Archive for the 'conferences' Category

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

PubMed, PubMed Central, Medlineplus. WTF?

Published December 8, 2011 conferences , outreach Leave a Comment
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Hello blog! Haven’t seen you in a while. Yes, it’s been a wild semester. More on that later, but first we have a webinar coming up! Join us!

Help! I’m an Accidental Government Information Librarian presents … PubMed, PubMed Central, and Medlineplus – What’s the difference? (Lea Leininger, Health Sciences Librarian at the University of North Carolina Greensboro)

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.

Do you support health science students? Are you on the hunt for another non-Google tool for health questions from the general public? Maybe you’ve heard that PubMed, PubMed Central and MedlinePlus are great sources for reliable medical information, but you’re not sure which site is best for your needs.  If so, please attend our webinar on December 9 at 12 pm (EST).  A health sciences librarian will provide an overview of PubMed, PubMed Central, and MedlinePlus with some searches and links to additional information.  This session is designed to be a basic introduction for non-medical librarians, but librarians from all settings are welcome to attend.

Ms. Lea Leininger has been the Health Sciences Librarian at the University of North Carolina Greensboro since 2004. She is the liaison librarian for nursing, biology, public health education, nutrition, communication sciences and disorders, nanoscience, and genetic counseling. She has a BA in French, a BA in Humanities, and an MLIS from the University of Texas at Austin.

We will meet together for Session #11, online on December 9 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. (EST). Please RSVP for the Session by December 8 at 5:00 pm using this link: http://tinyurl.com/grs-session11

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).

Libguides session at #ncla11

Published October 5, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
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Some rough notes from the libguides session at NCLA.

Jennifer Ballance from CPCC
- template: same format so students know where to expect something
- remember to unpublish class guides at summer break; ensures that content is current
- use internally for sharing teaching information; commonly asked questions

Randall from Elon University
- sharing in the community; springshares help is very
- establish rules for the guides – only pics and no avatars

Michelle Cosby from NC Central law library
- managing libguides on campuses with multiple libraries/ libguide account – be sure to create unique accounts
- they have student desk workers and interns help out in creating libguides
- “libguides are lifesavers” launch party with raffle

Jenny Dale at UNCG
- discussed process for deciding to go with libguides
- as always an engaging presenter!

Nina Exner at NC A&T
- process at a&t
- cross linking guides

Susan Neilson at wake county libraries
- almost thought about getting rid of subject guides and then decided to give libguides a try.
- reading lists at contra costa public libraries
- link stats only work in link boxes and not rich txt boxes
- not integrate as easily into catalog for readers advisory

Anders at GTCC
- early adopters of libguides
- had to adjust the color scheme after whole website changed

Kathy shields at High Point U
- had general log in so anyone could change guide; also allows for generic “librarian” on side of generic guides like citation guides
- poll everywhere!!

Rawkin’ the North Carolina Library Association conference

Published October 2, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
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Big week coming up. My students have their second exam (on international conflict). I have a ton of grading to do. And it is the NCLA Biennial Conference. I used to say to my mom when I was a kid, “what is your adventure for today?” Well, here is my adventure for NCLA. What is yours?

Wednesday
11:30-1:30: Lunch with the awesome Jenny Dale
1:30-3: Lessons Learned: Getting the Most Out of Libguides (A panel full of my peeps. Gotta go.)
3:45-5: Reference instruction re-imagined (I’m interested in this one because of our reference intern program. Always looking for new ideas.)
5-7: UNCG LIS Alumni Association is taking over Carrabba’s (Be there!)
7- ?: BLINC dinner
????: ???

Thursday
9-10: Do We Really Need to Pay for this Anymore? (I’m presenting with Steve Cramer. You should come! It’ll be fun.)
10-11: SimplyMap presentation (Oh, I love you SM!)
11-12: Left to their own devices (Amy Harris, Lauren Pressley, Mark Sanders, and I will be demo’ing our techie, geekie goodness. As if you didn’t know.)
12-1:30: RASS Luncheon
2-3:15: General Session
4:15: Introducing Gwen Exner in Taking the Next Step and then the Government Resources Section’s business meeting
5:45-6:30: UNCG LIS reception (Because UNCG blows the rest out of the library)
7-9: All-Conference Reception

Friday
8:30-9:30: Meet ADDIE (I’ve met ADDIE before but I can’t resist the Amy and Jenny goodness.)
10:30-12: Census 2010 update with the fabulous Michele Hayslett!

Home again, home again….

Get yer gov on in Hickory, NC

Published September 21, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
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The North Carolina Library Association Conference is coming soon. These are the sessions for the Government Resources Section. We are a bit light this year (a session was canceled recently), but we’ve been putting most of our resources to the webinars anyway. Should be good times. My full schedule will be a-coming soon.

Thursday, October 6

9am-10am: “Do We Really Need to Pay for this Anymore?” The best free v. fee sources for statistics and country research

Lynda Kellam and Steve Cramer

A Government Resources Section (GRS) and Business Librarians in North Carolina (BLINC) co-production

These days it’s more important than ever to consider what’s worth paying for to support country & statistical research. Recently, some important databases, previously fee–‐ based, are now free. At the same time, some famous, expensive country reports are now available through NC LIVE. We’ll review core sources and cast a “vote” about whether certain subscriptions are still worth the money. This should be useful for reference, collection development, and subject specialists.

4:15-5pm: GRS business meeting

5pm-6pm: UNCG LIS alumni association happy hour at Carrabba’s in Hickory (feel free to crash)!

Friday, October 7

10:30 am – 12:00 pm: Census 2010: An Update

Michele Hayslett, Bob Coats, and  Erin Casullo Watkins

Come here Michele Hayslett talk about the new American Factfinder! Bob Coats will give us an update on the Census 2010 results and next steps.  Erin Casullo Watkins of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce will talk about Census 2010 at the local level, primarily trends and implications in the Charlotte area.

A presentation on presentations at ShareAcademy

Published August 1, 2011 conferences , the profession 1 Comment
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Jenny Dale, Amy Harris, and I are presenting again tomorrow. This time for ShareAcademy. We are presenting on presenting. So meta; baby, take me to your leader! I will be posting all the wonderful things we learn. If you will be at ShareAcademy, stop by and say greetings!

Here is our slidedeck. Kudos to Jenny Dale for being a PowerPoint ninja! She is an inspiration, really, to those of us who are novice image users. I’m so proud of her.

A supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again … #ala11

Published June 28, 2011 conferences , writing 1 Comment
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This wonderful David Foster Wallace title does not refer to my experience with the American Library Association’s Annual Conference. I’ve been to four conferences now and each time I’ve had a better experience than the last. Admittedly, I’ve not quite found my home in the organization yet. My library job has many facets (data, instruction, government info, etc); therefore, it is hard to justify concentrating on only one. I also love meeting and connecting people to each other. I probably won’t ever stick to one division (although my wallet may not like it), but it means that I will have a harder time finding my “fit”.

I will have some conference summaries soon, but my most memorable experience this year was with the Emerging Leaders Interest Group’s EL Summit headed up by the fabulous Jaime Hammond. Lisa Carlucci started off the session with an inspiring talk on Cadillac Leadership and a few of us did lightning rounds on topics related to EL-ness, such as professional development and getting onto ALA Council. I hope Lisa will post her talk somewhere because I couldn’t take notes at the time. Maybe someone in the room was taking good notes! While the EL program has room for improvement, it has been tremendously valuable both for the ‘leadership’ aspects and for new friendships, but also because I am able to learn from people I would never meet within my job-related divisions (like GODORT). Learning about life in the public library from new librarians helps to put some of the issues within ALA and the profession into much greater perspective. When I applied for EL, I listed this as one of the reasons I wanted to join and I haven’t been disappointed.

So, what is my supposedly fun thing I’ll never do again, if ALA isn’t it? When I arrived home yesterday I found a package. Inside were copies of my book, Numeric Data Services and Sources for the General Reference Librarian

the supposedly fun thing i'll never do again

I knew that writing a book would not be a fun project. Nevertheless, I am glad Katharin and I wrote it because it fills a serious gap in the market. At a RUSA data discussion session on Sunday, Michelle Hudson, the data librarian at Yale University said, “Hopefully all librarians will be data librarians someday.” The idea is that every reference/instruction librarian should feel comfortable using numeric data sources because they are information too, just like the written word. We will still rely on specialists for certain questions, but all librarians will have basic familiarity with the WIDE range of sources out there. Helping all librarians become data librarians is the goal of this book!

So, why would I think twice about writing a book? First, it takes so much of your head space. I understand now why people take writing sabbaticals. I should have thought more strategically about this when I agreed to the project and would encourage any librarian who wants to write a book to think seriously about the amount of time you have to commit to it. Unless your library can give you time away from regular duties to concentrate on writing, you are going to be struggling to use your free time. Unfortunately for most of us our time is not structured for serious writing projects.

Second, the book as a format is a bit of a letdown. There are many great tips in this book for incorporating data into instruction and reference, but I already want to update the entire thing! I’ve learned so much and so much has changed since February 2010 when I sent my final proofs to the publisher that I’m already on a second edition in my head. I’ve thought about creating a wiki or a blog for the book, of course, and I’ve been trying to figure out the best forum. I would just like the book to be more of a social experience. I am not the final word on data reference and instruction, so how do I get other people’s voices and ideas heard? How do  we make the print book an ongoing organism and not stuck in a  particular moment in time? Once I’ve found the ability to do that, then may be it won’t be as much of a downer.

I am excited about the book arriving. It will have a positive impact for people who are new to numeric data. It has a place in libraryland! I just would need my arm seriously twisted to take on a project like that ever again :)

On a final note, I received another package in the mail yesterday. It is a birthday gift from my husband and I just had to share. Those of you who know me well will know why.

Hello kitty!

the (obligatory?) ALA prep post #ala11

Published June 23, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
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Woohoo! I’m packed and ready to go! Can’t wait to see some old friends and meet lots of new people. Plus, oh yeah, New Orleans, baby!!

And you wonder why I wear so much black? Easy packing.

I didn’t plan to go to ALA originally. Then I saw Mary Ellen Bates talk at the Conference for Entrepreneurial Librarians and thought, “What they heck! It is professional experience!” Of course she is talking about people who are self-employed information specialists and need to sell themselves, but she really spoke to my soul, honestly she did. So, now I am going to ALA.

My schedule is pretty insane (not much time for sight-seeing). Mostly I will be hanging with the GODORT and ACRL’s Law and Political Science Section peeps. I plan to stop by LITA’s reception (they always find great bars!). I’m also writing stories for Against the Grain this year, so I have some sessions and exhibitors I’ll need to visit for ATG. What else? The emerged Emerging Leaders are doing lightning talks in the jam-packed Saturday afternoon spot. You should join us! And much much more. If you are headed for NOLA, look me up! I’ll be down to share a hurricane with you … or a cup of coffee!

Of course the next hardest thing to planning my schedule was a task I had to do this morning. But first a brief digression. This weekend my husband and I went to the Outer Banks for a vacation and an errand, the purchase of a new pinball machine. It was a definite win-win for both of us. During the trip, he said he was so glad we took time to travel around. He didn’t want to do the quick trips anymore where he drives 5 hours in one direction to purchase a fabulous find and then drives 5 hours straight back. He didn’t know why those trips weren’t as appealing and I said to him, “Maybe it is because you realize you are an adult and you don’t need to do that anymore?” He agreed.

Today I had my own crisis of adulthood. I bought a new travel bag. I don’t REALLY need one. I have a wonderful Timbuk2, but it has seen better days. Plus, I’ve wanted to look a bit more professional at conference sessions. So, today I retire my precious messenger bag as my conference bag. It has seen many travels, through Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro no less. Join me in raising a hurricane to the beloved messenger bag. May you rock many vacations and road-trips in the future.

the old bag and the new

Metrolina Information Literacy Conference

Published June 23, 2011 conferences Leave a Comment
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Last week a few of us attended the sixth annual Metrolina Information Literacy Conference in Charlotte. It is always a great conference and very popular with the UNCG crowd. You can read about last year’s conference and see our slides from this year.

Here are some notes from other sessions. Slides and more have been posted on the Metrolina site if you are interested.

RAMS: Developing a Master Teacher Program…That Works with Michael Frye, Carl Leak, Thomas Flynn

  • RAMS is a Master Teacher Program at Winston-Salem State University Library. RAMS stands for restructure, align, measure, and success.
  • They have developed a RAMS recipe book with communal lesson plan examples for their staff. It is based on the info lit cookbook.
  • They have an interesting approach to help out people without teaching backgrounds.
  • They bring in experts on particular techniques (like Amy Harris and Jenny Dale!).
  • The librarians write a narrative assessment of a few consultations and journal entries on some library instruction sessions; these journals help with ‘observations’ in the sense that they must provide some feedback.
  • Next year they may look at librarians training each other in subject expertise.
  • This summer they are developing lesson plans for five classes not currently taught and will take those to the professors to market library instruction – great idea!

50-Minute Makeover: Creating effective library instruction for a new English curriculum at High Point University with Kathy Shields, Amy Pace, and Robert Fitzgerald

  • An overhaul of High Point University’s English composition program led to changes in the library instruction program.
  • You can check out some of their class activities on their libguide for English 1101, 1102, 1103
  • Kathy has a great keyword brainstorming exercise with bubble clouds. I need to find out from her how it works again, but I’m sure she’d be happy to share if you are interested.
  • They did an assessment at end, which was an embedded google form (in the libguide). I had no idea you could do this!
  • At the end of the semester they were able to get access to student papers and compared those classes with instruction and those without. They saw a big difference in use of scholarly etc resources versus websites across the two groups. Those without instruction used websites more frequently than library resources.\
  • Through their assessment they were able to see the holes in their instruction. Places to improve were with teaching and/or, research as a process, reading and comprehending sources and citing sources.
  •  They mentioned citationproject.net as a helpful resource on citation/plagiarism research.
  • For next semester they will create an annotated bibliography assignment for early in the semester that will use a select group of sources that are academically-inclined but not scholarly (e.g., New Yorker or The Economist articles).
  • Great discussion of the process of creating a new program!

Embedded Librarians: Looking Backward/Looking Forward with Jennifer Ballance, Dough Short, Grant LeFoe, and Amy Burns

  • Joint group of librarians from Central Piedmont Community College and Southern Piedmont Community College.
  • CPCC has a huge number of online classes – 465 classes and 11,791 students – and the library realized it needed to reach out to this group.
  • They embedded in the CMS of these online classes and created a “your” librarian button, which was an area for the librarian assigned to a particular class. To help with the project, they made embedding in one online class mandatory for all teaching librarians! Wow!
  • In the future they will do some usability tests that do not just test the interface but actually test the learning outcomes after the student takes the tutorials. SO FREAKING SMART!
  • SPCC had to use WordPress.com to integrate into Moodle because no extra space to embed. This is nice work around if not have libguides. You can see Grant’s personal page as an example. The faculty were very happy with the effort. In the future they will try to include the classes they see in person and blended courses as well in the embedding project.
  • Best practices for online embedding: 1) let students know when you will check your email and how often (e.g., once a day before 10am) – I need to do this with my class next semester!; 2) know the assignment and possibly even do the assignment; 3) send timely announcements; 4) check stats; 5) have more information on first page for assignment (not as much welcoming stuff)
  • They also gave suggestions for building rapport such as creating jing tutorials with your voice, having a picture of YOU, creating rapport with the faculty. These were all great suggestions that could even be used in an in-person embedded experience.

The sessions were all informative and fun. I especially enjoyed seeing our former intern, Kathy Shields, give her first ever presentation. Amy Harris, Kathy, and I also gave a poster presentation on our intern program. It was crazy popular and now I have a lot of emails to write!


we r in yr dormz, hlpn yr rsrch: metrolina info lit conference

Published June 15, 2011 conferences 2 Comments
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Tomorrow we are headed to Charlotte for Metrolina’s 6th Annual Information Literacy Conference. Metrolina is the regional professional organization for librarians in the Charlotte metro area. A few of us from UNCG try to attend every year and it has never disappointed. This year Jenny Dale and I are presenting on information literacy outside of the library walls (slides are below), while Amy Harris, Kathy Shields, and I will be “presenting” a poster on our reference intern program. Kathy Crowe and Amy also have a presentation on our Information Literacy Council. It is like UNCG just exploded all over Charlotte. Good times to come along with conference notes.

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