During August 2008

Inside ZSR

Innovation in Instruction

Yesterday I attended Elon University’s 5th Innovation in Instruction Conference. I’ve attended almost all of them, and each year they get better. This year’s keynote should make it clear how impressive the event has become. Michael Wesch, of The Machine in Us(ing) Us, Information R/evolution, and A Vision of Students Today fame, was the keynote... more

Kevin at MERLOT

The eighth annual MERLOT Conference, held in Minneapolis, had much to offer. Under the banner of “Still Blazing the Trail and Meeting New Challenges in the Digital Age”, there were an impressive number of sessions (from 15 minute mini-sessions up to 2 hour workshops) shared among several different conference tracks. The library track, ‘Reinventing Libraries... more

Susan’s MERLOT Report

I’m starting this report with a disclaimer: I arrived in Minneapolis to attend and present at MERLOT International Conference this weekend AFTER a long week of intensive learning in Cambridge. So, I am admitting up front to the fact that my brain was already on overload. Thus, my notes are much more brief than Lauren... more

Lauren at MERLOT

This was my first MERLOT International conference. I had heard it was really good from Susan, so Susan, Kevin, and I proposed a session on blogs and wikis, were accepted, and went to Minneapolis for MERLOT. As a somewhat techy conference, there were power strips on every table in almost every conference program room. Fabulous... more

One Last Leadership Institute Session to Share

Joe Zolner Our final session this morning was designed to pull together everything we have been learning this week and get us thinking about how we can use what we’ve learned to develop our ability to become change agents at our institutions. Joe Zolner, our program leader and primary instructor this week, shared his thoughts... more

Final Days at the Institute

Our Discussion Group at Breakfast Yesterday was another full day of sessions and learning. We worked on two case studies – the first was about the Boston Lyric Opera where we examined how a non-profit organization used a specific tool, the Balanced Scorecard, to improve its organizational performance and outcomes. I could see how this... more

ACRL Immersion: Final Thoughts

I didn’t post about my last day an a half at the ACRL Intentional Teacher Immersion program primarily because it was pretty intense and I needed time to process it. Again, I won’t bore you with the details, but it involved pretty intense discussions of what we percieve to be weaknesses in our teaching that... more

Library Assessment Conference cont’d.

Beginning with Tuesday temperatures soared in the 90’s for a Seattle high. The Student Union building where the sessions are held lacks sufficient air conditioning and opening the windows just didn’t get it. Being without air in my office for the last couple of weeks I guess I should have felt right at home. Nonetheless... more

Leadership Institute: Monitoring Institutional Performance, Vision & Voice and More

Today, a full day of discussion and presentations continued. In the small group discussion this morning, we spent an hour trying to frame a mini-case written by one of our group members. Earlier this summer, each person was asked to submit a mini-case in which we described a challenging situation in which we are involved.... more

Library Assessment Conference

This week I’m in Seattle attending a Library Assessment Conference entitled “Building Effective Sustainable, Practical Assessment.” Of the 375 Librarians in attendance, some 15 % are from outside the United States. The day began with keynoters Susan Gibbons, University of Rochester; Rick Luce, Emory University and Betsy Wilson, University of Washington discussing what they perceived... more