This session included three speakers presenting their studies on library services, resource and information literacy. This session was attended by around 60 participants. The session started with the presentation on using assessment to improve library services by Daphne Flangan followed by Gohar Stepanyan's presentation on use of library resources for research assignments by MBA students and in last speaker was Meggan whose presentation was on the snapshot of information literacy programs at AMICAL Institutions. Using assessment to improve library services: the American University of Sharjah library experience by Daphne Flangan Daphne started her presentation introducing American University of Sharjah and highlighting the importance of assessing library services. American University of Sharjah took four initiatives to assess library services which included placing a board for comments, compliments and complaints to receive feedback from the users about library. The second initiative was LibQual survey to measure library services. Third initiative was studying students: an ethnographic study which was based on the study of University of Rochester. The fourth initiative was to assess the services of Research Help Desk. These results found that students need many different types of learning spaces in library. Faculty wants access to more resources. Students prefer to communicate with librarian in person. The study also found higher satisfaction rate with Research Help Desk at American University of Sharjah. Few new services were started keeping in view the results of the study it included "weekend ask a librarian service". The use of library resources for research assignments in MBA programs: a case study by Gohar Stepanyan Gohar Stepanyan began her presentation by highlighting the importance of quality of information resources and their expensiveness. She also highlighted the importance of information literacy in the 21st century for students. Focus of her study was to assess the use of library resources by the MBA students of the American University of Armenia and the method she used was a survey questionnaire. The Sample size of the study included 105 MBA students at American University of Armenia. She presented the results of the study in figures and tables to show the satisfaction and usage of library services and resources by MBA students at American University of Armenia. The results of the study showed that the MBA students are least likely to contact librarians for seeking help on finding information. She highlighted that the students favor the internet over the library for initial search for information and the use library for only reading and study space. She suggested introducing compulsory library instructions for the students or integrating information literacy into the curriculum. On the threshold of a new era: a snapshot of information literacy at AMICAL institutional by Meggan Houlihan Meggan Houlihan's presentation was based on a survey done on AMICAL institutions to assess their information literacy programs. Her study highlighted that how many AMICAL institutions have Subject Librarians, Librarians having faculty status and instruction librarian in the job title of the librarians. Her study showed that different terms are being used for information literacy such as Library safari, Library Training Workshops, Training Sessions, Research Education and Digital Literacy etc. Library patrons and partners expect the support in form of instruction session, research support and resources from librarians. She highlighted that the skills and resources taught in instruction session by AMICAL institutions include citation management tools, academic integrity, Google scholar, subject specific search engines etc. Only half of the AMICAL institutions have separate instruction spaces in their libraries with facilities like whiteboards, clickers, AB tutor, blackboard, multimedia equipment and LCD screen.

Professor Spirovska posed the following questions: Have Liberal Arts institutions stepped up to deliver a values-based education relevant for the 21st century? Are educators prepared to deliver integrated, multi-disciplinary experiences that promote long-term sustainability across societies, organizations and the environment? As the Chair of a new Innovation Team, convened by her Dean, our speaker was charged with helping her institution move towards a common 1st year student experience focused on sustainability, and with identifying a relevant curriculum. She distributed green index cards and asked attendees to write down what came to mind when they heard the word "sustainability." Some of the responses were durability, long-term planning, gaining traction, surviving and thriving, ethical responses and global development. Professor Spirovska then shared part of the U.N.'s 1987 definition (from the report of the Brundtland Commission): "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This led to her discussing the questions "who defines the needs?" and "how can we know what will constitute the needs of future generations?" "What are real needs vs. perceived needs?" "How can we face the challenges and choices of reinventing education or taking it back to its roots…and what could constitute a "holistic education?" She urged the audience to consider our vision(s) of the 21st century student, and what we want for them. For example, it is not enough to teach students how to make money without teaching them how to spend it, making students aware that their spending choices are equivalent to their votes for sustainable systems. She then divided the audience into two groups to discuss and share what we do at our home institutions to promote and sustain the liberal arts & sciences, as well as environmental sustainability -- and also what we feel are the main challenges to our succeeding. Professor Spirovska also gave us several examples of her First-Year-Experience project for sustainability in a Liberal Arts curriculum, including an anecdote about using "A Fertile Crescent" as a teaching tool. She employs four modules in order to help students develop an expanded world view encompassing sustainability and enabling them to find their place in society as global citizens. Her four themes are: Self and meaning Culture and society 21st c. challenges, innovations, professions Future forecasting and leadership in environmental initiatives She concluded by emphasizing that we need to support students as they find their own purpose, passions, values… and to help them move beyond being consumers, or merely expecting to be "entertained." Professor Spirovska shared an important resource with the audience: http://www.aashe.org/ (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education). It was an inspiring and provocative session.

Workshop facilitated by Anne-Marie Deitering Oregon State University Libraries and Press Anne-Marie led the participants through the process of rethinking the way assignments are designed and delivered. The key point is to note that we are asking students to keep an open mind and sometimes to change and challenge their set of beliefs and opinions. The interaction couldn't have been more authentic as groups discussed internally examples of bad assignments and what are the underlying reasons that made them as such. Some examples given were asking students to check resources that are not available through the Library, or students finding irrelevant sources through the libraries. This shows that a Library is not a source sandbox. Anne-Marie stressed that such assignments are not better than nothing, they can be harmful. And this is something critical since it impacts the role of the Library by not being able to serve the students properly. To address this issue, there is a need to firmly articulate the learning goals, and to understand the students' needs. These needs will be used to achieve the defined goal. For example, students need to practice by doing real life tasks. Students need to know about how people use the data/sources that we are asking them to check, because the students' behavior should reflect how people act in a specific discipline. So needless to say, assignment instructions should be based on real life behaviors. In addition, while teaching and guiding students we need to start by something that they already know and then guide them beyond their comfort zone. Anne-Maries did a fantastic job facilitating this workshop and it was a learning lesson on workshop management :) (Segment by Hossein Hamam) In this part of the invited workshop, Anne Marie Dietering gave us ideas and inspiration for assisting students with creative topic generations. A key issue in research is understanding where questions come from, and how to encourage students to approach research from a perspective of genuine curiosity and creativity, not requirement. She pointed out that students usually choose a topic they are already familiar with, because they perceive it as too risky to choose an unknown topic, thereby missing the point that research is based on curiosity and risk. We began the session in small groups, discussing a random object that had been placed on each table. We were asked to come up with questions about the object. Then, she walked us through a three-item scale to help us identify our own curiosity sources. Epistemic curiosity is stimulated by ideas and components, such as puzzles and how things work. Perceptual curiosity is stimulated by the senses, such as touch, sound and smell. Interpersonal curiosity is stimulated by other people, such as wondering how they behave and what they feel or think. More information and an online test is available here. After examining our sources of curiosity, we revisited the random object and discussed our process of coming up with questions about it - how did our inherent style of curiosity affect our questions? Key takeaways from this exercise are that when stakes are low, curiosity can be higher; and, working in groups can give confidence to brainstorm other questions. We then discussed topic selection in research, and how library instruction tends to come in after the topic has been selected, when it should be considered as well. Choosing a topic requires openness, awareness and confidence. Students must understand that research both answers and generates questions. "Field research" in the sense of going out and talking or observing people can be used to generate research topic ideas. Another exercise to develop research topics is to take two topics and find connections. This interdisciplinary approach can result in new and interesting ideas. (Segment by Rebecca Miller) Photo credit: Dimana Doneva More photos available here.

Our speaker Mr. Simon Day has started his workshop by introducing, presenting, and defining WorldCat discovery interface. He has given a demonstration by highlighting the changes from 2008 to 2015: The transition from Cataloging to WorldShare Record Manger, and WorldShare Collection Manger; the transition from Resource Sharing to WorldShare Interlibrary loan; the transition of Collection Analysis to WorldShare Collection Evaluation; the transition of First Search WorldCat to WorldCat Discovery Services. By demonstrating the options; content; features of WorldCat: such as direct link to the local OPAC, MARC RECORD, CONTENTdm, quick start to build digital collections, etc. as a primary resource solution with real-time availability and item location, group views, course reserves, remote database searching. Further concluding his workshop by exploring some configuration options such as adding branding and databases.

This session included presentations from three vendors: DeGruyter, EBSCO, and EuroMonitor (Oxford University Press was not present). Anne O'Riordan presented an overview of DeGruyter and new activities. DeGruyter is a well known German publisher in social sciences, humanities, and sciences, and has been in business for 260 years. It has over 60,000 books in its catalog, and is adding roughly 1,800 titles every year. It offers 750 journals, most in English, of which nearly 400 are available openly and 375 are subscription. There are also 48 online databases available. DeGruyter offers electronic formats as well as print, with the benefits of pricing parity between formats and no ongoing platform fees. Textbooks are priced at a multiple of the print cost, but includes perpetual site licensing. Partner publishers include Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Princeton, and many more. Dragan Nikolic presented an overview of the EBSCO Discovery Service, to give people a taste of the session later in the day. EDS is the most popular discovery service as measured by ALA, with 5,612 subscribers in 2014, compared to 1,717 for OCLC WorldCat Local, 1,407 for ExLibris, and approximately 600 for Summon. EDS provides a robust relevance ranking algorithm, and makes metadata available to any discovery service. EDS integrates with link resolvers, ILS partners, and though an API with many other ILS. There are 100+ apps and plugins available for detailed customization. New to 2015 is the addition of over 340,000 videos from the Associated Press archives. Ranwah Abdulrazzaq and Andrea Fogliati from EuroMonitor presented Passport, a database offering detailed statistics and reports for business and socioeconomic indicators, across 27 industry clusters. Two case studies demonstrated how Passport can be used to answer market analysis and consumer analysis problems. The visual tool "Dashboard" displays data on a country level. Industry overview summaries and company summaries provide deeper analysis of the data. AMICAL has entered into an agreement with EuroMonitor to provide access to Passport at reduced rates; see the email announcement for more details. Photos by: Dimana Doneva

Report for Faculty experiences and expectations with technology: Findings of 2014 ECAR faculty study By Ekaterina Kombarova and Anguelina Popova. This group discussion focused on the ECAR Faculty IT survey that began in 2014 and attracted participation from 151 institutions in 13 different countries. Participating in the survey allows schools to benchmark their IT services and compare their faculty IT attitudes with those of other schools. The discussion centered on the experiences of AUCA and other schools that conduced the survey. The topics addressed included online learning, uses of mobile technology in the classroom and how faculty perceive the benefits of integrating technology into their teaching. It should be noted that the ECAR faculty study is a fairly standard instrument that is applied to different types of schools, consequently findings should be analyzed with caution and within context. Where findings across institutions are consistent, for example faculty attitudes towards e-books, it might prove beneficial and constructive for AMICAL schools to collaborate and address these more complex topics as a wider group Photo credit: Rayane Fayed

Articulate storyline: reshaping guides, tutorials and the way you present content. Workshop led by Rayane Fayed and Hossein Hamam. This session was a hands-on workshop and showed users how to use the commercial interactive tool "Storyline". Presented by The American University of Beirut, the workshop showed how easily one can import a standard PowerPoint presentation into Storyline and use the functionality of this software to create a story-type presentation allowing students to interact and engage with the material rather than passively watching a PowerPoint. The workshop participants were given the opportunity to follow a step-by-step process to create a set of interactive slides, learning about concepts such as time-line, layering and creating triggers to create actions in the story. Storyline integrates with standard LMSs.

At AMICAL 2014 we tried something new: An unconference. See for yourself! For AMICAL 2015, we're continuing the un-tradition with two unconference periods on the afternoons of Friday and Saturday, and we're pretty sure that your overwhelmingly active participation will guarantee their success. But what is an unconference? An unconference is based on three things: It is informal. Participants set the agenda. It is mainly focused on discussion and exchange of ideas and practices. Who can lead a session? Anyone! Those who submitted proposals that didn't make it into the conference program are welcome to propose their topic as an unconference session -- but so is everyone else! What do you need to know? Each session can be up to an hour long. If you already have an idea for a session, you can pitch it on Thursday. Usually, most session ideas come to people during the conference, while people talk to each other during a break, over lunch or on the bus to the hotel. Unconference sessions can be simple group discussions or hands-on workshops. You don't even need a slide deck. A session with just two people is fine. Great ideas can come out of small, informal discussions and people always appreciate learning something new. There is no critical mass for inspiration! When facilitating an unconference session, make sure you allow and encourage everyone to feel free to join in late or leave if they want to check out other sessions too. You can submit your session idea any time during the conference by putting your session poster on the unconference wall. You don't need to make a fancy poster, just a piece of paper with the session title, your name, email or Twitter handle. Unconferences are rapidly becoming important and valuable professional development events worldwide. The Edcamp Foundation, for example, is an organization that helps educators host Edcamp events all over the world, designed specifically for teachers and their needs. Check out this video to get an idea!

Unable to attend the AMICAL Conference this week? Join us online! Beginning with the AMICAL 2015 opening session Friday 29 May, you can watch selected parts of the conference, including the opening keynote as well as many of the presentations and lightning talks. Click below to see which sessions will be webcast, and (during the event) to view the live webcasts: Watch AMICAL 2015

AMICAL 2015 conference has started with the warmest salutation and welcome from the AUBG staff. Participants started to arrive at the beautiful campus, and they were ready to venture into the conference. The first meeting included the coordinating committee. Thereafter, the authentic Bulgarian lunch was served. At 13:30, it was the time for the council committee; future plans, grants, AMICAL collaborative environments, standing committees and other topics were actively discussed, leaving the attendees with vigorous thoughts and ideas to implement. The day ended with the group splitting for the individual standing committees meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to reiterate the goals of the committees and to set the action plan for the following year. The social event that followed was the best way to conclude the day. Photo by Gergana Atanasova