Professional development courses in information organisation

Photo: 399 Lonsdale Street, which houses the CSU Study Centre, Melbourne

Two short courses in the field of information organisation (known to older generations of librarians as cataloguing and classification) were conducted by Dr Philip Hider on 26th and 27th March at the CSU Study Centre in the Melbourne CBD. The two one-day courses, organised by the School, covered MARC cataloguing and Dewey Decimal Classification, and were attended by both CSU students and ‘private’ participants. The two courses were both ‘sold out’ well in advance, indicating the continuing demand for professional development opportunities in the ‘cat & class’ area. Participants hailed not only from in and around Melbourne, but also from regional Victoria and interstate – e.g. Sydney, Wollongong, Canberra, even Perth!

Philip was very much encouraged by the high level of interest and participation shown in the courses and plans to hold more in the future. He would like to thank Judy O’Connor, from our School, who did a great job with the administration, and also the staff at Study Group Australia, who run the CSU Study Centre and accommodated the courses.

St Patrick's Day at SIS

The craic was mighty at SIS for St Patrick's Day. There was cake, traditional music, at least one real live Irishman and even a splash of Irish whiskey in a few of the morning coffees.

Lyn Hay presents keynote and JH Lee Award at ASLANSW State Library Day

Photo: (from left to right) Anne Lockwood (2007 NSW Teacher Librarian of the Year), Westley Field (John H Lee Memorial Award), June Wall (ASLA NSW President), Jennifer Watts (John Hirst Award), Lyn Hay (School of Information Studies, Charles Sturt University)

Each year the Australian School Library Association (New South Wales) hosts a Professional Learning Day in the month of February at the NSW State Library. The State Library Day has a reputation for being a great way to kick off the academic year for school library professionals in NSW. This year was no exception with over 150 participants arriving at the State Library on Saturday February 23 to attend a variety of sessions addressing the theme 'Leading Learning ...into the Research'. Sessions explored practice informed by research on Web 2.0, graphic novels, podcasting, wikis and collaborative learning, YA Literature and the 'heart' of questioning. The title of Lyn's keynote was 'Moving beyond the rhectoric: What the research tells us about Web 2.0 & student learning'. Lyn encouraged those TLs and teachers currently integrating Web 2.0 technologies with their students to seriously consider building in an action research component into the design, planning and evaluation of these curriculum units to help build research evidence that clearly demonstrates how Web 2.0 supports student learning outcomes.

This event also hosts ASLANSW's annual professional award ceremony, and Lyn had the honour of representing the School of Information Studies in awarding the John H Lee Memorial Award to Westley Field, the Director of Online Learning at Methodist Ladies College (MLC) in Sydney, for his outstanding leadership in learning technologies, and in particular his innovative vision in establishing Skoolaborate.

The School of Information Studies at CSU has sponsored the John H Lee Memorial Award since its inception in 2003. John Lee was a professional colleague and friend of the Teacher Librarianship academic team at CSU, and in the 1990s he was a member of CSU's TL Courses Advisory Committee. John was a passionate advocate for teacher librarianship, an innovator in learning technologies and was very generous in sharing his insights with the teachers, TLs, principals and ICT coordinators alike. For more information about the ASLANSW awards ceremoney for 2008, see http://www.aslansw.org.au/awards/

School of Information Studies FM

Roy Sanders and Jake Wallis were broadcast live on 2AAAFM being interviewed by Jenny Knowles about how the School has evolved since its inception in 1974; from hand written essays to word processed assignments, from letters to e-mail and online foums, from on-campus students to distance education with students all over the world (from the Middle East to Malta!).

Missed it? Now problem, you can listen to or download the audio here and relive the moment!

The future of education and research in information

Dean Emeritus and Professor of the University of Washington Information School, Dr Mike Eisenberg offered some reflections on the workshop process and outcomes;

"The future of education and research for the information field is clearly in the form of 'ischools'. And, CSU is ready to make the major leap to becoming a full ischool with a rich and impressive array of teaching programs, meaningful scholarship, and outreach to the information field and to a range of applied professions. I was particularly intrigued by the possibilities of teaming up with health professions, agriculture, education, and sustainable environment. Lastly, it was fantastic to see the entire staff come together in full agreement that this was the right and desirable thing to do—to move aggressively to become an ischool."

Building Australia's national iSchool

Originally uploaded by CSU Information Studies.

A three day workshop at Charles Sturt University has produced a vision for a national iSchool. A cross-section of expertise from the information industry worked with staff from the School of Information Studies to define a shared vision of what information education in Australia might look like in 2020.

The iSchool model is being applied across many of the most prestigious universities in the United States, the world's most advanced post-industrial economy, and is appropriate given the Australian government's thinking on the nation's development as a digital economy.

Dean Emeritus and Professor of the University of Washington Information School Mike Eisenberg travelled round the world specifically to be involved in re-envisioning information education in Australia. Professor Eisenberg provided invaluable expertise in assisting the group to formulate this vision, having been through such transformative processes in the United States.

Additional expertise came from information and knowledge industry leaders from across Australia, including Nerida Hart (Land & Water Australia), Robert McEntyre (Robert McEntyre & Associates), Kay Harris (Vista Information Services and Solutions), Sally Dallas (Zenith Information Management Services), Suzette Boyd (Scotch College, Melbourne), Anne-Marie Schwirtlich (State Library of Victoria) and Dean Mason (Enakt Consulting).

The Library is an evolving organism

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Professor Joe Mika visits CSU

Professor Joe Mika, the Director of Wayne State University Library and Information Science Program recently visited the School of Information Studies at CSU as part of his research study on international LIS programs. His visit enabled a rewarding sharing of perspectives across LIS education in both Australia and the United States.

Professor Mika is pictured here with his wife Marianne Hartzell (who is the former Executive Director of the Michigan Library Association) and Dr Joy McGregor (centre) of the School of Information Studies.

Res school - what's it all about...?

With our on-campus residential school for undergraduate students kicking off shortly, you might be wondering what to expect from the three days. Well, here's Dr Bob Pymm to tell you more.....



We'd be interested to hear about your own expectations and experiences.....