Monthly Archives: May 2015

Association of Centers for the Study of Congress, 12th Annual meeting

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National Archives and Records Administration (Archives I), Washington, DC

National Archives and Records Administration (Archives I), Washington, DC

Archives & Special Collections is a founding member of the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress, an organization which encourages the preservation of material that documents the work of Congress, including the papers of representatives and senators, and supports programs that make those materials available for educational and research use.  Last week I attended the 12th annual meeting of ACSC, hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration’s Center for Legislative Archives located in Washington, D.C.

Over the years I have been representing UConn in this organization, I have taken the opportunity of the location to meet with the staff of Connecticut’s Congressional delegation and this year was no exception.  On May 12th, I met with the Chief/Deputy Chief of Staff for Representatives Larson and Esty and Senators Murphy and Blumenthal to remind them that UConn would be interested in being identified as a repository for their papers and to answer any questions they may have regarding congressional research collections or Archives & Special Collections at UConn.  Having already spoken with representatives of Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney earlier in the year, I hope to hear from all of them when the time comes for the records to find a permanent home!

The conference itself is a great opportunity to meet with colleagues from repositories with similar collecting interests and to learn what is happening in the wider world of documenting Congress, as well as hear from scholars and former members about their concerns, interests and activities associated with congressional papers.  Sessions throughout the remainder of the week touched on think tanks, instruction support tools for the Bill of Rights, financial and friend support, women in Congress in the 1980s, electronic records and current research, and oral histories with a focus on the Voting Rights Act.  Rounding out the two and half day conference was a presentation by a small group of ACSC members who have begun a collaborative online exhibition, an online Omeka instance hosted by the University of Delaware, that shares items from a variety of institutions illustrating issues associated with the 89th Congress (1965-1966).  Definitely a project to which UConn will be contributing!  It was also a pleasant surprise to have our own Barbara Kennelly, who served in Congress for 17 years representing the 1st District, speaking as part of the women in Congress presentation.  This annual conference is always informative and sends one home bursting with ideas and plans…but having been away from the office for a week, I have some catching up to do first.

For more information about

The Association of Centers for the Study of Congress 

The political collections in Archives & Special Collections

The Great Society Congress online exhibition

Congress creates the Bill of Rights information (app/ebook/pdf)

Barbara Kennelly Papers

Senate Oral histories

12th Annual Conference packet and authorized researcher pin

12th Annual Conference packet and authorized researcher pin

Computers in Libraries, Part II

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At this year’s Computers in Libraries conference in Washington, DC, I attended “30 Mobile Apps for Librarians in 40 Minutes,” presented by INFOdocket’s Gary Price.  I’d like to briefly share with you the apps I found most interesting from that presentation:

AudioNow is a streaming audio service that connects mobile (or fixed) phone callers to live or pre-recorded radio broadcasts from around the world.  It’s perfect for those without WiFi access, there’s no subscription fee, and users dial a U.S. phone number.  *Regular calling rates apply

CamFind is a visual search engine.  You snap away and CamFind will identify most, if not all, of the objects in your picture. It then links you to purchase options which is a useful feature when you find an item you like in real life, but you’re not too sure where the item is sold.  Free, iOS + Android

CamFind

DarkSky is a weather app that uses state-of-the-art technology to predict the weather at your exact location and up to an hour in advance. $3.99, iOS

Photomath is a camera calculator. You snap a picture of a mathematical equation and the app will solve it for you in real time, providing a step-by-step breakdown (math teachers beware).  Free, iOS + Android

Sight saves an entire article with just a screenshot and allows you to read it offline at a later time. Free, iOS

Soundhound is a sound recognition app.. It will identify a song that is currently playing and provide you with song lyrics, artist information, and purchase options.  It will also connect you to performance videos and music streaming services like Spotify. Free, iOS + Android

Urban Engines is a public transit app. It uses real-time data and allows you to download city maps which are totally accessible offline; great if you frequent areas with weak wireless signals. Free, iOS + Android

Word Lens  is a real-time translator. You simply snap a picture of any printed text and Word Lens will translate it for you.  Free, iOS + Android

WordLens2

For a complete list of all 30 mobile apps, visit https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/513947/CIL_MOBILE.html

Computers in Libraries 2015, Washington DC

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"Libraries need to be co-creators of the community’s goals and dreams."

In the spirit of one of the sessions I attended, I will make this personal.   Not all of the conference take-a-ways can be defined by the conference program, or even found in the videos that appear on the conference webpage after the fact.  To be sure, the content of the sessions were interesting and often brought about things that I hadn’t anticipated being important, but the conversations between sessions, and at dinner were just as important as the content of the sessions.

Most useful sessions for me:

Customer Development M.J. D’Elia, Head, Learning & Curriculum Support, McLaughlin Library, University of Guelph.  M.J. presented a model based on techniques of startup companies.  In this model, assumptions of the service provider are tested as users give valuable information, either directly, or indirectly, that identifies their real needs.  This model helps to set expectations at the beginning, and to get valuable insight from early adopters.  It allows service providers to keep an eye open for indicators of  success from the customer’s perspective, making pivots in different directions easier when off track, and allows managers to better support growth based on the results of evaluations.  Asking the right questions is key.  One question might be; “Were there enough computers?”  A follow up question might be; “How important was that to your satisfaction of the service?”  The slideshow from that session can be found here.  (This has already been something I have used for the video editing training service that we will be offering in WB and GH.)
http://www.slideshare.net/mjdelia/intro-to-customer-development-for-libraries
http://conferences.infotoday.com/documents/219/D201_DElia.pdf

Impact Measures Moe Hosseini-Ara, Director, Markham Public Library.  Moe talked a great deal about connecting to the operational, and strategic goals of the larger organization.  He also talked about making the statistics relevant to these goals, and in using statistics to tell a story that is both representative of the work, and meaningful.  The goal is to collect and communicate the right statistics, which also means not collecting statistics that are no longer working toward the changing goals of the organization.  (This will be useful for the video editing training service that we will be offering in WB and GH.)
http://s.uconn.edu/moelogicmodel

Video Streaming Tips & Learnings Marcus Ladd, Special Collections Digital Librarian, Miami University Elias Tzoc, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Miami University.  The presenters talked about Kaltura http://corp.kaltura.com/   Pointed to an article, admittedly dated, called “Video use and Higher Education” http://s.uconn.edu/videouseandhighered  (This talk was useful to the video editing training service that we will be offering in WB and GH.)

Community Librarian… Shelley Archibald Community Librarian, Technology Burlington Public Library.  Shelley talked about engaging diverse groups in community building.  She wrote, “Libraries need to be co-creators of the community’s goals and dreams.”  (This gave me some ideas to enhance a class I plan on teaching with the OLLI program in Waterbury Spring 2016.)

Storytelling: Diane Cordell, Consultant and Writer, CyberSmart Education Company.  (This gave me some ideas to enhance a class I plan on teaching for the OLLI program in Waterbury Spring 2016.)

Other Good Stuff:

Search tips: by Mary Ellen Bates, Bates Information Services, Inc.
http://conferences.infotoday.com/documents/219/A101_Bates.pdf

Building Community Partnerships: Melissa Christakos, Coordinator of Reference Services, Chesapeake Public Library.  Melissa got me thinking about how to use a Memorandum of Understanding.  (This has already been something I have used for the video editing training service that we will be offering in WB and GH.)

I attended other presentations on metrics, and a few on webapps that were quite informative, and provided many links.  Look for those in the links to the presentations below.   I’ll look through some of my other notes, and will post a reply here if there is anything else that really stood out as noteworthy.

Links to many CIL presentations:

http://computersinlibraries.infotoday.com/2015/Presentations.aspx
http://www.librarysummit.com/DC2015/Presentations.aspx