Joe Kraus and I gave a presentation at the recent Electronic Resources & Libraries conference. We had great audience participation and really enjoyed talking to attendees about impetus and workflow issues. Here are our slides from the presentation:
Here are the slides from a recent presentation I gave at the Electronic Resources & Libraries conference with the marvelous Anna Creech and Kristi DeShazo.
Abstract: Notes. We put them everywhere, in order records, item records, database records, etc. They tell us how to process something, mark historical decisions, and guide us in our next steps. We would be lost without them, and yet they’re typically unformatted, by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of information.
This session explores the theme of ‘notes’ from several perspectives as librarians who use different e-resource management systems talk about what kinds of notes they make, where they put them, and what their uses are.
http://www.slideshare.net/orgmonkey/oh-past-self-come-here-and-let-me-kick-you-in-the-shins-32786161
I’m presenting at the upcoming SCELC Research Day on March 4, 2014. Here’s my presentation draft! Guess I’d better get to work.
Title: Academic Librarian Research: Survey Results Leading to Action
Abstract: This presentation records the process of taking an idea about librarians and research and following it to a productive, actionable end. Kennedy will discuss the generation and design of a survey that was used in late 2010 to gather over 900 responses to questions about how libraries perceive their own place in conducting research, and where the results of that survey have led. Results from the survey will be shared to demonstrate how they have impacted the development of the new Institute for Research Design in Librarianship.
When I was a freshman in high school my mom and I realized that I needed glasses. After I got the glasses fitted I couldn’t believe how beautiful the world looked. I still clearly remember going outside for the first time with glasses on, telling my mom that the trees had leaves, and I could see all of them. As a young girl interested in art, there’s really nothing better than getting sharper eyes. I was delighted.
Because of this past year as a leadership fellow on our campus I feel as if I’ve now been fitted with administrative glasses. My world as an academic in a mid-sized university setting simply no longer looks the same. The fellowship allowed me entry into the life of my mentor, the university’s VP for Business & Finance. As a result of the meetings I had with him and his direct reports I no longer see my role on this campus within the narrow scope it once had. It is clear to me now that my role here as a librarian fits in with the larger picture of the role that the library plays in student life, among all of the other components of the campus.
I find myself reading the Chronicle of Higher Ed differently than I used to, thinking about larger issues like communication structures within academic units, adjunct faculty, and sources of scholarship funds. Being prompted to think about things like this gives me a greater appreciation for the work that our library Dean does, with a better understanding of how what she reports about what is going on in her library affects the rest of the institution. Thinking about these issues with a bigger-picture focus isn’t a new thing for me, but knowing the specifics of how the administration of my university works makes the issues much more relevant and real.
The bottom line: if you are ever offered the opportunity to participate in a leadership program like this, take it. For me the benefits were not so much the academic reading and discussions with the four other fellows (valuable in its own right) but were rather simply being in the room with my mentor and his direct reports, to hear the honest, open talk by people making decisions on behalf of the university.
Schuessler, Lynn. 2014. “Book Review: Marketing Your Library’s Electronic Resources: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.” Library Resources & Technical Services v.58, no.1.
Here’s a snippet from the review:
Kennedy and LaGuardia offer a flexible, step-by-step approach to e-resource marketing that is neatly laid out in the table of contents and searchable via a comprehensive index. The variety of presentation techniques— narrative text, sidebars, figures and tables, and “Web Extras”—makes this a multilayered resource appropriate for a wide range of learning styles, institutional environments, and levels of marketing experience.
The idea of research can be a bit intimidating, as if the purpose is to always discover a great truth. And sometimes it looks like that on the surface, like a fancy illuminated manuscript from the British Library, for example. But sometimes research begins simply because you’re curious about the way other people manage things. And so you call them up and say, “Hey, I was wondering something.” And suddenly you realize that an illuminated manuscript, with all its beauty, can really be just a simple thing with an impressive presentation.
I think about this concept quite a bit when I conceive research ideas. My ideas are usually generated while I or my colleagues are doing our jobs and notice that something could be done better, or we notice that we seem to get stuck at the same points in our processes, or our processes are going smoothly but take longer than we’d like. A simple question can lead to a complex and satisfying answer. One such question that I asked myself a few years ago was, “I wonder what other libraries are doing to market their e-resources?” After a lengthy literature search I realized the answer to my question was “libraries aren’t doing much systematically to market their e-resources,” which led me to write several articles and co-author my first book on that topic. Following a simple question to its end, whether the end is also simple or turns out to be complex, is the joy of research (for me, anyway).
(manuscript) http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/GlossPopup.ASP?ImageName=Marginalia/c3906-07.jpg&Pmark=Burney%20MS%20224,%20f.%203
(magnifying glass) http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/drawing-techniques/magnify-glass.13819.html
