Professional Development

On Thursday, June 13, 2013, I attended the 8th Annual Metrolina Information Literacy Conference, held at Johnson & Wales University in downtown Charlotte. The day started with a keynote by ACRL President Steven Bell, and then separated into four breakout sessions along four tracks: pedagogy/instruction, assessment, diversity, and collaboration.

Steven Bell, Higher Education Rebooted: Exploring the New Mysteries of Information Literacy

Bell framed his discussion around the concept of mysteries and wicked problems. Mysteries are important because they bring new discoveries and knowledge, and make us tackle problems creatively. Rather than being complacent about the solutions we come up with, we should continue to adapt our solutions, which will lead to more growth. Wicked problems are complex challenges that are characterized by ambiguity and shifting qualities. His examples of current wicked problems in higher education were:

• what are students learning that will get them jobs?
• why does higher education cost so much?
• can we make it less expensive?

Regarding information literacy, his wicked problems were:

• are we making a difference?
• do students learn what we say they do?
• are we/they academically successful?
• do students really become life-long learners?

Clearly, assessment is an important component of answering these wicked problems. One current solution is the project to update the ACRL Information Literacy Standards, which hasn’t been done since 2000, as well as the Assessment in Action project that just got started.

Session #1: Jennifer Resor Whicker & Lisa Vassady, Radford University, A Novel Approach to Assessment: Using Worksheet Observation Assessment in One-Shot Instruction Classes

Resor Whicker and Vassady presented the observational worksheet approach they developed at Radford University to assess student learning in their information literacy sessions, which are taught in conjunction with General Ed courses. They focused on assessing two sessions: search strategies and databases, and website evaluation. They created worksheets for the students to use in class, and then collected those worksheets at the end of each session. Immediately following each session, the librarian wrote a reflection on how they felt the class went (student engagement, faculty preparation, success of active learning exercises). After the librarian evaluated herself and how the session went, she evaluated the students’ worksheets using an assessment rubric, to see how successful the students were in following and applying the information and techniques the librarian presented. Using the results from the student worksheet assessment, the librarian then wrote another reflection on whether or not the student worksheets matched with their initial impression of student learning, or if they might need to make changes to their presentation or exercises. This evaluation and redevelopment process was continuous during the semester and not limited to the end of the semester.

I liked this idea and am trying to figure out how I might be able to apply it to LIB250. I already use worksheets in the course, but usually let the students keep them so they can use them as they work on their daily assignments. It may be most useful to be more purposeful and formal in my post-class reflection on how the session went and how it could be changed.

One exercise example they used that I really liked was in regards to website evaluation. They initially show the students a website that is unreliable for academic use, and tell them that it is and why. Then they pose a research question to the students, and ask them what qualities the “perfect” website on that topic would have by answering the five w’s: Who would have written/prepared/sponsored it? When would it have been written? Why would it have been made?, etc… Then they have to search for a website they think meets these criteria. I like this idea of the “perfect” website on a topic, as I think students just search for a website that is “good enough” rather than looking for something that really answers their question.

Session #2: Kaetrena Davis, USC-Lancaster, & Deborah Tritt, USC-Aiken, Serving Information Literacy via Digital Humanities

Davis and Tritt mapped the use of various tools to the standards and performance indicators that are shared by those who work in both information literacy and the digital humanities (identifies keywords & concepts, selects and uses appropriate documentation style, etc…). Many of these tools are familiar to most of us (Prezi, Zotero, Evernote) but there were a few that were new to me, so I’ll share those.

• Text2mindmap: an easy way to create concept maps or outlines, helps students think of key words and how concepts are connected
• VoiceThread: allows asynchronous discussion on presentations, images, etc…especially useful for online courses
• Bamboo DiRT: this website is a clearinghouse for digital research tools. Organized by tool type, click on the various categories for a curated list of tools that will help you if you need to: brainstorm, transcribe notes, visualize data, etc…

A few other tools suggested during the discussion:

• Screencast-O-Matic: a free and easy program that will record video tutorials using screen capture on either Macs or PCs. More flexible and has more features than Jing!
• bubler & popplet: collaboration & brainstorming software
• tiki-toki & Timeline JS: software for creating timelines

Session #3: Mae Rodney & Forest Foster, Winston-Salem State University, Moving From Output Measures to Confirming the Value of the Library

Rodney and Foster shared the ways that O’Kelly Library at WSSU has been working to demonstrate the value of the library to the educational mission of the university and its impact on the success of their students. They designed a (IRB approved) study that would look at student interactions with library services (study room reservations, instruction sessions attended, media lab logins) as tracked by the email address used to login on library computers, and correlate that to student success. Being on the dean’s list was decided to be the standard of student success. Students were also asked to take quick surveys, which were administered at the library entrance on iPads, and which collected more subjective information, such as how often the student thought they used the library, how using the library impacted them, etc… Once users were identified by their email logins and all of these various streams of data were collated, they were compared to the dean’s list to see what percentage of overlap there was. WSSU is still in the process of tallying the data, so they don’t know the outcome yet, but they are hoping this will be a strong way to demonstrate that library usage contributes directly to student success.

Session #4: Jenny Dale & Lynda Kellam, UNC-Greensboro, Lost in Emotion: Emotional Intelligence and the Teaching Librarian

Jenny and Lynda always give high-energy presentations, so this session was a lot of fun! Most of us went in to the session thinking of emotional intelligence as limited to empathy and compassion. While those qualities are certainly part of the whole, there are other aspects to consider. Using the work of Alan Mortiboys, Teaching with Emotional Intelligence, and Daniel Goleman’s Working with Emotional Intelligence, they outlined these two concepts:

• Mortiboy’s three categories for teachers: (1): subject expertise, knowledge, authority, (2): organized, gives feedback, clarity, engaged, (3): affective, positive, empathetic, open: each of these areas contribute to a well-rounded teacher
• Goleman’s five competencies in the workplace: (1): self-awareness, (2): self-regulation, (3): motivation, (4): empathy, (5): social skills: areas 1-3 are personal competencies, while 4 & 5 are social competencies

Their suggestions for teaching with empathy were to:

• set ground rules and explain expectations
• use active listening skills (move on if your students understand a concept)
• acknowledge individual learners by making eye contact, learning their names and referring to their previous class contributions
• know your style and play to your strengths
• know what motivates you as a teacher
• be aware of verbal and non-verbal communication

As always, I would be happy to talk more with anyone about these presentations! I have more notes and handouts that I would be glad to share, and the slides and prezi’s should be posted to the Metrolina Conference page soon.

From May 22-24th, I attended the annual conference of ALABI in Richmond, VA. (In case you’re wondering, ALABI stands for Association of Librarians and Archivists at Baptist Institutions). This was my first time taking part in this conference, and it was very well organized and informative. The theme was “From Church to Battlefield and Everywhere in Between: Documenting the Civil War in Baptist Libraries and Archives“. Sessions ran all day, and looked at a variety of topics in our different collections. Here are some of the presentation titles to give an idea of what we learned about:

*Grace and Glory: Documenting and African American Baptist Identity after the Civil War

*War Comes to the Churches: The Civil War as Documented in Baptist Records

*War Comes to the Home Front: The Civil War as Documented in Special Collections Materials

*Citizens, Saints, and Soldiers: Strategies for Researching Baptists and the Civil War (A shout out given for the Biblical Recorder digitization in this presentation! Woo Hoo! )

*Digitizing Dixie: Strategies for Placing Baptist Civil War Collections Online

I was happy to be part of the “Digitizing Dixie” session, along with the Assistant Archivist from Mercer University and the Director of Special Collections at Baylor University. We all described the Civil War materials that we had digitized from our collections, along with why we chose them, how we “made it happen” and the challenges and benefits of the projects. You can see examples of their work here: Mercer Special Collections and Baylor Special Collections

While the materials we digitized were similar, the projects themselves were very different. Mercer’s collection has a staff of three, a very small budget, and limited equipment. They have done a great job of getting started with digitizing and they plan to continue digitizing as much as they can with what they have. Baylor, on the other hand, has quite a large staff and budget (comparatively) as well as more equipment. They made a video for YouTube and unveiled their materials in a dramatic way. On each Monday, Wednesday and Friday from January through March, they launched one Civil War letter on the YouTube site. This created a loyal following who tuned in to read the letters, each of which was transcribed, digitized and “recorded” for the viewer to hear and see.

After the sessions we were able to tour the Virginia Baptist Historical Society, which is on the campus of the University of Richmond. The director, Fred Anderson, told our group about the facility as well as the history of the collection. Currently they have an exhibit called “Free Indeed”! which tells the story of African-Americans and Whites in antebellum Virginia. Original documents, church records and artifacts are on display and tell amazing stories of the history of this area. They have also compiled a name registry of over 51,000 names of slaves, freedmen and white surnames. The special projects assistant, Mike Whitt, researched over 200 antebellum church record books from the archives there to find and list all of these names! The names have been put on the public computers in the VBHS for people who want to research their ancestors. It is an amazing amount of information!

In addition to the ALABI conference, I attended the final session of the Baptist History and Heritage Society. This group always meets in conjunction with the ALABI group, either just before or after the ALABI conference. I had attended the BH&H conference last year to share the Biblical Recorder project information with them and they were quite excited about that resource! This year, there was a special reason for me to be at this meeting as well. Our very own NC Baptist Collection received the Davis C. Woolley award which is given in by the BH&HS in conjunction with ALABI! I was invited to receive the award at the luncheon that day, and was very proud to represent the WFU Special Collections and Archives Department. We received the award based on our efforts to use technology to make our materials accessible more widely (i.e. the Biblical Recorder project, our current partnering with Chapel Hill and Duke on the Religion in NC grant project) , the progress made on processing important Baptist collections and having finding aids available online (Wayne Oates, Bill Leonard, Warren Carr and Henlee Barnette specifically) and the amount of reference questions related to the Baptist collection that we answer (over 125 so far this year). It is so affirming to be recognized for the work that we have done and continue to do and know that it benefits researchers from all over.

*Side note* After I received the award, a gentleman came up to talk to me. He was a Wake alum (’64) and very excited to hear about our projects. He also mentioned that he took part in the MOOC that Kyle coordinated and enjoyed it very much! Small world…

The final day of the conference included a session on preservation of materials presented by a rep from Metal Edge and a conservationist from the Virginia State Library which was very informative and then a business meeting and “lightning round” where we each had a minute to tell what we are working on in out collections. There was talk of a possible Baptist Digital Library in the works to consolidate Baptist resources in one place, ongoing efforts to continue digitizing materials, hopes to digitize church records, and interest in future publishing opportunities. We covered a lot in two days and it was well worth the trip. If you would like information on anything I’ve mentioned here, I would be happy to share more with you.

On Friday, May 31st, Joy Gambill, Kyle Denlinger, and I attended the NCBIG Camp 2013 at UNCG’s Jackson Library. The North Carolina Bibliographic Instruction Group (NCBIG) is an NCLA discussion group, and this “unconference” was designed to be a participant-driven event, with facilitators for each of the twelve session (three breakout sessions with four facilitated discussions in each session). Joy, Kyle and I all agreed to facilitate a session. I attended a discussion on “Assessing Student Learning Outcomes“, where I got some great ideas for embedding some assessment tools in my LibGuides and learned about an excellent LibGuide on assessment from Portland State University on “Assessing Library Instruction“. Next, I attended Kyle’s session on “Technology for Teaching and Learning“, where we discussed a variety of useful tools including Infogr.am (yes, it is spelled that way!) “Mozilla Thimble” just to name a couple. After lunch, I facilitated a discussion on “Outreach to Students“. I was glad I had prepared a structure for the discussion, developing an icebreaker and bring flip chart paper and pens for participants to use to list their successful outreach programs and their challenges.

After everyone wrote their ideas on the flip charts, we discussed the results and found interesting differences and similarities between the K-12 and public libraries and the academic libraries. There was some interest in Humans v. Zombies and it looks like I made a connection that will get us a contingency from Winston Salem State University for the next event in October! All in all, we agreed it was a very productive day with some new and interesting ideas and some great networking with other librarians! Thanks to Joy and Kyle for a great day!

On Friday, May 31, I taught a basic book repair workshop sponsored by the North Carolina Preservation consortium. This workshop covered the basics of repairing books. In many cases, this is all you need to get by. We mended paper tears with heat set tissue,
tore and repaired hinges using Japanese paper, tipped-in loose and torn-out pages, repaired torn end sheets and repaired damaged spines. These are repairs I do almost every day and which I’ve taught as useful skills in the workshops.

After lunch, we also toured Preservation and Special Collections. It was a small but good group. They represented library staff from Appalachian State, UNC-W, Rowan County Public Library the Orange County Historical Society and the Webb Memorial Library in Morehead City. We also managed to fit in making books-always a hit. It was a good day, doing good work.

On May 16th-17th, I attended the the Conference for Entrepreneurial Librarians: Social Entrepreneurship in Action held at UNCG. Here are some highlights of the programs that I attended:

Brian Mathews was the opening keynote speaker on “Engines of Change: Developing Platforms for Social, Civic, and Cultural Engagement”

• Social entrepreneurism: civic engagement, human rights, environment, illiteracy, poverty, health, ethics, food
• Value creation: shifting resources from low productivity to an area of higher productivity; library tours for an underserved community; reaching out to new groups

4 Defining Entrepreneurial Characteristics

• Alertness: being able to recognize opportunities when other people don’t; anticipate problems and develop changes
• Combiner: Steve Jobs brought the pieces together
• Empathy: understanding the needs of the customer
• Networked: alert people to things that are happening

“We’re surrounded by good ideas… we know what we need to do… But what we don’t know is how to take the knowledge we possess in bits and pieces and implement it at the scale of problems we are facing.” -David Bornstein

• “Fill our patron’s memory bank with positive associations of the library and what it stands for.”
• Invest in other people’s problems and how to help them
• Find the right nutrients and environment for ideas

“Igniting Change: Transforming Practice Through Dialogue with Diverse Information Professionals” moderated by Dr. Clara Chu presented by UNCG students in the ACE Scholars program

Public Libraries, Immigrants, and Refugees: partnered with Greensboro Public Library Multicultural Services Librarian

• Learn what they need: ESL classes, assimilation assistance in schools, information literacy classes
• Develop a community profile: culture, language, identify community leader
• Identify information resources from focus groups
• Develop information resources on health literacy and financial literacy
• Advanced ESL classes
• Promote cross-cultural understanding
• Middle of Everywhere by Mary Pipher
• The Spirit Catches and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child by Ann Fadliman

“Social Entrepreneurship in Action in Spanish Libraries” by Jose Antonio Merlo Vega

Economic recession affected libraries in Spain, and public libraries still support their communities despite reduced acquisition expenditures

• Local experiences are global experiences
• Libraries in Spain support open access to resources – OA seems more critical for countries in recession
• Social Action: Libraries help people with economic needs; libraries collect food and school supplies to give to community, often overdue fines are forgiven with donations; libraries provide job search services; libraries are a point of exchange of books between patrons
• Social responsibility: “People are important, and libraries are for the people.”
• Political action: Libraries and patrons protest against cuts and defend library services and funding; Library associations advocate for favorable legislation
• Yellow tide: Spanish libraries movement against cuts
• Digital action: Libraries use free technologies to offer services
• Economic action: Libraries adjust and redistribute their budgets; Libraries use indicators to cancel subscriptions; Libraries support OA to scientific articles and resources; Libraries re-negotiate licenses with e-resource providers

“Taking Risks and Forging New Collaborations for Environmental Causes” by Frederick Stoss, SUNY-Buffalo

• Promote Environmental ICE: Information, Communication, Education
• Literacy is more than reading: writing, expressing music, dance, drawing, communicating, telling stories, listening, learning, teaching, and sharing

• Science seeks to explain the complexity of the natural world and uses this understanding to make valid and useful predictions
• Technology utilizes innovative tools, materials, and processes to solve problems or satisfy the needs of individuals, society, and the environment
• http://www.naaee.net/ Guidelines for Excellence

Developing Cultural Competency Panel:

“An Award of Their Own: The Creation of a Book Award for the Arab American Community”

• Arab American National Museum (Dearborn, Michigan) Arab American Book Award
• Worked with museum staff to discuss mutual benefits of the award
• First Award Ceremony in 2007 at the museum
• Poetry category award, Non-fiction award

“Preserving Refugee Cultural Heritage: Taking Community and Culture into Account”

• Let underrepresented communities speak for themselves
• Multicultural and globalized digital libraries would guarantee the right for all cultural voices to be included

• Respect the culture with integrity

• “Our parents will never write, so we write for them.” Vang
• Preservation: We must ask what and observe how intangible cultural heritage objects are used
• Authentic Preservation: document for posterity; perpetuate (ongoing practice/survival within community
• Disseminate to the next generation and community at large

• Cannot assume refugees as a group have common issues
• Same country but different ethnicities, tribes, loyalties, religions, and languages

• Represents not only inherited traditions but contemporary rural and urban practices
• Inclusive: link the past, present, and the future; expressions are passed from one generation to another and evolve in response
• Model program of authentic preservation practices
• Project APRCH

Michael Porter, an Executive Board member of ALA, was the closing keynote speaker.
Presentation: “No, YOU Go Do It (or leave it up to somebody else and take what you get)”

• Solving problems is better than complaining about them
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: there is a reason why libraries are important
• Communities need libraries to thrive
• Libraries = content + community
• Optimism does not denote naivete; need to be realistically optimistic to help things get better

Life is short. Build stuff that matters.
It’s simple until you make it complicated.
Start simple.
Stop sketching and start building.
Experiment. Learn. Fail. Repeat.

“Be guided by the mission of the library and the university which lets us help other people and society”

Dean Lynn Sutton concluded the conference with closing remarks. Kudos to the UNCG and WFU conference planning committee for organizing an excellent conference.

I have been overdue on this post for a while, so here it is!

On April 23-24, I attended the Spring meeting of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. I normally attend all ASERL meetings, but I had two special reasons to attend this one: I was giving a presentation on ZSRx, and at the close of the meeting, I would assume Presidency of the Association.

First, the presentation. Kyle gave the definitive presentation of ZSRx at CNI in April, which we have already described. For this version, I called it ZSRx: The back story, since it was to my peer deans and directors and I could afford to be honest with them. Many of the slides will look familiar, as I “re-used” them, with Kyle’s permission, of course. I received many comments and questions afterward, as most people were stunned by the idea that a library could offer a MOOC, instead of just supporting it. Sarah Michalak from UNC-CH reported that they were considering offering a course on Metadata on Coursera later this year.

I was part of a panel on Research Libraries and MOOCs (massive, open, online courses). Carrie Cooper of the College of William and Mary did a great job in introducing the topic and providing basic information as well as asking pertinent questions. Catherine Murray-Rust from Georgia Tech spoke about the way they support MOOCs given by their faculty members. She also presented material from Duke, as both of them are active in Coursera. Some people predict that MOOCs are the latest fad that will soon fade, but I think too many of the biggest names in higher education have invested too much money in them to let them go away very soon. They will change and adapt to whichever way the demand pulls them, but I think they will be with us for a while.

Here are the other programs at the meeting:

ASERL’s new Visiting Program Officer in Scholarly Communication is Christine Fruin from the University of Florida. She gave a remote presentation, flawlessly executed, on the recent big copyright cases: Georgia State and e-reserves, Kirtsaeng and right of first sale, ReDigi (first sale for music); as well as FASTR(legislation introduced in Congress to mandate open access), the White House directive on public access, and fair use issues on materials used with MOOCs.

In another session, there was discussion around the sustainability of the annual ASERL statistics, to which WFU contributes every year. Virginia Commonwealth has coordinated it for many years but feels the need to hand it off to others. It was recommended to contract with Counting Opinions, who is already the vendor for ACRL stats. ASERL libraries would have to pay $199 a year, but would also gain access to ARL data for that price.

Roger Schonfeld from Ithaka S+R presented the results of their latest Faculty Survey. This had been premiered at CNI earlier in April. Faculty from all institutions offering bachelor’s degrees were surveyed. Highlights of faculty opinion include:

Discovery and access: libraries do well with known item searching and scholarly databases; 78% use library resources; 65% use free material online.

Who is your primary audience? Faculty said (in order): my sub-discipline, my discipline, professionals outside academia, undergraduates (last).

What is the role of the library? Buyer, gateway, repository, teaching facilitator, research supporter. Humanists assigned the greatest value to the library, then social scientists, and scientists last.

Format transitioning: 66-75% still use scholarly monographs, preferably in print, with only searching and exploring references being features that are better in ebooks. Still, 16% say within five years there won’t be a need for print books.

Natasha Jankowski from the National Institute of Learning Outcomes Assessment, co-located at the Universities of Illinois and Indiana, gave an overview of NILOA’s programs. She was not that familiar with library efforts with outcomes assessment (though she did mention RAILS, ACRL’s Assessment Immersion, and the Library Assessment Conference; she had nothing good to say about LibQUAL) so there was a good deal of learning on both sides. The purpose of learning assessment is to inform students of their learning and where they are in the path to their goals. She cited St. Olaf College and Miami-Dade as examples of best practices.

A presentation on CHARM, the Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi, led to a call for a broader program on agriculture in the South, perhaps as the next digital collection following the Civil War portal. This will be taken up in the coming year.

There were updates on ASERL’s Gov Docs and Journal Retention projects. We, at ZSR, are much more invested in the journal project. ASERL has signed a collaborative agreement with a similar regional program in the Washington DC area, with combined holdings that make it even bigger than the well-known WEST program. Carol is our representative to this group, and I have served as the Chair, although I will need to step down in the coming year.

The grand finale of the meeting was to officially launch the ASERL Guide to Southern Barbecue! Lauren Corbett was one of the prime movers of this initiative. Enjoy!

On Tuesday the 21st Joy, Kaeley, Roz, and I ventured to Raleigh to participate in the summer meeting of NC-LITe, the twice-annual meeting of NC librarians who are interested in library instruction and instructional technologies. It’s a very informal group and always a fun time with lots of idea-sharing. This year’s summer meeting was at the shiny new Hunt Library at NCSU, which was a sight to behold. Like all NC-LITe meetings, this one followed a familiar format.

Campus Sharing

Each campus got some time to share updates. Some of the most interesting were:

• UNC-CH: A transition to a required ENG105 course in which librarians cooperate with instructors to create assignments and integrate information literacy learning outcomes into the curriculum

• UNC-CH: A live-action Clue game held in their special collections department (which would be a good opportunity for both outreach and some light instruction)

• NCSU: figuring out how they can integrate their new makerspace into their instruction beyond the traditional STEM applications

• NCSU: moving past outdated LOBO tutorial by rethinking learning goals and producing high-quality animated “Big Picture” videos (Kaeley thought the best title was “Picking a Topic *IS* Research!”)

• Duke: librarians assigned to every MOOC taught through Coursera, where they might develop libguides or help course developers find open educational resources to support the course

• UNCG: just finished a 3-day Power-UP workshop for faculty who want to develop online or blended online courses

Lightning Presentations

Five of us (including me and Joy!) gave quick talks about bigger projects we’d tackled recently. Joy talked about the awesome LIB100 template and I struggled to condense our ZSRx mini-MOOC experiment into a 7-minute talk. Other things:

• Emily Daly at Duke told us about their user-centered library website redesign (to be completed in the fall)

• Kathy Shields at High Point told us about some information literacy modules they built in Blackboard

• Kerri Brown-Parker at NCSU’s College of Education media center showed us Subtext, a very cool iPad app for guided literacy and social reading

There was also a rather interesting debate that sprung out of Joy’s presentation on the LIB100 template: what is the role of the library in preventing or educating students about plagiarism? Lots of opinions, but most felt that the library was central in this role, although a focus should be on educating students about the responsible use of ideas, not on “how to avoid plagiarism.”

Building Tour!

If you haven’t been to the new Hunt Library at NCSU, make sure to visit! It’s truly an amazing space that is probably only possible at a place like State. It’s hard to put into words, but the entire library was a lab for technology-enhanced and -facilitated learning and creation. Still, despite the impressive architecture and the awe-inspiring spaces, from the MakerSpace and the Game Lab to the Next-Gen Learning Commons and the BookBot, the thing we (and most others) found most impressive were the lockers with outlets in them. There were literally audible gasps, I kid you not.

Joy said it best, though: “it seemed to me that the star of yesterday’s show was the jaw-dropping Hunt Library. Words like ‘unbelievable’ and ‘incredible’ keep racing through my mind as I ponder this blow-your-mind building. To me, this experience made our library feel like Hagrid’s cottage in Harry Potter–cozy, warm, and a bit disheveled. While we might not have a Creativity Studio or designer chairs that cost thousands of dollars, we are greeted by Starbucks and Travis Manning when we come in the door. I’m very proud and glad to call ZSR ‘home.’”

If you’re interested in going to the next meeting or just keeping up with what’s going on with NC-LITe, we have a shiny new website and a Google Group you can join. We’d love to have you join us next time!

I made a quick trip to Pittsburgh after Commencement on Monday to attend the remainder of the Academic Library Advancement and Development Network (ALADN) annual conference. I try to go at least every other year to keep up with what is going on in library fundraising. I knew I was in the right place when I went to the registration desk and the guy said, “Wake Forest? Didn’t you win the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award?” I am not making this up.

I missed the first day of programs, so I tried to catch up with others who had been there from the beginning. I loved seeing old friends and colleagues from other parts of the country, along with many of my buds from the Southeast.

The keynote on Tuesday was billed as “Hard Conversations at Work” and I have had my share of those, but it was really a leadership development kind of workshop. The best nugget I got was, “People don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses.” A big HMMMM on that.

The best program I attended was on “Persuasive Writing: Getting Them to Say Yes Before You Ask.” Since we are getting to the stage in our WFU campaign where we need to prepare materials (they call it “collateral” in the trade), this was timely. The presenter was an experienced professional and she gave great advice. Especially useful was her categorization of the four types of donors:

• expressives: they want ideas, new directions, and are easily bored,
• analyticals: they want facts and figures, testimonials work well
• bottom liners (that’s me): they value brevity, like summaries, and make quick decisions
• amiables: they want to be your friend, tell you about their families, and value face-to-face conversations

In another session, a panel of library deans/directors answered these questions (with greatly simplified, bottom-line answers):

Q: How do you go about positioning your library? A: Success breeds success, and the squeaky wheel locks up over time.

Q: How do you come up with a theme to transcend all constituent groups? A: Go back to your mission and vision (here is where our ZSR mission beats all)

Q: What is your most difficult constituency? A: Faculty, faculty, faculty. (But also the most ardent advocates)

The rest of the programs did not give me any new information, sorry to say. But perhaps the most valuable experience of the trip was dinner with a couple from Pittsburgh who are ultra Deacs. Both are alums and they have two children at Wake. And both of them worked in the library as undergrads! They asked me lots of questions about libraries today and were very interested in how ZSR had changed since they were there. Lots of fun!

On May 10, 2013 I had the honor of giving the keynote presentation at the ACRL New England Chapter Annual Conference. Last fall, I had seen a call for papers on a conference called “Communities in the Cloud, the Commons, and the College.” They were looking for papers on how academic libraries could engage their communities. Easy. We do that pretty well at ZSR. So I submitted a proposal listing all the things we do for faculty, staff and the community at large. Several weeks later I was contacted by the conference chair who said my proposal spoke so well to the theme of the conference that they wondered if I could give the keynote presentation. Sure!

Here is the presentation:

I had a great time doing it. Enjoy!

The second day of the CUPA HR conference was just as enlightening as the first. I began the day by attending Employee Recognition: A Look at the University of Oklahoma HR “STAHR” Program. The presenter Eric Sourie was filled with energy and enthusiasm as he delivered the program details. In the Oklahoma program STAHRs are recognized daily, quarterly with a luncheon and annually with a major celebration. The program is based entirely within Human Resources, a department of 72 employees. A STAHR is a Super Talented Associate of Human Resources. Sourie offered advice on building an effective recognition program. In a recognition program everyone should know exactly what the organization hopes to recognize? What behaviors do you want to reinforce? Is it the peers who recognize or is it the supervisor? Effective employee recognition programs reinforce the mission, vision and values of the organization and should be easy to administer. Above all they should be valued by the employees. For the most value, you really need to find out what the employees actually value. Sometimes there are challenges in maintaining enthusiasm and value around the program. It’s never a done deal, but more of a continuous cycle to evaluate, recognize, celebrate and then evaluate again. Programs should consider recognizing those: whose opinions are heard and valued, those who give extra effort, those who are examples to their peers, those who volunteer above and beyond, those vested in the success of the organization, proactive and those committed to excellence.

Creating a Culture of Respect on Campus: Developing Standards of Professionalism, explored how inappropriate interactions reduce optimum performance on our campuses and was led by Sibson Consulting representatives Barbara Butterfield and Robert Conlon. Values of the organization should be interwoven in the daily interactions of both faculty and staff. Professionalism actually starts within the search/interview process. The search committee and its interactions should display the highest levels of professionalism. This conveys the message of expectancy. Language that speaks to collegiality should be included in the job description. Professionalism is defined by respect, integrity, positive communication, fair, doing your best, knowledgeable, and controlling your emotions. Does professionalism matter? Yes it does! It should be communicated and modeled. Rochelle Arnold Simmons, Organizational Development Specialist at Johns Hopkins University, shared details of an active John’s Hopkins case study with the audience. Why would Johns Hopkins undertake a study centered on professionalism? As a leader in both teaching and research they need to be able to continue to attract and retain the best faculty, staff and students. The committee’s charge was to cultivate an environment/culture characterized by trust, mutual respect, open communications, accountability and collaborative interactions among all members of the Hopkins community and those they serve. A healthy campus has a climate of trust and respect, with work/life balance and ethics. It has behaviors conducive to physical intellectual, emotional, financial, social and spiritual well being. A healthy campus displays behaviors which are consistent with organizational values to promote a productive and supportive, collaborative, fun, dependable and safe workplace. Johns Hopkins launched a phased approach to developing the desired culture. First gathering information from the university and select peers on standards of professionalism. Next they analyzed the data to determine internal patterns and reviewed best practices. Currently they are creating an executive summary which will include a recommended implementation plan and a supporting structure. Ideas from that days’ brainstorming session is to be included in the documentation.

Putting Social Media to Work in HR, led by David Zajchowski of Rollins College, took a different spin from what I had hoped. His focus was on HR’s value and advantage in using social media in advertising position vacancies, updating and sharing university news and communicating with faculty and staff. I had hoped they would talk some about effective ways to use social media in the actual search process, however, none the less, the information given was beneficial. Of particular interest were the statistics on social network usage across racial lines. Whites lead with 79%, Hispanics with 12%, Blacks 10% and Asians 3%. The presenter asked the audience if we knew why the numbers were so low for minorities. I asked him what the source of his data was to which he replied, from Nielsen ratings. I said that says a lot since, I have never known any African American who was asked to participate in any of the Nielsen rating events. No one else had any possible reasons to offer either. Social media, if used correctly, can promote deeper engagement with communities of interest. Attendees were advised to safeguard the fine line between personal voice and institutional voice.

The last session of the day sought to provide “Answers to your Toughest Legal Questions?” and was led by attorney Beth Tyner Jones of the Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice firm of Raleigh. Some topics touched on were, retaliation lawsuits, departmental mis-classification within exempt and non-exempt categories and ADA compliance. I was also glad to hear her recommendations for universities conducting criminal background checks on previously hired faculty members and complying to Affordable Care Act (ACA) guidelines specific to adjunct faculty and the provision of health care benefits. Concerning background checks, Jones asked that we consider these factors: time passed since the offense, conduct while working with your university and the length and terms of sentence served; nature of the job held in relation to the offense and the nature and gravity of the offense. Institutions should allow faculty members the opportunity to explain. With regard to adjuncts and ACA compliance, Jones stated that most often, institutions do not track hours worked but instead pay adjuncts per course, taking into consideration the specific course’s demands, preparation time, in-class instruction time, and out-of-class responsibilities. Teaching twelve credit hours equates to 36 hours of work time. Counting of these hours is to begin in July. The discussion on having interns and volunteers advised employers to state the terms up front within the internship/volunteer agreement. Specifically one should address expected hours, mutual benefits and desired outcomes, include statements that reinforce that no wages are attached to this project and there is no commitment to hire.

Overall this was a super conference and I am grateful for the opportunity to attend. Please see me if you want to hear more on any of the topics covered.