Tags » Research & Instruction

 
 
 

University of South Carolina Library Degree Program

January 9, 2009 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Brenda Ellis

The University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science plans to begin a Master’s program for a regional “cohort” of students in the New England region. This is an expansion of a program that was previously conducted in Maine. The program is proposed to begin in the fall semester of 2009; beginning students may also be admitted to the program in spring 2010 and fall 2010.

 

Classes will be presented as an interactive online program utilizing a variety of technologies. Attendance on the home campus of the University is not a required part of the program. Students admitted to the program will have several on site experiences at a location(s) in New England, including (but not limited to): a beginning orientation, portfolio preparation and state association meetings.

 

For more information, contact: Tilda Reeder, Admissions Coordinator, Student Services Office:  tildareeder@scu.edu

 

The University of South Carolina is located in Columbia; phone number for the School lo Library and Information Science: 803-777-3858.

 

Tags: ,
1 Comment »

LISt News from Research & Instruction

December 12, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

The Undergraduate Research Office is gearing up again for its spring Student Research Symposium, which is scheduled for April 17, 2009. Students from all classes are invited to present their research, and LIS provides them with both research and technology support. Watch for updates and links to the Symposium web site and LIS support pages.

From Brenda: The end of the term brings the last push to finish papers.  Many econ students have emailed, stopped in, or made appointments for help finding data.  Usually they’ve already looked in the obvious places and crawled the web, so their questions aren’t easy. Sometimes a gov’t or international org. website has some of what they need, but they need earlier years, other countries, another variable, etc.

Then there are the usual students who are looking for books and articles for papers. They are appreciative of the help they get both from librarians helping them to identify resources and from the staff and students in ILL, who get all those resources we don’t have.

One of the highlights of the semester was participating in the Jane Austen Dinner and Dance held for Mary Ellen Bertolini’s FYSE1144 Austen and Film class.  It’s held downstairs in the CFA.  Brenda and Mack joined the students in the class for a catered dinner featuring foods mentioned in the Austen novels and then joined in the country dancing afterwards.  We all had so much fun we didn’t want to stop dancing. See: https://segue.middlebury.edu/view/html/site/fyse1144a-f08

Tags: ,
No comments »

Kids’ Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures

December 5, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Shel Sax

This is a recently completed three-year collaborative project funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Carried out by researchers at the University of Southern California and University of California, Berkeley, the digital youth project explores how kids use digital media in their everyday lives.

Digital Youth Media has the complete report as a white paper and a two page summary in pdf format. If you’ve wondered how today’s youth are using digital media, It is interesting reading.

Tags: , , , ,
No comments »

LIS Authors

December 5, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Judy Watts

Geospatial Technology Support in Small Academic Libraries: Time to Jump on Board?, by Carrie M. Macfarlane and Christopher M. Rodgers, Middlebury College, has just appeared in the Fall 2008 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship. This article describes in some detail the work that Carrie did with GIS Interns Katie Clagett and Chris Rogers leading to the Google Earth and GIS support that is now offered by Digital Media Tutors in the Wilson Lab.

Congratulations to Carrie and Chris for producing a piece that is both entertaining and useful to other institutions attempting to find a way to offer support for geospatial technologies. What is described in the article represents a huge commitment by three very dedicated individuals – Carrie, Katie, and Chris – leading to the successful application of geospatial techniques across the curriculum. There were many challenges along the way, including rapidly developing technology and the end of funding for GIS interns, but the result is that students and faculty may now find a wide range of support to suit their needs. Kudos, too, to Joe Antonioli and the Digital Media tutors for stepping up to the challenge and adding yet more ways to help.

Tags: ,
1 Comment »

The Open Knowledge Initiative and a Network for Content and Curriculum

November 21, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Alex Chapin

Adam Franco and I attended meetings last week hosted by the MIT Office of Educational Innovation and Technology. Adam attended a meeting focused on OSID V3, the next version of the Open Knowledge Initiative open service interface definitions. Harmoni, our application framework, uses the OSIDs to provide services to Segue and Concerto. The latest version of the OSIDs solves some challenging obstacles to application interoperability. Adam will be collaborating with a developer from Sakai to create a prototype of an “enterprise service bus” that would demonstrate the power of OSIDs to allow multiple systems to share content. I pitched a similar idea in a brief presentation I did at Project Bamboo workshop earlier this month and in my contributions to discussions of a “services framework” on the the Bamboo wiki.

Concurrent with the OSID V3 meeting that Adam participated in was as another meeting I attended that focused on the idea of a “network for content and curriculum.” This is a logical extension of the Open Knowledge Initiative, exploring ways to make it easier for individuals and institutions to discover, access and re-mix educational resources. The meeting showcased the PERSEE project, a program at the University of Lumière Lyon II to digitize French scientific journals with the goal of provide interoperable access to this material.

Tags: , , ,
No comments »

The Vermont Collection Update

November 21, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Lynn Saunders

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a focus group gathered to review some websites created by the Center for Rural Studies. As a Federal Depository we are affiliated with the Center for Rural Studies as a State Data affiliate. The first site we reviewed was Vermont Indicators Online. This site is very user friendly and a great resource for Census information for Vermonters. The Center has compiled much used Census information in an easy to use format. You can check it out at http://maps.vcgi.org/indicators/.

Next we reviewed their Vermont Housing Data site. Here they have compiled state and federal housing statistics. You can even check out what you might be able to afford for a house. You can find this housing website at http://www.housingdata.org/.

Our final website review was the Vermont Planning Information Center. Again CSR (Center for Rural Studies) has compiled a great deal of information for local and state planners. There are manuals, guides and laws online. The site is user friendly and provides a comprehensive list of resources. This planning site can be found at: http://www.vpic.info/ .

The focus groups all agreed that the websites were user friendly, provided a great deal of information, and were very useful. The focus group was small but diverse.

Tags: ,
2 Comments »

Brown Bag Web Tools Series

November 14, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Elin Waagen

Last week we held the 3rd in a series of Brown Bag Web 2.0 sessions.
If you missed it – be sure to put the next one on your calendar!
(Let us know if you want to share a tool you are using)

Many thanks to our presenters!
Here is summary of fun – and productive – tools LIS staff are currently using:
Jeff uses iGoogle to keep multiple resources in one easy to access place
Adam F uses Twitter to log his daily activity – and extracts a list when its time to write his PFDP
Mike uses FeedDemon for PC to easily track sites he is following
Adam F uses NetNewsWire – the Mac version – as his reader
Elin uses CommonCraft as a site for easy explanations of web 2.0 tools
Mary uses GoodReads to build her personal reading list and to see and share what others are reading

Mike uses ChaCha to settle bar bets
Mike uses RememberTheMilk to track everything he has to do
Mike uses Jott as a reminder service
Adam D uses GrandCentral to personalize and control his phone
Bryan uses Delicious to share and store his bookmarks
Joe A uses Facebook to remember birthdays and to connect with family

So…not only do you get to have fun, you can also win a prize!
The following people have won coffee mugs (with coffee card included):Steve Bertolino, Pij Slater, and Mike Lynch
Others have won silly toy prizes – for non-web fun: Rachel Manning, Mary Backus, Jean Simmons, Judy Watts, Mack Roark, Alex Chapin, Adam Franco and Carrie Macfarlane.

Do you have a fun web tool that you are using for work or play? Have you discovered a new tool still in beta?
Interested in sharing it with others in LIS?
Want to present? Presentations are casual and short – no lengthy preparation required.
Just want to share an idea that we can present for you?
If so, please contact Elin or Bryan.

Save the date and time!
The next Tasty Web Tidbits mealtime session is scheduled for Tuesday 11/25 at 6 pm in Lib 105. The idea is to get together, have some fun and share the web tools we are using. Presentations are about 10 minutes long max. Each session has 3 – 4 presenters with time for spur of the moment sharing. There is a prize drawing at each session. Attendance at all sessions increases the chance to win the grand prize in December.
Please bring your own bag meal – and enjoy a fun meal-time hour with co-workers.
Hope you can join us!

Tags: , , , , ,
No comments »

Statistics from Library Systems

November 7, 2008 by
Categories: LIS Staff Interest

Submitted by Mike Lynch

  • How many times per hour does Midcat get searched, on average?  340
  • What’s the busiest hour of the day for the catalog? 3:00 p.m.
  • How many times did an EBSCO search refer our users to Academic OneFile for the full-text of the article last fiscal year? 378
  • How many times did users go through WebBridge to get to Project Muse last year? 284
  • Where did Mike get all these numbers from anyway? From statistics that Barbara has been compiling from various sources.
  • Can I see them for myself? Sure. Just go to O:\ORGS\LIS\LISstaff\ILS III Millennium User Materials\OPAC statistics

Tags: , , , ,
No comments »