You can code; you just may not know it yet. This presentation will cover the fundamentals of coding by looking at some of the most popular and important programming languages used today. By looking at different examples and the ways in which they share key commonalities, participants will learn about the concepts necessary to read and understand a block of code. We will include conclude with an opportunity for participants to create and execute a simple script (please bring your laptop if you’d like to get some hands-on coding experience).

It’s OK to admit it. When you went to law school, it was because you didn’t want to do any math. But then you got to work in legal education in the age of assessment and big data, and now you’re swimming in P-values, correlations, and standard deviations, with only the vaguest idea of what it all means. How will you make heads or tails of all this data if you actually want to use it to evaluate and improve your teaching and service? This program will introduce you to the basic terms and tools of data analysis, but without burying you in a mountain of equations. Instead, you’ll see the terms illustrated using images and stories that will help you better understand the concepts while leaving the calculations to those expensive software packages your institution already bought to do all that for you. You’ll also see how the math-averse can still use the powerful tools at their disposal to analyze everything from the difficulty of a single test question to the financial background of your entering class and talk about it in a manner that is both sensible and not confusing.

Paul Deschner and Stephen Chapman of the Harvard Law School Library Lab will report on the tools and techniques that project teams have been using to describe and rapidly and cheaply digitize collections. Through digitization, we aim to deliver research collections to the classroom—and freely via the web—to faculty, students, and scholars not only interested in accessing historic materials, but also enriching them by using tools for tagging. We will highlight the most recent phase of digitizing archival documents from the Nuremberg Trials of military, political and other leaders of Nazi Germany (the “Nuremberg Trials Project”), where staff prepped 4,285 folders (in 360 boxes) and scanned 413,647 document pages in 15 weeks. As of CALI 2015, we will also be able to share findings from a three-month experiment testing tools for document discovery and tagging.

The CALI staff started using Slack in March of 2014 and it quickly became our tool of choice for chatting, sharing information and files, and tracking what's going on with CALI. In addition to the chat and file sharing features, we make extensive use of the integration feature of Slack to import news feedsfrom law schools, system alerts from our servers, updates to our Github projects, and more. All of this allows to have a lot of information at our finger tips. This session will take a look at the basics of Slack including how to get started, some of the more advanced paid features (yes, we like it so much we have a subscription), and delve into the ways that CALI uses this tool for our projects.

Trying to fit more PC units in a smaller budget? Want more power in less space? Many have been tempted over the years to reduce expenses and spacial impact by adopting the ultra small form factor computers. This session will cover the various options; discussing the hardware and software options with some observations from the personal experiences of the panelists. Specific systems addressed will include Xi3, NUC, Rasberry Pi, HP Stream Mini, and the Mac Mini. Regardless of the problem you're trying to solve, you may find that the newest generation of tiny PCs will address that need: low cost pc, specialty applications, digital signage, small server, classroom lectern PC, lab PC, and desktop PC deployments for staff and faculty.

LibGuides are particularly associated with library research guides but they can be so much more. Many member institutions have LibGuides accounts but may not appreciate the vast potential of the service. In this program the speaker will highlight a variety of actual uses for LibGuides and the potential benefits for various user groups like staff, students, faculty, patrons, and even alumni. A portion of the program will be spent looking at code, CSS style sheets, other display elements, and the advanced features of LibGuides CMS like Groups and mobile customization. This program will focus on LibGuides version 2. A private LibGuide created for the program will contain the examples, links, notes, slides, etc.

The new ABA standards require law schools to incorporate learning outcomes into all of their credit bearing courses (Standard 302) and to utilize both formative and summative assessments to “to measure and improve student learning and provide meaningful feedback to students” (Standard 314). As UNT Dallas College of Law was being set up, the faculty decided to integrate learning outcomes and multiple assessments into the curriculum from day one.

Everyone is writing about how increasingly necessary it is for lawyers to have defined technology skills, and that even digital natives have few of the skills required for practice. Most of these discussions also insist that technology skills should introduced in law school rather than learned on the job. How do we help our students appreciate this knowledge gap? And, how to we begin to bridge it? Can we rely on the old standbys? (“Free pizza for 30 minutes of your time! (and some stealth learning)”). Lots of schools and individuals are exploring and experimenting with innovative programs to teach technology skills.

Lecture capture systems are great for recording classes - a couple of clicks and students get instant access to videos, slides, and more. But these systems are capable of handling even more interactive projects. In this session, we’ll discuss how we used the Panopto video management system go beyond basic lecture capture. We’ll discuss the pedagogical reasoning behind these projects, how we integrated an team of IT and library staff to create recordings, what worked (and what didn’t), and student and faculty reactions.

Rutgers Law School is the second law school in the United States to make the switch to Koha. In describing the process of changing to an open source ILS, Rutgers Law Library speakers will review the reasons that it was the right choice for them. They will give a nuts and bolts description of the entire process including researching the available vendors and products and cost analysis. Discussion will include a breakdown of the implementation process, data extraction, mapping the data and making design decisions about the user interface and functionality. Attendees will be given the tools to evaluate whether Koha makes sense for their organization. Rutgers worked with ByWater Solutions to make the implementation and transition smoother. A speaker from ByWater Solutions will also be available.