Minutes of Friday January 26, 2001 Meeting

Present:

Jeris Cassel, Scott Hines (recorder), Sam McDonald, Kevin Mulcahy, Leslie Murtha (chair), Julie Still

Agenda

• Announcements and updates
• Meeting Schedule
• Web page construction workshop
• ALA Midwinter
• E-college instructional materials demo (if possible)
• Instruction Infrastructure proposal - finalization
• Instruction Web page
• Instruction program proposal

TASKS to be COMPLETED

1. Sam will send stats on links to web pages and will advise on setup of "how do I..." structure.
2. Julie will create a mockup of "how do I..." pages modelled on Camden pages.

Minutes

Announcements

1. Instructional policy was accepted with minor changes.
2. Information literacy pre-conference at ALA in San Francisco will focus on assessment.
3. Eileen Stec joins us as Instructional Librarian at Douglass Library.
4. Searches for 2 Instructional Librarian positions in New Brunswick have begun with one committee doing both searches.
5. Camden virtual library tour prototype is on the web.
6. Research guides workshop is rescheduled for February 23.
7. SCILS MLS course on Instruction taught by Jana Varlejs -- email Jeris if you can volunteer to let students observe/assist in instructional sessions.

Meeting Schedule

ISC will meet at 9:30am at Kilmer Library on the following days (this is a tentative schedule pending scheduling changes due to conflicts): March 2, March 30 (at the SCC), April 27, May 25

Instructional web page development

A workshop covering HTML, FTP, file management, Dreamweaver, with participants bringing along a Word document containing a BI outline to work on, is tentatively scheduled for March 30. The book HTML 4 for the World Wide Web Visual Quickstart Guide by Elizabeth Castro is recommended reading for preparation.

Report on ALA MidWinter

ACRL instruction Section -- focus was on teaching methods. Topics of discussion included mapping competencies to different levels such as undergrad,grad, etc.; credit coruses for grad level; UG credit course in a disciplinary area such as humanities,etc.; assessment of incoming students; developing UG competencies for info literacy with faculty; immersion program for faculty with laptop as prize for completion of course; book by Christine Bruce called The Seven Faces of Information Literacy; evaluating instruction -- postgrad survey, a survey of former undergrads done by UCLA saw impact of library instruction greatest in 4th year as students do big research projects; buzzword "knowledge nation"; new book "Information Literacy Around the World"; 5th biannual conference on info lit in Adelaide; ACRL Instruction Section "Best Practices Project" committee report will be ready in a couple of years.

Jeris reported on the Research and Scholorship committee on instruction working on a bibliography linked to particular instruction topics. Also, The Chapter Council discussed accreditation issues related to info literacy -- Middle States will hold forums concerning info literacy and libraries in the standards.

Instructional Labs Proposal

Material still needs a bit of editing, but it must be finalized right away in order to submit to Samsoon for ELF Funding. Leslie will bring it together from the pieces and submit to Samsoon.

Instructional Web Page

1. We might do better to move away from the "for students..." sort of organization that we now have.
2. WAC will be packaging ecollege content into "how do I..." form.
3. Kevin suggests a "how do I..." for staff and faculty, with examples being "How do I schedule a class..." and "How do I learn about library on my own..."
4. Move toward functional approach as on Camden students page.
5. Strategic marketing effort is important.
6. Sam will get numbers on how many links there are to the pages.
7. Recommend list of how do I's for front page.
8. Julie will create mockup for Instructional "how do I..." pages for next meeting.

Instruction Program

1. We have 2 draft documents that can serve as groundwork, but we need to start putting the pieces together. Think about what we really want in long term -- Dream a little!!
2. Article in the Agenda newsletter promoting instruction would be good.