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.
31 December 2008
16 December 2008
04 December 2008
CLS Award Announcement
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.
03 December 2008
Change (in Technology) We Can Believe In
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.
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
"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.
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.
21 November 2008
THINKING about information
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?
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?
12 November 2008
This Information Literacy Moment is brought to you by....?
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?
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?
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