A few weeks ago, I attended ALA Midwinter in Boston. As part of the conference pre-workshops, I took part in the in-person meetings of the Assessment in Action program, which has been written about in this blog previously. To give a quick refresher, Assessment in Action is a program run by the Association of College and Research Libraries which supports academic libraries’ budding assessment projects by uniting library assessment teams with other teams across the nation. Seeing as the program … [Read more...]
Fair’s Fair: What Google Books Means for Scholarship
November 4, 2015 By
It is a common misconception that Google has obsoleted the purpose of libraries and their keepers. Librarians often challenge this point, noting, as Palfrey does in the afore-linked text, that companies like Google only increase the need for librarians and librarians since, by complicating the nature of information, they create demand for information experts and open new opportunities for how libraries can function. Just last October, Google shook the information boat again, albeit this time … [Read more...]
Higher Ed at Altitude: Notes from LOEX 2015
May 6, 2015 By
Cara Evanson and I attended the LOEX Conference last week in Denver, Colorado. LOEX is a conference focused on library instruction and information literacy. As always, the conference was excellent and we had trouble choosing which sessions to attend! Fortunately, with two of us attending this year, we were able to divide and conquer. We attended sessions on topics such as using primary source materials in instruction, advice from teachers turned librarians for improving instruction, and graphic … [Read more...]
Fare Thee Well RefWorks, Hello Zotero
March 25, 2015 By
Let’s say you are over at Summit getting some coffee, and, as you are about to order, the barista announces a special offer: all light roast coffee is free, for the rest of the year, and for a matter of the fact, forever. Now, you happen to be a strictly dark roast enthusiast, and switching to a light-roast blend seems like it would be a bit of a transition. On the other hand, the potential of free coffee is appealing. Would you take the deal? In a sense, we at the library have found … [Read more...]
Frozen Streets and Broken Links: Musing on a Snow Day
February 18, 2015 By
Last Monday night a swirl of ice and snow swept through Davidson, threatening to shut streets down, take down power-lines, and perhaps cancel classes. Luckily, through all of it, the doors to the library remained open, thanks much to our essential staff and our student workers. And of course, had the library been closed, one could always access much of our resources online. Despite the weather ravaging our daily routines, the world of information has remained preserved. Or has it? With our … [Read more...]
