Competing Priorities: Trust

TRU’s newest building and built under the LEED Gold certification program. The library is situated on the 3rd floor and reference located at the Learning Commons on the 1st floor. Some librarians and staff have offices in this building and others at the original library (Main); however, all but 3 library staff work in both buildings.

It astonishes me how little we know about what each of us does at the library.  In my experience, technical services staff and librarians are often separated by doors and walls and corridors, situated well away from one another, partitioned in such a way that seeing each other is limited and working together near to impossible. I want to know about the work my colleagues are doing and what projects they are interested in pursuing. I want to know about their work minutiae because they might have a technique, a skill, a strategy to approach a problem, task, or project that I can learn and use.  We should be sharing what we are doing, more readily, too, creating possibilities for collaboration no matter how small the project.   I think we could benefit from promoting a culture of sharing and openness in our daily work.  We share our finished work and projects, but opening up and being a little more comfortable in revealing what you are doing could draw more people to offer their expertise, become interested in your work, or think about asking you to work with them on their next project.

 Just under two weeks from the launch date of LibQual+ at our library, a 4-person team met to lay out the strategy, plan communication, and ensure the back-end technical requirements were met and working.  I was thrilled to be on that team because opportunities to participate on teams and in projects are limited and rare for part-time, sessional librarians.

The timeline was excruciatingly short to prepare for LibQual+, excite the university community to participate, and heighten awareness among library staff of the importance of the survey.  I was given the task of creating some buzz by organizing an event aimed to encourage users to complete the survey – for a reward.

The LibQual+ team determined to have two events to bookend the survey period – one during the first week and another in the last week of the survey.  Creating a time and place where students could complete the survey and enter and chance to win movie tickets AND get a free piece of pizza was my project.  To do this would require help from many of my colleagues – librarians and technicians – with whom I have never shared my work, asked about their job, nor participated on a team.

Various steps were taken to get the project going, including:

• Sending email to all who staff the reference desk outlining the event and expected outcomes, and asking for volunteers
• Charting tasks on a timeline (book space with facilities, create graphic elements and collateral, reserve laptops, decide on pizza place)
• Defining scope of event

My organizational skills are well defined and sharp, so I was not concerned about leading this project, but I was apprehensive because I did not know the interest level nor skill sets of those who had volunteered to help.

Then I found myself with competing or conflicting priorities, only I didn’t know it.  I was heading away from campus for 4 – 6 days, arriving back the day before this do-the-survey-get-a-pizza event, a rather critical time to be away when I was project lead.  It was during an interview for a position in which I am keenly interested that one of the selection committee members pointed it out.  I was startled.  I had not thought that leading the project AND preparing for and participating in a tremendously important interview was conflicting.  Yet, it was.

I reflected on that position.

This is what I found.

Yes, it was a situation of competing priorities.

No, it did not feel like a conflict.

Why?

I had the support of my colleagues to actively seek rewarding, full-time, and permanent library work.  This gave me great confidence and assurance as I prepared for the interview, taking time away to travel and research.

Even though I had not a good understanding of the skills of those who were helping with this event, I realised that I trusted them without reservation.  It was that foundational trust that reduced the potentially prickly conflict in priorities. Before I left the campus, we had agreed that all work could be uploaded to a file in the organizational drive on the server where I could see the work progress and contribute to documents and creative pieces.  Email was the easiest mode of communication knowing that I would not be checking nor responding during for a couple of days. When I returned to campus the day before the event, all of the draft work was completed, facilities booked, pizzas ordered, and volunteers scheduled.

Competing or conflicting priorities were managed in part because I trusted my colleagues.  The event ran smoothly, the interview was rewarding, and I learned much about my colleague’s skills, interests, talents, and willingness to contribute.

I sent out a Survey Monkey for feedback from everyone who volunteered to help with this event.  Assessing the project in the context of resources used, scope, set-up and tear down logistics, and communication proved valuable as the next event is less than a month away.  I will use the feedback and revamp the process for organizing and executing the event.

A few of the volunteers working closest to me on the project casually discussed the experience offering me additional insights.  They found that having a leader who accepts the varying levels of participation from the team fostered trust.  They trusted me to accept their contributions no matter how small.  I realised that my interpretation and managing of these competing priorities struck a balance in the context of trust.  I trusted my colleagues to happily participate at their own pace with varying levels of interest and expertise and they trusted that I would be encouraging, supporting, and accepting.

The next time I have a project, I am confident my colleagues will participate to the best of their abilities and I trust the outcome will be aligned with expectations.  Why am I confident?  Because I will ask for help and show my colleagues on what I am working.

Academic Libraries and Infographics

Presenting library services, instructional materials, information, data, or announcements in innovative formats catches the attention of users, improves information retention, and increases opportunities for libraries to engage their constituents.

I follow several academic libraries on Pinterest specifically as part of my research on information seeking processes and how Pinterest is used to extend the library beyond its physical walls presenting information in alternative formats in the context of Web 2.0 social media.

In this blog entry, I present examples of infographics on a variety of topics. My research on Pinterest and Academic Libraries is nearing completion with a blog entry expected in the next few months. But first . . .

WordPress created a virtual infographic at the end of 2012 providing its subscribers with data to review. Here is the one produced for this blog and in the style of that which academic libraries can produce to present data and other information to their audiences.

Click here to see the complete report.

In my experience, few librarians have the skills or interest to create appropriate and well designed promotional materials. A sign produced on 8″ x 11″ paper, consisting of all-caps, bold text filling the entire page, is easily dismissed or overlooked, lacks professionalism, and is counter to any brand-recognition marketing program established by most libraries. Some well-financed universities and colleges provide in-house creative and marketing services where the library can coordinate production of infographics and other signage but for those without such services, fostering graphic design and transliteracy competencies among librarians can be challenging. I am fortunate to have a background in graphic arts, design, and marketing and a continued interest to present information creatively, appropriately, and aligned with established institutional policy, and I am happy to bring that expertise to my workplace.

Social media and Web 2.0 tools are converging and how academic librarians are responding is startlingly varied. That variance is largely due to resources available and existing levels of the necessary skills and competencies to produce good quality materials. Designing and creating infographics requires those librarians involved to develop transliteracy competencies. What is your library doing to present data, events, and materials as social media converges? Does your library have a team with a cross-section of capabilities and skills to create materials in innovative formats? Is promotion using Web 2.0 embedded in a strategic plan? If not, perhaps it is time to consider how to integrate infographics into current outreach, marketing, and promotion initiatives.

Infographics:Libraries, Colleges, and Universities

Courtesy of: Schools.com

Source: educause.edu via Julie on Pinterest

Courtesy of: Schools.com

Courtesy of: Schools.com

Source: winfographics.com via Julie on Pinterest

Source: winfographics.com via Julie on Pinterest

Infographics & Information Literacy

Presenting information, data, or library instruction content, in appealing and innovative formats offers librarians opportunities to engage students and library users in services, resources, and instruction.

An infographic is a visual representation of information, data, or ideas through images. Think visual storytelling.  Mike Smiciklas recently authored “The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect With Your Audiences” reviewing the history of the infographic and guiding readers through design elements, the science of visualization, and many uses of visual storytelling.

I create infographics to present material covered during information literacy sessions. Subject faculty can load the graphic into course management programs (Moodle, BlackBoard) where students can easily access materials pertaining to library instruction and resources.  While infograhics can be printed, they are intended for viewing online where embedded objects and hyperlnks can be opened.

We are bombarded by slick images every minute of everyday.  The aim of an infographic is to parse what might be perceived as an overwhelming amount of information into manageable bites or small nuggets that transform text into memorable images and meaning.

However, creating an infographic is not easy nor a project to be undertaken by the nervous, timid, design-challenged, style-deficient, or technology-phobic person. Plan.  Prepare. Revise. Re-revise. You must consider images, size and orientation, icons, information flow, colour schemes, links, references, font styles and sizes, audience, and output.

There are many free online programs now available offering templates for creating infographics. Try any one of these to get started:

• Visual.ly
• Infogr.am
• Statsilk
• Datameer
• Wordle

The authors of another WordPress Blog, Seo Optimization Articles , have compliled a list of what they believe are the top 10 infographic online tools. Furthermore, they have written some instructions and ideas to consider when creating an infographic.

This is an example of using an infographic to present learning outcomes and topics presented in a library instruction session for first year university students:  STSS Follow up Feb 2 2013 (PDF). The infographic is 30 cm x 55 cm.

Twitter: Successful for Information Literacy Instruction

As a social media platform, Twitter is extremely easy to use and quick to adopt. Users distribute short snippets of information in a dynamic stream that is accessed on a desktop or mobile device. Twitter’s format options allow for a variety of ways to communicate. Users demonstrate transliteracy skills when composing tweets using #hashtags, @messaging, RT (retweets), micro-blogging, and link shortening and distribution.

Twitter has evolved from a simple message delivery system where users shared odd and seemingly meaningless information. For example, in the early days of Twitter users often shared trite thoughts such as what they ate for dinner, or that they just saw a bird in the sky, or that they had a sore tooth. That is no longer the norm nor is it tolerated. Now users can follow political parties and politicians, national radio such as CBC or Jian Ghomeshi, a CBC radio personality. Professional associations tweet links to policy updates, job opportunities, or upcoming events. Health organization tweet alerts and service announcements. Sports organization like the Giants baseball team use Twitter to connect fans with upcoming game dates, individual athletes, statistics, and real-time game coverage.

Formal Information Instruction Sessions

Authenticity
Twitter’s social media platform is used by millions by choice. It is an organic tool devoid of stiff and formal demands. Learners are engaged in structures, patterns, and language that are familiar and of their own authorship.

Content Specific
Twitter content generated by learners in the classroom is original, real-time, real-world, diverse and highly-dynamic content. Twitter offers collections of digital content that learners then parse, evaluate, and synthesize into new knowledge.

Passive or Active Engagement
Creating a #hashtag for a session allows Twitter to be used as a passive or active learning tool. Learners can engage, view, evaluate, tweet, connect, and produce during and after the session. The librarian instructor designs pedagogical structures for a variety of roles and activities for the learner by task or group. For example: the class can be divided into two groups assigned different #hashtags. Each group is given a specific activity and individuals contribute to the backchannel conversation by tweeting their successes, observations, links to information, answers to tasks, and/or peer-to-peer conversations. At the end of activity, each group can review the #hashtag conversation created by the other.

In-Depth Analytics
Twitter analytics are available from Twitter and a few, 3rd party applications. These have powerful real-time monitoring tools that encourage complex problem-solving, audience analytics, and trend transparency that can work for learners in any course, topic, classroom, or grade level.

• twitonomy
• Twitter Web Analytics
• twitalyzer

Awareness
Twitter is familiar. Though there might be some pushback from one or two students who, on principle, do not want to use Twitter, most are more than too eager to use it or are already using it. The demand on the librarian instructor to establish procedural protocols and etiquette is reduced so that students immediately focus on content and task.

Customize or Personalize
Twitter accounts are free. Profiles can be personalized with specific names, avatars, colours, images, and following choices. During an instructional session tweets are unique and differentiated from others by the use of #hashtags that are assignment or topic specific.

Accountability
Twitter accounts are open and digital. Old tweets fall off after a period of time so librarian instructors archive a session’s #hashtag in a blog or Word document for review and referencing by the subject instructor and other students. While respecting privacy and some degree of anonymity, it is important to plan for the archiving of tweets. It is important to establish foundational in-class etiquette. For example, tweets must have a positive message and tone. Tweets may contain links to appropriate class materials and resources. Tweets cannot share personal and private information of any peer or instructor.

Digital Connectivity
Twitter is digitally connected to various other platforms. Learners can tweet an Instagram photo of their search results or keyword search string, or link a tutorial video to Facebook or a WordPress blog. This kind of connectivity allows more than one platform to be used simultaneously, encouraging higher-level critical thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and creation. Transliteracy skills.

Instant Audience
Using Twitter in an instruction session provides an instant audience for the librarian instructor and the learners. Using @ messaging, #hashtags, and direct access to experts, mentors, associations, and institutions can provide instant visibility for a student’s work.

Flexible Actuation
Posting short messages hourly, daily, or even weekly is not necessary or even advised to use Twitter. Using Twitter as an observation tool, with categories of trending topics, #hashtags, and lists, is valuable.

There is some recent research published in support of using Twitter in education and instruction. The following are practical guides for using Twitter in instruction.

Twitter for Academics: An Introduction, by Katherine Linzy, University of Evansville.

Engaging Higher Education Students Using Twitter by Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, Liberty University

Twitter in the Classroom: A manual for Teachers produced by the University of Pittsburg

Interviewing Revisited

I have been rather busy in recent weeks interviewing for positions of great interest to me. I am aware that selection committees convening to review CV’s and interview short-listed candidates are committing themselves to promote the university where they work, work collegially with their peers, and recommend the best possible candidate meeting the established requirements. I believe that anyone on such a committee takes his or her task seriously. I consider my participation in the interview process quite seriously, too.

Last April I posted an entry about interviewing that outlined some of the steps I take to prepare and provided a list of 30 questions I had compiled over a period of time. Today, I want to reiterate some of those steps.

From the very moment that you submit an application, you are embarking on a professional adventure, a serious adventure because you are exposing yourself to your professional peers and future colleagues. Once you have depressed the enter button or clicked the submit tab, you are agreeing to engage in a professional process that involves many people and various resources, including financial. I take this process very seriously.

I’ve created a flexible process through which I hope to maximize my own resources, respect those with whom I am communicating, and reduce the inevitable physical, mental, and emotional stresses. Here are a few of the things I consider when preparing for an interview:

1. Tailor existing cover letter and CV to job posting – check spelling and grammar.
2. Submit application in accordance with posting specification – check spelling and grammar.
3. When contacted to arrange an interview, consult personal calendar before committing and if there is a conflict, offer several alternative times.
4. Contact supervisor with details of my interview schedule, arrange shift coverage, and notify colleagues where appropriate.
   Contact referees, sending posting details and an updated CV and cover letter.
5. Arrange transportation and lodging where necessary.
6. Arrange dog kennel /daycare services.
7. Choose appropriate clothing, cleaned and pressed, polish shoes / boots, and select backup clothing and footwear – perhaps a perfect time to shop for those few new pieces.
8. Research interviewing university library, university, and members of selection committee. Research should include strategic plan, mission statements, faculty collective agreements, resources, services provided, upcoming conference participation by library staff, research focus, and instruction model.
9. Prepare responses to possible questions.
10. Research and prepare presentation.
11. Rehearse presentation in front of others – family, colleagues, and friends.
12. Reach out to colleagues and peers who you feel will help you develop your interview strategy, presentation, and follow-up.
13. Develop a follow-up package that includes a PDF of the presentation with speaker notes sent with an email note, and a handwritten letter sent through the post office.

For recent interviews, I had taken all questions collected from previous interview sessions and organized them under specific headings. I found this to be tremendously helpful when responding to questions. Here are some of the headings I use:

• Prioritizing workload
• Prioritizing resources
• Knowledge of resources
• Working under pressure
• Managing a budget
• Creative problem solving
• Handling a difficult situation
• Effective written communication
• Effective oral communication
• Information Literacy pedagogy
• Technological tools
• Emerging trends
• Recording and analyzing user feedback
• Working well in a team
• Something outside of work that might help me in the role
• Short-term plans / goals – how I establish goals
• Medium-term plans / goals – how I establish goals
• Questions to ask the panel / director
• Why I want the position
• Why I’d be good at it
• Strengths and weaknesses

Two recent interview experiences I had were incredibly rewarding. During most interviews, I feel glared upon, in a spotlight; no matter how many times the panel tells me to relax or presents the interview as a casual series of questions. However, I had a most refreshing experience during a face-to-face interviewing process a few weeks ago. The panel members were truly relaxed and well-practiced for delivering interview questions. At periods throughout the interview, cross-table conversations occurred where other panel members contributed to clarify a point or ask a tangential question. I was encouraged by this posturing for I believe that a selection committee will learn more about candidates when interviews are conversational and engaging more of a candidate’s personality.

Another interview I had recently was conducted with a conference call because members of the selection committee were distributed across other campuses. Telephone interviews are often awkward and challenging when there are no visual cues and speaker phones create audio difficulties. This interview might have been additionally confounded because it was a conference call that had members’ entrances and exits notified by an audible ping. Yet, the convener of the interview presented questions with a tone suggesting openness and sincerity that positioned the interview as unscripted, yet covering areas of concern and importance for the committee.

Some might find interviewing exasperating and exhausting; certainly they are that and more. However, I am rejuvenated after an interview. I feel more confident in my areas of expertise, find other issues or topics in which I become interested, identify gaps in my understanding of a concept or as aspect of my professionalism, and learn about my own resilience.

Developing Competencies

The ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee identified 10 trends popular in library literature, at conferences, and in academic libraries for the year 2012.

Many of the identified trends resonate with me, and I am encouraged to reflect upon my experiences with those trends in the context of developing competencies to perform better in my profession and demonstrate my value to both my profession and my academic community: communicating value, technology, mobile environments, and user behaviours and expectations.

Communicating value
Academic libraries and librarians continue to be pressured to demonstrate their value to their community and globally. How are librarians going to articulate that libraries are integral to student and faculty recruitment, retention, and success? Must libraries develop and execute more rigorous assessments of services and programs to support their value? How might academic libraries better articulate all levels of services and tools currently in place and strategically planned for future development that directly and indirectly contribute to teaching and learning, research, and student success?

To prepare for a recent interview, I read a report by Megan Oakleaf, Value of Academic Libraries. Of particular interest to me are the recommendations for demonstrating value through interaction with faculty and student engagement in and beyond the classroom. Thoughts and frustrations most commonly expressed in conversations with librarians over the past three years centered on how librarians might better communicate with faculty. Some of my peers seemed reticent to contact faculty, felt discounted and devalued when efforts to present library services at departmental meetings were denied, and subsequently, rarely extended themselves outside of the library proper.

I believe that we must be persistent and change our self-perspective, self-image. We are not guest lecturers, online tutors, and online research guides and pathfinders. We must change our self-image to believe that we can participate in collaboration (course, assignment, and curriculum), resource and discovery support, and join conversations about technologies used for instruction. We already look at course descriptions and ask to view syllabi, assignments, reading lists, course wikis, and reserves. Yet, in our conversations with instructors and faculty, do we ask to integrate library resources into that material and proactively provide information about appropriate and relevant resources?

I have established several professional goals for the next calendar year. One goal pertains to participating more with faculty as an ambassador or representative of the library. One way in which I was able to work toward achieving such a goal was to participate in TRU’s Centre for Student Engagement and Learning Innovation “Teaching with Technology” Lunch & Learn Workshop.  Following the session, one participant contacted me to extend thanks and contacted my Chair to express his appreciation for the library’s involvement in the event and commented upon the level of competence demonstrated by the librarian – me. I believe that academic librarians might look for opportunities within their own campuses where connecting with faculty or students can be achieved.

Technology
The Horizon Report states that mobile app, tablet computing, game-based learning, and gesture-based technologies are already becoming the norm for our students or will be part of our teaching and learning environment within the next 5 years.

What do I do to develop competencies in the use of these technologies? I explore mobile apps and other instructional technologies. I have used clickers and SMART Boards in the classroom, continuing to hone my skills to use more of the features and leverage functionalities offered by those technologies. I now create games using Turning Point clickers within PowerPoint presentations where students can respond using their tablets or smart phones. Twitter and Poll Everywhere have become standard instructional tools I use in the classroom. Recently, I have toted my laptop to points of reference interaction where I work with a student to create a screen cast of our session using TechSmith’s Jing and email it to him/her. I believe this turns a strained or possibly failed reference interaction in to a positive and successful session. I must thank my colleague Jennifer O’Donnell for reminding me about the value of screen casting.

Gesture-based instruction and learning are not yet within my reach but I continue to read about such developments in professional literature and watch information videos on the topic.

This video presents the design and evaluation of Maestro, a gesture-based presentation system whose design was informed by observations of real-world practices. This was developed at the University of Waterloo in 2009.
 

 
This video produced by Kinetic “Teacher’s Guide to Kinect: How to Program for Kinect and Gesture-Based Learning” explains how to set up and calibrate the software to your gestures and needs. “With this software and a community of passionate educators, we can move beyond the rhetoric and create true 21st century classrooms.”

 
Mobile environments
Mobile devices are prevalent in our student body. More and more departments are engaging the mobile user in teaching and learning environments, specifically nursing and health care. Mobile users are searching for information or confirming facts through their handhelds. What does this mean for libraries and librarians? How can we support the mobile user?

I believe that we have to consider content. For nurses and health practitioners at the point of care, it is important to think through the scope of content, depth of coverage, authority, and linking to other resources. Are we able to work with our vendors to ensure that databases are delivered with mobile versions?

What about compatibility and platforms? The software we choose to support and the apps we develop must be compatible with iPads, iPhones, Androids, Smart Phones, and others. Will we not have to consider web-based components and free downloadable programs? Are our LibGuides mobile compatible? Though many of these decisions will be under the purview of a systems or web librarian, every librarian will be responsible for developing a suite of competencies for his/her use and demonstration of the software across various devices when interacting with students and faculty.

User behaviours and expectations
Students entering university are technologically savvy. We know this. They are expecting that we will be using Web 2.0 technologies to communicate, instruct, and share information with them. Are we? Can you?

Users are expecting immediate access to resources. Can we do that? I believe that academic libraries have been focused on providing a wide variety of resources, but that is no longer the expectation of our users. Why? Providing access to information that is convenient and seamless is the expectation. To get and keep our users’ attention, we must be convenient. We must offer various access points for users to connect with the human side of library services. We offer texting, voice calling, emailing, SKYPE’ing, chat software, instant messaging, text reference, and services at kiosks situated at events or throughout campuses. We can leverage technology to connect the library with library users wherever they are – home, café, laboratory, classroom, and on their mobile device.

Regardless if we are compelled by our employers or take initiative ourselves to develop technology competencies, academic librarians must adopt technology across services points. Not any technology. Not all the time. But we must be curious about technology and how best to leverage it in our environments.

Business Reference 101

I have begun another course offered through the American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), Business Reference 101, with Celia Ross.  I am interested in learning more about working with users who have information needs in the context of research in Business.

The first lesson in the course was a bit of a surprise.  I was prepared to dive right into exploring business-specific databases and research tools available for discovery.  This was not the case.  Ross spent some time reviewing best practices for reference interactions.  I wondered how she was going to bridge reference practices and business reference until she brought the discussion back to a librarian’s reflective practice – the potential for immediate reflection. Reflection isn’t reserved for a time after an event or situation but can effectively guide an exchange while that exchange is occurring. I was reminded of the times I have quietly questioned myself about a tool I had chosen or resource with which I was working, not audibly but to myself. Ross suggests asking yourself these questions aloud, indicating to the user that there are aspects of the search process you might question. By sharing these questions with the user, I am positioning myself as a partner in his or her information-seeking process. I am gaining agreement from the user that we can work together, collaborate, to meet his or her information need.

Ross pointed out that partnering with the users is invaluable.  What does that really mean?  It means that we must be open to collaborating with the user allowing both of us to guide the research process, partnering in the reference exchange process.  The research interaction should be a mutually rewarding experience of discovery.  In the role of reference librarian, I engage the user in the process to ensure I am guiding him or her toward the best possible resources in the right format.  The user partners with me, sharing what he or she already know about the topic and the research experience to this point.  The user becomes confident in my ability to help him or her.

Returning to Reference and User Services Association’s (RUSA) Guidelines, Standards, & Definitions helps me provide better service each time I am at the desk.  I review the guidelines, reflect upon recent exchanges and note where I could improve.

Specifically, I review RUSA’s Professional Competencies for Reference and User Services Librarians  identifying where my competency, skill, or knowledge could improve. What did I find today?  Under the section “Collaboration” I find the first goal, “[T]he librarian treats the user as a collaborator and partner in the information seeking process” directly aligned with the first part of Ross’s course. Ross correctly reminds her class about the importance of partnering with users.

During reference interactions, I empathize with users, asking for his or her opinion of the experience as I move through a particular database or source.  I might frame the question like this: “What is it about this database that you find easiest to use?” or “When you are using the features of this database, what are you finding most useful?”  In my experience, checking in with the user at intervals throughout the reference interaction cues me to where I might review the search process, when to change search strategies, how the user is accommodating the new search process we are discovering and features a particular search tool or resource.

Every Friday, the reference team where I work meets to discuss new technologies, problem solve issues, learn about new database interfaces, and share reference desk experiences.  This week, I am facilitating the meeting and will be opening the floor to discuss RUSA’s guidelines for reference staff.

How very timely it is that my course opens this week broaching on the very same topic.