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Staff Development Committee

Observing Users in Action

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October 2, 2008 – Observing Users in Action
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Place: Library Instruction Room 1
Presenters: Diane Johnson, Mike Spears & Caryn Scoville

The first half of this program presents a 40 minute broadcast of Observing Student Researchers In Their Native Habitat by John Law of Proquest.

The second half of this program is a live presentation of Usability Testing of the MOBIUS Catalog by Mike Spears, Diane Johnson & Caryn Scoville. They did usability tests of users performing tasks in the MERLIN and MOBIUS catalog and recorded the sessions with Camtasia screen capture software. You’ll see and hear users try to find and order books in MOBIUS and learn about some of the main issues users encounter.

Discussion will follow the presentations.

Library Issues Forum: An Overview of Catalog Overlay Software Products

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September 23rd, 2008 – Library Issues Forum: An Overview of Catalog Overlay Software Products
Time: 10:00am – 11:00am
Place: Library Instruction Room 1
Presenters: Mary Aycock & Jee Davis

In recent years, there has been much discussion in the library community about whether current integrated library systems are intuitive enough to serve current library users’ needs. Many commercial information providers and search engines, including Amazon, Google and LibraryThing, have changed user expectations and behavior with such features as one-box searching, “did you mean” queries, relevancy ranking results, faceted browsing, and social tagging.

In the quest to improve the public display and function of the online public access catalog, many libraries have installed catalog overlay software products. This presentation will examine such products, including AquaBrowser, Encore, Endeca, and Primo. Examples of specific implementations of these products will be displayed from libraries across the country. Also, common characteristics among them will be presented, as well as comparisons of the special features and services. The ways that the products rely on catalog records and the crucial role played by the data in the records will also be discussed.

A panel discussion will follow the presentation.

– Staff Development Committee

August 7, 2008 – Peru: A Fusion of Identities

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Time: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Place: Reference conference room, 159 Ellis Library
Presenter: Amanda McConnell

Come enjoy a glimpse of Lima and Cusco and learn more about Peru’s rich culture and heritage. Many cultures and time periods, from ancient roots to recent violence, have helped to shape the country and how Peruvians view themselves. We’ll explore some of the complexities and juxtapositions on this quick armchair tour, from 0 to 11,000 feet.

Release time is available for this program with supervisor approval.

— Staff Development Committee

To the Ends of the Earth: Modern Mongolia

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Date: July 9, 2008
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Place: Reference conference room (Room 159), Ellis Library
Presenter: Amanda Sprochi

While the name may conjure up visions of marauding hordes, Mongolia is a surprisingly modern, democratic culture whose people have much in common with those in the West. Perched between two superpowers (Russia and China) and heir to a wealth of mineral resources, Mongolia has progressed in the almost twenty years of its democratic existence into a growing, dynamic country that reveres its ancient heritage while it simultaneously deals with the turmoil of the 21st century. Come see how an ancient pastoral lifestyle and people confront the complexities of the new millennium.

Release time is available for this program with supervisor approval.

– Staff Development Committee

Reminder Financial Planning Seminars – A good investment of time

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The Staff Development Committee would like to provide library employees with a reminder that Bob Almony is presenting two financial planning sessions this spring at the request of Human Resources (HR).

Principles of Investing on a Shoestring Budget; or, How to Get Rich Slowly will be presented Friday, May 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., S203 Memorial Union.

Taking Charge of Your Finances will be presented Thursday, May 22, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., N201/202 Memorial Union. Because of the room size at the Union, space is available in both sessions.

HR now provides on-line registration to its courses (https://iatsbase.missouri.edu/hrtraining/calendar.aspx). Supervisor approval is required to attend. If approved, release time is granted to attend courses sponsored by HR. Employees in Administrative, Service & Support titles have first dibs on seating, but employees in academic titles can register and attend on a space-available basis.

Leo Agnew

Caution! Hazardous Substances: Recognizing and Deflecting Toxic Personalities in the Library Workplace

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May 15, 2008 – Caution! Hazardous Substances: Recognizing and Deflecting Toxic Personalities in the Library Workplace
Time: 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Place: 4th floor conference room
Presenter: Ann Riley

More than just difficult people and management dilemmas, toxic work situations occur in many ways. The term toxic was first used with this definition in the late 1980s in business literature by author Peter Frost, and denotes an ongoing work situation that is painful, personally difficult and uncomfortable through a special combination of factors. Through an online survey taken by almost 3000 library employees in five states in late 2006, the authors of this presentation (Bennett; Freire; Riley) investigated how prevalent these situations are in libraries and what forms they take. The authors also offer some positive suggestions for handling the situations, and include case studies for group discussion. (This presentation was given at the 2007 ACRL Conference to an overflow crowd.)

Release time is available for this program with supervisor approval.

– Staff Development Committee

SDC Presentation: Introduction to MO-Space

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April 17th, 2008
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.

Place: Library Instruction Room 1

Presenters: Ann Riley, Wayne Sanders and Kate Anderson

The University of Missouri is developing an institutional repository using the open source DSpace software. The installation is called MO-Space, and is patterned after successful efforts at other research institutions. Open to all campuses of the University system, but focusing on MU presently, MO-Space aims to preserve and provide open access to scholarly products of the University. Several task forces and committees have been involved, a pilot was developed, and much work still needs to be done to populate the repository. An important element is finding grey literature, born digital items and other things not accessible in commercial databases. Harvard College’s faculty vote to encourage faculty to deposit their research in open access sources is encouraging also. The process of expanding MO-Space is developing. Come learn how this important effort in the preservation of scholarship is going at MU.

Some sites to help explain this :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository

http://www.opendoar.org/

http://mulibraries.missouri.edu/staff/committees/institutionalrepository/DigInstRep.htm

and a few examples

https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/

http://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/

http://www.library.cornell.edu/iris/dpo/cds.html

 

Release time for staff to attend this program is available with supervisor approval.

Follow Up to “What Does It Mean to Be User-Centered?”

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If you did not get a chance to participate in the Library Issues Forum that was presented by Sarah Cron on Thursday or if you did get to attend but had some additional thoughts, now is your chance to participate in the conversation . Please visit the Staff Development Committee’s programs page to see a list of ideas generated at the meeting and to submit your own anonymous comment.

Library Issues Forum: What Does It Mean to be User Centered?

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Wednesday, February 27

Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm

Place: 4th floor Conference Room

Presenter: Sarah Cron

All of us are polite and friendly to those library users.And each of us can give examples of times we went out of our way to satisfy a patron’s needs. That’s been true in libraries for decades. As libraries and universities have changed dramatically in response to changes in the environment, needs of constituencies, technological possibilities and the very nature of our users, has the definition of what constitutes user centered changed as well? Do we and/or should we have different classes of users? If we develop a unified vision statement describing services to users across all of the MU Libraries, what should it include?

Release time for staff to attend this program is available with supervisor approval.

– Staff Development Committee