Every two years, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee releases an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic libraries.  The 2015 environmental scan provides a broad review of the current higher education landscape, with special focus on the state of academic and research libraries. The document builds on earlier ACRL reports, including the Top Trends in Academic Libraries. The 2015 environmental scan is freely available on the ACRL website (PDF).

The ASCCC just completed our Spring Plenary Session---April 9-11, at the SFO Westin.

As usual, a wide variety of breakouts and presentations were given, including (but not limited) to the topics of statewide initiatives (OER, OEI, EPI, and CAI), student equity plans, SSSP, legislation affecting CCCs, accreditation, the CTE Task Force, AB 86 adult education and noncredit, and professional development.

In addition, we held elections for many of the positions on the Executive Committee.

On a personal note---after 13 years serving on the Executive Committee, I decided not to run for re-election.  But this doesn't mean that I am leaving the ASCCC--they can't get rid of me!  I intend to stay active with the ASCCC to provide it with the input and perspective of this librarian.

Conference Highlights for Community College Librarians:   ACRL 2015 hosted over 3,000 attendees and community college librarians found each other there in both informal and formal information sessions. Here are a few highlights and links for those who couldn’t attend.

http://www.cclccc.org/documents/2015/Bowman-CJCACRL2015.pdf

Prepared by Elizabeth Bowman, Library Director, Santa Barbara City College

ACRL Conference Schedule is posted and many/not all of the programs have attached links to PPT or PDF materials from the presentations.  The Program Schedule can be found at:

http://s4.goeshow.com/acrl/national/2015/conference_schedule.cfm
ACRL Poster Session Schedule is posted and many/not all of the sessions have attached links to PPT or PDF or Word docs. The Poster Sessions can be found at:

http://s4.goeshow.com/acrl/national/2015/conference_program_sessions.cfm

Prepping for retirement after almost 25 years at Allan Hancock College (19 fulltime) is a chance to reminisce, especially as I clean my office. Much has changed. Remember teaching how to use Readers Guide to Periodic Literature? How about Dialog and other “pre-browser” search tools (we couldn’t retrace our search steps!)? I remember returning from a conference and introducing Google to staff and students. No one had heard of it!  Yes, a lot has changed. But, as NPR reported last December, so much has stayed the same: “Before The Internet, Librarians Would ‘Answer Everything’ – And Still Do.” [listen to the broadcast at http://goo.gl/XMSa42 ]  The skills we teach may be different but how many of the underlying concepts have changed?

I’ve worked (and played) with amazing colleagues and leaders like Lil Clary and Nancy Meddings. I’ve watched students beat incredible odds. The stories they tell – often at the reference desk.  If you haven’t visited Hancock College, you should. It’s been a unique, vital part of northern Santa Barbara County for 95 years. So, with excitement, trepidation and a moderately-heavy heart I’m off to read books, hike trails, chase birds, and travel with my husband, a re-entry student I met at the reference desk 19 years ago. Take care of yourselves…

Note how sad they are to be leaving these roles   ;-)

Sarah Raley joined the CCL - CCLeague Consortium in 2004.  She graduated from San Jose State University and received a Master in Library & Information Science.  Prior to joining the consortium she worked for a library vendor, as a college librarian and an educational technology trainer. During her time with the consortium the number of vendors has grown to include 42 vendors and libraries from California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Texas participate in the offers. During her time with the consortium, the Chancellor’s Office partnered with the Council of Chief Librarians to provide the California community college libraries a statewide purchase of a suite of databases. In retirement Sarah has plans for travel, time with her grandchildren, and many more books to read.

Jim Matthews is retiring from the CCL Board (not from Chabot College.

He joined the  CCL Board as the San Francisco/East Bay Representative in July 2004. He was also appointed the North Vice President and served in those 2 positions for 2 years. Jim was elected to be President of CCL  in  July 2006 and served as President until June 2011. He then served as immediate past president from July 2011-2013. Finally, the board appointed him as a At-Large Board Member where he has served in that position from July 2013 until April 2015. He also served as board treasurer for one year, 2014-15.

In Jim’s own words:

The biggest board highlight was the conversion to a nonprofit organization in 2012 that gave us so much more flexibility in serving our library community. However the biggest achievement while I was President was getting the State funding to replace our lost TTIP money and getting the Statewide databases instead.  That process took years to complete!

There are so many things that the board did in those years but some of them would include fighting to keep the Annual Data Survey and revising it twice; dealing with Student Learning Outcomes; and providing workshops on a range of topics from new technologies to library space to accreditation standards.

I enjoyed working with all of the board members that served and learned so much from all of them. They are a hard working group and helped the California Community College Libraries' serve our students  through some very hard  but exciting times.

CCL 2015 Spring Meeting/Workshop For Library and Learning Resources Deans, Directors, Department Chairs, Coordinators, and notable CCC Librarians

Presentation Materials from the April 9-10 Spring Meeting can be viewed at:

http://cclccc.org/documents/2015/deans-directors/deans-directors-2015.docx

Regional Meetings were photographed by Darryl Swarm:

I am retiring from Coastline on May 1, 2016.  I should mention that our Academic Senate voted unanimously to prioritize the hiring of a new librarian this semester so that the hiring process can begin right away.  The job announcement should go out sometime in June.  Watch for it!

I  love my job and greatly appreciate the people I work with, but I’ve decided I need more time for my grandchildren, mom, yard, dog, friends, genealogy, art, fitness, cooking, theater, and other stuff.  I’ll probably be available as a consultant or part-time librarian.  Until then, however, my main projects for the coming year are:  prepare to pass the reins to a new librarian; further efforts for OER textbook adoptions; and develop a coordinated effort for college librarians serving incarcerated students (IS).

Speaking of incarcerated students, I have created a Google Doc folder titled Incarcerated Student Library Service:  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4X14yR7wa4Lfl9CRTNVVElxUGJaeHB6VjNBb1MwRFZjOVdNMjJLZUQzR0hIVVgwR2ZSVEk&usp=sharing, Anyone with the link can read, write, or edit to the folder.  Let’s use this space to share articles, ideas, URLs, etc.  I would like to convene IS serving librarians in the fall.  Perhaps such a meeting could take place before or after the regional workshops?  If your college is serving, or considering serving, IS, go to Google Docs and put your name and contact information in the spreadsheet set up for this purpose.

• The College of Marin Library will be receiving a Golden Bell Award for Outstanding Student Program from the Marin County School Board Association on May 21, 2015 for an outstanding job revitalizing library services, re-establishing the IVC Library, and joining the MARINet consortium.
• The Library hosted a new Friday Afternoon Author Series organized by the Emeritus Students of College of Marin (ESCOM) and Book Passage, a local and acclaimed book store. 3 outstanding local authors were featured and the events were well attended by community members, students, faculty, and staff.
• Librarian David Patterson is the new co-chair for the college’s Basic Skills Initiative Steering Committee (BSISC).
• The Library will be continuing the pilot Math Textbook Program launched in Fall 2014. Associated Students (ASCOM) provided funding for Intermediate Algebra textbook class sets and the Library provides support with purchasing, processing, and circulation. The College has started conversations on textbook affordability and how to involve faculty to address this pressing issue.

 [from Tech Edge newsletter]  Wednesday 22 April 2015 (click here for full article)

It has taken many, many months of work by the Common Course Management System (CCMS) Committee members, however, the time has finally come for colleges within our system to consider adopting a CCMS. The OEI will facilitate the use of and subsidize the cost of the Canvas course management system for colleges choosing to adopt it.

Seeing these words in print here causes me to tear up a little! We have thought about doing this since the early days of the California Virtual Campus and I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to get to this moment.

In the Academic Senate for CCC paper, Ensuring Appropriate Use of Technology in Education, the authors (of which I was one) highly recommended that the decision of whether to adopt a CCMS be heavily dependent on what the faculty want to use in their teaching. At the time we wrote the paper, we thought the depth of the tool we were teaching through should be the primary concern. This decision should still rely primarily on the faculty to make, but we also know that ease of use by both the teaching community and the students is a critical component.

Online teaching and learning is a challenge for both teachers and learners if the tool used to accomplish the learning is not intuitive, and it can potentially interfere with the educational process. As the Canvas folks say on their website, “It's not worth much if people don't use it.” Include your students in the conversation wherever it makes sense to do so. We chose Canvas both because we liked it and because our students did, too.

We’ve put together a resource site at tinyurl.com/OEIresource to assist colleges in the decision-making process. Please see this TechEDge article for more information.

Here is the URL for getting a free CANVAS account, should you want to play around in advance of any local decision re adoption of CANVAS.

https://canvas.instructure.com/login

This is my last report for CCL Outlook

Please return all renewals and new orders by May 8^th. We hope to have the orders placed with the vendors before I retire at the end of May.  If you have any questions about orders after May 29^th, please contact the League office at 916-444-8641.

CountryWatch Usage Data -- by CCC libraries.

CountryWatch Premium is provided by the Council of Chief Librarians and the Community College League of California.  CountryWatch Premium is made up of four distinct features, the Country Reviews, Country Wire, CountryWatch Data, and Map Gallery, each complementing the other to provide maximum depth and coverage.

During the term of Feb. 1, 2014, to Feb. 28, 2015, systemwide we had 24,741 site visits and over 106,400 views.

Some of the colleges utilizing the service most include Santa Monica City College, Fresno City College and Fullerton College.

The best part of this job has been working with the wonderful librarians in our community colleges. It has been a pleasure to work with all of you over the last eleven years with the consortium. Your dedication to your students is inspiring. Thank you for the support and friendship you have shown me.

This meeting focused on “emerging technologies, bleeding edge practitioners” and on sharing case studies of innovative libraries.

PDF  PPT and Doc presentation materials are available at:

http://computersinlibraries.infotoday.com/2015/Presentations.aspx

On April 30 and May 1, 2015 the CCL-EAR Committee met in Oakland, California for their Spring 2015 in-person meeting. April Cunningham from Palomar College joined us as a new member representing the San Diego region. Former CCL-EAR member Shelley Blackman from Evergreen Valley College also joined us as a guest on Friday and thoughtfully offered her help on several upcoming reviews. We would like to congratulate our consortium director, Sarah Raley on her upcoming retirement after many years of service. She sends a special thank you to Daniel Keily from Diablo Valley and Tamara Weintraub from Palomar College for contributing six productive years of generous service to the CCL EAR committee. They have participated in the fun and games of evaluating offerings and answering questions posed to the committee by CCC librarians. CCL thanks them for their commitment to the Consortium and for their hard work. In the transition, we welcome Ann Buchalter of Laney College representing San Francisco/East Bay, and April Cunningham of Palomar College representing the San Diego region. Nancy Golz of Merced College will also be an important part of our team while our East Central representative is sabbatical.

During our most recent meeting, the group spent considerable time on the e-book deselection project, going over contested titles one-by-one to generate the final list of titles for weeding. The process centered on the original deselection criteria and also involved examining e-book content on individual titles as needed. The group identified 143 titles to remain in the collection.

Part of the meeting also entailed a workshop where teams gathered information on several prospective products and reported back to the group for consideration. Our ambitious members will be working hard on a number of upcoming projects and reviews/previews. One team will start a preview comparison of Mango Languages and EBSCO Rosetta. Another group will look at Swank Digital Campus. A third group will start looking at discovery products and will be sending out a survey to help determine which products will be included in a comparison study.

Reviews for Salem Press, Oxford Art Online and Oxford Music Online are now posted on the CCL-EAR website (https://cclibrarians.org/consortium/reviews). Reviews currently in progress include LexisNexis Academic and OED Online. The OED Online review is essentially completed and will appear on the CCL-EAR website soon, while the LexisNexis review will likely be completed sometime mid-summer 2015. Reviews by the committee are available at https://cclibrarians.org/consortium/reviews and we would love to have you take a look at them. Many of our recent reviews feature an interactive component where you can post comments, feedback, and share your experiences with the database. Also, please send suggestions for any electronic databases you would like the CCL-EAR Committee to consider to Darryl Swarm (dswarm@frc.edu) or to your regional representative (CCL-EAR Committee Roster) https://cclibrarians.org/committees/electronic-access-and-resources-committee#members. If you would like to attend any of our virtual or in-person meetings as a guest, please contact me, Darryl Swarm (dswarm@frc.edu), and I will forward you the details.

With mixed feelings we are about to bid farewell to our systems librarian, Pam Wilkes, who is retiring after ten years at the Foothill College Library. With her expertise in library technology, she brought the library into the 21^st century, was unfailing in her dedication to improving resources and services for students, and became a valued member of the college community by serving in a variety of shared-governance venues. She soon made herself indispensable, hence the mixed feelings about her departure: sadness and a little trepidation about the future mixed with good wishes for Pam’s future. Her plans for the near term include some much-needed R&R and a trip to Italy.

De Anza College:

1) Foothill College is hiring a Systems and Technology Librarian
http://chc.tbe.taleo.net/chc06/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=FHDA&cws=1&rid=1205

Google and “Mobile-Friendly” and the California Community College Library Web Sites.   By Johanna Bowen, Outlook editor On April 9^th the Pew Research Center released the report “Teens, Social Media & Technology: Overview 2015.  This report detailed the extent to which mobile devices have become the primary tool for internet access. Nearly three-quarters of teens have or have access to a smartphone.  College library Web sites are highly likely to be used by smartphones when this dominant group of teens become college students.   On April 22 Facebook, the world's largest social network reported that almost three-quarters of its advertising revenue and most of its 1.44 billion users came from cellphones and other mobile devices in the first quarter of the year. On April 21 Google updated its search algorithm to boost the rankings of mobile-friendly pages – pages that are legible and usable on mobile devices.  This update only affects searches from mobile devices, creating an odd situation of differing results depending on the access tool – desktop/tablet or mobile device. Google then provided a test site for assessing the mobile readiness of Web pages/sites at: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly With an eye towards checking the baseline readiness of California Community College library web sites for mobile users, each CCC library website was opened from the cclccc.org directory web page at: http://cclccc.org/directory.php and the URL was then checked at the Google test site. Of the 113 libraries and the CCL and CCCCO websites only  27 libraries received the following instant response:             “Awesome! This page is mobile-friendly.” The response is accompanied by an image of the Web site as it would / does appear on a mobile device. The remaining 85 library Web sites received one of the following reports:

1. Page appears not mobile-friendly

Text too small to read Links too close together Mobile viewport not set Content wider than screen

1. Failed to fetch the requested URL
2. Requested URL is disallowed by robots.txt

  Here are the library Web pages which were mobile-friendly on April 21 2015  

  In the spirit of full disclosure, as the Web editor for the CCLCCC.ORG website, our own organization site is NOT yet mobile-friendly.    

Research shows that searching for answers on the Internet makes people more confident in their knowledge of unrelated topics

One of the earliest observations librarians came to in the late1990’s about students was that:

Students self-assessed their skills at a higher level than their actual abilities.  

The more things change, of course, the more they stay the same. The following article in the Wall Street Journal on April 3, 2015 details current research that proves the currency of the "self assess at levels higher than actual abilities."

How the Internet Makes You Think You Are Smart

http://goo.gl/6ioOfv

Our relationships  seem to extend seamlessly from our commitment to students on our campuses to our commitment to our professional colleagues state wide.  I want to thank the 99 colleges who have paid their CCL dues. Like Public Radio everyone benefits from CCL whether they pay or not but we have a devoted constituency who re-join on an annual basis without our resorting to any annoying membership campaign.

I do want to express my appreciation for those librarians willing to step up and work for our organization at the regional and statewide level. Unfortunately Tim Karas stepped away from his position as president of CCL after a stellar two years. We are thankful for his leadership over the past two years and his earlier participation as a representative.  As the past president I have become an interim president for the end of this year.

We are also saying thank you and good by to Sarah Raley who has served us so well for 11 years as our Consortium director.  And also a heartfelt good by and thank you to Jim Matthews who has been a regional rep, a president, and the member at large of our Board. We are also thanking and saying good by to two long term members of the EAR Committee Daniel Keily from Diablo Valley and Tamara Weintraub from Palomar College.

As we head into the summer, I am happy to report the Executive Board for the Council of Chief Librarians will continue to work diligently on activities for 2015-2016 and beyond.  At the Board's annual retreat in July we will finalize workshop planning for the next year, and secondly, identify the priorities and strategies for our libraries and our association by updating and sharing the goals of our strategic plan.

In conclusion, my favorite part of summer is the opportunity to spend some time reading. Like you, I have a stack of books prepared already. My short stack (of non-fiction) includes:

1. Student Involvement & Academic Outcomes: Implications for Diverse College Student Populations

2. Teaching Online: A Guide to Theory, Research, and Practice (Tech.edu: A Hopkins Series on Education and Technology)

3. BrainChains: Discover your brain, to unleash its full potential in a hyperconnected, multitasking world

Enjoy the Summer,

Kenley Neufeld

LibGuides Best Practices

Compiled by Christine Forisha, Lone Star College, Houston TX,

from a discussion on cjc-l@lists.ala.org

Names/Words

1. URLs are subject or class, depending on specificity
2. Use the same terminology across guides. For instance, “e-resources” versus “databases”
3. Do common keywords/tags based on terminology from classes
4. Our team decided: create a name authority page in our sandbox guide to ensure continuity

Color/Layout

1. All use same color – use a master color scheme
2. Some have templates so all guides look the same
3. Three main topic templates – courses, subject, special

Admin Rights

1. Most senior librarian has rights, OR
2. Most “tech savvy” librarian has most rights
3. All staff involved have same level of rights to ensure ability to edit after people move on
4. Depending on size of staff, have one or two librarians as admins who are main point people edit global stuff, review for standards; others are editors

Other

1. Create a LibGuide of common boxes/A-Z List that isn’t public; link to these when creating guides so you only have to update one place (We’re calling ours the sandbox)
2. Keep the clutter down. Not too many tabs, boxes, text
3. Set a designated time once or twice a semester where each librarian reviews their guides for content, make sure links are working, updated
4. Market this awesome tool! Work with faculty to develop guides so they have buy-in and tell their students
5. Book: Using LibGuides to Enhance Library Services
6. Link Guides from library home page
7. Training – especially for larger libraries/staffs
8. Springshare’s help is awesome, don’t hesitate to take advantage of tutorials, etc.
9. Our team decided: create a marketing box that can be put in the contact column on the first page, which we can use to advertise what’s happening in the library that week. For instance, we have bi-weekly TED talks, book club, Privacy Week, and other events throughout the year.

I love you guys!  99 colleges have paid their 2014-15 membership invoices as of April 30!  That’s a really great response – thanks to everyone who sent prompt payment authorization in to their business offices (and special high marks to those who kept on bugging their business offices)!

Has your college paid?  Check it out online at cclccc.org (click on the Directory tab).

Oh, oh! No star by your college’s name?  It's not too late!

• Check with your business office to see what’s up.
• No one can remember even seeing the invoice?  Contact me (gregg.atkins@wavecable.com) to get another copy sent to you by email.
• There’s a problem paying the invoice?  Please check in with me to discuss it.

Based on participant feedback from the March 11, 2015, webinar on the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, we’ve created a listserv to provide a convenient spot for exchanging ideas about the Framework. The new list will serve as an open forum for asking questions, posting professional development opportunities, and sharing examples of how you are using the Framework at your libraries.

To subscribe, visit

http://lists.ala.org/sympa/info/acrlframe.

Dan Haley is retiring from Pasadena City College after 27 years of service. He will be greatly missed!

Over the years, Dan coordinated Reference Services, Technical Services and Library Systems. He was involved with the selection and implementation of two major integrated library systems.  He served as a mentor to many librarians, classified staff and student assistants, who all benefitted from his strong commitment to their personal and professional growth. Dan is an exceptional instructor who taught innumerable information literacy sessions and developed and taught several credit courses for our Library Technician Certificate program. He has always been a strong faculty liaison, and played an integral part in campus technology and campus-wide shared governance. Committed to broadening his knowledge of his profession, Dan returned to graduate school and earned a Ph.D. in Information Studies from UCLA in 2010.

It has been a pleasure working with Dan over the years. When asked, Dan stated “he will miss working with our students the most”.  We and our students will miss him and congratulate him on a well-deserved retirement!

Are your patrons asking why the library’s local history materials are not available online?  Don’t know where to start?  If you’re in Southern California, consider enrolling in Pasadena City College’s Digitization Skills Certificate Program for Libraries and Cultural Heritage Institutions.    Our fourth cohort will begin on August 31.   This program is appropriate for both library technicians as well librarians who wish to acquire new skills.
The Pasadena City College Digitization Skills Certificate prepares students to work in digital repositories found in libraries, archives, museums and other cultural heritage organizations. We designed the Digitization Skills program as an Occupational Skills Certificate to allow students to complete it within a calendar year. In addition to coursework in project planning, digitization, metadata, copyright, preservation, and end user access to digital materials, students gain practical through a 60-hour internship in a local digitization project.  Students will gain practical experience using industry standards.

Over the last two years, 39 students have completed internships at several area organizations, including: Altadena Historical Society, LA  County Arboretum, CSUN, City of Pasadena Planning Department and Pasadena Public Library, City of Sierra Madre, County of Los Angeles - East LA Public Library, Glendale Public Library, Huntington Library, LA as Subject/USC Libraries, Moorpark Public Library, Pasadena City College, and Pasadena Museum of History.  We are working with Los Angeles Public Library, Caltech, U.S. Courts Library and Palos Verdes Public Library to develop additional internship sites for the students currently enrolled in the program.

More information on the program and course descriptions are available on the Digitization Skills Certificate Program Website: http://www.pasadena.edu/library/digitalskills/

Please feel free to contact the program coordinator or program instructor with questions or for additional information

Krista Goguen
Librarian/Library Certificate Programs Coordinator, Pasadena City College
kfgoguen@pasadena.edu or 626-585-7832

We are pleased announce that we have hired two new librarians for Fall 2015. Mario Macias is a University of Washington Graduate and has been working at CSUN working with outreach and First-Year-Experience programs. Lisa Valdez is a UCLA graduate and has worked at LACC instructing Library Science classes and as an outreach librarian at a LA City Public Library. We are very excited to have them join our team.
Through Equity funding, we have also been able to hire adjuncts to work on Outreach and Persistence. We welcome Esther Grassian and Laura McMahon to our team. They will be working on growing our Research Appointment program as well as First Year Experience.
For National Library Week, we had our first Pop-up Makerspace. Legos were set out and were a big success with students. We are collaborating with the engineering and architecture departments to grow this program, which has been funded through Equity funds. Students have asked for the Legos to return during finals week.
In addition to class orientation sessions, we presented a series of Workshops for students and staff: Using the Cloud as you research and study; Google…The Right Way!; Yikes: My Final Paper is Due; and Using   for College. A number of instructors offer extra credit for attending library workshops, so they tend to be well-attended.

At San Bernardino Valley College’s 20^th Annual Spotlighting Our Success Awards faculty librarian, Dr. Celia Huston received the award for Outstanding Professor of the Year for not only her tireless work with individual faculty and department chairs on the SLO processes, but also her dedication to the entire campus community. Dr.  Huston has a long history of commitment and outstanding service to the campus. She currently serves on District Assembly, College Council and the ASLO Co-Chair  and on Academic Senate. Previously she served as Co-Chair of the Program Review Committee. Some of these tasks have, at times, taken Dr. Huston out of the library. However, her spirit never fully leaves the library! As a faculty librarian she is still never too busy to serve an individual student with a research need!

Have you tried LibCal? We have been using LibCal from Springshare as booking software for two of our group study rooms.  This semester we increased our subscription ($700/year for 10 rooms) to include all study rooms and, in the last two weeks of the semester, our libraray classroom which becomes open to student groups as well as faculty. Any users use the same online reservation system.  We have the page open to the reservation system at a computer at our circulation desk so that users without a computer or device can book when they get to the library.  We didn’t announce or train anyone and users seem to find it easy and comfortable to use.  What booking system do you use?  How do you like it?  Communications are welcome to Elizabeth Bowman.

The beginning of the year brings many “top” lists for what to look for in 2015. So far there’s not much predicting what looks big for the academic library world. Here’s a shot at it.

By Steven Bell on February 18, 2015 in Library Journal

http://goo.gl/TEz0pd

WorldShare Management Services WMS West Coast Users Group  Gathering 2015  at Pepperdine –

slides available for download

http://infoguides.pepperdine.edu/wmswestcoast2015agenda