article: "The incredible embeddable librarian"

Dale, J., & Kellam, L. (2012).

The incredible embeddable librarian.

Library Media Connection, 30(4), 30-31. 

Count: 3 pages

After attending* the ALA / Buffy Hamilton "Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level" this afternoon, I wanted to follow up on a couple of references Buffy cited. The title alone for this article caught my attention.

                                                                  *or whatever one does at a webinar, 

                                                                     or to a webinar, or with a webinar

The authors come from an academic setting, but they make great points about this type of work at any academic level and in any learning community. I will look back at this article for specific tips on how to get started, how to maintain great embeddedness, and how to evaluate and continue to improve the experience. 

A variety of activities could be included in experiences of embeddedness:

1. Integration of information literacy skills into individual departmental curriculum,
2. research consultation, and 
3. partnerships in research and teaching.

The purpose of embedded librarianship is "to build relationships so we can gain deeper insights into what our
customers are doing and how they will use the information we provide."

No two collaborative experiences are the same -- no two communities have the same needs. Bottom line: "The focus is on actively developing and enhancing relationships with users."

book: You Are Not a Gadget

You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto
by Jaron Lanier

2010, Knopf

count: 240 / counting only 180 pages

I picked up a reference to this title from a tweet by one of our "25 People to Know," Neil Krasnof. The kernel of the work is that we must be aware of, and intentionally work against, the dehumanizing tendency of the Internet and many of the superficial Web 2.0 "gadgets" that work to deny individual identity for the greater consciousness of the web.

I decided to make this post a sharing of some of his more salient points. I read the Kindle version, so I use the location numbers to cite some of his quotes. (Then the Kindle loan expired, and I did not have the location numbers saved =/

• "You have to find a way to be yourself before you can share yourself."  (loc 114)
• The book argues that "certain specific, popular internet designs of the momemt --not the internet as  a whole-- tend to pull us into life patterns that gradually degrade the ways in which each of us exists as an individual. (loc 114)
• "They [the words of this book] will be scanned, rehashed, and misrepresented by crowds of quick and sloppy readers into wikis and automatically aggregated wireless text message streams." ( loc 150)
• Web 2.0:  "a torrent of petty designs ... [which] promote radical freedom on the surface of the web, "   "vapid, lightweight trivial."  "On the whole, this widespread pracice of fragmentary, impersonal communication has demeaned interpersonal interaction."   (loc 192)
• It is impossible to wok with information technology without also engaging in social engineering. ... The design of the web as it appears today was not inevitable. p. 6
• Lock-in turns philosophy in reality
• Entrenched software philosophies become invisible through ubiquity
• Technology criticism shouldn't be left to the Luddites  
• The new designs on the verg of being locked in, the web 2.0 designs actively demand that people define themselves downward.

What we can do to work against this de-humanizing tendency:

1. Don't post anonymously unless you really might be in danger
2. If you put effort into Wikipedia articles, put even more effort into using your personal voice and expression outside of the wiki to help attract people who don't yet realize that they are interested in the topics are contributed to.
3. Create a website that expresses something about who you are that won't fit into the template available to you on a social networking site.
4. Post a video once in a while that took you one hundred times more time to create than it takes to view.
5. Write a blog post that took weeks of reflection before you heard the inner voice that needed to come out.
6. If you are twittering, innovate in order to find a way to describe your internal state instead of trival exteternal events, to avoid the creeping danger of believing that objectively described events define you, as they would define a machine. (These from Chapter 1, pp. 20, 21)

 I'm sorry, Jaron: I fear I have done exactly what you predicted: misrepresented your message as one of "crowds of quick and sloppy readers." I really was impressed with your book and the message -- I have not heard this elsewhere.

(And to add insult to injury, I did not finish the final chapters (page count adjusted accordingly).

Included in Amazon's Best Books of the Month, January 2010. 

magazine articles: "Educational Leadership"

Educational Leadership

February 2012 | Volume 69 | Number 5:  For Each to Excel   

Count: 20 pages

During the monthly class meeting yesterday on campus, I received a copy of the February Educational Leadership magazine and found two of-interest articles to my personal studies. In addition I read the Editor's Perspectives and the short news items on the opening pages. There's a lot of context to gain (buzz words, current hot methodologies being discussed, and trends and materials) from just casual browsing through these pages, in addition to the articles themselves.

"Standards vs. Customization: Finding the Balance"

by Larry Cuban (pp. 10-15)

     Cuban provides an excellent historical perspective on the "dilemma, which has troubled educators for more than a century" (p. 10): the value placed on common standards of content for the purposes of equity and equality of learning and purpose; and the value of individual excellence produced through customization of instruction and learning experiences (today called differentiated instruction). 

     The limited time, money, and staffing cause tension, and what we educators are doing today is what we have been doing for decades: giving up a little of one value to gain a little bit more of the other. This article engendered a real appreciation for the on-going and seemingly inevitable conflict between the two values, and the case example Cuban shares, "A Blend in Action," encourages me yet makes me wonder how in the world the teacher described finds time in her day to do it all.

"Preparing Students to Learn Without Us"

by Will Richardson (pp. 22-26)

     As follow-up to a blog he posted previously, Richardson asks if we are"personalizing learning for our students in ways that make school more relevant and inspiring?" Accurately, he concludes that we are  largely not achieving this.

     I was struck by Richardson's distinction between personalized learning and personal learning: a distinction largely of autonomy. Personal learning is that which springs from the student's interests and passions and which leads to creation of the life-long learner who will find the information s/he needs when needed. Personalized learning is something arranged for the students and which takes into some degree of account the individual needs and learning styles.

     There is some evidence that schools and educators are moving toward the former, but the higher goal should be the latter, personal learning: can our classrooms help our student to "... a become passionate, patient, connected learner who is empowered to truly learn whatever and whenever he needs to[?]" (p. 26).

book: "We boost achievement: Evidence-based practice for school library media specialist"

We boost achievement: Evidence-based practice for school library media specialists

David V. Loertscher with Ross J. Todd

2003 Hi Willow Research and Publishing

Count: 177 pages

Talking about change and accountability in the school library sounds noble. But the gut truth is: I have to change what I do.

I rather like much of what I do now, and why should I change?

The goal I must keep consistently in front of my is the changed life of my students. If I don't change, they won't.

So with somewhat ambivalent feelings, I opened this book that issues such a strong call to WORK. I had to tense my jaw, grab a cup of coffee, and mentally commit to at least hearing out the argument. I want the same result as Loertscher and Todd, and I've got to learn how to do it.

short book: "Every child needs a school library"

Every child needs a school library
Mary Virginia Gaver
Chicago, American Library Association, 1958

Count: 15 pages

(Note: my dissertation topic will possibly come from research on the use of school libraries: the research-based evidence for effective use and why effective use is so seldom evidenced. School libraries as a reading topic, then, will show up often in this blog.)

This is one of the earliest publications that I have come across that issues the call to serious librarianship during the dawn of school libraries. The book / pamphlet itself is available from several university libraries in one of its original versions.

I had been under the impression that the aggressive call to curricular support by school libraries was a more recent concept, but it appears at the same time school libraries are beginning to become the norm. 

I also gained an introduction to one of the pivotal national figures in our school library history. This was one productive lady!

Quick read, but lots of rich history. Cited by both Lance and Todd in some of their research publications. Good to finally see and read it.

Blog post: "What are YOU going to do?"

  "What are YOU going to do?"
 

Change Academy, Stephanie Sandifer
http://ed421.com/?p=2035

Count: 1 page

This post shares a response from Stephanie to Will Richardson's blog post (see my post below) concerning traditional, 2-dimensional resumes and the more interactive and certainly more eye-catching digital presence that can and should represent an individual today. (What a great blog name, "Change Agency" !)

We too often fall into the False Dichotomy mindset: Which one is best? 
I prefer the Both-And mindset: take the best of both perspectives.

Yes, traditional employers and applicants tend to use only the static, paper resume or even the daring (but still 2-dimensional) Online Application. 

But hey, there's still the COVER LETTER in those traditional processes, and for years folks have been including links to electronic portfolios or to personal websites with digital information. And a Facebook URL, a Twitter line, or the more complex digital references (maybe a library web site you've created?) adds a shot of 21st-Century quality to the traditional process.

I liked this line from Stephanie's post:

     It isn’t just about a paper resume vs. a digital online presence/portfolio — it’s about significant change in the way we work, learn, and live and the tools we use across all aspects of our lives.

As both an employer and someone who applies for positions, I have to respond to Stephanie's question, "What will YOU do?" with a pledge 

•  to prod applicants to provide include digital representations in their applications, and 
• to provide such in my own. 

And most important: to be aware of the way in which I am working, learning, and living, that it reflect the environment I want to provide for the most effective learning for my students.

Blog post: "The New Resume"

by Will Richardson

http://willrichardson.com/post/16814897694/the-new-resume#disqus_thread

Count: 1 page

 A quick, 7-slide visual comment on today's changing resume format. Click through to other sites that have re-blogged and added comments. An interesting conversation! (I ran into it when I read the second post for today, "What are YOU going to do?")

book: "The Filter Bubble"

The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You

by Eli Pariser

2011, Penguin Press

Count: 300 pages

Until I read this, I was mostly ignorant of the way the internet and the various agencies (search engines, marketers, data miners) purposefully and significantly shift the Internet that I, Janie, experience. Naive, I know. It seems nice on the surface: personalizing each individual's experience for more purposeful surfing. Hey, it makes some things much easier!

But as this book describes in detail the ubiquitous process of online filtering, the knowledge of its impact (individuals get to see personally "skewed" Internet content) becomes alarming. 

One immediate effect of reading this: It encourages me to have a healthy distrust of sharing my personal info too freely.  Personal data, of no monetary value to the owner, is Big Bucks to the markers who get hold of it.

Pariser makes an excellent argument for why we need non-individualized Internet experiences. One example of many in the book: We'll hear less and less of other perspectives if all we receive is filtered to match what we already know and think. Our viewpoint will become increasingly narrowed. 

Shelfari reviewer Adam Thierer didn't like the book: he didn't counter any of Parisi's claims, but rather said we had been experiencing this for much longer than the author claims. Theirer also introduces a great thread: the demise of a democratic Internet. (He argues that it's not happening that much, but that it should happen at all is unnerving.

There is a provcative thread for another post about how this Internet filtering