Posts Tagged ist511

Workshops and Wonder

I’ve had some amazing experiences the past few weeks with professionals working in the field.

I was selected to be a student shadow at the local SLA chapters workshop, “A Librarian’s Toolbox: Reopened,” which shared tools that librarians should be aware of to better serve members and accomplish their jobs. There were a number of programs that exist that I wasn’t aware of or hadn’t thought of as a professional tool for librarians. Take Pinterest for example, an MSLIS student at SU, Sarah Bratt, presented on how to use Pinterest to market your library. Typically, people assume that Pinterest is for crafters, cooks, and fans. Using the site, Sarah created a pathfinder (subject guide) on Syracuse history for a class.

Last night, our class visited the Restoration and Preservation departments of SU’s Bird Library. We were able to handle rare books and the tools used to repair them. We also watched demonstrations from students including how to fix a binding. We also helped reattach pages in books that had come out. It was an amazing experience to see how to fix some basic problems with books that I may encounter in my career and in my own shelves.

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Movie Making

For one of my classes we were assigned to make a video and publish it on YouTube. I had the opportunity to work with a great group and we decided to do something creative… and a little bit weird. The assignment was to answer the question “You need a Master’s degree for that?” Thanks to my co-creators: Anna Weinberger, Dina Meky, and Deirdre Downs!

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Librarian Education Beyond the Degree

In 6th Thread of the Atlas of New Librarianship, there were so many ideas that stood out to me. The biggest one is that the education of new librarians cannot end with the degree but must continue beyond that with continuing education. One of the things touched on is the need for a program to facilitate the development of librarian practitioners in their professional growth. Workshops, while viewed as beneficial, are not organized or structured enough to meet the needs of the population alone.

While I would agree, based on my reading, that a practical doctorate degree would be useful for those in the field as opposed to the more philosophical research degree for academics, I don’t believe this is necessary for all. Take teaching for example, those who earn a undergrad degree and initial teaching certificate must return in a few years to do a master’s and earn a professional certificate. However, if you have a different undergrad program, you can still earn a master’s in education, receive an initial certificate, and apply for a professional certificate after earning a set number of development hours. Teaching certificates in New York used to be permanent, however, that is no longer true now teachers need to maintain their certificate by taking part in professional development activities such as workshops.

I think the same idea could be applied to librarianship, to maintain your professional status a certain number of workshop/meeting hours would need to be logged and recognized every, let’s say, 5 years. That would give the librarian time to attend different workshops and classes they are interested in. The courses don’t have to be prescribed, the individual can follow their interests. However, perhaps when a set number of credits are earned in a topic of study they would be recognized as a “mentor” in the field (If you think of a better term let me know). This program would facilitate and legitimize the continuing growth of librarians in the professional community while reducing the need for those already holding a masters to pursue a doctoral degree.

 

 

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What inspires you?

The last question Lankes makes in the 5th Thread of the Atlas of New Librarianship is “What inspires you?” The thread is about the importance of leaders from the library community  to step up and be an example, motivate the members of the community, and work toward improving society as a whole. He refers to Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day Speech from the Shakespeare play titled (not a shocker) Henry V. In his concluding remarks, he rewrites the speech with a library audience in mind and provides us with a call to arms.

Here is what inspires me:

The Declaration of Independence (http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html) which was drafted by Thomas Jefferson. A group of individuals joined together to right a perceived wrongs by the government (Great Britain) without providing representation to grieve them or a willingness to correct them. After exhausting their options for redress they announced to the people their intention to separate from their rulers and create their own government to establish and safeguard the people.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness… The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) (http://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898 ) who fought for the rights of his people and worked to educate the public and open the eyes of society to the wrongs that they faced and help them to overcome and change the way things were to make them better. He advocated the truth and non-violence in this methods for creating social change.

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/mahatma_gandhi.html )

Rosa Parks (http://www.biography.com/people/rosa-parks-9433715?page=1 ) who refused to give in and give up her bus seat to a white passenger and spurred the Montgomery Bus Boycott in protest of the “separate but equal” laws that dictated life at that time.

“I would like to be known as a person who is concerned about freedom and equality and justice and prosperity for all people.” 

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”  
 
 
As you can see, I’m motivated and inspired by the people, or groups of people, who stood up for a cause and defended the rights of the people in their community. Their actions altered the way the world works; beginning with a small action or series of actions that added up into something enormous. They made a lasting impact.
 
I hope in the future to inspire my community to make changes and improve their lives even if the change is something simple. As those simple changes move forward they can develop into something more drastic.

 

 

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Topical Centers

The fourth Thread in The Atlas of New Librarianship deals with communities and the importance of gaining community involvement in the library and being involved in the community. The Philadelphia Free Library seems to embody the idea of creating topical centers within libraries through some of the programs they offer the community or communities they serve. Three examples of their efforts are provided in the text and they target the business community, the writing community, and the music community. They facilitated the conversations to develop these facilities by inviting professionals from each group for collaborative conversations.

Each community was interested in promoting different library offerings for their members. The business leaders developed the idea of the Entrepreneurium in their discussion and emphasized the importance of the library for start-ups and small businesses. They saw the role of the library as connecting members to mentors, offering technical services and seminars, and providing conference rooms to connect them with a wider community. The writers wanted to develop a more creative space with an open collection of their works. They didn’t want anyone critiquing them and excluding their writings. They saw the role of the library as providing them the space where they could work and come together socially to foster conversation. The musicians, on the other hand, wanted a stage where they could perform together or for an audience. They also wanted a collection, a space where their performed works would be filed and share with other community members. The librarians part was to improve music literacy by offering classes in music appreciation.

The NOPL Cicero library hosts Library Farm, a community space where members can plant and grown vegetables. The librarians there worked with the community in a need that they could fill to increase literacy in this topic.

“This library service [the farm] would aim to educate, collecting a usable set of materials where roots and vegetables are considered kinds of public documents. It considers the processes involved in growing food along with the food itself to be information.  It assumes Michael Buckland’s conception of the thingness of information, and catalogs the actual stuff that aims to convey knowledge or understanding. The documents in this library farm would partially sustain members of the community, physically, socially, and economically.” (http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2010/09/30/library-farm/)

Based on this quote, the idea of an artifact or a collection is only limited by what the community determines it needs. The library is the great public forum in any community. It is up to us as librarians to bring diverse groups together to facilitate conversations aimed at improving the community and putting those plans into actions.

 

 

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The Organic Library

I interviewed the children’s librarian at Mundy Library yesterday for a class project. When we were talking about the resources her library offers to the community, she mentioned that they have a social worker on staff a few days each week. We began talking about the need for other people as resources in the library and I mentioned one of the ideas from the reading was “checking-out” experts, for example a lawyer, a nurse, or an accountant. These professionals would donate their time to come in and consult with patrons on a one-on-one basis (p.67).

I think this is an amazing idea for many of the library’s in the area. What if each library were to host a different professional one or two days each week. First off, the expert would be able to connect and market their skills to a unique group of people. Secondly, this would not be limited to one population of members; it would be a draw for the surrounding areas as well. I know around tax season I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to consult with an accountant, for free, to answer a few questions I have about filling out those forms.

Despite the great advances we have had as a society, the common perception is still that a library is that place with all the books. Why can’t it be that place where I was able to answer some question or the place where I created something? One of the big movements in library’s right now is the idea of the Makerspace. Fayetteville Free Library has created an amazing space for members with their Fab Lab. What I like about this is the space is not limited to the 3-D printer (although that could warrant its own area), but also brings in sewing machines and other resources to allow the entire community to utilize the Lab and see its value.

Another reimagining of the role of the librarian and the library is the idea of “production librarians” (p.67) who would, beyond their roles producing for the library itself, work for members who need a “production assistant” to implement their project. These individuals and others would help us redefine what a library is for the general public by making us (as librarians) the expert and our skills more accessible (or easily identified) to our members.

The idea of a library is organic and grows from the community it represents; by limiting the offerings of a library, we are in affect stifling the community and their opportunity to develop.

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Creating Lifelong Learners

The idea of creating lifelong learners is certainly not a new one in the field of education. You can commonly see this phrase used in mission statements of schools and teachers, but what does it mean? I was reading for one of my classes at SU and was really caught by a definition of information literacy the ALA wrote in 1989.

“To be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information… Ultimately, information literate people are those who have learned how to learn… They are people prepared for life-long learning, because they can always find the information needed for any task or decision at hand.” (p. 227)

While many teachers would no doubt agree with this statement, I know it wasn’t one that I read when I was forming my ideas on how I would reach my students. The some of the key knowledge which was imparted to me on how people learn was in the Constructivist model, which says that people are active learners. Teachers can facilitate a students learning, but they can’t simply impart their knowledge and expect student will learn the information.

Information literate people are better able to work within the world because they have learned how to evaluate the information they are presented with, how to find further information on the topic, and how to utilize that information to achieve their purpose. Furthermore, because of their self-propelled quest for knowledge, information literate learners are also independent learners. They are people who work to improve the community they belong to by sharing the information they have learned. (p. 226)

All that sounds like something to aspire to personally and for students or library members. Therefore, the goal is to reach our students and the community through activities and exercises that allow them to learn and implement the skills of information literacy.

Hinchliffe, L.J. (2011). Instruction. In R.E. Bopp & L.C. Smith (Eds.), Reference and information services (221-260). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC.

 

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Creating Knowledge

I just finished reading the second thread in “The Atlas of New Librarianship,” which is about the importance of conversations in the process of creating knowledge. Now, my first thought on this was, well of course they are. You ask questions to learn and the answers of those questions help you to deepen your understanding of a topic. What I didn’t consider was that sitting here in front of my computer I’m having a conversation with myself while writing this. Yeah, I’m talking to myself. Not to worry though, it’s all happening inside my head (this time). Oh by the way, while reading this so are you… creepy huh?

The main argument in this chapter, in my opinion, is that a book can’t teach you. What it can do however, is help you teach yourself by causing you to ask yourself questions about what you read. Huh? This is something pretty important for educators to consider when working with learners. You can facilitate their learning, assisting them in processing the information (more conversation). You can also encourage them to ask themselves those questions (like for example by keeping a journal). These questions clarify the information and lead the learner to make new connections for themselves.

Everyone has knowledge and that knowledge is not the same as any other persons. Through experiences, your worldview, you interpret facts and information in unique ways. Engaging in conversations with other people enables more questions to be asked, even if one of the participants is an expert on the topic. There are always new ideas that can be incorporated into existing knowledge.

Lastly, I’d like to point out that knowledge is the lowest order in the original Bloom’s Taxonomy (http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html). The real question is what are you going to do with that knowledge?

PS. Are you talking to yourself again?

 

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storytime katie

one librarian's journey into storytimeland

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IST511

Librarian in the making

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exploring the New Librarianship

names for things

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