2009 ILA/ACRL Spring Conference--Schedule and Session Abstracts

“Future-proofing Your Library” 
Friday, April 17, 2009

Tama Hall, Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, Iowa

Conference Schedule

Thursday, April 16

Friday, April 17

Concurrent Sessions & Abstracts

Concurrent Session A (10:45-11:45):

Marketing a New Brand

Room 104

The library at Morningside College and libraries across the country are in transition. Today, the facility is officially known as the Leaning Center to reflect the fact that additional services are being offered and the use of the space has expanded. Although the volume of visitors has increased, the new ‘brand’ has not caught on. To address and study this issue and to identify users’ needs, representatives of the library staff partnered with marketing and advertising students of Professor Pam Mickelson. This presentation shall include a description of the partnership, survey results of faculty and examples of the project’s outcomes and deliverables.

Presenters: Jim Fisk, Librarian and Coordinator of Student Academic Support Services, Morningside College; Pamela Mikelson, Professor of Business Administration, Morningside College

Session manager: TBA

Academic Library/IT Department Relations: IT Professionals Speak

Auditorium

Future-proofing initiatives in academic libraries will likely include strengthening partnerships with other campus departments. One of the most critical partnerships is with the campus information technology (IT) department. This session will offer the opportunity to hear the viewpoints of three academic IT professionals in a non-confrontational setting. Discussion topics will include departmental missions, communication styles, funding and collaborative projects. Panelists will also talk about current relations with library staff, reflect on reasons for potential rifts, report on technology trends that may impact libraries and IT departments and provide advice for strengthening library/IT relations.

Moderators: Jan Dellinger, Library Director, Hawkeye Community College; Jean Donham, College Librarian & Professor, Wartburg College

Panelists: Thom Neith, Director, Communication & Information Systems, Hawkeye Community College; John Wynstra, Library Information Systems Specialist & Associate Professor, University of Northern Iowa Rod Library; Gary Wipperman, Director of Information Technology Services, Wartburg College

Session manager: TBA

Confronting the Gathering “Cloud”: Philosophical Foundations and Future Directions of Library Architecture

Room 105

Library buildings convey important social messages about knowledge and knowing to the populations they serve.  A look at the history of library architecture will inform a discussion about how the digital world, including cloud computing, might influence library architecture.  Popular conceptions of how knowledge is created have changed over time—libraries can become out of date not only functionally, but also ideologically.  This talk will explore how libraries can communicate new ideas about knowledge and knowing through architecture and action.

Presenter: Rachel Fleming, Collection Development Librarian, Central College

Supplements: Presentation Slides (pptx)

Session Manager: TBA

Futurecasting Libraries: Instant messaging: a study in culture, technology and services

Room 108

The presenters will provide background on the “discovery” of the numbers related to the instant messaging tool, Meebo, as a reference communication tool.  Next, the process of evaluation and developing next steps for promoting instant messaging will be covered.  The assessment librarian and instant messaging coordinator will detail their strategy to coordinate with various library departments to library wide buy-in. Digital reference and communication are shaped by technical and social economies.  The instant messaging project will be framed by current national studies and theories.

Presenters: Sarah Passonneau, Assistant to the Dean, Iowa State University Library; Dan Coffey, Reference & Subject Librarian Iowa State University Library

Session manager: TBA

Concurrent Session B (1:15-2:15)

Farzaneh’s & Ruya’s Excellent Adventures: Exploring Teaching & Learning Opportunities in Second Life

Room 104

Virtual worlds are increasingly routine part of the “normal” everyday lives of children, teenagers, and adults. It’s vital for educators and instruction librarians to recognize that today’s children and teenagers are immersed in these rich learning environments, and bring these new learning expectations with them when they arrive at our colleges and universities. How are our academic and research libraries responding? At our institution, a librarian and library instructional technology specialist have teamed up with the campus teaching excellence unit to explore library-related teaching and learning opportunities within Second Life. Benefits, challenges, and implications for library services will be discussed.

Presenters: Susan A. Vega García, Assoc. Professor & Head of Instruction, Iowa State University; Rano Marupova, Instructional Technology Specialist, Iowa State University

Session manager: TBA

Embedded in the Future: Integrating Library Tools in Students’ Online Research Environments

Auditorium

Students and faculty often begin online research, not on the library homepage, but in course management systems and Web sites such as Google Scholar. Embedding simple discovery and help tools in these sites makes library collections and services more visible and accessible to users.  We will demonstrate how to implement three free tools that place library resources in our students’ preferred Web environments: database search widgets that can be added to course management sites, subject guides, and Facebook; LibX, a browser toolbar that gives students direct access to library resources without having to go to the library Web site; and a pop-out chat reference tool.

Presenters: Julia Bauder, Data Services Librarian, Grinnell College Libraries; Elizabeth Rodrigues, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Grinnell College Libraries

Supplements: Presentation Slides (ppt)

Session manager: TBA

The Perpetual Question: Future-proofing Library Experience for the First College Year

Room 108

Each Fall brings a new cohort of first-year students to college campuses, and librarians everywhere face the challenge of presenting the library as a relevant, meaningful part of their academic life, now and for the future. Central College’s First Year Experience faculty, Center For Academic Excellence, and librarians recently implemented a new peer-teaching model to meet this challenge. Join us as we reflect on the lessons learned from our first semester working with Peer Teachers, share some of their insights about working with first-year students, and explore future directions for this model and for ongoing collaboration between our departments.

Presenters: Beth McMahon, Reference & Instruction Librarian, Central College; Cyndi Boertje, Tutoring Coordinator, Central College

Supplements: Presentation Slides (pptx)

Session manager: TBA

Giving Distance Users What They Want

Room 105

In 2008 the University of Iowa surveyed distance education students about their internet connectivity and communication preferences. This presentation will discuss the findings, how they can be generalized to other institutions and how they informed changes to our services. Specific attention will be paid to electronic article delivery, short tutorials, and the use of a course management system. Learn what new service options the Head of Access Services and Distance Education Coordinator are pursuing as a result of this survey and come prepared to join the discussion about what others are doing at their own libraries.

Presenters: Dan Gall, Coordinator of Library Services for Distance Education, University of Iowa Libraries; Amy Paulus, Head, Access Services, University of Iowa Libraries

Supplements: Presentation Slides (pptx)

Session manager: TBA

Concurrent Session C (2:35-3:35):

How to Design and Implement Web Usability Testing

Room 108

This presentation will focus on the mechanics of website usability testing including what and who to test as well as funding and timelines for completion. Before updating a website, it's important for libraries to assess how that site is (and is not) working for users through usability testing. The resulting data can help guide the redesign process to ensure that the new site effectively and efficiently meets the information needs of its users. There is no one perfect standard for designing a library website as each library has a unique population; however, the methods to find out what your population needs change little from institution to institution.

Presenter: Nicholas Wyant, PhD Student in Information Science, University of Iowa

Session manager: TBA

Stacks After Dark: What Really Happens When the Boss is Gone for the Day?

Room 105

Do you know what happens once you leave your student assistants in charge for the day?  ISU Library utilizes incident reports and task sheets to monitor the activities of these workers.  While the task sheets record their normal activities, it is the incident reports that tell the interesting story of their “workday.”  After a brief overview of the job expectations and training for these students, a sampling of incidents that they deal with will be given.  Some are humorous while others are more serious.  It is amazing what our student assistants handle and how well without the bosses around.

Presenter: Kathy A. Parsons, Head, Stacks and Media Department, Iowa State University

Supplements: Presentation Slides (ppt)

Session manager: TBA

Preparing Non-Science Majors for a Future of Evaluating Science

Room 104

Can non-science majors learn to evaluate science they don’t fully understand?  Explore this collaboration between a physics professor and a science librarian designed to instill this skill. Students apply six categories (valid, speculation, controversial, uninformed, misrepresentation, and invalid) while scrutinizing assigned websites. They learn strategies for finding the opinions of other scientists and engage in numerous stages of consensus building. Using media that are comfortable (e.g. movies and websites) students start on familiar ground and are soon immersing themselves in practices of the scientific community while they are gaining critical thinking skills they can use for a lifetime.

Presenter: Mary Iber, Consulting Librarian for the Natural Sciences, Cornell College

Supplements: Presentation Slides (ppt)

Session manager: TBA

Back to the Future: How Rethink the Desk Can Revive Reference Service in the New Millennium

Auditorium

Are you looking for more meaningful reference transactions?  This presentation will discuss how your users perceive the reference desk and how one library made some simple changes to the desk's configuration and got big results.

Presenters: Kim Babcock Mashek & Kari Weaver, Information Literacy Librarians, Wartburg College

Session manager: TBA

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