Information Overload

Article in the Boston Globe about Information Overload which gives a great history of information overload and discusses the role of librarians and information organization. Also, an interesting reflection on the new era of information overload in the age of digitized information.

Wikileaks leaks over

Wikileaks article in the Harvard Business Review discussing the private speech and public speech.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/8473

How to use cellphones in High School Classrooms

Here's a great way to use cellphones in High School Chemistry classes, provide the kids with a high-quality learning experience, and save the school money. It doesn't get any more useful than that!

Camera Phones as Spectrometers

Set the bar high for kids, encourage the use of technology, show them that science is accessible and a daily part of their experience, and you will find yourself surrounded by excited and eager future scientists.

Set a mediocre bar, ban the use of technology, and make science about fact recitation instead of self discovery, and you will find yourself surrounded by bored and sullen teenagers.
Photo Courtesy of WesleyFryer

Relevancy

Escaping the Summer Heat in a Bookmobile is an NPR piece by W. Ralph Eubanks, Director of Publishing at the Library of Congress and celebrated author, aired August 10, 2010. I loved the reference to the librarian who brought the world of literature to a young black child in segregationist Mississippi and the power of reading to fuel the imagination of a future writer. This story is rich with motivation for any librarian looking for a subtle reminder of their relevance.

Picture courtesy of adpower

Google Gives In

Google gave in to China's censorship demands and agreed to their terms. It's an agreement like this that reminds me to not fully trust the the licensing agreements librarians, and anyone with an e-reader, make with companies who are supplying digital content. They are businesses first and foremost and, like Google, will make decisions at times that run contrary to our values to further their current or future profit margin.


Image courtesy of dannysullivan

LIS 2600 Portfolio

Here it is. This is the portfolio page. I've linked to it from my home page also (www.pitt.edu/~jkw21). It's nice to be done, although I may still tinker with bits and pieces of the portfolio for fun. It has links to the blog, Omeka, Koha, both fragments, a css page I used the external style sheet for the portfolio page, and then internal css for each of the pages showing the assignments we completed. It was interesting work, and at times frustrating, even the smallest mistake makes the style sheet not work properly. I am by no means an expert in html or css now, but I've learned that I can find the information I need to answer my questions, it's not as scary as it seems, and I am capable of learning it. I think I'm going to try the digital libraries course in the spring semester, and maybe information architecture or another info tech class after that. I enjoyed the work we did, even though it gave me a headache at times.

Pop Suede: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: with Cats

Pop Suede: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: with Cats
Another student posted this on their blog the Secret Ninja Club, and it originally came from a blog called Pop Suede. After a very trying day, it made me laugh out-loud. We took our daughter to see the movie the day it opened. This parody is better than the real thing. Hope you enjoy it immensely.

Think of the Zombies!!

This video was produced as a marketing campaign for a small library. After talking about marketing for part of this weekend's fast-track, I found it to be a fun and lighthearted take on the issue of library closings due to budgetary cuts. I think people are more likely to give you money if you make them laugh than if you try to guilt-trip them, especially if you are looking for money from community members. I hope this library raises a boat-load of cash and is able to continue contributing to the zombie food supply. Let's not always take ourselves so seriously.



Image courtesy kevindooley 8/2009

Ebooks from online libraries

Internet Archives and Open Library.org begin lending ebooks, some still in copyright to patrons. The Wall Street Journal explains the process in the article "Librarians Have Novel Idea" by Geoffrey Fowler and a companion webcast. Check out both at this link http://bit.ly/9JmPWc
Or follow these links to Internet Archive and Open Library
Image by jblyberg 4/9/10

Very Funny Linux Video

The "What You Should Know" brothers have over 200 videos on You-tube about tons of topics. While I tend to steer away from their political videos, everything else is actually informative and hilarious. After learning about Linux in LIS 2600, this video was laugh out loud funny. Long live Mole City!

Study makes the case for library's

This article from the Huffington Post discusses a study which makes a great case for the continued relevance and use of today's public libraries. It also gives a sense of direction to those same libraries.
Opportunity and Access (article)

Opportunity for All (study)
"The U.S. IMPACT Study
A research initiative examining the
impact of free access to computers and
the Internet in public libraries."

Boy meets Boy

Gay Themed Teen Lit
Gay stories are important for both LGBT kids and straight kids alike. One way librarians can raise the profile of LGBT teen books is to feature it in their library, front and center, on National Day of Silence. This is a teen-led day of activism in which high-school and college students silence their voices to demonstrate the culture of silence forced upon LGBT kids, through intimidation, violence, or simply a lack of support (this includes seeing themselves represented in literature).
Last year, at our high school of 685 students, 300 students participated in the Day of Silence. It was quite an event. For three weeks prior to Day of Silence, I displayed every book in the library we owned with gay themes, characters, or authors and they circulated as well as our new books. If we choose to put the literature out there for people, many will read it regardless of their orientation. The book Boy Meets Boy was a big hit during the 2009-2010 school year primarily through word of mouth, and because I would recommend it to the kids when they came in. It's one of my daughter's favorite books.

Swype Demonstration

I read this New York Times article online http://nyti.ms/bb6Koq
Here's a video demonstrating how Swype works.
Will Apple make a deal with the developers?

New library shelves and circ desk

Thanks to Falmouth High School library for their donation of hand-me-down shelves and circ desk to Cape Tech! We are grateful for the upgrade on our end. We've been making do with some pretty substandard equipment and no likelihood of new purchases in the near future. It will give our library a much needed facelift. It arrives on Tuesady and then we will spend the last week of school and the first few weeks of the next school year setting up and getting the books switched. Big job!

The Value of a Syllabus

My wife is a professor, and I am not new to the art and science of higher education. I've witnessed and participated in the formation and interpretation of syllabi for over a decade. Every semester, we change hers for all her classes to be sure it accurately reflects the structure of the course, her expectations, the learning outcomes, and fully detailed descriptions of the assignments to be completed in that term. As a student, I expect the syllabus I receive from my professor to do the same things. There is a fundamental problem with the leadership of a class when expectations are vague, requirements are nebulous, and changes are made in the final hours which are to the detriment of the student. A syllabus should be the guide both student and professor can refer to when there is confusion or disagreement about assignments, readings, or requirements. It is the "way to the A" as my wife always tells her students. In LIS 2000, the syllabus was already corrected once to make the assignment/reading due dates clearer, due to general confusion on the part of the students. It appears that did little good. Mere days before one of our essays is due, heavily weighted in point value, the professor(s) inform us that the general statement in the syllabus of "outside sources" actually has a required number attached. This should have been included in the syllabus from the beginning and not on a blackboard post. Many people begin researching and preparing essays from the beginning of a course. They don't all wait until the week before it's due. To change the requirements, and I do consider this a change, is poor management. It is a change because the student can not plan their research process by divining the professor's true intentions. We can only proceed from the information provided. In particular, it is imperative that a professor be sure they are communicating fully and transparently their desires and intentions when they are teaching distance classes. These classes are already work intensive and this change adds more work to those of us who already began writing, or who finished their first draft. Finding and incorporating several more outside sources into a formed paper of no small length, and being sure to fit into the word limit for fear of losing points, is added stress and work in a program already rife with both. The only way I am going to keep up with the pace is to work on assignments long before they are due. This change is going to alter the schedule I was able to maintain thus far and instead of keeping pace, will I'm afraid put me where I least wanted to be, always rushing. If my wife pulled a stunt like this, I would be shocked at her disorganization, her lack of perspective, and the utter irresponsibility evident in her actions. Student and professor are linked in the educational process by a social contract. It is the student's responsibility to be prepared to learn, to turn in assignments on time and fully completed, to think deeply and share their thoughts. The professor must uphold their end of the bargain by being clear, communicating effectively, making themselves available to the students, and providing clear directives about the requirements and expectations of the course. I'm afraid this class and these professors have lost the trust of the students and in effect their ability to be influential.

Great Library YouTube Video

Why I love a public library

Right now, I am working in a high school library, but my first love and the place to which I hope one day to return is the public library. Most people have their first library experience in a public library. They show up as little kids for story time or for the kindergarten tour. What draws me to the public library is its accessibility and its diversity. You can find a range of reading/audio/video/etc. material for all reading levels, interests, fiction and non-fiction. You will be able to access scholarly journals and the latest in horror fiction in the same building. It's a democratic cross-section of its community. When you walk through the doors, the world is waiting for you, quite literally. You won't find everything on a particular topic like you might in a specialized library or even an academic library, but you won't ever go home empty-handed. Also, in a public library lasting relationships develop between the patrons and the librarians. You watch them grow up, you learn their reading interests, you help them get through their projects and teach them how to email their grandchildren or create their first facebook account. The public library is the place that keeps their information as safely and sacredly as it does Hegel's or Piaget's. It notes their comings and goings, passing, births, and accomplishments. From the bulletin board inside the front door posting flyers for local poetry readings and knitting groups to the overloaded book cart in the back hallway, I love a public library.

Zotero Video

Zotero_Installation_Video
Watch this video to learn how to install Zotero, a free easy to use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, cite and share your research sources.

Plimoth Plantation battles the need to study

Today we took my parents to Plimoth Plantation, even though I was so tired I literally cried when I drug myself out of bed and wanted to spend the entire day studying/reading/blogging/working on assignments/discussion board posting. I told someone recently that this program has been a gaping bottomless maw swallowing up every free moment, even my dreams, but never satisfied, never full. There is always something else to do, to read, to hurry up and catch up on. It would be great to be balanced about this, but it takes me so long to figure out the components of the assignments in Info Tech, yes I am the annoying stupid "kid" in the class, that I can't find a way to be balanced and finished at the same time. What scares me is that I am not retaining. I read one of the articles for Understanding Information and took notes in the margins. A few days later, I returned to it and had no memory of ever reading it, nor did any of my notes look familiar or help me to remember the content. Darn! So, today I found myself at Plimoth Plantation entertaining my parents on their annual visit to MA instead of studying. While I had a nice time, I found myself distracted and wishing there was a way to sneak in a little time with the book I'm trying to power through for Essay #1.

Texas strikes again

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/education/21textbooks.html

This is an article about the Texas Board of Education's proposed changes to textbooks for history, social studies, and economics. It mentions the rise in digital texts allowing different states to tailor their books, and thus the reverberations of this conservative movement being mitigated in a way the science book changes from 2009 were not. However, for some states (and I am guessing it will be many) it continues to be a problem (Texas deciding what the others will be able to teach their students by its mere size). It's worrisome that there are publishers willing to allow consumers to determine what material will be included in the historical record of fact, or the record of scientific fact. It's outrageous for popular opinion, size, and brute force to be used in altering what students learn in school. How does the librarian in a Texas school provide a well-rounded collection to the students in an environment of active hostility to openness? The constraints on their collection development must be fierce and closely monitored, because there is rarely a more radical person than a librarian when it comes to reading material. I'm curious what types of rules they are operating under from the board of education and their individual school boards. And, I wonder how some of them are finding ways to subvert those restrictions.

Completion not perfection. . .hmmm

Yeah! I got in to Ref-works and was able to create an account. It's the little things in life.

So, I'm wondering what does the mantra, "completion not perfection" really mean? I'm pretty sure our grades are based on our proximity to perfection and not the mere completion of the material. This is a grade-based program, in as much as they use grades to determine our success. I'm familiar with a non-grade based program, and their evaluations were heavily weighted on personal growth and increased "understanding". University of Pittsburgh seems a little less touchy-feeley, kum-ba-ya than that. If someone turns in an assignment that is obviously completed, and in a timely manner, but struggling mightily in it's approach to perfection, how will they be evaluated? My instinct tells me the grade will reflect its accuracy and to take the platitude offered at the beginning of this course for what it is. . . an attempt to keep us from having a nervous breakdown.

I don't really get the whole blogging thing . . .

Blogging seems odd to me. Of course, I don't journal or write in a diary either. There's a similar component to the two activities at times. However, I've seen a few blogs that are simply posts of news and journal articles, or grant opportunities, and find those more my speed. The blogs that chat endlessly about a particular person's life or preferences (just like this one so far), are bothersome. Too often, they turn into rants or examination of the minutia of someone's day. What's the point of reading that? It's great that there is a space for people who want to blog that way, but I don't want to read them.

Where there's smoke. . .

Oh boy. I guess it's a bad sign to feel overwhelmed in the first week of classes. I can see the info tech class is going to challenge me. I'm excited about that, but also nervous. It is so simple to get behind if you hit a spot that just refuses to be understood. I know nothing about the things listed in the syllabus and can't evaluate if what we learn informs the next thing we learn. Is it possible to not understand one assignment but still move forward to the next? I can tell you that my weekend is filled with reading for the two classes. Nothing but reading :)

On a non-Pitt related note . . . we had a fire today at the school where I work, nothing serious. While we stood in the parkinglot waiting for the fire department to do their job, and trying to wrangle teenagers into good behavior, I noticed a bunch of kids holding library books. Our students aren't permitted to carry backpacks. They carry all their binders and school books in their arms during the day. When the fire bell went off, these kids left everything else behind on their desks, binders, books, homework, term papers . . .but they brought their library books. It wasn't just the quiet, nerdy, bookish kids either. Some of the kids were in the more popular groups and others in the scary-kid crowd (black sweatshirts, edgy demeanor). Maybe they thought we might be outside for a long time and they needed something to do, but I doubt it. All of them were socializing, squealing, gossiping, and acting silly, not reading. They just brought the books and were holding them. Why? Are they really good books? Was it instinct? Are they connected to those books in a way they aren't connected to the other things they cart around all day?
I told one of the boys (scary-kid crowd type, but a really nice boy) that in the future we should have all the kids grab a book on their way out the front door. They pass the library, and we could save 688 books, 200 more if faculty and staff joined in, from burning to the ground in a future emergency.