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ACRL Seeks Volunteers for 2016-2017

ACRL Volunteer

By Kathleen Pickens

Are you looking for ways to expand your professional network and contribute to ACRL? Committee volunteers help shape ACRL by advancing its strategic plan and influencing the direction of academic and research librarianship. Serving on a committee or editorial board is a great way to become involved and make an impact on the profession. If you’d like to become more engaged, ACRL Vice-President/President-Elect Irene M.H. Herold invites you to volunteer to serve on a 2016-2017 division or section committee. —From the ACRL Website.

Please consider volunteering for a CJCLS Section Committee! Volunteer forms must be submitted electronically before February 15th, 2016 for consideration. For more information and a link to the volunteer form, visit the ACRL website at: http://www.ala.org/acrl/membership/volunteer/volunteer.

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The good, the bad and the useful: A call for your web-based resources

by Amy Waldman

Information sharing. It’s a powerful tool that can help all of us as we do what we do every day. One of the things I’d like to do is compile a list of useful web-based resources. I’m sharing a few I’ve found helpful, along with a brief explanation of why. If you’d be willing to share some of yours, please post here or send them to me at awaldmanmlis@gmail.com, and I’ll start a running list.

Newsmap's Homepage, showing the top news in the US.

Newsmap's Homepage, showing the top news in India. Newsmap’s Homepage, showing the top news in the US (top) and India (directly above).

http://newsmap.jp – An amazing site built by Marcos Weskamp (http://www.marcosweskamp.com). I’ll let him explain what Newsmap is and why he created it. (Note: I’ve cleaned up some spelling and typos.) “Newsmap was born from the need to simplify how we consume the news. If you wanted to get an impartial view of the world, you’d have to jump through many news sites and manually compare how different publications from different countries give more or less prominence to specific topics. When Google News launched I was amazed at how they could aggregate so many stories from so many publications from around the world. But above anything, what struck me is that they where able to algorithmically cluster different articles that report on the same story. In my eyes, this was an absolute feast. Yet, I wanted more. To get an overview of what was happening in the world, I still had to click through many pages. I knew that with a little elbow grease I could turn the data from the aggregator and visualize it in a single screen.”

http://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page – What looks like Wikipedia but doesn’t act like it? This wiki, created and run by Andrew Schlafly, which bills itself as “The Trustworthy Encyclopedia.” I will let readers judge for themselves regarding its trustworthiness. For extra fun, here’s Conservapedia’s Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservapedia

http://www.kcna.kp/kcna.user.home.retrieveHomeInfoList.kcmsf – the Democratic Republic of Korea’s web site. I stumbled across this when I ran into a copyright issue. I was editing a small publication that didn’t subscribe to the Associated Press, and that meant I couldn’t use anything from the AP in our publication. The Six-Party Talks were going on, and I needed source material. This is a really valuable site from several angles. First off, it’s extremely useful in introducing students to a perspective completely other than what they usually see/read/hear about goings-on in North America and other parts of the world. Secondly, it’s a good bet that the people writing these pieces have probably never heard English from the mouth of a native speaker.

http://www.un.org/en/index.html – The United Nations’ web site. This was one of my other sources for international news information when I couldn’t use AP sources. It’s a very good resource for students looking for information on world affairs.

http://en.childrenslibrary.org – International Children’s Digital Library – I love this site and always pointed my students who are parents to it. It provides an endless supply of books from all over the world, and users can search by color, length and types of characters, among other choices. It’s also a good site for ESL students.

https://www.flickr.com/commons/institutions/ – wonderful images from places like the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, the National Media Museum and the Powerhouse Museum, among others. A great resource.

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Award Announcment

By Kathleen Pickens

Do you know an exemplary library leader who has done incredible things in libraryland?

Have you been part of an innovative program that has changed the way your library functions?

We want to celebrate those achievements!

Check out the CJCLS Leadership and Program Awards. Selected winners are awarded $750, a plaque and acknowledgement at the Annual CJCLS dinner (in Orlando next year!).

The deadline for applications is Friday, December 4th.

See the Awards page for more details.

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(How) Do you work with MOOCs?

by Librarianshines

A new report indicates that MOOCs are still popular, as reported in the Chronicle. Have you ever taken a MOOC? How are they viewed on your campus both by faculty and students? Do you offer any special support for students in MOOCs?

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Student Services and Your Library: The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship?

by Amy Waldman

I joined the CJC-listserv not long after starting library school in 2008. At that point, I’d been running the Displaced Homemaker Program at Milwaukee Area Technical College for five years. Student Services didn’t have a lot of interaction with the library, so the listserv gave me a window into some of what might be happening over there.

Early on in my MLIS program, I knew that getting some work experience in a library while in school would be invaluable. I also knew that there was no chance that would happen– I had a full-time job already and graduate school was like having another full-time job.

Something else did happen, though.

As a Student Services professional, I knew a lot about our students and their needs. As I learned more about what the library had to offer, I was able engage and collaborate in ways that would never have happened had I not had a foot in both worlds.

So, from a Student Services perspective, here are a couple of things that happened because I went to Library School that might be of use to some of you.

  1. Bibliographies
    1. In 2010, the Displaced Homemaker Program teamed up with a community organization to host a morning-long conference on accessing mental health services in the area. The library prepared a display and created a bibliography that was handed out in the conference materials.
    2. When author Shauna Singh Baldwin spoke about her book “The Selector of Souls,” at a college community event in 2012, the library prepared a bibliography of resources on intimate partner violence.
  1. Energy Assistance Sign-up
    1. Many of our students are low-income and qualify for energy assistance, but the only way they were able to access the program was to stand in long lines at a local agency, thereby missing classes. If they didn’t sign up and were unable to pay their electric bills, their power was shut off in mid-April, just as they were gearing up for final projects and exams. In conjunction with the library and our Office of Student Life, I arranged for the agency to come to MATC and see students by appointment at the three of our four campuses within its service area. The library co-sponsored and hosted. More than 200 students (many who had never set foot in the library before) signed up for appointments. The event has continued on an annual basis and is now hosted by the library.

3. The Affordable Health Care Act

One morning, while meeting with one of our program counselors about a student, an adviser walked in and handed him a sheet of paper. It turned out that large numbers of students were asking for information about the Affordable Care Act. I got back to my office and called our library manager.

“Do you have a LibGuide about the Affordable Care Act?”

“No,” he said. “But that’s a really good idea.”

When it was complete, Counseling and Advising was notified. The department now provides students with a link to our library’s LibGuide.

These are just a couple of examples of successful collaborations between Student Services and the library. Please share yours!

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Buried in Library Instruction?

By Kathleen Pickens

It seems like most community & junior college librarians are experiencing the rush of research instruction sessions right now–that thrilling time when we get to interact with classrooms full of students while trying to also support their needs outside of the session. It may be a few weeks until we know what all has landed in our email inbox, but we know that we’ll eventually get to it.

Although “time” seems like a foreign concept right now, it’s actually a great time to consider the supplemental materials we have for our students once they walk out of the instruction session. If you haven’t visited ACRL’s Instruction Interest Group’s PRIMO database, it holds a wealth of ideas from their “Site of the Month” selections. Some resources may be re-used, while others may provide you with inspiration before we hit this point next semester.

Or, maybe YOU have created something fabulous that you’d like to share with the instruction community? PRIMO accepts submissions year-round, but only conducts reviews bi-annually. Some deadlines to consider:

There. One more thing to add to your “post-instruction craze” list. Hang in there, everybody!

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ForwardFocus conference registration is open!

by Librarianshines

ForwardFocus, a conference focusing just on community college libraries, will be held on November 5 and 6, 2015 for the in-person conference in Peoria, IL at Illinois Central College. You can also attend virtually on November 13, 2015.  This will be my second time presenting for the virtual portion of the conference and it’s great to be involved in a conference that is focused on community college libraries.  I always take away useful ideas!

Check out the ForwardFocus conference website to find out about who’s speaking and how to register.

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Joint use libraries–are you one?

by Librarianshines

There was an excellent article last week about Tidewater Community College’s partnership with the City of Virginia Beach to provide a public and community college library under one roof (link here). I’ve been interested to learn what sort of partnerships community college libraries have with their other local libraries.  I myself am a branch library of the affiliated local university as well as the library for the community college, and I partner with the local public library on programming and maintain a connection with a local hospital library. This helps us pool resources in a lot of ways! How closely do you work with other local libraries? Are you a full fledged joint use library? Let us know in the comments!

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Welcome to the Community & Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS) Blog!

By Kathleen Pickens

Why the new blog? Well, we want to make sure that we are keeping our section members regularly informed about the latest news in library resources & services. We also hope this blog will be a valuable resource for other non-members who are looking for inspiration & guidance (& that maybe they’ll officially join us in the future).

We’re just getting started, but for now you can browse our pages for more static information about CJCLS & you can expect to find regular posts about topics of interests, including: assessment, accreditation, collection management, instruction, distance education, reference services, emerging technologies, & more! Grab the RSS feed so you don’t miss out!

Over the next year, we hope to add additional content, including:

  • Popular from the listserv: compilations of information from respondents
  • A bibliography of current (within the last five years) citations of peer-reviewed journal articles & books published by community college librarians
  • YOUR story: brief biographical sketches of our members

Until then, be sure to join our listserv & “like” our facebook page. We’ll keep you posted!
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