LILAC 2012 part 1

This year our annual UK Information Literacy Conference LILAC was in Glasgow. Having been to Glasgow (the former 2nd city of the Empire) twice for conferences already, I knew that this would be a cracker and so it proved. Over 120 of the 350 delegates were international : a great sign of the success of this Conference.
The keynotes Megan Oakleaf (Syracuse University), Lord Puttnam, and Tara Brabazon (University of Ontario, Institute of Technolgy) were all inspiring and so all totally different in style. I shall not attempt to summarise in deatil, but just offer a few comments and try to give  the flavour.

Megan Oakleaf 
believes that we can show evidence of our library impact on studemt learning., correlate library interactions with other student success measures, and define the library's role in achieving strategic institutional goals.

How do we show our value?

What can we do differently?

Could we impact with students before they start?

Here is link to a free version of an article by Megan Oakleaf: "Are They Learning? Are We? Learning Outcomes and the Academic Library." The Library Quarterly, 81 (1), 61-82. http://www.meganoakleaf.info/aretheylearningoakleaf.pdf

Lord David Puttnam
spoke brilliantly (no powerpoints). I remember particularly :

The Far East are well ahead.streaming of video. This  can be done easily seamlessly in education and distance learning.

Voice recognition is going to big.The iPad 3 has voice recognition instilled.

Keyboards will be  less important in future. T

Oracy needs to be in the teachers ' curriculum.This means kids will need to  be better speakers, orators. Importance of social skills.

Compare a surgeon and teacher of 1912 operating now....The surgeon could not begin to cope  but the teacher would ......

If we are just using digital technologies to deliver the  same curriculum then its a waste of possibilities which are there. 

We need to learn about student ways of operating.

 Librarians are part of this imaginative change.

Teachers and librarians are the infantry for change!

Education can provide the means to survive, and provide social security and health systems required.

But our assessment processes are way way behind.

Librarians have a brand issue. It is like a millstone round our neck. The public doesn't understand our role. We are seen as custodians.....treasure keepers.

Companies have the same problems. 

But Dame Lynne Brindley  has succeeded brilliantly with the British Library.

Tara Brabazon

Using some Powerpoints, sound and her usual flambouyant acting style...

She spoke of the need for a Digital Detox. 

Google is like the McDonalds of information management.

We dont put words into Google that we dont know and we are too easily satisfied.

(As I have said so many times : they dont know what they dont know : or with incoming students they often think they do know how to search)

She suggests digital dieting which in practical terms could mean :

Pushing students away from Google toward Google Scholar (YES!!!!)

Reduce their speed pf search by putting in intellectua; obstacles like asking for annotated bibilograhphies.

Reduce use of textbooks.

Improve and widen their vocabulary.

Help them to know what they dont know by using the curriculum. 

More about LILAC in next post.

Google Scholar launches a blog!

Scholar is trying to be more helpful to academic users. In the first post of a new blog they say they have recently added email alerts to Scholar. You can now create alerts for queries of your interest. When new articles that match your alert query are added to Google Scholar, they will send you an email update with links to these articles. This service has meant they have to update entries quicker than in the past with articles now being added twice a week.
Sounds as though this could be useful to some researchers.
Anybody tried it yet?

Google Scholar and Wikipedia as pre-search

Found out about this post via Twitter! Dean Giustini, the health librarian from UBC, Vancouver, posted in his blog The Search Principle :

"Use pre-search tools to orient yourself, to browse, ask questions and get acquainted with topics. Who are the leading authors in a given field? What articles are seminal? Pre-search as a concept is also applicable to Wikipedia. Think of mother Google this way (i.e. presearch) as well."

Dean is an expert on Google Scholar so I think this short post is worth a glance.

LOEX 2009 and gems of the past

The 39th National Conference "Blazing Trails to Information Literacy" is being launched for Alberqerque, New Mexico, 30 April-2 May 2009 (with cowboy poster, which I like...)
Perhaps of more use to us now is the really useful collection to links to presentations from previous Conferences.
Here are some examples from 2008 :

Wiki-ing Your Way into Collaborative Learning (Molly Beestrum, Systems Librarian, Dominican University,Kenneth Orenic, Instruction/Reference Librarian, Dominican University),
iTour: How We Stuffed 6 Floors of Milner Library Into the Palm of You Hand (Sean Walton, Instructional Asst. Professor, Milner Library - Illinois State University),
Library Instruction and Student Engagement in the Age of Google (William H. Weare, Jr., Access Services Librarian, Valparaiso University, Michelle Kowalsky, Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, William Paterson University)
“Why Does Google Scholar Sometimes Ask for Money?” Leveraging the Economics of Information and Scholarly Communication Processes to Enrich Instruction
Scott Warren, Associate Director, Textiles Library and Engineering Services, North Carolina State University Libraries , Kim Duckett, Principal Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning, North Carolina State University Libraries) This last presentation is a gem.

Death of Live Search Academic and Live Search Books

So Microsoft have pulled the plug on their Live Search Academic and Live Search Books programmes. The content as exists will remain in the generic Microsoft Live Search, but the two separate search facilities will be no more. Set up to rival Google's digitisation projects and Google Scholar, the hope was that the content would lure more users to go to Live Search. This did not happen, and there was found to be no sustainable business case for continuation, which means that Google has moved into an even stronger position with its Scholar and Book Search.

LOEX 2008

This was held May 1-3 at Oak Brook, Illinois. As usual there look to have been some really interesting presentations, which supplement our book very well!
The official site is gathering in the Powerpoints. Here are a few which I noticed :

When the World Grows Smaller: Renewing Your Instruction Methods for International Students Using the Cephalonian Method : Merinda Kaye Hensley, Instructional Services Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Wiki-ing Your Way into Collaborative Learning Molly Beestrum, Systems Librarian, Dominican University, Kenneth Orenic, Instruction/Reference Librarian, Dominican University.

cn u hlp? Collaborative Chat Reference and Instruction Kenneth Furuta, Reference/Information Technology Librarian, Rivera Library, University of California, Riverside
Gayatri Singh, Reference and Information Services Coordinator, Social Sciences & Humanities Library, University of California, San Diego.

Library Instruction and Student Engagement in the Age of Google
William H. Weare, Jr., Access Services Librarian, Valparaiso University
Michelle Kowalsky, Adjunct Professor and Reference Librarian, William Paterson University.

Research 2.0: Research Blogs as Windows of Opportunity Olivia Reinauer, Social Sciences Librarian, University of Richmond, Terry Dolson, Faculty Development Specialist, University of Richmond.

“Why Does Google Scholar Sometimes Ask for Money?” Leveraging the Economics of Information and Scholarly Communication Processes to Enrich Instruction
Scott Warren, Associate Director, Textiles Library and Engineering Services, North Carolina State University Libraries, Kim Duckett, Principal Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning, North Carolina State University Libraries.

There's really interesting material here. For a good summary of some of the presentations see the post on Please Be Quiet blog.