2008 Workshop

It’s the Millennium: Do You Know Where Your Users Are?

May 16, 2008
University Inn and Conference Center
Santa Cruz, CA

View the flyer.

Stephen Abram
Reality 2.0: Engaging the Scholarly User

Abstract: Can our libraries be more open? Can we be more open to our users, our learning and research communities, to new technologies? Can we be more open to change? How? Are there technologies that we should be trying and piloting to see if they improve the library’s mandate? Which ones are worth investigating? What are the emerging learning technologies? Are there different ways to build community or to attract new community segments? What about books? Are they still the gold standard? Stephen Abram is an inveterate library watcher and strategic technology reviewer. In this session he shares the top technologies that we should think about ‘playing’ with and finding a way to make our libraries more open to our learning communities and scholars.

Stephen Abram, MLS, is President 2008 of SLA and the past-President of the Canadian and Ontario Library Associations. He is Vice President of Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute. Stephen was listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries. He has received numerous honours and speaks regularly internationally. His columns appear in Information Outlook, Multimedia and Internet @ Schools, and SirsiDynix OneSource and he is the author of ALA Editions bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram.

Alison Head, with Sarah Vital
A View of Information Literacy Through the Lens of the Student Experience

Abstract: How do students conducting academic research put their information literacy competencies into daily practice – regardless of how well they may (or may not) measure up to information literacy competency standards? Findings and recommendations from our 2007 exploratory information literacy study of humanities and social science majors at Saint Mary’s College of California are presented.

Alison J. Head, Ph.D., the study’s Principal Investigator, is the Roy and Patricia Disney Visiting Professor in New Media in the Communication Department at Saint Mary’s College. She has a MLS and Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from U.C. Berkeley and is also an expert in usability research.

Sarah Vital, MLIS, is a Librarian at Saint Mary’s College Library with interests in bibliographic instruction, library web site design, user research, and social networks. Her MLIS is from San Jose State University.

Michelle Jacobs
Can You Hear Me Now? Understanding and Actually Reaching Our Students

Abstract: In order to understand our users we need to get to know them. Do our students want us in Facebook? What technologies do they REALLY use? Why do they come to the library? What do they think of when they hear the word library? Librarian? How can we shape our services to meet their needs? Through a series of candid video conversations with undergraduates, Michelle Jacobs, Emerging Technologies and Web Coordinator of College Library explores these issues. A discussion on reshaping library services to meet the real needs of your users will follow the video presentation.

Michelle Jacobs is currently the Emerging Technologies & Web Coordinator, College Library at UCLA. Michelle has a strong passion for the UC system. While working at the library as an undergraduate at UCSB, she felt the call to librarianship. She obtained her MSLIS from the Pratt Institute in New York where she worked for the New York Public Library.

She has enjoyed working in several types of libraries including those at Occidental College, the University of New Orleans and most recently at UC Merced. As a founding member of the first new academic library of the 21st century, Michelle began her quest to explore new technologies and develop new ways to reach users. When not in the library, she can be found hiking with her dogs, Stella and Henry.