Minutes of the ACRL New England Chapter Continuing Education Committee November 13, 2008
Here is the link to the CE Committee Minutes of November 13, 2008 http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfk7sk66_2xcdg3jg7&invite=js82vk

Minutes of the ACRL New England Chapter Continuing Education Committee Sept., 19, 2008
Here is the link to the CE Committee Minutes of Sept. 19, 2008 http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcfm798_4fvwmvjgq&hl=en

Hi, everyone!
I hope you're weathering the storms all-right. Are western MA and CT getting hit as badly as metro Boston and northern NE have been?
I took a look at the MLA program. Cool!!! What do we need to do next on that? Or is our role now mainly to show up with good questions?
I hope the semester has been kind to you so far. More soon. Take care.
--All my best,
Maureen

Hi, everyone!
I had thought I would be unable to take part in today's ACRL webcast ("This Class will now be Podcast"), but I was glad I could participate after all! I liked the thoughtful approach to podcasting. Too often have I heard talks that promoted a technology but did not cover how to use that technology wisely. This one was a refreshing change!
I plan to share the findings with my colleagues here. In the meantime, bravo for promoting a quality webcast!
--Maureen

Two Models for the Future of Library Continuing Education
from TechEssence.Info
http://techessence.info/node/88

This article describes two successful programs designed to educate library staff in Web 2. 0 technologies. The second program, "5 Weeks to a Social Library", was started by the author of the article who was living in rural Vermont (a fact which intersects nicely with the areas targeted by our Needs Assessment survey) and looking for ways to familiarize rural librarians with Social Technologies.

What would you think about starting a similar CE program(s) under the auspices of ACRL New England?

Minutes of the ACRL New England Chapter Continuing Education Committee
March 23, 2007 – Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, Boston

Present: Debbie Herman (scribe), Bob Scheier, Mariana Lapidus, Janice Beal, Maureen Perry, Jody Walker
Absent: Leslie Simmel

Agenda

1) Planning for Annual Conference exhibit – CEC will prepare an exhibit for the Annual Conference to present the results of the Needs Assessment Survey completed during the spring of 2006. Maureen Perry and Bob Scheier volunteered to work with Herman on a PowerPoint Slide Show which might include sound depending on circumstances. Perry agreed to prepare slides related to the types of Cont. Ed. formats preferred by survey respondents. Scheier is going to handle the geography piece (i.e., where people will travel or not travel, etc.), and Herman will prepare some slides on the demographics of the survey population. We'll use a common PP "theme" to facilitate integration of our work into a single presentation. Janice Beal volunteered to prepare a handout summarizing the results. Herman asked the volunteers to submit their contributions by the beginning of May. Herman and Scheier will be attending the conference and will set up the display. Herman asked the other members of the committee to let her know if they will be in attendance that day and available to help with the setup/takedown and/or staffing.


2) Teleconferencing initiative and informal reporting on the outcomes of Dec. 8th NELIG program
Perry attended the Dec. 8th NELIG program at the Maine site. She stated that the presentation portion of the program went well but observed some problems with the meeting held afterward owing to a confusing delay between sites who where IM-ing versus those with audio capabilities. This was also confirmed by Herman’s colleagues at CCSU who were presenters. The committee agreed that we would like to support more distance CE events and, to this end, will prepare a proposal that Herman will present to the Board at the annual retreat in June at Franklin Pierce College. Some of the items considered for inclusion in the proposal are: the purchase of conference phones that could be lent out to the SIGS; funds to hire a trainer/consultant (Amy Benson from NELINET was considered one possibility) in instructional design/distance education; funds to create an archive of SIG programs (also to make accessible for the hearing and visually impaired). Scheier mentioned exploring the Second Life virtual community as a learning environment. Herman will contact the ITIG and NELIG chairs regarding co-sponsorship of a Second Life CE event in the near future.

3) Continuing Education Database/Calendar revisited - discussion and update from Bob on some options, etc.
Discussion of the calendar initiative continued. Scheier stated he detected some resistance to the initiative at the board meeting he attended in January. Herman will check with President Christine Turner for clarification. In addition to Google calendars, Scheier found a number of freeware or open source calendar systems that would serve the purpose. He suggested the TechSoup website, a good source of inexpensive software available to non-profit organizations. After the meeting Scheier emailed a list of calendar programs to committee members (see listing at the end of the minutes).

Post-meeting follow up: Herman spoke with President Turner about the calendar initiative. It was agreed the project should be tabled until all web services are consolidated and hosted by a single provider, which is currently underway.

4) Recruitment of new members for next year's committee
It was agreed that a few more members would enable us to move forward on the projects underway. Herman has a colleague who is interested in joining next year. The committee agreed that it would be valuable to invite someone with experience in distance education to join.
Post-meeting follow up – Bob Scheier recruited Emily Alling from UMASS to join our committee. Herman presented Emily’s membership on the CEC to President Turner for approval. Herman sent an email to Alling asking her to join.
5) New business – Jody Walker offered to host our next meeting at Simmons College sometime in July. Date and time will be arranged over email.


Calendar Links from Bob Scheier:
I just found this one! This is what I was looking for. Here you set a web based calendar using "Webcalendar" and each SIG uses Mozilla Sunbird to automatically publish to the webcalendar.

See article:
http://www.k5n.us/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=webcalendar_remote_publishing_with_sunbird
and info on "Webcalendar" : http://www.k5n.us/webcalendar.php

Other Links I have collected:
http://www.rsscalendar.com/rss/ This looks very promising!

http://www.calendars.net/

http://rscds.sourceforge.net/

http://ietf.osafoundation.org/caldav/homepage/projects.html

Also the TechSoup website:

http://www.techsoup.org/ Software for nonprofits--cheap!

Minutes of the ACRL New England Chapter Continuing Education Committee
November 17, 2006 – College of the Holy Cross Dinand Library

Present: Debbie Herman (scribe), Bob Scheier, Leslie Simmel, Maureen Perry
Absent: Jody Walker, Mariana Lapidus, Janice Beal

Agenda items:
1) Final report – Outreach Needs Assessment Survey
The committee reviewed the draft document and advocates the following based on our discussion:
· Sponsor programs at meetings/conferences of state and other regional organizations. The chapter is already doing this with NELA so the CEC thinks there is an established precedent.
· Appoint an ACRL NEC liaison to the state library associations in order to facilitate communication.
· Move the most popular SIG programs (i.e., the ones for which people would be more willing to travel) to locations outside of the Greater Boston area.
· Extend the ACRL NEC annual conference to 2-days. If additional programming is impracticable, partnerships with other professional organizations should be sought (For example, ACRL NEC hosts its meeting on day 1 and NERCOMP hosts its meeting on day 2). Hosting a pre-conference workshop is also a possibility.
· Promote teleconferencing of SIG programs at multiple sites throughout New England as a means to fulfill the educational, proximity and social networking needs of academic library personnel throughout New England. The CEC is most interested in the outcomes of the Dec. 8, 2006 NELIG program, which will be hosted at the following locations Rensselaer (Hartford, CT), Bowdoin (Brunswick, ME), Keene State (Keene, NH), Springfield College (Springfield, MA), and Providence College (Providence, RI). The Elluminate conferencing software will be used. Maureen Perry is registered to attend the meeting and will follow up with her impressions as well as get in touch with the NELIG chairs for theirs. Herman works with two of the presenters at CCSU and will follow up with them.
Herman will prepare an executive summary to append to the Final report of the Needs Assessment Survey based on the above recommendations.
CEC Goals for the Coming Year Based on Outreach Needs Assessment findings:
· CEC would like to support the technology needs of the SIGS with respect to Continuing Education, particularly if more programs like the NELIG meeting held Dec. 8th are offered. This support might take the form of equipment purchases (such as conference phones), providing technical expertise, and/or arranging locations.
· CEC will move forward on the CE database/Events Calendar project (see item #3).


2) Annual Conference Planning
Judy Pinnolis offered us space for an exhibit highlighting the findings of the Needs Assessment. Planning for this exhibit will take place at our March meeting.

3) Follow up discussion of CE database project
Given the number of survey respondents who indicated this would be helpful, we decided to move forward on it. Although concern remains with the maintenance of such a calendar, we think it would be beneficial both to our membership as well as the SIG chairs as a planning tool. Bob Scheier suggested looking into existing web calendar programs such as iCalendar or Google Calendar, which are user-friendly, easy to maintain, and allow sharing of calendars. Scheier will look into the various options and report back. It was thought we could ask the SIG chairs to volunteer for a spring pilot project and invite other regional organizations to participate if the pilot is a success.

4) New business
The topic of recruiting additional members was addressed. Scheier suggested updating the CEC Blog on Blogspot to include meeting minutes as well as a list of projects the CEC has undertaken. Herman will go ahead and do this.

Our next meeting will be held in March. Date and time will be arranged over e-mail.

Minutes of the ACRL New England Chapter Continuing Education Committee
August 22, 2006 – Holy Cross, Dinand Library

Present: Debbie Herman (scribe), Bob Scheier, Jody Walker, Janice Beal, Mariana Lapidus

Absent: Maureen Perry, Leslie Simmel

Agenda Items:

1) Update from the ACRL-NEC Board Meetings.
Debbie Herman reported on the following items of interest from the June and August Board meetings. a) The annual meeting is tentatively scheduled from June 1, 2007 at Brandeis University; b) President Christine Turner is very eager to receive a final report / discussion document regarding the Continuing Education needs assessment survey since the results are likely to shape the Board’s agenda for the coming year and well as aid the SIGS in program planning; c) Since the chair of CEC is now a voting member of the ACRL-NEC Board, Herman asked if there was a member able to attend the January 2007 meeting at Eastern Connecticut State University in her absence. Bob Scheier and Mariana Lapidus thought they might be able to attend. Herman will forward them the details as they become available; d) The Board approved finding to upgrade its Wiki service on Jotspot. Herman informed the CEC that space would be provided to make documents coming out of our committee such as meeting minutes and documents related to the needs assessment survey available to the Board; e) The Board discussed the need to avoid overlap and duplication of effort with respect to the promotion of the chapter’s activities. Since these future discussions will influence the database continuing education opportunities project undertaken by the CEC last year, it was agreed we would put this project on hold until the late fall or early winter. Herman is a member of the Communications Committee, who will meet in the near future to address this question, and will apprise the CEC of any discussions.

2) Needs Assessment Survey final report – Next Steps
The data analysis undertaken at Brandeis University by a graduate student was recovered by Judy Pinnolis, so we are now able to prepare a final report for the Board. Herman has copies of the student’s analysis, a description of the survey design and methodology, original survey, coded survey, and results in SPSS received from Judy, Leslie, and Janice and will forward them to all members of the CEC after the meeting. Herman will also post the survey and analysis to the Board Wiki while the final document is being prepared. In reviewing the analysis performed by Judy’s student, the committee observed that only one cross-tabulation was completed in its entirety (Q18_3 – survey responses by participants holding the MLS degree). It was agreed that although these results would provide much to work with, the CEC should seek additional help to complete the other desired cross-tabulations. We decided to prepare a report for the Board by the middle of October that includes a description of the survey design and methodology as well as the analysis completed up until this point with the goal of having all cross-tabulations completed by early spring. Members will check at their respective institutions to see if there are any SPSS gurus available and willing to help. Janice Beal volunteered to contact Leslie Simmel to follow-up. Herman will check into Board on funding to finish the project and with Judy Pinnolis about the remaining cross-tabs. POST-MEETING UPDATE: Bob Scheier has located someone at Holy Cross who is willing to help him with the additional queries we would like performed. Janice had a productive conversation with Leslie that shed light on many of the questions raised during our meeting.

3) Program for the Annual Meeting
Herman asked whether the committee would like to sponsor a program at the annual meeting. Members agreed this would be a good idea and that a topic related to the needs assessment might be a possibility. It was suggested and agreed that this topic might lend itself better to a poster session. We also agreed it would be valuable to host a focus group with library personnel from areas targeted by the survey during the annual meeting in order to gather additional qualitative information. The idea of offering some incentive to participate (food, discounted registration, books, etc.) would be a good means to recruit participants. Herman will bring up at the November board meeting.

4) Other projects for the coming year
Since the database of continuing education opportunities will be put on hold for the next few months, the committee decided to use the time to investigate commercial services, etc. that provide conference and event information (such as Webjunction) to see if they might fulfill the needs of the membership. Herman asked CEC members to send links to Bob Scheier, who agreed to compile a listing.

We also discussed the possibility of creating an “experts database” of library professionals in New England who are willing to travel to institutions (particularly in underserved areas) to conduct training on various topics in exchange for travel reimbursement. We agreed that the data gathered from question 9 of the needs assessment survey (“How interested are you in continuing education activities on topics in the following areas…?”) would influence the topics offered. Jody Walker stated that Simmons GSLIS sponsors a similar service.

5) Other
Herman will be sending updated versions of CEC’s web pages on the Chapter website to Val Harper in the next couple of weeks. A date for our next meeting will be arranged via e-mail.