VCAL OER Summit

April 25th 2019 9:30-2:30 PM

Vermont Technical College, Judd Hall, Randolph Center, VT

Almost all VCAL libraries were represented at the conference and everyone was excited about the conversations around OER. The featured speakers Marilyn Billings and Robin DeRosa generated alot of energy and interest. Their slide presentations are shared below.

Open Education: The Why, What, and How for Librarians- Marilyn Billings

Marilyn Billings is the Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her most recent activity has focused on her work as a campus leader and national speaker on the topic of alternatives to high cost textbooks, the use of open educational resources, and coordinator of the Open Education Initiative (OEI) launched at UMass Amherst in spring 2011.

Open Pedagogy, Social Justice, and the Practical Path to Commons-Oriented Learning- Robin De Rosa

Robin DeRosa is a professor at Plymouth State University, part of the University System of New Hampshire, where she directs the Interdisciplinary Studies program. She is also an editor for Hybrid Pedagogy, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that combines the strands of critical pedagogy and digital pedagogy to arrive at the best social and civil uses for technology and new media in education. Robin represents a faculty perspective in implementing OER.The slides from Robin’s presentation.Raw slides in Google for remixing.

VCAL Opposes Federal Budget Proposal

Like others in the library community, the Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) is dismayed at the draconian budgetary cuts proposed in President Trump’s FY2018 budget. The specific proposals to eliminate funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) would have a devastating effect on small communities in a rural state such as Vermont, communities that rely heavily on federal support to keep the doors of their libraries open to the public.

Read here for the remainder of our statement: VCAL Opposes Federal Budget Proposal

October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month

October is National Information Literacy Awareness Month. The attached statement details the centrality of information literacy to lifelong learning and responsible citizenship. The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries, Vermont School Library Association, and the Vermont Library Association believe this important topic deserves the attention of all Vermonters.

We appreciate your time and attention in reading our statement, which is a starting point in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of information literacy to Vermonters’ success in school, the workplace, and society.

Information Literacy Initiative

The Vermont Consortium of Academic Libraries (VCAL) and the Vermont School Librarians Association (VSLA) have joined forces to promote information literacy as an essential skill for all Vermonters, with a special focus on high school and college students and academic success.

A joint working group (Jane Kearns, Eileen Gatti, Nancy Fawley (VCAL); Sharon Hayes, Susan Monmaney, (VSLA); and Margaret Woodruff (VLA)) has been charged with the following as a first step in this effort: “The Information Literacy Working Group will circulate a letter focused on the benefits of an informationally literate student body to Vermont school committees in time for National Information Literacy Month in October 2016.”