Recently I attended both the ALA Annual Conference in Washington DC and the ALCTS Preconference on Map Cataloging, taught by Susan Moore, Paige Andrew, and Mary Laarsgaard.
The preconference was a 1.5 day event, starting on Thursday, June 24th. On the first day, Susan Moore and Paige Andrew presented on the intricacies of cataloging printed sheet maps. Although the majority of the presentation was specific to the cataloging of maps, the overarching principles that the dynamic duo repeatedly attempted to instill in the session's minds ring true for all kinds of cataloging.
They continuously remarked how important it is for you to constantly think of who your audience is. First and foremost, your audience will be your users, so you must do what you can to give those users the access and level of detail they will require. Mary Laarsgaard, who taught the second portion of the session specific to digital map cataloging, repeated this theme with a number of examples of the responsibilities we have to our power users.
However, there is a second group of users that we must also keep in mind: other catalogers! While the point of what we do is to provide access to our users, the cooperative nature of cataloging today allows us better opportunities for providing such access, and records crafted with other catalogers in mind inevitably lead to better access for our patrons, as we will spend less time wringing our hands over what may or may not be duplication of efforts, and more time creating access to our unique and important collections.
Among the numerous sessions I attended at ALA, the shadow of RDA loomed large.
RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the document that puts forth the new standard of cataloging rules. It may eventually replace AACR2 as the description standard we use to catalog.
Before RDA can replace AACR2, the document needs to be tested to see if it adequately addresses the inadequacies of AACR2, and to see if the change merits the time and money it will take to transition. A number of institutions are taking part in a U.S. National Libraries RDA Test. These institutions include the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Library of Medicine, and a host of other institutions throughout the country.
Here’s an overview of the RDA timeline, as it stands now:
Now-8/31/10: RDA Toolkit Open Access Period
9/1/10-9/30/10: US National Libraries RDA Test group becomes familiar with RDA
10/1/10-12/31/10: US National Libraries RDA Test takes place. During this test period, the testing libraries will create a number of new records in both AACR2 and RDA formats. These records will be reviewed, and surveys will be done to assess the overall process and results.
1/2/11-3/31/11: Test assessment, leading to a report or recommendations
4/1/11-6/1/11: Hopefully decisions will be made by the testing group, and those decisions will be ready to be reported by the 2011 ALA Annual Conference.
Looking out even further to the future, I found the OCLC session entitled "Cataloging Alchemy: Making Your Data Work Harder" to be quite engaging. Particularly interesting was Rich Greene's presentation on GLIMIR (which he admitted was an odd acronym for Global Library Manifestation Identifier). Albeit a long way off, GLIMIR purports to fill the gap that other identifiers have created. I know some might be thinking, "oh great, yet another number, yet another field, something more to worry about," but realistically speaking GLIMIR numbers could do a lot of good. Although ISBNs have been around for quite some time now, they pose a number of problems. First, they are not truly manifestation (in the FRBR sense) identifiers as they can sometimes be reused by publishers for works that are different manifestations. Second, in a big picture sense, they have not been around for that long. Rich Greene quoted that around 70% of all the records in WorldCat lack an identifier other than some form of system control number. Clearly, there are a lot of tests and even more developments that need to occur before GLIMIR will be a universally recognized term; it is (ready for the bad pun:) but a glimmer in the eye of catalogers worldwide. Nonetheless, it's always good to keep that eye on the possibilities of enriching access for our users.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
RailsConf
Rails is a web application framework that is used by both the Blacklight and Umlaut (Find It) applications we use here.
I attended RailsConf, a conference dedicated to Rails, June 7-10 here in Baltimore.
I think this may be the first non-library-focused software/programming conference I have attended since working here. I was reminded of how crucial it is to stay involved in larger software development communities beyond the library world; while the library world has many good software developers, when you step into a larger community there is more expertise to learn from.
N0t all software code is created equally. Writing software that is flexible, maintainable, sustainable, and shareable is not as easy as just hacking out something quickly to meet local needs at the present. But it's something that pays off in the long-term for the organization hosting the code, with sustainable easy to maintain and enhance software. Writing good code like this is a skill (or art) that you learn through practice. One of the best ways to increase your skill is through reading or working with code that has been written by someone who is much better than you at this, and seeing how they designed it.
So one of the most useful parts of RailsConf was the opportunity to see other people's well written code, and their ideas for solving problems with elegant code. Many sessions at RailsConf involved code examples or code walk throughs. Rails3, the new version of Rails, has been extensively re-written to be cleaner and easier to work with code, and seeing some of the internals gave me several ideas for how to better structure Blacklight, Umlaut, or other applications we work with. One realization I had: Since most of the applications I work with are designed to be shareable accross multiple institutions, each making their own customizations but still maintaining a common codebase, these applications actually have a lot in common with a 'framework' like Rails, instead of a typical 'just an application'.
In addition to learning about new features of Rails3 that should make Blacklight and Umlaut much easier to develop (but will require migrating code to Rails3 to take advantage of -- something else I learned about), other topics of interest covered in workshops I attended included: non-SQL data stores like MongoDB or Redis; using OAuth for federated authorization management; and tools such as Cucumber for integration testing in Rails.
I attended RailsConf, a conference dedicated to Rails, June 7-10 here in Baltimore.
I think this may be the first non-library-focused software/programming conference I have attended since working here. I was reminded of how crucial it is to stay involved in larger software development communities beyond the library world; while the library world has many good software developers, when you step into a larger community there is more expertise to learn from.
N0t all software code is created equally. Writing software that is flexible, maintainable, sustainable, and shareable is not as easy as just hacking out something quickly to meet local needs at the present. But it's something that pays off in the long-term for the organization hosting the code, with sustainable easy to maintain and enhance software. Writing good code like this is a skill (or art) that you learn through practice. One of the best ways to increase your skill is through reading or working with code that has been written by someone who is much better than you at this, and seeing how they designed it.
So one of the most useful parts of RailsConf was the opportunity to see other people's well written code, and their ideas for solving problems with elegant code. Many sessions at RailsConf involved code examples or code walk throughs. Rails3, the new version of Rails, has been extensively re-written to be cleaner and easier to work with code, and seeing some of the internals gave me several ideas for how to better structure Blacklight, Umlaut, or other applications we work with. One realization I had: Since most of the applications I work with are designed to be shareable accross multiple institutions, each making their own customizations but still maintaining a common codebase, these applications actually have a lot in common with a 'framework' like Rails, instead of a typical 'just an application'.
In addition to learning about new features of Rails3 that should make Blacklight and Umlaut much easier to develop (but will require migrating code to Rails3 to take advantage of -- something else I learned about), other topics of interest covered in workshops I attended included: non-SQL data stores like MongoDB or Redis; using OAuth for federated authorization management; and tools such as Cucumber for integration testing in Rails.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
@hand: mobile technologies in academia + medicine
On April 21st I spent the day at the University of Maryland, Baltimore for "@hand: mobile technologies in academia + medicine", a symposium sponsored by the UMB Health Sciences and Human Services Library. The event began with a Keynote address from healthcare journalist Neil Versel, appropriately titled “Healthcare Here, There, and Everywhere”. The speakers that followed were divided into three sessions; Educational Uses of Mobil Technology, Clinical Uses of Mobile Technology, and Mobile Technology@UMB.
The two presentations in the session Educational Uses of Mobil Technology were most relevant to the non-clinical environment on the Homewood Campus.
“The IM Learning Initiative” at Shenandoah University presented by Dr. Wallace Marsh described their initiative to provide all of their students and faculty with a laptop (MacBook Pro) and iPod/iPhone, to get faculty & students on same platform/equipment. Dr. Marsh provided several examples of the advantages of having everyone using the same equipment; the most interesting one for me occurred this past February during snowmageddon. Even though the University physically closed for several days, the Pharmacy School continued to hold classes using live (Elluminate) and recorded (Camtasia Relay and placed on iTunesU) technologies and remained on schedule for the term. Only the lab courses had to be rescheduled with make-up sessions. This would be a huge advantage to any institution, for any emergency closure. The possibilities of planning for a pandemic immediately came to my mind.
Megan von Isenburg from Duke University Medical Center Library presented “The Kindle: A Novel Way to Increase Access to Information” and taught me a few things I did not know about the Kindle. There are several course related books for students available on the Kindle, and the Kindle is able to search some web-based resources (resource-poor sites). The study provided a Kindle to students and preceptors during a Family Medicine rotation. In an academic setting the Kindle proved to be adequate for providing information, but was identified as intolerable in the clinical setting. Important issues to consider that were addressed: know your audience and know what devices they already own. Is your audience willing and flexible to incorporate new devices into their workflow? Know your content and know what you want your audience to have access to. What materials are available for your specific device? And of course faculty involvement is extremely important. Duke University Medical Center Library plans to use the iPod/iPhone in their next study.
In addition to the presentations, there were also a few exhibitors, most notably Apple providing iPads for attendees to try. Blackboard Mobile was there showing their applications for Blackberry and iPod/iPhone. EBSCOhost Mobile was there showing their application designed especially for the smaller screens of mobile devices. Mobile MedlinePlus was also there showing their consumer focused mobile application from the National Library of Medicine.
The remaining talks are listed below. If you have any questions about this event, please contact me and I will be happy to discuss the sessions with you.
Clinical Uses of Mobile Technology
Mobile Technology @ UMB
The two presentations in the session Educational Uses of Mobil Technology were most relevant to the non-clinical environment on the Homewood Campus.
“The IM Learning Initiative” at Shenandoah University presented by Dr. Wallace Marsh described their initiative to provide all of their students and faculty with a laptop (MacBook Pro) and iPod/iPhone, to get faculty & students on same platform/equipment. Dr. Marsh provided several examples of the advantages of having everyone using the same equipment; the most interesting one for me occurred this past February during snowmageddon. Even though the University physically closed for several days, the Pharmacy School continued to hold classes using live (Elluminate) and recorded (Camtasia Relay and placed on iTunesU) technologies and remained on schedule for the term. Only the lab courses had to be rescheduled with make-up sessions. This would be a huge advantage to any institution, for any emergency closure. The possibilities of planning for a pandemic immediately came to my mind.
Megan von Isenburg from Duke University Medical Center Library presented “The Kindle: A Novel Way to Increase Access to Information” and taught me a few things I did not know about the Kindle. There are several course related books for students available on the Kindle, and the Kindle is able to search some web-based resources (resource-poor sites). The study provided a Kindle to students and preceptors during a Family Medicine rotation. In an academic setting the Kindle proved to be adequate for providing information, but was identified as intolerable in the clinical setting. Important issues to consider that were addressed: know your audience and know what devices they already own. Is your audience willing and flexible to incorporate new devices into their workflow? Know your content and know what you want your audience to have access to. What materials are available for your specific device? And of course faculty involvement is extremely important. Duke University Medical Center Library plans to use the iPod/iPhone in their next study.
In addition to the presentations, there were also a few exhibitors, most notably Apple providing iPads for attendees to try. Blackboard Mobile was there showing their applications for Blackberry and iPod/iPhone. EBSCOhost Mobile was there showing their application designed especially for the smaller screens of mobile devices. Mobile MedlinePlus was also there showing their consumer focused mobile application from the National Library of Medicine.
The remaining talks are listed below. If you have any questions about this event, please contact me and I will be happy to discuss the sessions with you.
Clinical Uses of Mobile Technology
- Incorporation of handheld computing to a 4 year medical school curriculum
- Mobile MedlinePlus: Health Information On-the-Go
- Mobile for the Millennial Medical Student
Mobile Technology @ UMB
- UMMS Medical Encyclopedia iPhone App: The Journey from Idea to iTunes
- Development of Mobile Applications for the UMB Dental School
- HS/HSL Web App for the iPhone
Monday, May 10, 2010
Integrating Resources cataloging course
During the month of April I took an SCCTP (Serials Cataloging Cooperative Training Program) online course on "Integrating Resources." What's that? In the past the world of cataloging was divided into monographs and serials, with little in between. Now that we are acquiring more and more electronic resources, which may be frequently updated and which do not remain discrete, but rather have the updates integrated into the whole, a new category was needed: hence, "Integrating Resources." The course covered everything from updating electronic resources, such as databases and Web sites, to the more familiar old-fashioned loose-leaf publications.
This course required several hours a week, with homework assignments. Part of the difficulty of cataloging Integrating Resources is that, by definition, they are continually changing. Another difficulty is that the rules that apply to them are changing as well. In fact, the course did not incorporate the most up-to-date decisions, which was a disappointment; our own in house documentation is more in line with the current cataloging guidelines than some of the course materials. For one class assignment the instructor gave as many as six "correct" answers. Clearly, this kind of cataloging is evolving rapidly, and it takes great effort just to try to keep up with all the changes. I am sharing what I have learned with our staff who are dealing with these materials, and I hope to learn more with hands-on cataloging in the future.
Darlene Townsend
Copy Cataloging Supervisor
This course required several hours a week, with homework assignments. Part of the difficulty of cataloging Integrating Resources is that, by definition, they are continually changing. Another difficulty is that the rules that apply to them are changing as well. In fact, the course did not incorporate the most up-to-date decisions, which was a disappointment; our own in house documentation is more in line with the current cataloging guidelines than some of the course materials. For one class assignment the instructor gave as many as six "correct" answers. Clearly, this kind of cataloging is evolving rapidly, and it takes great effort just to try to keep up with all the changes. I am sharing what I have learned with our staff who are dealing with these materials, and I hope to learn more with hands-on cataloging in the future.
Darlene Townsend
Copy Cataloging Supervisor
Sunday, May 9, 2010
14th Off-Campus Library Services Conference 2010
Along with my colleague Jennifer Costaldo (who, I might add, did a great poster presentation) I, too, attended the Off-Campus Library Services Conference in Cleveland at the end of April. I'll try to truncate my usual verbosity to brief points of interest and welcome additional questions or thoughts. ( Ohhh, that audio you hear?? Go down to the bottom of the post and press the 'pause' button on my iPhone...we'll get to that later. ) --- [ UPDATE: (I've removed my electronic iPhone due to it's 'automatic' start function.) Here is a link to the material: LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D55jOkEt6n8 ]
Ok, back to the post-conference brain dump.
The 14th Off-Campus Library Services Conference took place in Cleveland, Ohio from April 27th – 30th , 2010. There were (5) five primary and overarching conceptual foci during the event. 1) Defining variations of the Distance learner; 2) Cloud Computing & movement of institutional repository types of works to 'the cloud'; 3) Service provision in virtual spaces ; 4) Assessment ; 5) Technological sharing platforms and useful integrative software for delivering library services.
My personal interests – 1) Cutting-edge technologies; and 2) Creative integration(s) of technology into service delivery methods – grounded my session selections.
Below, I've provided 'bullet-points' of interesting thoughts, vocabulary, buzz words/phrases, and a few 'light-bulb' moments. (Hopefully there's at least one at every conference you attend.)
* Librarians are being slowly disintermediated (that's right, you heard me...disintermediated. NOTE: This blog space IS somewhat interactive, in that you can post a comment. So, let me know what you think about this --- and anything else that strikes a nerve.)
* Virtual spaces provide access points for the disintermediated librarian
* Immersion via 3D web platforms --- Second Life; Open Cobalt; Open Simulator; Education Grid; Immersive Education Initiative
* Software: Wimba ( much like Adobe Connect - without the massive audio problems )
* Distance students are often unaware of library services. How do we track the elusive students and market our services regularly without becoming a disturbance or distraction.
* Why do distance students like Librarians as a source? --- Quotes from graduate students in the research process: 1) "My librarian is the only one who answers my questions." 2) "Is it me?? Because, I'm not finding anything in my Ebsco searches!"
3) "I can count on you being around more consistently than my professor."
* Real-time interaction is critical to the learning experience and students prefer synchronous as opposed to asynchronous environments
* Virtual office hours tend not to work (hmmm...comments?)
* TERMINOLOGY: Digital Nomads (constantly smartphone connected) Dr. Camila Alire
* BOOK: The Anywhere Library: A Primer for the Mobile Web
* BOOK: The Visible Librarian -- by Judith Seiss
* Craft a message that people can hold onto
* Ensure tutorials and assessment tools can be viewed on mobile devices and make them intuitive. Student comment: "Don't make me figure out what I need to do...please."
* Although some librarian's are still using audio beds underneath PowerPoint presentations, many have graduated to "Jing"-type tools ( watch out for my next blog post on my personal Jing experiences over the past 6 months )
I've also included an overview of the Second Life platform's use in library environments. (that was the pesky audio you heard at the beginning of my post --- "Enter, stage left,... the video in my iPhone below.") UPDATE: (I've removed my electronic iPhone due to it's 'automatic' start function.) Here is a link to the material: LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D55jOkEt6n8
Again, I welcome any questions or response posts.
Ok, back to the post-conference brain dump.
The 14th Off-Campus Library Services Conference took place in Cleveland, Ohio from April 27th – 30th , 2010. There were (5) five primary and overarching conceptual foci during the event. 1) Defining variations of the Distance learner; 2) Cloud Computing & movement of institutional repository types of works to 'the cloud'; 3) Service provision in virtual spaces ; 4) Assessment ; 5) Technological sharing platforms and useful integrative software for delivering library services.
My personal interests – 1) Cutting-edge technologies; and 2) Creative integration(s) of technology into service delivery methods – grounded my session selections.
Below, I've provided 'bullet-points' of interesting thoughts, vocabulary, buzz words/phrases, and a few 'light-bulb' moments. (Hopefully there's at least one at every conference you attend.)
* Librarians are being slowly disintermediated (that's right, you heard me...disintermediated. NOTE: This blog space IS somewhat interactive, in that you can post a comment. So, let me know what you think about this --- and anything else that strikes a nerve.)
* Virtual spaces provide access points for the disintermediated librarian
* Immersion via 3D web platforms --- Second Life; Open Cobalt; Open Simulator; Education Grid; Immersive Education Initiative
* Software: Wimba ( much like Adobe Connect - without the massive audio problems )
* Distance students are often unaware of library services. How do we track the elusive students and market our services regularly without becoming a disturbance or distraction.
* Why do distance students like Librarians as a source? --- Quotes from graduate students in the research process: 1) "My librarian is the only one who answers my questions." 2) "Is it me?? Because, I'm not finding anything in my Ebsco searches!"
3) "I can count on you being around more consistently than my professor."
* Real-time interaction is critical to the learning experience and students prefer synchronous as opposed to asynchronous environments
* Virtual office hours tend not to work (hmmm...comments?)
* TERMINOLOGY: Digital Nomads (constantly smartphone connected) Dr. Camila Alire
* BOOK: The Anywhere Library: A Primer for the Mobile Web
* BOOK: The Visible Librarian -- by Judith Seiss
* Craft a message that people can hold onto
* Ensure tutorials and assessment tools can be viewed on mobile devices and make them intuitive. Student comment: "Don't make me figure out what I need to do...please."
* Although some librarian's are still using audio beds underneath PowerPoint presentations, many have graduated to "Jing"-type tools ( watch out for my next blog post on my personal Jing experiences over the past 6 months )
I've also included an overview of the Second Life platform's use in library environments. (that was the pesky audio you heard at the beginning of my post --- "Enter, stage left,... the video in my iPhone below.") UPDATE: (I've removed my electronic iPhone due to it's 'automatic' start function.) Here is a link to the material: LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D55jOkEt6n8
Again, I welcome any questions or response posts.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Off-Campus Library Services (OCLS) Conference
I recently attended the OCLS conference in Cleveland, OH from April 28-30. This conference is offered every two years and focuses on the issues surrounding providing library services and resources to distance education faculty and students. It is a very important conference for many of us over in ELP!
Some notable themes/presentations:
Please feel free to ask me any questions. I am happy to share my notes on these sessions!
Some notable themes/presentations:
- Discussion on changing the name of the conference from Off-Campus, to something that more accurately reflects what we are doing, such as "online," for example. Location of users is no longer as important as the medium of communication with them.
- Embedding library resources and services, as well as librarians, into online course management systems.
- Assessing distance education service delivery- and how to align this to organizational performance.
- Is it a librarian's job to teach writing?
- Personal branding- great workshop where we went through a worksheet and tried to create our own personal brands to promote services and reach distant users.
- Seeking library donors among alumni of distance learning programs.
- Library-led online faculty workshops to help with meeting information literacy objectives
Please feel free to ask me any questions. I am happy to share my notes on these sessions!
Monday, April 26, 2010
iLLiad international conference, Virginia Beach
I attended the iLLiad conference in Virginia Beach on April 24, 25, 26 which was hosted by Atlas Systems, Inc. who is developing OCLC iLLIad. We are using it for the interlibrary loan process and document delivery in libraries of JHU. I met couples of iLLiad developers and support staff in this conference. Also I listened or discussed other library issues or their solutions.
March 24, 2010 Preconference
•Topic: Implementation and Navigation of the ILLiad 8 Client
This 3 hour class introduced to the new ILLiad 8 client interface, which utilizes ribbons, tabs and customizable layouts. The class began with a brief overview of the ILLiad 8 client prerequisites and installation process, followed by a discussion of how to navigate the various components of the new ILLiad client interface.
•Topic: More than just a pretty interface - Intermediate ILLiad 8
Delve deeper into the ILLiad 8 client in this class covering the optimizations and new features available. Topics covered include Printing, Customizing Layouts, Staff Manager, and Custom Searching.
March 25, 2010
•Keynote Address, Chip Nilges, Vice President, Business Development at OCLC
Chip Nilges was promoted to Vice President, Business Development, in 2007. He is responsible for OCLC’s content strategy, which includes OCLC’s NetLibrary collections of eBooks and eAudiobooks, as well as the OCLC FirstSearch online reference service and the OCLC Electronic Collections Online service. Chip was formerly Vice President, New Product Planning, and before that was Executive Director, OCLC WorldCat Content and Global Access. He joined OCLC in 1994 and has held several key roles including leadership of FirstSearch, new products and WorldCat content.
•Text Messaging (BAM!) - A quick, low cost way to pump your customer service up a notch
Speaker: Penn State and Notre Dame
Penn State and Notre Dame are offering text messaging service to their patrons now. In the session they provided a demonstration with step-by-step instructions on how patrons received the ILL notices to their cell phones, so that they can be alerted instantly when, for example, an item they have been anxiously awaiting has arrived. In addition they shared practical tips on how to plan the implementation and rollout of the new service and how our patrons have received it. It gave us a new way to server patrons better.
•Topic: Borrowing is a Business: Cultivating a Collection as a Revenue Stream for Academic Libraries
Speaker: Dallas Long, Illinois State University; Michael Walsh, University of Detroit Mercy
Many academic libraries are suffering from tightening budgets during this period of economic uncertainty and are relying on interlibrary loan services more than ever before as they slash serials and collections budgets. This section represented an opportunity for ILL departments to strategically improve their library’s revenue stream. As net lenders, Milner Library at Illinois State University and Kresge Law Library at the University Of Mercy Detroit School of Law experienced increases in lending fees. The presenters recognized that the increases were a result of multiple borrowing requests for specific holdings. They analyzed their collections for other heavily requested items, removed barriers for lending such items, and recommended the strategic purchases of journals with few available holdings in OCLC. The presenters shared their experiences identifying possible serial holdings and monographs, creating a business plan for strategic purchases of new titles, copyright considerations and negotiations with licensing, and evaluation of lending fees.
•Topic: Destination Resource Sharing Community Portal (Webjunction): Where do we go from here?
Speaker: John Trares, OCLC
The section guided us how to use iLLiad community portal, which is using WebJunction functionality, this community portal provides the ability to connect with other librarians who have similar interests and experiences. We are able to start or participate in discussions about resource sharing topics, share best practices, or discuss new trends. And with MyWebJunction, we can stay up-to-date with discussions you are involved in and see what your friends are doing. Learn how to use more of the features and provide feedback on what needs to be added to the portal to help improve it.
•Medical Library Round Table
Speaker: Genie Powell, Atlas Systems
Open discussion about current issues facing medical libraries using ILLiad.
March 26, 2010
•OCLC Update
https://www.atlas-sys.com/conference/2010Presentations/ILLiad_OCLC_Update.pdf
•Social Networking and ILLiad
Speaker: Stephanie Spires, Atlas Systems
Blogs, Facebook, iTunes U, Twitter, YouTube, Meebo, Flickr, & delicious are the most popular social networking/online tools in use at ILLiad libraries. This session gave me a brief overview of the tool and ideas for how it might be integrated with your ILLiad workflows and web.
•Atlas Update
Preview some new features of next release.
By Changxin Chen
March 24, 2010 Preconference
•Topic: Implementation and Navigation of the ILLiad 8 Client
This 3 hour class introduced to the new ILLiad 8 client interface, which utilizes ribbons, tabs and customizable layouts. The class began with a brief overview of the ILLiad 8 client prerequisites and installation process, followed by a discussion of how to navigate the various components of the new ILLiad client interface.
•Topic: More than just a pretty interface - Intermediate ILLiad 8
Delve deeper into the ILLiad 8 client in this class covering the optimizations and new features available. Topics covered include Printing, Customizing Layouts, Staff Manager, and Custom Searching.
March 25, 2010
•Keynote Address, Chip Nilges, Vice President, Business Development at OCLC
Chip Nilges was promoted to Vice President, Business Development, in 2007. He is responsible for OCLC’s content strategy, which includes OCLC’s NetLibrary collections of eBooks and eAudiobooks, as well as the OCLC FirstSearch online reference service and the OCLC Electronic Collections Online service. Chip was formerly Vice President, New Product Planning, and before that was Executive Director, OCLC WorldCat Content and Global Access. He joined OCLC in 1994 and has held several key roles including leadership of FirstSearch, new products and WorldCat content.
•Text Messaging (BAM!) - A quick, low cost way to pump your customer service up a notch
Speaker: Penn State and Notre Dame
Penn State and Notre Dame are offering text messaging service to their patrons now. In the session they provided a demonstration with step-by-step instructions on how patrons received the ILL notices to their cell phones, so that they can be alerted instantly when, for example, an item they have been anxiously awaiting has arrived. In addition they shared practical tips on how to plan the implementation and rollout of the new service and how our patrons have received it. It gave us a new way to server patrons better.
•Topic: Borrowing is a Business: Cultivating a Collection as a Revenue Stream for Academic Libraries
Speaker: Dallas Long, Illinois State University; Michael Walsh, University of Detroit Mercy
Many academic libraries are suffering from tightening budgets during this period of economic uncertainty and are relying on interlibrary loan services more than ever before as they slash serials and collections budgets. This section represented an opportunity for ILL departments to strategically improve their library’s revenue stream. As net lenders, Milner Library at Illinois State University and Kresge Law Library at the University Of Mercy Detroit School of Law experienced increases in lending fees. The presenters recognized that the increases were a result of multiple borrowing requests for specific holdings. They analyzed their collections for other heavily requested items, removed barriers for lending such items, and recommended the strategic purchases of journals with few available holdings in OCLC. The presenters shared their experiences identifying possible serial holdings and monographs, creating a business plan for strategic purchases of new titles, copyright considerations and negotiations with licensing, and evaluation of lending fees.
•Topic: Destination Resource Sharing Community Portal (Webjunction): Where do we go from here?
Speaker: John Trares, OCLC
The section guided us how to use iLLiad community portal, which is using WebJunction functionality, this community portal provides the ability to connect with other librarians who have similar interests and experiences. We are able to start or participate in discussions about resource sharing topics, share best practices, or discuss new trends. And with MyWebJunction, we can stay up-to-date with discussions you are involved in and see what your friends are doing. Learn how to use more of the features and provide feedback on what needs to be added to the portal to help improve it.
•Medical Library Round Table
Speaker: Genie Powell, Atlas Systems
Open discussion about current issues facing medical libraries using ILLiad.
March 26, 2010
•OCLC Update
https://www.atlas-sys.com/conference/2010Presentations/ILLiad_OCLC_Update.pdf
•Social Networking and ILLiad
Speaker: Stephanie Spires, Atlas Systems
Blogs, Facebook, iTunes U, Twitter, YouTube, Meebo, Flickr, & delicious are the most popular social networking/online tools in use at ILLiad libraries. This session gave me a brief overview of the tool and ideas for how it might be integrated with your ILLiad workflows and web.
•Atlas Update
Preview some new features of next release.
By Changxin Chen
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