ARC Professional Development Committee Annual Report 2009

This year’s Professional Development Committee members are:
· Debbie Bockus (Chair), Worcester Polytechnic Institute
· Margaret Cardello, Central Mass Regional Library Systems
· Linda Oldach, Mount Wachusett Community College
· Elizabeth Pope, American Antiquarian Society
· Lynne Riley, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
· Janice Wilbur, Assumption College
The committee met three times this year. In the fall, we created a wiki that lists websites that may be useful for professional development purposes. The categories are:
· Central MA Library Associations
· State Library Associations
· Regional Library Associations
· National Library Associations
· International Library Associations
· Special Associations
· Blogs, Wikis and more
· E-journals
· Listservs
· Websites
We also plan to add handouts from our spring workshops. Members of ARC may log in at https://arcpd.pbworks.com and request access. Once approved, they will be able to view and edit the wiki.
In January, the committee sent a survey using Zoomerang to query the members on topics for a spring workshop and preferred days and times. We received 50 responses. Based on their input, a half day combination of presentation and workshop was planned for May on wikis and del.icio.us. On May 13, 2009, WPI hosted “Getting Organized: Using Del.icio.us and Wikis to Organize Library Content.” Presenters were Pingsheng Chen, Electronic Reference Supervisor at Worcester Public Library, and Betsy Like, Educational Services Librarian at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
Both presenters gave background information for approximately 45 minutes on Del.icio.us (Ping) and Wikis (Betsy) and then an additional 45 minutes to an hour of hands on activities. Thirteen people attended and the program received high praise by all. The introductory session gave good examples of how libraries are using del.icio.us and wikis in their libraries from staff manuals to reference assistance. Participants enjoyed the chance to create their own accounts and practice with experts on hand to assist.
The committee enjoyed a very successful year!
Respectfully submitted,
Debbie Bockus
Chair

Getting Organized: Using Del.icio.us and Wikis to Organize Library Content

May 2009 at WPI
9:00 - 9:30 Registration and Refreshments
9:30 - 11:00 Del.icio.us
Pingsheng Chen is the Electronic Reference Supervisor at Worcester Public Library. She manages electronic resources and distance reference, including QuestionPoint chat reference, email reference, and telephone reference services. Previously, she was Reference Librarian and Webmaster at Worcester Public Library beginning in 1994. She manages multiple blogs, wikis and twitters and uses Web 2.0 applications to innovate services. She teaches the use of these tools as well.
11:00 - 11:15 Break
11:15 - 12:45 Wikis
Betsy Like is the Educational Services Librarian at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She coordinates educational services for TCSVM students, faculty and staff, provides reference services, and manages day to day library operations. Betsy has been at Tufts since 2003. Prior to coming to Tufts, Betsy worked at NELINET, Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Itek Optical Systems.

ARC Professional Development Annual Report 2008

ARC Professional Development Committee Annual Report

June 2008

Chair: Debbie Bockus, WPI

Committee: Lynne Riley, WPI

Peg Lesinski, AAS

Margaret Cardello, CMRLS

Jan Wilbur, Assumption

Linda Oldach, MWCC

The committee met approximately 3 times this year. A survey was created by Margaret via Zoomerang to determine the type of spring program we would offer. Questions were:

1. What type of presentation would you be most interested in?

2. Would you prefer a half day or full day program?

3. If a half day, what time of day is better for you, morning or afternoon?

4. What day of the week is best?

5. What topics would you like to see covered in this workshop?

6. What professional development websites do you find useful?

7. What is one tool that you find most useful in your library? You may assume everyone else uses it, too, but maybe not!

8. Are there any other comments you’d like to share with the committee?

A total of 20 people responded to the survey. Based on the responses, we offered a spring program on May 1, 2008, at WPI. Linda Braun spoke on “Emerging Technologies”. This was a hands-on half day workshop where participants were able to create accounts and use freely available products online such as: Twitter, Animoto, iGoogle, and Pageflakes. These products allow participants to create podcasts, vodcasts, tagging and streaming. A copy of the program is attached to this report. Seventeen people attended and 14 filled out evaluation forms. Of the 14, 11 felt the session was “very useful” and 3 felt it was “moderately useful”. The cost for the program was $800. WPI provided the refreshments.

The committee also has been creating a list of professional development sites of interest and will post them on the ARC website in the future. The current list is attached to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Bockus

Chair

Emerging Technologies Evaluation Form 2008

Emerging Technologies with Linda Braun
May 1, 2008
WPI
Emerging Technologies Evaluations

Number of Attendees: 17
(not everyone filled out a form)

Type of Library:

• Private Academic 8
• Public Academic 3
• Public School 2
• Special 1

General impression of workshop:

• Very useful 11
• Moderately useful 3
• Not useful 0

General impression of content:

• Too general 0
• Just about right 14
• Too specific 0

What did you find most helpful about this workshop?

• covered many topics, hands-on, very exciting
• Linda!
• hands-on using some amazing sites
• learning about Flip Video camera
• great ideas & info on new tech apps
• awareness of apps; not saying will use them but I know more about them now.
• Flip Video and Animoto
• New things
• Lots of using existing things (like Twitter) in different ways
• keeps me informed about the latest & the best technologies & applications for libraries.
• exposure to newer internet technologies

What could have been improved and how?

• perhaps less time on Twitter
• come back soon!
• more time - so much, so little time
• workshop should be longer, hold workshop after all classes and finals are over
• more time
• slower pace
• some more basic terminology - I was often lost
• less general, focus on maybe 2

Other questions, comments or suggestions, including future workshops you'd like to see.

• It was great to learn about these products
• Would like to see this topic each year - always helpful
• Just great to converse with someone/people who are in the same boat as me!
• Great content, but maybe a little too much at once.
• no water for tea, only coffee. Please ask permission before taping people.

Committee Minutes of January 4, 2008

ARC Professional Development Committee Meeting Minutes
January 4, 2008
WPI
Present: Debbie Bockus (WPI), Linda Oldach (MWCC), Lynne Riley (WPI), Peg Lesinski (AAS)

Linda reported that the ARC Executive Board has asked if we could put together a list of professional development opportunities to be placed on the ARC website. We could include links to ALA, ACRL, etc. The group will put together a list for submission to ARC.

There was a discussion on how to draw new members into the committee. Lynne suggested that perhaps each of us contact someone personally whom we feel might be interested and invite them to join.

Most of the discussion was on a spring program. We decided to send out a survey again with the following proposed questions:

The ARC Professional Development Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in last year's survey regarding what topics interest you for upcoming programs. You gave us suggestions and we listened! Last year, we held a "Cool Tools" program where Camtasia, SnagIt and Second Life were demonstrated. We invite you to give us your thoughts again on a progam for this spring.

1. What type of program would interest you most: presentation or hands-on workshop?
2. Would you prefer a half day or a full day program?
3. If a half day, what time of day is better: morning or afternoon?
4. What day of the week is better for you?
5. Do you have any suggested topics you would like to see covered?
6. What Professional Development sites do you find useful?
7. What is one tool that you find most useful in your library? You may assume everyone else uses it, too, but maybe not!

We discussed whether Linda Braun might be available to present again or have some ideas of "hot topics" for us. Perhaps : How libraries are using FaceBook, IGoogle, Libx.

Respectfully submitted,

Debbie Bockus

Chair

Welcome to the Professional Dev. Advisory Committee Blog!

Hi everyone--
Here is the new blog for the Professional Development Advisory Committee. Please use this space to communicate with one another, to post your committee minutes and to otherwise share information.
Thanks for your work on behalf of ARC.
Dawn