Making Meaning in the Liberal Arts in the 21st Century AMICAL Conference Cairo, Egypt May 30, 2006

Susan L. Perry Senior Advisor The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Director of Programs Council on Library and Information Resources

Making Meaning in the Liberal Arts Faculty, Librarians and Instructional Technologists Working Together

‘New Eyes Each Year’ New eyes each year So youth and age Find old books here, Like ink and page And new books, too, In this house join, Old eyes renew; Minting new coin. Philip Larkin, February 1979

A liberal education helps us to begin to know what we know, to be receptive to what we don’t know and to make connections between the two. It helps us to pose interesting questions, exercise curiosity, reserve judgment, gather opinion, answer questions intelligently and communicate articulately. A Liberal Education Inspired by Sale, Roger. A mind lively and at ease. In New Perspectives on Liberal Education, edited by Herbert Costner. pp Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989.

The OCLC Environmental Scans  Pattern Recognition.  Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. “The landscape has changed and the maps have not been published yet.”

Three Trends from Pattern Recognition Self-Service--people love to find things for themselves using the web Satisfaction--people are happy with what they find using the web. 78% of those surveyed say the open web is providing most of what they need. Seamlessness--” the separation of academic, leisure and work time is fusing into a seamless world aided and supported by nomadic computing and information appliances that support multiple activities.”

Three Trends from Perceptions Attitudes --Users do not trust purchased information over free information. --Search engines are rated higher than libraries as satisfactory sources of quality and quantity of information. --Most respondents agree that the library is a place to learn.

Three Trends from Perceptions Behaviors --Increased reliance on search engines to begin information searches (84%); 90% satisfaction level with search engine results. --Search engines fit consumers’ lifestyle better than physical or online libraries.

Three Trends from Perceptions Knowledge --Most information consumers are not aware of libraries’ electronic information resources.

Four other issues that will impact libraries Disaggregation Collaboration Distance/online education Changes in Scholarly Communication

Two Stories Technopedagogy Student Interviews George Mason University “Teaching Across the Curriculum”

‘You know, we write an awful lot of papers!’ Students involved in the Technopedagogy Workshops

George Mason University Embedding Technology in the Curriculum

Conversations with… Student Interviews - movie

What Do 21st Century Historians Need To Know? How will they learn it?

The Valley of the Shadow University of Virginia

American Memory The Library of Congress

Historical Atlas Project Mount Holyoke College

Arab World NITLE

Alexander Street Press

Resources Bert Lott’s article: “An Editorial on Grading Student Work in Multimedia” (nyp) EDUCAUSE Review March/April 2003 article by Elizabeth Daley EDUCAUSE Review July/August 2003 article by Diana Oblinger ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology; Volume 5, 2004

Thanks to… Tamra Hjermstad, Mount Holyoke College Bert Lott, Vassar College Bryan Alexander & Sarah Lohnes, CET, Middlebury College Andrea Nixon, Carleton College And the students who were willing to share their opinions and their time