Open Cover Letters

It’s an open repository of samples of cover letters for a variety of professions to [...]]]> The other day I was browsing through Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers 2012” (Vol. 137 No. 5). Among the featured information professionals was Emerging Technologies Librarian Stephen X. Flynn who has created a site for job seekers:

Open Cover Letters

It’s an open repository of samples of cover letters for a variety of professions to help inspire those among us who, like myself, get frustrated trying to craft the perfect sentences to grab the attention of hiring committees.

Great idea!

APA has this covered as well (explained here).

Of broader interest, “social scholarship” is a really interesting concept that embraces the act of scholars using Web [...]]]> I noticed an interesting post about citation pop up on the RDC Library Facebook wall today. Apparently, MLA has created a standard format for citing tweets. Learn more here.

APA has this covered as well (explained here).

Of broader interest, “social scholarship” is a really interesting concept that embraces the act of scholars using Web 2.0 to both conduct research and share their research findings with others. For more information about this, take a look at Social Scholarship on the Rise, a blog post by Laura Cohen written back in 2007. This post had a big impact on me while I was in library school learning about both information literacy and social software; I even wrote a paper on it that I have saved… somewhere. In any case, back then I thought, “How great would it be to hold a session on this topic for graduate students and faculty researchers?” And I still feel that way. (Makes mental note, and public blog declaration, to make this happen.)

I’ve been waiting impatiently for months and months for the fourth and final edition of this series to come online and am very pleased to now be able [...]]]> Everything is a Remix is a four-part video series exploring the production and reproduction of culture. These videos were expertly produced by New York filmmaker Kirby Ferguson.

I’ve been waiting impatiently for months and months for the fourth and final edition of this series to come online and am very pleased to now be able to share it here in its entirely.

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Marketing Director for Edmonton Public Library (EPL), Tina Thomas, led the keynote session entitled It’s a New Day! Rebranding the Edmonton Public Library.

I was thoroughly impressed by the new brand that EPL released last year. The Library’s [...]]]> Last June I attended (and presented at) the NEOS Mini-conference at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta.

Marketing Director for Edmonton Public Library (EPL), Tina Thomas, led the keynote session entitled It’s a New Day! Rebranding the Edmonton Public Library.

I was thoroughly impressed by the new brand that EPL released last year. The Library’s collection of promotional materials–including t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, logos, bus ads, & videos–are simple, clean, fresh, captivating…

For more information, take a look at Edmonton Public Library: Spread the words.

There’s also lots of great videos on EPL’s YouTube channel.

& hopefully the EPL Store will be up and running soon.

It’s a good read. It discusses [...]]]> I was on the plane to WILU 2011 in Regina last week when the woman sitting beside me, also headed to the conference (I am pretty sure the plane was full of library folks), handed me a newspaper article in the National Post entitled Can Wikipedia improve students’ work?

It’s a good read. It discusses the merits of Wikipedia as a jumping off point in research, and how it can be integrated into course assignments in a way that challenges students to think about evaluating information and the rigorous work that goes into producing scholarly research articles.

While librarians are not mentioned in the article, it sheds light on the type of assignment design we could be assisting faculty with in our efforts to become increasingly more involved in helping students develop information literacy skills.

Just some food for thought.

Digital & Media Literacy @ RDC PRESENTERS: Kristine Plastow, Robyn Hall & Teneil Vuori, Red Deer College Library

The ability to interact [...]]]> On Thursday, April 14, I helped lead a workshop (turned webinar thanks to bad weather) at the Annual General Meeting- Spring 2011 of the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) in Calgary, Alberta.

Digital & Media Literacy @ RDC
PRESENTERS: Kristine Plastow, Robyn Hall & Teneil Vuori, Red Deer College Library

The ability to interact with information across a variety of technological platforms, tools and media is a vital skill for students and faculty to possess in contemporary learning and workplace environments. This session will address challenges and opportunities academic librarians and staff at RDC Library have experienced in seeking to foster patrons’ digital and media literacy skills.

Learn more about Digital & Media Literacy:

• Digital & Media Literacy: A Plan of Action: http://www.scribd.com/doc/41889496/Digital-and-Media-Literacy-A-Plan-of-Action
  White paper by Renee Hobbs; a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute outlining steps to improve digital and media literacy education.
• The Horizon Report 2011: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/HR2011.pdf
  Describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education and creative expression over the next one to five years.

RDC Library Guides:

• Research Guides: http://rdc.libguides.com/browse.php?o=s
  Library staff have created subject guides to help students & faculty find resources, including books, articles & websites.
• Copyright: http://rdc.libguides.com/copyright
  Information for students & faculty about using copyrighted materials at RDC.
• Open Resources: http://rdc.libguides.com/open
  This guide will help you find copyright-friendly resources online, including scholarly literature, multimedia, teaching objects, and software.
• Information Fluency: http://rdc.libguides.com/info_fluency
  Learn how to book an instruction session with a librarian. This guide provides an overview of resources, services, and programs designed and delivered by librarians to support students and instructors at RDC.
• RDC citation guides:
  APA: http://rdc.libguides.com/apa
  MLA: http://rdc.libguides.com/mla
  Chicago: http://rdc.libguides.com/chicago

I attended the Handheld Librarian Online Conference a few weeks ago. QR Codes were mentioned in pretty much every session. So … what are QR Codes and how are libraries using them?

QR (Quick Response) Codes are matrix barcodes that you [...]]]> AKA those funny looking square things cropping up all over the place …

I attended the Handheld Librarian Online Conference a few weeks ago. QR Codes were mentioned in pretty much every session. So … what are QR Codes and how are libraries using them?

QR (Quick Response) Codes are matrix barcodes that you can scan with a QR Code reader installed on your cell phone. (Note: Some cell phones come with this already built in, while older phones–like mine– will not allow for this technology.)

Once scanned, you are taken to a URL … or whatever other information has been encoded in the QR Code.

Libraries are placing QR Codes in catalogues and research guides to provide users with mobile-accessible information about resources, as well as in physical library spaces to provide information about things like library hours and online research guides. The QR Code to the right will take you to a mobile library guide that we have recently created at RDC Library (which is also available here). Soon we will be placing this QR Code at our Information Desk in the library, along with handouts on how QR Codes work.

To learn more…

Read QR Codes: Uses in Libraries

Download a QR Code Reader

Create your own QR Code!

Watch QR Codes Everywhere

The guide features resources and information on Open Access (OA) journal literature, copyright-friendly media (Open Culture), Open Education teaching resources, and Open Source Software.

Creating an “open” guide can increase patron’s awareness of:

- Resources freely available on the Internet regardless of their membership status [...]]]> I recently created an Open Resources LibGuide for RDC Library.

The guide features resources and information on Open Access (OA) journal literature, copyright-friendly media (Open Culture), Open Education teaching resources, and Open Source Software.

Creating an “open” guide can increase patron’s awareness of:

- Resources freely available on the Internet regardless of their membership status with a Library or financial restrictions.

- Copyright and alternatives to proprietary media and software.

- Opportunities to share work openly with others through, for example, OA journals and creative commons licenses.

* On that note, the content of this guide has a creative commons license attached should you wish to share, copy, distribute or remix what’s there.

Human Libraries are springing up all over the world. During these events, people become “living books” that can be signed out by library patrons and “read” via sharing their experiences. It is a great way to create stronger social cohesion and understanding among library community members.

I learned about this library phenomenon at the [...]]]>

Human Libraries are springing up all over the world. During these events, people become “living books” that can be signed out by library patrons and “read” via sharing their experiences. It is a great way to create stronger social cohesion and understanding among library community members.

I learned about this library phenomenon at the AAAL (Alberta Association of Academic Libraries) Fall 2010 Meeting.  At the meeting, librarian Melinda Spears talked about her experiences organizing a Human Library at Grant MacEwan University. Similar events have taken place in Canada at a number of public and academic libraries including:

• Augustana Campus Library (University of Alberta)
• Grant MacEwan University South Campus Library
• Humber College
• Toronto Public Library
• University of Guelph’s McLaughlin Library
• University of Victoria

Inspired by these events, RDC librarian/learning designer Sona Macnaughton and I organized a Human Instruction Library last December whereby faculty acted as living books specializing in specific topics around instruction strategies and technologies. This Spring we hope to do this event once more.

Similarly, the Ontario Library Association hosted a Human Library at the 2011 Super Conference. Here, delegates could sign out professionals to hear about their career experiences.

Taking these ideas further, at some point I would like to try a “human training library” and allow library staff to sign out other staff with expertise in a certain area.

To learn more about organizing a Human Library, take a look at: Don’t judge a book by its cover: The Living Library Organizer’s Guide.

It talks about how search engine results are becoming more and more irrelevant and spammy. I could not agree more.

When I teach students how to evaluate websites I no longer have them look at [...]]]> CNN recently published an article that caught my eye entitled Humans vs. automated search: Why people power is cool again.

It talks about how search engine results are becoming more and more irrelevant and spammy. I could not agree more.

When I teach students how to evaluate websites I no longer have them look at hoax sites (despite how fun they can be). Instead I have them go to Google and throw in some keywords as they might actually do when researching for their class assignments. Then I have them evaluate the first few results that come up. More times than not these results are pretty terrible and smoothly lead us into discussions around search syntax, advanced search features, scholarly versus popular resources, library databases, peer-review, reliable websites, and the overall conclusion that online searching is messy at best.

On that note, the aforementioned CNN article brought blekko.com to my attention. Launched this past fall, blekko is a search engine that allows users to mark search results as spam, for instance, and they can also indicate that they “like” certain results much like Facebook lets people “like” their friends’ wall posts. It also enables users to search using “slashtags” whereby they can search through only sites they want. All in all I think this search engine has a lot of new and exciting features to paw through at a time where Google is becoming rather frustrating (though I love it still, of course).