Distance Learning Interest Group

Learning Virtually: Online Professional Development for Library Workers with Tight Budgets and Full Schedules

Saturday, June 28th, 1:30-3:30pm

• Planning training and professional development for library staff or for yourself? Have limited funds? How can e-learning be a solution for your library or institution?
• Many innovative technologies are available in delivering flexible and inexpensive on-site programs.
• This program will feature some current trends in e-learning as addressed by creators, experts, and librarians involved with virtual learning, the role of the e-learner, and the use of virtual space in training and development via e-learning.
• Panelists
  • Jon Stahler, Manager of Web Services, ACRL;
  • Dan Balzer, Learning Architect, BP (The Green Room)
  • Elaine Fabbro, Senior Reference Services Librarian, Athabasca University
  • Jonathan Finkelstein, Founder & Executive Producer, LearningTimes, and President of LearningTimes Network;
  • Moderator, David A. Wright, Director, Learning Resources, Surry Community College

Saturday, June 28th,4:00 pm - 05:30 pm CJCLS/CLS/DLS Poster Session

http://web.gccaz.edu/~cmacdon2/LearningVirtually/LearningVirtuallyFlyer.pdf

This year we’re working with the Distance Learning Section of ACRL to share programming information. Here are other distance learning related opportunities for ALA 2008!

Saturday, January 21

• 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Guidelines for Distance Learning Library Services Hearing
  Menger Hotel, Ballroom A
  (Review revisions to the Guidelines here.)

Sunday, January 22

• 8:00 – 11:00 a.m. All-Committees Meeting
• 11:00 – 12:00 Bibliography Group Meeting*
  Convention Center, Room 103A
• 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Executive Committee
  Convention Center, Room 007B

Monday, January 23

• 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. Discussion Group
  St. Anthony Hotel, Georgian Room

If We Don’t Call It Distance Learning, Does It Exist? 
LITA Distance Learning Interest Group Program

ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA
Saturday, June 28th, 8 a.m. – 12 noon

This event will look at the question of whether, in our world of online access to resources and services, if all users aren’t in fact distance learners? Or is there a valuable distinction between distance learners and library users who use online library services and resources? Further, should all library staff have engage with distance learning? Together we will look at these questions in three ways: impact on the library’s mission and culture; how outreach is affected; and challenges for solo distance-learning librarians. Discussion will engage the audience to identify ways to integrate distance-learning services and resources with traditional support and physical collections.

Agenda

8:00-8:15 a.m.: Welcome
Lauren Pressley, Co-chair, LITA Distance Learning Interest Group, and Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest University

8:15-8:45 a.m.: Keynote
Kim Duckett, Librarian for Digital Technologies and Learning, North Carolina State University Libraries

8:45-9:30 a.m.: Perspectives of a Solo Distance Learning Librarian
Chad Haefele, Reference Librarian, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

9:30-10:15 a.m.: Distance Learning & Library Outreach
Samantha Hines, Assistant Professor, Distance Education Coordinator and Social Sciences Librarian, University of Montana

10:15-10:30 a.m.: Break

Organizational Perspectives: Distance Learning in the Library, Across the University, and into the Future

10:30-11:15 a.m.: Howard Carter, Associate Professor and Manager, Instructional Support Services, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

11:15 a.m.-12:00 noon: Harvey R. Gover, 2008 ACRL/Haworth Press National Distance Learning Librarian, Acting Chair and Consultant to the Distance Learning Section Guidelines Committee, and Assistant Campus Librarian, 
Max E. Benitz Memorial Library, Washington State University Tri-Cities

Visit the Distance Learning Interest Group Blog at http://dlig.wordpress.com

You are invited to the LITA Distance Learning Interest Group discussion!

Saturday, January 12, 10:30-12:00pm, Courtyard Downtown, Salon III
#3 on the map (PDF).

The LITA Distance Learning Interest Group will meet at the 2008 ALA Midwinter Conference in Philadelphia to discuss current issues in distance learning and some of the exciting things the interest group has planned. Here are a few of the things we’d like to discuss:

• Our program, If we don’t call it distance learning, does it exist?, for Annual 2008.
• A possible LITA webinar on distance learning issues.
• A possible online course.
• Uses for our blog at http://dlig.wordpress.com/ .
• General issues in distance learning such as integrating library resources with course management systems.

Are there other topics you’d like to discuss? Please feel free to leave them in the comments or email Karen Wetzel or Lauren Pressley and we’ll add them to our list.

All are invited! Please bring your experiences and ideas to share in an informal setting. We hope that you will join us for a lively and useful discussion.

It’s tomorrow, at 2 p.m.:

American Libraries columnist Meredith Farkas is distance learning librarian at Norwich University in Vermont. On December 7 at 2 p.m. Eastern time she will be participating in an OPAL Casual Conversation online program.

http://www.opal-online.org/progschrono.htm

Here’s a call for authors that cites distance ed as a recent topic for this column. Have a new perspective you could provide?  Particularly good for those who work with health/medical libraries and distance learners/services.

————-

Write an article for the MLA News Technology column in 2008! Writing provides a great opportunity to either share expertise you already have or delve into a topic you’ve been wanting to learn about.

Your column can be a topic review, a case study, or a report on the state of a technology. Recent topics: distance education applications, data mining, Web-based reference management tools, and library podcasts.

Some of the topics we’re interested in for 2008:

- GIS for health information
- Responsible disposal or reuse of equipment
- The InfoButton
- Anatomy of a query URL: If I run it again tomorrow, will it still work?
- Productivity software: alternatives to Office

Your own topic suggestions are, of course, welcome as well. Maximum length: 700 words.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Pat Weiss
Lynne Fox
Technology Co-Editors, MLA News
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Patricia M. Weiss, MLIS
Reference & Information Technology Librarian
Technology Editor, MLA News

Falk Library - Health Sciences Library System - 200 Scaife Hall - University of Pittsburgh
3550 Terrace Street - Pittsburgh, PA 15261
pwf@pitt.edu - Phone 412.648.2040 - Fax 412.648.8819

Health Sciences Library System: www.hsls.pitt.edu
HSLS on del.icio.us: del.icio.us/hsls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations to Lauren on the recent announcement of her participation in LITA’s  Emerging Leaders Program. I always knew she was a star.

—————-

For Immediate Release
November 20, 2007

LITA Congratulates Lauren Pressley Their New Emerging Leaders Program Participant.

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Board is pleased to announce its sponsorship of Lauren Pressley to the ALA Emerging Leaders Program. Lauren is currently the Instructional Design Librarian at Wake Forest University and co-chair of the LITA Distance Learning Interest Group.  In addition, Lauren serves on the ALA Committee on the Status of Women in Librarianship and the ACRL WSS Instruction Committee.

The ALA Emerging Leaders Program enables newer librarians from across the country to participate in problem-solving workgroups; network with peers; gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. Each participant is expected to provide two years of service to ALA or one of its units.  The LITA Board wishes to ensure that its’ Emerging Leader has a meaningful leadership experience within LITA, therefore Lauren will work closely with the LITA President and President-elect on aspects of the LITA strategic plan implementation.

LITA had a number of excellent applicants and congratulates these additional LITA members on being accepted into the ALA Emerging Leaders Program as well:  Derik Badman, Emily Ford, Wing Yee Vincci Kwong, Sally Ma, Ghouse Mohammed, Neely Tang, Joseph Williams, and Michael Witt.  LITA has a very bright future with such bright, rising stars.

I started to respond to Lauren’s post on teaching technologies and her question of “Where is the dividing line between distance and traditional learning?” My response got so long, though, I thought I’d add it up here to see about continuing this conversation.

I don’t think there is much of a difference anymore. In my experiences, the main differences came from the library itself–my last job would let me ship materials to distance students, but not “local” ones, and when my position was created that meant that the students had a name–a personal connection to someone in the library who could help. That turned out to often mean I would be helping them with things beyond just the library, i.e., letting them know who to reach for other university needs. But is that really outside our “domain”? Do we stop just at library topics? I think, in some ways, I became an ambassador of sorts for the university as a whole, someone they felt they could just pick up the phone or send an IM/e-mail and get help.

Of course, the other main difference is with those students who study at off-campus locations, or in a distance program that never meets on campus. They often, in my experience, felt disconnected from the university and unaware of the amount of support they could get. Often, I found that until I did an on-site visit with them at their location (when possible), they didn’t really work with any thought to the library or the university. After that, though, I’d hear from them regularly.

I found that it was key to get the faculty aware of our support to be able to share that early on, particularly for those times I wouldn’t be able to meet students in person. I had several departments who invited me to come and present on our services at orientations for online programs that began with a one-week stay on campus before the program began. And others who made sure to include my contact info in their online courses, often referring their students to me.

Probably one of the biggest issues, though, was that after I began, many of our library staff stopped helping distance students and would just refer them to me. So even if the divide is getting blurred, at least for our users, do our non-distance-librarian colleagues feel that same way? Or by naming it, do we become more divisive with our support?

I posted the other day about my new position.  I’m still developing the modular tutorial project I mentioned in that post, but the first little bit is now in place.  In the past few days I’ve posted a number of really short screencasts to a YouTube account.  The idea is that they’re really short (under 3 minutes), casual and consistent in appearance, and reusable in a number of ways.  Hopefully this will make them more attractive to students and faculty who might like to use them in their classes.  One of the most important aspects, from my perspective as creator, is that they are so easy and fast to make that there’s no barrier to recreation when a site or database changes.  Is anyone else doing this?  Are you targeting local or distance students?

The Sloan Consortium released a new report this month by I. Elaine Allen, Ph.D. and Jeff Seaman, Ph.D. on distance education.   The report is named Online Nation: Five Years of Growth in Online Learning, and is the fifth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education, based on responses from over 2,500 colleges and universities.  If you’d like to read the report, the PDF is here.