When: Sunday, June 27, 2010 from 1:30-3:30 pm
Where: JW Marriott Hotel Washington DC in Capitol Ballroom E/F (14th St NW at E St NW)

Panelists include:

- Marshall Breeding will provide an “Overview of Discovery Systems.”
- Scott R. Anderson will share Millersville University Ganser Library’s experience with EBSCO’s Discovery Service.
- Dale Poulter will share Vanderbilt University’s experience with DiscoverLibrary (Primo Central).
- Ellen Safley will share the University of Texas at Dallas McDermott Library’s DISCOVER search (Innovative Interfaces Encore).

Our panelists will highlight the experiences of libraries that have implemented “next generation discovery tools” that provide access to library collections from a single search box. Panelists will focus their comments on user response and subsequent assessment of the local implementation. Discussion forum participants will be able to share their experiences with discovery tools and ask questions following the panelists. Notes will be posted following Annual on a publicly ALA Connect document at http://bit.ly/lssala10. A summary of the Midwinter 2010 discussion forum on the same topic can be read at http://connect.ala.org/node/92049.

Thursday, June 26

• Arrive at John Wayne Airport at Noon
• Dinner with LA friend

Friday, June 27

• OCLC Symposium: The Mashed-up Library, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
• Meet the MARtians Happy Hour (maybe), 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 28 

• Reference Services Section (RSS) Open House, 8 to 9 a.m.
• RSS Web Advisory Committee Meeting, 9 to 10:30 a.m. 
• Research to Understand Users: Issues and Approaches, 10:30 to Noon
• There's No Catalog Like No Catalog: The Ultimate Debate on the future of the Library Catalog, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• ACRL-IS Current Topics Discussion I: Using the Social Web to Promote and Enhance Information Literacy, 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 29

• Beyond Gaming Tournaments, 8 to 10 a.m.
• What is the Future of Face-to-Face Reference? Is Face-to-Face Reference Dying?, 10:30 to Noon
• 14th Annual New Reference Research Forum, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• RSS Executive Committee II, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• Book Cart Drill Team Championship, 4 to 5:30 p.m.
• Dinner with former coworker

Monday, June 30

• Reference Services to Teens, 8 to 10 a.m.
• Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin: The Future of Electronic Reference Publishing, a View from the Top, 10:30 to Noon
• RUSA President's Program: Quality Service in an Impersonal World, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
• PLA President's Program: Jamie Lee Curtis 5 to 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, July 1

• Auditorium Speaker Series featuring Khaled Hossein, 8 to 9 a.m.
• Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure

Wednesday, July 2 

• Disneyland/Disney's California Adventure

Thursday, July 3

• Fly out 9:45 a.m. and arrive in Columbus 7 p.m. 

Make sure to attend the 14th Annual New Reference Research Forum on Sunday, June 29 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. at Hilton Anaheim, Conference Room 8. The three peer-reviewed research projects that will be presented include: 

• The READ Scale (Reference Effort Assessment Data) Project: Qualitative Statistics for Meaningful Reference Assessment, A Report of the National Study – Bella Karr Gerlich & G. Lynn Berard
• Does Size Matter? Examining Trends in the Provision of Remote Reference Services in Academic and Public Libraries – Denise Agosto, Eileen Abels & Lorri Mon
• Problems, Processes and Judgments: User Expectations of Online Reference Service – Lynn Westbrook

Read more about the other Reference Services Section programs and discussion groups taking place at Annual on the RSS Events page. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. I'll do my best to answer them or direct you to the correct person.

Disclosure statement: Yes, this is a shameless plug for the Reference Services Section. I do it because I am a member of the RSS Web Advisory Committee and RSS Co-Web Manager. Spreading the word about our activities is an easy thing for me to do with this blog.

Scott Scheidlower from York College (CUNY) lead the discussion. Scott started by reminding us that the student, the institution's disability coordinator, and the instructor/librarian are all responsible for student success.  We must accommodate special requests if possible, except if they are prohibitively expensive. The student's disability must be documented with the institution for the accommodation to be required.

Invisible disabilities are not seen by casual observation. Invisible disabilities can include deafness, dyslexia, color blindness, depression, and mental illness. It is okay for us to ask how to help someone. It is not okay to ask what the disability is specifically.

Scott is a firm believer that we should understand and effectively use Gardner's multiple intelligences to increase student learning. Scott had created 10 scenarios and assigned each table to discuss two. I jotted down notes as each table reported their ideas.

These ideas can be used to improve your teaching technique and handouts for students with/without disabilities:

• speak clearly and depending on the room louder than normal
• face your students when speaking (speechreading aka lip reading)
• make sure you are illuminated in a dark room
• gesture with your hand or with a laser pointer instead of saying "click the search button"
• number handouts instead of relying on color to distinguish the
• use shading or patters on charts and graphs instead of colors
• label colors with numbers
• consistently use the same shape to represent a color (e.g. triangles are red, squares are blue)
• ask a student to take notes and make them available to the entire class
• ask a student to navigate the computer allowing you the ability to maintain eye contact and gesture freely
• accept alternative assignments if possible
• determine if your disability services office provides a scribe service

These ideas can be used to improve the computers in your libraries and your library's web sites:

• install a text to speech screen reader on computers
• install voice recognition software on at least one machine
• use alt text in html pages to be very descriptive of the image being displayed
• don't use frames and limit the use of tables to layout pages

One participant suggested that we find out if our institution was a member of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. She had positive experiences working with "RFB&D" to obtain materials for students.

Scott recommended that we read the following references for more information.

Fabio, D. (1994-2007). Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences. In Encyclopedia of educational technology. Retrieved December 3, 2007, from <http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/multiintell/index.htm>

Hernon, P., & Calvert, P. (Eds.). (2006). Improving the quality of library services for students with disabilities. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited.

Hurst, A. (1996). Reflecting on researching disability and higher education. In L. Barton (Ed.), Disability and society: Emerging issues and insights (pp. 123-46). Longman sociology series. London: Longman.

Konur, O. (2006, July). Teaching disabled students in Higher Education. Teaching in Higher Education, 11(3), 351-363. Retrieved January 3, 2007. doi:10.1080/13562510600680871

U.S. Department of Justice. (n.d.). ADA home page. Retrieved November 27, 2007, from <http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm>

[tags]ALAMW08, Midwinter08[/tags] 

CODES/RSS Dual Assignments Discussion Group: Training Collection Development Librarians
Saturday, January 12 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
"focusing on in-house training for collection development librarians, either new to the profession, new to the institution, or new to the discipline. This discussion on practices and procedures will be both informative and lively as participants talk about how they teach colleagues to successfully handle this complex range of responsibilities."

Bustin' Loose:  Discussion Group Session on Providing Reference Service Away from the Reference Desk
Sunday, January 13 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
"providing reference service away from the reference desk. This includes roving reference, reference service in other campus buildings, kiosks in malls, and virtual reference done away from the reference desk."

Catalog Use Committee Discussion:  Real World Ideas for You and Your Catalog
Sunday, January 13 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
"discussion topics will include: 1. Should you have to teach the catalog? If so, what are different words to use when teaching the catalog to different groups? 2. Pushing the catalog out to users using RSS feeds, PDA’s, LibX, WorldCat, and Google. 3. Tech services and front-line reference, talking to each other 4. Assessment and Usability, information seeking behavior in different age groups 5. Web 2.0 and the Catalog, Amazon, LibraryThing, etc. as discovery tools and other web 2.0 enhancements." Facebook event invitation

Marketing and Public Relations Committee Discussion:  As the Definition of Reference Changes–How Do We Market It?
Sunday, January 13 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
"implications of marketing reference services, as the definition of reference changes."

Reference Services in Public Libraries Discussion Group
Sunday, January 13 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
"discussion on continued relevance in reference: strengthening and improving our services to the community. This is an opportunity to participate with your colleagues in an informal exchange of information and ideas about issues of mutual interest relating to reference services in public libraries of all sizes."

Performance Issues of Reference & Information Librarians Discussion Group
Monday, January 8:00 – 10:00 a.m.
"discussion of common challenges relating to performance issues in reference services."

Disclosure statement: I currently serve on the Reference Services Section's Web Advisory Committee.