Events
- Annual Convention
- Great Teaching Round-up
- Leading from the middle
- fall conference for faculty leaders
- The Texas Network
"I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision."
Events: 2012 Library Schedule
Library Summary
Friday, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"Innovative Technologies for School Libraries"
Speaker: Kaye E. Bray, Assistant Professor of SLIS, Texas Woman’s University
Friday, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
"The Necessity for Information Literacy Skills in a World of Google and Wikipedia"
Speaker: Jessica Bacques, Education Outreach Representative, EasyBib; and Emily Gover, Librarian, EasyBib
Joint session with English Section
Saturday, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
"Faculty and Librarians: A Win/Win Collaboration"
Panelists: Andrew Preslar, English instructor, Lamar State College-Orange; and Kat Balch, English Instructor, Collin Community College
Friday, March 2nd, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
"Innovative Technologies for School Libraries"
Speaker: Kaye E. Bray, Assistant Professor of SLIS, Texas Woman’s University
Emerging technologies continue to change the way the school library and
instructional technology function, allowing librarians more opportunities to reach and impact students. Online technologies such as networking, blogs, wikis, book trailers, podcasts, and iPads allow librarians to move beyond the four walls of the library. Discover ways to utilize emerging technologies.
Biography:
Kaye Evitt Bray is an educator who specializes in the use of technology in school classrooms and libraries. She has taught technology-related courses for over ten years at the University of North Texas, Cameron University, and at Texas Woman's University. Her research focuses on using technology for collaboration and communication. She received her Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of North Texas, where she also received an M.L.I.S. in the School of Library and Information Science and an M.S. in Computer Education and Cognitive Systems. She has been a classroom teacher and school librarian, has served as a director-at-large for the national Beta Phi Mu library science honor society, and is active in the Texas Library Association. She currently serves as historian and web master for the local chapter of Beta Phi Mu.
Friday, March 2nd, 2:30 - 3:45 p.m.
"The Necessity for Information Literacy Skills in a World of Google and Wikipedia"
Speaker: Jessica Bacques, Education Outreach Representative, EasyBib; and Emily Gover, Librarian, EasyBib
Joint session with English Section
Students today by habit go to Google to begin their research. The results oftentimes contain the likes of Wikipedia, and websites driven by marketing and bias, rather than reliable academic content. At the same time, the library offers a plethora of great information which is increasingly underutilized. How do we teach students to properly research in a world of growing information? We will address how we are building tools to cultivate research skills that are critical not only in academia, but in our everyday information-driven lives.
Biographies:
Jessica Bacques is a New Orleans native who graduated from New York University with a degree in environmental science. While working on her senior paper, she realized the importance of having an effective way to manage research. Through her studies, Jessica has come to understand the challenges that today’s students face, and is committed to providing them with a quality solution. She loves working with librarians to help address student research needs.
Emily Gover is a graduate of the University at Albany's Master's in Information Science program. She has worked for Reader's Digest as an editorial librarian, at a small public library in New York, and most recently as a Web Services Librarian at Berry College in Georgia. Her main interests lie in web services, usability studies, information literacy and reference work.
Saturday, March 3rd, 10:30 - 11:45 a.m.
"Faculty and Librarians: A Win/Win Collaboration"
Panelists: Andrew Preslar, English instructor, Lamar State College-Orange; and Kat Balch, English Instructor, Collin Community College
As librarians we think we know what faculty want or need from the library, but do we? Participate in a roundtable discussion with faculty members on what libraries and librarians can do to promote a Win/Win/Win culture on your campus. With collaboration the faulty members win, the library wins and of course the students win!
Biographies:
Andrew Preslar has held several different types of jobs during his adult life: An electrician's helper, a motor mechanic, an office manager, a librarian, an advertising salesperson, and a sausage stuffer, but when he started teaching English Composition and Literature at Lamar University, he found his niche and has continued with minimal chafing to occupy it, plying his trade as a full-time vocation for over 20 years. Andrew has also written poems, short stories, a self-proclaimed "bad novel," and various articles; served as an associate editor with three consecutive editors in chief for a small periodical called Review of Texas Books; and performed consulting work for such disparate clients as the United States Navy, a consortium of japans shipbuilders, National Evaluation Systems, and a colleague writing a biology textbook. He was a member of Lamar State College's leadership team through the SACS accreditation cycle, rewrote and edited the college's compliance certification report, and wrote and later directed the Quality Enhancement Plan. Andrew is now involved in the LSC-Orange Committee on Academic Excellence, the Faculty Senate, and the General Education Assessment Committee.
In 2007-08, Andrew served as interim director of the Division of Arts and Science, where he reacquired a love of teaching. He was listed in eight of the first ten editions of Who's Who Among America's Teachers and received a prestigious lifetime achievement award for excellence in teaching (and $5,000) from a private foundation in San Antonio. Andrew has also been honored to receive a resolution of recognition and appreciation from the Texas State University System Board of Regents and a letter of appreciation and gratitude from our state governor, Rick Perry. He has received the approbation of students and colleagues with four favorite faculty member awards from the LSC-Orange students and numerous teaching excellence, professional excellence, and President's merit awards from his colleagues and superiors.
Katherine Balch has dedicated much of her adult life to the Academy, having taught at the college level since 1998. Her teaching experiences have run the gamut from Developmental/Remedial Reading and Writing through Technical Communication and various literature survey courses. Having taught in both public and private colleges and universities, she's experienced the broad range of socioeconomic and cultural groups in the southern United States--and feels equally comfortable in any situation. She has served as a department head at various colleges during the past thirteen years. In 2002, Katherine was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant to attend the Salzburg Seminars in Salzburg, Austria, and is a fellow of Session 403--"From Page to Screen". At Collin College, she serves as subcommittee chair for Literature with the English Curriculum Review Committee--a standing committee of the college--and on the Health and Safety Fair Organizational Committee. She also is a mentor to associate faculty.
In her "other" life (outside the Academy), she is a Bronze-level certified Freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling coach and serves as a professional sports announcer for USA Wrestling, the national governing body of Olympic-style wrestling in the United States. She has also been the arena announcer for the Darton College Lady Cavalier Basketball team from Albany, GA. Currently, she serves Collin College as the emcee of the annual Health and Safety Fair.
Library Section Co-chairs:
Mary McCoy, Lamar State College–Orange
Terri Karlseng, Collin College