The Sheck Spot

Best Twitter Experience Ever

2011-07-28T15:08:00.002-05:00

What did I do in my library life today?

I had the best Twitter experience EVER by trying to be a librarian to the White House Chat (#whchat) on the debt ceiling. There were a lot of rants and opinions slamming @whitehouse but there will also some genuine questions that I tried to answer. Some examples:

What is the history of the debt ceiling?
What is the difference between default and bankruptcy?
What might (notice the word MIGHT) happen if we default?

I tried to answer a few questions and ended my tweets with "From a friendly #librarian".

It was pretty awesome to get thank you's from other tweeters. People I do not know and never will. But maybe they will ask a librarian another question. Just maybe.

Exercising the power in my fingers

2011-07-27T09:32:00.000-05:00

The internet is Jim Gillian's religion.

pdf2011 on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Jim's story is powerful and profound. But even more powerful is the activism that he reminds us of. The creator and change agent in each of us as we blog, as we read, as we write emails. Seemingly mundane and trivial. But together, powerful.

Is that something we are reminding our students of? Is that something we are remembering ourselves? Information Literacy spends so much time talking about the evaluative. Are we thinking about the active, about the creative component? Are we thinking about how the information we find and ultimately put to use can impact the world?

This video reminds me of a bigger framework, a bigger picture in which to think about the work we do with students. But it also makes me remember the power that lives in my fingertips. Have I exercised it today? Have you?

Serious fun

2011-07-14T15:41:00.000-05:00

The Teaching Librarians have been working on our lesson plans for the fall over the last week. One of our sessions is with our third year students. I love working with third years. Something seems to happen by the junior year where many, if not most, of our students really understand that you are a valuable resource. They don't sleep through class. They ask questions. They ask for help. Hallellujah!

We are 100% committed to active, inquiry-based learning and to having fun in the classroom. As we thought about how to engage our students, we started talking about how third years seem ready to be serious. We don't have to "trick" them into participating or learning anymore. We can treat them like fellow researchers. It's kind of exciting.

In this case, students are tackling their first literature reviews. As we thought about what students need to do this assignment well, we found ourselves digging into some pretty advance research skills. As we talked about the what and the how, the question arose: how do we make the session fun while also imparting the serious nature of the assignment and the task? Can we be serious but also have fun?

We talked about a number of ways to engage our students. We talked about metaphors. We talked about using technology, music, Youtubes. We talked about relating to things they care about. We talked about the process, the outcomes. And we came up with a lesson plan that is feeling pretty solid. But still, the question haunts me. Not because I think I know the answer but because I think it is revealing about our own attitudes towards what we offer and sometimes teach.

I think fear factors into it. Fear of boring students and being boring, fear of messing up in front of them, fear of lacking authority, fear of not being invited back, fear of descending reference statistics, decreases in funding....AHHHH! (she runs and hides under her desk).

This fear is natural I think. We've been told for decades and longer that we will soon be outdone by computers. By golly, I watched Desk Set the other night and realized that we were already manifesting that fear in 1957! But while this fear is natural, it is also exhausting.

A particular axiom comes to mind: Ensure your own good time. What is it about databases that makes it fun for you? For me, I love how it makes me think about a topic in a different light. And that excites me. When I have to show databases in class, that is what I share about it. How this tool excites me and makes me feel like I am on an adventure. Dorky? Sure. By god, I'm a librarian! I am dorky!

Can we make serious research and serious teaching on research skills fun? YES! But it has to come from within.

So when it comes to the serious stuff, what is it that you (yes YOU) find fun about it? How to share something fun is way easier than sharing something boring, right?

Do you have a story to share about something serious you made fun? I'd love to hear it! Share away!

Where are the librarians?!

2011-07-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

I love reading about Wikipedia and love when I learn about new ways to use it. So, it was exciting to read this article from Inside Higher Ed about Wikipedia's efforts to expand and improve their reputation in higher ed. I wish I could have gone to their first conference on Wikipedia in Higher Ed!!

Wait a second...why didn't I?
And come to think of it, why didn't you?
Where are the librarians in all this?

Know anyone that went? Know anyone that blogged it? And if not, why?

What to teach and when to say enough

2011-06-23T08:50:00.003-05:00

While scrolling through my RSS this morning, I came across this article by Steven Bell. In it, Steven suggests that academic librarians welcome the opportunity to include financial literacy in our teaching. His argument is compelling and I applaud the idea that financial literacy is "the ultimate information challenge, and the consequences of the decisions can be life altering." Absolutely. Admittedly, I am still dealing with some poor decisions from college and directly after. I would love to help students learn to make sound decisions about the wide variety of financial information that is out there.

This topic converges with two things that are at the forefront of my mind: professional development and sustainability of information literacy programs.

The Teaching Librarians at Champlain are reading Char Booth's book "Reflective Teaching, Effective Learning" for our summer book (we read something together each summer). In the beginning of the book, Char talks about academic librarians' underpreparedness for a huge part of our jobs--teaching. If we are to take up Steven's call, how are we going to prepare ourselves for that teaching? Is this an opportunity to bring a new type of sponsor to ALA or ACRL? Will we see the likes of Citibank or TD Banknorth offering us bags and mugs with sessions about financial literacy? Or, are we going to take it upon ourselves to learn how to teach this vital literacy. As echoed earlier, financial decisions have lasting impact. Are we prepared to teach those skills, that literacy? Some of us might say yes because we are experts at evaluating and THAT is what they would share with students. Bravo, I say. But there is a lot wrapped up in taking something like this on. Do you have the time and the resources to prepare yourself and the other librarians to do this teaching? Do you know how to prepare yourself for it? I would urge us to think about this call as an opportunity for collaborations and new kind of professional development. It has potential to be wonderfully fruitful! But I don't think we should jump into teaching financial literacy without some help and training on our end too.

On to my second point: sustainability. We have had a number of visitors at Champlain lately. Some amazing librarians from Keene State came to talk about embedded information literacy. We then had the incredible Megan Oakleaf on campus to talk about the same and the value of academic libraries. As usual, I came away from these experiences with a long wish list. A list of ideas for our program, for the Teaching Librarians, for our faculty, for our students. As I sat in my office looking at these ideas, something truly eye opening dawned on me: it will never be enough. You could give me my own course to teach on IL (and I don't mean library skills...I mean, what I am calling, "real deal" IL). You could give me multiple visits to classes. You could give me a lecture series, student ambassadors, a marketing campaign, faculty toolkits, mentorships....give it all to me. And I will still want more. I will still think of things that I think we should think about with students. It will never be enough.

Are you laughing at me? Some of the more experienced librarians or managers might be because I imagine everyone comes to this realization at some point. I don't say this to deter you or myself from consistently reviewing our program, session content, or delivery strategies. Not at all. I say it to remind myself that some things will make it from my notebook to the design session and all the way to the classroom and even to assessment. And somethings won't. And that's ok. Financial literacy would be a terrific thing to add into my sessions. But where we are at Champlain, for something to come into a session, something has to come out, at least until we find a way into more sessions. And even then, it is never enough.

The best that I can do as a program manager is to work with my team to decide what are the skills and habits of mind that are essential. We move from there, knowing that we have more ideas to draw from when our students' needs change. There is something very grounding about that. And something inspiring and focusing about it as well.

What do you think about librarians taking on financial literacy?
Do you feel prepared to teach different literacies?
What training do you wish you had for teaching?
Are there ways to broaden our teaching strategies beyond sessions or classes for something like financial literacy?
Do you find something like "it will never be enough" disheartening or empowering?

Thoughtful Technology in the Classroom

2011-06-17T15:44:00.003-05:00

Andy and I presented at the Vermont Library Association's Special & Academic Library section on Tuesday in gorgeous Castleton, VT. We were even able to get the group into an inquiry exercise....pretty fun!

And the tuna melts at the Birdseye Diner was pretty awesome.

Fun, thoughtful technology in the classroom

View more presentations from Sarah Cohen

If you want to talk fun tech in the classroom, let me know!

Creativity on demand

2011-06-16T09:01:00.005-05:00

Randy Hensley was the keynote at NELIG a few weeks ago. Many of us know Randy as an instructor at Immersion and have learned so much from him in that environment. What he spoke about at NELIG was creativity. He talked about the attributes of creativity rather than modalities. Some of the attributes he listed included creativity as starting from an unusual place, as problem solving, as visual. But one thing he said that has really stuck with me is that creativity is not something that you turn on. It is engaging in a series of processes.

Creativity is not something you turn on.

Randy talked about preparing people to be creative rather than springing something on them in the hopes of creative bursts. He points out that 98% of us don't get creative that way. Rather, we need to prepare for it. To marinate on the topic. To develop creative approaches.

I have almost always asked the teaching librarians to turn on their creativity, to brainstorm on the spot. As I think about the dynamics of our team, I realize that I was not tapping into their most creative ways. I am one of those people that can, and enjoys, brainstorming on the spot. I have had to learn to adapt the way I prepare for teaching and Randy's talk has also taught me that I need to adapt how I approach creativity with others. It makes me think about how I approach prep for teaching, how I prepare for meetings, and how I can really allow everyone to engage in the creative process.

But it also made me realize what I need for creativity. I need to feel safe to speak and safe to fail. I need to know that not everything I say will be taken seriously. I need a partner in creativity (Andy, thank god, has been my partner and a darn good one. Apparently he's a good blogger too.)

What do you need? What circumstances really get your juices flowing? Or don't? When do you feel the most creative?

Using Mobile Phones in Info Lit Instruction

2011-06-08T10:51:00.004-05:00

Andy and I presented at the New England Library Instruction Group's Annual Conference this past Friday. Such a great day! I will be posting later on Randy Hensley's awesome keynote (he's incredible). Here are our slides on using Poll Everywhere in first year instruction. We had a terrific group in our session who posed a number of good questions about the technology, our program, assessment, and faculty reactions. If you have questions, please share them in the comments! Enjoy!

The Librarian Says "Turn Your Cellphones on!": Piloting mobile polling in inquiry-based information literacy instruction

View more presentations from Sarah Cohen.

Just model it.

2011-05-25T12:15:00.003-05:00

We recently ended the Faculty Collaborative at Champlain. This annual event brings faculty together for three weeks to have conversations we've been vying for but for which we never have the time. Anyone that has met me or worked with me knows how much I love things like this. Nothing feeds my soul more than listening to and participating in conversations about our students, our teaching, our curriculum, or our institution. I am one of those people. I love it.

As you might expect, one thing that came up a lot was our students. Faculty expressed a drastic increase in their frustration over a lack of curiosity in our students. And a lack of reading. It's no question that reading habits have changed over the course of all Americans but particularly young people in the last decade or longer. TV, computers, texting, video games. There's a lot of ways to entertain yourself. "Back in my day", my dad would walk in the room if we were watching TV and turn it off, no matter what was on, and tell me to go read a book. I did and here I am, a librarian and avid reader. There doesn't seem to be as clear a way to get kids to read today. My husband and I have paid a lot of attention to the literature about early childhood development and reading. Hence, our daughter gets at least one book a day (more like five) and she is only four months. But, I digress. The point I want to make is that there seems to be a shifting tone to the conversation. A tone of great concern and of disappointment and shock. One professor suggested locking all the students' cell phones in one room and forcing them to the stacks to read. I smile even as I write that down.

I don't think there is anything new here in terms of adult incredulity at student learning or student interest or student apathy. But I do think we are facing a change in terrain. I suggested to faculty that they neglect to realize how much reading students are doing. Just a reading of a different kind. I credit my friend and mentor, Rob Williams, for pointing this out to me when I taught an online class. When I shared my assignments with him he reminded me how much reading and writing students are doing on discussion boards. Or how much reading they are doing just to attend the class. He pushed me to make the readings I do assign more essential, more vital.

Today, we had a candidate for our librarian position field a question from a faculty member on this topic. The professor asked how we can get students to take their position as student more seriously. The response from the candidate was that we need to make a case for reading, for books, for whatever we want students to read. We need to be compelling rather than admonishing. I agree but I also think there is a component that is missing there. We need to model the behavior. We, as educators, talk about and know the value of this in writing. My 15 year old niece was just telling me how she wished she were a better writer and I immediately responded that to achieve that goal she should read more. She immediately went on to say that she hates to read but I reminded her that she doesn't have to read fiction. She can read magazines, newspapers, history, science, sports writing....whatever it is, she should read more of it. Turn off the TV, I said, and read anything of interest in any format but pay attention to how its written. If you like something in particular, try to write in a similar fashion. Model it.

And that, to me, is a fundamental need that is often overlooked. In libraries, in the classroom, modeling the behavior and the type of questions we want to see from students provides essential scaffolding to their learning those skills. If we want students to ask questions in a new way, let's stop asking them questions in the same way we have always done. If we want students to try new things, experiment, and get comfortable in new information environments, I think we have to ask ourselves if we model that behavior. One thing that Champlain librarians do exceptionally well is communicate the amount of fun we have helping students find information. And that invites students to have fun with us. But I wonder what behaviors I expect from students that I don't model.

What ways do you model "good" behavior? What strategies do you use to engage students that brings results?

Notice something new?

2011-05-10T07:40:00.003-05:00

After five years, I have made a few changes to the Sheck Spot.

Funny how one sentence can say so much.

"After five years": it's hard to believe I have been blogging for that long. While I go back and forth sometimes about whether intermittent blogging is ok, I deeply appreciate the space to think and develop ideas that a blog offers. It's not always pretty but as I look back at posts from these last few years, I can see how much I have grown as a librarian, as a teacher, even as a thinker and writer.

"I have made a few changes": well, the template is the most visible change. Changing the look of the blog is a lot like moving the furniture around in the living room. It's awkward at first. And I need a few mornings of looking at it, coffee in hand, to decide whether I like where I put things. Knowing me, a few changes are still to come. But it is kind of refreshing. Yet, I will admit that I did use the templates from blogger. I have neither the skill nor the inclination to customize so heavily as to tap into the code of templates. Sorry.

"The Sheck Spot": One thing I'd like to point out is my new tag line or subtitle. Previously it read, "Ruminations on Libraries, Technology, and the space between." And for years, that is what I was doing. "Exploring New Technology" was a big part of this blog as was Wikipedia. But again, I've been blogging for five years. And a lot has changed. Recently, I was asked for a bio for a presentation Andy and I are giving at NELIG's Annual Program. As I was writing it, I realized how much I focus on teaching and information literacy in my writing, particularly on my blog. Oftentimes when I write about technology it is in frame of teaching. So, let's call things by their proper names. The new tag reads, "Trying to make explicit what is implicit about information literacy, teaching, and libraries." The purpose, "trying to make explicit what is implicit" says a bit more about my process in the classroom. Whether it be our assumptions about students or our assumptions about our value in the university, I try to dig down a bit. I am a gardener, after all.

So, there are some changes a foot. Can I promise more posting? Not necessarily. But it feels good to open the windows and let some fresh air into the blog.

Happy Spring.

Librarians as Teachers: the Question

2011-04-15T07:48:00.007-05:00

A very close friend and colleague, Cinse Bonino, directs Champlain's Center for Instructional Practice. Essentially, it is our teaching and learning center. But Cinse is such an incredibly creative and original, it is not your run of the mill teaching and learning center.

In preparation for an all-campus retreat that is coming up, Cinse asked professors around campus to answer a series of questions about teaching for a video. She also asked the librarians to participate. As she said, we are teachers too.

Yes, we are teachers too.

At ACRL (by the way, the proceedings are now available!), I attended an excellent talk by Laura Saunders about librarians as teachers. During the talk, Laura made the point that it is not particularly revolutionary to think of librarians as teachers. Indeed! But she did point out that librarians are in need of professional development as teachers.

So, in the name of deepening our understanding of ourselves as teachers, in the name of concretizing the librarian/teacher identity, in the name of hard questions....let me pose the question Cinse posed to me.

Why do you teach?

To tell you the truth, I really had to give this some thought. This is a different question than "why are you a librarian", which I can easily answer. But, why do I teach?

That's harder.

Why do I teach?
I teach because I am curious.
I teach because I want to learn and I believe I learn by asking and helping to answer questions.
I teach because I want to do something other, something more than make money.
I teach because I like to see synapses fire.
I teach because I want to share what I know.
I teach because I want to have an impact.
I teach because I believe I can have an impact.
I teach because it teaches me.
I teach because I am good at it.

As I read those over, two thoughts come to mind: first, it's not a terribly academic answer. Rather, it is a very personal, heartfelt one. Second, it is not so much about students as it is about me. Who I am. What I am. What I enjoy. What I want.

I want to teach because I enjoy it.

I think that is an important component to the push for teaching in libraries: do we do it because we must or are expected to, or, do we do it because we love it?

That gets to the question of who we are, how we see ourselves, and ultimately, why we are essential to the academic experience (eg. why we are valuable).

So, let me put it to you....why do you teach?

ACRL 2011: A view from a few steps back

2011-04-07T09:08:00.005-05:00

So here's the thing about becoming a mom: I haven't been at work for a while. I haven't been reading library blogs or articles. I haven't been keeping up on technology. I haven't been "in the loop". I didn't even know delicious was wrapping up (not happy about that, by the way). So, going into ACRL was a different experience for me. It was a chance to put my head back in the game. But it also offered me a different perspective; to look at our work as academic librarians from a few steps back. To listen to talks with less of an opinion than I normally have because I haven't had my finger on the pulse.

It was different. And enjoyable. But also a bit frustrating. Here's a bit of a breakdown:

Enjoyable:
The tweeting. Steven Bell just wrote about the efforts of the conference organizers to encourage and support tweeting of the conference over at ACRLog but he makes some really interesting points about tweeting as a plus and a minus. He suggests that people that are tweeting aren't really listening. Sorry, but I disagree. For me, tweeting the sessions I attended really helps me find the nuggets I want to keep and share from a session. Granted, retweeting and responding during sessions can be a distraction. But for me, tweeting the session was the equivalent of taking notes. And ">sharing my notes (posts of said tweets that are forthcoming). But real quick here, I am kind of surprised by Steven's post. Especially given so much emphasis on teaching and instruction at ACRL, as Char Booth well points out.. Over and over we talk about the need for different approaches to instruction because students learn in so many different ways. The same is true for librarians, in the classroom and at conferences.

This brings me to a point of frustration: I heard an awful lot of the same talk as I've heard before. Not everywhere. And there were some pretty exciting new presentation styles, the UNconference and Cyber Zed Shed in particular. But...there were not a lot of surprises in the more formal talks I heard. Is it really a risk to talk about librarians as teachers? Is it really a risk to question how we determine our value? Is it really a risk to talk about engaging students with new media? Sorry, but not really. I feel like those are the same talks we've been having on blogs, in articles, and at conferences for years. And that is frustrating.

My husband, who is a project manager, always is frustrated by people who say they don't like how something was done but offer no suggestions for improvement. I dare not commit that crime here. I would like to make two suggestions, one logistical and one conceptual.

-Logistical: ACRL, please consider rescheduling the call for papers closer to the conference. If you truly want innovation at this conference, I think we need to recognize that trends change. And sometimes quickly. I wonder if we hear the same talks over and over because they are easy to write about a year out from the conference?! I respect and realize the amount of organization that goes into something as massive as ACRL but, please think about whether this could be somewhat remedied. Thank you.

-Conceptual: I wonder if we, and I mean academic librarians, need to ask some different questions than we have been. Instead of asking how we can engage students in the classroom and ending up with answers we already know, perhaps we should think about why students aren't engaged. Instead of asking how we can increase our value, perhaps we should ask ourselves why we have to fight this fight? I am suggesting something perhaps less positive, less congratulatory. But truly educational. I think back to LILAC last year and one of their keynotes, Ralph Catts. He stood up and told a room of librarians what we don't do well. It was hard to hear. But I walked out of that room inspired to improve, not feeling like I am on the right track but really thinking about what track I want to be on, how I might get there, and who I might ask to help me define it or acheive it. That is what I want from my conferences.

I guess that brings me down to it: what do we want from conferences? Is it a space to feel affirmed? Is it a space to see what others have been doing? Is it a space to question? Is it a space to be challenged? Does it need to be all those things? Can it?

I think bringing a keynote like Jaron Lanier is a step in the right direction. Bravo on that one, ACRL, and thanks.

I am not saying I didn't get a great deal from ACRL. I did and I will go again. But, having taken some time away, I saw ACRL a little differently than usual and it made me stop and think. And that's worth sharing, isn't it?

Where, oh where has The Sheck Been?

2011-04-01T09:41:00.005-05:00

Could you tear yourself away from this? Neither could I.

I'm at ACRL this week so I will be posting some thoughts about that and about going back to work (eek!). But I thought a picture would speak louder than a lengthy explanation.

Awesome

2010-12-02T11:33:00.001-05:00

Just a reminder that some days, it's truly worth it!

Overprepared? Maybe.

2010-09-15T15:54:00.004-05:00

As is the case for many of us, it's instruction season at the college library. For us at Champlain, that means crunch time for the Teaching Librarians. As I have mentioned in the past, Champlain's instruction program is an embedded, incremental program. What does that mean? It means that we are embedded in the Core curriculum. It means that we are seeing students in a coordinated progression every semester for the three years. This allows us to create an equally coordinated, progressive, incremental curriculum. We don't have to worry about covering everything in one shot. Rather, we can spread out what we want students to know and what the skills we want them to learn over their college career.

We're pretty lucky.

But, there are some drawbacks in paradise. One of them is that teaching is extremely coordinated. Every teaching librarian is teaching the same content, at the same time, using the same pedagogy. I am always concerned about balancing this need for consistency in the teaching with academic freedom. The last thing I want is to cramp any teacher's style. Which is why I really have to think carefully about what it means to be a teacher. Hence my post last week at ACRLog. As I said there, there are many ways to prepare yourself to teach. But can we be overprepared? Can we beat a lesson to death before we even walk into the classroom?

Here's where I am coming from. I help all the Teaching Librarians prepare for our sessions. Now, we design, create, and tweak these lessons as a team. So we all have a say every step of the way in what we want to do and how we want to do it. But, we are all very different teachers and very different people who prepare to walk into the classroom in very different ways. Some of us are more nervous than others. Some of us are more comfortable with the possibility of failure or with student apathy than others. And sometimes, I struggle with the needs, concerns, and fears of my fellow librarians, as incredible as they are, and balancing my own way of teaching. I like to keep a level of spontaneity and experimentation in my teaching. More, perhaps, than they do. But in working hard as the head of this group and as the Assistant Director and the one responsible for information literacy at the College....well, I have had to give up what works for me a bit. I have had to overprepare. I have had to anticipate many possible outcomes, problems, difficulties, and responses to our lessons. I have started to question whether the level of creativity and innovation we bring to our design is truly sustainable.

To be honest, that doesn't feel good. It's really hard for me to deal with. To surrender to.

Yet, at the same time, I find an incredible amount of reward in seeing my colleagues level of comfort increase. Today, one of my colleagues said that they feel ready, prepared. And another chimed in as we rehearsed our session that it was "pretty amazing". I beamed.

One thing I am learning is how true it is that we prepare for teaching in different ways. And what is overprepared to one person is just right for another. And not enough still for someone else. The Goldilock's syndrome. The real challenge I face, personally, is not how to maintain my enthusiasm in the classroom. That's what students just do to me. But how to support my team, as a group and as individuals. How to listen to their needs and offer them the right opportunities as well as when to push the responsibility onto them for their own classroom experience.

It's really hard. And I hope that I am doing a good job of it. I wonder how others handle these situations. How you balance these seemingly competing needs. How you grow and sustain. I wonder.

Thanks, ACRLog

2010-09-08T11:52:00.003-05:00

As if I needed yet another feather in my cap to start off the new school year but I was asked to post about instruction on the ACRLog. I was thrilled to be invited. So, hop over there (if you don't the ACRLog already, you should!) and check out the post.

And thanks to Maura Smale and Steven Bell for the opportunity!

Bye Bye Feevy (RE-Viewing what once worked)

2010-09-03T13:34:00.004-05:00

I've been meaning to do this, to write about doing it, to stop dawdling and do it....

I'm saying goodbye to my Feevy.

Feevy has been a terrific tool for me. I loved adding it to my blog and enjoyed the dynamic roll/role is has played here. However, the way I use my blog and the way I follow blogs has changed. I can't remember the last time I clicked on something from my Feevy. My blog roll lives in my RSS. I follow peeps on the tweets. My way of handling information has changed. And I feel like my blog, my home base, should reflect that.

This gets at something I have been thinking a lot about as the school year begins, as our assessment cycle beings, as our teaching prep wraps up---reviewing. I'd even suggest we reconsider how we look at that word itself: RE-Viewing. Viewing again. To see anew. To see what we offer and if it aligns with where we are trying to go. That's a huge part of creating meaningful assessment but also a huge part of what makes instruction successful.

And also how technology is useful. Is it fulfilling a role or is just taking up space? Or time? How often do you RE-View your technology choices? On your blog? On your iPhone? How often do you RE-View your teaching? Your lessons? Your activities? Your assessment?

Funny how strands come together, isn't it.

Or rather, not funny at all. Fitting, really.

Going Manager, or, Big News-Part 2

2010-08-30T10:10:00.005-05:00

It's been a month since I last posted and part of me wants to apologize. But I think something I have to learn and practice for the next few months (or maybe the rest of my life) is that I can't do it all. Some things have to slide over to make room for the bigger, more pressing things.

An aside: it's funny to me to use words like "bigger" and "pressing" now that I am having a baby. Ha!

This is all a lead up to part two of my big news: my promotion. In July, I was promoted to Assistant Director of our library. When it rains, it pours!

The last two months have been a bit of a whirlwind. But I didn't want to jump into the school year without really sharing, and thereby processing, what this change has been like and means for me.

What does it mean to Go Manager?

Well, one thing I've learned is that you work past five, you bring work home with you, and you work on the weekend. I say that in jest but it is also true. I have more work to do. I have less time to chat, less time to read articles or blogs, less time to do things I feel like doing versus things that need doing. My to-do list has changed. My way of looking at my to-do list has changed. My way of prioritizing is changing. My willingness to say "yes" is changing. And with these changes come some concerns, some of which I anticipated and some of which I am starting to look at and question.

One of my biggest hesitations to taking on this increased responsibility was that I loved my job. As Information Literacy Librarian, I was responsible for the IL program at the college. It was my responsibility to keep up on the literature in the field, to brainstorm, to generate ideas, to collaborate, to make things happen in the program. Sure, there were parts that were less than wonderful (scheduling), but by and large, I loved the commitment I was able to make to IL. And as a manager, I have to put that part of my job in a silo. I have to look at it sometimes and say, "Not right now". It doesn't mean I love IL any less or am any less committed to the program. But I am having to broaden my gaze. And that frightened me. Which is why it was so important for me to do it. Being afraid of it means it is going to be challenging and as a young librarian, I want challenges. Building a program from scratch was a challenge and one that I have looked in the face and smiled at. That hasn't gone away. But a new challenge adds a layer of complexity to my daily work and to my thinking over time.

A concern I am also thinking about is how to "Go-Manager" and still be accommodating. As I said, my willingness to say "yes" is changing. There are some requests, some preferences, some suggestions, that I just can't accommodate. And that hurts. I hate to disappoint people and I have to have to say no. But I am learning a bit more about how pieces of the puzzle fit together rather than looking at individual pieces. It's hard.

And I guess that's what I am finding and thinking about: making the shift to manager is hard. I feel incredibly supported in doing it and I feel like there are a plethora of resources available to me to do it well. But that doesn't change the fact that there are things to think about, to reconcile. And while I might post even less (is that possible?!), I intend to make this blog a space where I do that. Where I talk about this transition and reflect on the kind of manager I want to be. And what it means to Go Manager.

The Really Big News First

2010-07-29T10:36:00.003-05:00

The Really Big News: The Sheck is having a baby. 17 weeks today and excited! Very excited!

I wish my husband blogged so he could post this. But when I saw it in my RSS this morning, and after crying while watching it, I realized how much Google has been amazing as we prepare for this crazy thing called parenthood. That, and the amazing friends we have who temper what I learn in Google with the real deal experience. If that's not the outline for a post on the information literacy of pregnancy and parenting, I don't know what is.

A Funny Thing Happened on my Way through the Internet...

2010-07-21T14:26:00.003-05:00

We all say it.
We all feel it.

Dude....I'm busy.

I have a lot of things going on right now, both personally and professionally (more on these changes in a later post). And lately, I've been feeling like I have not been putting my extra-curricular, professional activities on the list of things to do. As a matter of fact, I took a few minutes today to check in on my RSS and thought to myself, "Where do they find the time"?

And then I saw this post by Bobbi Newman. It’s a great post. But I found myself nodding my head and shaking my head. And here’s why.

I nodded because I wholeheartedly agree that a lot of people use the "I don't have time" argument as an excuse, especially when it comes to technology. And like most people piping up in the comments, that drives me bonkers. A little initiative, please! I also really appreciate Bobbi's intro to her post on lifelong learning. Oh, it really boils my blood when librarians, who are supposed to be the champions and advocates of lifelong learning, talk out of both sides of their mouths. Lifelong learning is a process and one in which you need to be an active participant!! Yes, Bobbi, YES!

But, as I said, I also shook my head when I read the post. Because, frankly, I don't want to be on all the time. This is the struggle I find myself in with blogging. I work hard at work. I do a lot, I am learning a lot, I give a lot. And by the time I am done, I am ready to do something else than think about libraries, instruction, assessment, or technology. I want to put energy into the rest of my life: my garden, exercise, my dog, my community, my imagination, my cooking. My self. I want to put some energy into myself. Sometimes, I feel like in order to really be the kind of librarian that is recognized in our field, I have to be working on librarianship all the time. I love my work. So much, that a lot of the time, it doesn't feel like work. And I think that a lot of our most prolific bloggers would say that. Their blogging, their thinking, their extra-curricular professional activities are out of love, out of a desire to give back (great post on that from Andy lately), and out of a desire to share what they are learning. And I thank you. Truly. Deeply. It is from you that I learn so much. It is from you that I feel like I am in a field that is growing, not shrinking. I mean it, thank you.

But, I also want to feel like it's okay to have other priorities. I want to applaud the people that maintain a work-life balance that works for them. I repeat: a work-life balance that works for them. As individuals. And it really is different for each of us. As much as lifelong learning is a process, it is also without deadline. It is, quite literally, lifelong. I cannot do it all right now. I cannot do it all for tomorrow. I can only do so much when it comes to work or when it comes to the rest of my life in any one day. And that's ok. Granted, being an overacheiver, a lifelong learner, and just my self...I have to remind myself of that an awful lot. In case you needed a reminder too, this one's on me.

Join Our Team!

2010-07-01T11:53:00.002-05:00

My library is looking for a new addition! So if you, or someone you know, is on the market, Champlain is seeking a pretty awesome person to become our Scholarly Resource and Academic Outreach Librarian.

Here is a link to the posting where you can submit your application.

And what is this job? Here is a snippet of the job ad:

Job Description:
Champlain College seeks an enthusiastic, collegial and service-oriented Librarian to serve as an integral member of a team providing high quality academic library services in an innovative setting. This position will coordinate all aspects of Champlain's collection development and management program, including both print and electronic resources, to ensure that the library's collections and procedures remain vibrant and responsive to our academic environment. Responsibilities for this position include: continuing a well-developed faculty outreach program; developing and managing the library's print and online collections; negotiating contracts; participating in curriculum review; managing the production and analysis of statistics related to the library's collections and their use; creating and maintaining appropriate policies; and contributing to the library website. This position will also participate in the library's course-embedded inquiry-based information literacy instruction program, and will share in reference and other outreach services.

I can't wait to welcome a new librarian in this position and onto our team and I'm sure Andy B feels the same. So spread the word!

The best thing I've read all week

2010-06-17T12:54:00.002-05:00

This week, I got an iPad. I've just set it up and spent a few hours with it last night. This morning, my husband asked me if I was planning on leaving it at home for a while so we could play with it. Yeah, I said. I don't need it at work. But in reading this phenomenal article from the Harvard Business Review, I seriously ask myself whether I need it at home.

Great piece. The best thing I've read all week.

What do you want your fiction to be?

2010-06-11T14:57:00.004-05:00

Like many librarians, and many of my friends, I am an avid reader. Especially of fiction. So, I was delighted to catch this segment from Tom Ashbrook's On Point . I even jumped up a little in the car while I was driving. But then I started listening. And I started feeling pretty dismayed when Joshua Ferris talked about fiction becoming the new poetry. In that the number of people who read fiction will dwindle to the small number that actively read poetry.

Granted, I read poetry. Daily. But I know most people don't. So, I found it pretty upsetting to think that so few people will read fiction.

Frankly, I was shocked that this comparison was made. I am reminded of this article from the Times about the number of people reading fiction being on the rise. But, I guess Joshua Ferris's point is that we need to face facts: people aren't reading "literary fiction" as much. (Note: there is an interesting debate in the comments from the show on what constitutes "literary fiction", if anything at all.) And as I think about the series of articles in the Times this week about technology, I am struck by the photo of the dad reading to his little girl on the iPad. I'm not against that, mind you. Reading to your children is vital, no matter how you do it. But that doesn't mean that there aren't unintended consequences to the method you employ. I would contend that there is a difference in modeling and memory for a child who sees their parents turning pages of a physical volume than for a child who sees their parents looking at a screen. You could be reading on your iPad or Kindle or iPhone but does your child know that? Do they know you are reading "literary fiction", the newspaper? Or do they just see you in front of a screen? Does that image matter when it comes time for children to choose activities in which to participate.

But, let me step down from my soap box for a minute.

Tom Ashbrook posed the question to the listening audience: what do you want your fiction to be? And that question is a pretty profound one. And connects, I think, to this issue of the unintended consequences of the mode of reading we employ. What do I want my fiction to be? I think it gets to why do we read?

I read fiction to escape. That is a big part of it for me. To explore my imagination, to envision something other than my own situation, to create a vision for other times, other worlds, other people, other paradigms. And I am not even a "fantasy" reader! I think that is why I actually didn't care for Joshua Ferris's "Then We Came to the End". I am, personally (and reading is perhaps the most personal thing one can do), not interested in reading about the mundacity of office life. I lived that already. I know what that means. I am looking for fiction that takes me elsewhere and gets me thinking about other things.

I want my imagination to go to work with the fiction I read. And I wonder if that it is harder to acheive in front of a screen. In part because of the distractive nature of screens (feel free to reread Nicholas Carr on this topic). In part because of my upbringing and my proclivities. There is plenty of literature that suggests that children of the digital age simply don't have the same issues with distraction that "digital immigrants" might have.

Don't get me wrong. We have seen a huge influx of creativity because of what we can do with computers. I work at a college that prides itself on that. But....but. When I think about the decline of reading, when I think about the increase usage of technology, when I think about the issues it raises in parenting, in education, in every dimension of our lives....I just start to feel...uncomfortable. I wonder if we are sacrificing more than we know. Not to say that I know! I don't. But I am wondering. I am questioning. Not if I want to give up technology. Don't be silly....I just got an iPad! But how I want to use it and for what. How I want to cultivate my imagination and why. What I want to read and why I want to read it? And what I expect it to do for me.

Push back on me here. Am I crazy? Am I not seeing a part of this picture? Am I reading way too much into it?

A Breather

2010-05-21T14:42:00.005-05:00

Phew.

It's been a crazy few weeks with school ending, the Faculty Collaborative for the last three weeks, and catching up after a vacation. A vacation that was much needed but also eye opening. Let me explain.

My best friend got married last week in Miami. I went down for a full eight days to celebrate with her, soak up some sun, and relax. I was wound pretty tight before I left, as most of us are at the end of the semester. So, the chance to get away was most welcome. And I made it clear that I was getting away. For the first time in a long time, I set my Out-of-Office to this:

And I held to it. I could have logged on to a number of computers while I was away, but I didn't. For eight days, I was away from the office, from Facebook, from Hotmail, from the NYTimes. In truth, it felt like I was away from it all. When we got home, Jon said that he can't remember the last time that I was so relaxed. When I moved at such a steady pace. And I know that being away from my computer was a big, big part of that.

So, that was pretty eye-opening.

But that's not what I want to get at. Let me add this part into the equation:

I sport a pretty simple phone. Jon and I have iPhones on our wishlist for the summer but until our contract with Verizon expires and we get the money together, I'm pretty low tech when it comes to my phone. And there have been many times where that frustrates me. But on this trip, I felt blessed to be so low tech. I couldn't believe how many of my close friends who said they were on a full vacation as well couldn't separate from their phones. First thing in the morning, in the middle of beach time, during dinner.

I am not saying this to sound soap boxy. I am saying it because it made me stop and think. Because I started to wonder and worry whether adding a smartphone to my life was such a good idea after all. As I've mentioned before, I am not always the best at controlling my use of technology. But on this trip, I wanted to more than ever. I wanted to step away. And part of the reason I was able to do that was because I work in academia. I don't run a company, I don't have "clients" or "patients", I don't check stocks. I help students at a library. And I was never more glad of that than when I was able to close my eyes and listen to the sound of the ocean rather than looking at a screen or moving around the beach for a signal.

But it's more than that. I changed the level of expectation for my connectivity, for myself and for those that try to connect with me. I made it clear from the get-go that I was not checking in let alone responding. And I imagine that did something for those that thought to be in touch with me. But it also did something for me. It changed my own expectations of my time, my energy, my anxiety.

And that was the real eye opener. That the expectations we set of our use of information is incredibly important when we are seeking information. But also when we are trying to evade it. And that it takes evading. I had to talk myself out of following the crowd and checking in. I had to remind myself that all I really needed was this time away. I think I had devalued that more lately. And I think that is dangerous. I love my job. I love my friends. I love technology. I love connecting. But it felt incredibly rejuvenating to take a breather from it all and connect back with myself.

As I said, I know that I have some bad habits when it comes to how I use technology. And I am in the market for techniques to harnessing it, controlling it. If you have some, or if you have had a similar or different experience unplugging, I'd love to hear it!

Put a Poem in Your Pocket

2010-04-29T14:17:00.002-05:00

I love poetry.
Truly.
I get "Poem A Day" in my email from Poets.org and I treasure them. I don't always love the poems they send but I can't tell you how many days have been made better by pausing to read a poem. The think about a poem. For a couple of notebooks now, I have the tradition of pasting a poem into the inside cover so that I always have a poem at hand. Poems by Mary Oliver, Galway Kinnell, Wallace Stevens have all graced me with their presence in my everyday.

So yesterday, I was thrilled to see this post about National Put-A-Poem-In-Your-Pocket day. I immediately jumped on this. As did my excellent friend Emily over at her blog.

So two things on this post:
1. Do you have a poem in your pocket? And if so, what is it?
2. Have you sent a poem to a friend or loved one lately?

The answer to those to questions for me is yes.
Here is the poem in my pocket and hopefully in my friends' pockets. I hope you too choose to celebrate this wonderful day!

It Is That Dream
by Olav Hague
Translated by Robert Bly

It's that dream we carry with us
That something wonderful will happen,
That it has to happen,
That time will open,
That the heart will open,
That doors will open,
That the mountains will open up,
That wells will leap up,
That the dream will open,
That one morning we'll slip in
To a harbor that we've never known.

Bringing You The Right One.

2010-04-21T09:11:00.004-05:00

See Neil Gaiman's discussion of libraries here.

Amen.

Some hard questions

2010-04-19T12:42:00.000-05:00

Spring is such a marvelous time in Vermont. Winter was pretty easy this year but still pretty long. Spring brings everyone such joy and no where is it a reminder of rebirth and reinvention than Vermont.

It also happens to be my favorite season.

So, with Spring fully underway and a lot of my immediate responsibilities completed, I have been trying to think a bit about my work. About my job. And my areas of interest. About my areas of weakness. And what I love about my work. And what I don't.

This is something I think we all give thought to every now and again. But I took some more formal steps towards thinking and understanding my thoughts. First, a little background...

I love notebooks. I carry a notebook around with me all the time to capture ideas, take notes, remember things. A lot of people do this with their computers or the PDAs. But, I know myself with technology. I don't always use it in the way that I mean to. Meaning that I get distracted some times. I Facebook when I should be capturing. I email when I should be jotting. So, I limit my access by putting myself in that good old fashioned space of putting my pen to paper on a regular basis.

Each notebook contains lots of content but I try to go back through them regularly, to catch lost threads. Usually, I do that when I am taking up a new notebook. However, with Spring being here and having just gotten back from conferences, I thought that I would end my current notebook with a bit of a reflection as a chance to capture things that I want to do, things that I love to do, things that I need to do, things that I need to revisit. So, I started some pages. They are:

-Things I Love About My Work & My Job
-Things I Want to See Change About My Job
-Things I Have Noticed in the Past Year
-Opportunities that Interest Me
-Areas Where I Need Help
-Interactions that Stick Out

And then I have some blank pages.
I feel certain that there are a number of ways I could deepen this reflection. But in sitting down to think about these prompts, I am amazed by how quickly some things come to the surface. One of them is that I love helping students. In the classroom, at reference, with their research, with their writing...working with students makes me feel good. And, not to toot my own horn, I am good at it. Students seem to like me because, I think, I am genuinely interested in what they have to say. Which I am. It's a win-win.

As I think about that, I think about teaching. How the kind of teaching we are doing at Champlain, steeped in Inquiry, really does require a genuine interest in what students have to say. And that is something that is difficult to teach. It is something that comes from within. Andy and I are going to hear Parker Palmer next week and I feel like this is something that he talks quite a bit about in his writing: authenticity. I can't begin to say how much that resonates with me in the classroom. And at the Reference Desk. We spend so much time talking about service in librarianship but what does that really mean on a day-to-day, person-to-person basis? How do you engage your service mindset? Is it something that you turn on? Is it something embedded in you? Is it something you have learned? Is it something you are cultivating? Is it a combination?

Which leads me to a harder question: How can we strengthen our connection to service in a genuine and authentic way? How can it be something that we cherish and enjoy in our work…even when students fall asleep in sessions or when they tweet that library sessions are boring (yup, that happened). Is it something that warrants a workshop? Yes, of course. But it goes deeper than that. One of the things that I loved at LILAC was the talks that discussed professional development. But how can we professionally develop something so personal? So unique to each of us? But also something so vital.

It’s a hard question. And one I am thinking over. How about you?

LILAC2010: Information Literacy and Digital Natives: Bridging the Gap

2010-04-13T14:50:00.001-05:00

Information Literacy and Digital Natives: Bridging the Gap
Elizabeth Symonds, Univ. of Worcester
Sarah Kennedy, Univ. of Gloucestershire

A faculty member wanted to know about the “journey” the student took between when he gave the assignment and when they handed it in.
Focused their research on first year students, first semester.

“How do new students engage with the learning process outside the classroom?” Where do they prefer to work
who do they interect with
what technologies do they use
what do they think will be expected of them when they come into higher ed
what skills do they think they need to work on?
IDEA: compare their data to US data

How they did it: harge mandatory module; questionnaire once they received the assignment; focus groups; another questionnaie after the assignment to look at actual practices; more focus groups; faculty interview (compare faculty expectations with students’)

Findings on WHERE: home and “learning center”; they indicated that they wanted fewer distractions. Wanted more quiet. What we might think they want in more general activities might not be so in their learning spaces.

Findings on WHO: suspicious of group work. Again, assumption that because they like being social, it does not mean that they like learning in groups.

Findings on SKILLS that students bring with them:
They are good at some things but not at all. They recognize that they don’t have good researching skills.

Expectations before they did their assignments:
Student concerns on Essay Writing, Time Management, Referencing, Faculty Standards. Difference among the two student groups (Sport students v. Psychology students).

What skills do you think this assignment has asked you to use or develop?
Was this a multiple choice or did we ask students to think about it and describe it on their own?

Students were quite wary of Wikipedia. Knew how to use it appropriately.
They want their own computers.

Real concerns over time management: leaving it to the last minute. They ALL said they would start earlier on next time.

Recommendations:
Students do rely heavily on different types of university resources: digital and physical, quiet and group.
Heavy concerns over summative assessment in group work. All group members’ contributions should be assessed and held accountable.

Information services should include a range of support activities: time management, referencing, etc.

Who do you go to for support? Drawing on the LIM idea. And finding out where we can be offering additional support. They don’t know who else is available. They only think faculty.

A lot of questions here. A lot of assumptions challenged, particularly about group work. How they think about group work v. their actual experience. Faculty dealing with group work more effectively. Peer assessment.

LILAC2010: Information Literacy and Digital Natives: Bridging the Gap

2010-04-13T14:50:00.000-05:00

LILAC2010: How to Interpret Research on Information Literacy and Library Instruction

2010-04-13T14:46:00.000-05:00

How to Interpret Research on Information Literacy and Library Instruction
Lorie Kloda, McGill
Alison Brettle, Univ. of Salford
Assoc. Editors: Evidence Based Library and Information Practice (Open Access)

Evaluating and interpreting research
Five steps:
Having a question you want answered
Find evidence to answer it
Evaluate or appraise that research
Decide: it applicable? Apply it.
Assess the process.

Critical appraisal as reliability (the research does what it is supposed to do); validity (how close to reality it is); applicability (can I transfer/apply this in my setting).
Develop checklists or standardized guide so that every time you are judging articles with the same criteria. Some are pre-exisiting: reliant is one that assess research on information skills instruction. Focuses on study desing; educational context; results; relevance.

Giving us an article to read an article, use the tool to discuss, talk about the experience of using the checklist. What is one positive thing they could have done to improve the article? Flaws and limitations of the research but also offer constructive feedback.

THIS IS SO SO HELPFUL.

A great guideline for reading but more so for writing articles and conducting studies.

Interesting that the groups don’t agree and that the abstract and introduction don’t align.

Not know what they were teaching too but we know what they asked.
The Results were spread throughout the results and discussion sections.
No limitations or caveats presented. Such an important part of articles.

Critical doesn’t always mean negative, it just means thinking critically.

LILAC2010:Ralph Catts Keynote

2010-04-13T14:20:00.001-05:00

Impact of Information Literacy in Higher Education
Ralph Catts
Stirling Institute of Education

Not a librarian, senior research fellow.
Specialists or practioners? As an academic, faculty should be practioners and librarians should be specialists. Interesting that no one wanted to speak up—are we uncomfortable with our own work or unsure of our value? Hm.

Substantial budget cuts impending.
Afterwards: the emergence of a Higher Education “Industry” with emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness through emphasis on design of learning resources; merging teaching and learning support roles; collaborative learning.
Universities need to come into the 21st century to realize they are not the bearers of knowledge.

What will the University of the 21st century look like?
Interchange between teaching staff
The end of the lecture: increase in asynchronous access to information.
Students need to be prepared to work independently but also collaboratively.

ANZIL Framework Principles.
In all of our frameworks, don’t just look past the principles to the guidelines. Remember why we are doing what we are doing.

Step pyramid: Hierarchical Model of General Skills for employment and general, lifelong education.
Move into achieving in situated contexts: education does not exist in a vacuum. Thinking about our outcomes for students: we need integration minimally. Ideally, embeddedness.

He is calling for Faculty Information Literacy.

Makers of our own knowledge: librarians need to be a part of that creation, facilitators.

Stakeholders: we must be able to articulate our value to others and provide evidence! All stakeholders are impacted by economic climate. We need to be convincing and specific.
If we truly offer increased retention: prove it. GREAT support for the work we are doing at Champlain. Return on Investment.
If it lowers unit cost per graduate: prove it.

If students get better grade: how can attribute that to embedded information literacy. Systematic evidence. Not anecdotal, not small scale results. LARGE projects need to be undertaken.

How to reach academics: what can we truly promise them and deliver on? Better grades? How can we prove it? Yes, that would be nice but wouldn’t that require faculty cooperation in a study in order to prove it?
Issues to raise with us about the quality of our research:
Ask help of education departments! We always are asking for cooperation and collaboration but only them working on our projects, not us asking for help! GREAT POINT! We should be called out! Talk to those that have experience in those issues.

Generic tests are not usable if you want to find effects because they are not relevant to students. Catts v. Brevick.
Kirkpatrick levels of evaluation.
Education research should be supporting us.

Different types of measurement that we should be examining. (Walton)

Can we think bigger? Some prerequisites:
Commitment and engagement from IL specialists and organizations.
Substantial funding
Phased approach and appropriate time scale

Define what we mean by embedded but also let a 1000 flowers bloom. There are ideals and reality. Learn more about pedagogic techniques. There is MORE that we can be drawing on and learning about. Ask for help.

A real question about what kind of training do librarians need in the 21st century? And what does professional development need to look like for us to meet the demands of our students and changes within higher ed?

Are we up for the challenge? It’s a great question. We talk a lot about research that needs to be done but are we willing to undertake it?

Funding: it takes a long time and the long view. How do we deal with lapse in time between when we seek funding and the relevancy or interest in projects once funding comes through?

We might like to participate in research but we don’t get sabbatical, we don’t have time devoted to research. How are we supposed to undertake these kinds of projects without that kind of support? How are we viewed within our institutions? As faculty but without true faculty elements.

Sheila Corrall: Sheffield does include the kind of interdisciplinary setting he is calling for. But is that the exception? Not sure but I am not sure I can think of examples in the States.

Really honest talk.

Reflections on LILAC 2010. Simply put: awesome, educational, inspiring.

2010-04-13T14:03:00.011-05:00

Sorry for the delay in wrapping up and putting together my collective thoughts on LILAC. As soon as I got home, I was pummeled by the flu but finally, I am clear headed.

My first thought on LILAC is much the same as last year: this is a fantastic conference. In every way. Unlike any conference I've been to in the US, they feed you. A lot. But much more importantly is that my mind is fed. LILAC is like a smorgasbord for anyone interested in information literacy. For me, it helps to break it down into digestible bites.

My theoretical cravings were satisfied by Andrew Whitworth. His talk on the relational frame for IL cemented a lot of my frustrations with the thinking about information literacy, particularly in the States. His push for us to broaden our expectations of student use of information beyond the library and into the way they use information entirely by paying attention to behaviors pinpointed the theme of the conference for me. It seems like the UK infolit contingent is much more focused on a palpable change: students changing their behaviors. The focus seems to be less on whether a student CAN use a database or find a particular kind of source and more on whether a student, of their own volition, will choose to do so. That, to me, is the goal that what should be seeking: giving students a framework with which to relate to the information available to them and their information needs. That is something I have to think a lot about in the coming weeks as I try to develop a role for IL in Champlain's College Capstone. And Whitworth, among others, gave me that intellectual framework to build off of. I love that.

My professional development cravings were satisfied by Michelle Schneider and Dan Pullinger from the University of Leeds. Their session was wonderfully interactive but it also really gave me pause for thought about what I need to learn more about in order to be the kind of teacher I want to be. I certainly walked away from this conference feeling like I could really use a solid grounding in educational development, theory, teaching and learning. That feeling was reinforced by Ralph Catts talk to librarians about trends in higher ed. While his talk was a bit alarming, the part that really stuck with me was in terms of what we could learn in terms of education, assessment, metrics, and original research. And the workshop I went to on "How to Interpret Research on Information Literacy and Library Instruction" really showed me how much I have to learn about hard research. It is one thing to help people identify their research needs and help them find material but another to turn the tables onto your own work. It was truly eye opening.

I also appreciated the way in which this conference encourages people to talk about what works but more so, what doesn't. The best example of this was a talk about student use of scholarly research. This, to my mind, is where information literacy instruction falls short. We focus a great deal on teaching students what to look for and where to look for it but we don't talk about how to use it once they've found it. We assume that someone else will teach that. Stephanie Rosenblatt from CalState Fullerton really emphasized this in her talk.

The other thing that I have simmering on the stove from LILAC is what more I can do with surveys, both formal and informal. We've shied away from surveys at Champlain, largely because I've had my hands full with designing the curriculum, implementing it using inquiry, and getting data out of ePort. But from presentations like Sara Miller's, and even more so this presentation on Digital Native's use of information, I really have started thinking what role surveys might play in improving our teaching and in diversifying our assessment strategy.

What else should I say? I was excited to see more Americans at LILAC this year. I was also terribly impressed by the quality of the presentations. There was not a single presentation where I asked myself what I was doing there. Everyone I met was kind, interesting, and proud of the work they are doing. Truly, LILAC has become my favorite conference. And I look forward to more of them in the future!

Slides from LILAC2010

2010-04-09T11:41:00.004-05:00

In case you missed our presentation at LILAC or are curious about building a culture of assessment, you can always have a peek at our slides:

Building brick by brick: A pragmatic approach to measuring impact

View more presentations from Sarah Cohen.

LILA2010: Describing the use of scholarly literature by undergraduate students

2010-03-31T05:54:00.000-05:00

They can find it, but they don’t know what to do with it: Describing the use of scholarly literature by undergraduate students
Stephanie Rosenblatt, Cal State, Fullerton

Not just finding information, but using information.
Hurst & Leonard, 2007 “Why are papers so often lacking in solid, factual information from scholarly sources?”

Assumptions based on the assumption that if students can be convinced to use our “great” resources found through the tools of the “modern academic library”. They will then synthesize information, add it to their knowledge base, and learning occurs.
Would instruction sessions change behavior. Change in behavior indicates learning rather than just an affect.

Is library instruction even detrimental to student work? Do we put them off? It depends, I think, on what we are teaching and how we are teaching it.

Students found materials that met her requirements and even they gave information:
What’s the point of a research paper that doesn’t make connections between the research and their thinking?
Defining our idea of “Synthesis”. What does it mean? How do faculty come to understand it? How do students?
AACU Value rubrics mapped to ACRL rubrics.
Her expectations: Integrating, Developing, Emerging.
“Transforming Qualitative Information”

Action research methodology: open dialog, communication between practioners.

We are making false assumptions about what they need or what we need to teach. We cannot stop there. It’s not about finding, it’s about using. Is the lack of synthesis a problem in information literacy or is it a problem in writing: they might not know how construct the model for writing.
Activity and instruction that models the behavior. In our teaching, show how we find the connection and how to make the connection. Look at peer reviewed articles for how the connections are made in the articles.
Other activity ideas: working in small groups, look at scholarly literature, specifically at literature reviews to emphasize how to make the connections. How do we deal with wanting to cover so much so quickly?
How much do we need to teach students about interface?

Great example of thinking more broadly about library services: integration!
Concerns about stepping on faculty’s toes: is the analytic the job of the faculty? How do you affect change without insulting their teaching? Faculty that are complaining about student work are prime for this kind of collaboration.

LILAC2010:Who dares to teach must never cease to learn

2010-03-30T10:50:00.002-05:00

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn (John Cotton Dana)
Michelle Schneider & Dan Pullinger
University of Leeds

First off, this was a FANTASTIC session. I learned so much from the session participants about what they cover, activities they use, and what other librarians are thinking about. Great job Michelle and Dan for creating an atmosphere for sharing. Loved it. Now on to my notes…

The changing teaching role of the librarian. How do we gain skills and knowledge to fulfill that role?

Feetham, 2006 in Dale: It’s not sufficient for libraians to teach about resources. We need to be focusing on pedagogical.

Consider:
Do you consider yourself as a trainer or a teacher?
What’s the difference?
Does it matter what we call ourselves?
Mandy Lupton (2002)
Teachers is a more professional nomenclature. Sometimes we do both. Informaiton literacy is TEACHING, database/catalog work is TRAINING. That is a significant division. The focus on the process is teaching. Often sessions are half teaching, half training. Focus on the doing: skills transfer.
Northampton: they must have a teaching qualification and they are marketed as teachers.
The assessment.
Training is how to do a task and Teaching is why you are doing the task.
Does it matter? It depends on your setting. In an academic setting, it matters significantly. But in an employment or health services, to call it teaching would be a turn off. Approachability. Perception. Sure but perception to whom? Do we want it both ways? Confidence. To be seen by the academics as equals.
Teacher Librarian v. Teaching Librarian
Surface learning v. deep learning.

What skills and knowledge do we need to be effective in teaching our students?
Too many to list.
Educational development
Instructional design
Communication
Educational psychology
Subject specificity
Presentation
Admitting failure
Empathy
Assessment: learning outcomes.
Time management
This only emphasizes how interdisciplinary our field is.
(Sinikar 2008, Brophy 2007, Conroy and Boden 2008)

What are your experiences? What demands are being placed on you? What kind of teaching are you being asked to do?
Lectures
Workshops
Active learning
Inquiry based learning, problem based learning
ESL learning
Having to cover too much in very short periods of time.
Cover what faculty members want and what you know students need.
Let students say what they don’t know how to do. Put it on post its and build the session from there.
Research ethics/research methods
Plagiarism

Allowing librarians to be qualified for teaching awards and faculty development opportunities in the college including peer observation, mentorship.

What training/support is available to you now?
In the US: Immersion. Nothing like that in the UK. (PGCHE??)
Sir Learn a Lot online course.
Courses, but it’s hard to find a good course. The problem is that courses are not always flexible enough or applicable in multiple settings.
How to teach in different settings: large groups, small groups.
Librarians need to ask because in many cases, it is not offered.
Observation/mentorship
Required training for everyone that is teaching through the library.
Assessment training***
What training/support do you need?
TIME. Teaching is only a part of our jobs, we need TIME to be able to improve our teaching.
Training on how to run classrooms, use oral communication skills, technology.
Acting skills: how to walk into the room, how to breath, how look at the room of people, voice projection.
Managing classrooms.
CILIP-accredited Library courses to include teaching elements.

PLEASE SHARE your responses to these questions in the comments. As I said, I got so much from hearing from others.

LILAC2010: Assessing collaboration: the effect of pedagogical alignment and shared learning outcomes for information literacy instruction

2010-03-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

Assessing collaboration: the effect of pedagogical alignment and shared learning outcomes for information literacy instruction in first year writing classes.
Sara Miller and Dr. Nancy DeJoy, Michigan State University

Currently in process.
Inquiry based learning in writing classes: if they used inquiry method in instruction, would it be more effective? Do students actually learn to find and use sources more effectively? Are the research outcomes met more with aligned pedagogies?

45,000 students
More than 35 sections.
Conducting assessment for 7 sections.
Don’t see all students-not enough “man” power.
Uses web modules.

Boyer Commission, 1998: setting a collaborative model across the institution. Differing views of understanding collaboration: it doesn’t always mean the same thing.
From Twitter: “not just in instruction but areas like research data citation as well. Collaboration: same word, different languages.” @phepbu

Careful about positioning students as “consumers of knowledge.” Example: I already wrote my paper, I just need three sources to back it up. Anti-inquiry. Rather, positioning students to contribute to knowledge base,not just take from it – that is inquiry-based learning.

Norgaard, 2004: connecting info lit & rhetoric.

Inquiry has not taken root in the US as much as in the UK but it is coming!

Students fill out worksheet during library visit. Asking students to find an opinion or background information in groups. How did you find the article?
How did you decide it was a scholarly article?
What is the article’s purpose?

Together, they develop a list of evaluative criteria and then as a group, evaluate.

Did your research practices change as a result of this session?
The rubric reflects inquiry! Recursivity, Synthesis, Source Evaluation, Relevancy.

Asking students a pre and post class survey: “When you think about doing research for an assignment, it’s primarily in what context?”
How did your search change? How is this information important to the conversation about the issue? A lot of diverse responses.

Question to think about: Do students always understand what we are asking them?
Student perceptions about what is valuable: some if “how to” but also conceptual, higher level.

In inquiry, we will position students as mediaries, particularly at Champlain. THAT HAS MEAT. THINK ABOUT THAT. Professional projects. YES. However, that is predetermining the muse. But, that offers an opportunity for thinking about the muse in professional settings and less personal settings.

Asking students what kind of writing they anticipate having to do in their majors. It’s a great question for research. What research do you anticipate having to do in your profession?

Assessment as a way to be accountable, close the feedback loop.

LILAC2010: Keynote with Karen Fisher

2010-03-30T07:01:00.002-05:00

Lay Information Mediary Behavior and Social Information Literacy
Dr. Karen E. Fisher
iSchool at Univ. of Washington

People helping other people find information.

National Digital Literacy Corp as part of the US National Broadband Plan: neighbors helping neighbors get on line. Young people will be trained in digital literacy.
QUESTION: Trained? Or will it assume that they are digitally literate? Hmm.
Opportunity for all: how the American public benefits
The point: we know that librarians are doing a great job but we keep telling each other, not those that need to be told (policy makers, decision makers) both nationally and locally.

Methodology for her research: nationwide phone survey, web survey, case studies
Over 50, 000 people about public access computing in libraries
Interesting factoid/sound bite: There are more libraries than McDonalds in the US.

Key Findings:
2/3 use libraries.
2/3 use library staff
2/3 are lay information mediaries (people helping people use info)
32% use public access computers, 50% are ages 14-18.
Agencies are sending their people to libraries for help. People are taking it upon themselves to get help. But libraries are overstretched.

ASIST 2005: The Death of the User. Users as an inherently weak concept?
The user is not always the user. You might be giving users information but they aren’t necessarily using it. You don’t know if they will use the information in the way you anticipated. Direct and indirect outcomes. Let's think about this in academic terms as well: aren't we always surprised by the way students approach problems, construct answers?
USER is an archaic way of looking at behavior (Brenda Dervin).

A new perspective: Social constructivist nature of information: something that is holistic and contextual. Consistent with the need to expand definitions of other: need, giving, use.
Do we need new terms? Expand them? Re-envision them? Re-define them.
Recognize the complexity of the user.

Why do we help people find information?
Lay Information Mediary Behavior: people who seek information on behalf of others without being asked and may or may not follow up. NOT in a professional role. Ordinary people.
Of all demographics, all ages though typically women. Intentional and unintentional. Engage in LIM behavior is a form of caring and maintaining relationships. An expression of caring.
LIM: more likely to RELY SOLELY on PL access, lower income & poverished, women, languages other than English. How info savvy a person is has nothing to do with how educated they are.

80% use library computers DAILY or near daily.

Muses: instead of seeking for themselves, they farm the seeking out to a LIM. Difficult to know who they are.

When people come to the desk, are they the user? Not necessarily—they could be seeking information for someone other than the person in front of you. Concerns about what is lost in translation.

LIMs are info lit: curious empathetic, identify themselves as “go-to” people, recognize info needs, know how to find information.
Stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in public access computers in libraries.

The State of Information Literacy: despite that it is increasingly important, our paradigm is insufficient. It presupposes that it is about individual users seeking and using info on their own behalf. The general public has greater needs than we know.
SOCIAL information literacy: reflect people’s info seeking on behalf of other people. It is based on people being attuned to info situations of others. They know how to provide information at the right time, in the right way, in the right format AS WELL AS providing the right information!
Social Info Lit is a NEW BUSINESS MODEL for libraries.

Research to be done is extensive, deep, and across our discipline.
Social Information Literacy Interventions

Keynote challenge: how can we develop social information literacy and change the world? Step Up!
PONDER: Information Seeking is not always a solo voyage.

Is the relationship between LIMs and Muses co-dependent or exclusive? Are both behaviors occurring in the same person? Does it depend on areas of expertise? Or particular types of information? On life experiences? Opportunity for future research.

For every two people, three people benefit. In public libraries, people that love the library might not be the one in the library “using” it?
The total number of people being served=thinking about it in terms of student use. Are they searching only for themselves or for their friends, sharing information, sharing resources. What is the implications of LIMs in academic use?

LILAC2010: Relational Frame of Information Literacy

2010-03-29T14:06:00.002-05:00

Andrew Whitworth, author of Information Obesity
An evaluation of a course located in the relational frame of IL

A theoretical point of view. Seeing information literacy in a slightly different way because he is not a librarian.

Classic definitions of Info Lit (ACRL), are useful but they focus on the learner as a subjective user of information. What can it do for me, etc. There are other forms of value. If we omit these other value systems, then there are some serious risks to knowledge base. If we are to be truly information literate, we need to move beyond thinking about what information can do for us and think more holistically about information.

Make explicit what is implicit.

Damien Thompson’s “Counterknowledge” (2008), Bad Science.
Books that discuss basis of thinking that have no scientific grounding.

Objective value: scientific measure to transcend subjectivity.
Intersubjective support: people will believe them. Value created by communities (public opinion, moralities, laws, economics). If you don’t have intersubjective value, you have relativism. Just because those types of value are articulated in ACRL, that does not mean that we are building information literacy programming and instruction around those values. This gets to the idea of whether we, as librarians, feel like we are qualified to teach information literacy. Is this why we cloak library instruction as information literacy? Because we aren’t comfortable with the deeper critical thinking issues?

Group think (Ricardo Blaug, 2007)—not thinking of yourself, battery cognition.

Media and information literacy course.
Six Frames of IL (2007), Christine Bruce et al.

Lots of ways of dealing with information literacy
Content
Competency
Learning to learn
Personal relevance
Social impact
IL can mean lots of things to lots of different people, hence multiple frames. We intermingle these frames. We might not privilege one frame over the other. They all are important.
The RELATIONAL frame brings all of these together. If you are teaching in the relational frame, then you are preparing your students to move between all of them.

Students ranking what info lit is: only one thought that it is about the world of information.

To teach teachers, we need to teach students about IL. The need to teach teachers well and holistically about IL so it can be passed on to learners. Impact on personal and professional development. How are they using information or changing their habits. Many of them changed their practice. Interesting given what Catherine Williams said this morning about the challenge of habits changing.

Assessing students on their ability to move between frames. Across activities, each activity is assigned a particular frame.

Production of information, putting it back into the public sphere, is transformative. All students felt that they were transforming their practice. They accept the need to transform their practice, even if the assessment didn’t show it. THEY thought so.

Focus on teachers, so it is for specialists.
Converting the course for a more generic post-grad audience.
Will become an open access resource.
http://83.120.93.38/~unimanc/
log on as guest. Feedback will be welcome.
Moodle based.
Creating something short and modular. 7 hours. A component to professional education for teachers and for librarians.

How do you turn information into knowledge?
We have tendencies to avoid information that challenges our prior beliefs. As a PhD student, you need to see how data challenges your view. We look for information that reinforces your beliefs.

Social impact = media literacy
Ben Goldacre

Who writes the news? Single people. Where does your information come from, literally?

A “rounded view” of information literacy.

To offer these components, even those that aren’t traditionally viewed as info lit. Opportunities for collaboration?

LILAC2010: Keynote with Tony Durcan

2010-03-29T08:59:00.002-05:00

Monday Keynote: Tony Durcan
Head of Culture, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning
Newcastle City Council

What is the role of information literacy in public libraries, particularly in terms of current economic climate. Focus on digital inclusion.

Is information literacy a public library issue?
Is Information Literacy a new skills gap?

The People’s Network (2002), free access to the internet is not possible in public libraries. A lot of emphasis on Digital Britain.
New ways to offer adult learning, with new ways to fund that.

Side note: Learning how far ahead the United States is in terms of what we offer at the public library (internet access!) and through e-education. Fewer people using the internet or even having computers in the UK, particularly in rural areas.

If you didn’t have public libraries, you would have to spend a lot more in social issues (crime, education, social services). The library as place but also a place that benefits the community in broad, societal ways--even beyond ways we sometime are aware as librarians.

Libraries as “pillars of interaction.”

Still significant issues around skills and behavior: a real hurdle is getting people to ask for what they want. Not just a problem in public libraries. How can librarians get trained to solicit questions?

Breaking down barriers in physical spaces in order to break down barriers in mental spaces: information points at Newcastle Public Library. No hard spaces—open spaces. Staff as floor based, not office based. Encourages questions.
What kinds of changes have you seen in user behavior? Much more open although staff were very frightened. But they admitted that their fears were misfounded. It has increased accessability considerably.

Made decisions without the background but instinct, and knowing their community.

Getting quite a significant glimpse into the public library’s role in the UK: no free internet across the country, libraries have to pay for government information. Wow. People that don’t know how to use the internet or that they think the internet is not for them. Offering “How to use the iPod”, “How to use social networking”. Is it the medium for you?

A culture change in the staff: we have to enthuse people to use new formats. Removed bureaucracy: no need to use your card to use computers. Breaking down barriers.

IDEA: Putting podcasts of visitors on the library: people famous, people important, just people. Why are you in the library? Why do you love the library?

A strength and a weakness of the public library is its public, democratic root. It is up to what politicians and the people are needing and wanting to do.

At what point do we allow young people to use social networking sites on public computers?

A question from Twitter: why are images on Flickr not available through Creative Commons?

How to build a better relationship with the Council? Respond to the political agenda. Libraries are part of city government—don’t forget it. We have forgotten it in terms of the agenda of the city, initiatives, priorities. Not ours but theirs. You can’t always do what politicians ask you to do, but you can explain why you won’t do it and what you can do.

Highlight your priorities:
Supporting children’s education
Supporting social and digital inclusion.
In the States: universal access.

Raising the profile of the public library.

The relationship between public schools and libraries: how to extend school’s curriculum into the librarian? Again an issue of funding.

LILAC2010: Changing User Behavior on the web

2010-03-29T05:14:00.002-05:00

This was an excellent talk and a lot of thoughts started running through my head. If anyone else is reading this, you will find that my thoughts are running through as well so please don't think Caroline Williams said everything here!

Changing User Behavior on the web—what does this mean for the development of online information literacy tools?
Caroline Willaims, Exec. Director of Intute and Deputy Director of Mimas

A focus on the national perspective.
MIMAS: National Data Center (one of two—Manchester and Edinburgh). Provides infrastructure for large data sets (census) but also library as well as assistance through helpdesk, training, etc. Web of Knowledge.

The Alternate Title: Shall we give up and leave it to Google?
Not a throw away question. Are we fighting a loosing battle?

What is research telling us right now about user behavior?
CIBER 2008, “The Google Generation”.
Even though more people have more access to technology, little time is spend evaluating information. There is not an improvement in how we use, evaluate, or select information.
Two camps of thinking:
Make it easy for students to find what they need
Teaching them skills to be able to find what they need themselves

Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World, March 2009
IL should be treated as a high priority—critical evaluation of information.
A new trend in Higher Ed that IL is getting this level of support, although it is focused on digital literacy.
Isn’t this only a greater call of transliteracy???
Digital Britain: digital literacy impacts equality through employability.
Andrew Whitworth and Information Obesity.
This isn’t new information but the emphasis it is getting from government and outside of the academic realm is new.
Q: What are libraries doing to connect to that energy? Or is government turning to Google or to other corporate services as the venue for education?

Mimas Market Research:
1. Project Fusion: the indispensability of Google and Google Scholar
2. Intute Web 2.0
3. ViM Project
4. Mobile Internet Detective

It is not just about information literacy but the complete way we categorize and share information. Catalogers are just as important to the success of information distribution and information seeking success as the skills that users apply in a variety of information environments.
Other resources were used but the emphasis remains on ease of use in terms of searching for resources but also for specific information in the material itself (searching within electronic resources—what Amazon has over libraries).

“Centrifugal model of information gathering—scholarly work and the shaping of digital access”, Carole Palmer 2005.

The habits of researchers: Once they start doing it a certain way, it is hard to change.
Confidence and satisfaction are inextricably linked. Their awareness that they could do it better and that opportunities to improve exist but students won’t seek out that help. Why? What is it that they are afraid of? Confidence and satisfaction are inextricably linked.

Intute Web 2.0:
Perceptions of librarians on undergraduate behaviour
Perceptions of web 2.0 in education: they have a place but they should be adopted because the technology exists. Social use is not the same as academic use. Not in the habit of rating and commenting and were even suspicious of those that did. Students WANT to separate the social and working dimensions of their lives.

Value for Money in Automative Metadata Generation:
Google: Students might use their institutions’ resources but Google remains pervasive and popular.
When it comes to Google, words don’t do it justice.
Undergrads are ignorant of how to undertake effective searches. Students like that iGoogle or Amazon “get to know you”. Aligns to the point about digital natives that they don’t care about privacy in the same way that we might.

Mobile Internet Detective: translating an online IL tutorial to something that can be used on a phone.
Library users will start to demand that everything happen on a phone: a behavior changer.
“Why walk to the library if it’s on the Internet” (not a comment about the resources but rather, about the value of the electronic library).
What about the value of the PERSON. We need to be focusing our attention on the human dimension to information rather than trying to compete with Google in searching.

Concerns over access, speed. Students might not be using their phones during university for information seeking BUT what about the emphasis on the lifelong component? Once they get out into the “real world” and are working with smart phones…

Pack to the question: shall we give up and leave it to Google?
Two sides to the coin:
On one side, digital and information literacies
On the other: interface and sharing information, improving access.
The actions that are being taken libraries to improve is not enough. How can we get Google to participate more fully? What is it that libraries can offer Google?

Taking the step to include Widgets and Feeds so people can put information where they want.
Balancing Child Protection with Web 2.0 tools. Students will bypass school internet protection by using their phones.

Stop saying Google is bad and help students use it better. THAT is where libraries need to put more focus.

LILAC2010: Ready to go!

2010-03-28T15:00:00.003-05:00

It's spring. And for me, that means it is time for LILAC: the Librarians Informations Literacy Annual Conference. Last year, this conference rocked my world in Cardiff. And there were plenty of posts to prove it. This year, the wonderful UK librarians have brought me to Limerick. After a week's vacation in London and the surrounding countryside, I am safe and sound in my hotel and about to go through my presentation one last time.

This year's presentation is called "Building Brick by Brick: a Pragmatic Approach to Measuring Impact". I will post slides of our presentation here tomorrow.

I'm also excited for LILAC's more dynamic presence on Twitter this year. The hashtag is #LILAC2010. I will be adding the #infolit hashtag to my posts as well. I'd like to see that tag get a bit more use and this seems like the right group to make that happen. I am looking forward to keeping up in concurrent sessions through Twitter and I will post notes from those I am attending as well.

LILAC is lovely. I am excited and ready to go!

She Lives!

2010-03-16T13:52:00.005-05:00

Now back to our regular program...

Hi. I'm Sarah Cohen. Infrequent blogger.

It's not that I haven't wanted to blog. Oh, I have. I wanted to blog about Google Books. I wanted to blog about Transliteracy (and don't worry, I will). I wanted to blog about China and the Internet, plagiarism, data....I have a lot starred in my Google Reader.

But I haven't blogged any of those things. Instead, I've been keeping to my self a bit. I haven't been Twittering as much. I haven't been Facebooking as much. I have just been content to stop, look, and listen. And it's been wonderful to read so many interesting things from so many interesting people. I have added a number of new feeds to my reader. I have started following some new people. I have been learning a lot by not always feeling like I needed to comment or produce for myself.

And then today, I read Andy's post asking us what we have to drop. It's a really interesting question for an organization, and Andy does a great job of discussing it in terms of libraries. But it is also really hard for individuals. And that's where it resonated for me.

I love to be involved. I love to generate ideas. I love to participate. It's hard for someone like me to look at my plate and recognize that it is not just full, but too full. That I am wearing myself out. Or not directing my energy in a way that is constructive. As I look at my work, what is it that really motivates me? What is it that gets me excited? What is it that feeds me? There are many parts to my job, as is the case for many of us, especially in small libraries. And I am certainly not in a position to stop doing the parts that are less exciting than others. Frankly, there are some things that I cannot drop. But by recognizing what matters most to me, what excites me, I can be that much more grateful for having as part of my job. Does that make sense? That by recognizing the parts of our job that we love, we can handle the parts that we love less. Or that sometimes feel like they are dragging us down or overloading us.

So, for me, social media was feeling like something that was becoming burdensome to me for a little while. And by stepping away from it, be realizing how much I want to contribute and how much I have to contribute to the conversation, I find myself reinvigorated.

Andy uses a plant metaphor in his post and I'll stick with that, especially being the gardener that I am and it being such a beautiful day in Vermont. Often times, you have to redirect a plant's energy in order to help it flourish. That is exactly what I am suggesting here. Find out what makes you tick. Honor it. Cherish it. And then put that energy and awareness to use in your work, in your teaching, in your interactions, in your less-than-favorite tasks. Andy is right: some things need to be dropped. David Lee King is right: some things need to be re-prioritized. But there is also a part to the conversation that is about directing your energy and directing your mind. Let's not forget to put that into our equations as well.

Still thinking about ALA: What is IL Instruction for?

2010-01-28T15:26:00.002-05:00

As you might know from previous posts, even my most recent post, I love conferences. I thrive in hearing about projects at other institutions and thinking about ways they will work at my own library. I get inspired by librarians and I also come to recognize how special as place my own library and campus can be. My trip to ALA Midwinter is no exception.

As part of our travel, my Director asks us to think about “trends, highlights, ideas you think might work (or not) here.” In reading other blog posts this week, there seem to be a lot of ideas around technology trends. But most of the sessions I attended were not geared towards technology. Especially since I was travelling with Andy, who is the Emerging Technologies head honcho. No, I tried to focus my attention on instruction. What I learned, though, is that the way I am developing are instruction program at Champlain is not easily aligned with instruction at a lot of other institutions. That gives me pause for thought.

One of the sessions I attended discussed the role of experiential research in information literacy. Our students are taking on ethnography projects this spring so that felt like the right place to be. However, as I listened to librarians share their strategies and techniques for preparing students for experiential research, I found myself conflicted with this “student as scholar” model. Are we truly setting our students up for success by asking them to behave as scholars? Is that model appropriate to today’s climate or economy?

Thinking back on the Education Life section of the NY Times I read a few weeks ago, I wonder if scholars are really what students should be trained to be? I think back to this TED video by Sir Kenneth Robinson as well. Are we serving students well by asking them to behave as mini-scholars? Maybe. Maybe if we are making it clear what these scholarship projects can do for them out in the “real world”. Maybe if we can make clear connections between the methodologies we are teaching them and the work they will encounter in their cubicles, classrooms, studios, labs. What are students getting from a particular research method that will matter to them after college?

That’s where my head is and has been for a while. I look back at my thinking about seeing Ken Robinson’s video and I still asking the same question when I attend conferences: what is Information Literacy instruction for? From listening to librarians speak, I think we can answer that question to ourselves and maybe to administrators. But I’m not convinced we can answer that question for students.

Are you?

Dear ALA, about Midwinter

2010-01-19T13:06:00.002-05:00

It’s Tuesday afternoon and I am waiting to board my plane from Boston to DC, going from one huge conference (ALA Midwinter) to another (AACU). Conferences are funny things. I look forward to them a great deal. I love traveling in and of itself but traveling with learning and improving my understanding of issues in my field is especially enjoyable and rewarding. Oh, and catching up with friends while I’m at it is pretty awesome.

This trip, though, was different than other trips to Midwinter. I don’t know about others, but there was something that hung over the conference. Perhaps it was the location. Boston is a pretty great town but you woulnd’t really know it if you stayed in the vicinity of the conference. I would have greatly preferred being at the Hynes Convention Center than in the no-man’s land of the BCEC. Even on those really busy days when I had four meetings back to back, it would be nice to feel the vibrancy of the city like you do at the Hynes.

Perhaps it was the lack of vibrancy in the Exhibits Hall. I took two hours one afternoon and strolled the exhibits. And while there are some cool things to see, what you really could see is smaller booths, more nervous looking reps from vendors, and less fat. Less celebration. And that just felt….a bit depressing.

Perhaps it’s just everyone’s focus on the economy. One of the discussion groups I attended dealt with how to increase morale among librarians and staff during these trying and scary times. (More on that in a later blog post.) I don’t work at a public institution but that doesn’t mean that I can’t sympathize and feel great concern with their discussions of furloughs, extreme cutbacks, and layoffs. Which is why I find it unacceptable that our profession, which is so interested and dependent on serving users through technology, is not offering more in terms of virtual participation. Because let’s face it: conferences are bloody expensive! And a good deal of what we do could be done virtually. I am not suggesting email, because god knows I don’t want to have to write more emails. But Skype is a pretty phenomenal free service. And sitting down to do committee work really could be done via Skype with a few emails thrown in. Believe me, I love coming to conference. And I am a firm believer in the value of face to face interaction. But I really wonder what the thinking is behind demanding attendance at conferences in order to participate in our profession. To me, it reeks of the very thing that eats at us—being viewed as outdated. This really struck me during the Ebsco luncheon. The presenter kept pointing out what they have that “Google doesn’t have.” “Hmm,” I thought (and whispered to Andy, “that’s an interesting presentation style.” Just because Google doesn’t do it, does that make it better? More usable? Valuable? Relevant? Is that supposed to be a rallying cry to librarians?

It’s not to me. And neither is saying that face to face is inherently the better, more productive way to get work done. It’s about determining what is important to us as librarians and professionals, what is important to our users, and what is important to our vision for libraries. That’s what I want to hear about at conference: vision, innovation, collaboration, optimism, creativity. That’s what inspires me. That’s what gets me back into the saddle, ready to rock it out at my library. So, perhaps this is my plea to ALA: let’s get creative about how we can make conference more essential, interesting, valuable, relevant. I have some ideas and I bet you do too. Share em! Here, in your own blogs, on the Twitter, within your libraries, among yourselves. But share them. Brainstorm. I find most people at ALA are interested in hearing suggestions. So let’s come up with some.

Ireland, here I come!

2009-12-02T13:44:00.005-05:00

Some exciting news to share (remember, I am working on that!). My presentation proposal for LILAC 2010 was accepted! Ireland, here I come!

LILAC was terrific last year. This year, we will be participating in the Measuring Impact track. Assessment is the part of my job that I find the most challenging to wrap my head around and to enjoy. But, believe it or not, I am coming around to it. That's what our presentation will focus on: Building a Culture of Assessment, Brick by Brick.

Last year was full of superb presentations and a great sense of collaboration and cooperation. I am looking forward to being a part of it again.

Great Reading

2009-11-20T11:03:00.004-05:00

I am leaving campus for the holiday (HAPPY THANKSGIVING) but there are so many good articles in my RSS today that I just have to throw them out here:

If you haven't checked out this piece about academic libraries in Inside Higher Ed, DO IT! And be sure to read the comments. I especially was partial to Steve Bell's one liner on not having time to respond because he's busy making sure the books are all in order. HA! But seriously, this piece is a terrific conversation starter among us about strategic planning, missions, and vision for academic libraries.

Another Inside Higher Ed piece: this essay in defense of the lecture. I am a huge proponent of the Inquiry Method, particularly when it comes to information literacy, but I think there are some excellent points to be made and discussed here about expectations of students, building skills, scaffolding, and gaps in learning. And while the article is aimed at traditional classes, there is a lot of food for thought here in terms of library instruction as well.

The Chronicle Blog has a great piece (again, check out the comments) on "tweckling"--heckling during conferences over Twitter. I look back at my own concerns with Twitter at conferences. It's one thing to stand up in front of the room and deal with people looking bored or sleeping, it's another to wonder what all the typing is about. And I do think there is still a lot to be discussed about community and respect in the online world.

But one thing these articles all get at is the changing face of education. The way in which the landscape is shifting and the challenges that presents as we try to gain our footing, even if only for a moment. And frankly, that is something I am interested in talking about, especially with students. How do you account for change? How does change impact your expectations for ways of being, ways of reading, ways of thinking? How does change impact your expectations for information?

Some of what I'll mull over during my week away. That is, when I'm not reading for pleasure. Oh pleasure reading...how I have missed you.

Happy Thanksgiving.

You Never Know

2009-11-13T13:15:00.004-05:00

Like many librarians that design IL curricula and especially librarians that teach, you really wonder if what you are doing is having impact. Am I getting through to the students? Did that student walk away from the class with an idea of how to move forward in their head?

Or even at reference: is the patron leaving our time together thinking I was helpful?

Is this work I'm doing working?

This week, I was surprised by how many ways the answer came to me. And that the answer was yes.

Yes, our IL curriculum is making students think differently about information. It might not always be obvious from how they participate in class or how they look while we are up in the front of the room, but this students' post reminded me that the work we are doing does work.

That alone would have been enough for me. But the love just kept on coming! Yesterday, a faculty member sent this email out to all faculty:

Dear Colleagues,

Our librarians are wonderful. A little while ago I asked them to find a photograph of Friederike Maria Beer-Monti. “Friederike who?” you ask. Exactly - her only claim to fame these days is that she was the one person to be the subject of portraits by both Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

In less than an hour, (librarian x) found me a usable photo in which Friederike Maria Beer-Monti’s pose resembled that in the Klimt portrait.

Impressive, wouldn’t you agree?

Best regards, (professor A+)

I was beaming when I read that. I'm not the librarian mentioned in this email. But I don't care. It was a fellow librarian, someone I work with and love, and yup...they rock. Getting an email like this was incredible.

More incredible was the wealth of response this sparked:

-Our Librarians are the best!!!

-I couldn’t agree more. Our librarians totally ROCK!

-I'd like to chime in with high praise as well. I insist that my art students find their way to that nice building on the hill every semester. As much as they may enjoy their cozy computers, when students conduct research in the library or consult the staff there, they invariably discover that Champlain is blessed with a stellar library staff that simply couldn't be more supportive.

-Oh yeah, and the students actually look INTERESTED when the librarians at the reference desk are talking to them. They work magic for sure!

-I am going to jump on the bandwagon and say that I too, think that we have a truly crackerjack library staff. One of the things that I find to be most impressive is that in a time when Universities are closing libraries, we have a thriving one due to our staff of professional’s abilities to seamlessly integrate “old school” and new school ways of getting at information. Kudos to the whole crew at MIC!

-I assign a lot of research papers and projects, and always recommend that students use the Librarians for what they are, a critical resource in their learning. Of the students who do tap into this valuable resource, all of them report back to me how helpful the librarians have been. You all DO rock!

-I'm not usually one to hop in on the emails in praise of X, but for the librarians, I happily will. "Helpful" is a nice little adjective, but it doesn't really capture the MIC folks, for whom "above and beyond the call" is the norm. I loudly second Professor A+'s laudatory comments.

Be still my pounding heart!

What's the point here? The point is that you never know when your work is truly making a difference. You never know the value of your helpfulness. You never know how much you are appreciated. That is until someone kindly shares it with you. But even if they don't, you never know. You might be making the world of difference.

Believe it. Surprises abound.

Recognizing Recognition

2009-11-10T16:35:00.008-05:00

So, I am ACRL Member of the Week.

There. I said it.

Being recognized has been a strange thing for me. I am not a shy person. And I am comfortable talking about what I do, why I do it, and what I enjoy or dislike about it. But I am not the kind of person that feels comfortable sharing my successes. Or highlighting my acheivements. I'm not sure I really knew that about myself until this Member of the Week thing. I mean, I share exciting things with my family. But even with my friends....I hesitated. Is it obnoxious to put this on my Facebook page? Is it inappropriate to tweet yourself?

Andy convinced me I was being ridiculous about not putting something like this on my Facebook. Wouldn't I want to know if one of my friends was highlighted by their national organization? OF COURSE! So, I posted it. And let me just say....I have amazing friends. The support and love overwhelmed me. And made me grateful for the connections I am able to maintain via social networks. But still....those are my friends. As I said in the email to my parents, brother, husband, and non-facebook friends, "If not you, who?"

I couldn't bring myself to Tweet it. I couldn't bring myself to sing out into the Twittersphere about my self. I struggle with that when I post to the blog. But why? Where is this discomfort? I don't feel embarrassed or uncomfortable highlighting workshops I am giving. I have no problem saying that I am speaking at ACRL or LILAC or VT NEA. I am fine sharing articles being accepted. But recognition is different, for some reason. Perhaps it's the part of me that is afraid of being tagged as a fraud. Perhaps it's the part of me that thinks that while I do good work, it's not more worthy of recognition than so many other librarians. Perhaps it's the part of me that blushes. But frankly, I would rather congratulate someone else than myself.

Where does self promotion and self congratulation swap seats? And at what point does it get to be too much?

I feel like this is one of those things that we each have to figure out as we go. They certainly don't tell you in library school how to manage success. Or recognition. And I am trying to figure it out. I don't really have an answer here. It's just something I've been thinking a ton about in the last two days. And I wonder how other people handle it? How do you share your successes? How do you push your achievements out there for people to see? Do you do it at all? Are there some things you do and some things you don't? Is there a "best practices" I am not aware of? I am sure I am not the first person to feel a bit ill at ease in moments like this. Who's got a trick up their sleeve for this one?

Awesome Ahead.

2009-11-03T16:33:00.001-05:00

Champlain is in the midst of working on our next Strategic Plan: Champlain 2020. As such, the Library is engaging in some forward thinking about what we think the library might look like in ten years.

Ten years.

It doesn't sound like that far away, especially because ten years ago felt like yesterday. But in truth, ten years, especially when we think about the rate of change in technology, is a different world in libraries.

Do I mean that?

Yes and no. Academic libraries have changed a lot in the last ten years, twenty years, fifty years. But at their core, libraries have remained something very stable. They are weavers of intellectual fabrics. They are a place for all members of all communities. They are a place of expansion, learning, exploration, growth. That is true. That is solid. But how we are manifesting that has changed immensely. Social media, Library 2.0, information commons, user-centered design...there are more examples than I could possibly think of. Yet, at their core, libraries remain committed to supporting and engaging our users in learning, community, and pleasure.

So what does that mean in an academic library?

Andy and I got to thinking about it in front of a white board. Here's what we came up with:

Some of these are pretty space oriented. I want to be out from behind the desk. Librarians on every floor, walking with hand held devices to provide instant access to information.

The thing about that, is that libraries could be doing that already. Whether anyone is, is a different question. But they could.

And that’s the thing about this question of what the library should look like in ten years. We can’t really answer it when it comes to space or technology. Or users. What we can do is answer it in terms of attributes. Qualities.

That’s exactly what happened in our meeting the other day. The question shifted to “What do we want to be known for in 5 years?” I couldn’t help but blurt out “awesome”. And my awesome boss actually wrote that down. I mean, it’s not going into our actual document but she took it ran with it. Because seriously, how much better can it get than trying to figure out what awesome means.

AWESOME.

What does it mean to you?
To your library?
To your patrons?

Blogging the Blahs

2009-10-21T10:32:00.005-05:00

I've been having a hard time focusing lately. Part of it could be that time of the semester. Part of it could be the season's changing. Part of it could be how much energy I am exerting into teaching.

But I am sharing it, in part, because I think that while it is important to share our successes, our questions, our highs and our lows, it is also important to share our blahs. Our moments that we don't think are worth sharing. Because sometimes...frankly...I am not productive. Sometimes I want to curl up and go back to bed. Sometimes I want to drink tea and read. Sometimes I want to go play.

Two thoughts about the Blahs:
1. It's ok. I do pretty amazing work on a regular basis. And I have some pretty incredible opportunities at my finger tips. What I am saying is that I am not reading too much into it. I am not necessarily feeling the Blahs because I am not challenged at work or not interested in the work I am doing. Sometimes, it just happens. It would be something worrisome if it happened a lot or for a long stretch. But if you are experiencing the Blahs too, it's ok. We don't need to beat ourselves up about it. We don't need to guilt ourselves over having a Blah day. What's most important is that we share how we are doing and not read too much into it.

2. This is me blogging the whole me. When I met David Silver four years ago, I never would have guessed that such a little phrase as "blog the whole you" would have such a lasting effect. But it has. It is a rule of blogging for me. So blogging the Blahs is just as important as Blogging the Awesomes or Blogging the Challenges or Blogging the Solutions.

Sometimes blogging is an intimidating task because it feels like I should only be blogging about "real" things. But having the Blahs is real. And sometimes sharing it, letting it out, venting can be cathartic and just what I need to get past it. To put some zip back into my step. To return to being the Sheck.

And don't get me wrong....venting is not the only way I am dealing with the Blahs. I am looking back at projects that are on the side lines to seek "Inspirado". I am talking to co-workers, like Andy. I am attending fun stuff like tomorrow's Chili CookOff at the Library. I am also taking inspiration from fellow bloggers, like Bobbi Newman who wrote a really authentic, honest post about making a mistake. Hats off to her for blogging her whole self! And for inspiring me to do the same.

So that's my post for today. That's how I am feeling. How about you?

Information Literacy Month?

2009-10-06T14:03:00.004-05:00

Oh yes, people. October is Information Literacy Month according to the White House. How awesome that this coincides with the IL teaching load at work.

There might be some grumbling about this out in the Blog- or Twittersphere. But when you take a moment to think about it, what does this proclamation really mean? It recognizes that information is not power alone. It recognizes that information is necessary but not necessarily. It recognizes that information alone is not enough. That critical thinking about information is central to an information society.

And that librarians have an important role to play. Our role may be changing, as is the role of information. My awesome co-worker, Andy Burkhardt, is blogging that these days. But we have a role to play.

The real question is what role that is going to be?

What are you going to do?

Come on. Tell me.

Opportunity Lost or Just a Library Saved?

2009-09-21T15:31:00.005-05:00

Phew.

The Philadelphia Library system is staying open. Here is the announcement from the Free Library.

Here is also an interesting post by Jessamyn about it. I think she makes an interesting point about believing in our elected officials. But....that's fine line. What is a girl to do? One minute we need to rally, engage, communicate, and be a part of the change. And then there are times when we should sit back and assume all will be well. I get the gist of what she is saying but it still doesn't sit well with me.

Why?

Because every problem is an opportunity. And we missed one.

What really bothers me about the lack of action and organizing is that we missed an opportunity. Librarians could have used this as a moment to engage and organize around addressing legislatures, speaking out for our communities, and demand more. More support for libraries. More funding. More commitment so that something like this isn't even a question. Then we wouldn't have to have PR stunts like Philly pulled.

But we didn't. We just let it go because really, who is really going to close a library?

What about you? Did you follow this story? Did you engage others? Why? Why not? Is this an opportunity lost or just another library saved?

Hello? Opportunity? Is that you?

2009-09-15T19:48:00.004-05:00

Opportunity knocks. You have to decide if you are answering the door.

Well, I am answering. My incredible partner in crime and constant source of inspiration, Rob Williams, and I are taking our show on the road. Our enthusiasm, prowess for things digital, and creative energy around social media is coming to Vermont's Upper Valley in early October. We are looking forward to working with artists a bit south of here to make their foray into social media.

Here's the description. If you have questions, let us know! If you are interested, SIGN UP! If you are reading this, please share this opportunity with others. I hope to share more opportunities like this in the future!

Twitter Me This: How Writers and Artists Can Harness New Web 2.0 Media For Creativity and Business Success

TEACHERS: Rob Williams, Ph.D. and Sarah Cohen

SPONSORED BY: The Writer's Center and Vermont Commons: Voices of Independence.

WHEN: Tuesday, October 6th from 6-9 p.m.

WHERE: White River Junction's Center For Cartoon Studies.

COST: $30

DESCRIPTION: Are you a wordsmith who hates the thought of wrangling the Web? Then come to this three hour workshop, where we'll teach you how to harness the power of new Web 2.0 tools - Twitter, Blogger, Google, RSS Readers and more - to support your work as both a writer and an entrepreneur. Sign up for this workshop, or find out more information by contacting Rob Williams at editor@vtcommons.org or (802) 279-3364 (mobile yak phone).

URGENT ACTION: SAVE PHILLY LIBRARIES!

2009-09-14T09:58:00.002-05:00

I am from Philly. And I love it there. I don't follow sports much but I always cheer when the Birds, the Phils, the Flyers, or the Sixers are playing simply because I am proud of my city.

But that's over.

That is if Philadelphia libraries close on Oct 2nd. Here is the WAY TOO BRIEF article from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

According to the Free Library's blog:

At stake are over 700 jobs, loss of access to information and resources including 800 public computers for Philadelphians and no place to go after school for over 80,00 students.

With almost 7 million visits annually and 22 million hits to its website, the Free Library is the most heavily used of all institutions in the city. As the largest provider of internet access in a City where 41% of homes lack web connection, the Library provides the essential link to information, jobs and resources found only on line.

So here's what I think: get the social media machine to work. TWEET it! Use hashtags: #savephilly #libraries
Send your tweets to @PhiladelphiaGov and @Philly311. If you have other suggestions, SHARE THEM!
Donate your status to Saving Philadelphia Libraries.

The Free Library of Philadelphia also has an ACTION PAGE.

ACT. CALL. WRITE. TWEET. If you are in Philly, let us know what else we can do!

Libraries will get us through time of no money better than money will get us through times of no libraries!

Some things remain the same

2009-08-28T14:33:00.005-05:00

It's a beautiful day in Vermont. Sunny. The perfect temperature and a gentle breeze. Today is the last day that I could bring Rigi to the office. He's spent three or sometimes four days a week curled up on a chair in my office throughout the summer. School starts on Monday and the first year students descended onto campus today. I had hoped to listen to the President's welcome out on the quad but as soon as people started clapping, Rigi perked up a bit too much. So we went for a walk.

As we were walking, I came up to four neighborhood kids selling lemonade. 10 cents a cup. And I started thinking about selling lemonade when I was a kid. And about my parents dropping me off at college. What a sunny, beautiful day that was. How excited I was. How nervous I was. How strange it was for my parents to be dropping me off. How strange it was to see my dad well up with tears as they pulled away from the gates at Smith.

Today, as I met parents and eavesdropped on their conversations as I walked around, their excitement for their son or daughter was palpable. And so was the undercurrent of nervousness emanating from the students.

iPhones. Facebook. Twitter. Ebooks. Kindles.

The essentials for college life may change.

Some things remain the same.

Thinking of Louisville

2009-08-04T14:52:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Michael Porter for letting us know about the terrible situation at Louisville Free Public Library. Greg Schwartz is one of my closest friends from library school and he has been passionate about his work at the Louisville Free since Day 1. My thoughts are with him, the staff, and all the patrons at Louisville.

Why I didn't share my Library Day in the Life

2009-08-03T09:01:00.004-05:00

Last week, a number of colleagues and friends posted their Library Day in a Life. This was one of those memes that made me stop. And while I think Bobbi Newman rocks for putting this together, I have been asking myself what I can learn from the experience. What is it that librarians are trying to acheive by participating in this meme? What does it tell us about ourselves? About our profession?

The first thing that it tells me is that we lead incredibly varied lives. It really makes me proud to be in a profession that brings so much intellectual and creative energy to the information stream.

However, at the same time, I ask myself who we are writing these memes for. It would be one thing if we were taking these various "day in the life" scenarios and publicizing them in a way that encouraged patrons and other professions to rethink what they mean when they say "librarian". All those folks that cock an eyebrow or give a little giggle and a joke about Dewey...those folks could learn so much by reading these expositions on our profession.

But that's not what the library blogosphere is up to with this meme, really. And it really wasn't until I saw Amanda McNeil's tweet this morning that it really struck me as to why I didn't participate in this meme:

Amanda's link to an article wasn't what took my attention here. It was the vibe that she picks up on. I love being part of a group of people that are proud of the work we do. And I love working with people that speak up and speak out. But this meme leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth in part because I don't see the meme itself having a role in our relevance, or our creativity, or out sociality (is that a word?!). Are we using these memes as collaboration tools? As ways to develop our own practices based on the practices of others? If you are, BRAVO! And share that! THAT is what I want to hear about. THAT is what I want to see happen with learning more about the nitty gritty of our day. THAT is what makes the technology we feel so comfortable with and the wealth of librarians being social media butterflies (had to steal Andy's metaphor there!) so valuable to our profession. But just sharing what you do on a daily basis--that doesn't have value in and of itself. And as Steven Bell rightly points out, we need to be spending our hours adding value to the learning process. And not just in the classroom. But amongst ourselves. At our conferences. At our Tweetups. On our blogs. I'm not saying we should abandon fun, laughs, and humor on our blogs (although, I haven't seen a single Library-Day-In-The-Life that admits to checking their Facebook or watching a YouTube or reading the New York Times). But I do think that the intentionality to learning that we bring into our classrooms could have a valuable role in our social media.

What do you think? Have you gotten something from the Library Day in the Life posts that have given you more value than I am allotting? Share it! I am dying to know.

Finding the Sweet Spot

2009-07-09T08:49:00.003-05:00

Funny the way Twitter takes over your media life.

When I look out on the blogosphere, there are some people that are full fledged, all the time bloggers. People that blog often and have a great deal on a regular basis. Steven Bell, Michael Stephens, Meredith Farkas.

I have never been like these people. I am an occasional blogger. I, like many bloggers, MEAN to blog more often. I have many blog posts I MEAN to share or thoughts on our profession that I share all the time with Andy and other co-workers but rarely do I find time to sit down and get it all out on my computer. And admittedly, I feel guilty about it. Lately, I even ask myself if I should maintain my blog at all. This, in part, is because of Twitter.

I've had an interesting path with Twitter. Initially, I didn't get it. I didn't see the point. And I was philosophically opposed to condensing communication to 140 characters or less. And I still do have reservations about encouraging communication to be so brief. But Andy, my partner in crime at Champlain and generally awesome soul that he is, as usual, helped me see it in a new light. My experience at ACRL and LILAC helped take me from observer in Twitter to participator. And now, I find myself in Twitter more than I ever expected. And not just Tweeting about the weather. But asking questions and getting responses within seconds. For example. yesterday I asked how librarians are teaching RefWorks? Five minutes, six tutorials and three info sheets later, I have some excellent ideas and templates for what could do at Champlain. Another example is keeping track of issues. Whether it be the Iran elections, Information Literacy, or what's shaking in Burlington, Twitter lets me track it easily, quickly, and instantaneously. And that has taken me away from my RSS feed.

Don't get me wrong. I still read many articles, blog posts, and journal articles that are through RSS, references, citations, or referrals. But the point I am making is that my input and my output is shifting. I get information in a new way and I share information in a new way. I tweet an awful lot more than I blog. Yes, a lot of that has to do with how much time it takes to construct a 140 character tweet. But, I find myself wanting to share and see. What interests other people? What gets re-tweeted? What gets a response? While I have never felt the need to blog for others, blogging can be a lonely endeavor while Tweeting is an amazing communal one. Increasingly I find I work well with both. I appreciate the quiet of my blog. I appreciate the opportunity to go back and review what I've said. Even as I've been writing this post, I look back at my blog and realize how long I've been blogging and how much I have thought through things here. But on Twitter, I appreciate the ability to share without the added pressure of annotating and reflecting, or at least doing so very briefly.

So where am I? Where does this leave me in terms of my blog and my media? Thinking about how they intersect and diverge more than before. Certainly thinking about how I can use them effectively and interestingly in teaching. But also realizing the purpose and importance they both have for me. It does not need to be one or the other. There is a sweet spot to be achieved. And I am just starting to sort that out for myself. It has taken me a while and some experimentation to even come to that space. But I think that's what the whole "Exploring New Technology" thread has always been for me. It's been a chance to roam through these new and exciting things for someone who doesn't experience a great deal of techno-lust but is just a generally curious person who wants to try new things and see what they can do. It's always been about finding the sweet spot.

Maybe I will keep the blog after all. I'd forgotten how cathartic it can be. How refreshing. How sweet.

Wonderful

2009-06-30T14:15:00.002-05:00

As a librarians, we don't often have the same gratification as professors. I feel fortunate to work at a small college where I form close relationships with a number of students. But sometimes, they don't come around to share their achievements. And while you see them succeed, our role is often more in the background than front and center.

But sometimes you do have moments when you see someone take something you introduced to them and take off. A close friend and colleague of mine recently did this with blogging. Gary travels a great deal for our college and a few years ago, I encouraged him to start journaling his travels on a blog so that his friends and family could share in his experiences. Who knew that he would take it so deeply to heart. As I read his blog today, while he is galavanting from China to the UAE to Austria to Turkey, I am amazed at how much of the world I see from his posts.

It's wonderful to see so much from so far away through a tool like blogs. And to see someone embrace something so fully as Gary has embraced his blogging. It's a special thing.

Social Media, Iran, and You

2009-06-17T08:26:00.003-05:00

It's an amazing time to be paying attention to social media. Over the last three days, Twitter has been one of the only places where accounts of the protests are coming in. The #iran and #iranelection have been blowing the mainstream media out of the water! People, USERS, are sharing content and building community at an unprecedented rate. All the terms we read about (social media, user generated content, read write web) are typified by this moment.

I can hardly peel my eyes away.

Here are a few articles and blog posts I've been putting into de.licio.us about it:
*The Inquisitor's piece is excellent in giving some context to how social media is over throwing some traditional media outlets.
*Excellent coverage from the New York Times on social media's role. To my mind, they are setting themselves apart with an article like this.
* The Huffington Post is doing great work on their blog. The Post at 2:42 am on 6/17/09 draws an excellent comparison to the Chinese's efforts to quell protest around Tiananmen. My only complaint here is that it is past tense. My excellent friend and mentor, Rob Williams, just returned from three weeks in China during which he and his team of mobile journalists were unable to Tweet, blog, or upload content as the Chinese "celebrated" the anniversary of Tiananmen. Their blog, China Mojo, is well worth reading for a variety of reasons. Check it out.
*Mashable has done an excellent job explaining what's happening on the social media scene and inciting action:

Social media comes fast, and because of that, the information can be overwhelming. Use filters and tools to help you understand what’s happening in real-time. If you’re looking for background on the situation, get yourself up-to-speed using Wikipedia (Iranian presidential elections 2009 and 2009 Iranian election protests are being constantly updated).
Finally, if you want to help bring awareness to the situation, then share! Share the videos you find via Twitter, blog about the situation, email your friends: everybody can play a part in this new media ecosystem.

So share, post, Tweet. This is an exciting moment for social media and a tipping point for the people of Iran.

What I'd like to see. And you?

2009-06-10T10:49:00.005-05:00

As you may know, I am an ACRL Legislative Advocate. I was recently asked to share some of the actions I have taken in the past year and what suggestions I would make. Below is the letter I sent:

As the ACRL Legislative Advocate for VT, I have been in contact with my senators and congressman (we only have one!) a number of times on behalf of ACRL. I have also posted on my blog and Twitter asking people to reach out to their representatives as well. I have also spoken on the phone with aids and staffers at Senator Saunders and Senator Leahy’s office on more than one occasion particularly in regards to Copyright, LSTA, and general support for libraries.

I would love to continue as a Legislative Advocate but I do have a few recommendations for really making this program more effective and targeted to ways that fit ACRL’s mission. Perhaps first and foremost, contextualizing issues in terms of ACRL. While your team has been tremendously supportive and informative, there have been a number of times when I wonder how the steps we are being asked to take impact college and research libraries? Is there a way to make the connection between the goals, needs, and expectations of higher ed libraries and those at the legislative level more explicit?

I would also love to see more active participation of this program in social media outlets. In the age of Obama, social media is a powerful force for engaging our communities (particularly information professionals) around issues and mobilizing. Can we invent a hashtag for ACRL Legislative Advocates on Twitter that allows us to share information more readily? What social media are our representatives paying attention to and how can we leverage our adeptness for technology to make a greater impact? Believe me, I live in a state where I still get a person and a person who is local and interested in what a Vermonter has to say. But I am not sure that is the case in states with larger and broader constituencies.

Finally, is there a way to deepen the community of ACRL Legislative Advocates? I don’t know a single other advocate and while I recognize that there have been a number of opportunities to meet face to face, in a time of slashed budgets, are there ways to connect, brainstorm, and coordinate successfully virtually?

I would be more than happy to discuss these idea with you.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity and for the excellent work you are doing. I am proud to be a part of this endeavor.

What suggestions might you make for ways ACRL Advocates could engage more fully with our representatives? What ACRL issues do you think need hearing at a higher level? As an advocate, it is my responsibility to put your concerns and issues out on the table. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What am I doing this summer

2009-06-08T13:10:00.007-05:00

Rudy posted this meme yesterday and I applaud her and anyone else who is posting their projects. But I am going to take a slightly different take on this meme. Rather than write about what I am doing for the Library, Info Lit, or Champlain, here's what I am doing this summer for myself!

* Gardening. I had a terrific conversation with David Silver last week and gardening was one of the topics of that conversation. He has some terrific pics up on Flickr of his garden and he asked me why I don't post more pictures. I didn't have a good answer so I went home and took some on the spot: This is one of our three vegetable beds and this one focuses largely on leafy greens. I am a pretty aggressive gardener and we just finished a terrific weekend in the garden so I will try to post more pics. And thanks, David, for reminding me one of the cardinal rules of blogging: blog the whole you. In the summer, my attention really does shift. I think I spend so much of the school year at my computer, in the classroom, in meetings, and thinking about logistics or lofty thoughts. It's refreshing and wonderful to ground down, to get dirty, and see the results of your labors. Or eat them.

* Reading. I am a voracious reader. Or I used to be. This being a meme, I remember this post into reading a the beginning of the fall semester. Sadly, with all the work I do, my reading has really suffered. NOT ANYMORE. This summer, I am reading. In the garden. I just finished reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. And I am now on to Eva Luna by Isabelle Allende. What else is on the list? Here's the stack at the library, waiting to be checked out:

Please notice: this is all reading FOR FUN. I also have a stack of articles and books for the library that I have going. But it is the reading for fun that makes me feel like summer is really here and I am meant to enjoy it.

*Being outside, preferably with Rigi. In case you didn't know, I have a German Shorthaired Pointer named Rigi (pronounced REE-GEE, with a hard G). In the summer, I bring him to the office on occasion. Here he is at work last Friday:
I love how the quiet summer and the relaxed atmosphere at my library allows me to bring him into work with me a bit more. It makes the work day so special. While he does well at the office, this is a dog that is meant to be outside. And I hope to spend as much time with him outside as possible. Burlington is incredible in the summer. Between the Lake, the music that comes to town, the outdoor cafes, and then all the things that take place out on the trails, Rigi and I will be out there enjoying it (with my husband too!).

So, while I have a lot of work to do, I am also focusing on one of the best parts of this time of year: the time to not work. The time to rejuvenate and recharge. So while I'd love to hear about your projects, planning, and preps for the year to come, what else do you have up your sleeves for the summer? What are you doing for yourself?

Why do we cite?

2009-05-28T14:10:00.004-05:00

I spend a lot of time talking over the last three weeks talking about citation and documentation with faculty. What is it that we want our students to be attentive to: correctly identifying and attributing someone else's idea or citing a source correctly. Don't get me wrong. Both are important. But in the grand scheme of things, I am more interested in talking to students about documentation, attribution, plagiarism, and intellectual integrity than talking to them about MLA or APA. Styles seem like the cherry on top (did I just equate citation styles to the cherry on a sundae...I did. That happened.)

I guess this is where I remember arguments in ontology and want to parse our what we mean by citations and documentation.

Here's a first go:

Documenting is really about giving credit where credit is due. This is a tough one for students who are just starting out and I think that is worth really thinking about. It's difficult to remember what an 18 year old who is new to college, let alone college writing or research, is taking in on any given day or assignment. At times, I wonder if the expectations we make for students in their first year assignments are truly setting them up for success. When it comes to documentation, the key point is that a student can identify an idea as their own or as someone else's that they are building on. It is, essentially, providing evidence.
This gets into why do you provide evidence and how.

Now we get into citations.

The real question is why do we really cite anything?

The answer that I’d like to advocate for is that citations are the most consistent way of sharing information. We cite because we have information we see as worth sharing. Citations aren’t just to prove your point. They aren’t even about being a part of the scholarly community. With so much information in the world, it’s about SHARING that piece, that piece that did something you wanted, needed, or made you think. That piece that stood out. That piece that was relevant and valuable to the questions and issues you are exploring.

Once we have a handle on what needs to be cited and why it should be cited, then we can get to that final layer: how we cite it. APA, MLA, AMA, IEEE. In the end, the important thing is that the information is findable. All key components are present.

This is my philosophy on citations and documentation. To my way of thinking, there is not a real good reason to teach one style over another. Students are using web-based citation tools whether we like it or not (more on our hunt for one of those in a forthcoming post.) There is a good reason though to talk to students about why it is an important thing to do. There is a good reason to talk to students about what they can get from these "stupid citations". Perhaps we could bring it back to the most basic of lessons: sharing. We are sharing information with one another every day in many different ways. Citations are a way to do it in writing so I can FIND what you found.

And then comes the hard part: teaching this in the classroom. Any ideas?

Back in Action, Taking Action

2009-05-05T10:18:00.002-05:00

I am back from vacation and putting on my ACRL Legislative Advocate hat. This is a call to action by any of you librarians, educators, or concerned citizens out there to get in touch with your Senators to ask for their support of the Library Services and Technology Act. (Find their contact info here).

Please contact your Senators and ask them to sign the "Dear Colleague" letter being circulated by Senators Jack Reed (D-RI)
and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in support of funding for the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) and the Improving Literacy Through School Libraries Program.

The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) is the only federal funding program exclusively for libraries. LSTA offers a variety of competitive grants available to librarians: The 21st Century Librarians Program; The National Leadership Grants; and the Native American Library Services: Enhancement Grants. Around the country, knowledgeable librarians use the flexible LSTA funding to help patrons access essential information on a wide range of topics. They offer training on résumé development; help on web searches of job banks; workshops on career information; links to essential educational and community services; assistive devices for people with disabilities; family and youth literacy classes and services; homework help and mentoring programs; access to government information; a forum for enhanced civic engagement; summer reading programs and much more. These are essential for libraries survival in these challenging economic times when our communities need library services all the more. LSTA funds help libraries provide persons of limited financial resources or who live in remote areas, access to books and reference materials, computers and the internet, and community-based social services that are often available nowhere else.

The deadline for supporting this legislation is MAY 14th!

While I did the normal thing of sending an email and filling in an online form asking for Senator Sanders and Senator Leahy's support for this legislation, I also called their offices. And let me tell you that the response I received was encouraging, friendly, and supportive. The people I spoke to appreciated my taking the time to call rather than just email. They appreciated my having some information at hand (like the deadline). So do what you can, put if you can pick up a phone as well as send a message, THANK YOU!

A Week Away

2009-04-22T08:07:00.005-05:00

I am leaving in a few hours for a week's vacation.

To the Gulf coast of Florida. Manasota Key, to be exact.

View Larger Map

Amen.

I've been traveling a lot in the last few months, which has been wonderful, but traveling for work is not the same as traveling for yourself. Rather than bringing files, articles and my trusty notebook, I am bringing crossword puzzles, and a book. This book:

I am also bringing Boggle, to play with my in-laws during our afternoon cocktail hour.

Sadly, I am bringing my computer as I do need to stay in touch with my HIS415 class as they hammer away at their final assignments. And to finish all the grading I need to do.

But I have promised myself: no blogging, no emails, no facebook, no Twitter. I have a way of working even when I'm not at work, as many librarians do. Who can ignore that interesting article? Or that blog post? What is behind that tinyurl? And in truth, I need some time away from the library. I need some time to stare at the ocean, be lulled to sleep on the sandy beach, to spend my time searching for seashells rather than information. How lovely to think of the seashell as information.

So, I'll be back in a week: sunkissed, clear headed, rested, and happy. I'll tell you about the book. And the seashells.

The Symphony goes 2.0

2009-04-16T07:39:00.004-05:00

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra

Here is the related NYT Article.

All I can think of is Clay Shirky's "Here Comes Everybody". The Orchestra might be one of the most traditional structures I can imagine and yet....talent from everywhere and anywhere has the possibility to participate. User Generated Content suddenly has a new meaning...a new sound. Awesome.

RIP Encarta, Viva Information Literacy and Wikipedia

2009-04-14T15:59:00.002-05:00

Microsoft has announced that they will be closing down their online Encyclopedia, Encarta, due to the extensive use of Wikipedia. The part of the article that I was particularly excited about was this quote:

Christopher Dawson of ZDNet certainly doesn’t think so. The demise of the encyclopedia, he argues, should simply galvanize educators into teaching the research skills students need to wade through “brutally powerful knowledge sources” like Wikipedia and Google. “The encyclopedia is dead,” Mr. Dawson writes. “Long live critical thinking.”

Here is a link to the full article.

This kind of article reminds us how valuable and important the work we do is to our students but also reminds us that while we might be using the language of information literacy, faculty are viewing this "wading" through the web as critical thinking. This harks back to the questions asked at one the LILAC presentations I attended: Getting the Student Perspective, Is Joe Student Paying Attention? Are we using language that actually engages our communities to think about the actions they take every day as they dive into the world of information? Are we rendering ourselves obsolete by using terms like "information literacy" in the first place?

What language should we be using instead? Isn't that always the tough question? But really, what ideas do you have for other ways to frame these essential skills?

Whew...what a week

2009-04-10T14:54:00.004-05:00

It's a beautiful, sunny Friday afternoon and there is something premonitory about the quiet in the library. With less than three weeks to go until classes are out, you would think that students would be flooding us. Even on a Friday. But there are two things in Vermont that trump all obligations: snow and sun. Big snow days = skiing. And the first few sunny days after a long winter = get outside.

I, however, am stuck in the library. At least for the next hour. I appreciate it, frankly, after such a whirlwind week. I returned from our trip to Wales and Ireland on Sunday evening and jumped right back into life on Monday. It's been a while since I traveled internationally and I forgot how exhausting reentry can be. Plus, March was all about traveling and teaching: ACRL and then directly into the 2nd year info lit sequence and then on to LILAC and Champlain in Dublin. Hence the "Whew" component to this post. But here I am now, quietly at my desk, and I can start to see the silver lining of finals. Summer.

Part of what I love about summer (besides the lake, bike rides, and my garden) is the chance to quiet down and think more thoroughly about what we are doing at the library. What are our goals? Are we meeting the expectations of our faculty? Our students? Our selves? What is it that I want to improve upon for next year? What is it that I want to expand? What is it that could be omitted?

My ever impressive partner in crime at the MIC, Andy Burkhardt, really got me thinking about expansion and improvement with a terrific brainstorming session yesterday. We work well together, Andy and I. As he pointed out, when the semester is buzzing and we are dealing with our info lit teaching schedules, we just don't have the chance to throw out ideas and get creative as much as we might like. This is certainly true. I need to pause and bring it down a notch in order to generate ideas. The irony is that once I achieve my optimal speed for idea generation, I speed up immediately and the ideas start pouring. For example, a discussion about staff information literacy needs leads to developing our popular reading collection leads to summer programming for reading leads to technology workshops leads to video tutorials leads to skype. BAM BAM BAM. Thank goodness Andy gave me a piece of paper to capture some of these ideas on. And thank goodness there will be more quiet time to think about what is ripe for action and what needs more time in the incubator.

Many people ask me whether I resent not having summers off. In large part, no. I appreciate the time to slow down, think about what I am doing, and develop a plan for the year to come. I appreciate the chance to be more flexible. I appreciate the quiet in the library.

I hope that I will have the chance to think it out a bit more here, on my blog. And to share it out in the library community. One thing I realized at ACRL and LILAC is that we don't always have to wait until something is over in order to share it. Sharing the process is often far instructive and helpful for other librarians and for myself. So, I guess that's a commitment I am making to myself and to anyone reading: I hope to share some of the ideas and processes to manifesting them this summer. So while summer might be a quiet time, it is not to be mistaken for a slow or unproductive time. Rather, I feel like by June 1, it'll be BAM BAM BAM a lot more.

Colbert on Twitter

2009-04-03T19:00:00.001-05:00

Talk (or tweet) amongst yourselves.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Biz Stone

comedycentral.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

NASA Name Contest

Thank you LILAC!

2009-04-03T01:57:00.006-05:00

Thank you to the organizers and attendees at LILAC for such a terrific conference. There are a couple of things that make a conference particularly good in my mind and LILAC had them all. Here's a breakdown:
1. The People: Everyone we met was wonderfully kind, welcoming, and interested to hear about Champlain and share what they were doing at their own institutions. The degree of transparency and collegiality at LILAC was really unique. There is a sense that these are librarians that share and collaborate openly and often. This never fails to impress me.

2. The Tracks: as I mentioned to Steven Bell, I prefer conferences that have a structure you can follow. It was wonderful to look at sessions in the context of their track to get a fuller sense of what to expect and the way in which information literacy would be explored. Although there were many interesting sessions, the break down into tracks helped me distinguish between sessions that were interesting and ones that might be more applicable to my work.

3. The Keynotes: In two and a half days, there were four keynotes and they were all incredible. All of the speakers (Melissa Highton, Conor Galvin, Patricia Iannuzzi, and Leslie Burger) were thought provoking in their own ways. Two things were particularly noteworthy: first, that the speakers all referred back to one another's lectures, referring to points the other had made but more so elaborating or explaining their own take on the issues. Terrific. Second, the speakers were a part of the conference. They attended sessions and spoke to delegates. I don't always see this at conferences and it emphasized that feeling of collegiality.

4. Tending to our needs: This might sound silly but it really does make a difference to have tea and welshcakes, time to chat, a coat room that is monitored so you feel good about leaving your luggage, and people who can answer your questions in a central location. My colleauge, Cinse, was especially fond of the Welshcakes.

5. Special events: We attended two events in special locations. The Networking evening at Caerphilly Castle and a more formal dinner at the National Museum of Wales. Both events were lovely from the food to the music to the open bar! It was wonderful, especially to a group of foreigners, to be in two locations that are significant to the region. I loved both evenings!

On top of all of this, as if it weren't enough, we were shocked to be awarded the CILASS Award for Information Literacy and Inquiry Based Learning. To be given an award like this was an incredible honored. As you can tell, I thought there were so many wonderful sessions. We are so grateful to be recognized amongst such company.

Thank you to everyone who made LILAC the wonderful experience it was. I hope we can join you again!

LILAC09: My students and other Animals”

2009-04-01T05:34:00.001-05:00

My students and other Animals
Matthew Borg and Erica Stretton
Sheffield-Hallam

Dealing with LARGE cohorts.
Students have to understand the importance of information literacy before they can incorporate information literacy skills into their “academic mindset”.
We need to know the limitations and the strengths of the materials that we are using with students.

Tells students there are 1 trillion unique urls on the web. When you do a google search, what percentage of the web are you actually searching? Has students write their answers on post its and then put them on a continuum on the board.
Google actually indexes 4%--40 billion pages.

Their experiences with 900 business students over
One shots, computer based, practical tools for databases and library materials or materials specific to their course of study (business).
NOW, they are seeing students over three workshops, each with a different focus. Sessions without computers other than podium. NEEDED SOMETHING NEW.

Considerations of student boredom, using active learning, different learning styles.
Needed to rely on one librarian leading the session in non-digital rooms.

Asking students: How do YOU find information?
Ask students to discuss a recent information search of your own with a neighbor.
The type of info you are looking for, where you looked.
Look at the list of animals: what kind of information animal are you?
Ask students to analyze their information seeking behaviours and adapt to the changing landscape in the academic sphere.

Ask students:
How many types of business information you can think of? What have you used in the past? Report back and then share with them a list of sources. RAISE AWARENESS. Now that they are in a higher ed environment, they need to think more broadly about what is available and appropriate to their work.

Putting the research question FULLY into Business Source Complete = no results. Then explore how to deal with it. Give them a full working demo that isn’t perfect or practiced, include the bad and the good. Show them how to deal with NO results.

Find mistakes in a screen shot of a search screen. Cool exercise. Shows how complex a search can be and how to use options to make your search more useful. Awesome idea. Great addition to COR120 exercises.
One thing I’ve noticed is that there is a lot of emphasis on truncation and wild cards. Been mentioned in a number of sessions and in conversation.

Start their discussion of critical analysis with Wikipedia. Ask students what they think of Wikipedia?

What feedback they received from their sessions.
Invite staff (or faculty!) to the practice session.
GREAT IDEA. Way to get faculty involved, solicit feedback, and practice. Also helps us deal with questions about the setting the bar appropriately. We should make this a standing component of our sessions.
Kept an online diary (use Clearspace or Zoho??) for tracking feedback.

MEGO = My eyes glaze over. HA!

Creating a reference guide for students rather than taking face-to-face time for basic skills (library catalog). Perhaps this is a cultural difference—would our students really read through a workbook?

Fantastic that a librarian asked about how much paper they are using in their sessions? AWESOME!

Loved the active learning part of this session! A bunch of ideas I will take home, especially the screen shot of databases exercises and inviting faculty to practice sessions.

LILAC09: Leslie Burger: “From Information Literacy to Digital Citizenship: Libraries and the New Democracy”

2009-03-31T09:00:00.000-05:00

Leslie Burger, former ALA President and Director of Princeton
“From Information Literacy to Digital Citizenship: Libraries and the New Democracy”

Thinking from the perspective of a public librarian. Everyone here is academic.
“Libraries for all seasons and all reasons”: no matter what type of institution you are in feeds into the work we do in all of our institutions. In public libraries, doing much of the pre-literacy work: teaching them how to read, how to listen. The partnership between the school librarian and the public librarian; learning information literacy skills. Find themselves back in public libraries “trying to negotiate their way through the complex world we live in”.

How do we need to prepare our users to be digital citizens?
What is a digital citizen and why do I need to be one?
Do I need a separate passport to cross the web border?
Information in the currency of democracy—Jefferson

Learning on the job how to integrate digital resources into her work. How the world has changed: everyday, public libraries are teaching people how to be information literate but in a very different way—one person at a time. The teach-able moment. Isn’t this something we should be aiming towards everyday?

Information is power = example of the experimentation of prisoners being outlawed based on the information her class extracted in the 60s.

As she reads the 1989 ALA Statement: isn’t it interesting that it is always about how we can compete rather than what we want for ourselves? Hmm.

Top Trends:
• The web as ubiquitous throughout the world, not just in the developed world. It’s not always through computers. People get information in new ways.
• The web has changed the way we do business. Information is widely distributed and openly available.
• Information as a commodity. Not new to librarians: people that know how to find good information have a competitive advantage.
• People are communicating in a variety of ways. Tools that have the potential to change how we use information .
• Information consolidation. Too much available to ever use. Google is not altruistic. It is capitalistic. Sell back to us our own free information, example of Google Books. It might be free now, but it won’t be eventually.
• Library as a trusted resource
• Librarians on steroids—we are better than we were before. Skilled information navigators.
• More content than ever before. Playing on a more
• Librarians as the on ramp to the digital highway for those that don’t have access or can’t afford access. In the economic downturn, more people are turning to libraries. While the Gates foundation supplied significant funds to get many libraries new computers, those computers are now 6-7 years old. The problem when help comes from NGOs—what do you do when the grant is over?
• Information fuels our democracy.
o Taking issue with Melissa Highton’s point that the
o Book recommendation “Digital citenzship—Mossburger” people that are internet savvy participate to a lesser degree?

Concerns about the demise of the newspaper. What is happening to investigative journalism, can we really trust the bloggers???

Libraries were not an essential part of teaching to the test during NCLB. This puts into question about how ubiquitious information literacy is in our K-12 educations. A GAP!

Two issues:
Helping people navigate from the “old way” to the “new way”
How can we augment what is missing in our school libraries, both in terms of IL instruction as well as support their research needs (eg. school libraries closing at 3 pm: do they turn off the need for information for those school students? Of course not. So they turn to public libraries.) Asking faculty or teachers to come to the library to do the assignment at the public library, since that is where students are.

Give me the answer: sometimes they just want the answer and we have to wait for a teachable moment. Dual screens.
Consider each interaction an opportunity to change someone’s life!

Public libraries need to be looking at the K-12 IL standards.

Highlighting a number of public library sites: Spokane, San Fran, Central Illinois.
New Jersey state library: Helping Residents Through Tough Economic Times. COOL.

ALA’s E-Government resources.
Online Information literacy: the role of YouTube for the most basic to more advanced tools. IDEA for Andy for the next video: let’s get MORE advanced, not easier.

Information Literacy for the People:
Monitoring trends: what is going on? What is shifting? What do our services need to look like?
Market!!! We need to get out of the idea that they know to come to us. We need to TELL THEM to come to us.
Make information seeking fun: engage them in the moment.
Tie your information literacy moments to solving real life problems. Let’s be where we are needed and providing instruction in things that people are interested in or challenged by. We learn from eachother.
Reach out to those that need you the most; go for the unexpected. Be where people are and might not expect you to be.
LEAD THE WAY & Never give up.

We are in a values driven profession with the opportunity to change people’s lives.

LILAC09: Getting the Student Perspective: is Joe Student Paying Attention

2009-03-31T08:02:00.002-05:00

Student perspective on Info Lit:
Alison Bestwick, Univ. of Sheffield, student ambassadors to CILASS

Student created film about what students think about Info Lit.
CILASS Channel (They have a student film group—good idea)

Asking how you define information literacy:
Students did not know!
Can they (or other librarians) put the “7 pillars” in order? Understanding higher order vs. lower order skills. They put two into the right place but were discussing info lit in the process, “which is a good thing”.
Students not giving themselves enough credit for what they do already. Student admitted that it is something they already do, they just don’t know. COGNIZANCE
Ask students what they think students should be able to do at certain points in their own careers. GREAT IDEA. It might help develop instruction.
From the video: great to see how the student perspective shifts our own vision of IL frameworks.

Is the term “information literacy” the best way to describe it. Use non-threatening mechanisms. Stop using JARGON. Let’s come up with other ways to describe what we’re doing and do it in a way that is more inviting. From the video: when we don’t use the term information literacy, we get better results.

Asking students how successful they are when they research?

Where do you (students) go to fill in gaps in your own knowledge?
GREAT QUESTION. Add a component to the Goals and Expectations exercise.
Do you feel you are supported in your research?
How confident do you feel in x, y, z, skill?

The Information Literacy Parthenon.

IDEA for ROB: Could your media students make a video for us on IL? Defining it? How they use it? Students want to hear more from other students.
Connection to CCM and Business: how can we market IL? What kinds of promotional materials can we generate?

From the questions:
First time one attendee had seen a student perspective. So helpful.
Suggestion to share the definition with students and get their feedback to how we could redefine it, describe it otherwise?

An interesting comment about students not being information literate but that is not what the video said, at least in my view. They ARE more information literate, just not familiar with the way we ask them to describe it.
How do we make the sessions we do more aligned to what students need? If you ask students, they will say they haven’t had training, even if they’ve had multiple sessions. But they aren’t seeing that as support or helpful. How can we remedy that? Is it how we present our sessions? Is it how we try to make a connections to students?

We make a lot of assumptions about what students need or do. Perhaps our assumptions are off.

LILAC09: The Pathway to Success: Using Research Trails for Summative Assessment

2009-03-31T06:44:00.001-05:00

Rebecca Mogg (Cardiff University)
The Pathway to Success: Using Research Trails for Summative Assessment

Assumes embeddedness of IL
Design assessments that evaluate IL & what students are doing in their courses—RESEARCH TRAIL.
Coursework submitted with their essay that documents the research process. A required component to the assignment. Includes evaluative reflection of why they included their sources. Also can be used to assess referencing (citations). How is this different than an annotated bibliography? Could it be used as a essay component to the bib?

Why do it?
Draws on higher order skills. We can choose which criteria from the IL outcomes we wanted students to address. Also can be used to assess writing and critical thinking outcomes. Not just for IL outcomes.
Promotes both formative and summative assessments.
Suitable for all level of learners. It depends what you are asking students to evaluate (remember, we set the criteria).
Deters plagiarism.
Promotes problem solving: learn from what works and what doesn’t.

Strong emphasis on the assignment and rubric (see handouts). Students saw the rubric ahead of time. Built on what students already know how to do. In her sessions with students, one session on what they knew already (Google, Library catalog), second session on more advanced database searching, third on mirroring the process students would go through.

Learning objectives—finding and evaluating.

Shared everything they did to find their sources:
What did they use to find it.
What keywords did they use, did they use Boolean, truncation
Include reasons for selection (relevance, objectivity, reliability, currency)
IDEA: Increase the emphasis on currency. Might be an interesting way to connect more to primary source materials—some things don’t go out of date while somethings go out of date almost immediately.

Provided extensive feedback in order to make the assessment summative AND formative. Give them something to take out of the process as well.

Validity: how well did the assessment work.
Reliability: did it connect to the criteria?
Sufficiency: how much time did it take for them to do the assignment and the time she gave to assessing in comparison to what we learned from it.

Validity: concerns about students falsifying their approach in order to meet the criteria rather than conducting a genuine process.
Reliability: students did what was required and the rubric worked well. Reliability decreased as more people participated in the marking of papers. Different assessers have different ideas about what meets/does not meet. (Also a concern when faculty take over the assessment)

Sufficiency: an enormous amount of work on her part.

Does think it is successful. Assessed higher order skills and process rather than strictly product. Student feedback is not as positive. Helped her identify gaps in student understanding and use that information to develop her teaching strategies. The relevance has to be made clear to students.

Questions:
By taking a journal approach, could you deal with the issues of students falsifying their process? Isn’t this where faculty could be partners: creating benchmarks?
Very little discussion about faculty as partners or benchmarks. Essential component to success, especially for students that are not as advanced?

If you do use Grad Assistants or Professors, must collaborate IOT make significant connections between their final work (the essay) and the research trail.

More on promoting problem solving: continue applying what they’ve learned but it is on their own, independent of the instruction.

At Cardiff, a bottom up and a top down approach. It is recognized at the University level and a directive from the top about IL as well as within departments/schools.

To make the activity easier and equally sufficient: list x number of references rather than all the things they look at.

How much help was provided: email, reference, but not additional class time.

LILAC09: End of Day One

2009-03-30T17:01:00.003-05:00

I am just about to shut out the light from an amazing day at LILAC. Let me tell you, American readers, this is a GREAT conference. Every person I met was wonderfully friendly and interesting to talk to. Both sessions I attended were great and in both sessions, the follow up questions shed light on critical or practical issues that make bringing the ideas presented home more feasible.

Tonight, we had a "networking evening" at Caerphilly Castle. NOTE: The image is from Flickr since my camera is over the Atlantic somwhere. More on my lost luggage below.

The food was very good, it was open bar, and I met a great group of librarians and learned about a number of UK universities I had never heard of before. We also got into a heated discussion about Melissa Highton's talk and the role of Google Scholar in student learning.

I'm having a great time here. Sadly, my luggage did not arrive today so tomorrow I need to go splurge on a pair of "trousers" for tomorrow's evening event. The jeans and sneaks just won't cut it for "smart" dress. Cross your fingers for me that my bag arrives before we leave for Dublin on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, more posts tomorrow.

LILAC09: “Enhancing Undergraduate Engagement with Knowledge and Research through Evidence-based Information Literacy Training”

2009-03-30T10:01:00.000-05:00

Angela Newton, Amanda Lynch McPhee
Univ. of Leeds
“Enhancing Undergraduate Engagement with Knowledge and Research through Evidence-based Information Literacy Training”

e-BILT:
IL assessment tool for undergraduates
University wide
Results and their implications

SCONUL IL Pillars
Based their questionnaire on 6 of the 7 pillars.

Comparing their data to Sheffield. The cross study with Sheffield enhances validity.

Recruited faculty from each school and provide evidence to each school. Develop best practices for developing IL skills. Kickstarting a larger conversation about IL.

What do you of expect undergraduates students?
Broke into groups, which was AWESOME so I could hear from UK librarians
The conversation was based on NOT recognizing information need but LIBRARY need.
Similarly to our experience, students aren’t very strong at evaluating and comparing information. They find something from a database but they don’t ask whether that is what they want. What’s interesting is that the data presented from the assessment contradicts this anecdotal finding.

Will be conducting a longitudinal study over time. How do students measure over time.

Locating and accessing information remains the biggest area of challenges. Does this connect to their web site at all? Are they conducting usability studies at all?

What you DO with the data that you get is truly exciting. But is the change only in their training vs. how we provide access to information?

Can this be developed as a pre-arrival tool?

Librarian from Darby pointed out that by using Google Scholar, we aren’t demonstrating their need to look any further.

Assessment questions:
Are students prepared to meet the academic demands placed on them?
How can we gauge assessment if we are assuming there is just one right answer? An argument for rubric-based assessment.

Good session. Really interesting.

LILAC09: Keynote by Melissa Highton

2009-03-30T08:49:00.001-05:00

Melissa Highton, Learning Technologies Group, Oxford University Computing Services, Oxford

Challenging the view and questions about the place of Oxford and Cambridge in a diverse education system.

Learning technologists and information literacy should work together and save the world!

Managing the flamingo: Alice in Wonderland. Every time she tried to play, the flamingo or the hedgehog would be difficult. An analogy for getting all the parts of your library or your IT & Library to work together and get them on the same page.
Maximum leverage.

Oxford’s conference on Digital Literacy

Can you be digitally literate without being information literate? Can you be information literate without being digitall literate? Are they the same? Do they have overlap? If so, in what ways are we letting the two conversations continue together.
Who will write the framework for digital literacy? Use the Wikipedia pages to build a definition of digital literacy.

Oxford & Cambridge:
Autonomy within the organization.
Oxford Libraries: 11 million printed items, the largest library system in the UK
How do you categorize and organize information in such a large system? How do you argue for funding for your needs against the goals of the larger institutions?
Publishing new content, generating new ideas. How do we change information efficiently or effectively? Rethink authority—the authority’s view and perspective changes too!

Lead in new ways of learning.
Encourage student to think differently about information, research, and presentation. How can do a better job getting students to do these things.
What should digital literacy look like in a higher education setting? Should it be taking the place of history? Of literature? Shouldn’t we change our approach of incorporating the literacies into the curriculum rather than thinking it needs to be separated out?

The language of student skills and information literacy has changed very little in the last ten years. We are tied too closely to what we think employers want.
What are the 21st Century skills?
Who should be shaping the debate about digital literacies?

How will institutions change in the recession? Continuing education.

“YouTube is single handedly saving us from boring presentations.”
Where is the differentiation between your content and mine.

We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist, to use technology not yet invented, to solve problems we don’t yet have. In staff development, we develop staff for jobs they already have, to use technology we already know, to solve problems we largely already understand. If we are taking this long, if we are struggling this much, then we should acknowledge that some of it has to do with what we do and how we do it. Let’s question that!

The influx of international colleagues. What efforts are you making to accommodate international academic staff and international students? Who is giving advice to students? Are we being aware and effective in those settings and meeting their needs truly? Are we giving training that is consistent?

How are we internationalizing our curriculum?

Thinking about staff:
What do you do when knowledge is power and colleagues withhold that information or are purposefully making it difficult to find in order to hold on to power.
How information can be abused, not just used. See the world around us. Information is used for decision making , incl. bad decisions. We might want to teach the “light” end of infomraiton literacy but make them equally aware of the “dark” end. A Machiavellian approach to IL. Presenting information to show yourself in the best light. Recast what you know about information to manipulate it. What digital natives do already, do they know it? Do they realize the impact of those actions?

High level information literacy skills.
1. Modeling literacy: the role of information in decision making. We must know what the models senior decision makers see, how are those models used, how are those models understood. Interpret and manipulate information in models. Oxford’s Modeling for All
Making use of their gaming skills. Is modeling literacy already present and we need to leverage those skills more carefully and wisely. Digital wisdom

2. Open content literacy: accommodate a diversity of technical platforms. Who licenses it? Who gives permissions? Open educational resources is more than open access. Different levels of comfort around different kinds of materials/content. Use/reuse/ adapt: what is the context of using others’ materials? How much is too much? Support students as they how they use and find open material and understand how to use those licenses AND recognize that students generate material and need to know how to license it as they want! We should be aware of and teaching Creative Commons. Forseeing YouTube as a hub of educational activity, similar to what iTunes (iTunes U) is becoming. How do index open source teaching tools—an opportunity for us all.

Oxford currently offering 500+ lectures (talks and seminars that are a one time thing) and materials in iTunes U with a complementary web portal. Joseph Stiglitz/Gordan Brown

iTunes U as a tipping point at Oxford around podcasting. It is a way of publishing and sharing information. Does that make them digitally literate/information literate/media literate?

The Grand Tour = exposure to the cultural legacy. In the digital age, that is open to EVERYONE, not just the rich and aristocratic. Democratization of information. Grand Tour Learning. Google is NOT making us stupid…it can make us a hell of a lot smarter.

The continuum of openness.

If we are going to solve big problems, we need to pull content and materials out of educational silos . Librarians can help index and break apart those huge chunks of knowledge. We can provide guidance to how that information is shared, is distributed, is licensed or not.

Questions:

Open educational resources and the spectrum of reactions to these initiatives. Are we touting our horns too soon? MIT’s courseware is spotty, not comprehensive, and at times not maintained. Is podcasting the same as truly sharing resources?
Know what content you have and what content is available. Find a starting place and grow it. Quite the same as the research process: steps, looping back, changing, iterative. Leveraging the University’s goals: publicity, marketing.

How do you deal with competition of big institutions putting up a lot of content? What is the incentive for smaller institutions that only offering a few lectures?

Just as a side note: I feel pretty young in this room and the twitter stream is pretty quiet. But Melissa Highton was terrific! Very thought provoking and very exciting. I am officially excited about this conference.

Greetings from Cardiff

2009-03-30T08:34:00.003-05:00

I have made it to Cardiff for LILAC. Cardiff is a lovely city. If my luggage had arrived with me, I would have taken photos and uploaded them already but USAir decided my luggage was too exiting to pass up. My fingers are crossed that it will show up this afternoon.

It is pretty exciting to be attending a UK conference on information literacy. I haven't had the chance to attend an IL focused event like this in the States. I am amazed at how many librarians are here with so many different job descriptions, from so many institutions.

The conference is just underway and I will be blogging the talks much as I did at ACRL. We are presenting on Tuesday afternoon and I just found out that our session is fully booked! WOW.

Great to be here. Blog posts of sessions will be forthcoming.

Making libraries cooler by the second.

2009-03-25T16:13:00.001-05:00

see more Political Pictures

IL for the RD

2009-03-24T09:16:00.003-05:00

Library Society of the World is so clever. They are embracing the full power of user generated content by allowing us to celebrate our own successes. We all have stories we want to share and now you can as a Shover and Maker.

My story is in terms of information literacy. Sometimes it is hard to be banging the IL drum. Sometimes it is hard to walk into classes and try to engage students. Sometimes it is hard to be creative and inquisitive. But then you have moments where you see the lightbulb go on. When you see students get that you are talking about much more than the library. That you are talking about thinking about information and how we use it. That it is IL for the RD (real deal).

It's great to get these successes out in the open. Rock on Josh Neff and Steve Lawson. You are helping every librarian feel the power of their contribution to the field. And that can only lead to more energy, enthusiasm, creativity, and innovation.

ACRL2009: What do I wish were different?

2009-03-20T14:55:00.002-05:00

ACRL was terrific. Not only because I attended a number of great sessions but more so because I met some really interesting and creative people with whom I hope to collaborate or at least keep my eyes on in the future.

But, now that I am back from ACRL, there are a few things that stick out at me about it as a conference. Steve Bell asked me what I think ACRL needs to do to improve. Here are four things that I think would make it more attractive, educational, and effective as professional development.

1. Tracks that mean something: I think ACRL could take a few tips from Computers in Libraries in terms of creating clear tracks for session themes. It’s very difficult to identify with the themes of Casting a Net, Feeling a Buzz, etc. How about tracks geared towards Teaching and Learning, Technology and Usability, Leadership and Assessment? I’m sure someone far more creative than I could devise catchy titles for these tracks. But offering tracks that enable attendees to focus their energy or diversify their experience would be very helpful.

2. What about the little guys? I wish ACRL would devote more attention to College libraries. While we are all in academic libraries, some issues are particular to smaller institutions with smaller staffs serving smaller communities. While I love seeing and hearing what big institutions can do, thinking about applying their ideas or programs at smaller institutions can be paralyzing. Can we create opportunities for smaller institutions to share and collaborate within the larger organization?

3. Let’s discuss! The Roundtables are excellent for short discussions of interesting topics but I would get a great deal from more discussion with peer institutions. Perhaps offering presentations that then turn into discussions? Discussion groups are well attended at Midwinter and terribly valuable. I wish we used that model more at ACRL’s own conference.

4. Get Digital: I can’t stress enough how I wish there were more emphasis on technology at ACRL beyond CyberZedShed. Despite how many exciting things academic libraries are doing with technology, ACRL is not showing itself to be a place to showcase those initiatives or teach and discuss their value. Younger librarians will turn elsewhere and that does not bode well for the future of ACRL or for keeping librarians abreast of changes and creative ways of using technology.

I love attending ACRL but as I move forward in creating innovative programming and implementing technology in ways that address my faculty and students’ needs, I wonder whether ACRL will be the place where I share my stories about that in the future. I hope so.

If you made it this far in the post, what about you? What do you think ACRL could do to improve?

ACRL2009: Green Speaker Robin Chase

2009-03-15T11:00:00.002-05:00

An incredibly inspirational talk!

Robin Chase, CEO of GoLoco and Founder of Zipcar
Located in Boston---would love to have her come to Champlain.
Social entrepreneur

How libraries can play a role in a world of increasingly scare resources

From the negative to the positive.
2020 and 2050 goals:
Her emphasis on CO2 emeissions: the only way we are going to make it is if we
If we all bought fuel efficient cars, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% in 10 years.
If we shared a ride 1 in 10 trips or didn’t drive 1 in 20 trips, we would reduce our CO2 emissions by 5% this WEEK.
“That is the difference between infrastructure and behaviour”

Founded in 2000, today there are 300,000 people using 5000 cars across N. America and London. Averted 6000 lbs of CO2 just this year.

Sharing can make gigantic differences: the anatomy of sharing.
Simple sharing: person to person.
Simple sharing institutionally: one company’s assets to many. If you pay me, I will share. Carsharing has a negative connotation: if hotels were called bed sharing, they would be considered very differently. I have my own personal fleet of cars anywhere I go. Different cars for different moments.

Sharing 2.0: Personal collaborative: many to many.
Wikipedia as making use of excess mental capacity. A sense of pride in contributing to the world’s knowledge.
Couchsurfing: beds all over the country, 1 million beds in 231 beds.

Excess capacity in our cars: GoLoco ride boards meets facebook meets paypal. Creating our own public transportation system. If we just started getting in the habit of asking someone if they need a ride, no matter where you are going.
It is messier and much less predictable, uses much less stuff. We know how to do a better job, we just don’t have incentives.
Lower ROI threshold: potential for success is broader, faster uptake, higher participation. Higher social value.

Collaborative consumption, but let’s think about
COLLABORATIVE PLAY
COLLABORATIVE WORK
Let’s start to think more about
COLLABORATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE
COLLABORATIVE FINANCING
Example: Vienna, 500 wireless nodes of internet access. Opening capacity on our routers (mesh networking). Turn our cars into mesh networks. There is more that we want to do with our wireless devices in our cars (EZ Passes)
Moving into vehicle miles travel taxes: people will pay to use roads. Multipurpose devices into cars. Keep communication local. Reaching broadband through people, not governments!

We have a feeling of scarcity: we focus on closed proprietary assets “It’s mine” so I have to pay for it all and deal with it alone. I have to bare the costs.
The Architecture of Abundance: we pay for what we use. We share costs and infrastructure. “Farming” for best innovation. Draws unexpected benefits. Because Twitter is an open platform, PEOPLE came up with how to use it powerfully. The minds of many.

The take home:
1. Identify excess capacity
2. Find or build platform for sharing: what’s out there and how can we leverage it?
3. Reap Unexpected benefits

Libraries as vessels for brains and willingness and desire to engage new ideas. Libraries have an opportunity to engage in the educational component of the crisis of climate change. What does that look like at my library?

Sharing does not mean we don’t act in our individual best interest. Every dollar, we need to maximize it.

Inspirational. And while she is presenting ideas that are challenging and scary for many people because it requires a paradigm shift. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a great idea. Or that it can’t be done.

Different rule sets for small or large scales. Example from Omnivore’s Dilemma.

We are going to build a technological and environmental infrastructure. Yes, there are costs to building this infrastructure that might seem counterintuitive to the mission but if we evaluate excess capacity and we evaluate the cost and benefits of that infrastructure, then there is reason to use that existing infrastructure.

Recreate access to information beyond the platforms we already have.

ACRL2009: Finding your career path

2009-03-14T16:31:00.002-05:00

Map Your Path to the Mountaintop: Planning Where You Want to Be in your Career.
Steve Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services at Temple University
John Shank, Instruction Design Librarians, Penn State. Director of their Teaching and Learning Center.
Brian Matthews: User Experience Librarian, Georgia Tech.
Lauren Pressley, Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest. Lauren was in my focus group this morning. More on that in a later post.

This was the BEST SESSION at the conference. AWESOME!

Using media to incite interest. Hip music, Andy says. Great vibe in the room. People excited, chatting. It’s a nice change.

Using interviews—David Lee King. Try stuff. Technology.

Using a Q & A approach, both to panelists and of the audience. So refreshing!

Encouraging us to think about what WE, I want. Not thinking in the box but thinking about what my path is. A multigenerational panel and multigenerational audience.

Each panelist has a “Catch Phrase” that defines their thoughts about their career path. Share your own catch phrase. Great assignment for the blog.

Steve Bell’s post in ACRLog: Are you at where you want to be in your career?
Be strategic. Know where you’re going.

Karen Coombs—publishing and presenting leads to co-authoring a book.

Q1: Describe the strategy that defines your career path up to this point.
• Comparing ourselves with others. There will be times when you do well and times when you don’t. It’s a long road. Persist!
• Pairing my personal strengths with my profession. Capitalize on what I do best. Utilizing my skills and my knowledge and matching research to my day-to-day activities.
• Aspirational: the goal to be transformative in what you are doing. People that effected their professions. How can we make things better? How do faculty and students perceive the library rather than are they using it the way we want them to? “Take risks. Ask crazy questions. Push services in a different way.”
• Pick up as many skills as possible. Do things that are interesting so that I can take on more interesting projects. Making a difference within the profession at large.
• Experiment, Try New Things, Be Daring. What kinds of sacrifices are you willing to make? Not just 9-5.
• Things can get in the way: try again.
• Share your story and where you want to go with people. They can’t help you if they don’t know what you want.
• The faculty path in LIS education. They need very bright, motivated, people.
• Fake it til you make it: you will figure it out.
• Embrace opportunity. Don’t miss seeing the forest through the trees.
• Find the gap and then fill it. Ask for help.
• Play your career like you would play good poker.
• Know what you want and what you don’t want.
Such a positive feeling in this session! People sharing. Engage the audience.

Write about what is interesting to. Don’t think about whether it is interesting to others. Think about what interests you!

Q2: What role has publishing and presenting played in your career strategy?
• Blogging as a role in the career. Paying attention to the field and synthesizing so you have an opinion. Leads to more acceptable forms of publication.
• Sharing your knowledge, expertise, and experience with your colleagues. Technology increases that opportunity. Will blogging start to infiltrate the traditional tenure process?
• Develop your voice through blogging. Write for the widest audience possible. What is the best venue for your article? What is the outcome you want? What do you want to achieve and accomplish?
• Publish or present even if you don’t have to.
• My contribution to the discussion: don’t undervalue the role of presenting. Put yourself out there and see what comes. You never know what will come to you.
• You don’t have to publish and present on traditional library topics. Offer what you know and love. Don’t limit yourself.
• Give presentations regularly.

Q3: What’s your perspective on innovative and entrepreneurship in developing your career strategy?
• If something makes your mind “itch”, be aware of that. If something makes you uncomfortable, think about that. Act on that. Don’t ignore it.
• Learn as much technology as possible.
• Stepping away from what you know (the echo within the library community). Find conferences and opportunities that are different than what you know.
• Take advantage of collaborative relationships. Creativity across different disciplines and professions. Grow ideas that come from different spaces.
• Risk: trying new things. Stakes are low for taking risks but the payoff is great for users.
• Talk to people. Ask people what they are interested in? “Bromantic”--Andy likes this term.
• Go somewhere where you can do everything to try lots of things.
• Learn things you don’t know and teach someone what you learned.
• Be entrepreneurial within your institution.

Q4: What’s the next step in your career?
• Do what you love and it won’t feel like a job.
• Help my institution be the best that it can be. Build on new skills and new opportunities.
• How can we still be edgy and progressive while being an administrator?
• Don’t miss the vistas on the way to the mountaintop.
• Enjoy working with other people, meet people. Partner with others. Share with people what you want to do with your career.

ACRL2009: Greening Up the Conference

2009-03-14T15:15:00.003-05:00

KUDOS ACRL for creating a greener conference and for sharing how you did it! This panel presentation shared the how and the why of greening up the conference. Again, here are my notes. But before you look at them, I wanted to say GREAT JOB to Tory Ondralo, the conference coordinator. Tory is a star and it was her hard work that made this conference a more environmentally friendly place.

Also, this kind of initiative comes from conference attendees demanding it. If you are attending other conferences, ASK what they are doing to go green!

Communicating green initiatives with the conference attendees:
1. Branding (Green leaf logo)
2. Wide distribution through conference literature (C&RL News, American Libraries, Cognotes, Footnotes)
3. Green Pledge = Green water mark on badges
Inform and influence conference behaviors and practices

Is ACRL making any efforts to quantitatively assess the impact of the conference?

The Green Pledge:
Shaping conference behavior. 80% of attendees signed the pledge. AWESOME!
Reduction of Paper: encourage the use of the virtual conference, institutional encouragement to NOT include handouts. A noticeable effort among attendees that ACRL is trying to green up the conference. Recycled paper and soy based ink at no additional cost. Change from a postcard rather than a tri-fold, vendor reductions.
Giveaways: Shower timer.

TORY: All stats on reductions and efforts including costs.

Robin Chase, a green speaker. Sharing books is much like sharing cars. The carshare business model as similar to a library.

Hotels: Hotel Vintage Park. Initiatives the are exemplary. Why did I not stay there?

Only stayed for a half the presentation but such an important issue and the efforts made by the committee and especially Tory Orlandro deserve great recognition and gratitude.

How can we get more presentations about green practices within the library?

ACRL2009: Information Literacy Pecha Kucha

2009-03-14T14:47:00.004-05:00

I am trying to capture the amazing ideas that moved around the table during today's lunchtime roundtables. Camille Andrews at Cornell facilitated an really great conversation. Many thanks to her. Here are my disjointed notes on the conversation.

Berkley’s Mellon Grant
Alternative IL Standards. Great conversation on this in ili-l.

Cornell Undergraduate Information Competency Initiative: weeklong institute with campus faculty working with partners on improving assignments.

Blending multiple literacies: technology, media, IT, research fluency
What are the NEW MEDIA LITERACIES? Macarthur foundation: Digital Media and Learning. How are their differing criteria in media literacy than information literacy?

Craig Gibson “Prisms Around Student Learning,” Educause.

Colbert on Wikipedia: True Enough

The argument that students have an assignment so Do students really need to know how to find x, y, and z? They are so savvy…do they need traditional instruction anymore? Do they need us to tell them how to use our resources?

How to get librarians away from how-to and into thinking about concepts.
Let’s spend time thinking about keyword development: what are they going to search?

How unique we are to have an embedded program—the fact that I don’t have to fight for seeing students, that I have to struggle on what to cover when! WOW—I need to be in programs that are looking to embed.

Rather talk to them about how to use a book, how to drill a bibliography, how to evaluate a source.

Is anyone asking students what they want to know to do? How are we building our assumptions about what they need to know?

IL Resources
• “35 Standards Based Activities for Information Literacy: Mary McDonald”
• Doug Cook, “Library Cookbook”
• “Information Literacy meet Library 2.0” by Peter Godwin

Getting in touch with the faculty: Letting faculty know that they are teaching information literacy and they don’t even know it.

Percolating the Power of Play, ACRL 2009

2009-03-13T12:04:00.006-05:00

We just finished presenting our paper, "Percolating the Power of Play" at ACRL. What a terrific turnout for 8 am! We were very fortunate to have such a terrific group of presenters before us, " We're Not Playing Around: Gaming Literate Librarians = Information Literate Students" from three librarians at Washington State University-Vancouver. I am especially glad to have met Nicholas Schiller. He and I seem to be eye-to-eye in our thinking that by talking to students about how they play games can and will help them understand how information literacy is already a valuable part of their lives.

Also great to see Jenny Levine in the audience! It was her creation of the ALA TechSource Gaming and Libraries Symposium that hatched the idea of an info lit game at Champlain in the first place. As I look back at my thoughts on that conference, I am reminded of how much I expanded my view of gaming from it and how much working with gamers has expanded my view of the role gaming can play in libraries and information literacy instruction.

If you want to have a look at our slides, please do and feel free to ask questions! The audiece asked some terrific questions, which is always the best part of presenting!

Percolating the Power Of Play

View more presentations from Sarah Cohen.

I am off to my next session. ACRL Rocks.

Starred Items

2009-03-11T09:51:00.004-05:00

It's a busy week for me as I am heading to Seattle but there are a few things I've starred in my Google Reader that I'd love to share and hear comments on.

--This story about Vivek Kundra is certainly interesting and important. Who is this guy? And where was coverage in the major news media? Or in the library blogosphere? The Chief Information Officer has a huge role to play in the digital world and especially in an administration that is touting itself as digital. What is it that we want to see IT look like in the US? In government? These are questions I am posing in my Seminar in Contemporary World Issues but I pose them here as well.

--I love this post on the ACRLog, partly because there is so much to read from it. But also because ssmith (I wish I knew their real name!) shared experiences that are particularly familiar to me. As she said, it is refreshing to know you are not alone. Which leads to my next star...

--K.G. Schneider wrote this marvelous post about the impact the world situation is having on her in her efforts to write. I am so grateful for her sincerity and openness. It is difficult to process all that is going on in the world and it is also difficult to articulate its effect on us. It's hard to even realize that it has an effect. Admittedly, I am having a bit of an opposite experience. I am finding it easier to eek out time for writing and for myself, perhaps because I am not spending as much time in my Reader or surfing the news. Or perhaps because it is one of the only things I do have control over in these crazy times. But the important thing I take away from this is that the influx of information effects us all in different ways. The same is true for our students or our colleagues. I so much appreciated this reminder.

--Finally, I grabbed this post last week from the Chronicle on Wikipedia and the future of expertise. We are thinking about restructuring our first year, first semester IL session to talk with students more about Wikipedia and this might be an interesting way to do it since this piece really addresses questions about authority and credibility. I haven't delved into this as much as I would like yet but I will.

And that's it, I think. I am off to print my plane ticket. Hope to see you in Seattle.

Exploring New Technology: Twitter 2.0

2009-02-27T13:43:00.004-05:00

So, I am starting play a bit with Twitter again.

Admittedly, I have been under the gun in a lot of ways lately. Work is intense. Teaching is demanding a lot of thought, prep, response, and attention. And for once, I am trying to do things like go to yoga, read, write, and take care of the non-work me. So, the idea of yet another technology to play with was off putting.

But, my friend and mentor, Rob Williams, mentioned that he was going to give it a try. And the ever impressive Andy Burkhardt mentioned it too. Plus, social media guru Elaine Young was pulverizing her Facebook updates with Tweets. So I thought I would give it another go.

Need I point out that my Twitter name is thesheck?

So, I am tweeting. A little. Which got me thinking, why is it just a little?

Elaine asked me in Twitter the other day what the differences I saw between blogging and twitter. She asked the question in the context of protecting my updates. But I took the question to heart in a different way. Why is it that I am have a hard time embracing Twitter? What is it about it that does not spark my interest as much as other technologies and SNS?

Admittedly, I consider myself a selective adapter. I do not jump in to play right off the bat. I lurk. I try to think about what I might use a technology for. That is how the whole "Exploring New Technology" thread began for me.

Part of what put me off from Twitter initially was how it felt like a clique. My first experience with it was at Computers in Libraries conference in 2008. There was something about having the conference twittered that made me a bit uncomfortable, especially as a presenter. But, then I realized that a big part of that was old high school anxiety--"what are they saying about me?". CiL was one of my first conference presentations so I hadn't yet experienced how supportive, encouraging, interested, and collaborative the library community can be. I found out soon enough, that there was nothing to fear.

However, the clique bit still irks me. As I think about what differences I see between blogging and Twitter, it really comes down to writing for myself and writing for others. Here in my blog, I think thoughts through. I ruminate. I question. I work through an idea and share it with....whomever. No one, perhaps. I don't blog for others. I blog for myself. I blog as a way to get ideas out of my head.

Twitter, on the other hand....well, do you tweet alone? I don't think so. It doesn't seem so. It seems that Twitter is more in line with sharing information. The question, "What are you doing?" asks for instant, short answers. David Silver, in one of his typically terrific posts, points out that there are different types of tweets: think and thin. He says, "thin tweets are posts that convey one layer of information. thick tweets convey two or more, often with help from a hyperlink." So, while there might be short answers, they aren't necessarily superficial. Quite the contrary actually. That, is something, I did not really appreciate about Twitter until I read this.

David ends his post by saying that "i'm trying to teach my students how to craft creative, meaty, and to-the-point messages that attract other people's attention." As David points out, that is not the only way to use Twitter. Aaron Schmidt makes a great example of how Twitter can teach us about our own institution in this blog post. Twitter, it seems to me, is about joining in on a conversation and/or attracting attention to what you are doing and/or sharing information. It is quite remarkable that 140 characters can achieve so much. But there are certain rules that seem to apply. Michael Sauers points out with his Dr. Phil example that there are certain things about using Twitter that are essential: participating on both sides. MIchael makes a great point in this post but that interactivity requires something else: time.

This gets me thinking about Greg Schwartz and his decision to put Uncontrolled Vocabulary on hiatus. He explains that part of his decision comes from how much is involved in preparing for the show: “It’s the never-ending involvement: the slave-like attention to my feed reader, the setting up of blog posts, the reading and re-reading of proposed conversation starters. All worthwhile activites that I enjoy, but that require a certain constant level of engagement which forces me to make compromises with the rest of my priorities.” When I put everything together here, it means that being involved “thickly” in Twitter means not just following someone but following them and what they are doing beyond Twitter. And that is a huge investment of one’s time. And that is worth recognizing.

Clearly, I am still playing with and developing my thoughts on Twitter. And I find myself asking a lot of questions about how I want to communicate with my network of friends and colleagues, which is always a good thing. As David Silver points out, there are a myriad of ways to use tools on the web. I am trying to be intentional and experimental as I play with this tool. In the meantime, I will keep playing and reading all the posts out there that talk about your experiences with Twitter.

What's working?

2009-02-17T15:40:00.000-05:00

Probably like thousands of other librarians, my inbox was full of friends and colleagues sending me this article in the New York Times about school librarians. The article is pretty interesting but I was particularly drawn to the video (which I can't link to...NYT needs to fix that!). It coincides with a major issue we are dealing with at Champlain: what information literacy skills do our students already have?

At the moment, the five teaching librarians are teaching info lit sessions to all first year students. Our information literacy program is embedded into Champlain's Core Curriculum. The Core curriculum is an integrated, interdisciplinary, incremental program that is a required component of the Champlain education. The chance to reach all students, every semester is incredible. And we have a lot of ideas about what our sessions should encompass. But the spring semester of their first year is when students encounter their first research assignment. And trying to make sure students are equipped to handle that assignment is difficult because we don’t know with which skills students have come to Champlain.

To cover all the bases, in the IL session for first years students will:
-be introduced to the library catalog,
-practice using print material effectively,
-develop keywords,
-apply their keywords in an academic database, and,
-use database results to deepen their searches and refine their keywords.

We are combining a lot of hands on, interactive tasks during the sessions with some more traditional instruction. One of the activities students try is using the index and table of contents of books to seek out specific information. Pretty basic, right? We thought so too. But during reference interviews, we have been incredulous at how few students know how to find a book or use PARTS of a book rather than the whole thing. Yet, when we go to classes, many of the students say that they know this already. Mostly, that's a relief. But the same is true when using the databases. They say they know this already.

Essentially, as the NYT video shows, librarians in K-12 are doing valuable and important work in teaching IL skills early. The problem I face in a higher ed library is that we don't know if every student has had it. As the article points out, "as school librarians increasingly teach students crucial skills needed not only in school, but also on the job and in daily life, they are often the first casualties of school budget crunches." So, some schools have librarians performing this function and some don't. Where does that leave students when they get to me at the college level?

Many other librarians advocate for pre-tests to determine where students are. I have never been a fan of pre-testing and I haven't seen much literature that points to its effectiveness. Moreover, just because students say they know how to use an index, does that mean that they know how to use an index effectively or know when it is an effective tool? Regardless, we are faced with the challenge of students coming to us with different levels of knowledge and practice when it comes to research. How do we deal with students that are more experienced and sophisticated users with those students that haven’t had much experience or instruction?

I am seeing it as a balancing act. We are trying to pitch these sessions as refreshers and “tips and tricks”. We talk to students about what we, information professionals, would do to deal with their questions or assignments. At first, I was pretty skeptical about that approach. But students seem to really take to it. I think a big part of that has to do with authenticity. I remember reading Parker Palmer’s piece for Immersion and the idea of teachers being authentic and open to vulnerability really struck a chord with me. And it seems to strike a chord with students. I don’t know the answer to their questions but I talk them through how I try to figure it out. And they seem to appreciate it that. Is it perfect? Certainly not. Is it working? Our assessment data will show us. More importantly, as they delve into their research papers, we’ll see whether the reference questions demonstrate that they are hearing what we’re saying and practicing what we’re showing them. But as we wrap up our sessions….it feels right.

A Pit in My Stomach

2009-01-29T12:42:00.003-05:00

I was planning on blogging two events I attended at Midwinter but this seemed much more important.

I have just learned about the death of two librarians on their way home from ALA. Here is the story.

I am so sorry for their families, for the libraries, for their communities. It's a great sadness that in the midst of serving their community and their profession that this should happen. It puts a pit in my stomach.

They are in my thoughts.

On my way to Denver

2009-01-22T15:45:00.002-05:00

Boarding pass---check.
Shuttle reservation----check.
Room reservation----check.
Badge-----check.
More reading material than I could possibly get through----check.

I AM READY to hit up Denver for Midwinter. See you there!

CHANGE I believe in

2009-01-20T15:18:00.003-05:00

There are more things to say on a day like this than I can possibly articulate in a blog post. The attitude of students on campus, the feeling that seeps through screens and into our homes as we watched Obama take office, the excitement I feel in my belly---I believe it is HOPE.

But let's keep it together, my husband would say. Breath, my best friend would remind me.

Breathing.

Let's start out with THIS--the new White House website. We've got a blog, we've got a Director of New Media, and most excitedly, we've got an Office of Public Liaison. It is this last one that is particularly exciting to me.

For those of you that haven't been following Change.gov or the Citizen's Briefing Book, everyday people, you and me, have been welcomed to give suggestions, ideas, and ask questions to the President-Elect. One of the ideas floated was to keep the people's voice at the table. And it is happening.

Which brings me to the idea of collaboration and access. Yesterday, a professor who always jokes with me about my penchant for suggesting wikis admitted that he didn't even know what a wiki was. Another professor we were walking with gave him a brief explanation, essentially getting at the opportunity wikis provides for more than just a webmaster to make changes to a website. It enabled people to share in the responsibility of providing information. Wikis offer us all to share our knowledge rather than expecting one person to know it all.

Switch screens to Michael Sauer's post on making a wiki.whitehouse.gov.:
wiki.whitehouse.gov

In the article “America Online” in the latest issue of Wired (#17.02 which isn’t online yet) I cam across the following paragraph:

The incoming administration is still working to assess the implications of the Presidential Records Act, the post-Nixon legislation requiring the preservation of all White House written communications. But that means that once any page goes up on the White House site, it can’t be altered, only archived and replaced, greatly slowing down the process of modifying and enhancing pages.

So, ok, I understand this and think it’s a good thing. But I instantly thought that this would be the perfect use for a wiki. Just have Wiki software be the underlying system that ran www.whitehouse.gov and you’d instantly have a traceable record, and archived copy, of every version of the page that’s ever been from day-one forward.

I’d like to think that at least one of the smart people on the transition team had already thought of this but I’ll be submitting it to the folks at www.change.gov just in case they haven’t.

Where am I going with all of this?

It brings me back, again, to the thought I had first thing this morning as I rode the bus to work. Today, a very special day, was about more than just Barack, or being an American, but about participating. Way back when, Barack Obama was the Underdog in the presidential campaign. And it was us, the people, that shared information about him, engaged our friends and neighbors in his campaign, and even brought him to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on this cold, January day. Barack Obama's presidency marks a change in our ideas about action, participation, collaboration, and change itself.

And that is change I believe in.

Happy Inauguration Day to you all.

Great Thoughts Manifested

2009-01-16T14:36:00.004-05:00

Such a wonderful piece in the Times on the Library of Congress. It's nice to see it being lauded for the remarkable thing it is in itself. Perhaps it's my affinity for big reading rooms, remnants of my rare books days I think, but there is something about libraries, especially the big ones that leaves me speechless.

Here's my favorite part: "If great thoughts — not just the idle reflections of the moment, but the really big ideas — could take physical shape, this is probably what they would look like. The sensation you feel is one of mental levitation — like wisdom, only more exciting."

Well said. Very well said.

The Year Past and the Year to Come

2008-12-31T11:39:00.003-05:00

This is always a reflective time for me. Perhaps because I am the only person at the library this week, perhaps because I slow down enough to pause and think. But I've been thinking about 2008 and feeling very fortunate to have had such a tremendous year, both professionally and personally. A few things are particularly noteworthy:

1. Andy Burkhardt. Andy joined the Champlain College Library staff in July and all I can say is AMEN! He is tremendous. I love working with him. I love sharing ideas with him. I love what he has brought to the library and what he brings out in me. It is pretty special to find a colleague that you respect, learn from, and enjoy. Good good stuff.
2. Immersion: after a semester of implementation, I am amazed at how much I gained from Immersion and what a difference it has made in my approach to teaching, program design, collaboration, and thinking about information literacy. I will be joining a panel of Immersion alums to talk more about it at ALA Annual this summer. But in my planning and design time over the break, I find myself constantly referring back to notes, blog posts, thoughts, and questions I developed at Immersion.
3. Google Reader: How did I do it before RSS? My reader is not only incredibly useful to me professionally, especially as I read posts from other librarians, but also personally. I keep up with interests (the environment, gardening, books, friends in the world) and share an awful lot of material with friends and family. It has changed my way of managing information and while it can sometime overwhelm me, I love it.
4. TED: I never knew about Ted Talks until this year but I sure know about them now. I have had so many aha moments watching TED videos and I realize how much I have to learn, not just about things but about THINKING about things. The way in which many of the TED speakers think is inspirational and new to me.
5. Friends and colleagues: So many of you have helped me in the past year in more ways than could ever be noted here. Some of you have done it in your blog posts or your comments, some of you do it in emails, some of you do it by the work you are doing in your own libraries or classrooms, some of you I get to share in it face to face. Thank you.

And in the year to come....what will 2009 bring?
For me, an awful lot of travel. I have a lot of gigs coming up, which is pretty exciting. ACRL in Seattle on the power of gaming to teach information literacy, LILAC in Wales about the importance of the inquiry method in information literacy instruction, ALA in July for thoughts and growth from Immersion, and IFLA in Bologna about the power of 2.0 to bring together multigenerational workforces. I get jittery just thinking about it. If you will be attending any of these conferences, let me know. I'd love to catch up.

But for the time I am here, I hope the coming year brings as many interesting ideas and questions to the forefront as 2008 did. I hope that I continue to have productive and fun relationships with my colleagues at Champlain and our students. I hope that I make time to be away from my computer and enjoy the things that make me happy like my garden, running at the Homestead, yoga, writing letters (yes, by hand, on stationary, for the post), and spending time with Rigi, Jon, and my friends and family.

I hope the same for all of you. Happy New Year.

Ariana Huffington on Blogging

2008-12-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Arianna Huffington

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

CLS Award Announcement

2008-12-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

The College Libraries Section of ACRL is very pleased to announce its inaugural award for innovation in college librarianship.

An award in the amount of $3,000 will be given to the applicant(s) who have demonstrated a capacity for innovation in working with or serving undergraduates or instructors in the areas of programs, services, and operations; or creating innovations for library colleagues that facilitate their ability to better serve the library’s community. Any member of ALA is eligible for this award.

Nomination submission deadline is December 5. Deadline extended to January 9th. Full details about the award and how to apply can be found here.

Change (in Technology) We Can Believe In

2008-12-03T09:28:00.000-05:00

A few things have been popping out at me lately in regard to Barack. It's a busy day for me but I can't help but point out the following:

1. Have you checked out Change.gov's blog lately? Do. Obviously they are using YouTube to above grade capacity. But, their use of Wordle in this post is pretty impressive. I loved Wordle right off the bat and our library has used it to add some panache. But this is not a library. This is the president-elect's website. That is change I like to see.
2. It's pretty exciting to see Change.gov's adoption of a Creative Commons license. It's even more exciting for them to give the kind of explanation they do in terms of transparency, accessibility, and collaboration. Michael Sauers post about the distinction between copyright and Creative Commons is excellent and I appreciate his pointing out both that distinction and the distinction between a site like change.gov and whitehouse.gov. We will continue to see which way the wind will blow.
3. As you might remember, I don't own a TV set. During Thanksgiving, while I was in Philly with the fam, I was excited to see the Barbara Walters special with the Obamas. What I was really excited about was the question Barbara (yes, we are on a first name basis) asked about Barack having to get rid of his Blackberry. Perhaps you saw this article a few weeks ago about Obama's connection to his "crack"berry. But that's not the good part. The good part is they WHY: "I'm negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the 10 or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. " Talk about change. This is about Information Independence! This article in Slate talks about it in terms of government (aka Barack) being illustrating its ability to be "accessible, capable, and efficient".

Keep it coming. These are all excellent indications of what is to come. And I like it. A lot.

Nearest Book meme

2008-12-03T09:05:00.000-05:00

"West,' said one young engineer, 'is a prince of darkness."
The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder

Rules:
* Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
* Go to page 56.
* Find the 5th sentence.
* Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
* Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
* Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

THINKING about information

2008-11-21T13:59:00.000-05:00

A great friend and colleague shared this TED with me a bit ago and I only just got a chance to watch it and really think about it.

Watching this happened to coincide with my writing with a proposal my director and Champlain's Instructional Designer to LILAC 2009 (in Wales, cross your fingers for me!). The focus of our proposal, and the work I've been doing at Champlain, is asking students to think differently, creatively--if you will, about the information that they already use and will eventually need. As I read through the comment cards from this semester's teaching load (taught my last session at 8 am this morning), I am struck by how many students appreciate that opportunity. They really do seem to LIKE thinking about information in a way that is less defined and less prescribed. I don't think my job is to tell them what information or resources to use. Rather, I think our job is to help them ask them to think about or question which sources they want to use and why.

This is the thought that pounds on my mind when I read posts on ili-l about which texts to use for Info Lit course. Invariably, titles that are about Information Literacy are listed. Why would a college student want to learn about information seeking like this? Our students know a great deal about looking stuff up: it’s figuring out what to do with that “stuff” that they struggle with. Why not encourage discussion around truth, fact, reliability, trust, authority? Couldn’t we consider books like True Enough, the Big Switch, True to Life, Glut, of The Black Swan that ask students to THINK about information and articulate their experience, expectations, and frustrations with it instead of telling them what those experiences and expectations should be? By not asking them to think critically and engage in discussion about that thinking, I don’t know if we are really offering students the chance to become literate.

Which brings me back to Robinson’s lecture for a moment. In it, he asks what public education is really for? (Watch the video: the answer here is brilliantly funny and profound.) I think that’s a key question for information literacy programming as well: what is IL instruction for? If it really is to determine the extent of information needed;
access the needed information effectively and efficiently; evaluate information and its sources critically; incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base;
use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose; and understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally, I think we have to ask ourselves if the way in which we teach is conducive to that goal. What are YOU doing to teach students to think about information in that way? Are there other things we should be asking students to think about and if so, how do you encourage that? How do you encourage your students to THINK about information?

This Information Literacy Moment is brought to you by....?

2008-11-12T13:59:00.001-05:00

Here is great example of the importance of EVALUATING information, even from the most trusted of sources. This coincides so well with the thinking I've been doing about the disintegration of truth and fact in the Wikipedia world. Perhaps I've just been reading to much Michael Lynch, or it's the questions I've been getting from students about the election, or the Mark Crispin Miller posts I've been reading about voting...no matter. While it might be easy to say that this is a "a gigantic compliment to The Times”, I think it touches on something far larger and deeper. I think it touches on the notion that people will believe whatever they want to believe, assuming they find someone to support it. This is the same premise that "True Enough" proposes: it's not about whether the information we find is factual, it's about whether it's true enough to serve our purposes.

In some respects, I think there is a lot to be said for Wikipedia's role in this shift. NOTE: I am not suggesting that wikipedia is BAD, EVIL, or USELESSS. But I am saying that there are repercussions to using a wiki-based, community constructed encyclopedia and I think we are just starting to see that play out. I cannot speak to what the talk of the town was in New York today as people got this free paper. Did they believe it? Did they question it immediately? Did they seek confirmation immediately? Perhaps Google Trends caught that and can say where the war in Iraq ended? (THAT'S SARCASM, by the way).

I can say what I see happening with students. And it's only somewhat encouraging. There are some students that talk of NOT using wikipedia because they question its validity, bias, or authority. I remind them that there is a lot of useful information in wikipedia and that it can often be a wonderful place to gather information with which to start a project as well as to witness the dialogue that makes up scholarship. Other students, as there always are, just take whatever they find and go with it. It's obviously this last batch that concerns me. And not only for their ability to do well in their classes. It's more for when we do encounter conflicting information in matters that are important everyday. Matters of national importance, as the Times example demonstrates. But also on smaller, more personal scales. Why is information literacy limited to just what you do in the library or school? Isn't SPAM about information literacy? Isn't the mortgage crisis? Am I alone in thinking that much of what troubles us today related to our lack of PURSUING information. It's clearly not a lack of availability but rather our willingness to dig deeper and validate, evaluate, or THINK about it.

And I'm not sure how to teach that. I'm not sure how to develop that in students other than to encourage it and model it. Do you?