Invited Presenters

Marilee J. Bresciani
Friday, March 13, 2009
Confronting the Business Lens for Accountability of General Education

Marilee Bresciani is the Associate Professor of Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University and faculty coordinator of the masters and doctorate in postsecondary educational leadership.  Bresciani previously served as the Assistant Vice President for Institutional Assessment at Texas A&M University and Director of Assessment at North Carolina State University. Her areas of research focus on organizational evaluation of student learning and development. Bresciani has authored four books, along with multiple chapters, refereed journal articles, and other publications. In addition, she is a frequent facilitator of workshops and conversations around evaluating student learning centeredness across the globe.  During her presentation in Seattle, Bresciani will discuss the differences and similarities between measures of success used in business and higher education, within the context of general education.

Description: Many constituents who hold higher education accountable for quality of student learning approach the conversation with the same lens in which they hold a business accountable for a quality product.  The presentation will address the differences and similarities between measures of success used in business and higher education, within the context of general education.  Understanding how the public may be holding higher education accountable for what could be considered learning that is general to any institution will frame questions that may encourage some to re-frame how they plan the delivery and evaluation of general education.

Peter Hernon
Friday, March 13, 2009
What Really are Student Learning Outcomes?

Peter Hernon is a professor at Simmons College where he teaches course on government information policy and resources, evaluation of information services, research methods, and academic librarianship. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and has taught at Simmons College, the University of Arizona, and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand). Hernon is the co-editor of Library & Information Science Research, founding editor of Government Information Quarterly, and past editor of The Journal of Academic Librarianship. He is the author of approximately 275 publications, 45 of which are books. He is the 2008 recipient of the ACRL award for Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. 

Description: This paper differentiates between student outcomes and student learning outcomes. The former are accountability metrics that characterize institutional success in simple terms and that are important to outside stakeholders. The latter might involve a partnership among those teaching in a program of study, and the goal of such a partnership is to improve the quality of the educational experience while holding institutions accountable to their declared mission.  

Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Saturday, March 14, 2009
“I would sort of appreciate a little more understanding:” Engaging Net Gen Students in Virtual Reference

Description: In order to engage new users and sustain current ones, academic librarians need to explore new opportunities to extend current services. The largest current and perspective cohort is the Net Gen, whose members demonstrate distinctly different behaviors from older cohorts. This presentation reports the results of online surveys with virtual reference services (VRS) users and non-users, emphasizing Net Gen students. The findings provide insight for the improvement of VRS regarding the integration of new technologies and services.

Elson S. Floyd
Sunday, March 15, 2009

Elson S. Floyd was named President of the four-campus Washington State University on December 13, 2006. He took office as the 10th president of Washington State’s land-grant research university on May 21, 2007.  He leads one of America’s most productive research universities. WSU is classified among the nation's 96 leading public and private universities with very high research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  Dr. Floyd brings an exceptionally wide range of administrative experience, as well as valuable state and national perspectives on higher education issues and policies. A native of Henderson, N.C., Dr. Floyd holds a bachelor of arts degree in political science and speech, a master of education degree in adult education, and a doctor of philosophy degree in higher and adult education, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Description: Elson S. Floyd will talk about the joys and challenges of being the President of a higher education institution in challenging times. He will talk about his philosophy of leadership and what he considers to be the highest priority for a University President. To quote President Floyd, “ In the end, our success will be determined not just by how many students we bring in, but by how many earn degrees and how those graduates transform the world in which they will live.” President Floyd believes in high standards, for himself as a leader and for all of the faculty and staff who work in the university that he
leads. He will share his guiding principles for leadership and for living the high standards each day of his life.  He will motivate and inspire his audience to stand tall in the face of economic and other challenges

Robin Chase
Sunday, March 15, 2009
 Invited Green Speaker 

Robin Chase is the cofounder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest car-sharing company in the world, and is currently the CEO of GoLoco, an innovative online ridesharing community. Robin Chase has revolutionized the way people travel by combining transportation needs with social networking and improving the quality of urban life for all.

Robin recently told ACRL, "Libraries have always been a cornerstone of my personal life: a place to discover new ideas, stumble upon new connections, and to do so in a welcoming and safe environment.  I'm really looking forward to being part of the conversation about what roles libraries can play in shaping minds and ideas in a new world of increasingly scarce global resources. Sharing books is much like sharing cars. How might libraries move beyond the ideas of "collaborative consumption" to those of collaborative production and user-generated content, the larger promises of the 2.0 phenomenon?"

Photo credit: American Program Bureau