MD Tech Connect Workshop

December 8, 2015

Miller Branch, Ellicott City, MD

The goal of the Tech Connect workshop was to “mark a new beginning for a library technology group in Maryland” that includes all library staff, not just IT staff.  In attendance were “technologists” and “technology enthusiasts” from public and academic libraries

Greg Arig, software and game developer, gave a presentation about the development of Virtual Reality (VR).  One of the questions was “How can libraries use this new tool to meet the ever growing customer demand for technology?”

Tech Expo gave participants opportunities to experiment Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays such as Samsung Oculus, Augmented Reality, and other devices. I noted a few programs that can be easily replicated and implemented to offer STEM and STEAM programs for children.

·        CRATE (Create/Reinvent/Apply/Teach/Explore)

Carroll County Public Library will be launching CRATEs in 2016. This is a program that features a different activity (or CRATE) each month for 4 months for self-exploration.

CRATE 1 - Building with straws: http://www.strawbees.com/

                                    Also see Instruction Pamphlet

CRATE 2 – Robotics using cublets: http://www.modrobotics.com/cubelets/cubelets-six/

                                    using ozobots: http://ozobot.com/play

CRATE 3 – Makey Makey: http://www.makeymakey.com/

CRATE 4 – LittleBits to create sounds and music: http://littlebits.cc/kits/synth-kit

               LittleBits can be used in many kinds of projects: http://littlebits.cc/projects

·         Low Tech Intro to Coding, presented by Lori Conforti from Glenwood Branch, HCLS.

She had a set up where participants were able to make bracelets using colored beads to code their own initials. More ideas at: https://code.org/files/CSEDbinary.pdf, or email Lori Conforti at: lori.conforti@hclibrary.org 

·         Cubetto to introduce three to seven year-olds to coding. FutureMakers, represented by Matt Barinholtz, can provide libraries with the board and the cubic robot. It is a fun and simple way to introduce children to coding without using any screen. Click on http://www.primotoys.com/index, then click on “Show me!” to see it in action.

Click on https://mdtechconnect.slack.com/messages/about_event/ to see what came out of small group discussions about library trends, newest technologies, new services that libraries are offering, and the challenges ahead.

S. Merlier-Rowen

Children's Department, Central

February Application Deadlines for ALA and MLA

Here are the application deadlines for the annual ALA and MLA conferences.

MLA - Friday, February 5, 2016
Registration materials will be available online in January mdlib.org

ALA - Friday, February 12
Registration opens January 19 http://2016.alaannual.org/

Obviously there is limited information available about sessions and presenters at this early stage, but if you are thinking of requesting funds to attend you should start thinking about why you want to go and having a conversation with your supervisor about your interest.

"How to Respond to a Security Incident in Your Library" Webinar 12/9/15

We had a good turnout for the ALA webinar yesterday, with 61 staff members in attendance.  We've already received some great feedback from attendees.  Extra thanks to Bruce Hall for leading the Q&A session after the presentation, and for his helpful answers to staff questions and concerns.

Here is the link for the video mentioned in the webinar, "Run, Hide, Fight"

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0

Also, here is the link for the FEMA video Bruce mentioned in his email on 12/8/15, which is eligible for CEU credit:

https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-907

This was a great start to what will be an ongoing discussion about safety and security in the library, and we hope to have more programs on this and related topics coming soon.

Young Adult Services Symposium (YALSA) 2015

This month I had the exceptional opportunity to attend the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) Annual Symposium in Portland, Oregon. It was my first time attending the conference and I was blown away by the experience. All of the programs I was able to attend were incredibly useful and inspiring and the camaraderie amongst the all the attendees was invigorating. I have only been a YA library associate for a little over two months but this experience affirmed that I am in a profession where my colleagues are by and large a wonderfully supportive and passionate group of people.

It’s difficult to pick a highlight of the conference since so much of the experience was positive. Some of the programs I attended that I particularly enjoyed were on the subjects of: starting teen theatre groups at the library, creating welcoming physical space for teens in the library, helping LGBTQ teens transition out of high school, using graphic novels to teach about race relations, and how to introduce middle school students to more advanced YA literature.  I learned so much from these sessions about why YA library services are meaningful and about what fellow YA librarians are doing to meet the ever-changing needs of their adolescent patrons. One phrase in particular that I heard used over and over again which really stuck with me as a simple yet all-encompassing objective for the YA librarian was “buy-in.” Like stake holders in a business, the goal of “buy-in” is to get teens to be supporters of library services by making them feel like active and significant participants in the endeavor. This principle has been particularly helpful to me as I start new teen programming at Waverly. My services will be most effective if I can get the teens and young adults who use this branch to feel invested in their library and rewarded for their commitment. I feel that after attending the YALSA Symposium this year I am much more confident and prepared to make the teen services at Waverly the best they can be!

Isabelle Briggs

Library Associate

Waverly Branch

Learning 2015 Sal Kahn and useful notes

I attended the Masie conference in Orlando, FL this year also known as Learning 2015. This was my first time attending the conference and I was very excited to learn about some of the practices the business world puts into place for staff training, learning and teaching, as well as any nuggets of wisdom from speakers and presenters that I could bring back home and use at the Library.

In one of the general sessions, Sal Khan—founded of Khan Academy—talked about a flipped classroom and stressed that lecture style learning could be done individually, outside of the classroom or at home on a learner’s own time. He spoke about how traditional education can be seen as an accumulation of gaps—if you did not learn the material the first time, or only learned it 80% then it becomes rather difficult to ever achieve the other 20% to make it 100% if you move on to the next subject, phase, or set of learning right away. Thus, your education as a whole can be considered an accumulation of gaps. One easy way to alleviate this is to spend more time outside of a learning classroom, environment, or training session by grappling with the material on your own and coming to the face-to-face session with deeper questions about what you learned, which makes the learning that much more valuable.

Khan’s discussion and presentation was probably the best part of the conference for me. I was also able to jot down various quotes I gathered from other sessions and speakers throughout the conference that I find very useful and enlightening which are listed below.

Some words of wisdom that I collected from the conference:

·         “if you’re not learning and growing—you are not keeping up”

·         “you do not stop learning and growing just because you hit a certain age”

·         “when talking about training with staff you want to stress versatility not vulnerability”

·         “it’s about knowledge flow, not knowledge store”

·         “when teaching do not start with an objective, start with a challenge for learning”

·         “failure is important—you do not learn or get good at anything unless you fail a number of times before”

·         “the larger the prize the less focus on learning” (about incentives)

·         “group competition works better than individual competition”

·         “tie gamification to intrinsic motivation, not extrinsic—otherwise it goes stale after a month”

·         “sometimes you can’t learn until you know what you don’t know”

·         “when asking someone about themselves and their learning, ask why they fail, not why they succeed—most often people are not sure why they succeed and do not fully understand how they learn, but they sure remember failing and why they failed.”

Ryan O’Grady
SLRC Office

No classes booklet for Fall 2015

Due to the uncertainties of the off-site moves and the limited availability of training spaces associated with the renovation of Central, we will not be producing the "booklet" of classes that we usually send out at this time.

There will be classes scheduled during the next few months, we will be sending out email notices and posting to the blog when these are scheduled, and of course you can always check the SD&T calendar to see what's available.  We just won't be producing the booklet with the photos and the 3-month schedule.

We apologize for this and hope to have things back to normal by the Winter/Spring class schedule.

SD&T

23 Mobile Things is Here (almost)!

23 Mobile Things is a self-paced learning program that will identify 23 types of apps for mobile devices.  These include many of the most popular apps like Pinterest or Instagram, but also apps that are related to our work at the library and apps to help our customers.  We hope this will be an informative and fun introduction to using mobile devices and they possibilities they present. 

All EPFL staff members are welcome to participate in this program, although it is strongly recommended for public service staff.   Each session of the program will be limited to 25 participants.  Participants are strongly encouraged to BYOD (bring your own device) although we will be focusing on using iPads and tablets rather than phones.  Staff can also use the iPad that was provided for their location/branch or borrow an iPad from Systems.  You also need to know how to find, download, and install an app on your device from whatever source you use. 

We will provide you with a list of the 23 things and suggestions for using them, but it is really up to you to explore the options and see what works for you.  We will be sharing a variety of app types, including social media, curation, e-books, and even music.  We’ll also be looking at apps which you can use daily, like checking email on your device and even setting up a mobile meeting.   There are a lot of options for exploration and experimentation, with the goal of determining which will work best for you professionally and personally.  You may use many of these apps already, but we hope you’ll find new ways to use them, especially for your job and as customer service tools.

You must complete 15 of the 23 things to receive credit for the program, so it is a commitment.  However,  it is (roughly)  one hour a week and you can earn up to 24 hours of CEU credit if you complete the entire program.

If you are interested, you MUST complete the initial "thing" which will be an overview of the program and a discussion about online identity and privacy.

There will be two sessions of this first class, and you will need access to a computer because we are presenting the class via Blackboard  to get you into the right "techie" mood (and so you don't have to come downtown).  When you register we'll give you more information about how to access the Blackboard for your session.

Thing 1 - Online Identity

Thursday, September 10 
10:30 - 11:30 a.m.  

Tuesday, September 15
1:30 - 2:30 p.m


If you are interested, but cannot attend either session let us know and if there is enough interest we may run a third section of the class.

To register for Thing 1 and the 23 Mobile Things program, send an email to SD&T.