Gender and Ethnicity Across Divides: A One Day Symposium
April 4
Humanities Institute, George Wells Knight House, 104 East 15th Avenue More Info

Some Sort of Somebody - Ohioan Elsie Janis on the Stage and in the Trenches
January 6 - April 14
Philip Sills Exhibit Hall, Thompson Main Library More Info

Happy Birthday, Atom! Celebrating Tezuka's Astro Boy
Now through May 30
Cartoon Research Library More Info

Awards, Acknowledgments, Fellowships, Grants, and Publications

Share your good news with the University and the entire community. Please send information about your recent accomplishments to Program Coordinator Chiquita Mullins Lee (Library Communications) at mullins-lee.1@osu.edu.
Libraries' faculty and staff are engaged in exciting work and we want to make it known.

Awards

Achievements

Training Opportunities & Tips

Presented by the OSUL Training Advisory Council

Preparing for Your Performance Review

As a library staff member, you may soon be meeting with your supervisor to discuss your annual performance review. Advance preparation for this meeting can help you to identify and articulate your training needs, goals, and objectives. After looking back at the past year's accomplishments, it is also important to look ahead.

Ask yourself: In the coming year...

• what would I like to learn?
• how could my supervisor help me be more successful?
• what resources do I need to do my job better?
• what responsibilities would I like to take on?

For more information, consult your white Performance Management binder and materials on the W drive (HR_Info folder), or contact Toni Morrison-Smith at 2-5917 morrison-smith.1@osu.edu or Linda Gonzalez at 2-5863 gonzalez.107@osu.edu.

Training Calendars - Calendars for the current and two future months, showing training opportunities available from the Libraries, the Office of Human Resources, OhioLINK, OHIONET, and the Computer Workshop. Alphabetic and Subject Indexes are also provided.

Send comments and questions to Training Advisory Council
Visit the TAC Web site.

• OSU Course Catalog & Master Schedule
• Library Staff Advisory Council's Web Page
• Library Staff Information Page
• OhioLINK Reference Databases - Access Rights
• Electronic Journal Center (OhioLINK) - Publisher List

National Learning Infrastructure Initiative

Karen Diaz attended the Annual Meeting of the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative (NLII) in New Orleans, January 26 – 28, 2003. Below is a summary of her experience.

NLII is a program initiated by Educause whose purpose is to “transform learning through technology.” The conference attracted campus administrators; provosts; deans and directors of distance education; directors of academic program initiatives; faculty who are heavily involved in using technology as part of their teaching repertoire; instructional designers; and technologists that support classroom teaching in various ways. Most attendees came from the IT sector of universities and were heads of IT or their TELR counterparts. Representatives of various educationally affiliated organizations and companies also participated. Of the 300 attendees, 6 –7 were librarians or library affiliates (OCLC, CNI, etc).

“Approximately 30-50% of the attendees were involved in group presentations. This reflects the working nature of the NLII. People who are actively involved in transforming their settings come together to learn from each other,” says Karen.

The Keynote address was titled, “Student Learning Objectives.” This was a fascinating presentation on the nature of learning and a program being developed at the University of Washington to describe courses with a variety of learning attributes such as analysis, communication skills, working with others, performance skills, and problem-solving. A basic assumption is that different faculty teaching the same course may emphasize various attributes in different ways. By documenting and capturing these differences, they can become part of the “portfolio” of each student. As students add courses to their transcripts they also document the variety of educational experiences they have received that can be described more broadly than simply by academic discipline. The implications for a highly individualized experience for students and the level of control they can have over that experience are amazing.

Other sessions of note were:

• "Where’s the Library for this Course?” Loanne Snavely of Penn State discussed the process they are involved in to create a discipline or course-specific library presence through the placement of library guides in each electronic classroom.
• “Colgate’s Collaboration for Enhanced Learning (CEL).” The head of IT and an instructional designer described the changing nature of their services as they collaborate more with faculty and as they have physically moved into the library, making the library part of this service.

“Libraries came up during and in discussions after many of the presentations, even when the presenters were not librarians,” say Karen. “I hope more institutions encourage their librarians to participate in this group. I’ve got lots of notes and handouts if people are interested in additional information.”

Most of the presentations at NLII were based on actual practice or new initiatives being tried at various institutions. Topics included learning theories and learner-centered practices, strategic planning processes, faculty engagement and issues of collaboration, and digital rights management. These presentations gave insights into where the Academy is headed, with emphasis on giving more control to the learner, customizing education to the individual, the strong need for collaboration within the academy, and deeply enriching the experience of the learner.

NLII is also in the process of setting up “Virtual Communities of Practice” (VCOPs) which will allow groups to communicate and work collaboratively in an online environment. The current 4 communities being organized shed light on the concerns of the NLII. They are:

1. Learning Objects – people interested in issues related to the development, pedagogy, sharing, description and all aspects of learning objects. This group also examines issues of the organization of knowledge on a broader scale to understand the space the learning objects inhabit. This group is likely to attract faculty, instructional designers, librarians, IT professionals.
2. Teaching and Learning – people interested in the interface between instructional technologies and the best teaching and learning practices and issues of assessment. This group seems likely to attract faculty, instructional designers and other IT professionals.
3. The New Academy – people anticipating the evolution of the Academy in light of the changing forces of technology and new insights into teaching and learning. This group is likely to attract campus administrators and faculty.
4. Electronic Portfolio – people interested in developing mechanisms to track the accomplishments of students on a variety of levels in order to match them to continued learning needs. This group is likely to attract campus administrators, IT professionals and to some degree, faculty.

Karen says, “I have been made part of the planning group for that session by virtue of having been available for a planning meeting in New Orleans and being a member of the OSU community.”

Conferences such as the NLII provide valuable experiences that may prove helpful to others who participate in future sessions.

Written by Karen Diaz (diaz.28@osu.edu)
Submitted by Chiquita Mullins Lee (mullins-lee.1@osu.edu)

Luminous Lucubrations

Last week's entry; "gurgulation" means "gurgling sound; rumble."
This week's entry is "demulcent."

Online resources for this question are available:

• Merriam-Webster OnLine - brief definitions
• The Oxford English Dictionary - lengthy, historical entries
• The Dictionary of Difficult Words - rarely used, archaic, and difficult words

Laughs

• Calvin & Hobbes Daily Comics
• Cartoon of the Day

In order to comply with University procedures, employees who are applying for listed vacancies must complete a Promotion/Transfer Request (form 8931, Rev 9/97) during the week of the first listing of the vacancy in the University Personnel Posting (green sheet). To ensure awareness of all vacancies which have been posted, applicants should consult the weekly green sheet rather than relying on the listing in NEWS NOTES Online and are encouraged to attach a resume and/or other supporting documents to the form. Prospective faculty and staff applicants who are absent during the five-day posting period and wish to apply should see Toni Morrison-Smith (morrison-smith.1@osu.edu)

Library personnel may also review University employment opportunities at http://www.ohr.ohio-state.edu/index.htm