Summer Reading Kickoff

I plan on taking some time to blog about IPAL and ILA/ACRL (both just happened last week), but wanted to post about our first Summer Reading Program meeting! We have 40 people enrolled, which beats last year's enrollment by 4--and we might still pick up a few stragglers as the summer goes along!

Today was our first lunch event & we had 14 attend, which is on par with last year's kickoff. There were some new faces and some familiar ones from last summer, and tons of great discussion! Here are a couple of photos of the group. (I always manage to catch folks with food in their mouths... I don't know if it's a gift or a curse of mine!)

Here is the list of Authors/Books that were mentioned. I tried to catch them all, but sorry if I missed any!

• Kerry Greenwood: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/48067.Kerry_Greenwood?from_search=true
• Ruth Rendell: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10890.Ruth_Rendell?from_search=true
• Maeve Binchy: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3532.Maeve_Binchy?from_search=true
• Circle of Friends: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41977.Circle_of_Friends 
• Alan Bradley: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1074866.Alan_Bradley?from_search=true
• Casual Vacancy: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13497818-the-casual-vacancy?from_search=true
• Cuckoo’s Calling (JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16160797-the-cuckoo-s-calling?from_search=true
• Henning Wankell: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22339.Henning_Mankell?from_search=true (inspector Wallander series)
• Down These Mean Streets: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95127.Down_These_Mean_Streets?from_search=true 
• Orphan Master’s Son: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11529868-the-orphan-master-s-son?from_search=true 
• Were’d you go, Bernadette? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13526165-where-d-you-go-bernadette?from_search=true 
• Stephen Jay Gould: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19109.Stephen_Jay_Gould?from_search=true 
• The Golem and the Jinni: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15819028-the-golem-and-the-jinni?ac=1 
• Matthew Bartholomew series by Susanna Gregory: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/37774.Susanna_Gregory?from_search=true
• Bartimaeus Series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/40838-bartimaeus-sequence 
• Same Kind of Different As Me: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/104189.Same_Kind_of_Different_as_Me?from_search=true
• Jasper Fforde: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4432.Jasper_Fforde?from_search=true
• Thursday Next series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43680-thursday-next 
• Nursery Crimes series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43679-nursery-crime 
• Kate Atkinson: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10015.Kate_Atkinson?from_search=true
• Life After Life: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790842-life-after-life?from_search=true 
• Case Histories (Jackson Brodie series): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16243.Case_Histories?ac=1 
• Janet Evanovich: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2384.Janet_Evanovich?from_search=true
• Stephanie Plum series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/43040-stephanie-plum 
• Lillian Jackson Braun: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21625.Lilian_Jackson_Braun?from_search=true
• The Cat Who… Series: https://www.goodreads.com/series/41015-cat-who 
• Martha Grimes: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14150.Martha_Grimes?from_search=true
• Laura Hillenbrand: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/30913.Laura_Hillenbrand?from_search=true 
• Hyperbole and a Half: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17571564-hyperbole-and-a-half?from_search=true
• Let’s Pretend this Never Happened: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12868761-let-s-pretend-this-never-happened?from_search=true 

Lemonade Lunch at the Library: Round 3

Here are more who won prizes from the GV SRP Groundbreaking Reads Lemonade Lunch at the Library (held July 10)! We only have one more lunch left and then the grand prizes are drawn at the wrap-up party! 

Lemonade Lunch at the Library: Round 2

Here are a couple of photos from our last Lemonade Lunch in the Library (held June 26th). 

Lemonade Lunch at the Library: Round 1

Today we hosted the first Lemonade Lunch at the Library for those participating in the Summer Reading Program: Groundbreaking Reads!

Here are a few pictures of the fun bunch that came!

Snacks & Lemonade

Prizes!

Fun GV Folks

Most of the prize winners (3 were not in attendance)

April and May 2013

I realized I'm a bit behind on posting lately, so here's the "Reader's Digest" version of what I've been up to in April and May.

At the start of April I attended IPAL at Drake. Sometimes conferences can be hit & miss, but this year's IPAL felt practical and relevant.  Not only that, but I felt more connected and open with colleagues from other institutions about sharing ideas, successes, failures, and encouragement. You can find more information about what the iLOVE group discussed during IPAL here: Instruction Ideas & Ask the Masses

After IPAL I spent a few evenings covering a colleague's evening Computers & Information Literacy course wherein we covered the following topics:

• Creating a Safe and Powerful Online Presence: Socially, Academically, and Professionally 
• Visual Literacy: Using PowerPoint & Prezi to Communicate Your Ideas

It was a good experience, but also a nice reminder that scheduling myself to work late three nights/week isn't something I want to take on right now. It's fine when I know I'm staying for a specific project that has a definite stopping-point or is something I can take home with me and work on in my pajamas, but different when it is a regularly scheduled thing and I'm in full-on teacher mode all day and all night.

We also had another Library After Hours event featuring Lori Hanson Howe and Dr. Ellen Strachota. They shared their experiences from their recent travels to Rwanda working with Art of Conservation, an organization dedicated to using education and conservation to assist Rwandan children in gaining life skills and building a future for them and their communities using sustainable growth methods. Lori and Ellen also shared their experiences working with the children of Rwanda, their participation in a gorilla trek, and highlights from a three day safari they took into Kenya. Their presentation was followed by a reception.

 

 

This semester I've been serving as a mentor for an English/Theatre student for her senior capstone project.  During finals week the mentors attended the class's poster presentations. What a cool project! The students had to write a pretty intense research/analysis paper and then present on it. I could not have been more proud of my mentee! She knew her stuff inside and out, was articulate, had a well-written final paper, and did it all while being super-involved with various play performances, student organizations, and the rest of life! I am so proud of her!

We're also experiencing some changes around campus, one of which particularly impacts the library: dining services.  Our contract is switching to a new company, and with that change so changes the library coffee shop. Out with Starbucks products and in with and Einstein Bros Bagels.  Right now we don't really know what changes to the physical space will be made, but we're looking forward to seeing what comes of it.

As a library staff we've been working on reviewing, revisiting, and revising our Core Seminar I (freshman course) assessments and modules that we teach. That has been quite the process and is something we will continue to revise as we gain more experience with the new curriculum.

GV celebrated commencement at the end of April and I again volunteered to help usher.  It's always so rewarding to see the new grads so excited and proud and their family members just as excited and proud.

And then I took a quick trip to California. It was awesome. Here's a peek:

The week I returned from California was also the same week as ILA/ACRL held at Simpson College in Indianola. My colleague, Dan, and I presented a session that wasn't exactly the "typical" session.  I'm a big fan of practical ideas, things you can take home with you, things that feel relevant, and things that promote collaboration and brainstorming. Here is our session description (and, yes, it sounds a little info-mercial-y, but I embrace it):

"Calling all who teach library instruction sessions! Have you ever wanted a session that consisted entirely of instruction ideas? Do you want information literacy instruction strategies to add to your bag of tricks or teaching tool-kit? Have you ever been asked to teach a class and wondered 'how in the heck am I supposed to teach THAT?' Then this is the session for you! Not necessarily what one would think of as a 'typical conference presentation,' this session is one that will get you interacting with other participants from around the state. Participants will work together to share ideas and tackle instruction questions as you work with others to think outside the box, generate new ideas and ways of approaching information literacy, and leave with practical ideas. Attendees will be grouped together to brainstorm lesson ideas for a given prompt, then decide on an approach and develop a basic lesson plan outline.  Groups will share their initial brainstorming ideas and discuss why they chose the approach they used for their outline.  The brainstorming ideas and lesson plan outlines will then be compiled and electronically distributed to attendees shortly after the presentation so attendees can modify and apply the shared ideas at their own institutions."

The good news: we all survived this wacky experiment. The even better news: I think it actually worked! Folks shared their ideas, recommended resources, and had great conversations! Here are the lesson plans that were developed by the various groups: http://bit.ly/instantil2013

Lately I've been catching up with the folks in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning on campus to start planning faculty development calendars, sessions, newsletters, and themes.  I've also been meeting with faculty to help plan library instruction for their summer courses, and this week was the Summer Reading Program Kickoff Open House! Despite the construction around campus (see photo below) we still had a great turnout for the open house, wonderful conversations, and some folks even brought books to share! I have some pretty wonderful colleagues around this campus and I'm looking forward to getting to better know them throughout the summer!

Summer Reading Program

This summer we're trying something new: a summer reading program for GV students, staff, and faculty.  I'm trying to keep it as low-key as possible (especially as compared to my experiences with public library SRPs--talk about huge!), and have it be more of a program that gets people interacting with each other, thinking more actively about their reading, and perhaps even setting their own reading goals for the summer. Below is what I have outlined for the program and will be distributing it later this week.  This is a definite experiment, so I have my fingers crossed that at least a few on-campus folks will be interested!

GV SRP Flyer 2013 by stonca01