I have just received my copy of the LWW7 conference proceedings, edited by Peter Brophy, Jenny Craven and Margaret Markland and published by Facet. I have blogged about the conference itself (see Sept 07 entries)and the proceedings contain 24 papers (including the one Karen and I gave on international students) from around the world. There are more details on the Facet website and a list of papers and slides on the CERLIM website
There’s a short piece in this week’s Times Higher Education about the SCONUL report on international students – I seem to have got my name in press a couple of times….
I wish they had focused more on the actual report itself though and actually explained how it is trying to help libraries develop their services. I have been quite pleased at the positive response we have had to the report so far, people seem to like the practical suggestions in the appendices as well as the examples of good practice. Karen Senior and I will be giving a presentation and a workshop based around the report at the SCONUL Access conference on 24th June at Kingston University.
Heraklion from the harbour
I am delighted to see another positive review of our book on “Providing effective library services for research”. This one, on the HEA ICS website is from Laurie Prange, a librarian at Yukon College in Canada. I will be using some of the data from the book to contribute to a workshop which Phil Sykes is organising at the SCONUL conference in Edinburgh next month.
Street in Archanes, Crete
A colleague (thanks Pat) just sent me details of this online book. I haven’t read it but chapter headings look interesting: [Faculty Expectations of Student Research, Asking Students about Their Research, Dream Catcher: Capturing Student-Inspired Ideas for the Libraries’ Web Site, Mapping Diaries, or Where Do They Go All Day? What an Experience: Library Staff Participation in Ethnographic Research and more]
Mark Knopfler’s guitar on stage at Newcastle City Hall 21.5.08
He just gets better and better!
This paper by Andrew Shenton (Library Review 57, 4 2008, 276-288) is a report of a small scale project exploring problems encountered by school students when looking for information.
Flowers in Archanes, Crete
I just picked up a post on this article by Philip Kent on Peter Godwin’s blog Agreeing with the CIBER Report, Kent emphasises that many authors overemphasise the impact of ICTs on young people and underestimate the effect on older generations. However, he also makes the point that we need to do more in schools to develop information literacy as by the time students reach university they are entrenched in Google and it’s “almost too late”
Anyway, I’m carrying on with adding some of the refs I find to my Refshare database and have now added a link to the database at the left of the main blog posts.
Manolis Kabourakis (TEI Crete), Gillian Bell & Dr Gordon Port (Newcastle) in Archanes, Crete
Last week I attended the first day of the National Teaching Fellows symposium in London. The afternoon was taken up by a demonstration of teaching applications in Second Life – it was interesting to note the audience reactions! People seemed to either love it or get quite annoyed by it! As yet, I’m not sure which group I fall into, I’ve never got beyond orientation island myself, I just don’t seem to have the patience to learn what to do!
Anyway, there were a couple of useful sites mentioned: John Kirriemuir has written a snapshot of UK HE and FE developments in Second Life for Eduserve and SimTeach is a forum for educators using Second Life, with a wiki, blog and mailing list.
Fisherman tending nets, Heraklion harbour
Judging by the feedback I’ve had from earlier posts, there are quite a few people who are waiting for these Guidelines to be published and here they are at last! The task group with which I have been working was very pleased to be asked to do this research and we do hope that people find the Guidelines helpful. They are based on a survey of libraries and library websites both in the UK and elsewhere, as well as a review of the literature. The body of the report summarises some of the issues and challenges libraries face when trying to provide equitable services, drawing on case studies to illustrate particular points and highlighting key concepts throughout the text. The appendices contain lists of examples of good practice on library websites, key concepts, “special touches”, lists of glossaries, writing skills ideas, suggestions for staff training, job descriptions and more!
Karen Senior and I will be doing a presenation and workshop based on this work at the SCONUL Access meeting in June too.
If you do look at the report, please do email me and give me some feedback.
The Venetian Fort, Heraklion (view from my hotel window)
The slides from the presentations at the SCONUL/CONUL seminar on Information Strategies for Researchers, held in Dublin in January, are now available on the SCONUL WGIL website
view from lecture room at TEI Crete
I have spent the last few days visiting TEI Crete, looking at resources and facilities which would support a proposed collaborative venture between TEI Crete and Newcastle University. Consequently, my pictures for the next week or two will feature Crete quite a lot!
The Library at the TEI is small by UK university standards, with only 6 professional staff and a limited print bookstock. They do however, have reasonably good access to ebooks and ejournals via Heal Link, the Hellenic Academic Libraries Consortium.
Not surprisingly, given their limited staffing, the Library is not open at weekends, a pity, as it’s one of the main places on campus where students can use open access computers.
Prof Ella Ritchie (PVC L&T, Newcastle) and Professor Carlo Leifert (Newcastle) in the TEI Library [note the very neat bookshelves – english and greek textbooks shelved together]
Maria Vrachliotou, one of the librarians at TEI