Blog

AMICAL member American University of Rome, together with the U.S. Embassy to Italy, will be hosting the 5th annual Biblionext Spring Event on Thursday April 19 2012, at the Hotel Aldrovandi in Rome. Speakers will include Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Erik Boekesteijn and Japp van de Geer , authors of the Shanachie Tour and This Week in Libraries, Matteo Bittanti, Professor in the Visual & Critical Studies programs at the California College of the Arts, Jeffrey Schnapp, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, Jannik Mulvad, librarian at Mediaspace, Aarhus, Denmark, Nicola Cavalli, researcher and senior member of the Osservatorio sui Nuovi Media (NuMediaBiOs) of Milano Bicocca University, Francesco Mazzetta, director of the Biblioteca comunale Fiorenzula d’Arda, Karen Hartman, U.S. State Department, and Ross Todd, Director, Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries, State University of New Jersey For more information: www.biblionext.it

Dimitris Tzouris (American College of Thessaloniki) has pulled together for us a ‘Storified’ collection of social media activity on the recent AMICAL Conference at American University of Sharjah - activity tagged with #AMICAL2012. Check it out at: http://storify.com/amicalnet/amical-2012

Essential information on the 2012 AMICAL Annual Meeting and Conference (4-7 April) can be found here: Official conference site at American University of SharjahConference programConference Sessions and Abstracts On AMICALconnect (accessible only to AMICAL members): 2012 AMICAL Conference event pageWorkshops Discussion groupsGeneral forum discussion on the 2012 AMICAL Conference

There’s a week left to vote in the OCLC EMEA Regional Council elections of delegates to sit on on the OCLC Global Council (the highest governance body in OCLC outside the OCLC Board of Trustees, to which the Global Council elects six of its members). The main contact at each OCLC member library should have received the voting instructions this past month. If you’re curious about how OCLC governance works, this page sums it up nicely. There is only one contested position in this election, to represent Archives, Museums and other Cultural Heritage Institutions. You can see the candidates background and statements in this PDF. The last two listed there are the candidates concerned: Annette le Roux, University of South Africa (UNISA), South AfricaBert Looper, Tresoar, Netherlands Special Note:AMICAL’s own Cendrella Habre (Director, Riyad Nassar Library, Lebanese American University) is running uncontested for the position representing Middle East/India!

A PILOT PROJECT OPEN ONLY TO AMICAL MEMBERS: AMICALconnectA social network connecting AMICAL members AMICAL’s annual conferences are exceptional opportunities for sharing ideas with librarians, technologists and faculty at other AMICAL institutions, but one of our challenges has been to further develop those great ideas throughout the year. After much talk about creating a platform to facilitate online communications and collaboration between AMICAL members, we are pleased to announce that such a platform is now available. AMICALconnect is an online space, open to AMICAL members (Full, Affiliate, Consortial Partner Institutions and Individuals), that is designed to help individuals at AMICAL institutions connect, communicate and collaborate with each other, individually and as groups. We will be using it initially as a communiciations platform for discussions that develop before and during the AMICAL Conference, but any member can create a new group or discussion at any time on any kind of topic related to AMICALor its mission. Inorder to create an environment where members feel as free as possible in their discussions, AMICALconnect is visible only to AMICAL members. Get started!To create your AMICALconnect account, sign up here (to be approved, you must be an AMICAL member and use your institutional email address). Sign-up is easy - only 2 questions on the sign-up form are required, and you can complete your profile later if you wish. (Please do add a photo and your profile details as quickly as possible, though, since this enriches the social network function of the site.) Since approval is done manually, you may have to wait a few hours before receiving your confirmation email. What can you do with AMICALconnect?Among other things, once you’ve created your account, you can use AMICALconnect to: Suggest/Vote on ideasAsk/Contribute/Find answersJoin or Create a groupStart a forum discussionSearch for other members by job title, institution, etc.See/add photos from AMICAL events You can choose to follow nearly any type of site activity (groups, discussions, comment streams on any page), using your AMICALconnect email settings to control the type of activity you follow and how often you get notified. Guidelines for the use of the site, still under development, are being posted in answers. What other kinds of information can you find on AMICALconnect?To simplify access to AMICAL member services requiring login, we are also testing the relocation of members-only content from AMICALnet.org to AMICALconnect. E-resource pricing information, for example, is being copied to the Licensed Resources section on AMICALconnect. Anything about this site may be changed over time, including the names and organization of groups and discussions. Your feedback on the site is warmly encouraged (as an idea, a reply to the feedback discussion, or by message to the administrators), and you may notice frequent changes to the site during this pilot period as features are tested, feedback incorporated, and improvements made. Please join us on AMICALconnect, make active use of this resource, and help us build on the conversations that generate so much excitement at our face-to-face events!The AMICALconnect Site Administrators Jeff Gima (AMICAL / American University of Paris)Dimitris Tzouris (American College of Thessaloniki)Josiah Drewry (American University in Cairo)

An article by a team (A. Click, M. Stöpel, M. T. Alam, S. Kreidieh, D. Flanagan, N. F. Foster, K. Ray) of librarians at 4 AMICAL institutions, with University of Rochester Libraries anthropologist Nancy Foster, recently published in International Journal of Library Science [subscription required]: Abstract Librarians often feel that we understand the needs of our undergraduate users. Isn’t it possible, however, that we make incorrect assumptions based on our perception of these learners? In 2009, representatives from four American style universities, the American University in Cairo, the American University of Sharjah, the Lebanese-American University, and the American University of Paris, conducted an ethnographic study on their respective campuses. These librarians undertook the project in order to learn more about how students use library and campus spaces for learning, and how they conduct academic research. For the mapping study, students marked a campus map as they moved throughout a typical class day, and then explained their movements in an interview with a librarian. In the photograph study, students responded to a series of prompts by taking a series of photographs and then described the significance of each in a follow-up interview. Librarians assessed the data and identified assumptions, surprises, and overall themes. Each library then developed action plans to address the needs of the users, and to make necessary changes. The study demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographic research in developing library policies and services. It also identified the differences and commonalities between individual students, and the specific cultures in which they are situated, both academically and socially.

The schedule of presentations and events for the upcoming AMICAL Conference can now be viewed in a provisional version of the full conference program. For a detailed view of presentations, including abstracts, you can also see AMICAL 2012 Conference Sessions and Abstracts. For other information about the conference, see the conference site.

The American University of Sharjah has launched the conference site for the Ninth Annual AMICAL Meeting and Conference. AMICAL members and invited guests may now register. Information about registration, who should attend, and available support for attendance, can be found on the site. Program information will be posted shortly.

FOR AMICAL MEMBERS - a reminder that proposals are due 31 January 2012 - see guidelines below: Call for proposals AMICAL’s annual conference is the one opportunity each year for you to meet with colleagues from the other American international universities, learn from them, share your own work, and hear from some of the best thinkers in library and information services. This year’s conference bears the theme: “The value of library and information services - Sharing data and assessing impact,” and helping frame our discussions around that theme will be our invited keynote speakers: Lisa Hinchliffe - Coordinator for Information Literacy Services and Instruction, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and past President, Association of College and Research Libraries Malcolm Brown - Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, and former Director of Academic Computing at Dartmouth College The program will bring focus to other topics of particular interest to AMICAL members as well, including a full-day workshop on institutional repositories with Abby Clobridge (Clobridge Consulting). The draft program, which will evolve according to your input and the proposals received, shows the general shape we’re expecting the conference to take. The success of an AMICAL conference depends on your participation, and we welcome proposals from all AMICAL members forpresentations to be included. Presentation proposals If you have an idea for a presentation related to the conference theme, or on a topic that would be of likely interest to AMICAL members, please send the following to Jeff Gima (jgima@aup.edu) no later than 31 January 2012: your name, job title, institution, email and telephone number a presentation title a one-paragraph abstract of the presentation your preferred format for the presentation (see below for presentation formats) Presentation formats accepted for this year’s conference: Lightning talks (10 minutes): short, focused presentations structured around 20 slides, each shown for 30 seconds Presentations (20 minutes) Panel presentations (1 hour max): short presentations and/or discussion by several participants centered on a common theme Workshops (1 to 2 hours max): hands on, participatory session focused on helping participants build practical skills on a given topic Technology showcase - demonstrate or present an interesting technology-based project you’ve implemented at your institution, related to libraries, information services, teaching, learning, etc. Some of the possible topics that have been suggested so far include: Measuring and demonstrating value - successful methods at AMICAL institutions Designing Effective Learning Spaces Effective blended learning environments Assessing the use of campus information systems (Library, Registration, Course Management, Portals) Benchmarking options for libraries, IT services, and institutions Evidence-based practice in libraries and learning technologies Assessment of specific programs (information literacy, digital collections and repositories, collections and collection management, etc.) Usability of online information services Assessment of/with OCLC tools (e.g. Resource Sharing, Collection Analysis, etc.) Discovery tools: How well do they respond to libraries’ and users’ needs? However, any topic of clear interest to AMICAL members is potentially acceptable. Travel support for attendance will be available for those whose presentation proposals have been accepted by the Program Committee, but this will depend in part upon receiving your proposal by 31 January. Further information about travel support for AMICAL members generally is available on the conference website.Note that we are also looking for suggestions for Interest group (roundtable) discussion topics, and facilitators forthose topics — especially if you have a particular interest and/or expertise in the area. Please send this and any other feedback on the conference program to us as early as possible.

The next AMICAL Annual Meeting and Conference will be held 4-7 April 2012 at the American University of Sharjah. The working theme of the conference is “The value of library and information services - Sharing data and assessing impact.” Initial program details and a call for presentations will go out to AMICAL members in December.