OR Info Lit Summit Debrief

Here are my notes/debrief on the 2008 Oregon Information Literacy Summit (11/21/08)- including planning process and things to consider for next year.

As members of the Summit, it is our job to raise consciousness, generate language and buzzwords around information literacy that bring others in to the conversation, and distribute information to our colleagues who are not able to attend the Summit.

8:30 – 9:00 am Registration coffee and tea

• Registration was approximately 40. The smaller group size worked well for large discussions and reporting out from the small group breakout discussions. I would have liked to have a larger group because I know there are many who wanted but were unable to attend. To consider for next year: start planning earlier, send invitations and agenda with as much detail as possible, send invitations earlier, create a listserv of past participants then send invitation and updates to that list, choose date that does not conflict with other conference, have a Summit Planning committee member volunteer to coordinate registration.  (note: small group assigned to look at technology options for a hybrid Summit, see below).

9:00 – 9:30 am Welcome & updates

• On the evaluation forms someone noted that it would be good to “add a brief social gathering at the beginning or the evening before the Summit to become familiar with attendees.”
• Also noted on the evaluation was that the planning committee needs to “realize that you have new attendees and do a better job of recapping last year’s meeting and work in between….I was wondering for the first half hour if I was at the right meeting.” So, as the planning committee, we need to prepare a stronger introduction to set the context for the Summit and bring everyone into the conversation.

9:30 – 10:30 am Panel discussion – collaborative IL models

• Cooperative Library Instruction Project. Allen took the lead with a modified version of the presentation he gave at the ACRL OR/WA conference in October. Robert chimed in to help clarify the project vision. I added comments about the stage of the project (i.e., we at the beginning and want input, we have been talking to OWEAC colleages from the get go…)
• Information Literacy Articulation Group of Greater Portland. Anna and I talked about our work articulating the Summit IL proficiencies. We talked about the creation and use of the proficiency poster “College students who are ready to begin upper-level coursework” (I posted updated pdf and word versions of the poster on this blog under Info Lit Links).

10:30 – 11:30 am Breakout session on institutional collaboration. Robert Monge from WOU facilitated the first breakout session. He asked each small group to consider: What can we share? What should we share? What kind of instruction and types of collaboration might we share?

• Although we had a good discussion, our small group veered off topic considerably.
• Wolfgang noted the need for different levels of information literacy…a continuum.
• Kate mentioned the recursive nature and that it is unrealistic to think we can set specific objectives that students will come out of class with.
• I noted a recommendation of the book Writing to Learn by William Zinsser (requested and received!)
• Starting place for each institution is to identify which classes require research
• Characteristics of Info Lit in sciences = APA, journal study, currency study, using .com as a springboard into current topic, Kate compared to writing across the curriculum…that just as you write differently in a science class so too would you write research differently.

11:30 – 12:00 noon Presentation: sharing materials and licensing (Rachel Bridgewater)

• I asked OSU to post Rachel’s handout on the OR IL Summit site and I will link to when possible
• I noted Bryan’s suggestion to allow students to comment on tutorials via multi-media u-tube type comments…how will we have students license their own materials? Apply copyright to student’s work!

12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch (spent time catching up with Dan Bjerke from OSU)

1:00 – 2:00 pm Presentations on Information Literacy in the Classroom

• Teaching IL in the Writing Classroom (Julie Bacon, OSU)
• Teaching IL in the Disciplines (Shaun Huston, WOU). Shaun described the keyword assignment he uses in GEOG 107 to assess student reading comprehension and encourage students to think within the discipline vocabulary and framework.
• Screencasting: Getting Started (Anna Johnson, MHCC) Here is Anna’s screencasting presentation.

2:00 – 3:00 pm Breakout sessions…discussion tables

“Set expectations as high as we can, support from the bottom as much as we can.” Bryan Miyagishima.

• Our table broke in to groups of three and were tasked with reporting back about 2 things that work and 1 thing that works better. Here is a list of ideas we generated:
• break up material into segments so you don’t exceed students’ attention spans
• use small group work (have them report back, charge students with teaching their classmates)
• physically move around the classroom
• wow factor of technology such as smart boards sometimes works to keep students’ attention
• small groups come up with 5 tips around one study skill theme
• scholarly/popular activity
• model conversation with instructor (talk about why we are here…)
• model a search
• see student presentations and assignments (analyze for strong/weak areas)
• use call number feature to see shelf list (browse online)
• hand-held technology to help people work through info tech challenges because it is their tech of preference
• annotated bib (source relevancy, structure course around a final content, formatting) helps students move from collecting sources to reading and engaging with the content of the sources
• do the assignment yourself (!good idea!)
• scaffolding
• have students write from their passion
• work to build community in a one hour session

 Notes from the Assessment discussion table

• the challenge of the One-shot
• proficiencies from the last summit…make them in to measurable activities
• have a strategy you can communicate to people outside of the library
• IL can be scattered, messy, difficult to assess…so you are not crazy if you think this is hard work!

Notes from the Collaboration table

• How do librarians try to connect to faculty? Frequently attend meetings and participate on committees together
• Tutorials can help with the lack of time
• Class page for assignments
• non-research paper info-lit activities !assignments!
• challenge to work with discipline instructors who already feel proficient in research

3:00 – 4:00 pm Future of the IL Summit and next steps

• participants were in favor of keeping a face-to-face portion of the Summit
• participants were in favor of adding technological components for increasing access (hybrid model)
• participants agreed to have small groups discuss and make a recommendation for 1) structure of the Summit committee 2) Program of the Summit “conference” and 3) technological options for increased capture and access
• Anna suggested we start and end the day with work with our regional partners
• consider ‘unconference’ model where program is set the day of
• consider setting aside time for lightning talks (people sign up and give ten minute talks on current projects/research…etc)
• Bryan proposed we find institutions who are willing to host or fund (WOU, Linn-Benton, Chemeketa have volunteered)
• Sara suggested we consider an OWEAC like structure (set meetings, open membership, officers)
• Lynda suggested we add themes to the program that will attract other partners (e.g., IL in the sciences theme to attract science faculty)
• Dan to send out a survey asking for nominations of persons to sit on JBAC and/or the IL Subcommittee
• Consider: what is the name of our group
• Consider: piggy back on the Oregon Rhetoric Conference

Volunteers to work on Structure:
Doyne, Kate, Robin, Michele

Volunteers to work on Proposal for Face to Face:
Anna, Sara, Bryan, Uta

Volunteers to work on Tech Blend:
Robert, Ann-Marie, Candace

Working the IL proficencies into the AAOT Outcome and Criteria format

Here is my quick information literacy update, but some of this information has changed a bit since yesterday. I’ll update again, probably this weekend.

1. The Council of Instructional Administrators (CIA) has a format that each Gen Ed (GE) area uses for listing outcomes and criteria. This formatted document is called the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria (Go to the OUS site “Criteria for Transferable General Education Courses” and scroll down to the document in blue)

2. Each GE area has a student based performance outcome (i.e., a statement that describes what the student will be able to do as a result of completing the AAOT) and a list of course criteria (i.e., a list of things a course must have or do in order to foster student achievement of the performance objective).

3. The CIA has a task force that is working on the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria document. They have asked that “we” put the Information Literacy proficiencies into the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria format.

4. Who is “we”…”we” are librarians and other faculty info lit educators in Oregon…many of us were the Oregon Information Literacy Summit group. At the last Summit (Fall, 2008), a small group was charged with creating a more formal structure for the Summit group so that we are better able to communicate about things like this, and our more formal name is the Information Literacy Advisory Group of Oregon (ILAGO). ILAGO has a website (http://www.libraryinstruction.wordpress.com) and a listserv (visit the ILAGO website for info on how to participate, including the listserv)

5. How are “we” approaching the task of putting the IL proficiencies into the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria document format?

• A small group is studying the format and the way other GE areas are using it (who, you may ask, is this small group? Well right now, we are the same small group that has been working on developing a formal structure for ILAGO)
• A small group is creating a few different samples of the way the IL Proficiencies might show up in the Objective and Criteria format
• A small group will disseminate drafts for review to OWEAC and to ILAGO and to the Oregon Community College Library Association (OCCLA)  because we are trying to reach higher ed information literacy instructors (like you) in order to solicit feedback on the drafts

6. What is so special about the AAOTOutcomes and Criteria document? It is our current opportunity to communicate with the CIA and underscore our definition of information literacy and what a student who has completed the AAOTshould be able to do.  Again, the CIA is the group of administrators charged with making policy decisions about how to implement the revised AAOT, which includes making decisions about implementing the new IL requirement. We want to look at our IL portion of the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria document as the first step in making a recommendation about the IL requirement without dictating how each institution goes about fulfilling the requirement. 

7. How should we realize the IL outcome in Oregon? Several things to consider:

• We want to honor the recursive nature of Information Literacy….students should get several chances to learn and practice IL skills during their first two years of college
• That said, we don’t want to set implementation standards so pie-in-the-sky-high that we are logistically unable to accomplish our goals
• We do not want to sacrifice sound pedagogy or what’s best for our students in order to make the courses a student takes easier to track
• The revised AAOTIL requirement specifies that we need to designate courses with the IL component and we will need to track the students to see that they have fulfilled the degree requirement
• A stand-alone class does not appear to be an option at this time. Reading the IL statement in the AAOT, it seems to state that IL must be embedded in GE courses and that those courses will then have an IL designation
• Do we allow students to test out of the IL requirement?
• It is hard to talk about “what we should do” without talking about “how we should do it”…but if it makes it easier, start with what we should do for our students and trust that decisions about “how” won’t be detrimental to library/writing course well being (e.g., no one expects that two librarians serving an entire community college will face-to-face teach all the IL that needs teaching…similarly, we don’t writing courses to carry all of the IL responsibility)
• Consider- as the librarian, your role may be as a consultant who teaches faulty how to incorporate and assess IL…and if that is the case, how do you capture and report on the amount of time you spend consulting (may want to start tracking consultation time now so you can capture and report the amount of time you devote to this activity, especially if it is a new area for your library)

8. Options for drafting the IL portion of the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria document

• MICHELE’S FAVORITE: List the 8 IL proficiencies as the GE criteria, meaning that students will ultimately achieve all 8 and GE courses (plural) will ultimately teach all 8…and include language that says these will be embedded across the curriculum, not live in just one course.
• WE MIGHT DO THIS AT CHEMEKETA, YOU MIGHT DO IT AT YOUR INSTITUTION…BUT PROBABLY TOO MUCH DETAIL FOR CIA/JBAC: Choose a sub-set of the IL proficiencies that we consider to be crucial and list those as the course criteria (meaning any course with the IL designation must provide an appropriate level of instruction and opportunity to practice those skills). Choose a sub-set of the IL proficiencies that we do not consider as crucial and make those “gravy” in some way (e.g., an IL course must meet these 5 crucial criteria and also one from the “gravy list”)
• List all 8 IL proficiencies as course criteria then recommend a minimum number of criteria a course must include in order for it to receive the IL designation (How to track that students are getting all 8 and not the same 4 over and over?)
• HERE IS ANOTHER MODEL THAT MIGHT BE USED AT A PARTICULAR INSTITUTION, BUT IS TO DETAILED FOR CIA/JBAC: Require students to take one course heavy in IL instruction, and at least one additional course that provides opportunity to practice (e.g., a writing class heavy in IL with a psych class that requires an annotated bibliography and provides some level of instruction)
• THIS IS AN IDEA FOR A LETTER ILAGO MAY WANT TO DRAFT AT SOME POINT: We might do something similar to OWEAC…they submitted a recommendation for the GE Writing portion of the AAOT Outcomes and Criteria document…and they include a nice letter of explanation and an addendum that matches each criteria to a student performance outcome (maybe we should do something like that?). To see the OWEAC writing recommendation, visit their website at www.oweac.wordpress.com and look on the Recommendations page.

9. What now

• I’m going create a few drafts and post them here (and possibly on the ILAGO website when it is ready)
• Discuss at OWEAC meeting Feb. 6th here at Chemeketa
• Discuss OCCLA meeting Feb. 27th here at Chemeketa
• I’m going to draft a couple of possible implementation models for Chemeketa to consider
• I would love to hear from anyone who wants to work on this together (call or email me at Chemeketa)
• I’ll keep posting IL updates here and possibly on the ILAGO website

Info Lit Articulation Group of Greater Portland (notes for our panel at the IL Summit)

Quick description of our group/project. Why us? Why are we a logical group to work together? (how did  we form?)? What is our intent?

The IL group of the Greater Portland Area was formed just before the Oregon IL 2007 Summit and includes librarians from Portland State University, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland Community College and Chemeketa Community College (with guest appearances by Clackamas Community College). Our purpose is to create a shared understanding of IL proficiencies and outcomes in order to establish consistency and better service for the students who swirl among our institutions. 

Anna Johnson (MHCC), Bob Schroeder (PSU), Victoria Scott (PCC) and I (Chemeketa CC) worked on proficiencies prior to the fall Summit and then worked after the Summit to draft explanatory examples to describe each of the statewide IL proficiencies.

What have we accomplished [beyond our original goals]

When we completed our descriptive examples, Anna (channeling her past life experience in graphic design) created a poster for use as a visual at the PAIL meeting (Portland Areas Information Literacy group?…I think? the acronym plot thickens). I handed out copies of the poster at the OWEAC meeting last week and it seemed to be well received. There were requests for electronic copies of the poster and you can access that in Word (formatting of text boxes is touchy) or PDF (with notes).

·         Have used the graphic in class- distributed to students as a way of initiating a conversation about what the library is interested in, what the object of the class/assignment is.

·         Resource for talking about library instruction with faculty (skill rather than tool). Defines our interest.

·         Answers the question “but I already learned this”

·         Come together around a common interest and point of discussion (get to know each other, share ideas for classroom practice and networking with faculty, collaborate on other projects, divide and conquer, group brain-power like Anna’s Meebo question to group)

·         There is no common sense without common experience.

What do you need if you want to form this kind of partnership (e.g., institutional support…how much time does it take/how many meetings…)

·         Belief in the value of the project (value translated in to time)

·         Enthusiasm and energy

·         Time

o   Mtg at PCC w/ all group including Clackamas

o   Mtg at PCC (did we have three meetings?)

o   Work Group Mtg at PCC: accomplished the most when had a specific task on which to work and stayed with it until we were done

What do we want to do now? What are we working on?

Tori: At PCC, we don’t need to leave the college to find high school jrs and seniors. We have a lot of Developmental Education (DE) students who are doing college prep work. Some PCC librarians have worked with the DE faculty to embed IL outcomes into the DE curriculum. How this will play out in terms of who will teach the IL concepts and library research skills, remains to be seen.

Tori: Working in another vein, and contrary to the embedding approach, PCC has a one-credit IL class and one program (Alcohol and Drug Counseling) will require students in the program to take an IL course tailored to Addiction Studies. This course will be taught by a librarian.

Bob:   PSU is finally (maybe?) articulating campus -wide learning outcomes. While IL isn’t explicitly named, the ‘Inquiry and Critical Thinking’ goal basically is IL (This is how it’s looking at the moment- “/Students  will develop the disposition and skills to strategize, gather,  organize,  create refine, and analyze relevant information and ideas for problem solving” /). The proficiencies that our group developed will come into play, in ways as yet unknown, in the coming role-out of these campus-wide goals. 

Bob: Anna & I have begun working with 2 high school librarians (one from a public school & one from a private school) in Portland to see if, using the proficiencies already established for Portland area rising juniors, we can find some proficiencies for graduating seniors/ entering  freshmen.

What has the conversation been like at each institution? Is our work generally supported? Explain. How has this articulation work helped us at our individual institutions?

Tori: I think our work on coordinating between colleges in the Portland area gives us credibility within our institutions, or at least it gives me some credibility when I bring it up with faculty or administrators outside the library.

Bob:  This has been a bit problematic at PSU as we already have our own home-grown “Matrix of IL Skills and Abilities” that we have been using to promote IL dialog on campus. Haven’t yet resolved the relationship between our Matrix and these larger, Portland area goals.

 

At CCC we are…

·         Mtg with Eng and Writing faculty and continuing to define what embedded (assessable) IL will look like

·         Interest from the Education dept (mentoring a new faculty member created a connection)…also suggested she consider partnering with schools like WOU

·         Academic Standards has noticed the IL component in the AAOT and would like to know what our plan is by this spring (2009).

·         Assessment activities are encouraged and flexible, but need to start with statements of objective….the articulation work informs our understanding of objectives.

Notes from Info Lit Discussion at 09 ACRL OR/WA Menucha Conference

These are notes from the Information Literacy discussion Thursday night at the 2008 ACRL OR/WA conference at Menucha. Thanks for taking notes, Camila! And thank you to Anna, Corey, and Allen for sharing information about your current projects. I’ll paste notes here and attach as a word doc. 

Notes from Info Lit discussion at 2009 ACRL OR/WA Conference at Menucha

Dr. Allen McKiel from Western Oregon University introduced the Cooperative Library Instruction Project (CLIP)

• Allen began with a refresher on comprehensive (vertical and horizontal) information literacy instruction that ACRL has listed as a “best practice” for the better part of 10 years.
• For many of us, this was untenable when first announced and subsequently dismissed by many librarians.
• Technology has changed the feasibility of IL integration and online tutorials offer hope that this might be manageable.
• Even with technology, staffing limitations may prevent tutorials from being produced and maintained.
• Benefits of tutorials:
  • Do not take up class time
  • Can provide “just in time” instruction, embedded where the students can access and re-access the materials.
• Downside of tutorials:
  • Creation and maintenance
• Can cooperation work?
  • Previous efforts have failed
  • Everyone has favorite tools & techniques
  • We have to compromise
  • Effort, patience, time required
  • Also need commitment of resources and management buy-in
• Thoughts on what might work
  • Standards and procedures for cooperation
    • Must permit multiple
      • Technologies
      • Pedagogical methods
      • Content priorities
  • Still need to be able to promote sharing & the ability to reuse
  • Also need an effective repository
• CLIP grant (Cooperative Library Instruction Project)
  • starting with 4 institutions (diverse)
  • trying to create an initial model/ set of standards
  • initial offering of tutorials
  • an administrative framework for continuing the cooperative
  • hoping to use structure under the  Orbis Cascade Alliance and eventually make accessible to institutions outside of the Alliance as well
• Is there a specific platform in mind? No.
• People who are motivated to make tutorials, usually have the skills or will learn them, it is the content/pedagogical stuff that takes the most time. A basic text file with info like ‘include this this and this’ would be a big help
• Where is the pedagogy coming from? Hopefully this will come from the ideas of the participants. Also, we are asking for input from faculty.
• See www.libraryinstruction.wordpress.com for updates and to add your input  
• Annotated, vetted list on the literature on this topic would be really useful. Perhaps a wiki? Where folks could share their opinions and reviews.
• Many libs are creating institutional repositories as a library service. Part of the issue of getting folks interested is having content already there. If this project could take advantage of an existing repository, that could be a win-win. That would enable the project to focus more on the content.

 

Corey Johnson from Washington State University introduced the Information Literacy Project

• Has created a space geared toward 5 information literacy standards, includes assessment
• The WSU library works with professors on their research projects and directs students to this space to take tutorials in the context of their courses
• These tutorials are available for anyone to view
• http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/ile
• Students pick out their class and section
• Work through 4 areas
• Mix of tutorials and handouts
• Intermediate page that explains how to use the subsequent pages (which may come from a variety of places)
• Last part is assessment (multiple choice quiz or textbox, which is an assignment)
• Instructor side lets professor view scores and answers
• Quizzes and essays are written to a database. Quizzes are graded automatically, although open-ended answers have to be graded.
• To get some classes started, they have volunteered to grade answers.
• This has given them data, something that they have not previously had.
• With this project, they were trying to find a scalable way to reach thousands of students
• How many people working on it? 1.5 FTE librarians and one student for about 8 hours/week
• This semester, there are about 3500 students working in the space
• The project is about 1.5 years in
• There is the potential for students to see the same tutorial information more than once, so WSU is trying to provide a customizable assignment.
• Also working on providing “skins” so that students do not say that they have done it before just because it looks the same

Anna from Mount Hood Community College (MHCC) introduced the articulation work of the Greater Portland Areas Information Literacy Group

• Representatives from PSU, and three Portland Area feeder schools (Mount Hood Community College, Portland Community College and Chemeketa Community College) have been meeting to work on articulation
• For the past 2 years there has been a state-wide Information Literacy Summit and last year state-wide standards were adopted.
• Michele’s blog has a link to this project
• This project is exciting due to lots of overlap in student populations and shared-students
• Also “arms” librarians who hear “I did this already”

 Also in WebCT and Blackboard, modules can be released one at a time, so she is working with the distance education person to embed a basic tutorial they have to take so that before they can get to their class. Works for distance education, but not really a way to do it face-to-face yet.

2008 Oregon Info Lit Summit on Nov. 21 at OSU

What: The Oregon Information Literacy Summit
When: November 21, 2008
Where: Oregon State University CH2M Alumni Center
Location and parking info: http://www.osualum.com/s/359/index.aspx?sid=359&gid=1&pgid=285 .
Save the date and see RSVP info coming soon.

Tentative program
8:30 – 9:00 am Registration coffee and tea (will be available throughout the morning)
9:00 – 9:30 am Welcome & updates
9:30 – 10:30 Panel discussion – collaborative IL models (the CLIProject & the Prtlnd group on articulation)
10:30 – 11:30 Breakout sessions – institutional collaboration
11:30 – 12:00  Presentation: sharing materials and licensing (Rachel Bridgewater)
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 Presentations on classroom practices & screencasting (Anna Johnson, Shaun Huston)
2:00 – 3:00 Breakout sessions on classroom practice
3:00 – 4:00 Future of the IL Summit and next steps

This Thursday: Library Instruction/ Info Lit Discussion at Menucha

The ACRL-OR/WA Fall conference at Menucha is this week!

 

You are invited to join colleagues for a Library Instruction/Information Literacy discussion on Thursday evening.  We are scheduled for 8:00pm in the Creevy common room (just after the chapter meetings and overlapping a bit with the social…so bring a beverage of your choice). Join us for this informal gathering to share information about your IL initiatives or groups.  Dr. Allen McKiel, Dean of Library and Media Services at Western Oregon University will join us to discuss the Cooperative Library Instruction Project. 

 

Please bring any information you want to share.

 

If you are not able to attend, but would like to share information with the group, I’m happy to bring handouts for you, tell me what I can do to help.

 

Let me know if you have questions and I hope to see you at the conference.
 

~Michele Burke

503.365-4711                

 

More info about Thursday night at the conference:

 

 

There will be two discussions happening at the ACRL-OR Fall conference during the party: one about creating a Northwest Research Network and another about Library Instruction/Information Literacy.  If either of these are of interest to you, please consider joining the discussion.  Further information on [the NW Research Network] is below.  

 

Thank you,

Garrett Trott

ACRL-OR President

————————

Instruction-Reference Librarian

CORBAN

College & Graduate School

5000 Deer Park Drive SE

Salem, OR  97317-9392

Voice — 503-589-8116

Fax — 503-375-7196

gtrott@corban.edu

 

Creating a Northwest Research Network discussion Discussion Leaders: Robin Paynter (Portland State University) and Laura Zeigen (Oregon Health & Sciences University)

 

What this is about?  University of Rochester has received a lot of attention over the last few years for its groundbreaking use of ethnographic methods in studying researchers, and for collaborative research projects with other libraries.  Can we create a system for collaboration via the Orbis Cascade Alliance (or another system) in the Northwest? Sharing the cost of developing valid and reliable research tools, developing a pool of librarians with expertise in a variety of methodologies, getting to the quantitative and qualitative data we need to argue for more resources, and (not least) replicating the research in more than one setting are all potential benefits to working collaboratively. Join us as we explore these and other elements in our discussion!

1.    Why do we think it would be useful? What are the potential benefits for our individual institutions?

2.    What are the potential drawbacks?

3.    Is the Alliance the right place to overlap on this?

4.    What are areas of possible research interest?

5.    What kinds of comparisons/groupings could be made?

6.    Future steps/follow-up                    

 

OWEAC has a new website

The Oregon Writing and English Advisory Committee has a new website: http://oweac.wordpress.com/

Stuck on this stupid planet,

Jan’s poetry class came in Friday. She is pushing them to pull research into their writing and is requiring them to find a piece of prose, a work of art, a historical writing…something that inspires them to write a response. Without the push, these new poets are inclined to write about a latest crush. So we did a session on berry-picking and finding inspiration. The pursuit of some info tidbit with the bigger intention of a brush with the serendipitously inspirational…I love this! It is joyful and even as it encourages sophisticated research, it really can’t miss so if feels non-threatening.

To introduce myself and get the discussion going I shared this story from my childhood. When Star Wars first came out I got to see it on the big screen. This was a big deal! In 1977 I was about 9 and being a small town kid from Sherwood I didn’t see a lot of movies in the theater. A whole group of us kids got to go and it was totally awesome, I think I may have said it was rad. That night at home, I climbed to the upper deck of our backyard fort and sobbed (a mini-meltdown). Luke was beautiful and tortured and needed my help…I could be Han Solo…or Darth Vader…my hair was almost long enough to roll into side braids…it was confusing and serious and none of it was happening in Sherwood. Where was my big life soundtrack? Why was I stuck on this stupid planet?!

Of course I thought my planet was boring because it wasn’t very big, basically my small town. When I started writing, that’s what my journals were all about “my backyard”…the Michele story…me. All about me and now that I’m done writing about me, what do you think of me? This bores even me. How could I make my planet bigger? What could I bring to my writing that wasn’t just in my backyard? And now we’re back to poetry research.

All in all the class went well, but here’s what I would do different. This time, I had the students work in pairs to find interesting items in the catalog and then on the shelf, next time I would have them interview each other in pairs and charge each student with finding something to support the other person’s interest. I’m still thinking about the logistics of this part, but I like the interview idea.

And now I leave you with this memorable scene of Darth Vader giving an info lit smack down.

Darth Vader: Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to [use a wiki] is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Admiral Motti: Don’t try to frighten us with your sorcerous ways, Lord Vader. Your sad devotion to that ancient [catalog] has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the [author's] hidden [website]…
[Vader makes a pinching motion and Motti starts choking]
Darth Vader: I find your lack of faith disturbing.

note about the Cooperative Library Instruction Project

I’ll post updates about the Cooperative Library Instruction Project as it develops. I hope your input will shape the vision and realization of this project! Below is the project overview from the handout I distributed at the fall OWEAC meeting in Bend. Although it has only been a short time since we met, my concept of this project has morphed and I think changing vision will be the norm for awhile. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and will put out a more formal call for ideas soon. ~Michele

Cooperative Information Literacy Project

Goal: Create a collection of information literacy tutorials that may be shared by Orbis Cascade Alliance institutions and eventually non-Alliance members.

Funding: The LSTA grant proposal has been selected for funding pending board approval, which happens sometime in October. The board has never rejected a proposal that has been recommended for approval, so the Project Team is moving forward with initial implementation work.

Project Team: Liaisons from four Oregon Cascade Alliance member institutions (Chemeketa Community College, Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, and Willamette University) plus a Project Coordinator to be hired pending final approval.

Have Your Say:Which tutorials are most needed? If only ten tutorials are created- which ones should they be? What is not needed? What’s missing that should be considered? What should the Project Team know going into this effort? Who else should be involved? How should we collect, add, and make available tutorials and materials that have already been created?

Cooperative Library Instruction Project…update on the grant

From Dr. McKiel:
We have passed another hurdle. Our LSTA grant proposal for cooperative instruction has been selected for funding pending board approval, which happens sometime in October. It is my understanding that the board has never rejected a proposal that has been recommended for approval. It would, therefore, be reasonable to proceed with initial plans for implementing the grant.