Professional Development Committee

ALAO Professional Development Committee Hosted a Successful ACRL Webcast Viewing and Discussion
Julia Chance Gustafson,  The College of Wooster, Professional Development Committee  Co Chair

Every year, ALAO’s parent body, ACRL, allows us to host group viewings of 2 different ACRL Webcasts without the usual costs to attendees. This year, the ALAO Professional Development Committee (PDC) chose to host the following two Webcasts on May 22, 2015, at the Franklin University campus:  

• Cultivating Creators: Copyright in the Information Literacy Classroom (Presenters: Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Scholarly Communications Librarian/Associate Professor, Illinois Wesleyan University; Molly Keener, Scholarly Communication Librarian, Wake Forest University)

• Beyond Worksheets: Using Instructional Technologies for Authentic Assessment of Student Learning (Presenter: Melissa N. Mallon, Coordinator of Library Instruction, Wichita State University)

We had 13 librarians from all over the state participate in this event. After viewing each webcast, we had a discussion leader lead a discussion about the webcast. Many thanks to Moriana Garcia (Denison University) and Katherine Blocksidge (Ohio State University, Newark Campus) to leading some very useful and engaging discussions with the group. ALAO PDC is particularly grateful to Franklin University for hosting this event as well.

The Pilot Mentoring Program Moving Along Successfully

The ALAO Professional Development Committee is hearing some very good, informal feedback from those who are actively engaged in the two-year ALAO Pilot Mentoring Program. Some mentor/mentee pairs began their relationships right away and some are just beginning to connect this summer, now that they have time after their busy academic year. Soon, the PDC will be sending out an evaluation survey to participants so they can incorporate the feedback as they decide how to proceed into the second year of the pilot program.

If you missed participating in the program this year, no worries. Keep an eye out on the ALAO Listserv for announcements for the second round of mentor/mentee pairing, which will happen towards the end of 2015.

Diversity Committee Workshop Recap

Judith Cerqua, The Ohio State University

On June 5^th the Diversity Committee held a workshop dedicated to veterans on campus: Serving Our Veterans: A Call to Action at Columbus State Community College Conference Center.

The workshop centered on how campuses can serve veterans and what veterans need from libraries. All of the 35 individuals registered attended the workshop, coming from 20 colleges and universities plus the Ohio Board of Regents, with both librarians and non-librarians in attendance. Several attendees traveled more than 50 miles and one attendee came from the University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign. Many indicated that this was a priority topic on their campuses and glad that ALAO was addressing this need for Ohio colleges and universities.

The day began with a keynote on veterans in Ohio from Danny Eakins, Military and Veteran Policy Director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, discussing the current veteran population in Ohio. Mr. Eakins was followed by a presentation on veteran’s services by Major Jay Favuzzi, James Gilchrist-Elliot and Terry Worst from Columbus State’s Military & Veteran’s Services Department.

The day continued with three presentations from libraries on current services:

• Outreach to Our Student Veteran Populations, Krista McDonald & Mike Farmer from Miami University, Hamilton
• Best for Vets? Walking the Talk, Eileen Bosch & Elizabeth Wood from Bowling Green University
• Rules of Engagement: Creating an Online Information Literacy Course for those Returning to Learn and Actively Serving, Thomas Atwood, University of Toledo

And finally the day wrapped up with a facilitated group discussion on the topic of What are you doing at your institution?

Some of the takeaways from the workshop were:

• A better understanding of veteran population demographics
• Need to coordinate with vets center and community organizations
• Need to be part of the orientation for new student veterans
• Have office hours where veterans are – in locations that work for them
• A veterans needs assessment since veterans needs differ from traditional students
• Work with disability services and vet. Services to evaluate the library building
• Copy successful programs from other universities
• Empowered to begin conversation on campus

Research & Publications Committee Grant Winner
Heidi Gauder, University of Dayton, Research & Publications Committee Chair

The winner of the 2015 Research & Publication grant is Jane Wu, Systems Librarian & Associate Professor, from Otterbein University.  Her project, titled A  Comparative Study of Information Experiences in U.S. and Chinese Academic Libraries, received the full $2,000 funding.

The RPC would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of the applicants for participating in this year’s program. We look forward to hearing more about her exciting research in the coming months. Thanks very much to everyone!