Every once in awhile I like to get down in the weeds of library geekdom, this is one of those days. I recently was pondering how index-searching functionality in many commercial information databases is flawed, and how this impacts user experience. There are often broad disparities in how vendors implement Boolean logic in advanced searching, which can make it quite difficult for users to effectively use their products. Wouldn’t it be great if all vendors used the same basic search … [Read more...]
I’ll Resist the Seinfeld Reference
January 28, 2015 By
I'm currently participating in Davidson’s first cohort of faculty, students and staff experimenting with Davidson Domains. Davidson Domains is a program spearheaded by ITS and the Digital Studies program at Davidson: “which will provide every Davidson student a unique domain name and access to an open source platform like WordPress. The Web domain will serve as a foundation students’ online presence at Davidson and beyond. As students progress through the Davidson curriculum, they will learn … [Read more...]
Research Rescue at the Library and Beyond
October 8, 2014 By
As everyone at Davidson prepares for a little R & R over Fall Break, here at the library we are prepping for our own bit of ‘R’ & ‘R’—Research Rescue. Starting this Thursday 10/9, Research Rescue will be available in the Fishbowl every Thursday from 3-4pm. For those of you unfamiliar with Research Rescue, it is essentially a time at which research librarians will be available to answer any questions, discuss your research, and whatever else might fit your information needs, all at one … [Read more...]
Why I Teach
September 24, 2014 By
As I begin work on this blog post, I’ve just picked up my third information literacy class for this week. On Wednesday I’m teaching REL 276, Sunni & Shi’ite Islam. On Thursday my colleague Cara Evanson and I will work with PSY 303, Behavioral Neuroscience, and on Friday I’ll co-teach MUS 141, World Musics, with fellow librarian Sara Swanson. I have a research consultation this afternoon and reference shifts on Tuesday and Thursday. This is why I love being a library director at a liberal … [Read more...]
Librarian Bootcamp
August 27, 2014 By
Every summer, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) holds a week-long “bootcamp” for instruction and information literacy librarians called Immersion. It consists of two tracks: the Teacher Track and the Program Track. A number of librarians here at Davidson have attended the Teacher Track in past years. Four years ago, I had the opportunity to attend it in Burlington, Vermont. Teacher Track focuses on learning theories, innovative and inclusive pedagogies, and … [Read more...]
