ALAO Newsletter

Katie Blocksidge, Ohio State University Newark

As many librarians are probably aware, the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education are under review by an ACRL task force. The first part of the draft Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education is now available: http://acrl.ala.org/ilstandards/?page_id=133
A second part of the draft will be released in April. Please take a look at the draft framework, and provide feedback to the task force. There will also be a hearing at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas.

Betsy Blankenship, Ohio State University Marion

Change is good, right? At least, that’s what I hear all the time. We love it when the winter changes to Spring; we feel better and our outlook in general tends to become more positive. We look forward to being outside more and doing different things.

Some changes we make ourselves; others are sometimes forced upon us. Some changes are happy; some changes cause great upheaval and heartache. Either way, it happens, whether we like it or not.

I ran across this quote recently: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” – Victor Frankl. It really resonates with me right now, both at work and in my personal life.

Change is a constant in the book of life – I call them the chapters. If we never change, we would never grow and never develop new perspectives or experiences – and that would make for one long boring read! I realize that I must accept change as inevitable; and I need to look for the positive aspects in order to learn and grow.

ALAO changes, too. It is the nature of our volunteer organization – new faces, new skills, new services. Sure, it would be nice to have the same folks all the time; it makes it comfortable and gives us security. But we are an organization for our members and we want our members to have a voice. Volunteering on a committee, providing information to the newsletter, serving on the Legislative Advocacy Network, serving on the board, or even just getting your feet wet by being a Membership Liaison – all are ways that you can serve ALAO and start a new chapter in YOUR book of life. I hope you see ALAO as one way to put some change into your life; after all if you don’t put your two cents worth in, how can you expect change??

Mandy Shannon, Wright State University

Save the date! The Assessment Interest Group spring workshop will be on Thursday, April 24 at the OCLC Conference Center in Dublin. The keynote speaker will be Lynn Silipigni Connaway, the vice-chair of the ACRL Value of Academic Libraries Initiative. The workshop will offer roundtables on different types of assessment plans, breakout sessions on developing outcome statements and structured project management, and an open forum on the challenges of library assessment. Complete registration information and details are forthcoming, but plan now to join us in Dublin on April 24.

Cheryl Ghosh, University of Cincinnati

The Curriculum Materials Center Interest Group (CMCIG) 2014 Spring Workshop will be held on 4/4/14 at the Ohio State University – Newark Campus, Warner Center, from 8:30 – 3:30pm. The theme this year is “Keeping Pace: Changes & Trends in Curriculum Material Centers.” Topics will include a basic overview of the new edTPA, Teacher Preparation Assessment, evaluation, and how CMC’s can support this new initiative, the Use of Social Media in CMC’s, and a round table discussion entitled “CMC Programs & Events: Connecting with Your Community.” In addition, there will be a tour of the Ohio State University – Newark Educational Curriculum Center, a lunch/business meeting, and a field trip to The Works, a children’s museum in Newark that Leni Anderson (CMC Librarian at OSU-Newark) partners with for programming. Come, learn, share and get refreshed with new ideas for your Curriculum Materials Center. Registration is available here: http://bit.ly/1hIRvSk

Joe Straw, Marietta College

ALAO has budgeted up to $600 for travel support for a member willing to represent ALAO and academic libraries generally at ALA National Legislative Days on May 5-6 2014 in Washington, D.C. Please review this information about the conference from the ALA Washington Office: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/nlld. Please contact Joseph Straw js001@marietta.edu as soon as possible if you are interested in representing ALAO. Provide a brief description of your advocacy activity and issue involvement with ALAO or other civic organizations, plus the name and phone number of a reference who is familiar with your advocacy efforts and interest. For more information about the grant please review this description from the ALAO website: http://www.alaoweb.org/govtrelations/advocatesaward.php. Anyone interested in getting more involved in advocacy efforts is urged to apply. The ALAO representatives will be a part of the Ohio delegation at the conference that will work together to meet with members of the state congressional delegation and/or their staffs.

Sara Klink, Stark State College

This spring the Instruction Interest Group is “Getting Back to Basics with Library Instruction.” Our annual spring workshop will be on May 30th, at Stark State College in North Canton. Our workshop will feature a dynamic presentation from Immersion Faculty, Michelle Millett, a panel discussion on the Discovery Layer and a lightening round to highlight cool instruction techniques and tools.

In other IIG news, we are still accepting guest posts for our blog. Topics we are looking for include:

–Innovative uses of instructional tools (particularly those related to new technologies)

— One-shot instruction ideas

— Keeping instruction interesting

— Collaborating with departmental faculty

— Assessment (of one-shot sessions, of the program, of librarian teachers)

— Impact of the revision of ACRL’s IL competency standards on instruction

— Teaching and learning with web scale discovery

Interested parties may submit proposals through this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ncWdHPW_9-Wx9xhGSaOwJE4Hi0x0vQorgk0SVcuMGBI/viewform

Please keep an eye out for details about our upcoming spring workshop!

Ginna Witte, Cincinnati State Community and Technical College

The Support Staff Interest Group has been hard at work planning our Spring workshop to be held on Wednesday, May 21st at Ohio University Lancaster. A big thank you goes out to Jamie Bloss (Kent State Geauga) and Myra Justus (Cincinnati State) for joining the workshop planning committee.

Douglas Morrison and Jeffrey Corbett of Lorain Community College will be offering the keynote, “Student Engagement as Library Outreach”. Presenters from ALA, Belmont College, Brown Mackie Findlay, Franklin University , Indiana University, Kent State University,& UC Clermont will offer break out sessions on a range of topics relevant to the diverse roles and responsibilities support staff cover. Registration will likely open in mid-March. If you hope to attend, please keep an eye out for the registration notice as attendance is limited and we fully expect to fill all available spots.

Bowling Green State University

Jennifer Harvey is the new Head Librarian in the Curriculum Resource Center at Bowling Green State University Libraries. Jennifer’s previous position was with the University of Nebraska, Kearney as a Curriculum Librarian. Jennifer has many years’ experience in library instruction, creating learning objects and serving as a library liaison to several academic programs.

Case Western Reserve University

Diana Hurlburt was hired as Library Assistant, Access & Delivery Team, on January 13, 2014.

Leigh Bonds was hired as Digital Services Library, Digital Learning & Scholarship Team, on February 17, 2014.

Gail Reese, Associate Director for Public Engagement Services, gave a presentation about the library’s Personal Librarian program at the 33rd Annual Conference on The First Year Experience in San Diego, California.

Gail Reese was invited to speak about the Personal Librarian program during a presentation by Edwin Mayes, Director of First Year Experience and Family Programs at CWRU, entitled “What Is It Like to Be the First.”

Save the date! Kelvin Smith Library will host the First National Personal Librarian & First Year Experience Library Conference on April 7 & 8, 2014. The two-day event will focus on all aspects of the first year experience and the personalization of outreach and services for incoming students. For more information, visit http://library.case.edu/ksl/services/personallibrarian/conference/.

Ohio State University, Marion

Betsy Blankenship, Director/Head Librarian, recorded some radio Public Service Announcements for the Marion County United Way program. She served as a member on the recent Ohio State Marion United Way campaign committee.

Wright State University

Wright State University librarian Mandy Shannon participated in the ACRL Assessment Immersion program held in Nashville, TN November 20 – 24, 2013. The assessment immersion builds on the “Assessment-as-Learning” model and guides participant in the development and use of both formative and summative assessment, with a focus on information literacy. Mandy is currently working with the WSU Department of Communication to implement the assessment plan she developed for their Public Speaking course during the immersion and to pilot test other information literacy assessment initiatives.

Wright State University Libraries are wrapping up their first year of Unwin(e)d, a book discussion group sponsored by the Friends of the Libraries. Unwin(e)d brings together faculty, staff, students, and community members every other month to discuss new literary fiction at a locally owned coffee and wine shop. This has been a successful program and the Libraries plan to continue it in future years.

Special Collections and Archives successfully bid on and purchased a rare aviation book at the Artcurial Auction, Paris, in January. The book is French and is entitled Great Raids of Aircraft, published in 1936.

The Public History Program at WSU is hosting their annual Public History Graduate Symposium on Friday, March 14, 2014 in the WSU Student Union. Topics focus on a wide variety of local and regional history. The plenary speaker is George Willeman, Library of Congress Film Vault Curator. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Elisabeth Shook has joined the Wright State University Libraries as a Digital Initiatives Librarian. She holds a Master’s of Library and Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michelle Brasseur has joined the Wright State University Libraries as a Marketing Communication Specialist. She received her MLIS from Kent State University in August, 2013.
Michelle is really excited to help promote library resources, services and events and serve as liaison to the Friends of the Libraries.