Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Stanford's open courses spun to for-profit venture

A pair of part-time Stanford instructors who co-taught the most successful of the open courses, on artificial intelligence, now intend to put the importance of the institutional brand to the test. They are co-founders of a company that will offer two similarly “open” courses beginning in February, this time independently of the Stanford name.
The company, called Know Labs, has funding from Charles River Ventures and aspires to be a for-profit enterprise that offers high-quality college courses on the cheap to tens of thousands of students at a time through an online learning portal called Udacity.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Free Online Seminars Look into the Future of LIS


The start of the spring semester at the nationally-ranked San Jose State University School of Library and Information Science is upon us, and with it brings all new online seminars for current and future informational professionals. The free presentations begin January 31, with a look into the future of reading. Here’s a glimpse at the presentations scheduled during January and February:

·         January 31 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time – The Future of Reading
Join Tom Peters, assistant dean for strategic technology initiatives at Milner Library at Illinois State University in Normal, for an exploration and discussion of the prospects and possibilities of reading, and how libraries and librarians can enhance the reading experience. Tom will address the influence of e-reading technologies.

·         February 8 at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time – New Career Pathways for Information Professionals [Career Colloquia]
Our Career Colloquia presentations are always popular, and this one is especially exciting with Dr. Sandy Hirsh, professor and director of the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, presenting. Sandy will get you thinking about how your valuable LIS skill sets can be applied to a variety of information environments, opening doors to new career paths.

·         February 9 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time – Biblion: The Boundless Library
In this session, you’ll learn about a revolutionary iPad app that made rare source materials accessible to the masses. Deanna Lee, vice president for communications and marketing for The New York Public Library, will discuss the app including how it was created and lessons learned.

The online presentations are FREE, and everyone is invited to attend. Simply visit the Spring Semester 2012 Colloquia Series web page for links to the online sessions. If you can't make the time posted, you can still view the presentations when most convenient for you. Links to webcasts and podcasts of the Collaborate presentations will be posted about a week after the scheduled events. Simply visit the SLIS Colloquia Index. Presentations will be held throughout the semester, so be sure to check back often to see the full schedule.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

MLA-approved CE courses

Kovacs Consulting has just posted a list of self-paced web-based (Moodle) courses, many of which are approved by the Medical Association of America for CE (Continuing Education) credits.
It's interesting that they're not all about medicine/health ... there are some on instructional design for online teaching and learning as well ...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Make your own learning!

The Information Tyrannosaur posted a great blog today:
“Learning is not merely going to be students passively receiving knowledge from teachers. It will be a proactive pursuit for people who are curious and want knowledge that will benefit them either for personal growth or additional job skills. “
In a previous post he wrote about courses he wished were offered in library school — and many readers chimed in with their wishes for knowledge/skills they felt people entering the library field should have.  Another blogger wrote that there’s no way to learn everything in library school … librarians have the skills for lifelong learning, and will probably need them!

Learn on, intrepid students!  It the way to live life!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

You Ought to be in Pictures: Bringing Streaming Video to your Library

ALCTS webinar: 

Date: April 18, 2012
All webinars are one hour in length and begin at 11am Pacific, noon Mountain, 1pm Central, and 2pm Eastern time.

Description: This webinar will cover the following topics: best practices for selection and use of streaming media; licensing; purchasing and catalgoing streaming media; storing and serving content in a locally developed open source system; working with faculty for course use of streaming media; and statistical analysis of the collection.
The presenters will base their comments on their experience in building and maintaining a collection of streaming video, including selection, licensing, digitization, and access at James Madison University.

Learning Outcomes:
Attendees will:
- understand the benefits and issues of a streaming video collection
- learn to identify best practices for developing and maintaining a streaming video collection

Audience: All those who would like to learn more about streaming media in all types and sizes of libraries.


For additional information, including pricing options and links to registrations, please click on the following link: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/041812.cfm
ALCTS webinars are recorded and registrants receive a link to the recording shortly following the live event.

Preserving Your Personal Digital Photographs

ALCTS webinar

Date: April 26, 2012
All webinars are one hour in length and begin at 11am Pacific, noon Mountain, 1pm Central, and 2pm Eastern time.

Description: Digital photos are fragile and require special care to keep them accessible. But preserving any kind of digital information is a new concept that most people have little experience with. Technologies change over time and become obsolete, making it difficult to access older digital photos. And since digital photography results in immediate personal memories, we take and collect an enormous amount of photos. But as our personal collections grow, it becomes more and more difficult to save those photos and to find specific photos. If your digital photos are difficult for you to manage, how will your loved ones be able to make sense of them in the future? Learn about the nature of the problem and hear about some simple, practical tips and tools to help you keep your digital photos safe.
Learning Outcomes:
1. the nature of the problem
2. simple practical tips to describe and save digital photos
3. tools that can be used

Audience: Anyone with an interest in preserving personal digital photos and other digital information.


Free. This session is available at no cost as part of Preservation Week 2012. For additional information including how to register, please click on the following link:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/pres/042612.cfm
ALCTS webinars are recorded and registrants receive a link to the recording shortly following the live event.