Library-2-LMS Conference

A report from the recent conference I attended at the gorgeous SUNY Brockport campus: Integrating Library Services into a Learning Management System

Overall: I enjoyed it and met some great people, but must admit to being a little disappointed in the keynote and session content. While the sessions I attended were informative and for the most part, well presented, I was surprised that no one seemed to be that far ahead of us as far as innovation in this area. For example, there wasn't one mention in the sessions or discussions I sat in on of integrating RSS feeds or podcasting or synchronous software such as Wimba or Elluminate or Angel Live.

But the discussions did help stimulate some ideas for our own integration in ANGEL and that is invaluable in my opinion and keeps me coming back to these smaller, more intimate conferences (besides the super-affordable registration fees).

Keynote:
"Putting the Library into the Student's Hands" - Elizabeth Pyatt and Loanne Snavely, Penn State U

• they have an "Ask!" module/nugget embedded in every Angel course - includes e-mail, IM, co-browse and phone modes of communication
• Subject guides embedded into LOR (guides created for college/dept/course levels)
• created in-house template to create guides (crude process in my opinion) and share across depts/courses, etc.
• auto/batch link checking? appears not...
• they have single sign-on! (we need this functionality desperately!)
• created new Angel person category: librarian - separate authorization and access levels?

Sessions:
Using WebCT for Teaching and Building Information Literacy Skills - Mona Florea, Univ. of Rhode Island

• she created a modular library learning module that faculty could embed directly into their courses

Library Research Tutorials: Right at Home in Angel LORs - Lisa Forrest and Meghan Pereira, Buffalo State College

• created a critical thinking skills module/component that stresses reasoning, argument (analysis and eval), and constructing written assignments
• titled module w/scholarly title for faculty buy-in" Foundations of Research" [great idea]
  
• includes an information literacy assessment piece

Custom Library Services and Resources within Angel Courses - Pauline Shostack, SUNY Onondaga CC

• they renamed the "Resources" tab to "Library Resources" [this seems like a no brainer to me, yet other presenter Angel versions had not done this and we are meeting with admin resistance to such a move for some reason]
  
• using an online reference appointment tool (Angel tool or outside widget?)
• have added search boxes to Angel (EBSCO, PQ, etc. - code will be posted?)
• some of the widgets can add to the library nugget without admin authorization (Edit nugget > HTML editor > add code)