Tuesday Night: Web Faceoff 2.0 was great!!!

This was a wonderful, FUN gathering.  I took the afternoon off (major info overload).  The whole idea of teams competing to present the "kewlest" Web 2.0 tools was great....and I'm gonna look into this "unconferencing" thing I've been hearing about.  I suspect it's more like tonight's session and less like today's (no offense meant to the speakers who put a lot of hard work into their shows).  It's just that something looser is more my style, I think.

That said, let's be clear: I haven't heard the words "student learning outcome" or "accreditation" ONCE during this conference...and I'm delighted to have taken a respite from that before I head back to SoCal and reality.

Day 2 Workshop: Creating Web 2.0 Apps w/ SharePoint

By Danielle Pollock, Sandia National Laboratories.  Excellent presentation on using SharePoint for both in-house and outside users.  In a college environment, that would be staff and students, respectively.  Since my college already subscribes to this service, using it for blogging with students would be a natural.  Also, I like the idea Danielle suggested of creating an announcements page.  This could be a game-changer for my library.

Great Opening Keynote Speech/and Today's Workshops

Dr. John Seely Brown (author of "The New Culture of Learning") spoke about "entrepreneurial learners in the digital age".  It was a packed house here at IL.  He described education as moving from a "world of stocks" to a "world of flows".  In this new world, canons will have much less sway over thinking.  Most importantly it seems, the entrepreneurial learner is moved by his/her own curiosity.  Still processing all this.

20 Steps to Creating Web-Based Library Services/just what I need to learn!  And great to meet Sarah Houghton, the well-known "Librarian in Black" in person.

Advances in Discovery Engines/I've sung the praises of discovery searching on this blog and am pleased that Oxnard College and its sister colleges will be adopting Primo Search in our new Voyager catalogs.  However, it was good to hear a "reality check" from Greg Notess of Montana State University in a "blunt update".  Maybe discovery searching's results aren't what vendors crack them up to be.

Best Betas for Learning & Navigating/An engaging talk from Gary Price on the newest, coolest and greatest Web tools.  I need to find his presentation notes, etc.

Developing a Mobile Presence/ Good, practical advice from three librarians in very different settings, including a public library in Denmark.  Hearing all this makes me realize:  we MUST learn how to integrate mobile services into OC Library.

E-Collections and E-Devices/Two librarians from Univ. of Nevada-Reno  spoke at this session.  Tod Colegrove talked about the Apple Store as a great model for libraries to follow.  Apple's service model is based on creating an ongoing relationship with its customers.  Tod mentioned Best Buy as...well.. the opposite of Apple and a poor example for libraries to use.  I completely agree.  Libraries tend to focus too much on their "wares" and not enough on their services.  Lisa Kurt described setting up an "e-reader bar" to let patrons "test drive" the new technologies, again patterned after what the Apple Store does.  Definitely food for thought here.  Elena M. from the World Bank gave us a taste of working for such a large, worldwide organization and the challenges of handling mobile devices for hundreds of employees.

For me, there was also an unrelated "aha" moment:  realizing that Tod and Lisa's library is called the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center, Univ. of Nevada, Reno.  I like that idea a lot: "knowledge center" to collectively describe library, learning resources, tutoring, etc.  Also well worth considering!

Great "Dine Around" at Ambrosia

A tasty and networking-filled meeting was had by seven of us at Ambrosia in downtown Monterey.  Excellent Indian food.  Thanks to the Information Today folks for organizing these get-togethers.  Ready to learn about library web pages and mobile computing in libraries tomorrow morning.

Headed Over to the "Gadgets Petting Zoo" in a bit...

...and I realized some things I should have brought on this trip:  cables for transferring photos!  Oops.  Some Internet Librarian blogger I am...oh, well...my erudite prose will just have to make up for it.~~Tom

Arrival in Monterey!!!

...and the "adventure" begins again...but conference will start for real tomorrow afternoon.  Time to figure out some tourism with the family for Sunday morning.

Back Online for Internet Librarian 2011 in Monterey, CA

http://www.infotoday.com/il2011/

Hello, world--I started this "excellent adventure" blog back in Spring 2011 for my sabbatical leave from Oxnard College.  This morning, I saw the invitation to join with bloggers at IL 2011.  What the heck...a "library adventure" is an ongoing thing, eh?  It doesn't have to end just because a person's leave is over.  So...I'll be checking in from this great conference.  Here's to blogging (and F2F) encounters in the wonderful beach city of Monterey.

Over to Tom for a Final Transmission...

Yep...Tom's Excellent Library Adventure officially ends on Tuesday, May 17 with the end of Spring Semester 2011 and commencement exercises at Oxnard College.  What's next?  A faculty summer institute at Ventura College next week, Summer 2011 contract work...and so it goes.  I've also agreed to be on the 2011-12 Sabbatical Committee, Dr. Ishita Edwards, Chair.  Dr. Edwards has asked that I publish my original sabbatical proposal, so here it is:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=17xDzopq81AAQCFik1BSScLPC7kLQr-vXXSgn_sPU2tI

And here's the outline:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1e9JiJWof90zGYEXtLRwFKmTiNbEMKpPirf6zj5-wYKU

My one-semester proposal was approved for Spring 2011, rather than Fall 2010 as stated therein. I was chosen as an alternate when another faculty member had to postpone his leave.  I probably should have put all this at the beginning of the blog rather than at the end...lesson learned.

Once again, thanks to all the librarians who graciously welcomed me into their workplaces for my visits.  And a special thanks to Mary Ann Laun of Pasadena City College for her inspiration to do this "adventure" in the first place.

Collegially,

Tom Stough, Associate Librarian
Oxnard College

Construction Tour of the New OC Library/LRC, May 5

On Thursday, May 5, members of the Library & Learning Resources Advisory Committee were given a hard-hat tour of the new LRC construction site. 

 This will be the "west wing" of the LRC, where reference books will be housed, along with tables and chairs for student study. 

 Above, a view of one of three large skylights that will illuminate the floor below.  To the right, a partial view of the main rotunda-like space.  This area will house group study rooms, offices, learning center and tutorial center functions.

 The "east wing" will house the Mathematics Department's Success Academy, with two-person areas for tutoring.

A view from the second floor, where the library's circulating books and magazine collection will be housed.  Each of the shelving areas will hold tables and chairs for student seating. 


Thanks to Will Deits, M & O manager, as well as Heery Construction, for allowing us a glimpse of our new facility-to-be.  We were informed that construction is planned for completion around January 2012, with move-in over Summer 2012 and grand opening for Fall 2012.

Database Usage @ OC Library for 2009-10

Gentle readers,

I've been busy preparing data for the Association of Research Libraries annual survey.  Here are the overall figures for the Oxnard College community for 2009-10:

Number of logins/sessions (in 18 resources):   27,613

Number of searches (in 18 resources):  85,145

Number of full-text articles retrieved (in 14 resources):  67,049

When a librarian is standing there in a one-off instruction session with often indifferent and distracted students, it's hard to tell whether the "library message" is getting through.  I don't know how many of these 67,000 articles they found useful...but at least I know our online resources are getting used! 

Latest Photos of Library Construction at Oxnard College, March 22

 Since my last set of photos in February, progress on exterior walls is evident.  The round main section should be fully enclosed in a couple weeks.  Also, I attended a meeting today to iron out some details on interior furnishings (or FF&E, furniture, fixtures and equipment).  I'm looking forward to seeing the inside soon!

Gold Coast Library Network Annual Meeting, March 21

 

The Gold Coast Library Network  comprises member instiutions from San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties.  Academic, public and special libraries are represented.  Originally created as part of the  Library of California, GCLN replaced an earlier organization named TIE (The Interlibrary Exchange) and continues to facilitate loans between member institutions.  I was privileged to represent all three Ventura County Community College District libraries.  Besides a great talk about speechmaking from CLU professor and Toastmaster Sue Bauer, we saw scholarships awarded to Library Science students. 

QuestionPoint Webinar, April 14

I attended this Webinar on QuestionPoint, an OCLC service that allows for chat reference, shared reference and even 24/7 reference.  Glorian Sipman of  Miracosta College was one of the panelists.  She has created a group of 19  colleges, mostly in the San Diego area, that share librarian resources using QP for the good of all their students.  Statewide consortium pricing, based on FTEs, is available from the Community College League.  You may link to the recorded session here. View as Web page | Manage e-mail subscriptions | Share: OCLC Updates and Special Offers: Reference Services Give your students and faculty 24/7 live reference support with QuestionPoint

"Fresno the Giraffe" Video! (Just for fun)

Dear Readers--you may recall my visit to the Herold Mahoney Library at Santa Rosa Junior College's Petaluma campus.  One of the art works I photographed was a tall, skeletal giraffe statue in the facility's main reading room.  Here's a little time-lapse video of its assembly, courtesy of Librarian Molly Matheson.  Thanks to Molly for teaching me how to "embed" videos in a blog.  Enjoy!

Deans & Directors Meeting in Sacramento, Mar. 17 & 18

Although I'm neither a library dean nor director, I attended this annual gathering on behalf of Oxnard College.  On Wednesday, we received updates today on consortium database purchasing, the Council of Chief Librarians, the Electronic Access to Resources Committee and other matters.  On Thursday, we heard from State Chancellor's Office staff about the overall State budget and the allocations for California Community Colleges.  Both sessions were productive and more upbeat than one would expect under the circumstances.  We did hear, however, about librarians receiving March 15 letters and similar unwelcome news.

American River College, March 16

 Next stop:  American River College Library in Sacramento, where my hosts were Librarian Linda Shoemake and Technical Services Librarian Kathy Champion.  Like Santa Rosa, this is a very large campus that serves 40,000 students.  The library was a recently expanded and renovated.  I was shown where quake joints delineate the old and new sections. 

The curvilinear addition was designed to break up the "boxy" feel of the old building, and succeeds in making the entrance inviting.

The student lab space is packed to the gills nearly every hour the building is open, I was told.  The group study rooms also receive heavy use.

Many of the libraries I've seen incorporate atriums, patios or other outdoor/semi-outdoor spaces for rest, relaxation and the inevitable laptops and iPads.  I was told that the temperature is pleasant here even when the sun is beating down.  The ARC circulation desk offers laptops for those who need them (in-house only, but the wireless network is campuswide, of course).

A view from behind the busy Reference Desk.

Below, students studying and relaxing in the front atrium.  No on-site espresso cart, but coffee is available from a close-by cafeteria.

The great view from the second floor, even on a rainy day.

Thanks to Linda, Kathy, Dan Crump and all the ARC librarians for their tours and networking about CCC libraries.

Santa Rosa Junior College, March 15

SRJC sits in the Northern California wine country.  It serves about 40,000 students.  Part of the campus' unique architecture is that all of the buildings have red brick facades...even the parking structure.  It is a beautiful campus, even in the heavy rain that fell much of that day.

The Frank P. Doyle Library was completed in 2006.  My tour guides were Dean Cherry Li-Bugg and former dean, now library professor, Will Baty, and accompanied by San Jose State library science student Loretta Esparza.

Will was largely responsible for creating the Doyle Library and showed me many unique features, including...

...a tree sculpture in multiple sections on each of the building's four floors.  It was created from a large, beautiful tree that had to be removed to build the structure.  The pieces sit in approximately the place where the trunk once stood.   There are many other fine examples of artwork throughout the structure.

 These shots show a faculty resource area....

 ...tables that can adjusted to a student/faculty user's preferences...

...and an instruction area.  Why did I include a picture of a blank wall here, you ask?  What's unique is that it is made of special screen paint, designed for digital projector images.  If the surface is marred, it's simply painted over.  Much cheaper than electric screens, which can't be repaired once they're marked up.

More whimsical art...

...and shots of the interior.  This last one shows one of the rotundas on each floor (note the naming opportunities!)

 At my hosts' suggestion, I also visited the Herold Mahoney Library at SRJC's Petaluma Campus, dedicated in 2008.  They felt that its scale would be much more in tune with the size of Oxnard's new library, and they were correct.  As shown here, the Mahoney building is also beautiful, functional and filled with great artwork.  Thanks to librarians Molly Matheson and Karen Petersen for taking me around their workplace.

My hosts also suggested that I visit the very newest California community college library at Napa College.  Unfortunately, my travel schedule and heavy rain put the kibosh on that.

Thanks also to Judy Kay, Cherry's administrative assistant, for making all the arrangements.