MCMLA Blog

You are cordially invited to join us for the Annual Priscilla M. Mayden Lecture at the Eccles Health Sciences Library, University of Utah, April 18 at 12:30 p.m. MDT. It will be held in room 2110 of the Health Sciences Education Building and simultaneously broadcast via the web (free). This year's lecture is titled "From Usability to User Experience," and will focus on the differences between usability and the user experience in website design:

Designing and building usable products, interfaces and websites is a noble goal -- we all want our tools to enable our users to accomplish their goals. But accomplishing a goal and having a delightful experience while doing it are two different things and usability can only get you so far. Enter user experience (UX) design! This presentation delves into the differences between usability and user experience design and provide attendees with ideas and insights into ways to incorporate UX design principles into their interface and web development workflows.

Amanda Etches-Johnson is the Head, Discovery & Access at the University of Guelph Library , where she spends her time thinking about and guiding teams and projects that are focused on improving discovery and access and making the overall library user experience better. She is also half of INFLUX , a user experience consultancy that helps libraries design amazing user experiences. In her role as adjunct faculty member at the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario, Amanda teaches graduate students about social media literacies and affordances.

For more information visit the Mayden Lecture website. This event is sponsored by the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library with funding provided by the Priscilla M. Mayden Endowment.

READ IT HERE!

There's a new issue of our newsletter, The Express, filled with news from the chapter and lots of great pictures from the meeting in Wichita.

The Free Lunch Award was established in 2009 to support MCMLA members’ attendance at the Chapter Council Sharing Roundtables Luncheon held at the annual MLA meeting. The Sharing Roundtables Luncheon is a time to network, share experiences and meet with colleagues at the annual MLA meeting. A list of topics is announced annually in the MLA Preliminary Program. Participants must sign up in advance and select a topic when registering for the annual MLA meeting.

To apply, you must be a member of MCMLA, register for the Chapter Council Sharing Roundtables Luncheon, and write a summary of the experience for the MCMLA Express after the MLA meeting.

The MCMLA Web Task Force has begun assembling this new site. Please, have a look around and let us know what you think. We know this may be a big change for some of you who are very familiar with the old site and know exactly where to click to get what you want. We ask that you keep an open mind and be thoughtful about what we're trying to do — present a more dynamic and modern web presence in hopes of engaging our membership and attracting new, future leaders of MCMLA.

You won't find the historic content from the old site but don't worry — it's being preserved. We plan to move old documents into a digital repository for safe keeping and easy searching. In the meantime, if you need access to something you can't find, please contact Amy Ritterskamp, aritterskamp@kumc.edu