PEOPLE POWER:
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Lisa Vassady attended the Computers in Libraries 2004 Annual Conference in Washington, DC from March 10-12, 2004 to look into new technological innovations available for library instruction and reference services. She was primarily interested in the “Working & Learning Electronically” track. Some highlights of the conference included innovative ideas on information literacy tutorials, collaborations, web-based learning resources, and usability issues.
Gene Hyde attended the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, March 26-28, 2004 in Cherokee, North Carolina. The theme was " Building a Healthy Region: From Historical Trauma to Hope and Healing." He participated in the “Voices from Our Past: Readings from Appalachian Archives” program by reading archival excerpts on the moonshine business in Appalachia. Gene is the library collection development liaison for RU’s Appalachian Studies program and is collaborating with Ricky Cox (Instructor, RU Appalachian Regional Studies Center) on a project to preserve an oral history archive by converting the histories from cassette tapes to CD’s.
Dave Hayes, Gene Hyde, Steve Helm, and Gerold Gordon attended the 12th Annual Innovative Users Group Conference, April 2-5, 2004 in Boston, MA. This is a well-attended and information-packed conference on the latest and upcoming features of the Innopac/Millennium integrated library system software that the library uses to create the online catalog, check out materials, track receipt of new books, cd’s, periodicals, etc. purchased to add to the collection, and provide various statistical reports. The attendees followed up after the conference with a meeting to review what they learned and recommend which new features or modules we should investigate further and implement.
The library invested in on-site training for library faculty and staff using our portion of end-of-year, one time extra funds:
Innopac/Millennium Training (March 15-18, 2004): Circulation, Materials Booking, Serial Check-In, Acquisitions, Advanced Cataloging, and Administrative modules. Steve Helm taped the sessions and recorded screen shots in order to create DVDs of the sessions for future training needs. He also arranged for these sessions.
General Cataloging Principles and Practices (Solinet Contract Workshop, April 7, 2004): Along with McConnell Library faculty and staff, two Virginia Tech library employees and a new employee of the Teaching Resources Center, Annette Tokarczyk, attended this all day session. Mary Wilson arranged for this session.
--Mary C. Wilson, Coordinator of Technical Services