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"The NCSU Libraries Mobile Scavenger Hunt is an interactive, technology-rich way to introduce students to the library. Developed in response to student and instructor feedback collected in 2010-2011, it leverages the motivating power of situated learning and the fun of team game dynamics to orient students to the Libraries' spaces, promote the use of emerging technologies, and foster confidence in using the Libraries' collections. The activity is run using iPod Touches and several free apps and online tools. Students answer Scavenger Hunt questions using Evernote, a free app for multimedia note-taking, which is installed on the iPod Touches distributed to the Scavenger Hunt teams. Librarians are able to monitor students' answers in real time as they are entered into Evernote, keeping score on a Google Docs spreadsheet."

The main difference between great librarians and Helicopter Librarians is that the former are focused on providing excellent service whereas the Helicopter Librarians are committed to building radically great relationships that students are comfortable with, similar to their relationships with their Helicopter Parents.

Email Print Johnson County reference librarians will take on big questions tonight to help voters get past the spin from the last debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. "Who knows what zinger will stick and have the staying power to stand the test of time to be mentioned years from now?"

LJ recently asked librarians to tell us what they, and their patrons, thought of their ILSs. Nearly 1300 librarians responded, including 709 public librarians and 541 academic librarians, and their answers will strike a chord with many readers.

This report presents five recommendations for the library profession: 1. Increase librarians' understanding of library value and impact in relation to various dimensions of student learning and success. 2. Articulate and promote the importance of assessment competencies necessary for documenting and communicating library impact on student learning and success. 3. Create professional development opportunities for librarians to learn how to initiate and design assessment that demonstrates the library's contributions to advancing institutional mission and strategic goals. 4. Expand partnerships for assessment activities with higher education constituent groups and related stakeholders. 5. Integrate the use of existing ACRL resources with library value initiatives.

The Association of Research Libraries might have a solution to what some librarians call "the VHS-cassette problem." Here's the scenario: An academic library has a collection of video tapes that is slowly deteriorating, thanks to the fragile nature of analog media.

Objective: This study sought to better understand the research expectations of first-year students upon beginning university study, and how these expectations differed from those of their professors. Most academic librarians observe that the research expectations of these two groups differ considerably and being able to articulate where these differences are greatest may help us provided more focused instruction, and allow us to work more effectively with professors and student support services. Methods: 317 first-year undergraduate students and 75 professors at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, NS were surveyed to determine what they each expected of first-year student research. Students were surveyed on the first day of term so as to best understand their research expectations as they transitioned from high school to university. Results: The gulf between student and professor research expectations was found to be considerable, especially in areas such as time required for reading and research, and the resources necessary to do research. While students rated their preparedness for university as high, they also had high expectations related to their ability to use non-academic sources. Not unexpectedly, the majority of professors believed that students are not prepared to do university-level research, they do not take enough responsibility for their own learning, they should use more academic research sources, and read twice as much as students believe they should. Conclusions: By better understanding differing research expectations, students can be guided very early in their studies about appropriate academic research practices, and librarians and professors can provide students with improved research instruction. Strategies for working with students, professors and the university community are discussed.

Joshua Vossler, Information Literacy/Reference Librarian at Coastal Carolina University, gave an incredibly entertaining and energetic presentation on creating instructional videos. He believes that learning is dependent on focused attention; therefore, the instructional videos we create need to be dynamic and humorous.  Joshua provided a helpful list of best practices for creating instructional videos, such as "Use anything silly or weird, such as a chicken" and "Videos should be no longer than three minutes." I highly recommend that you check out his videos here. He has certainly inspired me to brainstorm ways I can infuse more humor into my own instructional video series.

Researchers at the Information School at the University of Washington released an important and thought-provoking report in late 2009: "Lessons Learned: How College Students Seek Information in the Digital Age."1 The study confirms and expands on the results of other reports. Its particular value is the size of the population studied, the diversity of institutions represented, and the use of both a survey and follow-up interviews for data collection.

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Work smarter not harder. Delegate, delegate, delegate. If you want something done, get a busy person to do it. Wise words for the time-strapped librarian. Know what's even smarter? Not spending a dime to do so. The cash-strapped librarian is challenged to "do more with less"* and still be the modern miracle worker that he/she is.

ebrary, a ProQuest business and leading provider of e-books and research technology, today announced that the results of its survey of more than 1,000 librarians regarding e-book mobile and offline access is now publicly available online.  Anyone may register to receive the full results along with a paper authored by Dr. Allen McKiel, Dean of Library Services at Western Oregon University, at http://www.tfaforms.com/222151

I thought this was a great little perspective from another librarian who has done (and will do) a lot of weeding. 

Defines an "effective school library program" to be staffed by a state-certified school librarian, have up-to-date materials including technology, teaches digital literacy skills, and finally, has regular collaboration between other education professionals over curriculum. Replaces Improving Literacy Through School Libraries with Improving Literacy and College and Career Readiness Through Effective School Library Programs which would award competitive grants to underserved local schools and school districts to develop an effective school library program. Allows school librarians access to professional development funds under Title II of ESEA.

Survey results shared from interviews with chief academic officers and an online survey taken by over 130 leaders in academic affairs yield surprising results. Perhaps the final lesson we can take from hearing from administrators is that they look to us not just to make the case for libraries but to ride the wave of change. We must ensure that libraries and librarians step into new roles and take up different challenges, reimagining the ways we and our libraries can be essential consultants in all the ways that students and faculty learn, discover, and share their work.

To register: email Anna Palmer (ahpalmer@wisc.edu) Thursday, February 23, Board Books in Libraries: Helping Librarians and Caregivers Develop Emergent Readers with Allison Kaplan, Ed.D. Friday, March 9, Contemporary Trends and Debates in E-Journal Licensing with Kristin Eschenfelder Wednesday, April 4, Learning from H1N1: Public libraries and public health with Catherine Arnott-Smith

This is a code of best practices in fair use devised specifically by and for the academic and research library community. It enhances the ability of librarians to rely on fair use by documenting the considered views of the library community about best practices in fair use, drawn from the actual practices and experience of the library community itself. It identifies eight situations that represent the library community's current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials and describes a carefully derived consensus within the library community about how those rights should apply in certain recurrent situations.