Cambridge Librarian TeachMeet

Today I’m at Umbrella 2011, CILIP’s major library and information professional conference, presenting a poster about Library TeachMeets.  The poster will continue to be there on Wednesday, too, though I sadly can’t make it to the conference for its second day.

If you’re reading this post because you saw the poster at the conference, welcome! Hopefully you can find lots of further information around this site. Please ask in the comments if there’s anything you’d like to know more about.  Here are links to other LibTeachMeet pages:

• Huddersfield
• Newcastle
• Brighton
• Liverpool
• London
• Oxford
• Scotland
• Bedfordshire

And here’s a copy of the poster that you can download and keep (click on the image to download the .pdf file (126 KB)):

Image credits:
Newcastle: image by toonlibtm
Cambridge: image by Nermin Minter
Brighton: image © Sarah J Ison
London: image by @NunuThunder
Huddersfield: images by Andrew Walsh

Last week Isla Kuhn presented a paper about TeachMeets at the European Association for Health Information and Libraries workshop in Istanbul.

You can see the prezi that she used over on her blog, Musings of a Medical Librarian.

Yesterday Niamh and I spoke about LibTeachMeet at the Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference (LILAC) at the British Library in London.  As part of the ‘New to teaching’ strand, we emphasised how TeachMeets are great for inexperienced teaching librarians to learn about different teaching tools and techniques, and to get some practice in speaking to a group in a non-threatening environment.

Our slides, including various useful links, are now up on Slideshare:

It was great to meet some other LibTeachMeet organisers, including the brilliant Lynne, who’s organising ldnlibtm and is looking for volunteers to help! (Hint, hint…)

We had a really friendly and enthusiastic audience (in true TeachMeet style), and we were very glad to hear afterwards that we may have inspired LibTeachMeets in Vienna and Sweden, as well as venues nearer to home.

If you’re someone we met, or who heard us, yesterday, and you have more questions, please do ask them in the comments here, or get in touch with us via Twitter or email.

We had various questions and comments for our speakers in post it note form at the end of the evening. Here’s a quick round up, and if you didn’t raise your comment or query on the night, why not comment now?

Courtesy of www.sxc.hu

Liz Osman – no questions

Anna Martin – no questions

Sarah Pavey
“Really interested to see action to address emotional aspects of essay writing – not something I’d have thought to do, but can see it’s a really important part.”
“Brilliant idea! I can imagine it working really well for information literacy training in general.”

Laura Wilkes 
“Love this, will have a think about how we can do it in our library.”
“You can read QR codes with any phone that has an internet connection and a camera, not just smart phones.”

Nicky Adkins 
“Association of plae with interpretation of what’s learnt – really useful to bear in mind. ie if it’s taught in library = library skill. If it’s taught in classroon = subject skill.”
“What about the PhD post doc researchers who STILL need info literacy training but do not believe they need to be taught it?”

Jo Harcus 
“Tagging in OPACs – wonder if there’s different behaviour when it’s obvious who did it, or when tags are presented more anonymously?”

Suzanne Paul – no questions

Clare Aitken
“Does Tellus Magic work on IE6 locked down computers?”
“How does Tellus Magic work when you don’t subscribe via journal.com but via eg ScienceDirect?”
“What’s to stop people sharing the bookmarklet with ‘unauthorised’ people?”

Naomi Herbert – no questions

John Iona – no questions

Networking is an essential part of TeachMeets

Feedback from our first TeachMeet indicated that people wanted more time to network, or, if that’s a word that makes you shudder, to meet new people and talk to them. We were keen to make space and time for that at the second TeachMeet, but we didn’t necessarily want just to have ‘empty’ time without structure: not everyone finds it easy just to strike up conversations with new people, and as we were hoping for a real mix of different librarians who didn’t already know each other we were keen to devise a structured or semi-structured way to help people mix and mingle.

Speed networking seems to be a popular way of helping groups of people get to meet each other (it was one part of the Huddersfield Lib TeachMeet, for example), but it’s a format doesn’t appeal to everyone. It also requires a certain degree of organisation and logistics; and with a capacity crowd of 60 people, we were concerned that it would be hard work and time consuming.

But what to do instead? Human Bingo was mentioned in a discussion on Twitter (it has been used with success at Business Librarians’ Association events, for example), and we thought that it might provide just what we were looking for…

Twenty un-scientifically selected questions

What’s human bingo?

The way we worked it, everyone was given a bingo sheet when they arrived at the TeachMeet.  They had to find a different person who fulfilled each criterion on the sheet. Some of those we’d included because we knew there’d be at least one person there who would meet them, and some we’d picked because they were likely to be true about someone in a group od 60 library folk.

To encourage participation there was the bribe offer of a prize for the winning sheet, and as a way of deciding in case of a tie, we asked the tie-breaker question ‘What’s the most interesting fact [that you'd be willing to have read out] about yourself?’.

How did it go?

Motivated by the promise of chocolate most people entered into the bingo with gusto, and in the end-of-TeachMeet quick-response voting only 3% of respondents said they didn’t like it at all.  Whether it was the bingo or something else, there was a lot of talking and moving round the room before the event proper got going, and during the discussion session in the middle: just what we’d been hoping for!

A whopping eighteen people managed to get a complete sheet of answers (must ask harder questions next time…), despite a Bolton Wanderers fan’s sudden decision to declare allegiance to a different team…

The tie-breaker revealed some interesting, nay startling facts:

At least one TeachMeeter has been part of the Fourth-Plinth art.

• Has stood on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square as part of a work of art.
• I can elbow punch someone to the ground.
• I once had a bath in tomato juice.
• I have danced with Jamie Cullum at my brother’s wedding and he is extremely short.
• [My library] has 32,000 rubbish records – have worked on them so now only 8,000 – any volunteers please! [Any budding catalogue improvers get in touch and we'll tell you which library and how you can help]
• Last week I was tattooed in the desert!
• I almost killed my dog on Sunday…
• I have stood on the equator!
• …and I have 2 webbed toes!
• Has worked in a police station [doing too many interesting things to type out here - it wasn't an essay competition, you know!].
• Used to au pair for Emma Watson, ‘Hermione Granger’ in Harry Potter, and I went to school with Tim Vincent (Blue Peter).
• I’m a Roller Derby girl!
• I can spin fire poi.

All of which were trumped by the winning statement:

• I have a tooth in my mouth that used to be up my nose.

As a way of creating a fun and friendly atmosphere, and helping people to get talking, I think we can declare the bingo a success.

We didn't have M&M's, but we did have mini eggs...

Our second TeachMeet happened yesterday evening, and I think it’s fair to say that it was a resounding success. We had ten excellent speakers (including two brave souls recruited on the evening itself!), enthusiastic attendees, a splendid venue, and plenty to eat.

Video of most of the talks is now available:

• Liz Osman, Library posters: engaging your students
• Anna Martin, Never write lists again (unavailable for copyright reasons)
• Sarah Pavey, Jigsaws: a first step to academic essay-writing in schools
• Laura Wilkes, Using QR codes to promote ejournals
• Nicky Adkins, Debunking the myth of the Google generation (Nicky’s slides are also available on Slideshare)
• Jo Harcus, Tagging the academic library (Jo’s slides are also available on Slideshare)
• Suzanne Paul, TeuxDeux
• Clare Aitken, Using Tellus Magic to make access to subscribed resources easier (unavailable for business security reasons. Some background information: Adding ezproxy to the url – 5 different methods, EzProxy Bookmarklet Generator, Favourite LibX feature)
• Naomi Herbert, Using special collections for teaching
• John Iona, Embedding information literacy in a competency-based curriculum (John’s slides are also on slideshare)

A bunch of dedicated tweeters also kept up a running commentary on the #camlibtm hashtag for those who weren’t there in person (those tweets are archived on TwapperKeeper).

More about the evening, including fun facts from the TeachMeet Bingo will follow shortly. In the meantime, why not continue your conversations over in the forum?

One of the things that came out of the feedback from the first Cambridge Librarian TeachMeet in September was that people would have liked more time to talk, to ask questions of the speakers, to discuss issues raised, to chat informally and network.

The organising team were very keen to incorporate more time for talking into the 2nd camlibtm, so we’re definitely going to have time for questions. However, we also want to set up some table discussions for people to have a chance to talk about an issue (or something raised in a talk) in a group. We’ve been asking for topic suggestions and have a few ideas but would be happy to hear more. So, if there’s a burning issue you would love to discuss with a random group of other librarians, please let us know – here in comments, on the forum (start a thread!), on Twitter, by email (info@camlibtm.info) or even in person on the day.

What would you like to talk about?

We’ve noticed plans are afoot for Librarian TeachMeets in various other places, so we thought we’d post all the information we have here for anyone who is interested in the idea but doesn’t live in the Cambridge area. A lot of the organising is happening via Twitter so we’ve included Twitter names wherever possible so you can chase down more details. We’re also using the general Twitter hashtag #LibTeachM for discussion of librarian TeachMeets in general, with each individual event also having a specific hashtag (ours is #camlibtm)

Huddersfield Librarian TeachMeet (#hudteachmeet) took place last month and details of the talks and feedback are all posted on their blog.

There are plans for a Newcastle Librarian TeachMeet (#toonlibtm) on May 4th, organised by @hblanchett.

Liverpool Librarian TeachMeet (#livlibtm) is taking place on Thursday 26th May, 10am-1pm and you can register here (organised by @LibraryEmma among others).

A similar event focusing on induction is planned for Tuesdsay 14th June at  DMU Leicester, DMUInductMeet  (#imeetdmu).

London Librarian TeachMeet, materminded by @_moo_ on Twitter now has its own website and booking is open for an event on 20th June.  There are rumblings about organising something in Oxford, see @gallagherliz for more information. And similarly @CarolineCooke is looking into organising something in Bournemouth.

If you know of any others, please just add the information in comments and we’ll try to update here or possibly find a permanent home for this general Librarian TeachMeet information.

Edited to add information about Oxford 15/03/11

Edited to add information about Leicester 17/03/11

Edited 17/03/11 to add Brighton to the list, organised by @wigglesweets and @tomroper

Edited 1/4/11 to add date and website for London.

We’ve got some really interesting topics for the next (lib)TeachMeet:

5 Minute Micropresentations

• Jo Harcus, Anglia Ruskin University: Social Tagging and the Academic Library: Student awareness, use and perceptions at Anglia Ruskin University
• Nicky Adkins, Roundwood Park School: Debunking the myth of the Google Generation
• Saray Pavey, Box Hill School: Jigsaws: A first step to academic essay writing in schools
• Liz Osman, Homerton College, Cambridge: Library Posters: Engaging your students
• John Iona, Oasis Academy, Enfield: Embedding Information Literacy in a Competency-Based Curriculum

2 Minute Nanopresentations

• Anna Martin, Cambridge University Medical Library : Never write lists again!
• Laura Wilkes, West Suffolk NHS Trust: QR Codes
• Colin Higgins, St Catherine’s College: Keeping it simple!

We still have two vacant slots for 2 minute nanopresentations, so if you didn’t manage to book a place first time around this is your chance to be involved – post below or email us at info@camlibtm.info.

Wow – what a fantastic response! The 2nd Librarian TeachMeet in Cambridge has sold out already – only hours after opening registration. And what a wonderful variety of lurkers and speakers we’ve got.

Since life sometimes gets in the way, we do have a waiting list. So if you didn’t manage to register in the first flush, please ad yourself to the waiting list in case someone has to drop out.

If you’ve already signed on as a lurker but would really like to speak, then please email us at info@camlibtm.info and we’ll add your name to the speakers’ waiting list.

And if you did get a place but find out that you can’t make it after all, please do let us know via the email or Twitter so we can free up a place one of the people patiently sitting on the waiting list

And for everyone that has signed up – please introduce yourself on our forum.

We’ll be contacting all attendees a little closer to the time, but are really looking forward to meeting you all on Tuesday 29th – the 2nd Librarian TeachMeet will certainly be one to remember.