Call for MLA Proposals

Dear ARLD Members,

It is already time to start thinking about the 2008 Minnesota Library Association (MLA) Annual Conference!

This year library staff from around the state will gather at the Sheraton in Bloomington, MN on November 19-21, 2008 to share ideas, chat with colleagues, and gather new knowledge. The conference is being held a little later this year, and the theme is "To Explore, To Evolve, To Excel…Together.”

Please help shape the program at the 2008 MLA meeting.
This is a great way to get involved and show off projects that are not ready for prime time now, but will be by November!

You are invited to submit a short proposal for a program of your own at the conference.

We are looking for topics that are timely and have broad appeal, but any topic of interest to academic library staff is a possibility.

Possible topics include:

• Developing electronic collections, institutional repositories...
• Federated & Faceted searching
• Collaboration with non-library faculty
• Social networking tools: MySpace, Facebook, wikis...
• Assessment of resources or services
• Media-related digitization projects (audio or video)
• Outreach to diverse populations
• Changing user needs and habits - new library spaces and services, new catalogs, no catalog?
• Open access/new publishing models
• Evolving roles of paraprofessionals and/or librarians - reference, cataloging...
• Library instruction/information literacy - online tools, curricular integration, instructional games or tutorials
• Any other topic of interest to libraries’ staff!


If you are interested in presenting or have a presentation you wish to see at the conference, please complete this session proposal form and return it to
sessionproposal@mnlibraryassociation.org by April 11, 2008.

Questions? Please contact Linda Eells at lle@umn.edu.

For more information on ARLD, go to http://www.mnlibraryassociation.org/mla_new/subunits/arld/sub_arld_join.shtml .

Registration for ARLD Day is now open

Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Registration for ARLD Day is now open

Join us on Friday, April 25th, 9am-4pm at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen.
http://www.arboretum.umn.edu



This year’s theme is:

Riding the Swell: Effectively Reaching our Students

We are pleased that our keynote speaker will be Erin Walsh from the National Institute on Media and the Family. Erin will present “Why Do They Act That Way?”, her take on the brain development of our under–25 year old students, their media-use habits, and how these factors impact our services and interactions with them.

Please join us to share ideas, meet and greet colleagues, and gather new knowledge in the lovely Arboretum setting.

Program:
Keynote: Erin Walsh from the National Institute on Media and the Family will discuss the brain development of our under–25 year old students, their media-use habits, and how these factors impact our services and interactions with them.

Breakout sessions:
Capturing the Captive Audience
Speakers: Emily O’Connor & Amy Springer, Rasmussen College
Hundreds or thousands of students wandering around campus who need your information about library resources & Information Literacy – so why do we have so few attendees at open workshops and programs? The speakers will discuss several marketing and incentive tactics, from posters to faculty collaborations, designed to increase attendance and improve the quality of library workshops and programs. The floor will be open for attendees to share questions and best practices.

Teaching Web 2.0 to Student 1.5: Effective Methods for Introducing New Information Tools
Speakers: Robin Ewing and Melissa Prescott, St. Cloud State University
Contrary to the perception that undergraduate students are expert users of social networking and other Web 2.0 tools, reference and instruction librarians at St. Cloud State University have discovered that many students are unaware of Web 2.0 tools besides Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube. Drawing from classroom experiences as well as student feedback, this session will discuss ways to include Web 2.0 information tools such as podcasts, wikis, blogs, video streaming, social bookmarking, and RSS in information literacy instruction. The presenters will discuss techniques for introducing students to new information tools, ways to incorporate these tools into class assignments, and methods for evaluating the validity and usefulness of information presented via these tools. The presenters will also share what methods were less successful. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to share methods they use to keep aware of new technologies as well as ways they have incorporated Web 2.0 information tools into their own teaching.

The Library Uncatalogued- the Making of an Information Literacy Film
Speaker: Anika Fajardo, College of St. CatherineVideo is available nearly everywhere from YouTube to iPods. The College of St. Catherine Libraries are capitalizing on this popular medium by using a film to help reach students. The Library: Uncatalogued is a fifteen minute video that provides information about the Library and presents the ACRL Information Literacy Standards in a fun and entertaining manner. Created especially for traditional first year college students, it uses humor, music, and even a Library Fairy to teach the skills students need to succeed in research. Learn about how the film was made and get tips on creating your own film.

Visioning a Student-Centered Library: Quick and Easy Methods for Listening to Our Students
Speakers: Chris Inkster, Michael Gorman, Jennifer Quinlan, & Rich Josephson, St. Cloud State UniversityHow do our students really use our spaces and services? Are we meeting their needs? Do we really know our students? It’s time to let go of long-held assumptions about students and libraries, but how do we shake up our own thinking? In this session, we will share and discuss techniques for observing and interacting with students about who they are and about their experiences of our library spaces and services. We will also discuss how our work has been informed by the recent University of Rochester’s Undergraduate Research Project, and how participants can easily replicate our methods and use the resulting data to help their organization move toward a student-centered model.


Deadlines:
Registration is now open. The registration form is available at: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~meye0539/ARLD%20Day%202008%20Registration%20Form.doc

Any questions should be submitted to: jmnewsome@stkate.edu
Thanks!
Jim Newsome Past Chair, ARLD

Submitted by Kristen Mastel
ARLD Member Communication

Welcome!