Slaves to the mastery

Spend some time today with MSc Bionformatics students. They’re coming up to project time so I give them a refresher on literature searching and also introduce them to Endnote. Some resources are only available on campus which is a bit of a problem for this group, in which most students come from the Indian subcontinent and want to return home during the summer. They have some questions about multiple authors. Their tutor has asked them to look for an original research paper that they can bring to discuss at a Journal club.

After a long period of neglect, I decide to submit the coursework for module 2 of the PGCHET qualification. I’m les than motivated (set topic is curriculum design) but decide in the end to just put the thing to bed. If I get through this double module, modules 3 and 4 are more individual action research projects, which are potentially much more fun and relevant.

Ongoing rumbles and ramifications re budgets, product subscription renewals etc - lots of unexpected phone calls reminding me of things I need to do or think about

Bit of a chat with other CDG officers about how we can market the group more effectively. Looking forward to a trip down to Nottingham tonight for the East Midlands Division AGM, joint with EMBOC.

Won’t you walk into my parlour

Today I have been installed as a semi-permanent feature in one of our seminar rooms, there to lie in wait for MSc Computing students.They’ve had formal classes with me already; today is a mop-up, drop-in, clinic and general rescue mission. 4 turn up at 9 sharp, expecting formal presentations. They get informal one to one chat and various supporting documents. Some stay to do some litertaure searching and cut their teeth on Endnote; as the day goes on, more turn up and I get asked various questions. Some of them are doing very current topics such as Wii remote and we can’t find much. Others just need to play jigsaws with their keyword combinations. Referencing inevitably rears its head.

Light relief at lunchtime. The boss has returned from holiday and left a mysterious foodstuff in the tearoom. It looks like a giant pork pie. I know her better than this though and we dive in with a knife to discover yummy apple cinnamon cake.

It’s quiet in the seminar room - those students who do drop in are working hard. Feels like the calm before the dissertation storm though…

Live briefs

This afternoon was the first instalment of Abertay’s annual enhancement conference, which runs for the whole of tomorrow as well. It’s a chance to get folk together from across the University to share ideas, good practice, experiences, thoughts and new directions. A sprinkling of guest speakers helps us to find perspective and gain new insights. Our keynote speaker - though this suggests a more grandiose conference than ours - this is really quite homegrown, in a good way - is Prof Brent MacGregor (writing at home from memory, may not get name right!) from Edinburgh Art College. He speaks on ‘Employability: Homer, Marx and the Beatles’ and is both engaging and relevant. He also manages to reference both Marxes (Karl and Groucho) and both Homers (Iliad and Simpson) which I think is quite impressive; the Beatles only get a general mention and John and Paul a nod each - nothing for Ringo or George. (Though I’d love to hear what the drummer of the Fab Four, voice of Thomas the Tank Engine and regular at the Chelsea Flower Show had to say about employability!) He makes me giggle though by mentioning ‘live briefs’ (for the uninitiated that means students working with real world clients) in the same breath as a reference to Mantz Yorke, the highly respected academic. This won’t strike you as the least bit funny. But a guest slot from Mantz Yorke a year or two ago came at a hectic time, got forgotten about periodically and mutated into ‘Pants Yorke’ with no disrespect intended. Underpants just ARE funny, I don’t care how old you are.

Also attend a really interesting session in which one of our sports lecturers reports the results of some research that has been conducted into student attendance at Abertay. We learn that bad times for lectures are: mornings; afternoons; Wednesdays; Thursdays. Our one-man timetabling team (the series Baldrick didn’t make) takes it on the chin but points out that not everyone can have 11.30-1.30 on a Tuesday. Students have work commitments, family commitments, travel problems, and a certain amount of poor motivation - all of this we know - and they want absolutely everything tied in to assessment.

Final slot of the day, by which time a lot of folk have sloped off, sees my colleagues speaking on the links between Information Literacy and employability - they echo a lot of the keynote speech and worry that people will think they just wrote it in half an hour - evidently it’s just proof that great minds think alike! It’s a tough brief but they generate food for thought and receive some interesting questions afterwards.

A stimulating afternoon and always good to get out and talk to people - to be continued.

In the mode

I find myself constantly having to switch between modes. Today I go to two big meetings of different sections of the same Division. We’re negotiating the content of different modules for next year. I’m horribly confused as everybody has different ideas about what’s happening to a particular module which has always been the biggest piece of my information literacy jigsaw. Is it getting scrapped? Updated? Left alone? Feel like I’m at an auction, primed to bid at every possible opportunity. One meeting ends up with a free for all on library issues - seeing me there has reminded everyone that they haven’t answered my several consultations about trial resources, budgets, stock edits, etc etc.

Decide to have the evening off professional stuff - but have a Bible study to prepare for a housegroup tomorrow. Decide on a sort of existential theme: what are we doing at that group and what is it for anyway? Is this the SIG Presidency affecting my judgement? Put in seven Scripture readings so that no one will notice I don’t actually have a sound hypothesis - just more questions than answers!

“It’s all kicking off!”

Arrived home this evening with a million and one things going round my head. Spent some of the day dealing with train and air travel, always guaranteed to bring out my sunny side. Why does stuff have to be so complicated? Why does it take so long to get everywhere? Why don’t teleports exist? Then again can you imagine a CDG TARDIS - I could arrive at any event in history or have to advise someone about an ancient qualification…

Go to meet with a member of academic staff, planning to update her on our external review of information literacy. We want to get more inclusion at strategic level. Discover the whole programme for two major subject areas is being completely rewritteen - this sounds like a golden opportunity except that we already have substantial IL involvement in these programmes and now we may have to fight our corner all over again. What looked like a quiet week is now full of meetings, which I am warned may involve arguments.

Go home, put the washing on, feed the kittycats and then eke out an hour’s effort for CDG. I’m trying to write papers for our National Council, particularly a tricky one on financial sustainability. Want to tell it like it is but be positive and affirming at the same time.

But now it’s time to leave work aside and listen to the rumbly in my tumbly…

The 60 second blogger

<blogpost> I am giving myself exactly one minute to write today’s post (otherwise I’ll miss my train). Spent a lot of today working on a long-neglected assignment for the PGCHET course. Writing about information literacy and programme design - it’s dry but I amass 2500 words without trying very hard. Amazing what we know about our profession when we have to explain it to outsiders. </blogpost>

Old friends and new approaches

RSVPs to my Presidential Reception invites are trickling in. Today I hear back from several colleagues I’ve served with on the group over the years - it will be great to see them and catch up. There is a real sense of commonality, even dare I say it of family. The thing about committee work is that it can develop bonds of trust and a shared sense of achievement as you work together to make an event or a publication or project happen, while juggling the day job and everything else. These are the people who have endured the same travel troubles, dodgy hotel breakfasts, stressful moments along the way as well as memorable special events and the odd glass or three of wine.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the new academic year can already be spotted riding into town with every intent of bursting open the saloon doors and drinking the place dry. Module descriptors are being revisited - it’s time to think about how we increase the strategic visibility of our information literacy programme. Also thinking about how to streamline and improve our assessment procedures, making the most of online submission tools. But part of me is screaming inside “NO NO I can’t deal with this yet!” Always a weird time of year. The clocks may have changed but the mental and biorhythms are confused by the constantly shifting work focus and unpredictable weather.

I know weather is coming up a lot in this blog but let’s face it, this is Britain, it’s a national preoccupation!

 

 

Bloodstain spatters: the verdict

About to embark on a flurry of emails to first year forensic science students. They had four classes with librarians and several with IT trainers this semester, and have submitted a portfolio of 5 different assessments. The administration, scrutiny and marking experiences have been educational in themselves, but the submitted work is also fascinating.

The first library assessment is a structured literature search: the students choose a topic, list keywords and phrases, list resources searched and evaluate the effectiveness of their search. They also describe how they refined their search, and then list references for two of the items retrieved. Popular topics are forensic ballistics, blood spatter analysis, and fingreprints. I wince while reading the one on forensic odontology and bite mark analysis. At the top end, there’s some thoughtful reflection and analysis which is really pleasing. At the bottom end, the approach is minimalist and tells us what they think we want to hear about the evils of Wikipedia.

The second assessment is a 500 word evaluation/comparison of two websites. The students came up with their own list of evaluation criteria during the class, and recorded it on the class wiki. They’re supposed to refer to the agreed criteria in their assessments so it’s easy to spot who skipped the class! Referencing of websites foxes many of them. They are often preoccupied with design issues and fail to consider authority, currency and bias. I look up some of the sites myself but come over all queasy when there are pictures.