Updates from the Uncommon Commons

Hello again, readers!

Since I moved into a different position in 2010, I have apparently been reduced to one post per year. I was hoping to remedy that in 2014...but here we are.

This blog started with a focus on learning spaces, and several of the more popular posts are still reviewed regularly (like the ones about those weird-at-the-time service desks or the parties we used to have in the Hub or the video windows or the floor signs that are all pretty typical now).  Learning spaces are still a big interest of mine, and I was involved in some pretty exciting renovations in 2013. Lately though my attention has been focused on some follow-up projects related to my dissertation work.

I had the pleasure of presenting at four international conferences in 2014 to talk about the benefits of designing instruction using the I-LEARN model.  Interested in hearing more?  I am working on a post (an actual--not annual update--post about it).  One of the conferences I presented at last year was so awesome, I asked if I could join the program committee, and so now I am on for 2015. Interested in presenting in Tallinn in October?  Check out the European Information Literacy Conference.  I will likely be posting about that as well since the the 2014 conference was one of the best conferences I have ever attended.

I have also been teaching at two iSchools which has been pretty amazing.  Library science students who are eager to learn more about all things academic library--sign me up!

Since I can't use the doctoral student excuse anymore, I have stepped up my volunteer leadership work in SLA a bit.  I am currently serving on the executive board of the Leadership and Management Division as Director of Communications.  I am also in my third year of participating on the Professional Development Advisory Council, and I expect I may be Archivist for the Academic Division until I retire.  I have emphasized many times what a great group SLA is and how your can develop so many skills through volunteer leadership oppotunities.

So that's enough updates for now.  I am committed to writing more about I-LEARN and how it is a most awesome tool for building course guides, learning modules, and all sorts of instructional materials, so watch for that soon!

Learning Spaces Visits at SLA Conference

I have visited libraries and learning spaces from time to time while at a conference, but now I'm thinking of making it a more formal endeavor. Last week at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia, a group of fellow attendees and I visited the Library Learning Terrace at Drexel and the TECH Center at Temple. Both were interesting spaces, particularly in their use of furnishings. I have a bunch of pictures I need to clean up and go through. Until then, here are some photos from Drexel showing the Library Learning Terrace's recent opening and a nice set of images of the Temple TECH Center.

SLA Academic's First Programs

SLA Academic Division Roudtable / Unconference
Originally uploaded by kendrak

Last week at the SLA Annual Conference, the Academic division held its first roundtable/unconference meeting and its first annual business meeting. I was thrilled beyond words to see more than 50 academic librarians gathered for a lively unconference discussion. I participated in the commons table, of course, and gained several new commons contacts I probably would not have met otherwise. Special thanks to Amy, Kendra, and Meg for leading an outstanding series of discussions.

More than 30 SLA members attended the first annual business meeting of the division. It was so exciting to make history, and at the centennial conference, no less! As we had very little in the way of official business, we used the meeting as an open forum for ideas regarding the future of the division. I think just about everyone there wanted to join a committee or take a leadership role, so I know I will be leaving the division in good hands. At 225 members and counting, I think we are well on our way to establishing a valuable community for academic librarians.

New Blog of Interest to Academic Librarians

I know many of us probably subscribe to about all we can handle right now (how often do you "mark all as read"?) but here's one more blog for the mix:

The SLA Academic blog is the blog of the new SLA Academic Division. While the blog will serve as a newsletter of the division with some posts about division activities, it will also include commentary and links of interest relevant to academic librarians from any subject discipline. With authors from a wide range of libraries around the world, this is one worth adding to your reader.

Why you should elect me to the SLA Board of Directors

I am delighted to be running for the SLA Board of Directors position of Division Cabinet Chair-Elect. While I am also an ALA member like most of my commons colleagues, I have considered SLA my professional home since getting involved in 2001. Getting involved is one way of putting it; when I attended my very first Kentucky Chapter event (I will never forget it as they served mimosas--what a classy organization, I thought) I was immediately tasked with editing the chapter Bulletin. At my first Information Technology Division meeting, I took on the responsibility of Membership and Awards Chair for one of SLA's largest divisions.

From there, I have served in numerous leadership roles, mostly division or Annual Conference-focused:

2009, Candidate for Board of Directors, Division Cabinet Chair-Elect
2009, Inducted into the Fellows of SLA
2009-10, Member, 2010 Annual Conference Advisory Council
2009, Chair, Academic Division
2009, Co-Chair, Centennial Commission Website Subcommittee
2007-09, Member, Centennial Commission and Annual Conference Advisory Council
2008, Member, Second Life Task Force
2008, Past Chair, Information Technology Division
2008, Award Recpient, Outstanding Chapter Member Award, Kentucky Chapter
2007, Chair, Information Technology Division
2007-08, Chair, Virtual Presence, Kentucky Chapter
2006, Chair-Elect, Information Technology Division
2006, Award Recipient, Professional Award, Kentucky Chapter
2005-06, Member, Technology Review Advisory Group
2004-05, Secretary, Kentucky Chapter
2004-05, Program Planner, Information Technology Division
2002-04, Chair, Membership Services and Awards, Information Technology Division
2002-04, Editor, Chapter Bulletin, Kentucky Chapter

So why should you vote for me for SLA Division Cabinet Chair-Elect?

I have participated in annual conference planning on some level since 2004. For those of you who are familiar with the legendary IT Division Dance Party, I helped IT program planner Heather Kotula with the division's first dance party back at the Nashville conference. Truly I learned from the master of conference planning as we had an excellent conference in Toronto in 2005 when I took the lead. As Chair of the IT Division, I had the opportunity to mentor several program planners over the next few years. From there I became involved in annual conference planning at the association level, serving on two conference committees back-to-back. Some of the SLA staff have joked that I could probably recite what is said at the planners meetings as I've attended them for the last five years.

I took on the task of launching a new division focused on those who work in academic libraries. For many of us, it is impossible to attend multiple conferences to get all of the information we need. SLA excels in subject-specific programming and is an outstanding organization for networking and building leadership skills. Several of us realized that we could create a division of SLA which would welcome academics from all subject specialties and focus on issues that affect us all: information literacy, working with faculty, promotion/tenure, and so forth. The process of launching this division was not without controversy and became downright unpleasant at times. Despite that, we succeeded and this year I am serving as SLA Academic's first Chair.

I am your go-to technology person. Whether I am pulled from a conference session to fix someone's malfunctioning laptop or I get a phone call to advise on a blog-or-wiki dilemma, I am frequently asked to advise on technology issues. I launched SLA's original Facebook presence back in summer 2006. At that time, it was a novelty to find a colleague on Facebook; there certainly weren't many of us there, and there certainly weren't many (any?) library organizations using Facebook. For any group I work with, I am often the blog/wiki/web/Google Docs/IM/Facebook/Second Life/you-get-the-idea expert tasked with developing and maintating a presence for the group. For those of you who have met me in person, you know that what comes with that is great enthusiasm and encouragement and a desire to help you learn how to use that particular technology tool. In fact, helping people learn how to use technology has been my job for many years.

I continue learning and building my leadership skills. In 2005 I was chosen to participate in Circles of Power, a year-long leadership program for women faculty at the University of Kentucky. This was a somewhat intimidating experience for me as I was an untenured librarian working with a bunch of tentured teaching faculty and researchers. I learned a great deal about myself that year and have moved on to take a number of leadership roles on campus. This year I was awarded the Lorie Edwards Scholarship to participate in the Frye Leadership Institute, an intensive leadership program for aspiring library and technology leaders in higher education. I will literally be returning from my two week residency experience before heading out to the SLA Annual Conference. These leadership training opportunities must be worthwhile, as just yesterday I learned that I am the recipient of the NextGen Librarian Award for Leadership.

I want to give back to this association which has given me so much. I have learned so much from my time in SLA. I have developed new skills and gained life-long friendships. I have access to an incredibly talented network of experts who are just a phone call away. From the Centennial Celebration to the alignment project, this is such an exciting time to be involved in SLA. With the alignment, SLA has the opportunity to develop our vision for the future, and I want to be a part of that. Let me work for you as we create the future of SLA.

UPDATE: Read Q&A with the candidates on SLA's Candidates Corner.

KY SLA is the Best!

I tend to avoid personal posts on this blog as I don't want to run off my readers interested in the commons environment. I am fairly sure this blog is one of very few focused on information commons/learning commons. So that said, if you aren't interested in SLA or me, just keep on scrolling this morning.

Last week I attended the Kentucky Library Association Academic and Special Sections and the Kentucky Chapter of the Special Libraries Association Joint Spring Conference. This is the annual meeting of both groups, held in a different Kentucky state park each year. A number of us stay in cabins, which gives us the opportunity to spend hours catching up and talking while enjoying the Kentucky springtime on a scenic patio. This is one of my favorite conferences, and no matter how busy my schedule, I try to not miss this one.

How could my favorite conference get better? Well by having a surprise party thrown in my honor, of course. I'm talking about a lights off, room full of people jumping out from behind the furniture kind of surprise party. I'm talking about a redecorated cabin with streamers, campaign signs, cake, and even a tiara and sash for the honoree. It was really amazing that what seemed like half the conference attendees pulled off such a celebration without me knowing about it.

When they demanded a speech, for once I was too overwhelmed to say anything at all.

The party was to celebrate that I am only the third Kentucky Chapter member ever to be nominated to run for SLA Board of Directors. While we enjoyed good cake and good times, my "campaign team" got down to business right away, developing strategies right there for my run for SLA Division Cabinet Chair-Elect. I very quickly realized what a serious bunch they can be sometimes, and indeed, we are in it to win it!

To all my dear friends and colleagues in Kentucky, thank you for the party and for your continued support. I hesitate to name names, as it took some wrangling to find out who any of the responsible parties were. I do know that Abby Thorne and Valerie Perry were key conspirators--Abby, I think you need an upgrade from "water wench" to "cake wench." Thank you! As soon as I saw the fine Photoshopping done for my campaign signs (sorry, most aren't suitable for sharing in this forum), I knew only Beth Kraemer could be behind it. I also have to thank my perennial cabin-mates from the infamous "Cabin of Impropriety": James Manasco, Jo Staggs-Neel, and Susan Brown. I suspect that these folks were involved in some way as well: Leoma Dunn, Jan Berry, Liz Smith, Alex Grigg, Shawn Livingston, Constance Ard, Debbie Sharp, Sue Smith, and Alice Wasielewski. If I missed anyone, you should have fessed up. Thank you all.

Photos by Jan Berry

Presentations, etc.

I tend to avoid personal posts, but I have a few things to share that may be of interest to some readers. I have updated my short vita page to list upcoming presentations. Among those, I will soon be headed to the Library Technology Conference at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN to give a keynote presentation on information commons and a session on using video creatively in your library. This really looks like an outstanding conference, and I am so excited to be a part of it. If any readers are attending, please be sure to say hello.

In other professional news, I am running for SLA's Board of Directors for the position of Division Cabinet Chair-Elect. I have been heavily involved with the IT division of SLA since joining the organization, and last year I led the petition drive to launch the brand-new Academic Division of SLA. I am also serving on the SLA Centennial Commission and Annual Conference Planning Committee. I know I have written about this previously, but if any of you are curious about SLA (or perhaps don't think of yourself as "special"), get in touch. I would love to tell you more about my professional organization.

Finally, I am delighted that the Frye Leadership Institute class of 2009 has just been announced. I am so thrilled to be part of such an esteemed group. If any readers are past or current Fryers, give me a shout.

What a busy year this is becoming, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

SLA Academic Division is Official

I'm so pleased that the official announcement of the new Academic Division of SLA went out this week. What better time to launch a new division of an association than in the first week of its centennial year. I'm excited about leading this new division and will be working with a great team to get us off the ground. We still need more volunteers, so contact me if you are interested.

You might wonder why a "special" association needs an "academic" division. There are many reasons; one is that this will give all academic librarian members, regardless of subject discipline or specialty, an opportunity for networking and programming that is of a broader nature. We'll provide a forum for discussing topics such as building faculty relationships, supporting student retention goals, developing information literacy programs, re-evaluating the reference desk model, navigating the promotion/tenure path, and more.

While I belong to ALA and have attended a number of those conferences, I see my professional home as SLA. I started out in a non-traditional IT role and found SLA to be a good fit. In SLA, I continue find the very subject-specific programming valuable and the incredible networking and leadership opportunities essential. From my chapter to my primary division to the entire association, I find being involved in SLA rewarding and feel it has greatly benefitted my career. Academic librarians out there, I encourage you to take a second look at SLA. Even though you may not consider yourself or your environment to be "special," I bet SLA still has something to offer you.

SLA Centennial Video Contest

While the majority of my posts are commons-focused, I do post from time to time about my primary professional organization, SLA. This is a particularly exciting time as SLA will be celebrating its centennial celebration in 2009. I've been fortunate to serve on SLA's Centennial Commission and may share announcements about some of our activities in the coming year, particularly those with a technology focus.

One of the activities we recently launched is the SLA Video Contest. This is a great opportunity for SLA members (including student members) to submit a video focused on "the information professional of the future." What a great excuse to experiment with video, have a little fun, and maybe win a very nice cash prize. The winning entry in each category (Student and Professional) will be awarded:

* $1,500 cash
* Up to $1,500 to attend the Centennial conference in Washington, DC, 14-17 June 2009
* Up to $1,000 for Chapter programming
* Up to $1,000 for Division programming

If you are a member of SLA, you really should consider submitting a video to this contest. The deadline for entries is January 23, 2009. Visit the SLA Centennial website for complete rules and entry information.

Potential Academic Division of SLA

For the past few years, I've talked with colleagues at SLA conference about how great it would be if the conference had programming focused on academic library/campus issues. SLA is great because of its subject-specialized programming. I know I personally have learned a great deal from sessions on science resources, competitive intelligence tools, advanced searching techniques, and so forth. Wouldn't SLA be the perfect conference if in addition to the already excellent programming, leadership, and networking opportunities, academic librarians could also get those things we need about marketing our services more effectively to faculty, creating better instruction sessions for undergraduates, navigating the promotion/tenure process, building partnerships on campus, developing a learning commons, and so on. The possibilities are endless!

After talking with a few more people at the leadership summit earlier this year, I decided to pursue the idea of launching a new division and began the process shortly before the SLA Annual Conference in Seattle. I spent much of my time in Seattle in meetings, but I did manage to pull together 62 signatures very quickly at the conference. This afternoon, with the support and assistance of the division cabinet chairs and SLA HQ, I launched an online petition to gain the needed 100 total signatures. I'm delighted that within less than two hours, 24 more members have signed the petition. Even more exciting, 16 of the 24 indicated an interest in serving in an officer or committee capacity.

If you are willing to pay $18 to join an Academic Division of SLA and you are a current SLA member, you can sign the petition. I know there are some SLA members who are concerned about the formation of such a division, and I also know there are many who support it. I've already received multiple letters of support this afternoon. The Academic Division will bring more value to SLA membership, and it will be an excellent second (or third or fourth...) division for many of us. This is a great opportunity to build a new division, one that many of us feel SLA members need. Contact me if you are interested in getting involved.

Update from the SLA Conference in Seattle

Several exciting new initiatives in SLA have been announced in the Leadership Development Institute this morning:

SLA Innovation Laboratory
SLA members will have access to thousands of applications, including licensed software like the Adobe Creative Suite. To me, that alone is worth the price of SLA membership ($160). Also included in the "laboratory" are a number of training tools and video tutorials available to members to build on their technology expertise.

SLA's 23 Things
I've mentioned that UK Libraries and now a larger group on the UK campus have participated in a "23 Things"-style Learning 2.0 program (we called ours Blue 2.0). Now SLA members will have the opportunity to participate in a similar program.

SLA in Second Life
I actually gave the update for this project. We are an enthusiastic and active group building an in-world presence for SLA in Second Life as well as developing training opportunities and educational resources on Second Life. Check out our wiki for more information. For those in Seattle, look for a special Second Life introduction to the opening general session this evening.

Update: Slides from the short SL presentation I gave in LDI. Thanks, Jill!

Technical Support Roundtable at SLA Annual Conference

I've mentioned this already on the SLA IT Division blog, but I'm trying to spread the word widely. For the third year in a row, the SLA IT division is sponsoring the Technical Support Roundtable. We've been billing it as an "unconference" session--essentially what I do is lead a discussion among the audience members on technical support-related issues in libraries and information centers. The session has gained several regulars at this point, and our audience grows each year. If you will be attending the SLA Annual Conference in Seattle in June, consider dropping in on this session. Previous sessions have included such varied topics as favorite professional development resources, using blogs in libraries, dealing with client security, using SharePoint effectively, favorite Firefox add-ins, best RSS aggregators, and so forth. This year I've already compiled quite a list of topics--one I plan to focus on for sure is cloud computing and how it will affect libraries.

More Kudos to Colleagues

It's been a busy day for announcements of awards and honors. The candidates for SLA Board of Directors have just been announced. I'm so pleased to report that not one, but two current IT Division Board members are running for SLA Board of Directors:

Holly Chong-Williams, a past chair and 2008 IT Program Planner, is running for Division Cabinet Chair-Elect.

Michael Kim, IT Secretary, is running for one of the Director positions.

The complete list of candidates:

For President-elect:

• Janice C. Anderson, Access Sciences Corporation, Houston, Texas
• Anne Caputo, Dow Jones & Company, Washington, D.C.

For Chapter Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Cynthia Barrancotto, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, Houston, Texas
• Ruth Wolfish, IEEE, Piscataway, New Jersey

For Division Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Holly Chong-Williams, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia
• Ann Sweeney, European Union - European Commission Delegation, Washington, D.C.

For Director (Two to be elected):

• Jessica Baumgart, Renesys, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Michael Kim, University of Miami Library, Coral Gables, Florida
• Daniel Lee, Navigator Ltd, Toronto, Ontario
• Nettie Seaberry, National Minority Supplier Development Council, New York City

Congratulations to all the candidates!

SLA Leadership Summit 2008

I mentioned that the 2008 SLA Leadership Summit was hosted by the Kentucky Chapter in Louisville in January. I've had every intention of writing up a few things, but it takes so long just to get caught up post-conference, much less have time to go through notes and photos and things that need a follow up.

Let me just say that I work with so many outstanding people in SLA--from the Kentucky Chapter, to the IT Division, to the Centennial Commission, to so many SLA members and staff. I am so proud of the Kentucky Chapter for serving as host of this meeting. While Kentucky is one of the smallest SLA chapters, we are easily one of the most engaged and vocal. And I think we did a good job of rolling out that Kentucky hospitality.

Pictured above are a few of those wonderful Kentucky Chapter members (including SLA's President-Elect Gloria Zamora) at the chapter's welcome reception at the Louisville Slugger Museum.

Check out the Kentucky Chapter blog for more photos of the 2008 Leadership Summit.

(Photo from Valerie's camera)

Off to SLA Leadership Summit

On Tuesday I'm headed to the SLA Leadership Summit. This year, the Kentucky Chapter is hosting, so my usual January travels are limited to Louisville this time--nothing too exotic. From the forecast I've seen so far, the weather promises to be cold, cold, cold. I feel bad for my Southern California and Florida friends and colleagues. Maybe we'll have the meeting somewhere warm next year.

For those unfamiliar to SLA, the Leadership Summit is basically our midwinter meeting, albeit on a much smaller scale than ALA. The Leadership Summit focuses on two things: association business/officer training and personal leadership development. Like any SLA event, the networking opportunities are outstanding. Only a few hundred people attend the Leadership Summit, but they are the leaders of various SLA units and many are well-known movers and shakers in the library world. Meeting attendees have numerous opportunities to network with SLA leaders and other leaders in the library world. It's one of my favorite meetings because of that.

In the past few years, the meeting has focused increasingly on developing leadership skills for use beyond SLA. We've had outstanding keynote speakers each year--last year was Chip Heath (Made to Stick)--and I expect Andy Hines will be no exception. One year we had a hands-on session for writing SMART goals; a few months later, we started using them at the library and I was ahead of the game. I always get something useful out of the meeting content.

In addition to attending all the sessions and networking opportunities, this year I have several responsibilities as a member of the Centennial Commission, the planning committee for the 2009 Annual Conference and year-long celebration of SLA's 100th anniversary. I also have a few lingering responsibilities as immediate past chair of the IT division. In addition, I was asked to give a short talk on blogs. Finally, I'm a proud member of the Kentucky Chapter and will help with local arrangements wherever I can. I think it's going to be a very busy week.

Several attendees should be blogging some of the events, likely on the IT Division Blog or the Blogging Section Blog. At the very least, we'll put up a photo album post-conference.

More Technology Vendors at ALA Conference?

LITA/ALA recently sent out a survey to learn which technology vendors librarians want to see in the exhibit hall at ALA Conference. Survey respondents are asked about specific hardware and software vendors--have you recently purchased from one of these companies, plan to purchase in the future, or would simply like more information. All the big vendors are listed, of course--Microsoft, Dell, Apple, Adobe, and so forth.

This is pretty exciting news to me. I feel like I need to attend multiple conferences to get the programming, networking opportunities, and vendor contacts I need. That gets expensive and it is a lot of time away from the office.

While I haven't attended an ALA conference in a few years (I'm much more active in SLA), the opportunity to see "my vendors" in the ALA exhibit hall would likely influence me to attend. These companies don't come to SLA, either--though we've been working on that. Ask me about our Technology Petting Zoo sometime.

Kentucky Chapter Second Life Event

Attending a Kentucky Chapter of SLA event is always a pleasure, and Friday's meeting about the virtual world Second Life was no exception. After a pleasing lunch at Ramsey's (with pie!) and perhaps the shortest business meeting ever (34 minutes, thank you, Susan!), we met back at Young Library for a hands-on workshop about Second Life.

Local expert Beth Kraemer provided an overview of Second Life and graciously invited us to her "home" for multiple examples of online exhibits, educational uses, and of course some drinks, dancing, and other freebies. For a few of us, the session became more about a clothing swap but others learned the basics of moving around and interacting with other avatars.

The IT division of SLA held a meeting in Second Life back in the fall. While there are still technological obstacles to doing this on a regular basis, I think it's useful to try different methods for meeting. Even though I immensely enjoy the company of my SLA colleagues, who says we have to meet face-to-face every time?