This wiki is for people who attended the ALA in New Orleans to post what we found most interesting and important to bring home from the meetings and activities we attended. For more, see:
Conference website http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/annual/2006a/2006an.htm
Conference wiki (national) http://meredith.wolfwater.com/ala2006/index.php?title=Main_Page
Conference bloggers http://meredith.wolfwater.com/ala2006/index.php?title=Conference_Bloggers
From the sessions
Assessment of Information Literacy
There seem to be two different models for assessing information literacy on the national scene, SAILS (developed at Kent State) and the new ETS ICT Literacy Assessment. SAILS is cohort-based (no individual score) and more narrowly focused on information literacy. The ICT test provides individual scores and includes items on how to work with various office and social computer programs as well as higher-level IL type tasks. The representative from ETS said there was much more faculty involvement in the creation of the ICT test than ETS has had when creating other tests. There are currently two levels of the test available - one for incoming freshmen, one for students entering junior year - although different schools and colleges have used both test for a variety of levels of student. A high school version and a workplace version are pending. --Rachel B.
Links: http://www.ets.org/ictliteracy (ETS test), https://www.projectsails.org/ (SAILS assessment)
Bibliography
Publishers of bibliographies, such as Greenwood and Praeger, are moving toward the topical and also toward the electronic, because sales of bibliographies have dropped precipitously in the 21st century. The business model for the commercial electronic format is still up in the air a bit, but most include some form of ongoing payment. After all, if libraries outsource the storage of the data from bookshelves to servers, there is still a cost to maintain the information. Meanwhile, H-Net's still-free bibliographies, though not necessarily always as authoritative and standardized, are well used and growing.
H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online has two main sources of bibliography: H-Net Reviews (contains reviews culled from the numerous subject-specific lists as well as its own reviews) and H-Soz-und-Kult, a very comprehensive review source produced at Humboldt University in Berlin, usually in the German language. H-Soz-und-Kult produces too many reviews for H-Net Reviews to keep up with.
A related conference: Association for the Bibliography of History will have a session on online bibliography at the American Historical Association meetings in Atlanta in January 2007.
Digitization Initiatives
There is lots of stuff going on in and in cooperation with Germany, to wit:
Instruction and Outreach Ideas
- We might want to look at the databases we have that offer RSS feeds, as Project Muse is starting to do. Other libraries have conducted workshops on working with RSS (getting a good feed reader, setting up feeds) as a way to keep up with key journals and other scholarly communication, and we should consider such workshops as well. As librarians, we are the "staying current in your field" people, and RSS is a good technology for pulling together current-awareness information. -Rachel B.
LAMA President's Program
I attended three programs that I think are of general enough interest to share with you all. You will be glad I am not including all of my committee meetings and discussion groups.
I have decided to share some quotes that I liked from each presentation and I hope you like them as well.
The LAMA President’s Program was outstanding. Three panelists, Jose-Maria Griffiths Dean of the Library School at Chapel Hill, Jim Neal, and Ray Santiago who is the Director of the Miami Dade PL spoke on “Leadership Excellence for Transition: Lessons for Librarians in Every Generation.”
Some quotes that I took away with me on this one are:
From Jim Neal:
Leaders today do not know if they are leading or if people are chasing them. We must plan for succession, the actual turnover process and workforce planning. At the same time, we must not alienate those persons still productively working and will be for the next 10 years or so. There is a performance imperative for all generations. Competencies and continuing education are very important regardless who a person is or where they are in their careers. Postive role models are needed. Rigorous leadership evaluation is vital.
The difference between a boss and a leader-- The boss says “Go” and the leader says “let’s go together.”
Ray Santiago encouraged each of us to act like a leader, have confidence in what we are doing. Develop an ego. Librarianship is an honorable profession so be proud of being a librarian. Know who the competition is…not just Google but it is one of the main ones. Have a sense of politics and how things work in your organization and beyond. Never Lie. Never make promises you can not deliver on. Never ask a politician for money. Sell a service and then convince them it is worth buying. IT is not about you. IT is about them—the patrons. Take a chance. Never be afraid to make a decision. Hey, you are either right or wrong. It is never a straight path. Look like a leader. Dress like one to be taken seriously. First impressions do count. Don’t slouch. Stand up straight and proud. Look people in the eye. Act the part. Look the part. Speak the part. Use good grammar.
Leadership Through Publication: Making a Difference with Scholarship
The panel, sponsored by the NMRT, emphasized how librarians (new to the field and inexperienced in publishing) can become involved in scholarly communication. The panel members: Hannelore Rader, Director of Libraries, University of Louisville; Jennifer Cargill, Dean of Library, LSU; Deeanna Marcum, Library of Congress.
How to start?
1. Select a topic you want or have expertise in.
2. Consider writing with an published writer in our field or in a field outside of library land, such as with a faculty liaison.
3. Perform the traditional lterature search to see if someone else has already covered the topic sufficiently or whether a new angle or update is possible.
4. Look at a few issues of a periodical in which you are considering publishing in to see what types of articles it contains and their coverage. Determine whether the journal is refereed or not. Do not necessarily limit yourself to traditional library journals.
When writing:
1. Have a compelling opening
2. Focus on your audience
3. Set aside to to write, make a schedule and keep it!
Library History Round Table Research Forum
To learn more about the papers presented on the topic of The American Ethnic Experience in the History of Libraries & Print Culture, see: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~wertheim/LHRT2006ResearchForum.html
ACRL President's Program
The ACRL President’s Program was presented by Robert B. Cialdini, Regent’s professor of Psychology at Az State and author of the book Influence. His presentation was on the topic of “The Power of Persuasion.”
There are only 6 universal principles of influence..
1-Reciprocation
2-Scarcity
3-Authority
4-Consistency
5-Consensus
6-Liking
Read from the Questions page on his handout—keep it short and read fast.
Other Presentations and General Conference Comments
My final comment. When you reach the age of 80 and are a film writer like Mardik Martin. You can say whatever you want to, dress however you want to and be one of the most entertaining speakers in the world. He spoke at the Alexander Street event and I thought he was absolutely wonderful. He wrote Raging Bull, Carlito’s Way, New York, New York and many more.
So…in between serious meetings, my advice is to visit vendors, look at new products, look at changes in old products, meet friends and colleagues, go to a program or two and learn things, and find at least one speaker like Mardik Martin to enjoy and learn from. June DeWeese
New Orleans library volunteer work and other items about the city
SUNO Partnership
Representatives from several of Southern University at New Orleans' ALA partner institutions met Friday June 23 for dinner and conversation. For photos and ongoing updates on progress, see http://sunoalapartners.pbwiki.com .
Libraries Build Communities
Stay tuned for local news stories about this.
Several of us did volunteer work, ranging from hazmat suit type work to processing of donated books, at various libraries in New Orleans. Here is a wiki in which volunteers from many places are sharing their stories and photos. It also contains links to media stories. http://meredith.wolfwater.com/ala2006/index.php?title=Volunteer_Stories
Photos and other impressions
Rachel's flickr page - see the two New Orleans related photo sets, either one by one with captions, or as an uncaptioned slideshow.
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