Notes from ALISE

I spent three days at the Association of Library and Information Science Educators conference listening to talks, meeting other students and faculty, a discussing some of my interests with various folks.

Here are some highlights and quotable quotes:

A meet-up with Jonathan Furner, Assistant Editor, Dewey Decimal Classification for OCLC who writes the Dewey Blog and has the following personal interests, according to his “About Me” page:
306.42
709.04062
782.421660941
796.3340942615
840.9110904
901

“What happens if we do things ina whole new way? What do we need to do to create flexible propfessionals?” Dr. Randall Bass, Keynote

A HOT conversation with Dr. Steven MacCall, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, the University of Alabama, about his Medical Librarianship class. Each week includes a lecture/examination of a Library 2.0 tool as well as weekly assignments to post to a student blog. From his syllabus (behind a WebCT firewall):

Lecture 7a: Collection Development V: Print and Online Consumer Health Information
Lecture 7b: Library 2.0 Applications – Podcasting, Screencasting, and iTunes

There was an ACTIVE message board where faculty would leave notes to job seekers and vice versa. Little interviews took place all over the hotel.

Wedenesday night, I zipped into downtown San Antonio and had drinks with Jeff Trzeciak, Associate Dean, Wayne State University Libraries. We talked about his library, their services and how more and more job descriptions will be similar to the one he recently posted. I pointed him to Dave King’s post about it as well.

“How do we move our student toward being reflective practitioners?” Dr. Kate Marek, Dominican University

The poster session was a blur of talking to folks about “the Blog People” and where my next steps might take me looking at how librarians use blogs.

5 Reasons for an inquiry-based approach to LIS education: Inquiry is central to intellectual freedom, Need a deep understanding of how to question information, Promotes comfort with uncertainty and change, Encourage a diversity or perspectives, Fosters active, engaged learning. Dr. Karen Brown, Dominican University

It was a slightly bittersweet time: this was the last official, IMLS-funded gathering of the cohort! We’ve been together since June 2004!