Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Commons-Related EDUCAUSE Conference Presentations

For those who may have missed the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference last month, presentation materials are being posted daily to the EDUCAUSE Connect library. I attended the conference in 2003 and have been trying to return ever since. Of all the conferences I've attended, it was probably the best fit for me--then as the manager of desktop support services for the library system and now as the head of our campus information commons. Here's just a sampling of this year's presentations:
A Planning Process for Successful Learning/Information Commons. When we were planning our commons, it would have been so helpful to have this information from Crit Stewart, Joan Lippincott, and Malcom Brown. Thinking about Phase II of our project, I did find several takeaways from the Involving the Campus Community document in particular.

Emerging Learning Spaces. Presentation from Crit Stewart, AJ Kelton, and Joan Lippincott. Slides are pretty informative and are complemented with lots of images. Interesting to note that Second Life is one of the examples of an emerging learning space.

Bringing the Information Commons Home. Excellent overview of the commons at the University of Sheffield. Slides are full of vivid images--fun and interesting and definitely worth a look.

Library Lightning Round. I haven't read all of these materials yet but looks like there is some good stuff here, particularly the presentation on building a research commons. We've been increasingly talking about a research commons here at UK, and I suspect that IU will be one of our models, as they were when we began planning our undergraduate information commons.

Have MLS, Will Travel: How We Got Out of the Library and into Academic IT. This isn't really commons-related but I threw it in because it caught my eye (I've repeatedly been accused of wanting to defect to "the other side") I wish the slides had more information--it really looked like a fun and interesting presentation.

No comments: