Alexandria Campus Hosts Successful LRS Professional Development Day

On Friday, May 15, the Alexandria Campus hosted 136 people from Learning Resources units from all campuses, plus staff from ELI, the Technical Applications Center, IT, the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and Human Resources for a day of professional development centered on the theme "Hot Technology, Cool NOVA."

The day's activities included a welcome from Alexandria Campus Provost Dr. Jonathan Gueverra (with his bag of 20 years of examples of then-hot new technologies) and a keynote address, "Hot Technologies 2009" by Corinne Hoisington from Central Virginia Community College.


She also presented sessions on Google tools and applications, and a preview of Windows 7 and Office 2010. Other sessions focused on new technologies for online tutoring and testing, planning for new libraries, examples of how LRS staff are using Web 2.0 tools across the college, Second Life, multicultural/multigenerational relations, and strategies for dealing with the challenging student.

Breakfast and a salad lunch kept the participants' energy up for a full day of learning and networking. The online evaluation survey confirmed a very high level of satisfaction with the overall program and individual sessions.

Thanks to Planning Committee co-chairs Sandra Beeson from Media Processing Services and Ruth Stanton from the Medical Education Campus for their hard work in making this a very successful day of professional development. In the words of some attendees, it was "...the best LRS day I have ever attended" and "Better than New Horizons."

Learning Resources Staff Learn

Alexandria Campus Learning Resources staff keep on learning.

Dean of Educational Support Services Dave Williams, IS&D Supervisor Dave Lavis, and librarians Bruce Carroll and Jean Hogan attended the VCCS New Horizons conference in Roanoke April 1-3. Bruce and Jean participated in a session on library resources and services and helped staff an "ask your librarian" table near the vendors' exhibits.

Dave Williams, Dave Lavis, librarian Sylvia Rortvedt and Nan Peck, NOVA's Acting Coordinator of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, attended the Chronicle Technology Forum in Arlington on April 6. This event, sponsored by the Chronicle of Higher Education, focused on new technologies in higher ed including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and more. One session featured staff from the VCCS System Office presenting on the VCCS move to Google for student email and other applications. Sylvia particularly enjoyed the session on building and renovating libraries to strengthen the library's role in student learning.

On March 30 - April 1, librarians Matt Todd and Sylvia Rortvedt and library specialist David Anderson from the Arlington Center attended the Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington. Social networking, useful new websites, open source software and ways to embed library resources in Blackboard were some of the hot topics at this conference.

Erin Sumego was the Alexandria Campus nominee to attend the VCCS Classified Staff Leadership Academy which was held in Staunton, Virginia May 27-29. The Academy included workshops, discussion groups, training sessions and small group projects designed to enhance the leadership skills of this select group of classified staff from across Virginia's community college system.

Librarian Bruce Carroll attended the national ELUNA conference in Richmond in May. ELUNA stands for ExLibris Users of North America, and ExLibris is the integrated library system used by all of the VCCS college libraries. Bruce has led our campus library staff through several ExLibris upgrades to our circulation system and at the conference learned what changes and upgrades are in store for our library systems.

In May, library specialists Jane Maddan, Marion Mirehouse and Twynell Kimble attended the Virginia Library Association's annual Paraprofessional Conference near Richmond. They attended sessions on topics ranging from Google Scholar and Google Books to basic book repair, services to deaf and hard-of-hearing library patrons to Civil War history collections in Virginia libraries.

Learning Resources Takes the Heat

It's warm in many LRS units now and it's going to get hotter as long-delayed work on the Phase I HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system is carried out this spring. The work requires turning off the chiller and air handler for Phase I. When this was announced, LRS staff stepped up to find ways to minimize the impact on Phase I computer lab spaces too hot for instruction and testing.

Under the guidance of Dave Williams, Dean of Educational Support Services, administrators and staff responsible for computing and testing space in Phase I worked together to find new locations for classes taught in computer labs. Open Computer Center Supervisor Abid Mahmood's team found new locations in Phase II and III labs for all of the IT classes, including the Open Computer Center, and Testing Supervisor Adella Brunner identified space for classes that had been meeting in the Writing Center.

Testing Services have temporarily moved to Room 161 in order to provide students an air-conditioned space for campus, ELI and placement testing.

Marilyn Odaka, Adella Brunner and Erin Friga

in front of the temporary Testing Center, Room 161

Alternative locations for open computer labs are now available during the day (8am - 4pm) Monday-Thursday and all day Friday and Saturday. Details are on the Open Computer Center webpage.

While the library is too large to move elsewhere on campus, lots of big fans have been brought in to deal with the heat.

The HVAC work is scheduled to be completed by late June, and AC may come online on some floors before then.

NOVA Named as One of the Top Tech-Smart Community Colleges

Northern Virginia Community College has been ranked second in a list of the top tech-smart community colleges with enrollments over 7,500. Factors considered in the survey ranged "from online admissions, student access to transcripts and grades, information security and infrastructure, to weather and campus security alerts and online library capabilities."

The list, a result of a survey conducted by the Center for Digital Education and the American Association for Community Colleges, includes Tidewater Community College, also part of the Virginia Community College System, among the top ten colleges in the group of largest colleges. Rappahannock, Blue Ridge and Dabney S. Lancaster Community Colleges in Virginia also made the top ten list in their size categories.

The NOVA Libraries provide online access to our catalog of books and media and over 200 article and reference databases. All NOVA students and staff have off-campus access to our resources. Campus libraries have their own websites with information specific to that campus. At Alexandria, that includes links to the library blog and the online library tour.

Congratulations to NOVA and IT Services!

What the Library Did This Summer

It's a very moving story.

Alexandria Campus Library staff have been planning how the space left vacant by the Counseling and Financial Aid offices' move to Phase III could be converted into much-needed additional library space for students. In Fall 2007 the Library staff conducted surveys and focus groups to gather student input about possible uses of re-purposed space. Student feedback was assembled to create a plan for the creative reuse of library space. What did we do?

We created a reading area -- dubbed "the living room" by some students and staff -- with a large display of current magazines, our popular reading collection of books and audiobooks, today's newspapers and our new books cart. Comfortable chairs and benches make this an inviting and relaxing area.

We opened five group study rooms in what had been the small Counseling booths. Students have been asking for spaces for small groups to study together in the library for years, and we expect these to be very popular. Each room has a network drop for laptop use.

The librarians waved goodbye to their old office space and moved into the former Counseling office area.

L to R: Anne Anderson, Jean Hogan, Matt Todd, Bruce Carroll

That left us with space to create a new quiet study room room which includes some wired carrels for laptop use.

The librarians' move also created additional space in our existing office areas for circulation and acquisitions staff.

What's the verdict? Student and faculty reaction so far has been very positive. Responses include

• “It looks and sounds like a Library in here now!"
• “Please buy more of these chairs.”
• "It looks very professional."
• "I love it. Very accommodating."
• "I adore your taste in decor!"
• "Finally, we can rest while reading books, newspapers or magazines. This is what was missing to be a complete library. I love the silence and the chairs...Thank you NOVA!"

Please visit us soon, and tell us what you think -- in person, or post a comment on this blog.

How Are We Doing?

That's what we asked our users in a series of surveys this spring.



Alexandria Campus IT Services, Instructional Support and Development and Learning Lab/Testing sent surveys to faculty and staff to measure satisfaction with their services.

• 97% were somewhat or very satisfied with the IT services they received.


• 92% rated the overall quality of IS&D services and staff support as very good or excellent.


• 100% of the faculty who replied rated Learning Lab/Testing services as above average or excellent.

Students and faculty/staff survey responses from the Library and Open Computer Center were also very positive.

• 90% of the Library survey respondents were somewhat or very satisfied with library services overall.


• 97% of the Open Computer Center users indicated they were satisfied with OCC services.
  

We're pleased with these high levels of satisfaction with LRS services, but equally important to us are the comments about how we could improve our services. Your suggestions included

• Longer evening hours in IS&D
• A world map in the Arlington Center Library
• More computers and lab space for classroom work in the Learning Lab
• More quiet study space, some small group study rooms, easier-to-use campus wireless and more computers in the library
• More computers in the OCC and more individual work space at each computer
• Concern about the impact of network security changes on faculty use of instructional computing resources

And finally, a few comments we're happy to share with you:

• "IS&D support have been there whenever I needed them..."
• "The [Library] staff ROCK."
• "Everyone's very kind here."

LRS Staff Participates in New Horizons Conference

Four members of the Alexandria Campus LRS staff attended the 2008 VCCS New Horizons conference in Roanoke April 9-11. Open Computer Center Supervisor Abid Mahmood gave a presentation with Business Division Dean John Min on the new Global Trading Center, and LRS Director Dave Williams, Dave Lavis (Instructional Support & Development), and Bruce Carroll (Library) attended the conference sessions on a wide range of topics related to the integration of technology in teaching, learning and administration in the VCCS.

Hector Revollo (WO), Abid Mahmood, Dave Williams, Sally Cool (WO), Dave Lavis and Steven Cool (WO) at New Horizons.