LOEX of the West 2008 in fabulous Las Vegas

After a little more than a week of being back from the LOEX of the West 2008 conference at the fabulous UNLV, Las Vegas, I have had some time to think about and summarize my experience. Just like I went there hoping for easy wins, I also went thinking I would get some easy answers to my ongoing search for adding engaging activities or games into my library instruction courses that I teach here at Alkek. On both counts I was wrong. As far as winning, I did come out ahead, but only thanks to the awesome roulette and blackjack lessons that we were given at the LOEX reception which took place at UNLV's International Gaming Institute in the Casino Lab. As far as getting quick and easy ideas for games I could use in my instruction sessions, I got ideas to help me think of my own games or tutorials but no easy handouts.

The first Session I attended was A Library of Learning Objects: Teaching Tools to Quickly Tailor Instruction and Meet Class Needs presented by Lori Mardis, Information Librarian, Northwest Missouri State University and Connie Ury, Library Outreach Coordinator, Northwest Missouri State University.

They basically talked about project management and how to think of instruction in smaller parts that you could piece together later for fast complete sessions. They use flash tutorials made by student interns. The tutorials allowed for multiple learning styles to be addressed as well as quick ways to customize instruction sessions. The tutorials could also be used outside of the classroom accessible via the web.

Beating the Odds with the Insider's Scoop: Tips and Tricks from the Library Secrets! Librarian
presented by Jennifer Kelley, Resident Librarian, College of DuPage was a case study of Kelly's implementation of Web2.0 tools, including a blog, and other marketing techniques to increase student awareness of the library and all it had to offer.

I was happy that our library is already doing this as well as engaging in other Web2.0 activities. We have a delicious site, Facebook group, MySpace page, Flickr account and have a YouTube Channel where we post our tutorials and other vidoes. We use instant messaging for reference questions and have two blogs, the Alkek Library News & Research Help Blog and our Information Literacy Blog that you are reading right now! Needless to say, we are very into Web2.0. In fact, three of the librarians here at Alkek, including me, just presented a staff development workshop entitled Web 2.0: What is it and Why Should I Care?

More about LOEX in the next post...