CCLI 2018

Introduction

On Friday, June 1, I attended the California Conference on Library Instruction, which was held at USF in Fromm Hall. The theme of this year's 1-day conference was Library Instruction by Design: Using Design Thinking to Meet Evolving Needs. This theme was inclusive and applicable to all the sorts of library instruction we do, conceptually flexible, and easily approachable. My main takeaway of the conference was to just try something new; in the process of design thinking, there are built-in pockets of time to reflect on how the new thing went and to adjust the application of the new thing to continually improve it. On the other hand, it is also important to remember the beauty of pilots: if it doesn't work, it is OK to cancel the new thing and try something else instead! The most important mindset to maintain is that improvement is incremental, and the stakes are rarely high enough to stop one completely from trying to improve the design of instruction sessions, assessment approaches, vehicles for outreach relationships, etc.: we can evolve towards something better with the luxury of making mistakes. 

Picture of Lauren Pressley
during opening keynote

Keynote

I found the opening keynote address, delivered by Lauren Pressley, to be accessible and inspirational, sending me reaching for my notebook to take notes. She spoke of key moments in her career trajectory in where she used elements of design thinking, often emphasizing that a period that appears on the outside as inactive is many times the analyzing phase of design thinking, where one is taking everything in and gathering information sufficient to beginning the subsequent design phase.

The ADDIE model by grafispaten [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In addition to the ADDIE model charted above, there are other models such as the SAM model, Plan, Think, Do/PDCA model, and Kotter's Cycle of Change; they all can be equally useful in the design process so one shouldn't spend too much energy defining or comparing the different models for adoption.

Or, we can put it this way:

INSPIRATION 

• talking with peeps
• taking it in, marinating 
• put self in position of users when approaching design (e.g. use library's public space for your own work) - walk through other areas of campus to see what peeps are doing 

IDEATION 

• divergent thinking
• generate ideas
• consider fringe cases
• prototyping (e.g. post-it note on cell phone screen for rough UX design)

ITERATION

• take to public before investing in doing it (they might not think it's as great as you do)
• what other problems are arising
• exploring what could come out of doing the thing

Pressley also called out a great resource: the Design Thinking for Libraries Toolkit and flashed a flagship quote for design thinking: Perfect is the enemy of good. If it's good, do it! And it's OK to say, "I need more time on this phase," whatever phase may be tripping you up, as you ask yourself, "What role can I play in my community, for what can I be a resource?"

Morning Session 

The next session I attended was called Every Citation Tells a Story: Framing a Collaborative Assessment Design of Information Literacy Skills, presented by Dale Vidmar. This was an interactive session where we got to apply the methods Vidmar used in assessing student information literacy skills by evaluating the introduction and references of a sample student paper. It turns out one rarely needs to read the whole paper to evaluate info lit skills, and that the citations -- from what types of works are cited to how well the citations are formatted -- indicates a student's mastery over info lit.

I can see this being applicable to archival research in addition to traditional reference and research services; this past spring quarter I taught a couple of classes in where the students used archival materials as a main component of their research for specific assignment topics; by evaluating and comparing the citations of archival sources with the citations of the secondary and tertiary sources, I would be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the incorporation of archival sources into the research process. This is another great example of checking in on students' final research outputs as a mode for assessment.

Note: Vidmar's slides and interactive exercise handouts are available on the CCLI 2018 website.

Afternoon Sessions 

Directly after lunch I attended the lightning talks, which I like because they offer a wide overview of the projects and initiatives my colleagues at other institutions have been up to, but for whatever reason I did not find any particular talk extremely useful or applicable. I also often feel like 10 minutes is not enough time to get into everything necessary for total audience engagement. Although folks in the audience had some great follow-up questions for all participants!

The last session of the day that I attended was Chasing Outcomes: An Exploration of Barriers to Progress in Designing and Assessing Library Instruction Program Learning Outcomes, presented by Caitlin Plovnick. Above all I found this session to be therapeutic for audience and presenter: Plovnick exposed the demoralizing factors she herself faced in her organization when trying to implement an instruction assessment program and by extension allowed us to vicariously give catharsis to any organizational or position-specific issues we ourselves may face. Yes, it is true: dysfunction is normal. As she eventually came round to the positive outcomes, which were sometimes made possible by things out of her control (e.g. a new library director being hired, one who came to her instruction assessment meetings and thus drummed up participation from other librarians), Plovnick's talk kept sight of hope and change. Her session often made me laugh and engage with the other participants at my table, creating camaraderie and a group zeitgeist to close out the day.

The Over Professionalization of Library Work 

It was also during this session that I had a major epiphany regarding a problem I had long felt resided within all aspects of library work. The over professionalization of librarianship is a product of us (academic librarians and library administrators) attempting to legitimize what we do to the rest of academia, which so often rewards research-conducting PhDs with sabbaticals and higher pay. We want a seat at that table; we want the benefits of working hard in academia just as our faculty colleagues do. The over-professionalization of librarianship has not been developed to make it more difficult for us and our colleagues but actually to help us make a case of our services and position us as integral to the academic enterprise. This epiphany gave me space to readjust my attitude towards trends that are indicators in the wider field of academia, like assessment, the need to publish and present, and promote our own rigor in what we do.

 Photo by edulabsde - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60259101

I definitely look forward to applying design thinking to the instruction I will begin planning for fall quarter, as well as reference desk and research inquiry workflow improvements that have been brewing in my mind. Lastly, of course I look forward to next year's CCLI, which will be held at USF on Friday, May 3, 2019! 

Prague Summer Seminar Days 3 & 4

Day 3 - Tuesday, May 17

Let the library fun commence!

On this day we visited the National Library of the Czech Republic, which is located at the historical Jesuit complex, the Klementinum. In addition to modernized aspects of the complex that now house the National Library, we visited the the original astronomical tower and observatory built by the Jesuits, and the picturesque and famous Baroque library. (We weren't allowed to enter the library nor take pictures of it! -- we peered in through the doorway.) The Jesuits were very instrumental in bringing higher education to the Czech lands, and the Klementinum is the evidence.

Plants in libraries are a big trend in the Czech Republic. Stay tuned for more evidence in coming pictures.
I wonder if it is for their air filtering benefits or something more cultural?
Do the Czech people have a word for cosy like the Dutch "gezellig" and house plants add to the unique definition? 

View from the astronomical clock tower at the Klementinum.
The tower off in the distance on the hill is Petřín Tower. 

View of the reading room at the National Library. 

Evidence of the Jesuit legacy.

We also received 2 lectures from Reference Librarians from the National Library. The first lecture was an overview of their services and how they are utilized -- the National Library gives a lot of support to students as well as ordinary citizens. They have a service called "Ask your library," and I found it interesting that 94 libraries in the Czech Republic actively participate. Since last year (2015) they have archived the questions and answers in a wiki-like format where users can sharpen responses and add information.

The second lecture was about the E-Books on Demand service. This is a clever scheme where the library offers any person in the world the ability to pay for a digital copy of historical printed works in the collection. For two months, the digital surrogate is available to only that patron. Then, the entire text of the ebook becomes available for anyone to use. This is an innovative way to fund the digitization of historical books.

Before we left the Klementinum, we visited the chapel, which was a great example of Baroque architecture as well. It was completed from 1723-1724.

After lunch at a typical Czech cafeteria style restaurant, we headed over to the Parliament Library, and by extension, Parliament itself. The Parliament Library's first objective is to serve members of Parliament, but also provides public access to information, like the income and expenditures of political parties. Their main services are completing research for Parliament members and conducting media recaps on particular topics. A few of us were a bit surprised at the small size of the Parliament Library -- the location is considered temporary (they are only renting it) and the librarians hope for a larger, more permanent location in the future.

2016 is the 700 year birthday of King Charles IV, so there were many celebrations and special exhibits going on throughout Prague. Here is one part of an installation at Parliament celebrating K*700.  

There was some very interesting architecture and light fixtures.
The woman with dark hair and the scarf was the librarian that gave us the tour.  

Cool reflection picture from a ceiling in Parliament. 

Afterwards we briefly stopped at the Church of the Infant Jesus, and later in the evening, Erica and I had Indian food down the street from the hotel. It was pretty good, even though they didn't use coconut milk in the curry sauce like I expected.

Altar at Church of the Infant Jesus. 

Day 4 - Wednesday, May 18

This was a formal, intense day. We went over to the Institute of Information Studies and Librarianship, Faculty of Arts, Charles University for a morning of lectures.

Welcome note from Dr. Drobíková, Director of the Institute

Dr. Drobíková gave us a brief introduction to Charles University and the programs offered at the Institute. An undergraduate degree takes three years, masters two years, and PhD three years. One focus offered is book culture -- early printed works, manuscripts, and historical books -- sounds pretty cool. They are also working to offer a new teacher credential program.

We also learned about a major research project on which they've been working: cs3889.com. "Czechoslovakia 38-89 is a complex educational simulation for high school students." The project begins with 1938, when the Czech lands were occupied by Nazis, and covers up to the Velvet Revolution in 1989.



Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Czechia, Dr. Marek

This was one of my favorite talks! So much good stuff.

We were treated to a brief slideshow of various remarkable manuscripts -- an 8th century Psalter fragment in Insular minuscule with majuscule headings and versals to start each verse; an 8th/9th century fragment of the Gospel of Luke in Insular uncial; the Codex of Vyšehrad, which is believed to be made for the coronation of Prince Vratislav II (the first King of Bohemia) on July 15, 1086.

Many of the manuscripts Dr. Marek mentioned are kept in the National Library or the Klementinum, but images of their pages have been made available through the Manuscriptorium Project, a digital library that aggregates records and digitized full text packages from libraries all over the world. The Manuscriptorium contains "manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books, maps, charters and other types of documents." Create an account, compare some objects, have some fun!

I found it! The Codex of Vyšehrad. & the joke about these guys getting out the bathtub lol https://t.co/75tB2Z1WKG pic.twitter.com/jME0jrUyPn

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) July 6, 2016

Book Provenance Research in Czech Libraries, Dr. Šípek

Dr. Šípek's talk covered the technical aspects of incorporating provenance data into catalog records for rare and historically significant books. This scheme uses Marc21, but they are trying to update it for RDA. The provenance record can include any/all notes, remarks, or signs that can identify the previous owner: ex libris, bookplates, hand-written notes, probate inventories... but interestingly, it does not include the current library that holds the item. I suppose that is inferred from the catalog one is consulting!

Digitization and Digital Library Aggregation, Dr. Lhoták

Dr. Lhoták gave us a thorough introduction to the Czech Digital Library and how it works with other digital libraries in the Czech Republic -- it is an aggregator that focuses on dissemination. The National Digital Library, in comparison, possess a finite mission of digitally preserving holdings from the National Library. Meanwhile, Kramerius is an open-source digital library platform developed by the National Library and the Academy of Sciences Library that can be used by any library and from which metadata and links to full text can be fed into the Czech Digital Library. And the Czech Digital Library likewise uses Kramerius as its main interface.

The new project is called ArcLib, which is a complex preservation system that engages in bit-level preservation. I am wondering if ArcLib is follows the OAIS Reference Model for Trusted Digital Repositories? Something to look into as it gets developed from now until 2020.

We also learned of Europanea, which aims to aggregate content from the digital libraries of all European countries. However, Dr. Lhoták mentioned that Europanea is in conflict with The European Library, which is a consortium of all the national libraries of European countries.

Academic Libraries in the Czech Republic: Thinking and Moving Forward, Dr. Landová

This talk was the most familiar to me because the trends in Czech academic libraries seem to be in stride with US academic libraries, about which I am very familiar because I have been working in one for over ten years. In many ways, Czech academic librarians are following the trends that American academic librarians have been chipping away at: open access, information literacy, scholarly communication, and more partnership with faculty to become embedded in the academic process. The main difference between U.S. and Czech academic librarians is that in the Czech republic, librarians are not as involved in researching and publishing themselves, and their positions are not tenured. Dr. Landová made a mention that this is something to work on, but I would argue differently -- I think that librarians in the US have become over-professionalized, so it would be nice to see a better balance struck between either extreme.

Gathered around the table at Libri Prohibiti

The group milling around Libri Prohibiti 

In the afternoon, we went to Libri Prohibiti, the library of samizdat and exile literature. This is a special, interesting place because it is the product of decades of censorship under communism. Libri Prohibiti has collected many hand-typed and hand-bound books that were circulated covertly under communism, and these books are called samizdat literature.

We had the pleasure of touching, feeling, smelling, and appreciating many original objects that are only one of maybe 12 copies in the world, and no copy is the same, based on what sheet in the carbon-copy pad it came from. This was a powerful experience for the dedication and philosophy it represents, for the power it entrusts in books as carriers of information/disseminators of ideas, and for the physical object/the artifact. Writing, making, distributing, and saving samizdat literature came with great risks, and a feeling of awe rushed over me when I considered all the danger that was courted for each pamphlet and volume I touched.

Binding detail of a samizdat novel

Type detail of a volume of samizdat poetry

Some examples almost presented as modern zines...

...and did interesting things combining type, print block, and marker.