Presentation Academy 2015

I am currently one of the faculty members for the VLA Presentation Academy. The Presentation Academy is a hybrid experience that: matches prospective presenters together for panels and co-presentations, assists people in writing successful conference proposals (VLA or other), provides Webinars on effective presentation design, and gives feedback to participants on presentations.

We held our initial meeting at UVA on March 2. We had 35 attendees for the half day event. This day was focused on brainstorming activities, and activities focused on creating effective proposals.

After this workshop, participants could submit proposals to us that we would then offer feedback on. Many of these proposals were submitted to the VLA annual conference. Presentation Academy proposals had an acceptance rate of 92%. In June and July we offered webinars on Designing Effective Presentations and Engaging Audiences. Candice Benjes-Small and I presented the webinar on Designing Effective Presentations and Rebecca K. Miller and Nathan Flinchum presented the webinar on Engaging Audiences. The Designing Effective Presentations PPT can be seen below.

Designing Effective Presentations - Slides and Notes from Jennifer Resor-Whicker

Another cohort of the Presentation Academy began at the 2015 VLA annual conference. Our second meeting of that cohort is in March 2016 in Staunton, VA.

We also offered an ALA webinar on our experience planning and facilitating the Presentation Academy. The webinar can be seen here.

We are also scheduled to hold pre-conferences at the upcoming Tennessee Library Association Conference and the joint Maryland/Delaware Library Association Conference.

Big Read NRV

Last year I joined a committee that was tasked with bringing the Big Read to the New River Valley. Librarians, faculty and staff from Radford University, Virginia Tech, New River Community College, Radford Public Library, Montgomery/Floyd Public Libraries, Pulaski Public Library, and the Glencoe Museum and Gallery joined together to make this happen. My co-worker, Lisa Vassady, was the chair of this committee, and so RU took point on this initiative. We chose the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. Thankfully we were awarded a $15,000 grant, and the Big Read NRV began.

Our programming began October 2, 2015, with the kick-off event at New River Community College with at presentation by, Hendrix College professor, war literature scholar and Tim O'Brien expert, Alex Vernon. Dr. Vernon's presentation, "Field Notes from The Things They Carried," was insightful and a wonderful way to start off our programming. Throughout the next 6 weeks there were book groups, art exhibits, a health and wellness event, events focused on children and teens, presentations, movie showings, panel discussions, a conference and a concert.

The Big Read NRV concluded with a presentation by the author himself, Tim O'Brien. The grand finale was held at Virginia Tech, and featured an outstanding talk from Mr. O'Brien. The Grand Finale wrapped up with him sticking around to talk to attendees and sign books.

The copy of The Things They Carried that author Tim O'Brien signed for Lisa, Alyssa and I.

Big Read NRV committee members with author Tim O'Brien at the Grand Finale event.
Photo by Lora Gordon.

My co-worker, Alyssa Archer, and I were there to assist Lisa every step of the way. At the time we took this on, we had no idea what we had gotten ourselves into. This was a huge undertaking, and there is no telling how many hours we put in on this project alone. This project was immensely rewarding though. It was wonderful to see the community come together to share this beautiful work of literature. It was wonderful to be able to reach out to the veterans on campus and in our community. Working with our different partners was a very gratifying experience. We created partnerships that I am sure will continue in the future. It is wonderful to be apart of such an amazing community.

The Innovative Library Classroom Conference 2015

This is year two of The Innovative Library Classroom Conference, and I am very fortunate to be a co-chair of the conference for another year. It was held at Radford University on May 12, 2015. This year's conference had a proposal acceptance rate of 41%. There were 82 attendees, and 38 different institutions were represented from 10 states. I am so very proud of the way this conference has grown.

This year I also co-presented a conversation starter with Katelyn Tucker. This conversation starter was focused on online instruction videos. We wanted to get a dialogue going about how different libraries are handling online instruction videos. We had a great conversation and I feel like everyone left with new ideas on how to create and manage their online instruction videos. Below is the Prezi we used to guide the discussion.



We also published an article on using Prezi to create online instruction videos based on this presentation and the poster that we presented at Metrolina and VLA. The article was published by Internet Reference Services Quarterly in November 2015 and can be seen here.

2015 VLA Annual Conference

The 2015 VLA Annual Conference was held in Richmond, VA on October 21-24. This year I had the honor to be a member of the VLA conference committee and the volunteer coordinator. This was a huge undertaking that I began working on in the spring. I had to manage volunteers for the entire conference. We could not have done it without the wonderful people who volunteered their time. There were 80 sessions and 80+ volunteers that helped everything run smoothly. Volunteers moderated sessions, pointed conference goers in the right direction and assisted with lunch distribution as well as luncheon and social gatherings. It was a great conference, and I got to meet a lot of wonderful librarians. Virginia libraries have created a community like no other.

I'm so proud to have been a member of this committee.

On top of being the volunteer coordinator I also co-presented a session with Candice Benjes-Small on Urban Legends and Practical Pedagogy, and co-presented a pre-conference that began the new cohort of the Presentation Academy with Candice Benjes-Small, Rebecca K. Miller and Nathan Flinchum. It was a busy 3 days for me.

I've agreed to be the volunteer coordinator at next year's VLA annual conference as well. The fun continues.

VLA 2016 Elections

I am honored to say that I was asked to run for Treasurer of VLA this year.

The elections begin today. If you are a member of VLA please consider voting for me. My biographical information and candidate statement are below.

Biographical Information
Jennifer Resor-Whicker is a Reference/Instruction and the Honors Academy Librarian at Radford University’s McConnell Library, where she has been employed since 2010. She holds the faculty rank of assistant professor. Jennifer has been a member of VLA since 2008. She served as Treasurer/Secretary of VLACRL from 2013-2015. She served as cochair to The Innovative Library Classroom conference for the 2014 and 2015 conferences. She is currently serving as a faculty member for the 2015 VLA Presentation Academy, and as volunteer coordinator for the 2015 VLA Annual Conference. Jennifer also serves as a member of the McConnell Library’s Outreach Committee, where she works to provide targeted support to RU’s faculty. She has represented the library as a member of RU’s Faculty Senate since 2013, and served on RU’s QEP ScholarCitizen Planning and Launch Committees. She has also served as a member and chair of McConnell Library’s Personnel Committee, and as chair of the library’s Faculty Committee. She holds an MLIS and a BA, both from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a graduate of the 2012 ACRL Teacher Track Immersion Program. She has published in Virginia Libraries and in Communications in Information Literacy. ALA’s Library Instruction Roundtable selected an article she co-wrote with her RU colleagues on web evaluation as one of the top 20 articles of 2013.

Candidate Statement
I am honored to be nominated for the position of treasurer of VLA. I am excited by the opportunity this brings for me to become more involved in VLA. This has been a goal of mine since moving to Virginia in 2010. I am regarded in my library for my organizational skills. In my previous life I was an office manger for a commercial plumbing company, where I handled all the accounting duties. I believe my skill set matches up well with the duties of the VLA Treasurer. Thank you for this opportunity.