Creative Downtown: The Role of Culture in Rebuilding Lower Manhattan

Examines how NYC arts groups and artists below Canal Street were affected by September 11, and possible actions the city, state, and private sector could take on behalf of arts and culture in rebuilding and revitalizing the downtown area

Scalable Equals Asynchronous and Asynchronous Equals Boring. Or Does It?

This paper reports on recent work to introduce a model of scalable, asynchronous library instruction into the First Year Writing program at James Madison University, inspired by the premise: Scalable equals asynchronous. And asynchronous equals boring. Or does it? The authors describe how a small team from Libraries & Educational Technologies at James Madison University planned and built an asynchronous, modular tutorial series, primarily designed to motivate students to engage with the library instruction contained within it. Information literacy instruction was provided using a tool called “Guide on the Side” and employed short scenario videos and additional content, followed by activities and assessment, in order to improve student outcomes and engagement. In this foundational program, the new and engaging asynchronous materials became the first step of a library instruction model that aimed to reach as many students as possible, while still being sustained by one librarian

Library and academic discipline partnerships: Building a foundation of OER knowledge in teacher education students

As libraries support OER across an institution, that support looks different in each discipline. In teaching future educators, building early awareness of Open Education Resources (OER) for preservice teachers creates a foundation for future growth. In a higher ed institution\u27s College of Education, librarians and instructional designers interact with both faculty educators and students that are completing a degree to become PK-12 educators. Libraries can help build OER awareness through in-class instruction, outreach pop-up events, and online resource guides. The Library began this project in an effort to raise awareness of OER concepts before the students begin their professional teaching careers. By gaining awareness while they are in teacher preparation programs, the Library hopes that the new teachers can be aware of the possibilities of OER and champion these resources in their future schools. This presentation explores how the library supports each of these intervention methods, with strategies that are applicable to multiple academic disciplines. The presentation will explore strategies for determining initial awareness in the student population, intervention implementation strategies, and potential challenges encountered during a multi-year Library led OER awareness implementation. Participants will gain ideas for strategies to increase awareness of OER concepts and resources, and consider ways libraries can build the foundation to support faculty and students in understanding and using OER

A practical guide to working with copyrighted and open access resources in scholarship

Powerpoints and conference presentations are often complemented by use of images or other media, and the academic content of a paper may draw from existing scholarly sources. In the traditional, in-person conference meeting room, the use of other rightsholders’ content is relatively risk-free but things change when academic conferences move online, as is increasingly the case today in the lamentable age of COVID-19. In this webinar, two librarians from JMU Libraries’ Scholarly Communication Unit share thoughts, ideas, and tips about staying on the right side of copyright law when presenting and disseminating scholarship

Building the Future of OER through Pre-service Teachers

According to recent literature and research, in-service teacher awareness of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Creative Commons licenses continues to be uneven and relatively low. Providing OER education while teachers are focused on learning in their degree-granting programs could be a sustainable long-term strategy to build awareness of OER with PK-12 instructors. A small research team, consisting of two Librarians, an Instructional Designer, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at two higher education institutions, designed a survey and intervention for pre-service teachers to measure and increase their levels of OER awareness. The purpose of the survey is to explore the overall level of OER awareness and understanding of copyright and licensing which pre-service teachers have attained through their university courses, external practicums, and student teaching placements. The survey results showed a lack of awareness, knowledge, and exposure to OER and copyright. These results prompted the creation of focused programming designed to expand student and faculty exposure to OER concepts. The focused programming involved creating a lesson plan for upper-level education courses on copyright, licensing, and open education resources that are available for PK-12 teachers. This is a continuation of a long-term study to explore the idea that providing focused OER education to pre-service teachers can be a sustainable strategy to increase diffusion of open education awareness throughout the PK-12 community. Attendees will be able to examine the results of our survey, explore our focused interventions, and use these as models for their own programming. This topic has broad applicability to librarianship and teaching as the majority of colleges and universities have teacher training programs. Due to the national climate of school funding, creative means for procuring instructional materials will be an asset for these future educators. While previous research largely focused on in-service teachers, this novel study is the first to measure awareness of teachers in training. We hope that this study’s population and format will become more ubiquitous across institutions that educate teachers

Adapting the Framework at JMU Libraries and Educational Technologies: ​ A Collaboration between Instructional Designers and Librarian Liaisons​

At James Madison University (JMU), a small team of faculty members in Libraries & Educational Technologies (LET) collaborated to develop new information literacy student learning outcomes based on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. The Information Literacy Task Force was tasked with unifying the conversation around information literacy within LET and providing student learning outcomes that educators will be able to adapt into content, activities, and assessments. Instructional designers and librarians worked together to explore the framework in the diverse context of the JMU community. We will share how the unique collaboration between instructional designers and librarians created opportunities and challenges and how we approached building organizational consensus throughout the process. We also outline potential future uses of the new outcomes and goals

Taking the First Step to Develop Scalable, Asynchronous Library Instruction

Scalable equals asynchronous. And asynchronous equals boring. Or does it? The First Year Writing program at JMU offers more than 60 sections of the foundational first‐year writing course each semester to more than one thousand students and is supported by one librarian. In an effort to reach more than the usual 20 one‐shot sessions each semester, a small team from the library planned and built an asynchronous, modular tutorial series. Now, information literacy instruction is provided using a tool called Guide on the Side (GotS) and uses short scenario videos and additional content followed by activities and assessment to improve student outcomes and engagement. In this foundational program, the new and engaging asynchronous materials are the first step of a library instruction model that aims to reach as many students as possible while still being sustained by one librarian

Effect of interleukin-6 receptor blockade on surrogates of vascular risk in rheumatoid arthritis: MEASURE, a randomised, placebo-controlled study

Objectives The interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) blocker tocilizumab (TCZ) reduces inflammatory disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but elevates lipid concentrations in some patients. We aimed to characterise the impact of IL-6R inhibition on established and novel risk factors in active RA. Methods Randomised, multicentre, two-part, phase III trial (24-week double-blind, 80-week open-label), MEASURE, evaluated lipid and lipoprotein levels, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particle composition, markers of coagulation, thrombosis and vascular function by pulse wave velocity (PWV) in 132 patients with RA who received TCZ or placebo. Results Median total-cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels increased in TCZ versus placebo recipients by week 12 (12.6% vs 1.7%, 28.1% vs 2.2%, 10.6% vs −1.9%, respectively; all p&#60;0.01). There were no significant differences in mean small LDL, mean oxidised LDL or total HDL-C concentrations. However, HDL-associated serum amyloid A content decreased in TCZ recipients. TCZ also induced reductions (&#60;30%) in secretory phospholipase A2-IIA, lipoprotein(a), fibrinogen and D-dimers and elevation of paraoxonase (all p&#60;0.0001 vs placebo). The ApoB/ApoA1 ratio remained stable over time in both groups. PWV decreases were greater with placebo than TCZ at 12 weeks (adjusted mean difference 0.79 m/s (95% CI 0.22 to 1.35; p=0.0067)). Conclusions These data provide the first detailed evidence for the modulation of lipoprotein particles and other surrogates of vascular risk with IL-6R inhibition. When compared with placebo, TCZ induced elevations in LDL-C but altered HDL particles towards an anti-inflammatory composition and favourably modified most, but not all, measured vascular risk surrogates. The net effect of such changes for cardiovascular risk requires determination.</p

Scholarly Communications Strategies

Poster presented at JMU Faculty Welcome

Deep Thoughts: Incorporating a Self-Reflection Prompt for Improved Instructional Practice

This interactive workshop introduces reflective practice through the use of self-reflection prompts by information literacy instructors. Activities will be interwoven throughout the workshop to allow participants to develop and document their own strategies. We will begin by providing an overview of the benefits of reflective teaching (5 minutes). The facilitators will briefly explain their institutional context and their participation in a departmental initiative to foster intentional teaching (5 minutes). To better understand the perspectives of the participants, the audience will engage in a poll indicating their type of institution and their role. Participants will take a moment to record the instructional context in which they plan to employ a self-reflection prompt (5 minutes). After summarizing various formats that instructors can utilize for self reflection, participants will identify a suitable format for them (5 minutes). The facilitators will then describe how they individually customized and integrated self-reflection prompts into their pedagogical routines to fit their needs across different instructional roles. The variety of self-reflection prompts will be illustrated through the diverse prompts used by the facilitators (15 minutes). Participants will then work in small groups to individually draft and collectively discuss their own self-reflection prompts. A facilitator will work with each small group to help guide this process (15 minutes). Finally, facilitators will share how information gathered through reflection informed changes to their instructional practices. Participants will then evaluate their draft approach and work to align the reflective technique to their instructional objectives (10 minutes). Each group will share one take-away they have observed during the workshop (5 minutes). We will conclude with questions and general discussion (10 minutes)