The Distant Librarian

Integrating Library Service and Instruction into Electronically-Delivered Classes

From the most recent issue of the Journal of eLiteracy (haven't read it yet):
May, F A (2005) Integrating Library Service and Instruction into Electronically-Delivered Classes. JeLit 2(2) 120-129.

Abstract
As online courses become more and more ubiquitous, the need for supporting services becomes more acute. To meet the needs of students in online courses for library services and instruction, means to deliver materials, reference services, and instruction electronically were developed or purchased by the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. The needs of one particular class brought the problem into focus, so a team of librarians worked with the instructor to provide tools for the students to learn how to access information from a distance, and how to use it. This was accomplished by providing a class web page created to help the students locate specific journals in their fields, and a tutorial based on the Texas Information Literacy Tutorial, which was developed by the University of Texas at Austin. From this experience, a list of resources, procedures, and materials was developed to guide the library practitioner in providing library services for distance learners.

Canadian libraries play a key role in e-learning

A new report has just been released by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL).  Here's the press release:

LIBRARIES TO PLAY A KEY ROLE IN E-LEARNING

OTTAWA December 19, 2005 – The use of electronic learning in Canadian institutions has increased by as much as 30% over the past five years - and library participation has kept pace.

In 2002–2003 over 330,000 students at CARL institutions took advantage of instruction in using library online resources. Academic librarians, faculty and staff are providing direct access to thousands of online journals and databases and are increasingly integrating electronic library resources and learning techniques into online courses.

These are among the conclusions of  Libraries and E-Learning – Final Report of the CARL E-Learning Working Group. The Report was commissioned by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) to investigate the role of libraries in e-learning and to explore the further potential for CARL and CARL members in e-learning.

The Report finds that libraries’ ‘pull’ service model agrees well with progressive higher education teaching and learning models. However, although library staff work closely with faculty at the local level on course design and content, librarians have not yet assumed these responsibilities in broader online learning policy or Learning Management System design.

The Report calls for CARL and CARL libraries to act at the institutional, national and international level to ensure that library services and resources are integrated into learning management systems, and that library expertise benefits teachers and learners directly. It recommends that librarians take the lead in the consolidation of Learning Object Repository management and licensing practices, in order to bring an orderly approach to management and use of shared instructional across Canada.

“Our business is information acquisition and dissemination,” stated Lynn Copeland, Chair of the CARL E-Learning Working Group. “Libraries are critical in helping design the  systems and services that serve the needs of information seekers and in integrating them into the learner’s online world.”

“Academic libraries are continually working to identify value-added resources for their institutions.” says John Teskey, CARL President. “This report clearly identifies some of the key areas where libraries can partner within the Academy to provide an enhanced learning environment for our students”.

Libraries and E-Learning – Final Report of the CARL E-Learning Working Group is available at  http://www.carl-abrc.ca/new/new-e.html  

CARL is the leadership organization for the Canadian research library community. The Association’s members are the 27 major academic research libraries across Canada and Library and Archives Canada, the Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) and the Library of Parliament.

I haven't read the full report yet (it's only 23 pages, but my printer's down right now)

 

Updates on Talkr and Feed2Podcast

Well so far only one other person has subscribed to my two audiofeed versions (which is fine, 'cause this really isn't a podcast), but I just thought I'd give you my impressions.  I continue to be impressed with how well both Talkr and Feed2Podcast translate text to voice - very rarely to they really screw up a word.  I've noticed that Feed2Podcast doesn't provide any meaningful ID3 tags on the mp3 that it creates, which means if you're browsing through your playlist you will have no idea what it is you're about to listen to.  Talkr includes the name of the blog, so you have a good idea.  The other day I enabled Feedburner's FeedFlare service on this feed, which inserts a few small images at the bottom of each post in the RSS feed (email this, add to delicious, etc).  When Talkr gets to this string of images it repeats "the original post had an image here, the original post had an image here" four times, which is  kind of annoying, but I guess it's better to let you know that there's some content that's missing from the audio version.  So overall I'm still impressed.

The state of co-browsing

Caleb at the Oregon Libraries Information Network blog has a lengthy post on the state of co-browsing and virtual reference.  In large part, it's a response to Sarah's post on the Librarian In Black about what she heard at the most recent Virtual Reference Desk conference.  Some difference in opinions here, and both posts are worth a read and consideration.

Followup on PowerGramo (voice recording for Skype)

I've had a chance to try out PowerGramo (Skype voice recorder for Windows) and it sounds incredible!  It starts recording as soon as the call is initiated - you have the option of turning it off right away, but this is a nice feature as you don't have to remember to turn it on.  Of course on the flip side, I don't think the other person has any indication they're being recorded, so this could present a bit of a privacy issue. 

Which leads me to one thing I absolutely do NOT like, which is that the program is sending commercials for itself to my Skype chat partners!  When a chat is initiated it pops up with this message (and ironically, if the other person has it too it responds with the same message):


I hate that it pretends to be me talking up the product - I'll do that myself if I like it, thank you very much.  I sent an email to PowerGramo to ask how this can be disabled, and they responded that this was how they let the other party know that the conversation might be being recorded (a warning that I have installed PowerGramo).  I replied that that didn't make much sense to me, as it only flashed to my chat partners, and if I had simply called someone w/o first initiating a chat they'd have know way of knowing.  On top of that, you can disable this notice completely if you purchase the Pro version, so I guess it must be ok to record w/o permission if you've paid for it ;-)  I suggested they re-word the automatic "commercial" to at least let folks know that I didn't type that in - something along the lines of "This user has installed PowerGramo, a voice recorder for Skype..."  I haven't heard back from them yet though.

So it's a really neat product, and it works really well, but it annoys me with that one bug.  If you can live with that and have the need to record calls via Skype, this product rocks.  Oh, and if you do want to pony up for the Pro version ($19.95) you get dual-track recording (so you can edit one side of the conversation if necessary) and the ability to record conference calls, instead of just a regular one-to-one call.

More RSS to voice

Strange, I'm honestly not even looking for these things, and already I've tripped across another RSS - voice/podcast service.  This one's called Feed2Podcast, and it features a male robot voice instead of a female one like Talkr uses.  Again, it's pretty decent, and if you want to, you can subscribe to my male robot podcast feed.

Podcasting with The Distant Librarian (sorta)

This is a little experiment.  I just found a service called Talkr that will take any RSS feed and turn the text into an mp3 file, read by a nice robot female voice.  It's surprisingly good!  Not only can you give them an RSS feed to turn into mp3s, but I can, and have, given them my RSS feed so all my posts are automatically made available as a podcast via this feed -- just plug that in to your podcast aggregator and hear my posts read by me (if I was a female-sounding robot).  You'll also find the feed over on the right under my Subscribe  section.    This service is free.

One drawback is that when I write something like "this feed", you will hear the words "this feed" read, but not the actual link.  So because I (and most bloggers) tend to be telling you about other stuff on the web, you won't get the actual links read to you, unless of course I provide the entire URL spelled out in the post.  We'll see.

Obvious connection to distance education (or ANY educational setting) - I absolutely guarantee that you have more visually-impaired students than you're aware of.  What a great way to make your content more accessible!!!

Give it a listen at least.  You don't have to use my blog as your experiment; find another one and imagine you couldn't read it.  Listen to the mp3s created by Talkr - isn't that about 100% better than not having access to that content at all?

Disclaimer:  Talkr does offer a revenue stream option, but I have chosen not to participate in it at this time, so I'm not getting anything if you decide you want to upgrade from their free to their paid-version.

We'll see how this goes - I may or may not leave it turned on, though I probably will, as it's just one more way to reach out w/o any additional work by me :-)

Skype Recording

Will Richardson at Weblogg-ed posts about Skype Recording using a free plugin called PowerGramo.  Not a single one of my Skype contacts has signed in this AM so I haven't tested it, but it seems pretty straightforward.  As per usual, it only works on WinXP and Win2K, sorry Macfans :-(  Will raves about it, and when I downloaded my copy I was only #950, so it seems pretty new.  Will let you know how it works.  Why use it?  Well, podcasting interviews is the obvious reason, but I guess it could be useful to record a conversation with one of your distance students and then fire it back to him/her as a reference.

HarperCollins Plans to Control Its Digital Books

I wonder if they're going to ask permission of all their authors first ;-)  Seriously though, as long as this collection is openly available to the standard search engines I think this is a great idea that they're taking matters into their own hands.

Said the HarperCollins CEO "We didn't like being seen as Luddites," she added. "We see what's going on, and we get it. We want to be the best collaborator, but we also want to take charge of our future."

Link: WSJ.com - HarperCollins Plans to Control Its Digital Books.

::schwagbag::: Michigan students may require online course to graduate

Sherri reports that Michigan students may require online course to graduate.  These are HS students, but I agree with her - what an interesting idea, and neat to hear that someone in Michigan understands how important distance education is.  Now I wish I'd kept a link to a recent report that showed quite a few companies (I think it was around 40%) still don't think much of applicants who received their education online :-(

7 Things You Should Know About Instant Messaging

A nice, concise, 2-page PDF from EDUCAUSE that summarizes what educators need to know about Instant Messaging.  Nothing new here for those of you following the topic, but it's a nice presentation from an authoritative source.

Triangulation 1: Google Print

One of my favourite podcasts is Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech (TWiT).  Very high production values and good, current topics.  Leo and John C. Dvorak (not my favourite) have started a new podcast called Triangulation, in which they have three experts (presumably they will always be two of the three?) discuss a given topic.  For their first episode (29 minutes) they are joined by Larry Lessig to "discuss the furor over Google Print".  Just downloaded this AM and will listen on the way home, so I can't tell you if there's anything new involved, but I'm sure it'll be solid information.

Recordings of The Battle Over Books now available

As reported on BoingBoing, here's where you can get the .mp3 or .mov (as a torrent) of the Battle over Books debate on the Google Book Search project that was held Nov 17th at NYPL.  I don't recall hearing any buzz after the event, so am looking forward to listening.

Open Access Librarian blog

One of my colleagues here at the U of Calgary is a contributor to this new group-blog:

OA Librarian is a new, cooperatively produced weblog, which combines a pathfinder function with news and commentary on open access and librarianship. Please visit us here: http://oalibrarian.blogspot.com/

Under OA Resources on the right-hand side of the page, you’ll find links to free open access resources in Library and Information Science: the LIS journals listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals, and two open archives for LIS: E-LIS and D-LIST.  There are also links to bibliographies and advocacy tools.

Postings vary widely: news items pertinent to librarians, relevant conference presentations, and other blogs or resources about open access developed by librarians.

One theme of OA Librarian is highlighting the work of librarians who advocate for Open Access.
Recent articles focus on Antonella de Robbio, the originator of  E-LIS; Anita Coleman, the driving force behind DLIST; and Charles W. Bailey,  Jr., the author of the Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals.

Blog team members are:

1. Marcus Banks, New York University School of Medicine
2. Anita Coleman, University of Arizona School of Information Resources & Library Science: http://www.u.arizona.edu/~asc/
3. Lesley Perkins, Blogmaster
4. Andrew Waller, University of Calgary
5. Heather G. Morrison, British Columbia Electronic Library Network: http://www.poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/

PubMed Search Result RSS Feeds

This has probably been mentioned before, but I don't recall seeing it.  Just logged on to PubMed and was greeted with this very obvious and cool announcement:

LIRT seeks e-poster presentations for ALA annual conference in New Orleans

Sue Sykes Berry writes to the OFFCAMP listserv:  (this would be ideal for anyone who's got some great screencasting ability)

The Library Instruction Round Table’s Conference Program Committee and Teaching Learning and Technology Committee are currently accepting electronic poster (e-poster) proposals for the ALA annual conference to be held in New Orleans June 22-28, 2006.

The theme for the 2006 LIRT conference program is Instructional Design for Teaching and Learning in Libraries.  E-poster content should focus on this topic.  Electronic poster submissions can either be web-based (Internet connectivity will not be available, any Web pages displayed should be saved locally and in their entirety on the laptop being used) or in PowerPoint format.  Presenters will need to bring their own laptops.  Direct all submissions to Eileen Stec (estec@rci.rutgers.edu), Co-chair, TLT Committee or Julie Elliott (jmfelli@iusb.edu), Co-chair, Conference Program Committee.

The e-poster format has been chosen (rather than more traditional formats) because part of the LIRT conference presentation will be a teaching and technology fair; during this fair librarians will partner with selected software vendors to demonstrate low and high threshold applications; these applications, when used with familiar programs (like Webct) or placed singly on the web, enhance teaching and learning.  The e-poster format will compliment this fair and show conference attendees that LIRT is an innovative and creative forum for the expression of new ideas.

Deadline for submissions is January 13th, 2006.

We are hoping those of you who have experience with the different applications will consider submitting an e-poster.