Library 2.018: Social Crisis Management in a 21st Century World

Today we were privileged to present alongside our wonderful students at the Library 2.018: Social Crisis Management in a 21st Century World online conference. This is just one of the many conferences hosted by Library 2.0 and its global network of educators and librarians. Each year the LRC staff members participate as presenters in a minimum of one Library 2.0 conference per year. We also regularly present and attend conferences nationally and internationally, online and in person, because we believe in the value of sharing ideas and learning together as a collaborative global community.

This particular session however is definitely one of the most exciting ones we have every done. This session was presented not only by LRC Staff members, but by a selection of our students, who work every day to make a difference in their community and other communities around the country. 

There is little akin to the satisfaction gained in observing your students share their innovation  projects and discuss the personal and social importance of the initiatives they are passionate about. 

At 2:20 Wednesday afternoon we all piled into the recording studio and began rotating through all of our presenters young and not so young.  

 The session lasted just under 30 minutes and  is now available online if you would like to listen in as the kids share the ways in which  they are making a difference locally,  with an actual global audience of educators and interested parties.

This is the link to the recording in case you get a chance.

(Apologies in advance to native Spanish speakers for my special Spanish introduction. I promise that once you get into the main presentation you will be glad you did.)

 I can't say enough about how proud we are of our students, their projects, their passion for positive change and the way the handled themselves today.

Continued Community Outreach

Over the years, it has become commonplace to see hosted groups of administrators, teachers and librarians as well as students of these disciplines touring the LRC. Using technology, we have been able to further expand these tours and engage in discussions and shared practices as far away as Malaysia and up and down the Americas. These are always meaningful, reciprocal learning experiences for everyone involved. We look forward to them and always come away with that greater sense of community and the satisfaction that accompanies the sharing of ideas and practices with like minded educators.

The LRC staff members were recently invited to participate in a video conference with students at the University of Costa Rica enrolled in the BI-5017 Marketing of Services and Products for Educational Information course along with their professor Daniela Rodríguez. The purpose of this virtual meetup was to address questions the students had on the specific challenges faced by libraries in different countries. 

On September 13th, we hosted the class of student librarians via Google Hangouts. During this time we examined the challenges facing libraries, talked about marketing strategies and gave them a tour of the LRC facilities.

We ran this virtual session via Google Hangouts as it allowed us to go mobile on our various cell phones and a laptop. This technique worked really well as we were all able to not only converse with the group but also tour them around the facilities and in doing so pop in and out of the conversation as it developed. 

We spent an hour and a half with this class, during this time we also shared ideas for the development of learning resources centres, special projects, and purchasing ideas for equipment and resource. We shared the way we organised our print library as well as the virtual library and its functions and finished up with a complete tour of the facilities. The beauty of this type of meetup is natural flow of conversation punctuated by concrete examples and poignant Q and A.

The professor in charge wrote to us the following day to thank us for coming into her classroom the evening before and working with her students. We in turn were thankful for the opportunity to do so. There is so much scope for work like this. It costs next to nothing to beam a group in via the internet and collaborate. We do it with our students in lessons, why shouldn't we collaborate through web conferences with professionals at other institutions as well. All it takes is a few people who are not afraid of taking a risk and are willing to use the technology most of us carry around with us on a daily basis.

Possibly the most powerful aspects of videoconferencing between institutions and countries are the conversations that result and the links that are forged. Through this activity we were not only able share our spaces, but to discuss matter of concern for libraries and librarians everywhere. We would be thrilled to hold more of these virtual meetups in future. We'll keep the updates coming.

Jen and the Librarians

Library 2017 Makerspace Conference

The LRC will be presenting a session on STEAM in the LRC, today at the 2017 Makerspace conference. 

This is the link to register, as well as access the schedule of powerful PD sessions for the event.

Do consider joining us to learn how we make the most of free and low cost,  accessible resources in mobile maker spaces, in lessons in clubs as well as outside of lessons. 

The session will be in Spanish and recordings will be available shortly after.