Act Like a Librarian, Think Like a Fundraiser

Do we abandon the core tenets of our profession when we reframe our professional activities through the lens of a fundraiser? How can we reconcile our public service values with the forward-facing self-promotion that accompanies a fundraising mindset? Are we at odds with our profession if we think of ourselves as library promoters, not just service providers? These are some of the questions with which I have wrestled as I have transitioned into a new role at a public university facing a deep budget crisis. What I have realized is that whether or not fundraising is a part of our written job responsibilities, every single employee of a school can be considered a fundraiser on some level--whether it’s by creating transformative experiences that foster an engaged alumni base, contributing meaningfully to students’ academic success and well being, participating in innovative projects that generate positive publicity, or simply by creating a physical environment and policies that allow anyone who walks through the gates of your campus to feel welcomed and supported. I argue that this mindset does not detract from or cheapen our core purpose but rather allows us to hone and sharpen our work by asking the questions, “Why does this matter? What is this for? What difference does this make?” These questions make us sharper and more engaged professionals, more committed to the work that we do, more efficient and effective workers. In this workshop, we will reflect on those very questions: What do we do, really? Why is it important? How can we express that work in ways that are meaningful and exciting to people outside the library? Competition for resources lately has felt like a zero-sum game as libraries are increasingly challenged to explain, clearly and effectively, the difference they make in the lives of their community members and the success of their institutions. The primary purpose of this workshop is to equip attendees with a toolkit that will help them reframe their work in ways that make their impact visible, particularly to those who might ask, “Well, why DO we need libraries anymore, anyway?” This approach does not fundamentally change the work that we do, but it does challenge us to think about how that work is understood by people outside of the library. I will begin this presentation with an activity asking participants to compare the subconscious attitudes we have toward fundraising activities versus our traditional job responsibilities and activities. We will work to align those attitudes more closely as we discuss some opportunities for low-risk fundraising collaborations on campus. Participants will be asked to engage in reflective exercises: they will be asked to identify their core job tasks and reframe them for an “outside the library” audience, and will further practice this task by workshopping their individual professional goals through the lens of a fundraiser. In addition to the reflective exercises, participants will also receive a toolkit of suggested readings, resources, and strategies for engaging with fundraising in their library or on their campus

LOLcats and Celebrities and (Red Panda) Bears – Oh, My!

Getting - and keeping - students\u27 attention during library instruction sessions is an increasingly Herculean task. We all know the best practices for teaching: be engaging, ask questions, provide opportunities for active learning. But what if those techniques just aren\u27t enough? By experimenting wildly with the presentation of my library instruction sessions, I have found that a lot of teaching power lies within the unexpected. Often, topics with very little direct correlation to libraries make interesting and engaging platforms for teaching information literacy concepts. Some of the add-ons I have used in classes include: slideshows of LOLcat pictures to impart research lessons at the end of a session; a series of celebrity gossip pictures and stories to provide real-life examples of the principles of evaluating information; music videos and amusing clips from YouTube; and Toby, the Houston Zoo\u27s red panda, who has become an unofficial library instruction mascot. In this session we\u27ll talk about what makes teaching (and learning) fun, I\u27ll show some zany examples from my instruction sessions, and we\u27ll brainstorm how you can adapt these ideas to fit your own classes. Think outside the (search) box and get the creative juices flowing - no idea is too far-fetched for this session

Anaylzes 100 Brands of Sheeting

Several experiments on sheeting are under way in the chemistry department of Iowa State College. Miss Margaret Furry, a graduate student, is working on The Analysis of Cotton Bed Sheeting, as her research problem. Frances Jones, junior in Home Economics, is working on\u27 the ash content of wide sheeting, and Marion Griffith is determining the deterioration of wide cotton sheeting due to laundering

Seri dictionary: Body parts, bodily processes, sickness and medicine

A subset of the Seri bilingual dictionary includes terms referring to body parts, bodily processes, sickness, and medicine. This version includes English glosses in addition to the Spanish glosses, and an English-to-Seri reversal. Other excerpts from the Seri dictionary have been published in the 1997, 1999 and 2000 Work Papers. The complete dictionary was published in 2005 and updated in 2010. The second edition is available here: mexico.sil.org/resources/archives/4282

Seri dictionary: Colors

A subset of the Seri bilingual dictionary includes terms referring to colors. This version includes English glosses in addition to Spanish glosses, and English-to-Seri and Spanish-to-Seri reversals. Other excerpts from the Seri dictionary have been published in the 1997, 1998 and 2000 Work Papers. The complete dictionary was published in 2005 and updated in 2010. The second edition is available here: mexico.sil.org/resources/archives/4282