UIUC and Illinois State should be really proud of what these folks are doing. The three of them gave a presentation about their successes of their outreach initiatives to underrepresented populations. It involved a lot of communication, patience, and time. They worked meticulously to set up networks between groups on campus like student groups, cultural houses, and other various constituencies with the library; as well as enhancing access to a “learning commons.” (I hope I got that right – lol)
This is NOT easy work. I have been engaged in similar efforts in trying to recruit students to the internship program(previously mentioned) and have found it to be one of the most difficult components of the job.
I think the main take home of this presentation for those doing outreach or anyone who wants to connect with student services, org., etc… is PERSISTENCE!!!! It will take many emails, phone calls, and personal visits. When someone doesn’t answer me I just show up to their office…where possible. Even that doesn’t work sometimes. Most effective technique thus far: Find a dean who likes what you are doing…then have them walk you to the office of the people you want to connect with.
In my case, this happened, and when we got there, the dean said “Hi (advisors name), this is Roy Brooks and he is doing something important that our students NEED to know about and we ARE going to help him. Thanks.” And that’s all it took to get in with a particular unnamed office on my campus that I had been trying to get through to since last July!!! Mission accomplished? In Short, but it took persistence. Outreach librarians, the word of your life is…PERSISTENCE.
-Roy
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Notes on Poster quality
I viewed a lot of posters and noted a couple of things to keep In mind when creating posters for similar uses.
1. Put your institutions logo or at least write out the name across the top.
2. Keep writing big and avoid verbose output at ALL costs.
3. Keep it simple…the idea is for people to ask you questions not read an academic paper about it.
4. Have cards or contact info as take aways
5. Post handouts and brochures online when possible and provide the links to it – so people don’t have to lug it home and it saves paper for those who toss them in the garbage at the end of your row.
6. No more than four presenters – three is probably optimal, I think we probably had one too many.
7. Make it professional – if your institution doesn’t have a poster printer – get to Kinko’s…No really I am serious…I didn’t stop at any poster that was a cluster of 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper. Maybe my loss…maybe theirs.
Add any of your own suggestions in the comments.
Here is a bad picture of our poster:
I viewed a lot of posters and noted a couple of things to keep In mind when creating posters for similar uses.
1. Put your institutions logo or at least write out the name across the top.
2. Keep writing big and avoid verbose output at ALL costs.
3. Keep it simple…the idea is for people to ask you questions not read an academic paper about it.
4. Have cards or contact info as take aways
5. Post handouts and brochures online when possible and provide the links to it – so people don’t have to lug it home and it saves paper for those who toss them in the garbage at the end of your row.
6. No more than four presenters – three is probably optimal, I think we probably had one too many.
7. Make it professional – if your institution doesn’t have a poster printer – get to Kinko’s…No really I am serious…I didn’t stop at any poster that was a cluster of 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper. Maybe my loss…maybe theirs.
Add any of your own suggestions in the comments.
Here is a bad picture of our poster:
My (ISIP) Poster Session
So…if there is actually anyone reading this…it is worth giving you some background on my job before I give you the run down on the poster session.
During my undergrad at UW I had the amazing, wonderful, once-of-a-lifetime experience of being an intern in the Information Specialist Internship Program. It is a program designed by a truly truly wonderful group of administrators and librarians to: “introduce students from historically and statistically underrepresented groups to a profession in the library workforce” (my spiel – don’t ask me how many times I had to rattle this off during the session) These folks are getting their hands dirty – by the way. The basic run down of the program is (yes I am bit tired of talking about it) you do a two year internship where you bounce around to different libraries and learn things…see website for more info…www.library.wisc.edu/jobs/isip.htm
Upon completion of the program and matriculation to the UW Lib. School they offered me the opportunity to continue working with the program in a different role, as a project assistant. Basically I am slowly taking over most of the major operations of the program…recruiting, hiring(not alone), paperwork, orientations, introductions, intern upkeep, support, mentoring, improving the program through creativity and variety, and loads loads more. It is great. I am taking on a lot of the responsibility but we make decisions by committee – of 8 people.
Anyway, a poster session is essentially a large room with tons of bulletin boards. You make a poster about something that you have been working on or a concept/project that you think others might be interested in, and a variety of other miscellany. Then you stand by your poster for an hour or so and answer questions people may have as they peruse your content. It is crowded and hectic and when they ran out of tops for the free coffee things got interesting.
Three of the ISIP committee members and I put together a poster about the program and were there to share our successes and challenges with others. It is such a great program that addresses the major concerns of recruiting diverse individuals to the profession. We had a pretty good turn out and some people seemed genuinely interested and walked away saying things like “wow this is really great.” I agree.
I think this is one of the best formats to reach the most amounts of people and actually have the opportunity to engage them, listen to them, and talk face to face. Otherwise most session formats aren’t very personal and you feel as if you are talking at them (or being talked at) and if you are like me and don’t quite have the courage to ask questions – yet – then you don’t get to contribute. Not that any of the speakers actually stay on time and leave enough room for more than two questions anyway. (note to self: be on time when attending AND stay on time when presenting)
I just want to point out that – in my opinion – the key to the success of the program is the commitment from high levels of library administration. In this case, I am extremely lucky that my institution IS committed to this and has gone to great lengths to put it in place even through the hems and haws of the growing pains and development stages. They deserve a huge round of applause and thanks for setting this model.
Think you got what it takes to convince your administration that a program like this is necessary? Give it a try…they will probably squirm in their chairs…or they might give you a new job of internship coordinator!
Please contact me if you want to learn more about the internship program. I am sure the committee would be willing to meet or communicate with you on the process of getting it started and what it takes…I know I would.
OK . These last two entries have been a lot to read but they are important to me!
-Roy
During my undergrad at UW I had the amazing, wonderful, once-of-a-lifetime experience of being an intern in the Information Specialist Internship Program. It is a program designed by a truly truly wonderful group of administrators and librarians to: “introduce students from historically and statistically underrepresented groups to a profession in the library workforce” (my spiel – don’t ask me how many times I had to rattle this off during the session) These folks are getting their hands dirty – by the way. The basic run down of the program is (yes I am bit tired of talking about it) you do a two year internship where you bounce around to different libraries and learn things…see website for more info…www.library.wisc.edu/jobs/isip.htm
Upon completion of the program and matriculation to the UW Lib. School they offered me the opportunity to continue working with the program in a different role, as a project assistant. Basically I am slowly taking over most of the major operations of the program…recruiting, hiring(not alone), paperwork, orientations, introductions, intern upkeep, support, mentoring, improving the program through creativity and variety, and loads loads more. It is great. I am taking on a lot of the responsibility but we make decisions by committee – of 8 people.
Anyway, a poster session is essentially a large room with tons of bulletin boards. You make a poster about something that you have been working on or a concept/project that you think others might be interested in, and a variety of other miscellany. Then you stand by your poster for an hour or so and answer questions people may have as they peruse your content. It is crowded and hectic and when they ran out of tops for the free coffee things got interesting.
Three of the ISIP committee members and I put together a poster about the program and were there to share our successes and challenges with others. It is such a great program that addresses the major concerns of recruiting diverse individuals to the profession. We had a pretty good turn out and some people seemed genuinely interested and walked away saying things like “wow this is really great.” I agree.
I think this is one of the best formats to reach the most amounts of people and actually have the opportunity to engage them, listen to them, and talk face to face. Otherwise most session formats aren’t very personal and you feel as if you are talking at them (or being talked at) and if you are like me and don’t quite have the courage to ask questions – yet – then you don’t get to contribute. Not that any of the speakers actually stay on time and leave enough room for more than two questions anyway. (note to self: be on time when attending AND stay on time when presenting)
I just want to point out that – in my opinion – the key to the success of the program is the commitment from high levels of library administration. In this case, I am extremely lucky that my institution IS committed to this and has gone to great lengths to put it in place even through the hems and haws of the growing pains and development stages. They deserve a huge round of applause and thanks for setting this model.
Think you got what it takes to convince your administration that a program like this is necessary? Give it a try…they will probably squirm in their chairs…or they might give you a new job of internship coordinator!
Please contact me if you want to learn more about the internship program. I am sure the committee would be willing to meet or communicate with you on the process of getting it started and what it takes…I know I would.
OK . These last two entries have been a lot to read but they are important to me!
-Roy
Another Session
I went to another session between the roundtable and my poster session, but it wasn’t worth much. At ACRL there is a variety of formats for presentation. The more formal ones are a straight presentation on a topic, a panel discussion, or contributed papers. The latter is an hour session split into two 30-minute segments of people presenting their research. I liked these ‘cause they don’t labor their points until you want to rake your eyes out. By the time they give the point and the results of their research it is time for questions – a fine idea.
So the set of contributed papers after the roundtable were not particularly groundbreaking in nature. The first speaker talked about his findings that students working in the academic library might have better retention rates because they are more acclimated to the system of scholarly research and they are better suited to help their peers who also reap benefits from their library employment. OK. I have been saying that working in libraries has made me a much better student for years. Maybe I just needed to publish…
Second paper was harder for me to follow…two folks presented some methods and findings of their research regarding recruitment and retention of librarians. They focused on the Carolina’s(North?) because that’s where they were from. They basically said we need to do more of both recruitment and retention….shocking I know.
One figure they threw out was: of all the Carolina librarians that they surveyed only 55 pct said they were brought to the profession through experience from working in a library….they are lying….not the presenters…the librarians they asked. EVERYONE I have EVER talked to regarding this has (as noted before) pointed out that they never really thought of librarianship as a career, they worked in a library and got sucked in. I am sure there are some exceptions…but those who thought they were destined for a career in the profession without practical work experience probably didn’t last long. Just my opinion of course.
It is too bad that these presenters were charging us to work towards better methods and best practices for recruiting and retaining individuals in the profession, yet, they didn’t show up to our roundtable where we were offering critical insight on JUST this aspect of the profession…Our round table was one step ahead of them….I’m just saying…
Still, I commend them on their effort. I just can’t help taking a lot of this recruitment and diversity stuff as anything but “lip service” (as an unnamed colleague of mine referred to it). It’s important to me…but now it seems that people just like to be on record saying it…”Diversity is important”…when it comes to getting your hands dirty…ehhh…if you realllllly cared, if it was realllllly your mission and something that was important to you, the rain would not have kept you away…I’m just saying….
So the set of contributed papers after the roundtable were not particularly groundbreaking in nature. The first speaker talked about his findings that students working in the academic library might have better retention rates because they are more acclimated to the system of scholarly research and they are better suited to help their peers who also reap benefits from their library employment. OK. I have been saying that working in libraries has made me a much better student for years. Maybe I just needed to publish…
Second paper was harder for me to follow…two folks presented some methods and findings of their research regarding recruitment and retention of librarians. They focused on the Carolina’s(North?) because that’s where they were from. They basically said we need to do more of both recruitment and retention….shocking I know.
One figure they threw out was: of all the Carolina librarians that they surveyed only 55 pct said they were brought to the profession through experience from working in a library….they are lying….not the presenters…the librarians they asked. EVERYONE I have EVER talked to regarding this has (as noted before) pointed out that they never really thought of librarianship as a career, they worked in a library and got sucked in. I am sure there are some exceptions…but those who thought they were destined for a career in the profession without practical work experience probably didn’t last long. Just my opinion of course.
It is too bad that these presenters were charging us to work towards better methods and best practices for recruiting and retaining individuals in the profession, yet, they didn’t show up to our roundtable where we were offering critical insight on JUST this aspect of the profession…Our round table was one step ahead of them….I’m just saying…
Still, I commend them on their effort. I just can’t help taking a lot of this recruitment and diversity stuff as anything but “lip service” (as an unnamed colleague of mine referred to it). It’s important to me…but now it seems that people just like to be on record saying it…”Diversity is important”…when it comes to getting your hands dirty…ehhh…if you realllllly cared, if it was realllllly your mission and something that was important to you, the rain would not have kept you away…I’m just saying….
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
LAMP Round Table Discussion
Well, It was a dark and rainy Seattle morning today and unfortunately Katherine, Erin, and I had low turnout for our round table discussion session. Granted it was Saturday, 8 A.M. , raining, and there were 49 other tables; but I think we all hoped for more.
Its not the end of the world. The battle is not lost. We will live to present again… I think one of the best lessons to take from this is that it is important to not be defeated by minor setbacks…We didn’t reach the audience we wanted to THIS TIME…but giving up shouldn’t be an option. Instead we should work harder to present more…maybe in different forums or with different methods…maybe a discussion of diversity issues is still too uncomfortable for those who don’t feel they have a card in the diverse population discussion card game. I wish I knew the answer…someday it will come.
We did still talk with a participant. We didn’t focus on the questions we had developed. Instead we focused more on spreading the awareness about the program and issues important to us. We told our stories, how we got into the field, why we did, why we are staying, what our aspirations are. Noteworthy conversation if you ask me.
Important to note (especially for those of us interested in recruiting a diverse workforce) is that it seems almost no one considers librarianship as a career option initially. The three of us LAMPers all described what we called the “click” which was really an epiphany of sorts. That we all were destined for careers in something else while we worked in libraries for money. Then we realized … we are good at this library stuff and we genuinely enjoy it…and…maybe…maybe we could do it…like as a career.
This is extremely important. In order to recruit a diverse work force we cannot wait for students to come to our nurturing dens…we need to go out and engage them. We need to say ( as supervisors, mentors, and friends) “You know, you do good work here,” or “you have a unique set of skills…have you considered librarianship?” Regardless of the answer we need to show them what we do…what they can do…what they can make(salary)…the lives they can be a part of…and the rewards that they will endure as a professional in this field. This IS an effective strategy…I haven’t done a literature review… I lived it…no scholarly research needed…I am the primary source.
More on this later as it relates to my other presentation of the day…a poster session about the UW-Madison General Library System’s Information Specialist Internship Program…stay tuned.
-Roy
Its not the end of the world. The battle is not lost. We will live to present again… I think one of the best lessons to take from this is that it is important to not be defeated by minor setbacks…We didn’t reach the audience we wanted to THIS TIME…but giving up shouldn’t be an option. Instead we should work harder to present more…maybe in different forums or with different methods…maybe a discussion of diversity issues is still too uncomfortable for those who don’t feel they have a card in the diverse population discussion card game. I wish I knew the answer…someday it will come.
We did still talk with a participant. We didn’t focus on the questions we had developed. Instead we focused more on spreading the awareness about the program and issues important to us. We told our stories, how we got into the field, why we did, why we are staying, what our aspirations are. Noteworthy conversation if you ask me.
Important to note (especially for those of us interested in recruiting a diverse workforce) is that it seems almost no one considers librarianship as a career option initially. The three of us LAMPers all described what we called the “click” which was really an epiphany of sorts. That we all were destined for careers in something else while we worked in libraries for money. Then we realized … we are good at this library stuff and we genuinely enjoy it…and…maybe…maybe we could do it…like as a career.
This is extremely important. In order to recruit a diverse work force we cannot wait for students to come to our nurturing dens…we need to go out and engage them. We need to say ( as supervisors, mentors, and friends) “You know, you do good work here,” or “you have a unique set of skills…have you considered librarianship?” Regardless of the answer we need to show them what we do…what they can do…what they can make(salary)…the lives they can be a part of…and the rewards that they will endure as a professional in this field. This IS an effective strategy…I haven’t done a literature review… I lived it…no scholarly research needed…I am the primary source.
More on this later as it relates to my other presentation of the day…a poster session about the UW-Madison General Library System’s Information Specialist Internship Program…stay tuned.
-Roy
Friday, March 13, 2009
View from the Keynote
I am breaking one of my own rules...but I am sitting in the absolute last row and there is no one around me so I am quite positive I am not distracting anyone.
Here is my view from the back of the Friday keynote, Sherman Alexie (speaker):
It is a huuuuuge room.
-Roy
Here is my view from the back of the Friday keynote, Sherman Alexie (speaker):
It is a huuuuuge room.
-Roy
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