The Journey is the Destination: Storytelling in the Cloud

Storytelling with Archives is a transdisciplinary Honors College course developed as part of the Honors College Faculty Fellows program. Primarily STEM majors, most students took the course to fulfill a “creativity and the arts” course requirement. Students developed confidence in their own voice and creativity along with practical digital literacy skills through the practice of digital storytelling. Lessons combined soft skills such as listening, consensus building and historical empathy with digital production, and the theory and practice of story work applied to their disciplines. Visitors to this poster have the opportunity to critically examine innovative classroom assessment techniques including daily coded memory cards. They can explore the results of a creative and collaborative course project where students practiced world building to create an alternate universe. Attendees are invited to expand definitions, methods, and applications of storytelling in order to reframe its value in professional and personal life by entertaining ideas such as becoming their own hero in control of a personal narrative

INTERNET RESOURCES - The electoral college, political parties, and elections: Sites to help you through the voting process

Most political party sites have two main themes, information and action. They provide information about the party platform, history, and news, and they offer opportunities to get involved in the action by volunteering, contributing, joining, and telling friends. This article contains annotations to selected free sites and Internet resources that provide information about the electoral college, political parties, and the 2004 federal elections

Clogging? No, I said, West Virginia Blogging.

This newsletter article provides an introductory survey of methods of communication can be leveraged by blogs in libraries. Profession-wide and local-level examples are provided along with technical advice for beginners

A Damn Short Prayer

This poster presents a transcript poem created with murder tales in oral history recordings. Leveraging the creative arts of storytelling, transcript poetry and visual orality, the poster brings light and music to Appalachian storyteller voices in tales of shady murders. The handout presents the poem with visual orality methods juxtaposed beside Standard English orthographic transcription, enabling a visual comparison, a link a video with graphic text and the original voice recordings, and brief readings about concepts and methods

Bam! Pow! Graphic Novels Fight Stereotypes in Academic Libraries: Supporting, Collecting, Promoting

This study examines the launch of a graphic novel collection in an academic library and presents a study analyzing the increase of titles in Association of Research Libraries with the subject heading “Graphic Novels” between fall 2008 and fall 2009. Statistics show a 40% increase, averaging 62 additional titles, during a year of global financial crisis. Exploring the prejudice against comics lingering in more traditional corners of academia, this paper encourages librarians to counter stereotypes and therefore bring more people, including other librarians, to view graphic novels as literature. This study includes recommended practices for supporting, collecting, and promoting these collections

Level Up! Library Orientation with a Phone-Based Exploration Game

This self-paced, reasonably priced, and imaginatively blended activity provides an effective, customizable, and scalable alternative to in-person tours. The Green Door Labs EdVenture Builder is specifically targeted to libraries and museums and has an interface with game mechanics built in on menus, allowing users with no programming experience to independently create games. Students learn about the library in an engaging way and instructors can be provided with game scores to provide credit for the activity. Individuals or teams new to the library play an exploration game on their mobile phone while exploring library physical and/or virtual locations, services, and resources. Players experience easy wins: congratulations, badges, points, or a level up in a game create a successful, fun, and positive introduction to the library, building confidence and reducing library anxiety. Blended game content with game graphics in printed posters and location photos in the game add depth and familiarity for players