2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit - Speaker biographies

Robin Ashford is Reference & Distance Services Librarian at the Portland Center Library of George Fox University, where she works primarily with graduate and doctoral students. She uses various technologies including screencasts and Second Life (a 3D virtual world community) to provide information services to her university's students living locally and around the world. Robin also serves as a volunteer on the reference desk of Information Island International (a global virtual world library) in Second Life. When time allows she blogs and tweets at http://twitter.com/rashford

Lee Catalano is a School Corps Librarian at Multnomah County Library, and provides trainings on using library resources to elementary, middle and high school students from W. Sylvan to Corbett,St. John's to Damascus. She puts many miles on the County's vehicles every week. Prior to School Corps, Lee was a Youth Librarian at the Central Children's Library and the Midland Regional Library. She's an original L-netter (Answerlander?). Here's what's currently checked out on her card: Benjamin Black's The Silver Swan, Grey Gardens, The Jane Austen Book Club (DVD), many books on the Central California Coast, and children's books too numerous to mention. I'm currently listening to In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber by L.A. Meyer, narrated by Katherine Kellgren.

Ahniwa Ferrari works in Library Development at the Washington State Library. He coordinates Ask-WA, the statewide virtual reference cooperative, runs bi-monthly statewide database trials, encourages the adoption of web 2.0 technologies among his colleagues, and compiles "Hard Times" resources for Washington libraries. Most recently he has begun investigating the use of volunteer librarians in providing virtual reference and is looking into incorporating Spanish-language service into the cooperative. He used to teach people how to swing dance, has a motorcycle endorsement but no motorcycle, and plays a mean game of cribbage. He blogs at the Washington State Library's Serving Washington Libraries blog.

Allie Flanary is a faculty librarian at Portland Community College, where she wears the Web and Outreach Specialist hats--although she very nearly ended up with the job title "resident nerd". Since Fall term she has taught 980 students in 52 different classes and workshops. Allie's favorite moment this year came when a student enthusiastically shouted, "What's up lady? High five, I just found a peer reviewed article!" from the back of her classroom. Professional passions include exploding existing library instruction models, marketing (with and without social media), and exploring virtual reference outside of the mainstream channels. Off-duty passions include robots, crochet, photography, and roller skating. Allie tweets and blogs as shinylib(.com) and would love to catch up with you there.

Anna Johnson is a faculty librarian at Mt Hood Community College in Gresham, where she is the Reference & Instruction Coordinator and leads the content design for the library’s web presences. So far this school year Anna has taught more than 100 assignment-specific library instruction sessions and answered way more than 100 reference questions. She’s seriously considering changing the names of her two goldfish from Koi Haim and Koi Feldman to Meebo and Jing.

Karen Munro is Head of the UO Portland Library & Learning Commons. She’s interested in video games, user-centered design, good teaching, and the Big Question: how can libraries thrive in the New Media Environment? She thinks the RIAA is doing it wrong, while Hulu.com and Wikipedia have the right idea. She’s currently reading Gulliver’s Travels, listening to The Verve, and waiting for Bioshock 2 to be released.

Carrie Ottow has been a Reference Librarian at the Corvallis-Benton co. Public Library since 2002. Prior to that she worked as a Goverenment Documents librarian at Oregon State University and Oklahoma State University. She currently has checked out from the library: Deaf Sentence by David Lodge; Destinos, an introduction to Spanish; Vogue knitting quick knits; Baryshnikov at Wolk Trap (DVD).

Sara Ryan is Multnomah County Library's Teen Services Specialist. Her favorite part of the job is attending teen council meetings and finding out about the excellent and sometimes hilarious projects the councils take on, such as "Books", a video response to the YouTube phenomenon "Shoes" (warning, the original has some swears). As you might guess, she's especially interested in the ways teens use what we, but not they, think of as "new technologies." She's also an author of books and comics for teens and others, and blogs at sararyan.com.

Nicholas Schiller is the Instruction Coordinator for the Washington State University Vancouver Library. In addition to reference and instruction, he also serves as the library liaison to the School of Computer Science and Engineering. His research interests include examining new media such as computer and video games for their links to library instruction. Nicholas maintains the information games web log at http://informationgames.info. He received his M.L.S.from Emporia State University in 2004.

Aaron Schmidt is the Digital Initiatives Librarian for the District of Columbia Public Library but lives in Portland, OR. He helps plan forward thinking, fun projects for the library, helping them connect to the community and teach them about the Read/Write Web. He also assists with website visioning, conducts usability testing, leads the library's Library 2.0 Interest Group and helps coordinate and generate ideas for the library's digital research and development project called DC Library Labs. Outside of his work for the DCPL, he sits on the the University of Washington iSchool's MLIS Advisory Board, speaks at library conferences, and consults for organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Libraries Project. You can find him online at his library technology and usability weblog www.walkingpaper.org.

Susan Stone is a teacher-librarian in Portland Public Schools, currently on special assignment for the district helping to craft a vision for Portland*s School Library Services programming, and facilitating the Improving Literacy through School Libraries grant. In her prior assignment as a middle school teacher- librarian, she especially loved collaborating with building staff to incorporate information literacy into all lessons and units, and practiced the art of snagging non-readers when they least suspected it, piquing their interest, and sneaking a good read into their hands. She seriously misses working directly with students and reading many great YA books to keep up with them, but she*s not staying up quite so late to finish the last chapter for a book talk the next day. Current books on the nightstand: The Swordless Samurai: Leadership Wisdom of Japan's Sixteenth-Century Legend---Toyotomi Hideyoshi, by Kitami Masao, Red Glass by Laura Resau, and Classroom Instruction that Works, by Robert Marzano.

Stephanie A. Thomas is the Teacher Librarian and Media Specialist for Parkrose High School in Portland. Along with teaching information literacy skills, honing the art of readers advisory and answering reference questions, she speaks and writes about Web 2.0 projects she is doing with her students. She writes and collaborates with Multnomah County Librarians on several large programs annually to bring programming to her school. She will be teaching an online course, LIB 588: Advanced Technologies in the Media Center for Portland State this summer. She is currently reading Walden by Thoreau, Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow's User edited by Nancy Courtney, and Columbine by Dave Cullen. Her student-generated vodcast book reviews can be found at: http://blogs.parkrose.k12.or.us/thomaste

2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit Program

The 2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit is happening mostly in the Gymnasium, except where noted.

9:00	Welcome
9:15	Keynote with Eva Miller
10:15	Break
10:30	Lightning talks
11:00	The Other Side of the Screen	Face to Space: Creating Buy-in for New Reference Mediums (Parsons Room)
12:15	Lunch
1:30	Lightning Talks
2:00	Connecting with Library Users through Technology: Emerging Tools and Concepts
3:30	Break
3:45	Discussion
4:15	Wrap-up

 

Keynote with Eva Miller

Eva Miller has over fifteen years of experience in information technology environments, including software companies, graphic design firms, libraries, Web publishers, and a brief stop at that giant Intel place. She also holds a Master's degree in information science from the University of Michigan School of Information and was one of Library Journal's "Movers and Shakers" for 2004. Eva is a skilled user experience designer and strategist who enjoys creating solutions that meet the needs of the client, the customer, and the brand.

Eva is not so impressed by mountains and oceans because she grew up on the Great Plains (perfectly named). She cannot keep plants alive or put away clean laundry in a timely fashion, and she mimes cigarette smoking to relieve stress.

Video of Eva Miller slides

 

Panel discussions

The Other Side of the Screen

About 75% of L-net questions come from kids. How is technology changing the relationships between students, teachers, and librarians?

Lee Catalano, Multnomah County Library
Sara Ryan, Multnomah County Library
Susan Stone, Portland Public Schools
Stephanie Thomas, Parkrose High School

Video of The Other Side of the Screen

Student podcasts:

Joseph (download mp3)

Cassie (download mp3)

Face to Space: Creating Buy-in for New Reference Mediums

How do we convince library management to put scarce resources into providing virtual reference services? What concerns and reservations do our colleagues have about providing virtual reference, and how do we assuage them? Panel discussion.

video

Ahniwa Ferrari, Washington State Library slides handout
Allie Flanary, Portland Community College slides handout
Carrie Ottow, Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

Connecting with Library Users through Technology: Emerging Tools and Concepts

Panelists will demonstrate successful strategies for doing virtual reference by meeting users where they search, using special techniques to quickly field questions and fostering cyber-relationships to meet the needs of our patrons. See what’s happening at the Reference Desk in Second Life. Learn how to videoconference and screencast in order to instantly relate information in an audiovisual format. Make yourself available to patrons by using the social networking tools they use. Theorize about spime and how URL-identified objects will affect reference. Stick around to discuss what we can do to exceed our patrons’ expectations in this changing landscape.

Robin Ashford, George Fox University
Second Life video slide show

Anna Johnson, Mt. Hood Community College Library
Screencasting video slides handout

Karen Munro, University of Oregon
Video conferencing video slides

Nicholas Schiller, Washington State University
Social Networking video slides notes links

Aaron Schmidt, District of Columbia Public Library
The Internet of Things video slides

 

Lightning Talks

We know you are professional. We know you are passionate. We know you know stuff. Come and share it, for 5 minutes, with a lightning talk.

Talk about your favorite source, technique, tool or transcript. Talk about anything related to virtual reference, libraries or technology.

Michael Baird - iPhone applications video slides

Kimberly Willson-St. Clair - Oregon Authors bibliography/website video

Theresa Yancey - Firefox add-ons video slides

Lee Catalano - Multnomah County Library Homework Center video

Emily-Jane Dawson and Steve Roskoski - Being friendly in chat video

Gretchen Leslie - Marketing L-net to the small business community video slides

Emily Ford - Oregon Health Go Local video

Clark Kent - Using AskMetafilter to answer reference questions video

Lorie Vik - Google Alerts, etc. video

Liz Paulus - Using Delicious bookmarks to share links with patrons video slides

Caleb Tucker-Raymond - My favorite transcript

 

Discussion

We've built in time at the end of the day to build on the energy we've created and talk about with our speakers and panelists, as well as with each other.

2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit Lightning Talks

We know you are professional. We know you are passionate. We know you know stuff. Come and share it, for 5 minutes, with a lightning talk.

Talk about your favorite source, technique, tool or transcript. Talk about anything related to virtual reference, libraries or technology.

Sign up ahead of time and be assured of your five minutes of fame!

Contact Mary Kontny (mary.c.kontny@ci.eugene.or.us).

Signed up
1. Emily Ford, Oregon Health Go Local
2. Gretchen Leslie - taking Lnet to the small business community
3. Emily-Jane Dawson, MCL (tent) - being warm & friendly in chat
4. Lee Catalano, MCL (also on panel) - MCL Homework Center
5. Theresa Yancey, Chemeketa CC - firefox addons
6. Lorie Vik, EPL - Google Alerts, and??
7. Clark Kent, EPL - Ask Metafilter
8. Michael Baird - iphone applications
9. Steve Roskoski - warm & friendly chatting (with E-J Dawson)
10. Liz Paulus - Links for Patrons: using Delicious while in Chat
11. Darci Hanning - Plinkit and del.icio.us
12. Kimberly Willson-St. Claire - Oregon Authors

2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit Reads

A list of books, articles, and web sites mentioned by speakers at the 2009 Oregon Virtual Reference Summit.

Ahniwa Ferrari

Stephen Francoeur. My Workshop on Effective Chat Reference.

Buff Hirko and Mary Bucher Ross. Virtual Reference Training: The Complete Guide to Providing Anytime, Anywhere Answers. Chicago: American Library Association, 2004.

M. K. Kern. Virtual Reference Best Practices: Tailoring Services to Your Library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2009.

R. David Lankes. New Concepts in Digital Reference. San Rafael, CA: Morgan & Claypool, 2009.

Marie Radford. Virtual Reference Bibliography.

Various Authors. “Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends.” Speaker’s Presentations.

Allie Flanary

L. Bedwell. "Making Chat Widgets Work for Online Reference." Online 33.3 (May 2009): 20-23.

Rachel Bridgewater and Meryl B. Cole. Instant Messaging Reference: a Practical Guide. Oxford: Chandos, 2008.

M. K. Kern. Virtual Reference Best Practices: Tailoring Services to Your Library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2009.

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki.

D. L. Meert and L. M. Given. "Measuring Quality in Chat Reference Consortia: A Comparative Analysis of Responses to Users' Queries." College & Research Libraries 70.1 (2009): 71-84.

L. Taddeo. "R U there? How to Reach a Virtual Audience Through Affordable Marketing Strategies." Internet Reference Services Quarterly 13.2 (2008): 227.

Eva Miller

Tim Brown. Change by Design: How Design Thinking Can Transform Organizations and Inspire Innovation. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2009.
Discusses the value of using proven, repeatable "design thinking" processes to better understand problems and solve the right ones the right way. Brown is from IDEO, a design firm famous for their creative process. He believes design thinking is a sure way to transform organizations and be truly innovative.

Cathy De Rosa, OCLC, and Et al. Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: a Report to the OCLC Membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC Online Computer Library Center, 2005.
A clear wake-up call about where people get information and how they think about libraries as a source of information. Based on extensive survey work.

Mike Kuniavsky and Morgan Kaufmann. Observing the User Experience: a Practitioner's Guide to User Research. 2003.
A great practical guide to doing solid user research that gets at who, what, where, when, why, and how and finding all of those unexpressed needs people share with you when you learn to relax and let them talk. It's art and not science. Kuniavsky will make you a master of listening well.

George Lakoff. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1990.
A great read for librarians, though rough sledding for anyone else. It's all about how we make sense of the world through categorization. It's a natural human tendency to clump things into groups as shorthand and may have a lot to do with our success as a species.

Grace Paley. "A Conversation with my Father." The Collected Stories. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007.
This story is the ultimate expression of empathy for others. Paley does not believe that character determines fate. Our fate is in our hands, and she stuck to that philosophy in all of her wonderful stories. This is a good badge to wear in your work, too. We tend to slice and dice people by demographics, like socioecononic group, ethnicity, or age. When you take a mental models approach, what matters most is someone's internal view of a process or activity, not anything about their external self. As librarians, we know that you cannot ever determine the extent of someone's intellectual adventurousness by looking at them.

Indi Young. Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior. Brooklyn, NY: Rosenfeld Media, 2008
Describes a process for creating a strategy for your product or service based on user research. Very practical: takes you step-by-step through what you need to do to collect and analyze user research in a manner that results in useful "mental models" of your customers or clients. These aren't demographic: they are behavioral, and show where you may have gaps or opportunities to craft products or services that delight people and meet needs.

Nicholas Schiller

Nicholas Schiller. nnschiller's OVRS Bookmarks.

Clay Shirky.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008.

Aaron Schmidt

Adam Greenfield. Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing. Berkeley, Ca: New Riders Publishing, 2006.

Bruce Sterling. Shaping Things. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 2005.

What to do in Portland

Branches and Byways is a guide to the Portland Metro area by librarians at Multnomah County Library.

Find a bed and breakfast at bedandbreakfast.com or bbonline.com

A calendar of local events, lodging information, and much more is available at TravelPortland.com