Education 2.0 & 3.0

Today I gave a presentation on Ageism and libraries at the Critical Approaches to Libraries Conference 2020 (held online). I talked about what ageism was, how the COVID19 crisis has brought ageism more sharply into focus, ageism in the (library) workplace, and ageism in services to library users. These are the slides, and the references are at

https://tinyurl.com/yb7x49kd

Via Elizabeth E Charles

In our series of free weekly webinars April 29th saw a session focused on the work of the ASPIRE service which helps publishers and vendors tell the story of the amazing accessibility work they are doing to create a transparent environment for content.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

We all have an original nature, with our own authentic wants and needs. We act spontaneously. Then we meet other people. Very soon, who and what we want to become and even who we believe ourselves to be becomes influenced or even defined by others. Such internalised messages can become self-limiting, and the friction between the self-concept imposed from without and a person’s true nature within can be painful and may even result in mental ill-health (Dykes, Postings, Kopp, & Crouch, 2017, p. 179). For repressed groups, such as women and black, Asian and minority ethnicity (BAME) people, the messages received about who a person is and what they should be are often harmful and repressive. These groups are systematically shown that that they do not matter to society, not least through the lack of BAME role models and the abrogation of their cultural heritage. BAME women suffer intersectional repression and are among the hardest hit.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Schools have been on a mission to reinvent campus libraries—even though students just want the basics.

Via John Shank, Elizabeth E Charles

On October 17th, 1989, the Oakland A’s were playing the San Francisco Giants in the World Series, but just as the game was kicking off—the television broadcast cut out. When the signal came back, it was no longer the baseball game. These were the early minutes of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck near Santa

Via Elizabeth E Charles

In my role as the library dean I have already been engaged with data-driven student success initiatives. We are still working to implement use of EAB on our campus. The company offers a set of tools that can track grades and registration (OK – we already do that). It also provides functionality that tracks visits to the tutoring center, the health and counseling centers, and can analyze how successful students are when they take specific classes and specific times. If you guessed that faculty are very wary of that last bit of analysis you’d be correct.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Libraries and learning resources services have embraced digital practice over three decades. Lis Parcell reflects on their pioneering approach and considers how libraries will continue to reinvent themselves

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Special librarians need to keep our eye on the Internet of Things, since it not only reduces the friction between user and their goals for turning on lightbulbs, meeting with each other, and managing their viewing habits, it’s already a long way into exploring the content universes that they rely on.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Spreading digital fluency is now a core responsibility of academic libraries, and Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) are poised to amplify the utility and reach of library services like never before. These are just two of the revelations part of the New Media Consortium’s (NMC) University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), ETH Library, and the Association of College & Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Annual Horizon Report: 2017 Library Edition.

Via Elizabeth E Charles, Dean J. Fusto

Angie Miller writes: "The premise of a library lies at the intersection of truth and justice. It is the heart of the school where all are welcome and safe, where needs are met and potentials challenged."

Via Mary Reilley Clark, Elizabeth E Charles, Bookmarking Librarian

Christopher Cox predicts the significant ways academic libraries will shift in terms of collections, services, spaces and operations as a result of the pandemic.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

“If you build it, they will come”

This quote from 80s baseball film Field of Dreams is how I feel about school libraries! My own school, a large independent secondary day school in West London, has a well-funded, well-staffed library. In the current crisis, access to quality information and to books and recreational reading has never been more important for students.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

9.30 - 10.00 Registration

10.00 Welcome and housekeeping

10.15 - 11.00 Group Discussion.

11:00-11:40 Presentation

11.00 - 11.40 Decolonising LSE Collections - Kevin Wilson (London School of Economics)

11.40 - 11.50 Tea break

11:50 - 13:10 Presentations

11.50 - 12.30 Broaden my Bookshelf: working with the University of Huddersfield SU to tackle the attainment gap -…

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Decolonising Library collections and practices: from understanding to impact

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Several Twin Cities library systems are considering an “open libraries” model that would give patrons access to books, computers and other resources by themselves at times when the library isn’t open and staffed. Two west metro libraries already use the idea on a small scale.

 

The setup relies on technology — via a central management system — to let people enter the library, check out items and log onto computers — all while video monitors record their actions. There’s a phone connected to a central library or an on-call librarian so patrons can ask questions. Automated systems announce when the library is closing, flick the lights off and on and can even operate amenities like a gas fireplace on a schedule.

 

Via Elizabeth E Charles

The conference Brag Deck is one of my favorite community engagement secret weapons. It’s a slide deck with pictures of things libraries want to show off. It runs on repeat somewhere during the conference, preferably someplace high-profile like over lunch or during a meeting. People can watch it, see what other libraries are doing, get ideas. I make a little web page that goes along with it so it’s available online all year. If you can make slides, operate email, and download images, you can do this. Here’s an example from last year (sorry no ALT text version available yet)

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Libraries have long counted up the books on their shelves to show their value. That meant Harvard University’s library (with 18.9-million books) was clearly superior to Duke University’s (with 6.1-million volumes) or University of California at Riverside’s (with a mere 3 million titles).

These days, though, libraries are finding new ways to measure their worth. They’re counting how many times students use electronic library resources or visit in person, and comparing that to how well the students do in their classes and how likely they are to stay in school and earn a degree. And many library leaders are finding a strong correlation, meaning that students who consume more library materials tend to be more successful academically.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

In 2017 Columbia Libraries took a closer look at ten of our largest external services, most of them delivered by for-profit vendors, to review the quality of these external web-based services. Web traffic to these services exceeds 7 million page views per year.

I spent the better part of two decades in campus IT, where it was typical to brand services with prominent, top-level University branding, write into contracts that vendor branding was to be removed from top-level pages, and change the design to more closely match Columbia web design guidelines.  It was quite a surprise when I discovered that every one of the ten Library services that we reviewed lacked adequate University or Library branding.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Yesterday Carnegie Mellon University announced a new partnership with technology company Digital Science. CMU’s Keith Webster describes the mutual commitment to research discovery and smarter workflows that underpins this collaboration, and also outlines some of the ways in which academic libraries have changed; from their more dynamic use of space to the redeveloped tools and services made available to students and researchers looking to navigate the vast information landscape.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

New Library Learning Commons helps to blaze a trail for deeper learning with 3D printers, green screens and new skills curriculum.

Via EDTECH@UTRGV, Elizabeth E Charles

In August 2016 I was asked to lead a project into the development and implementation of a ‘Feedback Wall’ - a board in the entrance to the library that is there for our users to write their comments/thoughts/queries to us on and, in turn, for us to respond to them however we see fit. Here’s a rundown of the whys and wherefores of the project and where we’re at now.

Via Elizabeth E Charles

Via Elizabeth E Charles