Notes from the 2013 VALE Users'' Conference

On Friday January 4^th I attended the 14^th annual VALE User’s Conference.  Where have all these years gone?  I remember attending a meeting all those years ago when the concept of a consortium of academic libraries was first discussed.  In 2013 were almost 300 librarians attending with a multitude of poster and breakout sessions.  As usual it was nice to encounter colleagues from other New Jersey colleges.  I will only comment on sessions that I attended.

Session B01 – VALID Project Update: Project Planning and Implementation Milestones

I have been following this project for several years and am disappointed that it has not yet come to fruition.  Marianne Gaunt, the University Librarian at Rutgers, stated that project will hopefully be done in two years.  It is my opinion that the project has moved slowly since the members of the implementation task force are from different institutions and can only devote so much time to this project.  VuFind has been selected as the discovery tool while the entire system will be on the Amazon Web Services Cloud Server.  This server will be located on multiple servers and not hosted by one institution.  Thus all member institutions will have access.

Session B09 VALID: Reference and Resource Sharing Update

Joseph Deodato of Rutgers spoke about the features that were recommended by the Reference Committee for the discovery layer.  I actually chaired this subcommittee that made these suggestions.  Judy Matthew of William Paterson University described how there would be a VALID circulation policy that will create a seamless experience for users.  Problems may be encountered when the circulation policy of a college differs from that of the consortium as a whole.

Featured Speaker – Dr. Ellie A. Fogarty, Vice President of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education

She spoke on the role of librarians in the assessment process.  When a university is evaluated by Middle States, the library should not stand alone.  There must be accountability and transparency  in this process.  Education should be competency based. 

Session B20: Determining the most appropriate type(s) of a assessment in library instruction – Bonnie Fong of Rutgers University

The assessment process considers who, what when, where and how.  These principles also apply in journalism.  We must determine what we are trying to assess including the learning objectives and exactly what is being taught.  We must assess both pre- and post-session.