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Webinars | Panels | Workshops

Webinars

All SIG ED webinars are archived and accessible to members at http://www.asis.org/Conferences/webinars/

Introducing Cultural Heritage Informatics into the Curriculum of LIS Education

Webinar Date: Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 11:00am – 12:00pm EDT

Presentation Abstract: The meanings of ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘heritage practices’ have changed considerably in recent decades. Cultural heritage includes not only tangible movable objects and monuments but also intangible cultural products of humankind viewed within the framework of time, such as “oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.”[1] As noted by Giaccardi, “[H]eritage is today about far more than museum artifacts and historic buildings, and how they are to be preserved and communicated. It is about making sense of our memories and developing a sense of identity through shared and repeated interactions with the tangible remains and lived traces of a common past.” [2] The heritage practice focuses not just on the protection of the material and temporal fabric of heritage, but more importantly on the management of change: the use of heritage in a broader cultural, political, and social context to express and perform constantly evolving values, beliefs, knowledge, and tradition.[3][4]

More recently, initiatives in digital humanities have demonstrated a paradigm shift in how cultural heritage materials can be searched, mined, displayed, taught, and analyzed utilizing digital technologies.[5] This shift directly impacts memory institutions and information professionals, who must master these new ways of interacting with cultural heritage and discover how best to serve ever-changing user populations. These populations often have far more sophisticated knowledge of using, researching and sharing data, information, and knowledge than ever before.

Cultural heritage informatics (CHI) stands at the intersection of access, preservation, and advocacy. It refers to the creative application of information, communication, and computing technology (broadly defined) to address the needs, challenges, and content of (and in) the domain of cultural heritage.[6] Although there is no clearly defined boundary and scope, the central notion of CHI is the transformation of information — whether by computation or communication, whether by organisms or artifacts. Cultural heritage informatics brings a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary approach to supporting the entire lifecycle of cultural information and documentation procedures for the benefit of the preservation, study, and promotion of cultural heritage. It is time to bring cultural heritage informatics into the curriculum of library and information science, and to prepare students for careers focusing on or transcending libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other cultural institutions by introducing them to the methodologies and technologies commonly used in cultural heritage informatics.

We would like to think of this webinar as a starting point for discussions in an area that many of the curriculums are considering and an area that needs further collective exploration. We hope the ASIST SIG ED can lead more activities on this area in the future.

[1] Unesco. 2012. “What is intangible cultural heritage?” http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?pg=00002
[2] Giaccardi, Elisa. 2012. Introduction. Reframing heritage in a participatory culture. In: Giaccardi ed.: Heritage and Social Media : Understanding heritage in a participatory culture. Florence, KY, USA. Routledge. P.1.
[3] Giaccardi, Elisa. 2012.
[4] Council of Europe. 2005. “Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society.”
[5] Burdick, Anne. 2012. Ed. Digital Humanities. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[6] Michigan State University Department of Anthropology Cultural Heritage Informatics Initiative. “What is ‘Cultural Heritage Informatics?’” http://chi.anthropology.msu.edu/?page_id=1719

Presenters:

Marcia Lei Zeng is Professor in the School of Library and Information Science, Kent State University. She holds a Ph.D. from the School of Information Sciences at University of Pittsburgh (USA) and an M.A. from Wuhan University (China). Her major research interests include knowledge organization structures and systems (KOS), Linked Data, metadata and markup languages, database quality control, multilingual and multicultural information processing, and digital humanities. Her scholarly publications consist of more than 80 papers and five books, as well as more than 200 national and international conference presentations and invited lectures and speeches. Her research projects have received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), OCLC, and Ohio Board of Regions (OBR). She is currently the P.I. of a KSU Postdoctoral Seed Program project for digital humanities research using smart data and big data. She currently teaches students of library and information science, information architecture and knowledge management, and data science at Kent State University. Her current courses are: Knowledge Organization Structures, Systems, and Services (KOS), Metadata Architectures and Applications, and Introduction to Cultural Heritage Informatics.

Dr. Zeng has chaired and served on committees, working groups, and executive boards for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Special Libraries Association (SLA), Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), the US National Information Standards Organization (NISO), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). She has served ASIS&T in many capacities including being the Director-at-large during 2010 and 2013.

Karen F. Gracy is Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Science of Kent State University. She possesses an MLIS and PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MA in critical studies of Film and Television from UCLA. Recent publications have appeared in JASIST, Archival Science, American Archivist, Journal of Library Metadata, and Information and Culture.

Dr. Gracy’s scholarly interests are found within the domain of cultural heritage stewardship, which encompasses a broad range of activities such as preservation and conservation processes and practices, digital curation activities that consider the roles of heritage professionals and users in the lifecycle of objects and records, as well as knowledge representation activities such as definitions of knowledge domains, development of standards for description, and application of new technologies to improve access to cultural heritage objects. She teaches in the areas of preservation and archiving, with a focus on moving image archives and digital preservation issues.

The Grant Writing Course as a Real-World Experience to Build Communities

Presented by SJSU ASIS&T with funding sponsorship from SIG ED

Webinar Date: Thursday, April 9, 2015, 1:00 – 2:00 EST

Presentation Abstract: This webinar will introduce the audience to the SJSU LIBR 282 Grant Writing and Alternative Funding Resources course, which Patty Wong has taught for the School of Information during the past seven years. As a practitioner with hundreds of successful grants, Wong views grant writing as a real time, expandable skill that can build communities while diversifying funding to make the world a better place. During the course, Wong guides students through a grant writing process using a client of their choice. The process includes preparing an environmental scan, listing funders, exploring grant writing tools, analysis of funder information, grant deconstruction, and writing an actual proposal to benefit a project and the client’s community. The interactive sessions using Collaborate heighten student learning and experience. Many students work in pairs to maximize joint learning. Students build a client profile, establish goals and objectives, utilize an evaluation tool for the project, create a communication and promotion plan, and develop a final proposal integrating funder criteria for future client submission.

Presenter: Patty Wong. Patty has served as County Librarian/Chief Archivist of Yolo County Library since January 2008. With a great staff, the library constructed two new branches, completed remodeling of its largest facility, opened a satellite location, and established countywide 211 services within a four-year span. Under Patty’s leadership, the library hosts the Non Profit Leaders Alliance, supporting the regular meeting and growth of the county’s more than 400 non-profit organizations and the Yolo County Youth Development Coalition, which is committed to a countywide framework to provide safety and supports for youth in building stronger communities. The library actively cultivates a culture of inclusion and developed a strategic plan based on community-centered engagement. Patty is also active in shared governance and support of Yolo County, serving in a number of county and community leadership roles.

Producing Effective Online Programs: Experiences and Lessons Learned

Webinar Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 1:00 – 2:00 EST.

Presenters: Jeremy L. McLaughlin and Marisa Martinez from SJSU ASIS&T with Karen Miller from SIG ED

This webinar is jointly sponsored by SIG ED and SJSU ASIS&T. SJSU ASIS&T is a dynamic virtual organization providing members with frequent online opportunities to connect both to one another and to professionals in a variety of fields. As a virtual student chapter of an online MLIS program, SJSU only interacts with their members via online programs and events. SJSU hosts fifteen or so events each academic year on a wide variety of topics of current interest that develop professional and academic skills.

Presentation Abstract:

Jeremy L. McLaughlin and Marisa Martinez from SJSU ASIS&T share best practices for planning, hosting, and archiving online programs and webinars. Jeremy, the Chair and former Program Director, focuses on pre-event setup and promotion and ways that organizations can increase exposure and virtual attendance for their events. Marisa is currently Chapter Treasurer and has worked with the campus webinar platform as part of the iSchool Collaborate Project and as a technical moderator for Chapter events. She reviews common technical issues faced by speakers and session attendees and offers solutions for working with or through technical difficulties during an event. Based on a recent archiving project, Jeremy offers suggestions for extending the life of your webinars and maximizing post-event discoverability.

Karen Miller, current SIG ED Co-Chair, wraps up the presentation with a review of her experiences producing ASIS&T webinars for SIG ED. Building on Diane Rasmussen Pennington’s 2012 Webinar on Webinars, Karen reviews the procedures for scheduling ASIS&T webinars. Drawn from her experiences during the production of seven ASIS&T webinars, Karen’s practical examples “demystify” the process for organizations newly interested in producing webinars.

Teaching Information Policy, or The Thing that affects Virtually Every Aspect of Information about which People Often Forget

Webinar Date:  Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 11:30am-12:30pm (EDT)

Presenters: Paul T. Jaeger, Ursula Gorham, and Natalie Taylor

Presentation Abstract:

As the Internet has become a ubiquitous part of daily life, the amount of information policy has proliferated from governments at all levels.

Information access, storage, use, management, and other aspects are governed by an ever more complex set of laws, regulations, and other types of policy instruments. All information professionals need to be aware of information policy issues — including security, privacy, intellectual property, and access — and these issues can be explored through courses devoted to the subject or by incorporating them into education about other subjects. This webinar will discuss ways in which to teach:

• The nature and sources of information policy;
• The variety and scope of information policies;
• Connections between policy and professional activities;
• Roles of policy in different information institutions;
• Measurement and evaluation of the impacts of policy; and
• Advocacy for better policy.
• The instructors of this webinar have taught and co-taught a wide range of courses and classes on information policy topics in both academic and professional venues.

Presented by:

Paul T. Jaeger, PhD, JD, is Associate Professor and Diversity Officer of the College of Information Studies and is Co-Director of the Information Policy and Access Center (iPAC) at the University of Maryland. The author of 12 books and more than 150 journal articles and book chapters, his work focuses on the impacts of policy on information access.

Ursula Gorham is a doctoral candidate in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland and a Graduate Research Associate at the Information Policy & Access Center. In addition to being a licensed attorney in Maryland, she holds graduate degrees in library science and public policy. Her research focuses on collaborations among libraries, government agencies and non-profit organizations to meet community information needs.

Natalie Taylor is a doctoral candidate at the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland, where she also received her Masters of Library Science. She is a Graduate Research Associate at the Information Policy & Access Center (iPAC) and has published articles in Library & Information Science Research, Public Library Quarterly, and Information Polity, among others. A co-author of the book Digital Literacy and Digital Inclusion: Information Policy and the Public Library, her research focuses on young people’s access to digital information.

Happiness and Its Relationship With Information 

Presented by Naresh Agarwal

September 10, 2013, Tuesday, 2.00 PM EDST, 11.00 AM Pacific

Empirical research has shown that a large part (40% as per Lyubomirsky, 2007) of our happiness is within our power to change.  A question is whether happiness can be taught, and if it can, why it is left out from learning outcomes in higher education and the curriculum in Library and Information Science (LIS) schools. In this webinar, Dr. Naresh Agarwal will share his 7 commandments in life and lead to a theoretical model of happiness.  He will also explore the relationship between happiness and information and the place of happiness in information science research and in LIS education.

The Online Revolution: Education for Everyone

Presented by Pang Wei Koh, Head of Course Operations at Coursera

July 10, 2013, Wednesday, 2.00 PM EDST

Pang Wei Koh, Head of Course Operations at Coursera, is presenting a webinar on the Coursera massive open online courses (MOOC) model. In 2011, Stanford University offered three online courses, which anyone in the world could enroll in and take for free.  Students were expected to submit homework, meet deadlines, and were awarded a “Statement of Accomplishment” only if they met our high grading bar.  Together, these three courses had enrollments of around 350,000 students, making this one of the largest experiments in online education ever performed.  Since the beginning of 2012, we have transitioned this effort into a new venture, Coursera, a social entrepreneurship company whose mission is to make high-quality education accessible to everyone by allowing the best universities to offer courses to everyone around the world, for free. Coursera classes provide a real course experience to students, including video content, interactive exercises with meaningful feedback, using both auto-grading and peer-grading, and a rich peer-to-peer interaction around the course materials.  Coursera started operations in early 2012 and, as of June 2013, has 80 institutional partners, and over 3.7 million students enrolled in its 377 courses, which span a range of topics including computer science, business, medicine, science, humanities, social sciences, and more.

This talk will report on this far-reaching experiment in education, and why we believe this model can provide both an improved classroom experience for our on-campus students, via a flipped classroom model, as well as a meaningful learning experience for the millions of students around the world who would otherwise never have access to education of this quality.  The talk will describe the pedagogical foundations for this type of teaching, and the key technological ideas that support them, including easy-to-create video chunks, a scalable online Q&A forum where students can get their questions answered quickly, sophisticated autograded exercises, and a carefully designed peer grading pipeline that supports the at-scale grading of more open-ended assignments.  Through such technology, we envision millions of people gaining access to the world-leading education that has so far been available only to a tiny few, and using this education to improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

Ready or Not, You Will Teach, and Here Is How You Can Get Ready
Presented by Charles Curran
March 27, 2013, 2:00-3:00pm EDT

This webinar on the teaching responsibilities of academic librarians is offered at the urgings of observers who note two things: academic librarians do lots of teaching and many academic librarians approach this task with little training in teaching. Therefore, this session will examine those aspects of Information Literacy (IL) that impact teaching responsibilities—the “so what?” of the Google Age, the proficiencies academic librarians must acquire in order to make IL happen, and the partnerships with faculty that academic librarians must forge. The webinar will present some specific recommendations for professors who train MLIS students to be academic librarians and for the MLIS students, themselves.

Mentoring As Teaching Tool: A Case Study
Presented by Charles Curran
September 19, 2012

This webinar presents a case study of a doctoral student mentoring program implemented by the School of Library &   Information Science at the University of South Carolina during 2011. While designed to introduce students to academic life, the mentoring program emerged as a tool for developing doctoral student teaching skills. The presenter will discuss best practices for starting a mentoring program, describe the challenges and rewards of the program, and provide specific examples of program successes. The discussion will include suggestions for taking the initiative to participate in mentor/mentee activities even if a particular educational agency does not have a formal mentoring program in place. Participants will leave the session with a better understanding of mentoring programs as tools for developing teaching skills.

ASIS&T Student Chapter Leaders and Advisors: A Virtual Meeting
Presented by Naresh Agarwal
September 11, 2012

The purpose of the virtual meeting is to connect student chapters with each other so that they can share information about activities and projects, learn from the experiences of other chapters, and develop collaborative relationships among the chapters. We believe that encouraging interaction between student chapters will help build stronger individual student chapters and benefit the overall Association by encouraging future leaders.

Bringing the Art of Performance to Online Teaching
Presented by Charles Curran
August 23, 2012

How does an online teacher engage the student in the absence of face-to-face cues? By using the art of performance —simple strategies for presenting material and winning audience interest —teachers can bring their classroom persona to the online environment and provide engaging instruction in the absence of synchronous feedback or assessment. This session introduces best practices for bringing the art of performance to online teaching, including the delivery of ideas through expression, symbols, and pictures. Participants will leave the session with heightened understandings about the importance of performance in teaching, plus a collection of specific tips for best practice.

Tools for Presentation, Collaboration, and Communication in a Blended Course
Presented by Bill Wisser
July 17, 2012

The array of instructional technologies that are available to faculty when blending a course can be overwhelming. Too often, faculty lead with the tools without considering the outcomes that will be met with the tool. This presentation will introduce participants to the decisions that need to be made regarding the utility of a tool for teaching a blended course. Participants will also be introduced to several popular tools within the categories of presentation, collaboration, and communication.

Delivery and Assessment of a Blended/Hybrid Learning Course
Presented by Bill Wisser
June 21, 2012

Just as the design of a blended course differs from that of a face-to-face course, the delivery of a blended course entails the consideration of factors that are new to most classroom teachers. This webinar will build on the concepts discussed in the course design presentation and introduce participants to major issues related to the prosecution of a blended course. The webinar will also include a discussion of the evaluative metrics that are available to assess the quality of a blended course. Participants will encounter strategies to help them develop an online presence and facilitate a blended course.

Designing a Blended/Hybrid Learning Course
Presented by Bill Wisser
May 17, 2012

In the Introduction to Blended/Hybrid webinar participants learned that a blended or hybrid course must be completely redesigned to take advantage of the different mediums and present a meaningful learning experience for the students. This webinar will address popular models of designing a blended course including backwards design and the Communities of Inquiry model. Participants will learn the steps to consider when blending a course and review examples of blended course maps. Participants will also have access to an overall design template and a module template to complete on their own.

Introduction to Blended/Hybrid Learning
Presented by: Bill Wisser
April 24, 2012

Blended or hybrid learning is receiving increased attention from faculty and administrators as a way to leverage the advantages of both face-to-face and online teaching. Teaching in a blended environment is not as easy as simply placing some material online, however. Faculty who are new to blended learning face a series of decisions that impact how they design, deliver, and assess the learning experience. This presentation defined the concept of blended or hybrid learning, displayed examples, and showcased faculty work. This session also included tips on best practices when approaching the blending of a course. Participants gained a better understanding of the challenges and advantages of blended learning and were given access to resources as they continue to explore this emerging modality.

Panels

Agarwal, N. K., & Miller, K. A. (2012). Preparing for the academic job market: An interactive panel for doctoral students. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1).

Abstract: This panel expands on the basic format of the successful interactive doctoral student panel sponsored by SIG/ED at the 2011 ASIS&T annual meeting.  The 2012 panel will feature several new panelists and a discussion of alternative career paths to the traditional job market, such as postdoctoral opportunities. The function of this panel is to provide an interactive platform for faculty members at all stages of their careers to provide advice and input for doctoral students nearing the completion of their doctoral work. This panel will provide valuable insight on finishing the dissertation, weighing post-doctoral opportunities, entering the job market, and beginning an academic  career. The format will allow participants to ask questions anonymously that may otherwise be embarrassing to ask. The seven panelists represent all stages of an academic career:  three assistant professors, two associate professors (including an associatedean), and two full professors (including one dean). The participants come from six different institutions and represent two countries (U.S. and Canada). The panel will be of greatest use to those doctoral students at the end of their doctoral program, but, as proven in 2011, will also be of interest to doctoral students beginning their doctoral work and new assistant professors.

Neal, D. R., Smith, L. C., Ratliff, J. A., & Khanova, J. (2012). ASIS&T Online Education Initiatives: Driving the Future. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1).

Abstract: This panel provided an update for ASIS&T members on the activities of the Webinar Task Force and the Online Education Task Force to increase online communication and education efforts within the Society. Both task forces were formed by presidential appointment in 2011 with the goal of expanding the involvement of ASIS&T in the provision of online educational offerings. In addition to expanding webinar offerings, an organizational emphasis on online communication and education drives increased networking opportunities and ensures that members remain connected to the Society between annual meetings. Panel presentations included comments on the context of online education generally, insight into the background and context of the ASIS&T online education initiative, updates on the results and ongoing efforts of the task forces, and a perspective on the future and potential of online education within ASIS&T.

Sugimoto, C. R., & Christopherson, L. (2011). Preparing for the academic job market: An interactive panel for doctoral students [a panel proposal]. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 48(1). doi:10.1002/meet.2011.14504801168

Abstract: The transition from doctoral student to assistant professor can be a challenging one for many students. The process is unfamiliar for many and presents unanticipated challenges and opportunities. The function of this panel is to provide an interactive platform for faculty members at all stages of their careers to provide advice and input for doctoral students nearing the completion of their doctoral work. This panel will provide valuable insight on finishing the dissertation, going on the job market, and beginning an academic career. The format will allow for participants to ask questions anonymously, questions that may be embarrassing to ask. The seven panelists represent all stages of the academic career: two assistant professors, three associate professors (including two associate deans), and two full professors (including one interim dean and one dean). The participants come from seven different institutions, representing two countries (U.S. and Canada). The panel will be of greatest use to those doctoral students at the end of their doctoral program, but may also be of interest to doctoral students beginning their doctoral work and new assistant professors.

Workshops

Agarwal, N. K., & Miller, K. A. (2012). Doctoral student boot camp: Preparing for successful entry to the job market. Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 49(1).

Abstract: At the same time doctoral students are engaged in the most demanding research project of their career to date, the dissertation, they find themselves thrust onto the job market stage with little time for adequate preparation. The doctoral student boot camp provided students with the opportunity to perfect their CV, teaching philosophy, and research agenda statement well in advance of graduation. Facilitators provided professional advice and answer questions about cover letters, answering difficult interview questions, proper dress, job talks, and other related topics. Participants took advantage of CV and interview critiques provided by experienced professionals. This workshop provided a unique opportunity to prepare for successful entrance to the academic job market.