Programs used to create online tutorials or teach online courses

I have to admit, I haven't had much experience with the products I'm about to mention, but I wonder how librarians are incorporating products such as Camtasia, Jing, WebEx, etc into their teaching. Some libraries have even downloaded library tours to iPod shuffles and allow users to check them out.

I have attended a few sessions via WebEx. I heard the speakers and saw the PowerPoint, but I was not successful at submitting questions through the chat function for whatever reason.

This is an area that many librarians would like to know more about, so please share your experiences with different products and how your library uses them.

National Legal Research Teach In

This year, National Legal Research Teach-In week is April 13 - 18, 2009. The National Teach-In is sponsored by the Research and Patron Services Special Interest Section of AALL.

Many of our colleagues have worked hard to compile games, powerpoints, handouts, and research guides to assist in teaching legal research. It is worth a look! You may be inspired or find something you need to help you with a class.

Click here to go directly to the National Legal Research Teach-In Week page.

Finals and bar prep in an academic law library

If you work in an academic law library, finals are fast approaching. Does your library do anything to help the students prepare for finals? What about for bar exam preparation?

Last year, I and a fellow co-worker did a display with a pathfinder to highlight the study aids the library had to assist the students.

As far as bar prep, where I used to work, they had a very detailed research guide to help students find study aids in addition to what BarBri and PMBR have to offer.

Is your library offering any programs or guides to assist students with finals or bar prep?

Sessions of Interest at the 2009 AALL Annual Conference

Bleow, I have listed sessions that may be of interest to those who want to learn more about Web 2.0 and other sessions related to user education in law libraries (and law firms). Please refer to the Conference Program for session times and for a full list of sessions offered.


Sessions

Sunday July 26

• A-1 Making your ILS Web 2.0 Happy
• A-5 Legal Research Questions on the Bar Exam: Preparing Our Students
• B-1 Emerging from the Cocoon: Innovative Ways to Reteach Legal Research to Externs and Summer Associates
• C-2 Laws and Codes: How do they do that?
• C-5 Reporting for Duty: Military Information and its Application to Legal Research

Monday July 27

• D-1 I want my Web 2.0: Lessons from the Web 2.0 Challenge Everyone can use
• D-3 Brave New Frontier of Government Documents Librarianship
• D-6 Beyond the Walls of the United Nations: Exploring UN Databases
• E-1 So you want to make a Movie: Simple Steps for Creating Videos for Web Distribution and Vodcasting
• E-2 Chat 2.0: Renovating Virtual Reference
• E-4 Finding Services for Seniors (Ourselves and Others)
• E-5 Working Smart: Innovative Ways to do More with Your Day
• F-2 Law Librarians Abroad: Is a Foreign Study Program for you?
• F-3 Marketing Mojo: Get smart with Design
• G-5 What's in a Name? Trademark Searching, Services and Domain Names

Tuesday July 28

• H-1 So you Think you can Teach: Keeping the Audience Awake and Learning Alive
• H-2 Web 2.0: Driving Innovation in the Law Firm Library
• I-2 Got ideas? Tools and techniques to Identify, Refine and Communicate Ideas that Stick!
• I-6 Hot Topic
• J-2 Embracing the M-Word: Why and how to Market your Library
• K-1 Vlogging for Law Libraries
• K-2 Find 50-State Law Surveys Fast!
• K-3 Researching International Tax Law
  

AALL 2009 Washington, D.C. July 25-28 Links of Interest

Everyone is gearing up for the AALL Annual Meeting. If you will be blogging or tweeting about the conference, please remember to use #aall2009 as a tag to make it easier for others to find your info!

Links of Interest

Here are some sites to help you prepare for the meeting:

AALL Annual Meeting Page

Local Arrangements Website

Capital Crier - Official AALL 2009 Annual Meeting Blog

Conference Program

Unofficial AALL 2009 Conference Wiki

AALL Grants

AALL Placement Committee - Services at the Annual Meeting

AALL Placement Services - Candidate Registration Form

AALL Placement Services - Employer Registration Form

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies are all the buzz these days. Our library has created a Facebook Fan Page. We also have a blog to relay news to patrons. Many of my fellow librarians are using Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn to stay connected.

Since Web 2.0 technologies are so prevalent, the University of Kentucky library system promoted learning how to use these technologies through a series called Blue 2.0. (If you are interested in looking at the modules go here http://connectedlibrary.blogspot.com/). The program was so successful that it was adopted campus-wide.

What type of Web 2.0 technologies are you using in your libraries and how are you using the technologies?

Librarians and the Bluebook

Whether or not librarians should teach the Bluebook (or the citation manual of choice for your school) can be considered a hot topic in my opinion. What are you doing at your schools? Are you actively teaching the Bluebook? Are you answering questions that come up at the reference desk? Are you avoiding citation questions and referring them elsewhere? Does your library get citation questions?

How is your library handling citation questions?

Pathfinders/Research Guides

How do you go about marketing your Pathfinders and Research Guides? We put a lot of hard work into these, and sometimes they can go unnoticed by our patrons. I have started to let certain patrons know when I have completed guides that would be of interest to them. For example, I will send completed guides directly to faculty members who would benefit from them and hopefully they will share the info with their students. Also, I recently told the editor of a Law Journal about a citation guide that we have when he told me that they were doing a bluebooking training. I offered to make as many copies as he needed for his training.

What are you doing in your libraries to market your pathfinders and research guides?

Purpose

This blog has been created for law librarians and those working in law libraries and related fields to share and exchange ideas on user education in all law library settings. Share what works, what doesn't work, and how you have been educating patrons in your library.