Iowa ACRL

Everyone may have seen this article already but wanted to share! Features the University of Iowa!

During the ILA Planning Day meeting, this book was recommended as it has interesting ideas on what associations such as ILA and ILA/ACRL should do to stay relevant.

"We're friendly and helpful, but sometimes we make things harder than they need to be. The thing is, even the simplest of academic libraries can be overwhelming to freshmen, so we need to do everything we can to make the library as welcoming as possible, including the signage." I liked her idea of stepping outside your silo to see how signage is done at hospitals, malls, etc.

Great little LibGuide on how to take notes while reading and some potential apps to use for staying organized.

If you attended Steven Bell's session on gatekeeping, he recommended this book. I have only read one chapter but it is an easy and thought-provoking read so far!

conference presentations from Designing Libraries at NCSU

The Attaining Information Literacy Project has focused on identifying first-year college students with below-proficient information literacy skills, gaining an understanding of those students' self-views and perceptions of information literacy, gaining an understanding of their instructional experiences and preferences, and developing an intervention that will address their instructional needs. Focus groups were conducted with students with below-proficient skills to determine their instructional preferences. The findings from the focus groups indicate that students place a high value on personal relevance in the knowledge and skills they are learning, and they prefer a combination of demonstration and hands-on activities, interaction with the instructor and other students, and the availability of supplemental instructional materials in the form of handouts. In addition, they feel that incentives to participate in instruction are crucial and that a number of communication strategies are needed to advertise effectively the availability of instructional sessions.

Visual satellite imagery of locations over the last 20 years

This study investigated the value of academic libraries for teaching and research staff. The academic library community has been dealing with the issue of how best to demonstrate its value for years, especially value to students. Yet although a good deal of evidence is collected, much of this is evidence of activity rather than evidence of value and impact, especially value to and impact on teaching and research staff.

"Write, edit and improve Wikipedia's entries relating to Multnomah County, past and present. Experienced, newbie and everyone in between are welcome to this workshop."

This publication was created to serve as a practical guide for instruction coordinators and managers to use in the environmental analysis of their own unique situations. Information provided here includes nationally-established guidelines, suggestions of possible local resources to consult, questions to ask, and sources for additional reading.

Instruction Librarians wanting to understand how to effectively engage in their institution's instructional environment would benefit from using this workbook. The workbook guides practitioners through an environmental scan and provides information such as nationally established guidelines, possible local resources to consult, questions to ask, and sources for additional reading.

Interesting article on using citation analysis data to inform the selection of resources for subject guides.

The December issue of the ILA/ACRL Newsletter is now available. It includes the President's Piece by Rebecca Funke and news from libraries across the state.

"The following information literacy concepts and skills provide a framework for library instructors and teaching faculty to address during each of the indicated class levels."

Handout from a presentation by Tina Baich at a library conference October 2012