You could learn a lot from us: community college librarians at ACRL

SEE FULL POST

You could learn a lot from us: community college librarians at ACRLassessment, community college libraries, community colleges, free the information!, instruction, librarianship, libraries, open access

by Meredith Farkas on 4/9/2015 with 8 comments

ACRL was ridiculously amazing this year. I feel energized, affirmed, and hopeful (and completely exhausted and sick since it ended). The programming was so high-quality and relevant that, in most cases, I had at least four options in every time slot on my planner that I wanted to attend. Luckily, ACRL records all the sessions …

continue reading ...

Tags:
Framework? Standards? I’m keeping it local.

SEE FULL POST

Framework? Standards? I’m keeping it local.assessment, free the information!, instruction, librarianship, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 2/4/2015 with 8 comments

I’m sure most of you have already heard that the ACRL Board has decided to adopt the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. What I think is more interesting is that they deferred action on the Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, choosing instead to take a wait-and-see approach. I think this is a …

continue reading ...

Tags:
Reflections on library assessment and the Library Assessment Conference

SEE FULL POST

Reflections on library assessment and the Library Assessment Conferenceassessment, free the information!, instruction, knowledge management, librarianship, libraries, our digital future, research, speaking

by Meredith Farkas on 8/22/2014 with 7 comments

I wanted to write about the Library Assessment Conference as soon as I returned, but unfortunately, life got in the way. I got barely a week and a half before I was set to leave my job and, not surprisingly, there was a lot of wrapping up of projects and getting things to a good …

continue reading ...

Tags:
Understanding why errors happen is more important than spotting them

SEE FULL POST

Understanding why errors happen is more important than spotting themassessment, instruction, librarianship, libraries

by Meredith Farkas on 9/10/2013 with 13 comments

People incorrectly using “big words” has always been one of my pet peeves. When I see a fancy word used incorrectly in a cover letter (and I have seen way too many… we’re librarians people!!!), I cringe. There’s something about it that rubs me the wrong way; like someone is trying to be something they’re …

continue reading ...

Tags:
My critique of Value of Academic Libraries and a happy update

SEE FULL POST

My critique of Value of Academic Libraries and a happy updateassessment, instruction, librarianship, libraries, writing

by Meredith Farkas on 4/21/2013 with 1 comment

My critique of the Value of Academic Libraries initiative has just been published in OLA Quarterly (it’s the first article in the PDF). I wrote it on the fly after a desperate request for content from the Oregon Library Association President, so it’s not my most thoughtful work, but I’m pretty happy with how it …

continue reading ...

Tags:

Behavior vs. belief and changing cultureassessment, free the information!, Inspiring Stuff, instruction, librarianship, libraries, management, social software, speaking

by Meredith Farkas on 7/23/2012 with 1 comment

At LOEX of the West this summer (a fantastic conference, btw), Joan Kaplowitz did a session where she started by asking attendees what words they associate with assessment. I won’t list the litany of negative terms that came from the audience, but I will say that the most positive word used to describe assessment was …

continue reading ...

Tags:

Classic Blunder #2 – Assuming resistance is a bad thingassessment, classic blunders, instruction, librarianship, libraries, management, Work

by Meredith Farkas on 2/14/2012 with 7 comments

I remember when I was in library school, a lot of people talked about librarians who were resistant to change and would try to derail your exciting and innovative projects. Often, this discussion was couched in ageist “us” (young, innovative librarians) vs. “them” (old, set-in-their-ways librarians) terms, but even when it wasn’t, the assumption was …

continue reading ...

Tags:

Numbers vs. meaningassessment, instruction, librarianship, libraries, management, reference

by Meredith Farkas on 7/21/2010 with 19 comments

Forgive this less-than-well-thought-out post. I’ve been thinking a lot about assessment lately and the librarianly love of numbers in assessment, and I’m a troubled by the way that some academic libraries tend to measure how well they are supporting the academic mission of the institution. Librarians keep a lot of statistics and measure a lot …

continue reading ...

Tags:

Shades of grayassessment, librarianship, libraries, open source, our digital future, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 11/2/2009 with 26 comments

Ever since the news of LibLime’s enterprise version of Koha and whether or not their actions consisted a fork of the code, I’ve been thinking about how black and white some of us (me included, at times) tend to see library products and library vendors. Stephen Abram’s “position paper” on open source ILSes got me …

continue reading ...

Tags:

Great new books on my “to read” listassessment, librarianship, libraries, our digital future, social software, tech trends, writing

by Meredith Farkas on 7/6/2009 with 3 comments

I must admit that the last time I read a non-baby-related book was probably last Fall. And now all these great books are coming out from the LIS presses that I’m absolutely dying to read! This is torture! The one I’m probably most excited about is Chrystie Hill’s long-awaited Inside, Outside and Online which is …

continue reading ...

Tags: