the session considers tools, but the tools are contextualized within the research process. Our goal is to give these students the basic vocabulary of these larger areas so that they can better see how a field works. For example, what is secondary data analysis and why does that matter to the social sciences? This would then encourage a student to think beyond the typical article databases when some numeric information might be more appropriate for a question. I think approaching training this way would help with Lauren’s issue of supporting interdisciplinary departments where you have researchers working in both the social sciences and the humanities.

To wrap this up, I see two big areas for future investment in reference. One is using those people who are subject experts and who feel comfortable in a field more strategically in embedded relationships. Two is revamping our training at the reference desk to encompass more thinking about the discipline’s approach and less about the tools. Both ideas are more about the process of research than the specific question being asked, but in our environment of declining reference questions shouldn’t we be more concerned about getting into that process?

Up next, what is the library of the future?

Inspiration needed: What is your/my/a librarian teaching philosophy? #libteachthis

Published April 26, 2012 teaching , the profession , writing Leave a Comment
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I’ve hit a wall in writing my teaching philosophy for tenure. Granted this is the first draft, and granted I’m a notorious procrastinator who hasn’t gotten in desperation mode yet (I love it when that kicks in. Better than coffee). But I can feel myself losing steam.

So, let’s crowd source this bad boy. What is your librarian teaching philosophy? Let’s use Twitter: teaching philosophy in 140 characters! Use the tag #libteachthis

If you want to give more in-depth feedback, feel free to comment on this post. I promise my UNCG colleagues that I won’t crib my teaching philosophy. I just need my librarian peeps to do what they do best, inspire!

If you want to see the draft of my teaching philosophy, I will be editing it throughout the next few days. Please feel free to comment, criticize (politely), or give whoops of joy. Please. Seriously. I need help.

mieko helping me work

World according to lynda

Published April 25, 2012 the profession Leave a Comment
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I will submit my preliminary portfolio for tenure next week and as part of this process we are asked to give a short presentation to our library faculty. I gave mine today. It was more nerve-wracking to present in front of peers than to teach 40 students. Funny how that is.

The process is going smoothly overall. I have finished gathering most of my documentation. My external reviewers didn’t run away screaming, apparently. I think I see the beginnings of a decent teaching philosophy. (I’m thinking of posting it here to see if I can get some crowd-sourced editing. Sound like a good time? Stay tuned.)

Below are my slides. Hopefully they and I got the point across … Keep me!

ALA Council and the connections we make

Published March 20, 2012 the profession Leave a Comment
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When I left college I knew for certain what I was doing and where I was going, but my bullet train to a PhD was derailed after four years and I spent about four more floundering, trying to pick up the pieces of my life. At one point a friend asked me what I really wanted to do, what I liked doing most, and then suggested that I go with the answer. The most honest response I could give was that I liked connecting people with other people. I love discovering how people can work together and seeing where those interactions take them. It is honestly why I became a librarian–not because of books–but because I could work with people. I enjoy getting to know our students and their interests both in research and in life. One of my favorite interactions with undergraduates at UNCG has been when I could suggest that they contact my friend who works at the Pentagon or my friend researching women in Cameroon. It isn’t just about the books anymore, but also about the real-life connections you have out there.

Connecting people is why I am running for ALA Council and for ACRL’s Law & Political Science Section’s Vice-Chair. My bio mentions Emerging Leaders as an impetus for running and that wasn’t just pandering. Emerging Leaders was an eye-opening experience for me. I met so many new librarians with incredibly diverse interests and skills.  I left the annual conference in DC with several new friends: a youth services librarian who worked with teen moms, two gamer librarians who went on to start the Game RT and host of other things, an amazing library technician who now works for Cirque du Soleil, and many other librarians doing rawk star work at institutions all over. These are our librarians and, man, they are an impressive bunch.

It is because of these people that I am running for ALA Council. I can’t commit to making grand changes. But I can commit to doing what I do best, making connections and connecting others in library land.

My CV and more are available on this blog. I would love to have your vote!

#libday8 mondays are teaching

Published January 31, 2012 the profession Leave a Comment
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Hello Library Day in the Life! I’m the Data Services & Government Information Librarian at the University of NC at Greensboro.

Rather than document my day as in the past, I’ve decided to just talk about the highlights of each day. Yesterday’s highlight was teaching my Political Science class. I teach a sophomore-level class on international relations. I didn’t blog about it last semester because I was spending much of my free time on prep. This semester I have a good plan, and besides a three or four hour session on the weekend to go over my notes or create slides or grade, I don’t have to slave over every particular part. I’m hoping to spend more time this semester reflecting on the class to see how I can improve my teaching.

Yesterday was a highlight because it was the first class that was mostly discussion driven. I have a short 50 minute time period, which is really 45 or 40 once they have settled in and I have gone over any logistics. We were talking about neoconservatism as an ideology and its relationship to the main theories in IR, liberalism and realism. I wouldn’t normally talk about this much except that their textbook had a blurb on it and their Zombie book (yes, zombie book) had an entire chapter. I thought it might be a hot topic of conversation, especially if I asked a question at the beginning that was slightly controversial.

The students handled it really well. I had people speaking that I had never heard from and some of them were trying to integrate the theories into their comments. We moved a bit into another topic that is more for a future class, but as we will come back to that problem (humanitarian intervention), it was a nice way to highlight themes for the future.

I have difficulty sometimes with the discussion format–students want to raise their hands and be acknowledged by me, but I really want them to speak to each other. We finally got into that mode after a few minutes. The problem is the classroom set up–I’m at the front and they are facing me and not each other. In my smaller sections I’ve had them make a circle (of trust), but with 41 students that is difficult.  I often do small group discussions with (write-pair-share), but they always end up looking to me as the leader for the discussion. If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

At the end of class I did a short introduction to constructivism and we will finish up with it and feminism on Wednesday. Constructivism always is a bit of mind bend for some students (A student last semester told me that “I’ve never heard of that third theory!” as if I had made it up! Fun times). I will definitely write more on Wednesday about the class!

While teaching this class may seem unrelated to my work as a librarian, I would make the case that it supplements my librarianship in unique ways. I have already had consultations with several of my students who were in my class in the fall. My relationship with the political science faculty has always been good, but as I am often in their building I see them much more than I ever, and they have questions about the library and about resources. I don’t know if this is true yet, but I also feel like I’ve been contacted more by students who were not in my class. I’ll have to check the numbers, but I’m pretty sure they are higher.

The biggest benefit has been the development of my reflective practice in teaching. This is a two-way street because I have tried to be a conscientious teacher since I started doing library instruction. I plan lessons based on the assignment. I try to think of new techniques or activities for improving learning (or keeping people awake). I also know how to plan a class so that it has a focus, so that students know what the purpose of the class is. A faculty member recently made a comment that I found interesting. He is teaching an online class for the first time and he said that he realized while prepping the class that each session needed to have a point and that he was starting to translate that into his irl teaching. Before he would present the material in a continuous path throughout the semester, but not really try to develop a beginning, a middle, and an end for one session.

Our library instruction one-shot sessions must have a focus and when teaching a semester-long class I automatically approached it in that way. It is difficult to translate that technique directly because sometimes you run out of time, especially when students are engaged in the material, but the goal is there to have some kind of structure to our classes. Teaching librarians, I don’t think, give themselves enough credit for being good teachers.  Honestly considering the amount of “training” I had in graduate school for political science compared to the amount of real training I’ve had as a librarian, I simply have to be a better teacher.

But the class has also affected my teaching as a librarian. I’m definitely less and less nervous about messing up. I’ve noticed that beyond the initial boost of adrenaline I haven’t been nervous in front of people much. Man, I messed up so many times in my credit class last semester, but nobody’s life ended. And the students seemed to enjoy my instruction. Also I’ve been rethinking my library instruction sessions to try and shape them in ways that are more appropriate for the students’ real needs. I feel like I have a better insight into what they need from me–maybe it is because I know more of them now–but I also think it is because I am more familiar with what is going on in their actual classroom and how they are doing their research.

So, that was my Monday. I know  this is long winded, but I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while. If you have any suggestions, especially on the discussion part, let me know!

hey, hey data peeps! propose this! @iassistdata #iassist

Published January 4, 2012 conferences Leave a Comment
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All my data gods and goddess need to step up! The IASSIST 2012 conference is right around the corner and we need some awesome workshops. The info is below and the deadline is soon (Jan 16). You can also still propose Pecha Kuchas, posters, and round table discussions until Jan 16 on the website. The paper deadline has passed.

Call for Workshops

Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information

The 38th International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) annual conference will be hosted by NORC at the University of Chicago and will be held at the George Washington University in Washington DC, June 4 – 8, 2012.

The theme of this year’s conferences is Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information. This theme reflects the growing desire of research communities, government agencies and other organizations to build connections and benefit from the better use of data through practicing good management, dissemination and preservation techniques. Submissions are encouraged that offer improvements for creating, documenting, submitting, describing, disseminating, and preserving scientific research data.

Workshops details:
The conference committee seeks workshops that highlight this year’s theme Data Science for a Connected World: Unlocking and Harnessing the Power of Information.  Below is a sample of possible workshop topics that may be considered:

  • Innovative/disruptive technologies for data management and preservation
  • Infrastructures, tools and resources for data production and research
  • Linked data: opportunities and challenges
  • Metadata standards enhancing the utility of data
  • Challenges and concerns with inter-agency / intra-governmental data sharing
  • Privacy, confidentiality and regulation issues around sensitive data
  • Roles, responsibilities, and relationships in supporting data
  • Facilitating data exchange and sharing across boundaries
  • Data and statistical literacy
  • Data management plans and funding agency requirements
  • Norms and cultures of data in the sciences, social sciences and the humanities
  • Collaboration on research data infrastructure across domains and communities
  • Addressing the digital/statistical divide and the need for trans-national outreach
  • Citation of research data and persistent identifiers
  • The evolving data librarian profession

Successful workshop proposals will blend lecture and active learning techniques.  The conference planning committee will provide the necessary classroom space and computing supplies for all workshops.  For previous examples of IASSIST workshops, please see our 2010 workshops and our 2011 workshops. Workshops can be a half-day or full-day in length.

Procedure: Please submit the proposed title and an abstract of no longer than 200 words to Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). With your submission please include a preliminary list of requirements including:

  • computer Lab OR classroom
  • software and hardware requirements
  • any additional expected requirements

Deadline for submission:  January 16, 2012
Notification of acceptance: March 2, 2012

Please contact Lynda Kellam, IASSIST workshop Coordinator, if you have any questions regarding workshop submissions at lmkellam@uncg.edu

IASSIST is an international organization of professionals working in and with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences.  Typical workplaces include data archives/libraries, statistical agencies, research centers, libraries, academic departments, government departments, and non‐profit organizations.  Visit iassistdata.org  for further information.

IASSIST 2012
June 4 – 8, 2012
Washington DC, USA

-IASSIST 2012 Program Chairs: Jake Carlson, Pascal Heus and Oliver Watteler

Your New Year’s Resolution…

Published December 13, 2011 outreach , the profession Leave a Comment
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… is to learn more, right? Then join us for the next Help! webinar in January on the Creative Commons (not just for govdocers).

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents … What You Need to Know About the Creative Commons

The Government Resources Section of the North Carolina Library Association welcomes you to a series of webinars designed to help us all do better reference work by increasing our familiarity with government information resources, and by discovering the best strategies for navigating them.

In this session we will be exploring a non-government information source of importance to all librarians. The Creative Commons, formed in 2001, is devoted to expanding the creative output and intellectual property available for others to build upon and share.  The concept has grown in popularity over the last decade and is now flourishing among content creators across digital media from text, to photography to video. This webinar will look at the basics of Creative Commons, the various CC licenses and what they mean and will show participants how to locate CC licensed content for use in their own projects and how to assign CC licenses to their own intellectual property.

Rosalind Tedford is the Director for Research and Instruction at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University. She earned her BA in English and Psychology as well as her MA in English from Wake Forest and an MLIS from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In addition to managing the research and instruction programs at Wake Forest she teaches for-credit information literacy courses and is the liaison to both the Political Science and Communication departments. She has presented at LOEX, ACRL, ALA and regional conferences on issues ranging from copyright to technology trends to information literacy. In what little free time she has, she can be found hanging out with her two kids, watching ACC basketball and reading (but not at the same time).  She can be reached at tedforrl@wfu.edu

We will meet together for Session #12, online on Thursday, January 5 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EST). Please RSVP for the Session by January 4 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session12

Technical requirements: We will be using collaborative software called Elluminate. It requires that you be able to download Java onto your computer, but you do not need any special software. After you RSVP, we will send you a link that you can use to test the software. If you have any questions, please contact Lynda Kellam (lmkellam@uncg.edu). You do not need a microphone as a chat system is available in the software, but you do need speakers or headphones.

The session will be recorded and made available after the live session, linked from the NCLA GRS web page (http://www.nclaonline.org/government-resources).

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