“Metrics of Success in Theological Libraries” (David Stewart and Pat Graham)

This was (imho) the best session I attended, prompting us to think more specifically about how one would measure the success of a theological library. They promise to post their presentation to a blog they created for the purpose:

http://metricsositl.blogspot.com/

I hope they will be continue the conversation online.

David briefly mentioned that aligning the library with the educational mission of the school also aligns the expected outcomes of the library with the educational measures used by the school. This is a really profound insight. The measures we have traditionally used have very little to do with the educational mission of the school unless, one makes the assumption that a large collection, high gate-count, and high circulation can be used to measure the success of an educational effort. It’s hard to draw a causal relationship.

I mentioned to a couple of people at ATLA Annual Meeting in Chicago that the Library hosted a wiki that was used in by an Introduction to Theology course last Fall. The professor assigned the class the task of collaboratively creating a glosary of 100 theological terms that he had assigned. Later in the semester, he exported the content of the wiki to produce a small booklet that students used to study for a mid-term exam. It was an interesting use of a wiki in the classroom and was successful overall, though some of the students didn’t get the hang of formatting in the wiki.

I discovered an article entitled: “Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom” by S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder (Ferris, S., and H. Wilder. 2006. Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom. Innovate 2 (5). )

Synopis: S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder discuss the changes that are occurring in teaching and learning in a world where teachers and students are increasingly products of two different learning cultures. Adopting the linguistic theory of Walter J. Ong, they see teachers as part of a print paradigm of learning whereas they propose that students are increasingly part of a secondary-oral paradigm of learning. The growth of the secondary-oral paradigm, they argue, has been fueled by the expansion of technologies that allow for the communal cohesion of oral-based cultures on the one hand while also allowing for the preservation and convenient transmission of knowledge that characterizes print-based cultures on the other hand. In this context, Ferris and Wilder argue that wikis provide one possible tool to help bridge the gap between teachers and students. They contend that wikis draw upon the best aspects of print and secondary orality by offering a medium in which information is neither fixed in format (as it was in the print age) nor limited to locale (as it was before the print age) but still changeable to meet the needs of the community, freely accessible to remote parties, and easily archived for future use. After addressing some of the debates that have characterized the legitimacy of wikis as learning resources, Ferris and Wilder illustrate and discuss potential uses for wikis in educational settings, and they offer resources for teachers interested in using such technology in their work.

Innovate – Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom

I did my presentation at the ATLA Annual Meeting yesterday and promised I would post the PowerPoint presentation to the our DSpace respository. The address is:

http://hdl.handle.net/2144/165

I presented an environmental scan for the RDB, including looking at the impact in changes in scholarly communication, information technologies, information searching behavior, etc.

Eric Friede, from Yale Divinity School introduced a database of dissertations on “mission” beding developed at the Divinity Library. (http://resources.library.yale.edu/dissertations/) The scope has expanded to include Christianity in “non-Western” countries. The scope originally included only Ph.D. and Th.D. dissertations, but has been expanded to include other doctoral dissertations within the subject scope.

The ATLA annual meeting began with a wonderful reception on the 37th floor of a building in Chicago with a great view of the city. Great food and a wonderful jazz duo.

Today I have meetings and a presentation, so I won’t have much time to blog, but tomorrow I’ll try to make a few entries about sessions I attend.