Category: innovation

Mark your calendars! ADSL Afternoon Chat next Tuesday

Posted on behalf of Stephanie Grimm:

ADSL Afternoon Chat: Makerspaces and Alternative Modes of Outreach in Art & Design Libraries

Tuesday, August 2, 3pm EST // 12pm PST (via GoToMeeting)


Join the ADSL for an afternoon chat on the topic of makerspaces and alternative modes of outreach and engagement next Tuesday, August 2 from 3-4pm EST/12-1pm PST. Whether you’re a veteran of the maker movement or a true newbie, you’re invited to bring your questions, ideas, and experiences with adapting library spaces to foster art practices and experimentation.

Prior to the chat, ADSL will share a set of guiding questions to shape the discussion. In the meantime, you can learn more about makerspaces and alternative engagement below. (Want to suggest a reading? Let us know in the comments!)

Link to meeting: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/825326981

Recommended Readings:

Dickerson, Madelynn. Beta Spaces as a Model for Recontextualizing Reference Services in Libraries. In the Library with the Lead Pipe, May 2016. http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2016/reference-as-beta-space/

Educause. 7 Things You Should Know about… Makerspaces. Educause Learning Initiative, 2013. https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eli7095.pdf

Lotts, Megan. Lego Play: Implementing a Culture of Creativity & Making in the Academic Library. ACRL Conference Proceedings 409-418. http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3C53NJD

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Topical LibGuides and Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’

As we search for ways to improve the content of our LibGuides, it’s inspiring to look at the work done by professionals like Jenny Ferretti, Digital Initiatives Librarian at Maryland Institute College of Art’s Decker Library. When creating guides meant to connect users and resources, it’s tempting to conceptualize them as a complement to a specific class or academic program. However, by allowing ourselves to think freely about the interests we and our users might have that could be empowered by a research guide, we’re able to see how flexible LibGuides or similar software can be. We can see some of this flexibility reflected in the Bank Street’s resource guide for families of incarcerated parents, the fashion librarian’s resource guide created by the Fashion, Textiles, and Costume Special Interest Group of ARLIS/NA, the business of art guide at the University of Kansas, and Ferretti’s guide on understanding civic unrest in Baltimore.

Ferretti’s latest guide—one that pulls together the different visual, literary, and cultural references in Beyoncé’s visual album Lemonade—garnered a huge response from within and outside the LIS community. Ferretti was kind enough to answer a few questions via email about the reaction to the Lemonade research guide.

Curious for more? Join the #libeyrianship Twitter chat hosted by Decker Library on June 8 at 2pm EST.

AV: What has been the best thing that’s come out of creating this research guide?

JF: IRL and URL discussions hands down. Lots of people have talked to me about this guide in person and have been very complimentary even if they haven’t yet watched Lemonade. After I give my typical spiel about why I composed it, they usually respond with something like “Now you’ve made me want to watch it.”

People in the library and information service profession have been overwhelmingly supportive, but it’s also reached people who might not have thought about the information and cultural literacy aspects of Lemonade. So far it’s been viewed over 40,000 times. It’s produced such a positive reaction online that Decker Library is organizing a Twitter chat so that we can directly interact with people who have used it in their own libraries.

AV: What do you like and dislike about LibGuides?

JF: LibGuides are great for institutions and organizations who don’t have an easy way of publishing resources and information on their own websites. If I think of an idea for a LibGuide, I can make it immediately and from anywhere I have an Internet connection. If you know the basics of how to make a LibGuide, you can figure out its other features fairly easily. I also like the fact that it uses the Bootstrap coding framework. Writing code is like writing in another language, but I find Bootstrap to be among the less complicated languages that produce an attractive product, at least from a beginner’s perspective. I haven’t ventured into anything too complicated, so maybe that will change in time.

I think one of the downsides to LibGuides being very simple to use and publish, is that it’s easy to be critical about how they look. As it goes, what we want out of websites as a user changes quickly. However, since Bootstrap is so easy to use, I feel like these LibGuides present a perfect opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, make some mistakes, and try something new by editing the code.

The only other thing I have an issue with is less about LibGuides and more about how we, the people who utilize the platform, talk about them with patrons. Saying “libguide” to an incoming freshman, for example, means nothing to them. They don’t understand what you mean unless your library really pushes this word into their vocabulary (by doing outreach and promotion). My preference is to refer to them as research or library guides. I’m absolutely not saying that students are incapable of learning what you mean by the word LibGuide. What I highly doubt is that every student that doesn’t understand what a LibGuide is will speak up in order to get clarification.

AV: I read your Medium article and loved what you said about Beyoncé “closing the gap between artist and archivist.” What do you think the Beyoncé archive will eventually look like?

JF: One of my missions in my position at MICA’s Decker Library is to close the gap between artist and archivist. As MICA alum, I know how difficult it is to gain intellectual control over your work (assets), which might include knowing which versions are the most up-to-date, file naming, and what to do with master files. I thought about this for years after graduating and didn’t know how to talk about it until I started working at Smithsonian Channel archiving born-digital video. I was doing things to archive video that artists could easily learn and should learn.

I was incredibly impressed to hear that Beyoncé’s company was looking for an archivist through library and information listservs. Obviously the archivist or archivists who have seen and worked with Bey’s archive can’t talk about it, but this is an important point to stress. Artists who show frequently domestically and internationally typically have teams behind them. When I hear a mega star like Beyoncé includes an archivist on her team, it makes me think information professionals should bring this up in order to be included in new dialogues.

It’s difficult to say whether or not the Beyoncé archive will be public one day whether in part or whole. All I can say is that I hope so. With an incredible amount of video footage, the archive would be an asset not only for the content, but also for the digital footprint it leaves behind.

Thanks so much, Jenny! Remember, if you’d like to chat more about the guide, mark your calendars for the #libeyrianship Twitter chat on Wednesday, June 8 at 2pm EST.

Europeana iPad App!

An email message from Milena Popova, Senior Marketing Specialist at Europeana, to the open GLAM listserve this morning:

 

“Europeana has just launched its first free iPad app. ‘Europeana Open Culture’ introduces the public to hand-picked and beautiful collections from some of Europe’s top institutions, and allows people to explore, share and comment on them. Designed by Glimworm IT during a Europeana hackathon, the app provides an easy introduction to Europe’s glorious cultural treasury through five specially curated themes: Maps and Plans, Treasures of Art, Treasures of the Past, Treasures of Nature, and Images of the Past.

The 350,000 images available through the app are either in the public domain or are openly licensed which means they can be used for any purpose, like in a school project or a thesis, or in a presentation to your local history society, or on blogs, Wikipedia, or even commercially. What’s more, the app is built on the Muse open source platform developed by Glimworm IT. The code behind the app is available on GitHub repository and others can experiment with it and develop it as they choose (for instance, to create an Android version).

Download the app from iTunes and let use know about your comments or any further code developments at api@europeana.eu.”

Call for Applicants: Multimedia and Technology Reviews Co-Editor

This message is reposted from Hannah Bennett, ARLIS/NA’s Professional Resources Editor:

Dear Colleagues,

The ARLIS/NA Executive Board invites applications for a co-editor to join the small team responsible for ARLIS Multimedia & Technology Reviews. This new online publication will appear bi-monthly in alternation with ARLIS/NA Reviews.

 

ARLIS Multimedia & Technology Reviews is designed to provide insightful evaluations of projects, products, events, and issues within the broad realm of multimedia and technology as they pertain to arts scholarship, research, and librarianship.  Subject areas may include films, performance videos, viral videos, video games, productivity software, mobile devices, social media applications, digital design collectives, research guides, databases and indexes, native online exhibitions, and much more.

The Multimedia & Technology Reviews Co-Editor is appointed by the President for a two-year, renewable term. The incumbent works with the M&T editorial team, which in includes the Professional Resources Editor who also convenes the team and serves as liaison to the Communications and Publications Committee, as well as a third co-editor appointed by the ARLIS/NA Reference and Information Services Section.

This position shares responsibility with the other co-editors for all content posted to the reviews’ featured section on the ARLIS/NA website.  At the same time, this position will be involved in soliciting and selecting appropriate topics for review.

Major Responsibilities:

  • Identifies potential topics for review
  • Solicits reviewer participation from the ARLIS/NA membership and affiliate organizations
  • Assigns reviews to reviewers
  • Obtains visuals, if available, from the reviewed resources to serve as “cover art”
  • Edits reviews alongside the other editors
  • Formats all reviews and submits them in required format to the ARLIS/NA Web site editor; checks posted reviews and notifies the Web site editor if any changes are necessary

Members with proven editorial experience and deep interest or knowledge in arts research technologies and related forms of multimedia are encouraged to submit a letter of interest and résumé to Hannah Bennett by Friday, June 21, 2013. Any inquiries about the position may also be directed to me.

An evaluation subcommittee consisting of the Art Documentation Editor, ARLIS/NA Review Editors, the Professional Resources Editor and the Reference and Information Services Section co-editor will review applications. The subcommittee will make a recommendation to the ARLIS/NA Executive Board for appointment no later than July 15, 2013.

Cordially,

Hannah Bennett, Librarian

Call for Agenda items

Hi RISSers!
I wanted to let you know that the Reference & Information Services Section is scheduled to meet Friday, April 26, 12:30-1:30 p.m in Conference Center 214. Please feel free to bring your lunch to munch on.
We’re excited to update you on major projects co-moderators Amy Ballmer and I have been working toward during this past year, talk about the conference and members’ contributions, and also to engender discussion on how best RISS can serve you. If you have something you’d like to add to the RISS meeting agenda, please contact me directly by Monday, April 16th.
Also, while scoping out the conference program, please keep in mind the session The Evolution of Art Reference and Instruction: Outreach, Overlay, Online, featuring RISS members Audrey Ferrie, Michael Wirtz, Kim Detterbeck, and Liv Valmestad.
I’m looking forward to seeing you all in Pasadena!
-Your RISS Moderator, Emilee Mathews

Penny for Your Thoughts

Originally posted by Anna Simon

My colleague Adam, a Multimedia Instruction Coordinator at the Gelardin New Media Center at
Georgetown University, recently wrote up his observations from the Penny Conference in NY on teaching, creativity, and innovation. It’s a nice reminder that in addition to imparting information, part of our job is to inspire inspiration. You can link to the original post here.

Dr. Tony Wagner on stage at Penny 2012

Penny 2012: A reflection on Skillshare.com’s first conference

Last Friday, I attended Skillshare.com‘s first annual Penny Conference in New York. The event was very similar to a TED conference: it consisted mainly of a series of short talks centered around the theme of education innovation. You can view videos of the entire conference by clicking here. They put together quite a diverse panel of speakers: faculty from Harvard and NYU; a restaurateur; a 14-year-old TED veteran and teacher; several entrepreneurs; and a former investment banker who started an organizationto build schools in developing countries.

The afternoon-long gathering was big on ideas and inspiration. This wasn’t the kind of conference where you learn new information or skills. It was all about dreaming big, thinking differently, and pursuing an audacious vision of learning in the 21st century.

I found a lot of inspiration in the talks, but there were a few key themes that really stood out to me. The biggest of these is that learning is, and always has been, driven by human curiosity, as this fantastic videofrom Skillshare illustrates. It was curiosity that drove me to spend hours of my childhood reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica on my friend’s living room floor. Curiosity was the fuel behind the (unfortunately, recently discontinued) NASA Shuttle program, and its predecessor, the Apollo program. Curiosity took Darwin to Galapagos, and led Newton to his principia.

And it’s curiosity, paired with creativity, that leads to innovation. Dr. Tony Wagner from Harvard University called for a shift from a consumer-driven culture to an innovation-driven culture in his talk. And the task of educators in this is to call forth their students’ curiosity and creativity; to create an environment that challenges students to take risks, and rewards those who do. Prof. Kio Stark of NYU pointed out the central role of failure in the learning process, and how penalizing failure handicaps our students’ growth and crushes their curiosity. 14-year-old Adora Svitakemphasized the need for teachers to model and encourage a love for learning in their own lives and in their instruction, because if students develop a love for learning, they will learn more and go further than we can imagine.

The clear takeaway for me from the Penny conference was that education should be about inspiration, far more than mere information. To be sure, facts and information are critical; but without inspiration, facts will be forgotten, and without empowerment, information will never translate to innovation and action.
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