Veronica Wells

Revising The Cephalonian Method

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to test out the Cephalonian Method in one of my library orientation sessions. The Cephalonian Method is an active learning technique developed by librarians at Cardiff University in 2002. The technique has been written about in several articles, which are listed on Cardiff’s “Official Cephalonian Method Page.” Allegedly, this is a technique used in Cefalonia, Greece in the tourism industry to keep tourists interested and engaged. I was introduced to the Cephalonian Method last year at the Music Library Association meeting at a presentation by Andrea Beckendorf from Luther College (my alma mater).

At the beginning of each session, students are given index cards containing a prepared question that they ask when the instructor requests it. At Cardiff, the librarians group their index cards by color (for example, blue is for basic introductory information) and each index card has a corresponding PowerPoint slide, which is revealed after the question is asked. Many of the questions and slides contain humor that helps to keep the students attentive, engaged, and will hopefully encourage them to remember the information later on. In addition, music is played at specific times before, during, and after the session to keep the environment feeling fun and relaxed.

My use of the Cephalonian Method was much simpler than Cardiff’s. My library orientation session was for 50 or so music majors (mostly first-year students) enrolled in a music history survey. In the past, the professor and I split this class into three different sections since that’s the only way we can fit everyone into our library classrooms. But this time, I got the opportunity to do one general library orientation during class time and then work with them in small groups the following week.

For the library orientation, I didn’t play any music because I was going to a classroom with technology I was unfamiliar with. Also, I didn’t use PowerPoint because I thought it would be too labor-intensive and I knew that I wanted to demonstrate a lot of database searching. I wrote questions on 15 or so index cards. I used three different colors for the index cards—one for each “scenario” that I cover:

Scenario I: Using the library catalog to find a score, CD, and book.
Scenario II: Finding background information and scholarly articles on a specific composer.
Scenario III: Finding online streaming music and downloadable scores when you’re away from the library.

I numbered each colored card and I would call out “Blue number three” and the person with the blue card that had the number three would recite their question. I incorporated a lot of quirky questions that I thought music majors would enjoy, such as “I really enjoy listening to Shostakovich symphonies at 3 am because they put me right to sleep. Are there any streaming music resources other than Pandora or Spotify that I can use?“ But I tried to ensure that none of the questions could potentially embarrass anyone.

While I didn’t get a chance to do a formal assessment of the Cephalonian Method, I think it was a huge success. The time flew by and the students asked really great questions at the end of the session. If I do this next time, I would like to make the questions even more humorous. But all in all, it was very quick and easy to pull off–plus it was a fun way to spice up my teaching!

Have you used the Cephalonian Method?

Finding a Successful Work/Life Balance

When you work in academia, it can be very hard to find a good work/life balance. I’ve always considered myself pretty good at it—so it sort of took me by surprise when in the middle of December, I experienced a mild case of burnout. Burnout is defined as the experience of long-term exhaustion, which can have many causes. For me, I believe the cause was multifaceted and difficult to pinpoint, but in general I think I pushed myself too hard for too long. I also have a suspicion it may have been induced by my close proximity to stressed out college students. My creative juices went dry and things that I normally enjoy doing, such as blogging, felt like an insurmountable chore. Good news, such as finally publishing a research article, yielded apathy rather than joy and pride.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to take a couple extra days off before holiday break in hopes getting a lot of rest and giving myself the opportunity to recover. Thankfully I didn’t travel too much over winter break, so I was able to truly savor every minute. I’ve been back to work for a few days now and I’m feeling much better! I’m optimistic that I kicked this bout of burnout.

Based on my own minor experience with burnout and a bit of research I’ve done, here are a few of my survival tips on finding a successful work/life balance:

Disconnect: When you physically leave the library at the end of the day, make sure your mind leaves it, too. I’ll admit, I break this rule all the time—especially when I have a lot of instruction sessions to prepare for, when I’m working on a research article, or when I’m (ahem) working on a blog post. I have often found that disconnecting helps me find creative solutions to problems I couldn’t solve while sitting at my desk. Unless I’m expecting an important email or phone call, I try not to touch any work on the weekends.

Find another passion: While it is very important to be passionate about your profession, I also think it’s important to be passionate about something outside of librarianship. All the librarians I know have lots of interests and hobbies. Pick one and put some energy into it. Mine is yoga. If I’m not at work, I’m in the yoga studio. I take my yoga practice very seriously and I make sure to carve out time for it. My colleagues sometimes think I’m crazy for doing yoga upwards of 15 hours a week (–I don’t have children), but on the contrary, it actually keeps me sane.

Have compassion for yourself: When you’re not able to do things as quickly and as efficiently as you are used to, be easy on yourself. Be mindful enough to realize that the blockages you are encountering do not reflect your value as a librarian or a person. Know that with time and patience, this will pass. And if it doesn’t, then you need to seek help or make a change.

Do you have any tips on navigating the work/life balance?

“Power Searching” with Google

Google, common “frenemy” of academic librarians everywhere, has put together a short online class called Power Searching. The course is designed to teach you how to find good, quality information more quickly and easily while searching Google. When I first heard about this course, my first thought was “Ah, Google is stealing my job!” After I calmed down a bit, I read over the description for the course and decided to enroll. I wanted to check out our potential competition and I hoped I might be inspired by new ideas and tools to incorporate into my teaching.

The course is divided into six classes and each class is further broken down into short videos. Each class totals approximately 50 minutes of video content. Following each short video there is an optional opportunity to test the skills demonstrated by David Russel, Senior Research Assistant, through an activity or quiz. The course contains a pre, mid, and post class assessment. After successfully passing both the mid and post class assessments, you receive an official certificate or completion. To supplement the concepts taught in the classes, Google search experts also offer forums and Google Hangouts. When I took the course, it lasted about two weeks and a new class was released every three days or so. The classes could be completed any time prior to the specific due date.

The classes themselves definitely hit on topics that we usually cover in our library workshops, such as choosing good keywords and thinking critically about the source of the information. But for the most most part, it was about more about clicking this and then clicking that…similar to a typical electronic resource demonstration. I did get bored a few times and skipped some of the activities. Also, I never had the motivation or desire to participate in any of the forums or Hangouts, but that was mainly due to my busy schedule. Despite all of this, I’m not too proud to admit that I also learned a few things–specifically on how to specific operators and how to do an image search.

So, is Google stealing our jobs? No. (At least not right now.) What academic librarians do that Google cannot is work with researchers on the gray, messy stuff like choosing a research topic, determining what types of info are needed, and figuring out the best way to use information. If more first-year and non-traditional students took the initiative to enroll in Google’s Power Searching class, I think it would help me as a librarian to focus more on those gray areas and less on the logistics of doing a simple search. While from a pedagogical stand point I didn’t have any “Aha!” moments, I may incorporate some of their search examples into my future library sessions.

I think it would be awesome of Google collaborated with a college or university library and did this same type of class for effectively using Google Scholar for research. (If you’re reading this, Google–I’m available!)

Have any other librarians taken Google’s Power Searching class? I’d love to hear what you think of the course and its content.

Active Learning and Teaching the Teacher

Ever since I attended ACRL’s Immersion Teacher Track about a year ago, I’ve been trying to incorporate more active learning strategies into my classes—and surprisingly, it’s been a lot of fun! One unintended benefit of these activities has been the opportunity for me to see inside the minds of students by seeing and hearing how they reason their way through this crazy journey we call research.

A couple weeks ago, I did a workshop for juniors and seniors enrolled in a music management course that requires students to write a large research paper. One problem the professor and I encountered in prior semesters was that students struggled with assessing and using their sources properly. For example, they sometimes have problems discerning when a source is heavily biased.

In an effort to get students thinking critically about assessing their sources I came up with a group activity. Each group had a different research topic with three sources. The sources ranged from peer-reviewed articles to a search in Twitter for “Skrillex” and “dubstep.” I asked students to incorporate the CRAAP test (–the brainchild of the brilliant librarians at CSU Chico), which stands for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy and purpose. After utilizing the CRAAP test, students were instructed to decide if (1) they would use the source for each paper and (2) how they would use it. Following the activity, each group presented their topic and three sources to the rest of the class.

I’m hopeful that this activity will eventually prove to have any effect on this group’s ability to assess and use their sources. We shall see. Nevertheless, I can definitely say that it taught me a lot about students’ perception of sources of information. Here were a few of my notable observations:

Autobiographies and interviews: While students were able to recognize the value of these as primary sources, they didn’t seem to understand how a musician’s statements regarding his/her own success could not be completely trusted.
Blog posts: Students were really suspicious of blog posts—and they should be! But they didn’t immediately see the utility of a blog post as evidence of public opinion.
Twitter: Musicians use Twitter to connect with their fans, but students didn’t recognize the potential for using it to monitor trends in music genres or musicians.

This activity made me realize how I subconsciously make assumptions about how students think. For whatever reason, I thought students would be better at discerning how to effectively use unconventional sources. I also wonder to what extent their responses were informed by what they thought I (the librarian) wanted to hear. Regardless, I am pleasantly surprised to discover how active learning activities can be used to teach the teacher.

Summer Projects

Ah, summer! A time when we all get to take a deep breath and work on all those things we put off during the school year. I’ve always thought that summer at an academic library is sort of a strange time. Even though it feels more relaxed in and around campus, we’re still quite busy getting things ready before the students return. Last week when I realized that it was already August, I had to stifle a feeling of panic—the summer feels like its slipping away along with the time to work on all my projects.

Three projects that I’ve been working on over the summer include:

Reviewing the collection: Our library is doing a massive and much needed inventory and collection review project. This has involved the efforts of practically every person in the building. For my part, I’ve been looking at each of our music and theatre arts holdings and determining what could be withdrawn (–teaching faculty will get the final say). There have been endless book trucks coming in and out of my office. Nevertheless, it has been a great opportunity for me to see the strengths and weaknesses of the collection.
Processing opera scores: A few years ago my institution received a large donation of hundreds of music scores from the wife of a former opera professor. Most of these are opera scores. The collection has sat untouched awaiting cataloging and processing. Thankfully I was able to hire a music cataloger this summer and we are almost finished with cataloging the entire collection. Some items include incredibly rare 18^th century first edition opera scores. In the future, I would like to apply for a grant to digitize some of these rare materials. But for now, I’ll just be relieved and satisfied once they officially join our collection.
Combining the Olympics and information literacy: While I am not a huge sports fan, whenever the Olympics roll around, I find myself glued to the television practically every night—especially for gymnastics, swimming, and track and field. Lately I’ve been thinking that there must be a way for me to incorporate some sort of Olympic-themed activity or research inquiry into one of my information literacy sessions this Fall. So far nothing has come to me, but I have had a lot of fun perusing the official website for the Olympics—including their photo gallery which contains over a hundred galleries based on year and sport. The photos go as far back as the 1896 games in Athens.

What huge projects are you working on this summer and will you actually finish them?