I'm currently participating in a Learning Company series of instruction on the Art of Teaching. At times pedantic, there have been many gems within the twelve week course that can be taken to heart for instruction, or group meetings.

Yesterday's session discussed how to ensure that students have the core skills needed to master the curriculum one is presenting. I was stunned by the assessment shown in the course of the video and saddened at the same time. Core skills such as reading aloud, comprehension of the written word and note taking were featured and it was stressed that college level students *do not have these skills.*

I have been blessed with natural curiosity and desire for learning. I have found systems that work well for me personally and that was only through life long example and learning instilled by teachers at a young age. I wondered to myself about the propensity for learning these skills in one's late teens and early twenties. I think of my older brother who at age 45 went to college for the first time after his high school graduation. School in his younger years was neither easy nor fun for him. He has the intellect, but the skills to discipline his studies did not come easy then. I strongly encouraged him to make use of his school's teaching resource center and tutoring services. And yet, I wonder at the basic skills outlined in the Learning Company video, and how well those skills were transmitted and mastered in his technical college.

The early training of these skills are overlooked as literature and arts fade from elementary and middle schools. The group of faculty who viewed the presentation together agreed that students made to stand and deliver in front of a camera on the first day of class might not perform excellently. And yet the signs of embarrassment and hesitance were obvious. I've witnessed young people feel put upon to stand and read. I saw the Learning Company instructor direct the student in pulling apart the text at hand. It was more invasive and brutally embarrassing than anything I experienced in school.

It's no wonder that when I read an article in today's Chronicle of Higher Education that I was reminded of the series presentation yesterday. The article and comments discuss alternative skills-based learning for adults. The group 180 Skills helps companies design training programs to educate employees in the skills needed to stay relevant and valued in the workplace. While altogether focused on manufacturing, this same model can be used in any workplace, it would seem. It does required the identification and build out of the needed  curriculum, but it can be self-driven. The Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative has extended this targeted learning to academe. It seems to be an enriched version of the Open Courseware concept which began at MIT but is now enriched by consortia partnerships. Open Courseware provides higher education learning materials. As I understand the Carnegie Mellon endeavor, there are instructors available as well to help guide and enrich the learning. Other similar groups are emerging at this time. Without direction or purpose, it seems that this curriculum may have little value. With application to the workplace or development program, much can be gained if the desire to learn is present, and if we can recapture and expand upon those core skills, the acquisition of which are being delayed or lost entirely.

In this time of economic maelstrom and vacuum for sustainable employment, perhaps it's time we as a society turn to other models of instruction that can expand on our foundations as they are and help to strengthen our workforce and higher education for the future.

Last week I attended the Indiana Library Federation - Annual Conference at the Grand Wayne Center, Fort Wayne, IN (November 14-16). Marcy Simons and I were selected to provide a poster session on our topic of study, appreciative inquiry. The session went well and while there, I took advantage of meeting colleagues and attending some other sessions. Here are some highlights. I think there’s a little something for everyone.

Keynote Day 1, Thomas Frey, DaVinci Institute
http://www.davinciinstitute.com/          

Frey is a futurist who helped to bring forward the questions about the library and the future. The framework used was a bit of a twist from past discussions. Frey asserted that, "If your next project doesn't address the needs of the future, the future will kill it." What followed was a series of small case studies, including the use of smartphone camera technology to imagine a see it-point-click-purchase future. Frey advised keeping an eye toward developments of Google Goggles, yet another factor which will continue to support the un-tethering of society.

The baseline example presented was the development of mathematics in the ancient world. When one thinks of great, ancient mathematicians we default to the Greeks. While assuredly the Roman world had math, one doesn't immediately think of Roman mathematicians. Why? Roman numerals as a system did not allow for direct computations the way other numbering systems did. The Roman numerals are themselves computations which prevented the systematic advancement of Roman mathematics. Frey asked the audience to consider what systems we have in place today that are the equivalent to Roman numerals, and further posed the question: Are libraries akin to Roman numerals.

Frey's tip of the day was reference to the animated media logo for DaVinci--he paid $5.00 for the short media marketing clip to someone who posted their willingness to do the work for the amount on fiverr.com. Fiverr is a service worth monitoring for similar needs in our library as we continue to move toward our strategic initiatives with limited budgets for marketing and communication.

Data Mining 101: Introduction to Data Mining Techniques, Tasks, Issues and Challenges
Presenter: Katherine Schilling - IUPUI SLIS Faculty

Note: This presentation is timely and relevant given our present focus on strategic planning and assessment.

Data Mining = Knowledge Discovery in Data

Librarians mine data to understand users and processes - we've done this for years, so we haven't missed the boat as a profession. Descriptive and Predictive are two types of data. Predictive is about using the data to make guesses about what might be whereas descriptive data talks about what is. Usage, content and structure mining are types of data mining.

Take advantage when designing your data collection. What questions are you trying to answer? This must be answered before you begin collecting data. Without knowing what questions you have to answer you may be collecting data without purpose or ability to use. The data and the questions define the tasks.

Open source programs exist but require A LOT of programming. There is a huge learning curve with any program for data processing, but the open source does require lots of programming as well. KNIME has been around for years. For purchase SPSS is numeric and has a text mining plug in. WordStat is text based, expensive, but so worth it.

Pointing Evaluation at Your Purpose: Designing a Library-Wide Evaluation Plan
Presenter: Rachel Applegate, Indiana University School of Library and Information Science

 I attended this session with an eye toward bringing back information for the Balanced Scorecard Team as well as my own unit and LTD. This session focused on getting perspective on what you're doing, getting to the why of doing what you're doing and ensuring that you're strategically collecting data about the how you're getting there.

Three methodologies were shared: DASHBOARD, Balanced Scorecard and the Mission Plan. Little emphasis was given in the one hour session for DASHBOARD and Balanced Scorecard. Dashboard provides a visual, updating view of how you're doing the things that change frequently. An example is available at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. A brief discussion of the Balanced Scorecard, which MPOW is using at present, was also given. The strength of the Balanced Scorecard is that it can reveal gaps and helps to balance initiatives against all facets of your strategic plan. The third methodology was most explored, and centers on the Mission Plan, the plan that pulls apart the different clauses in your mission statement which indicates what you do and how often evaluation occurs. Whether you approach the mission plan from the purpose or the evaluation end of the spectrum of activity, it is important that the purpose and evaluation meet to tell the whole story of how you are meeting the institution's mission.

The mission plan informs the types of data collection forms that will be needed, and those typically fall under the three facets of library: collection, services and facilities. Prior to determining the types of mechanisms for collecting data, it is imperative that one define the data that is needed to answer the questions. Some common methodologies include: Annual patron surveys, LibQual+ and circulation data.

Overall, it's important that one look to their mission and ensure it represents what you do. Once this is clear, the next step is to identify what data is gathered about those things, determine how best to measure the mission components and to determine when and how often one measures. It's possible (and likely) parts of the mission are orphaned, without data available or collected. Creativity can step in and help determine where to find the data to assess.

Keynote Day 2 – Gene Ambaum and Bill Barnes, Unshelved

Gene and Bill provided much needed levity and collegiality with interactive engagement and commiseration about our lives as librarians and how their art imitates life. If you’re not familiar with Unshelved take a few moments. I’m not a regular reader. Last week was particularly irreverent and eternally true in the depiction of gifts-in-kind: Begin at http://www.unshelved.com/2011-11-14 and use the “Next” navigation.