World Population might be 7.5 billion this year with corrected counting errors http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/05/world-population-counts-have-one-to-two.html That’s a lot of library users. Stephen

Anatomy of a Grammar Nerd http://mentalfloss.com/article/65070/anatomy-grammar-nerd My guess is that a lot of my readers identify with this… (If you’ve ever taken a pencil to correct signage …   Stephen

Well, well, well. Today is the 10th anniversary of this blog - my so-called blogiversary. It has been a fun run and I hope to keep going. My first post stated the theme of this blog and it hasn’t changed much. "The lighthouse theme is based on what lighthouses do - shine a light on the waters and/or sound a horn to help ships navigate the course. They don’t always stop the ships from crashing onto the rocks but they help most of the time.  So, arrogant or not, I hope that this blog contributes in some small way to helping the good ship Library World navigate to their vision of the future." I’m also finding that, as I get older, it serves as a great memory tool for tracking the things I’ve read.  If I want to find a post I can just go to the Google and search "Stephen’s Lighthouse" and whatever report or link I want to find. There have been a lot of changes over these ten years.  I started the blog when I was at SirsiDynix and then continued it while I was at Gale Cengage.  It traveled with me into my consulting practice - Lighthouse Consulting Inc. - see what I did there? Every day it’s been a part of my coffee in the morning and I’ve loved seeing my posts wend their way through the blogosphere and social media networks. Anyway, it’s always useful to note these anniversaries and then just keep on truckin’ on. Stephen      

Understanding and Serving People Experiencing Homelessness: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Library Service  http://www.ala.org/pla/onlinelearning/webinars/archive/homelessness A Two-Part Webinar Series In January of 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. Homelessness among children and families has risen to an historic high. Adults, youth, and families experiencing homelessness face a wide range of challenges including lack of affordable housing, employment opportunities, healthcare, social connections, and other needed services, as well as high rates of exposure to traumatic stressors that impact health and well-being. As homelessness increases, so does the significant intersection between homelessness and library service. This two-part series addresses the prevalence, causes, and impact of homelessness and related trauma on children and adults, while exploring ways to address homelessness in public libraries. Part I Part I covers prevalence and causes of homelessness and also the impact of these traumatic experiences on adults and children, with a link to the intersection between homelessness and public libraries. Originally presented June 3, 2015. Part II Part II continues with ways to respond to homelessness in a public library setting—including some of the models that currently exist, as well as the concept of "trauma-informed" library services and what the core principles of this approach look like. Originally presented June 10, 2015." More: Stephen

Fast Reads: INFOGRAPHIC http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/fast-reads-infographic/107883 Stephen

Fascinating research reported in HBR that asked how many people would you have to ask before you got someone to deface a library book. Ack! You’re Already More Persuasive than You Think https://hbr.org/2015/08/research-were-much-more-powerful-and-persuasive-than-we-know "Research my colleagues and I have conducted offers some practical suggestions on how to make requests. Just ask. The number one mistake people make is psyching themselves out before even asking for something. Be direct. Another common mistake is asking indirectly by dropping hints ("Hey Bob, what are you doing this weekend? I’m going to be working on a big project. I wish I had some more help…"). We think we’re being polite by doing so and that people will therefore be more likely to agree to our requests. But my colleagues’ and my research shows that people respond more positively to direct requests. ("Hey Bob, would you mind helping me out with a project this weekend if you have time?") Go back and ask again. Another assumption people make is that you shouldn’t ask a person who has previously said "no." After all, if they said "no" once, they are likely to say "no" again, right? But another line of research by my colleagues and me shows that this assumption is not necessarily true; in fact, saying "no" can sometimes make people more likely to say "yes" to a subsequent request because they feel so guilty about having previously said "no." Incentives are not needed. Finally, we tend to think we need to offer someone something in return for a favor — a few dollars for the trouble. However, my research shows that people are just as likely to comply with certain requests for free as they would be in exchange for an incentive. People feel good when they can do something to help someone else out. We tend to have a lot of misconceptions about influence — how much of it we have, the best way to wield it. Fortunately, the reality is more encouraging than we imagine. The power of a simple, direct request is much greater than we realize." Stephen

Beloit College 2019 Mindset List http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2019/ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/18/beloit-releases-annual-mind-set-list-what-freshmen-know-and-dont-know "Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released its "mind-set list" to help faculty and administrators understand what a new class of freshmen have experienced and not experienced. Here is the list for the entering college class of 2019, most of whom were born in 1997. Among those who have never been alive in this group of students’ lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau and Mother Teresa. Since these students have been on the planet:" "2019 LIST Students heading into their first year of college this year are mostly 18 and were born in 1997.  Among those who have never been alive in their lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau, and Mother Teresa. Joining them in the world the year they were born were Dolly the sheep, The McCaughey septuplets, and Michael "Prince" Jackson Jr. Since they have been on the planet: 1. Hybrid automobiles have always been mass produced. 2. Google has always been there, in its founding words, "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible." 3. They have never licked a postage stamp. 4. Email has become the new "formal" communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual. 5. Four foul-mouthed kids have always been playing in South Park. 6. Hong Kong has always been under Chinese rule. 7. They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement. 8. The NCAA has always had a precise means to determine a national champion in college football. 9. The announcement of someone being the "first woman" to hold a position has only impressed their parents. 10. Charlton Heston is recognized for waving a rifle over his head as much as for waving his staff over the Red Sea. 11. Color photos have always adorned the front page of The New York Times. 12. Ellis Island has always been primarily in New Jersey. 13. "No means no" has always been morphing, slowly, into "only yes means yes." 14. Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party. 15. The Airport in Washington, D.C., has always been Reagan National Airport. 16. Their parents have gone from encouraging them to use the Internet to begging them to get off it. 17. If you say "around the turn of the century," they may well ask you, "which one?" 18. They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes. 19. Attempts at human cloning have never been federally funded but do require FDA approval. 20. "Crosstown Classic" and the "Battle of the Bay" have always been among the most popular interleague rivalries in Major League Baseball. 21. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny has never been the official song of the Virginia Commonwealth. 22. Phish Food has always been available from Ben and Jerry. 23. Kyoto has always symbolized inactivity about global climate change. 24. When they were born, cell phone usage was so expensive that families only used their large phones, usually in cars, for emergencies. 25. The therapeutic use of marijuana has always been legal in a growing number of American states. 26. The eyes of Texas have never looked upon The Houston Oilers. 27. Teachers have always had to insist that term papers employ sources in addition to those found online. 28. In a world of DNA testing, the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington has never included a Vietnam War veteran "known only to God." 29. Playhouse Disney was a place where they could play growing up. 30. Surgeons have always used "super glue" in the operating room. 31. Fifteen nations have always been constructing the International Space Station. 32. The Lion King has always been on Broadway. 33. Phoenix Lights is a series of UFO sightings, not a filtered cigarette. 34. Scotland and Wales have always had their own parliaments and assemblies. 35. At least Mom and Dad had their new Nintendo 64 to help them get through long nights sitting up with the baby. 36. First Responders have always been heroes. 37. Sir Paul and Sir Elton have always been knights of the same musical roundtable. 38. CNN has always been available en Español. 39. Heaven’s Gate has always been more a trip to Comet Hale-Bopp and less a film flop. 40. Splenda has always been a sweet option in the U.S. 41. The Atlanta Braves have always played at Turner Field. 42. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have always been members of NATO. 43. Humans have always had implanted radio frequency ID chips—slightly larger than a grain of rice. 44. TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks. 45. Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith have always been Men in Black, not their next-door neighbors. 46. The proud parents recorded their first steps on camcorders, mounted on their shoulders like bazookas. 47. They had no idea how fortunate they were to enjoy the final four years of Federal budget surpluses. 48. Amoco gas stations have steadily vanished from the American highway. 49. Vote-by-mail has always been the official way to vote in Oregon. 50. …and there has always been a Beloit College Mindset List." Stephen

NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-library-edition/ "What is on the five-year horizon for academic and research libraries? The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition examines key trends, significant challenges, and important developments in technology for their impact on academic and research libraries worldwide. This publication was produced by the NMC in collaboration with University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) Hannover, and ETH-Bibliothek Zurich. To create the report, an international body of experts from library management, education, technology, and other fields was convened as a panel. Over the course of three months, the 2015 NMC Horizon Project Library Expert Panel came to a consensus about the topics that would appear here. View the work that produced the report on the project wiki." >Download the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition (PDF) Stephen

Zarina Subhan is an experienced teacher and teacher trainer. She has taught and delivered teacher training at all levels, across the world. She joins us on the blog today for the fifth article in a series focused on boosting classroom participation. Last week, she explored asking better questions and improving questioning style to allow for different learning styles in class. This week, Zarina focuses on improving your own listening skills as a teacher. "Are you really listening…or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?" Robert Montgomery Last week in the previous article in this series, I explored how you can get more out of your students by improving your questioning technique - but it’s just as important to work on how you listen and respond to their answers. In an average, busy lesson when the teacher has planned a set of activities, it is easy to ask questions of our students, knowing what the answers should be. This sometimes results in ‘half listening’ to their responses. Students often answer with a lack of confidence in themselves, so they speak quietly, or purposefully mumble certain vocabulary that they feel they can’t pronounce properly. As teachers, we sometimes fill in the gaps of what we have heard, or think we have heard. This may appear to save time in the short-run, but it does not build the trust required to help students gain confidence. In the long-run, students who don’t fully trust their teacher and lack confidence in their abilities in another language take much longer to answer oral questions or offer opinions. It is in this kind of situation that a language lesson can often seem like a monologue and lack that important two-way communication. We therefore need to practise active listening. What is active listening? We can demonstrate that we are listening actively by the way that we respond to what someone is saying. First, how can we respond more positively to correct answers? If we just accept the answer as correct or acceptable and move on, we haven’t let the student know what we heard. Instead, show that you think the answer is a good one, by saying things such as "Exactly!" "Well done, you really thought about that" "Just what I was looking for". Ask the rest of the class "Did everybody hear x’s answer?" then ask the student to repeat it, adding "What you said is really important, I’d like everyone to hear it." This values an answer, boosts confidence and gives recognition to those who give it a try. It should also encourage others within the group to get involved too. But what do you do if you can’t hear, or don’t understand what a student is saying? Don’t move on after guessing what they meant, thinking that you are saving them from embarrassment. Tell them you couldn’t hear their answer and ask them to repeat it. If it’s the meaning that’s the problem, when they repeat the answer then it is useful to rephrase their response and ask them "Did you mean _______?" Surprisingly, rather than dying of embarrassment, the student will probably realise you actually want to know what they mean, and try to communicate their idea differently. If you follow with an apology for misunderstanding them (and state that you now understand what they mean), rephrase if necessary or restate the answer for the rest of the class. This demonstrates that you are willing to work with them on an answer and that you are truly interested in understanding their response. What can we do if students are struggling to answer? Students may try very hard to answer a question or give an opinion, but struggle to get their idea across in another language. In such cases we need to try to piece together and summarise what they are trying to say, with their consent. This illustrates that the message being conveyed is more important than accuracy of language and that inaccuracies don’t make an idea or opinion invalid. So if they stumble over whether to include an article or not, for example, quickly add "That’s right, we say on THE street," then bring them back to the content of what they were saying. "So what was happening on the street?" How can we explore students’ answers in more detail? It’s also important to check that the thought processes behind students’ answers are correct - in fact, this part is actually more important than the final answer! We can do this by asking questions such as "Tell me why you think that?" or "Where did you find that answer?" This also has the benefit of helping students who have been struggling to come to an answer, because they will hopefully be able to follow the thinking behind their classmate’s answer. In summary, teachers who listen actively do so by clarifying and rephrasing their students’ answers, and reflecting on their students’ thought processes. By concentrating on the thinking behind students’ answers, not just the answers themselves, we can foster a more trusting relationship between ourselves and our students, giving them greater confidence, and reducing their fear of making mistakes. After all, active listening leads to active communication, which should be every language teacher’s goal. This article was first published in the October 2014 issue of Teaching Adults. To find out more about the newsletter and to sign up, click here. Filed under: Adults / Young Adults Tagged: classroom participation, EAP, listening skills, Teaching adults, Teaching Adults newsletter

Rod discusses his experience at Bb World 2015, especially what he learned about the new SaaS offerings and Ultra Experience. Listen to the audio podcast as usual or listen and watch accompanying slides via Youtube. Thanks go to Jim Chalex, Sr. Director of Product Management, and Greg Ritter, Product Management Director at Blackboard Inc, for their BbWorld presentations on this topic. I hope I got it right!View Rod's #bbworld15 TweetsSaaS vs UltraBb Learn 9.1 & Ultra RoadmapsBb Collaborate Ultra RoadmapBb Mobile Ultra RoadmapNew Persona-based AppsBenefits of SaaSSaaS: Standard, Plus & AdvantageTransition and Migration OptionsUltra Tabs and ModulesBlackboard up for sale!Linkstry.blackboard.comwww.bbworldlive.comPodsafe music selection from Music AlleyDon't Be Long: The Beatles v Elken, a mashup of George Harrison's Blue Jay Way by Elken, a 60's influenced band from Dublin, Ireland. Duration: 21:58