I see a number of articles about a recent study of Social Networking usage and grades (pdf) performed by a class at The Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). Other studies have found likewise, while at least one study has shown that Facebook use leads to lower grades. So what is the answer? I don’t know, but my guess is that it isn’t that significant. Students either try hard to get good grades or they don’t and using social media has nothing to do with that decision.
The UNH study does not go into much detail about how it was performed, so it is hard to draw many conclusions, but it is interesting that some of the results (no grade difference, types of majors more likely to use social media) conflict with the Ohio State study by Aryn Karpinski that found a grade difference in Facebook users. Maybe the school has more to do with thing than one would think? Maybe this is all just media hype?
Some takeaways from the UNH study:
96% of students used facebook. 84% used YouTube/ Only 12% used MySpace.
More students increased Social Media usage on weekends then decreased (I bet this is opposite for professionals)
26% of students used Social Media for Educational reasons and 16% for professional ones
I think academic libraries should look at that 26% number as a sign that they should be involved in these spaces. I don’t mean going out and friending all of the students at your college, but make resources available to students in faculty in these arenas.
For a new section of the Binghamton University Libraries Web site, I need to create a Web form that would e-mail attachments to a specific account. At first I thought this would be as easy as Googling “web form email attachments.” Apparently I was wrong. Most of he posts I found either talked about problems people had, or were just small snippets of code. Most of the actually code I found was rather outdated. I didn’t want snippets because I didn’t want to write my own script. I can, but I figured if I can get a more complete, tested, solution I’d be better off. I did see some scripts one could purchase, but I wasn’t interesting in paying for anything.
However, all was not lost, after lots of searching, I finally came across PHPMailer-FE, “a form-2-email application with very powerful capabilities.” PHPMailer-FE is licensed under the LGPL and was last updated on 2009-12-08. It took a little while to figure out how to configure it for my needs, and I still have a thing or two to clear up, but I’m happy with it so far. If you are looking for a php based Web to e-mail form, check it out.
I was recently (re-)reading Eszter Hargittai’s Conference Do and Don’ts. The piece was definitely geared to freshly minted (and soon to be minted) Ph.D’s and not to established academic librarians, but I still found it interesting. Since I organized my first conference earlier this year (local arrangements, not necessarily the program) and have been involved with other planning committees, what makes a successful conference has been on my mind.
Eszter points out that:
While an important part of going to conferences is to present your work and hear updates on other people’s research, it would be wrong to think that formal presentations are the only key component of professional meetings. In fact, at least as significant if not more are interactions that happen in between sessions and during social outings (e.g., receptions, group dinners).
I wholeheartedly agree. In Ezster’s case, I believe her blog post is more focused on creating connections for future academic job connections, but there are other reasons why an academic librarian needs to try to take advantage of social opportunities at conferences whenever possible. This is especially true if you are the only librarian (or one of a few) in your organization that does what you do. This is often the case with systems librarians but other type of librarians, especially in small to mid-sized institutions, are often in the same position. By meeting other librarians that do similar things at conferences, you can create a network that will help you get your job done.
Say, for instance, the Director of Libraries wants to implement a new institutional repository. If you have been to conferences and met other librarians who have worked with this, you have a ready-made list of (free) consultants. While you could send out an e-mail to a mailing list, you are much more likely to get the real-scoop from someone you have met before and have even a small relationship with than you are from someone that you have never met. These relationships can be very valuable. I remember once a number of years ago we heard about this great new product from a vendor. The demos were impressive, and the developer partner presentations made the product look like it was very promising. However, once I started talking to a colleague from a developer partner site off-site over a few drinks and dinner, I learned a lot more about the day-to-day dealings with this particular product. While the product may have been good for some libraries, it became clear that it would not have been a good fit for us. We decided to not invest a significant among of time and money into a solution that would have turned out to be a mistake for us, that there was a very good chance we otherwise would have. (BTW: I think looking back, everyone would agree that the product was not successful, so I am positive we made the right choice).
So what has this have to do with virtual conferences? Nothing, and everything. Yes, at virtual conference you have the opportunity to present your work and here other people talk about there projects and that is very valuable. However, you do not get to make the same sort of connections as you can in person. While attending a conference in the comforts of your own office, it is very easy to get distracted by e-mail, printer problems, people knocking on your door, etc. Thus it is harder, at least for me, to pay attention to sessions you do attend. Likewise, you don’t get to see the audience reactions and unless attending with other colleagues from your own library, you can’t instantaneously run new ideas and concepts learned off of others.
For this reason, I am not a fan of virtual conferences and do not see them as a viable replacement for in-person get together. Yes, virtual presentations have there place, and grouping them as a conference can make some sort of sense, but I think that the virtual is better suited for training, and shorter Webinars.
You may ask then, what about travel budgets? We can’t afford to fly librarians all over the world. Yes, this is a problem. But there are cheaper options. State library conferences, regional conferences such as those put on by the Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA)’s Regional User Groups are inexpensive options. Depending where you live, there may be many other local one or two day conferences. For example, I often see some nice conferences put on by New England ASIS&T and NERCOMP in the New England area. If there isn’t any in you area, unless you are in a very remote area, that is a sure sign that someone should step up to the plate and put one on like the folks in Portland Oregon are doing with Code4Lib Northwest. It doesn’t have to be a huge production with paid plenary speakers. An unconference for example can be put on with less organization (at least by the host). You just need a date, a room or two, and someone to feed the attendees (or at least supply them with coffee).
Besides my College Football Top Ten, I don’t talk much about sports on this blog, but I’ve been thinking recently about the Big 10(+1)’s plans to look into adding another team (or more). As a Rutgers University alumnus, this is particular interesting to ponder since they are one of the teams being mentioned. I may be biased, but I see them as the best fit. I do think, however that Missouri is a close second and Pittsburgh is a possibility as well.
According to Wikipedia, rumored teams include:
* University of Notre Dame
* University of Texas
* University of Connecticut
* Rutgers University
* Syracuse University
* University of Missouri
* University of Nebraska
* University of Pittsburgh
* University of Cincinnati
* West Virginia University
* Iowa State University
* University of Maryland
* University of Kentucky
* University of Louisville
Before we get into why I like these teams, lets talk about some of the other teams I’ve heard speculated by some informed or not so-informed people. The first thing people need to remember is that unlike many other major college conferences, the Big 10(+1) is not separable from the academics and missions of the University members. In fact, I believe the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (which is made up of the Big 10(+1) and University of Chicago) has veto power over any additions to the conference. This means, if you are not a member of Association of American Universities (or likely to become one), you are not going to make the cut. The following on Wikipedias list are not currently a member of AAU:
* University of Cincinnati
* University of Connecticut
* University of Louisville
* University of Notre Dame
* West Virginia University
A few of the above could probably get in if they wanted to, but the fact remains they haven’t tried to make that leap to be recognized by the AAU as a leading research-intensive university. Add to the fact that none of these (besides Notre Dame) adds a lot to the conference overall in terms of market or prestige, I will eliminate all of them besides Notre Dame from my short list on these grounds.
Notre Dame would be such a huge win on the athletic side, that the Big 10(+1) would take them in the heart beat and while they are a smaller school (11,300 students) by Big 10(+1) standards and are not an AAU school, they are excellent in what they do academically, so I am sure the CIC would not stand in the way. However, what does this alignment gain Notre Dame? Not much. They already have a conference for other sports. And not just any conference, the Big East, which is a (the?) top conference in many of them (especially basketball). Notre Dame with being able to stay independent and have their own TV contracts has nothing to fain from joining in. They really are a better fit academically with the Georgetown’s of the world anyway.
Moving on, University of Texas? Why would they leave the Big 12? They already have the highest or second highest sports revenue because of the way the Big 12 profit sharing works. Would the other public Texas schools let them even if they wanted to? How about the Texas legislative branch? Also, they aren’t a fit geographically. I have read that any new schools must be in a current member state or a contiguous state. While I’m sure rules can be broken, this doesn’t make sense.
Syracuse is an AAU school and brings a good football traditional and a great basketball one, so I can see why it is one of the most mentioned. However, it is a private school, not huge (12,491 FTE undergrads), and doesn’t bring a big media market. Athletically and academically it might be a nice fit, but I don’t see what it brings in monetarily compared to the other schools being talked about.
Iowa State seems to be mentioned by a lot of people. However, mostly on blogs by people from Iowa or adjoining states. Sure Iowa v. Iowa State in conference would make a nice rivalry, but don’t they already play every year? US News and World Report has them ranked 88 in national universities and is an AAU school. While 88th is a little on the low side, I think if the Big 10(+1) could show that Iowa State would add enough academically that the CIC wouldn’t put up a huge fuss. Still, what do they add? Not really any new markets since they already have Iowa. I don’t see it.
University of Maryland fits the bill academically (53rd in US News). They could land the DC market, so I can see some interest. However, I don’t see what leaving the ACC does for Maryland. They get to play the likes of North Carolina and Duke in basketball every year and their football team normally (but not this year) does okay there. Plus, it isn’t a great fit geographically. Doesn’t seem like a good fit.
The University of Kentucky hasn’t gotten a lot of press as a possibility, but like Maryland I don’t see it happening. Why would they leave the SEC? They are one of the top 20 or 25 in college sports revenue and the SEC confines are a good fit. Also, the academic rank of 128 in US News isn’t going to bring any love via the CIC either.
University of Nebraska has been mentioned by some. It does add one thing that I don’t think any other rumored school besides Notre Dame could bring and that is the level of football history and excitement nation-wide, They don’t add much in basketball, but I’m not sure that would be a deal-breaker. Since Lincoln is on the eastern side of the state, they are not a real bad fit geographically. Academically they are 96th in US News. I think that would make a harder sell to the CIC though as I am sure they do not want to make this look like it is all about money and a 96th ranked school makes it look that way a lot more then a 71st ranked school would. While Nebraska would bring some notoriety, again, not a huge market. Also, I think the Big 12 has served Nebraska well and I don’t see the Big 12 letting them go very easily even if they wanted to leave. Thus, I think the Corn huskers are staying where they are.
This leaves the three teams I think have the biggest chance of being asked and accepted: Pittsburgh, Missouri, and Rutgers. All of them bring some good things to the table and are worthy of consideration. Also, I can see all of them being willing to leave under the right circumstances. And in fact, if the Big 10 wanted to be the Big 14, I can see all three of them being added, but I think they will probably stop at 10 despite statements saying they would consider 14 or 16 teams.
Missouri is ranked lower then Nebraska on the US News and World Report (102) but I don’t think the perception that this will only be about football would be as strong with them as it would be about Nebraska. Missouri has made rumblings that they are unhappy with how revenues are split in the Big 12 and they have been jumped over by worse teams for bowl games so I am not so sure they are thrilled with the Big 12 right now. They also bring in both the Kansas City and strengthen the ties to the St. Louis market. Not as big as New York/Philly like Rutgers, but still a nice addition. Still, I don’t think the Big 12 would let them leave without a fight.
One thing some people may not know is that the University of Pittsburgh is actually a fairly large (17,427 undergraduates) public university. It has a good tradition in basketball and football, and is closer to the center of the conference than Penn State. It is raked 56th in US News and is home to the internationally renowned University of Pittsburgh Medical Center so it makes sense academically and geographically. While it would seem that it would add the Pittsburgh market, it really doesn’t since Penn State already encroaches on it (as, I would imagine to some extent, Ohio State does from the west). Also, while Pitt is good in both major men’s sports, I’m not sure the Big 10(+1) is really interested in a top basketball program joining in. In this case, I think the basketball, if anything, might be a minus. Also, as a founding Big East member, I think they might be less likely to leave the Big East than Rutgers would be. Thus, why I wouldn’t be surprised if they were offers a spot in the Big 10(+1), I think television markets are working against them.
The last one on the list is Rutgers. As I mentioned, I received a degree from the fine institution so I am biased, but I think Rutgers makes a lot of sense. They are in the New York market and, often overlooked, are close to the Philadelphia market as well. They are raked slightly lower then Pitt (66th) but have a great reputation. One thing that hurts their ranking a bit is endowments, but I think Rutgers will start seeing that go up compared to other similar schools due to the history of the University (It didn’t become Rutgers The State University until 1956). With 28,031 undergraduate on the New Brunswick campus, it is a large(r) school and that means alumni watching TV. Also, while nay-sayers point out NYC is a pro-sports town, one needs to remember a lot of New York and New Jersey residents went to school at Big 10(+1) schools. This means alumni receptions at Rutgers stadium. This also means recruiting in the area. Geography is not as much of an asset as with Pittsburgh or maybe even Missouri, but it has good transportation hubs so it is not horrible. Rutgers has one four straight bowl games so they are an up and comer. While they won the first football game ever, they are not really a perennial powerhouse, but they have been pretty good of late and I think they can hold their own through Big 10(+1) conference play and might be able to grow into one of the teams in the top half of the conference. Mens basketball hasn’t been great either, but again,I’m not sure that is a problem. One plus that Rutgers (along with some other schools in the list that I didn’t mention) is the women’s basketball program is very good. I think that helps them a little bit as well. Also, I am pretty sure that Rutgers, as a large land grant institution, would love to join the CIC, which I think would be offered if they joined the conference.
With all that said, I think Rutgers is the choice 1a and Missouri 1b. Pitt is a not so distant third. Maybe that 14 team league is sounding good if the Big (10(+1) is thinking along similar lines.
Blackboard and Desire2Learn announced a settlement of their patent litigation on Tuesday, December 15. This litigation has upset many of Blackboard customers and critics alike. And, like many patent cases, it has dragged on for a long time. The criticism of Blackboard’s approach, which to many was seen as trying to eliminate competition via the courts instead of by making a better product, has apparently played an important role in this decision.
In a blog post about the settlement, Ray Henderson, President, Blackboard Learn, alluded to the controversy and makes it clear that the community reaction was one of the reasons they agreed to end litigation. Henderson wrote “This dialog has distracted attention from the many positive contributions to the industry that Blackboard has made and can continue to make.” I can’t say I follow Blackboard enough to know the degree of positive contributions they have made, but obviously this cloud has been hanging over them for a while. Let’s hope that they do make positive contributions and abandon what many have viewed as anti-competitive practices.
Apparently Flash Raves are a big thing at colleges these days. They are usually about a 10 to 15 minute long dance party. For some reason, doing these flash raves in libraries are a popular choice. Well, Binghamton University didn’t want to miss this trend and had one this past weekend in the lobby of the Bartle Library building (not actually in the library-proper).
“[President Obama'a] Administration is seeking public input on access to publicly-funded research results, such as those that appear in academic and scholarly journal articles. Currently, the National Institutes of Health require that research funded by its grants be made available to the public online at no charge within 12 months of publication. The Administration is seeking views as to whether this policy should be extended to other science agencies and, if so, how it should be implemented.
They are doing this in three parts, with the first one already started”
According to the post, Each of these topics will form the basis of a blog posting that will appear at www.whitehouse.gov/open and will be open for comment on the OSTP blog. If you have nay thoughts about Open Access to government funding research, I’d encourage you to share your thoughts (no matter whether you are for, against, or indifferent about the Obama administration).
I just read a blog post about successful initiatives that falls somewhere between ’serendipity’ and ’strategy’. The post by a Dean Dad, Community College Dean, was titled “Make it Look Planned.” The point was that sometimes, maybe even often, successful things happen not because of of the “fetish of extreme planning” or totally by random luck, but somewhere in-between.
I think what Dean Dad is pointing out, that if you rely only on well thought out plans or conversely on pure luck, you probably aren’t going to go far. Using initiative and trying thinks on gut instinct is where real progress can be made. I think many librarians understand this. In fact, it is almost a necessity in the library world because we often do not have enough data to make evidence based decisions – even if we wanted to. Of course, I imagine this can be a tough sell at Universities that are focused on data-driven planning, but that doesn’t mean we should try somebody’s “what the hell” inspiration on how to improve the library experience. Trying out and implementing new ideas like this is how one can lead from wherever they are in the organization.
The trick is to implement the “what the hell” ideas in a manner that if they don’t work out, they can be rolled back. This can sometimes be a problem though. Often when these types of things are implemented, there has been little thought on how they are to be evaluated and how to migrate them, when successful, into the flow of the organization. In other words, how to move them from pilot to production.
The BCS bowl match-ups have just been announced tonight and it looks like the real championship game will be the Fiesta Bowl. TCU will be playing Boise State. That is correct, the BCS powers are so scared that their precious cash cow big-money conference teams will be beaten by the teams from non-BCS conferences again that they figured out a way to continue to duck them – have the two non-BCS teams play each other. On the field the small guys have proven they are better. Who did Texas or Alabama beat out of conference that was better than Oregon? That’s right. No one. Did they have the guts to go on the row to ACC runner-up Clemson and beat them in their own house. Of course not.
I’ll have one more top 10 after the bowl games. I can’t imagine that the winner of the Fiesta Bowl won’t be #1, but we will wait and see.
1) TCU 12-0 (prev: 1) Finished the season last week so they got to stay home and watch the gams on TV this week.
2) Boise State 13-0 (prev: 3) Blew out New Mexico State last week. Only undefeated team to beat another team that received a BCS bid, that being the PAC-10 champion Oregon.
3) Cincinnati 12-0 (prev: 2) Tough game against Pitt, but they pulled it out. Still they drop in my top-10 one spot.
4) Alabama 13-0 (prev: 5) Alabama blew out over-rated Florida in the SEC championship game. Because Texas almost lost, I moved them up one spot. Also factoring into the decisions was at least Alabama did schedule Virginia Tech this year. Yes, the Hookies aren’t up to typical standards, but they were expected to be in the top 10.
5) Texas 13-0 (prev: 4 ) If the Big 12 Championship game was 59:59 instead of 60 minutes, they wouldn’t have won the championship. Despite that I was hoping Nebraska would win just so the BCS was forced to consider one of the non-BCS conference schools for the championship, the replay was correct and there was one second left on the clock.
6) Oregon 9-2 (prev 7) Oregon beat Oregon State in the Civil War and jumps over Florida into 6′th in my pole.
7) Florida 12-1 (prev: 6) Florida showed why they duck teams like TCU and Boise State. They just aren’t the team the pollsters wanted us to believe they are this year as evident by their blow-out lost to Alabama.
8 ) Georgia Tech 11-2 (prev: 9) Georgia Tech moves up one spot by beating Clemson in the ACC championship game.
9 ) Ohio State 10-2 (prev: Ohio State didn’t play this week but will be in the Rose Bowl.
10) Iowa 10-2 (prev: 10) Iowa finishes the pre-bowl game season as the last person in my top 10. Penn State fans might not like it, but Penn State lost and Penn State, even more than Florida who at least plays Florida State, is kig of the cupcakes out of conference.
Only one more week left. No changes in the top 6, but the rest of the top 10 saw some shake-ups….
1) TCU 12-0 (prev: 1) Finished the season undefeated with a thumping of New Mexico.
2) Cincinnati 11-0 (prev: 2) Beat a Illinois team that is talented, but can’t seem to put anything together. Big game this weekend against Pitt where the winner will be the Big East champion.
3) Boise State 12-0 (prev: 3) Nice win over Nevada this past weekend. They finish up the season with an in-conference match-up against New Mexico State
4) Texas 12-0 (prev: 4 ) Next game is the Big 12 championship game against Nebraska which may be the toughest oponent all year. The Big 12 was a tough conference last year, but like the SEC is down this year. Really, who has Texas beat that was better than Utah or BYU – both of whom TCU handled easily? Not Oklohoma, not OK state, not A&M who scored 39 points against them. Texas does not deserve a spot in the title game over the likes of TCU or Cinncy based on the fact they didn’t beat any teams that should be in the top 20.
5) Alabama 12-0 (prev: 5) Almost moved Alabama down below Florida after Aurburn pushed them, but I think their out of conference schedule was slightly tougher (i.e. Va Tech > Florida State).
6) Florida 12-0 (prev: 6) Finally an admirable out of conference game on the schedule. Sadly for Florida, Florida State isn’t very good this year and hasn’t been for a while.
7) Oregon 9-2 (prev 10) With losses by Georgia Tech and Pitt, Oregon moves into seventh. The “Civil War” game against PAC-10 this weekend will serve as a de facto PAC-10 championship game.
8 ) Ohio State 10-2 (prev: 9) Ohio State moves up one spot thanks to some losses above them.
9) Georgia Tech 10-2 (prev: 7) Despite a Rambling Wreck loss against out-of-conference, in-state Georgia,Tech stays in the top 10.
10) Iowa 10-2 (prev: unranked) I had a tough time deciding who to pick for the 10th spot, but I’ll give it to Iowa. They had a poor performance in the loss to Northwestern but the other loss was to Ohio State which is a good team. Also, while Arizona isn’t that good, they are better than Charleston Southern.
Ohio State didn’t play this week but will be in the Rose Bowl.