Millenial Preconference

We had an excellent preconference! Nancy Truesdell, Dean of Students at Lawrence University started us off with a presentation on the characteristics of the millenial generation (students born between 1981-2000 give or take a few years) and how they differ from previous generations. She also talked about ways that campuses can and have adjusted to meet the needs of these students.

Nancy's presentation was followed by a panel of three librarians and two millenial students. Renee Buker, Outreach & Bibliographic Instruction librarian at UW Oshkosh discussed the various ways they've changed library instruction and other library programming to better reach the millenial population. Emily Rogers, Head of Access Service at UW-Green Bay, talked some more about the traits of the millenials and about the ups and downs of managing these students. And Terri Muraski, Access Services & Reference at UW Stevens Point, discussed the various technologies we can use to reach the millenial students using our libraries and ways in which they can be incorporated into instruction sessions.

The librarians were followed by presentations from two millenial students, Kyle Neugebauer, Lakeland College and PaNa Lor, UW Stevens Point. I found Kyle's comments particulary interesting in light of the Time Magazine article last week about the multi-tasking generation. He sees a big difference between himself and students even a few years younger than he. The younger students are more likely to be doing homework, listening to an i-pod, and chatting with friends and watching some sort of video at the same time.

PaNa was also very informative about her generation. She, as a first generation college student, also is a-typical of her generation, but has many friends and family members who have the distinct characteristics of the millenial generation.

All the presentations will be on the WAAL Conference website. And PG will have more.....