Photos on the LIS Facebook page courtesy of Joseph Watson!

Since we got ourselves on Facebook and Twitter over a year ago, more than 220 students, faculty, staff, organizations and colleagues have ‘liked’ and ‘followed’ us. More are always welcome! Find us on Facebook at Middlebury College LIS, and on Twitter at @MiddLibrarian.

We wondered recently how we were doing. Should we go to other social networking sites? Are we posting useful news? What else do students want to know about? We polled our student workers and learned that most importantly, we need to make sure everyone knows we’re out there!  Facebook and Twitter still seem to be the most popular forums, and our content seems good.

To help us keep spreading the news, Mike Lynch (Systems Administrator) has joined us as a social media community manager. Great job this month, Mike!

We’re asked periodically by LIS staff members how to get info posted to the LIS Facebook page. The easiest way is to post it to the LIS blog. We’ll notice it, and we’ll either share it right away, or we’ll decide to share it later. (We now use the ShareThis plugin, and we have a planning calendar so that we don’t over-post.) Alternatively, send an email to Steve Bertolino, Mike Lynch, and Carrie Macfarlane and we’ll make a note of your request.

Joy, Steve and I attended a 3-day Writing and Teaching Retreat for faculty, organized by the CTLR and held at the Mountain Top Inn in Chittenden. We led a session called “Undergraduates as Researchers,” brainstormed with faculty in syllabus workshops, and gave individual and small-group introductions to the course hub, Moodle, and other curricular technology.

Here are just a few take-aways from the event:

• During our session on undergraduates as researchers, several faculty members agreed that determining whether or not a source is appropriate for use in a paper is one of the most important skills for student writers to learn; it also is one of the most difficult skills to teach.
• In a session on oral presentation skills, we learned that simply taking a deep breath as you approach a podium can help you speak more clearly.
• When working with first-year seminar faculty, some in the CTLR like to share this advice:  ”You are creating the students you want to see in your other classes.”
• Both students and faculty won’t always ask for help, even if they might need it. “We don’t know what we don’t know,” one faculty member pointed out.
• When planning a class or a workshop, start at the end (ask, “What do I want the students to have learned?”) and work backwards. This should help you decide which content to prioritize.

One more thing: The Mountain Top Inn is a really nice place!