David Horth to speak at LAMA President’s Program

From LEADS from LAMA: “The 2008 President’s Program from the Libraray Administration and Management Association (LAMA) will feature David Magellan Horth speaking about “Visual and Verbal Literacy – Skills for Contemporary Leadership.” The program will be presented Sunday, June 29, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, CA.

Mr. Horth is a Senior Enterprise Associate at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is co-author of the award winning book: The Leader’s Edge: Six Creative Competencies for Navigating Complex Challenges. His fluency with the technical and administrative aspects of business, deep knowledge and practice of creativity processes, and his own creative and artistic flair combine to make him much sought after as a unique keynote speaker, presenter, and workshop facilitator. As an innovative designer, facilitator, and coach, Horth focuses on the confluence of design, creativity and leadership development.”

Looks like a good one.

-Megan P.

Post-MLS Residency Position: Pauline A. Young Residency, University of Delaware

The University of Delaware Library is actively recruiting to fill the position of Pauline A. Young Residency. The complete job description including application instructions is attached below.  It is also available at: http://www2.lib.udel.edu/personnel/employment/index.html
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Position: Pauline A. Young ResidencyDescription: This two-year residency offers recent MLS graduates a breadth of professional experience in a technology-rich, academic research library setting. The Residency is designed to meet both the professional goals and interests of the Resident as well as the service and operational priorities of the Library. In the first year of the program the Resident works with librarians in several key areas of the Library, gaining broadly based experience. First-year assignments may include assisting with reference services and instruction; working with multimedia services; expanding access to electronic resources; processing collections; and organization and staff development activities. In the second year the Resident selects an area of responsibility that builds on this foundation and furthers his or her specific professional goals. The purpose of the Residency is to increase the diversity of professional staff at the University of Delaware and to encourage the involvement of under-represented racial and ethnic minorities in academic librarianship. The Residency forms one part of the Library’s affirmative action plan and reflects the University of Delaware’s strong commitment to affirmative action. More information about the Residency program is available online at: http://www2.lib.udel.edu/personnel/brochure.htm.

Qualifications: The University of Delaware Library seeks energetic, self-directed individuals interested in developing a career in academic research librarianship. To qualify, applicants must have a recent graduate degree from an ALA-accredited program, demonstrate strong written and oral communication skills, demonstrate the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with colleagues and library users from diverse backgrounds. A willingness to learn and a desire for professional growth is essential. Members of under-represented racial and ethnic groups are encouraged to apply.

Environment: Serving 20,000 students, the University of Delaware provides a broad range of academic programs at the undergraduate, master, and doctoral levels. The University of Delaware has a beautiful campus located one hour from Philadelphia and two hours from New York and Washington, DC. The Library makes accessible a broad range of electronic resources, including more than 40,000 electronic journals and newspapers via the Library web pages, 230 databases, and over 16,000 videos. Library collections include 2.7 million volumes. The Library has 200 public access workstations, 200 laptop connections, wireless access, and a state of the art Student Multimedia Design Center. The Library is a member of the Association of Research Libraries, the Center for Research Libraries, the Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance, and PALINET. More information about the Library is available at http://www.lib.udel.edu

Salary: Appointment at the Assistant Librarian level. Minimum $43,600.

Benefits: Excellent benefits with vacation of 22 working days. TIAA-CREF or Fidelity retirement with 11% of salary contributed by the University. Tuition remission for dependents and course fee waiver for employee.  Full information about University of Delaware benefits is available at http://www.udel.edu/Benefits/menu. The Library also provides mentoring opportunities along with travel support for professional development and participation in a national library association.

To Apply: Send letter of application that addresses your interest in a residency experience and a career in academic librarianship, a current resume, and the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of three references to Julie Brewer, Coordinator, Personnel & Staff Development, University of Delaware Library, Newark, DE 19717-5267 or e-mail to LibraryEmployment@winsor.lib.udel.edu by May 16, 2008.

The University of Delaware is an equal opportunity employer which encourages applications from minority groups and women.

The ABCs of Learning Outcomes

Yesterday, the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog posted a bit about Student Learning Outcome basics. The writers suggested you remember your ABCs: A-”Audience” B-”Behavior” C-”Condition” and sometimes D-”Degree. Screening “Snow White” is used as an example to illustrate these four points: “After seeing the film ‘Snow White’ (the condition), the students (audience) will be able to name (behavior) five of the seven dwarfs (degree).”

They went on to list additional 5 points you should keep in mind when developing your learning outcomes:

1. Start small.
2. Make a list of what students should know or be able to do or demonstrate after a specific program. Turn that list into learning outcomes.
3. Don’t over think. Learning outcomes can be basic, like the “Snow White” example.
4. Keep them assessable. Don’t use behaviors like “will understand” or “will appreciate” because they are too difficult to assess. Use behaviors like “will identify” or “can list” because that is a behavior you can assess.
5. Finally, relate your learning outcomes to the larger objectives and outcomes you are seeking.

This reminded me very much of the process we go through when we submit poster, paper, or panel proposals for our conferences. The submission guidelines always ask for learning outcomes and I’ve always been a little lost when it comes to listing those.

These tips helped me get a better handle on what I think is being sought. Just replace “students” with “participants”, keep it simple, list what the participants can do at the conclusion of the program (making outcomes assessable), and tie the outcomes to a larger objective (like the conference theme).

Sounds good to me. Hope it helps.

-Megan P.

Academic Freedom Quiz

Go ahead.  Test you knowledge.  (Quiz compliments of ACRLog)

1. Academic freedom is:
a) an inherent right granted to faculty
b) a protection guaranteed to those who have a faculty contract
c) a privilege granted to faculty by individual institutions
d) all of the above

2. A tenured professor directs a member of your library staff not to remove from the stacks several “library use only” books that need bibliographic maintenance work because she may need to refer to them at any time for her studies. Academic freedom gives the faculty member the right to do so. True or False?

3. Academic freedom is not a guarantee of freedom of speech. True or false?

4. Both tenured and tenure-track faculty enjoy the full benefits of academic freedom? True or false?

5. For academic librarians, having traditional intellectual freedom typically means:

a) a guaranteed right of free speech
b) a commitment to ensuring users’ access to information
c) a right to enjoy the protections of academic freedom even if not tenured
d) a form of academic freedom that applies only to collection development work

6. Which of the following organizations was the first to issue an official statement on the right of intellectual freedom:

a) american association of university professors
b) american library association
c) american civil liberties union
d) united nations

Here is a link to the solutions page.

Cheers.

-Megan P.

ACRL/LAMA Space Planning Wiki

ACRL and the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) recently released a new resource for architects and others planning higher education library spaces.  It’s a wiki with lists of considerations before planning (including furniture, fixtures and lighting in addition to space) and links to user studies, especially my current favorite: Studying Students (pdf).

More details about the wiki are available on the Leads from LAMA blog.

-Megan P.