Two years ago, I had the painful pleasure of coauthoring a textbook with three other colleagues. This textbook was written for first-year writing students, and I wrote the sections of the book that focused on research and information literacy.
As we wrote the book, my thoughts went back to one of my former high school teachers, Michael McAvoy. This morning I learned through Facebook that he lost his battle with cancer. I have many memories of high school (most of them good), but out of all of them, Mr. McAvoy is the one person who rises above most of the others. As someone who works in education, I hope that I can have the same type of impact in my students.
“Swanson, the machine I am getting to replace you is getting cheaper every day.” Mr. McAvoy would typically say this after I made some sort of smart-ass remark in class. He would smirk, fold his arms, and rock forward on the balls of his feet with an air of mild humor mixed with pretend contempt.
There was a time when I was out sick, and I missed a couple of his classes. When I returned, I saw him in the hallway, and I asked him whether he missed me. He responded, “Well, Swanson, I wasn’t shooting. But if I was, I wouldn’t miss.” Then he continued on his way down the hall. He said that at a time when this type of remark did not cause alarm. It was a different time and place.
I remember that he was a Packer fan and a Dodger fan, which were always points of debate since we were in Bears and Cubs country. He only had three toes on one foot due to an unfortunate incident with a lawnmower when he was a kid. One time he participated in a fantasy basketball league with his students. His team name was The Seven-Toed Chest Kickers.
When I think of Mr. McAvoy, I know he was one of my best teachers. He was the reason that when I entered college I was a better writer than most of my classmates. But, I liked him for more reasons than the simple transfer of writing skills. I remember him so fondly because of the way he engaged us as students. I can distinctly remember the class discussion we had about Julius Caesar getting stabbed to death in Shakespeare’s play, our discussion of the novel Lord of the Flies, and a paper I wrote about Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. I remember being so amazed that these great works of literature could be understood by someone like me, who was just a high school kid. The thing with Mr. McAvoy’s classes was that these were not honors or advanced placement classes. They were just regular English classes, and all of us were able to jump into this stuff.
In our public discourse online, on the media, and in debates at dinner parties, it is easy to cast our public schools as places that dampen creativity. Our education system is large and difficult to navigate, and I think that in some instances these systems get in the way of our larger goals. This is because we have an educational system. I would say that any time you have a group of people (so, more than one) who have to do something together you start to have a system. A system is a set of rules, processes, and procedures that explain how people interact with each other. For example, when you drive a car, you are participating in a system. Our society has put together a set of rules that help us work together so that we can efficiently drive at high speeds down our roads. If we had to make up our own rules or if we had to figure out the rules as we drove, then not only would driving be very inefficient, but it would also be very dangerous.
Systems do not really encourage us to be creative. Driving your car is not a time to decide to be creative. In fact, our rules of the road go out of the way to stamp out your creativity. Our police officers regularly give out tickets to “creative” drivers. For me, there are many times we criticize education when we are actually criticizing systems. Their purpose is to allow people to work together by creating solid rules where each person’s actions are predictable and standard. I think about all of the standardized tests I have ever taken. Not much room there for creativity, is there?
In the future, our students will spend a great deal of times within large systems. Our corporations, our governments, our charitable organizations, our religious organizations, and many other groups of people are essentially large systems. They all have rules so that people understand how to work together. But, these systems all suffer from the same problems. First, how do you develop a system where everyone knows the rules but is also able to creatively come up with solutions to problems? Second, systems automatically include values and priorities that tend to benefit some groups of people over others. How do we create systems that are equitable and fair to everyone? In high school, some of us found ways to be creative, and I would guess that many times it was our teachers were the ones who inspired us to be creative.
I think that there is a great deal of evidence to say that creativity can exist within systems, especially educational systems. It is my hope that college is a creative place. Yes, we are part of a very large system. Yes, at times, this system can hinder creativity. But, more importantly, for those of us who work in the system, creativity falls on our own shoulders.
I came from a small high school in rural Illinois. The college where I work is many times larger than my entire hometown. I know that many of us that came from there will remember our late teacher Mr. McAvoy. I have always made it my goal to follow his example and never forget that creativity does not come from our educational systems. It comes from educators.
Note: This essay is adapted from an essay in the book DeVillez, Eric, Tom Dow, Mike McGuire, and Troy Swanson (2010). Why White Rice?: Thinking Through Writing. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Troy A. Swanson is Department Chair & Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.
Hi all – it’s that time again. Each semester, I have my students read a current book and apply the topics covered to our work with emerging technologies and my model of “the Hyperlinked Library.” What would you add?
Context Book: Students will read one book selected from a list provided, and write a 300 word reflection or create a media-based presentation relating the topic and focus of the book to libraries, technology and participatory service. 10 points
What can librarians glean from these works? How might the focus of some titles impact library service? Users? The way we exchange and share information. Consider your choice as a way to explore what might be coming for libraries within the framework of participatory service.
This is a little video I made that pokes fun at the conflict between e-books and paper books. It’s not really real, if you love books you don’t care what format they come in. This was made to lower the anxiety that we all feel about the changes that are occurring within libraries. “Music: Kevin MacLeod” and is used under creative common licensing. You can find his site at http://incompetech.com Thanks for watching
“I have a great team. My mentors all said, ‘Surround yourself with good people,’ and I did,” says Herrera.
Such humility and kindness is key to Herrera’s success in San Francisco and to winning this award. In short, he got voters to extend SFPL support for 15 years. He employed his participatory management style to create a rare alliance between management and union. He invoked an ability to build strong and effective partnerships with other city departments, while his unusual brand of courage let staff teams make major management and organizational changes and decisions. Herrera is LJ’s 2012 Librarian of the Year because of his joyous spirit and infectious optimism about libraries and his willingness to communicate that optimism to all those involved, especially the citizens of San Francisco.
I am happy to announce the full text of both of my ALA Library Technology Reports are available now at the new TTW companion site The Hyperlinked Library.
The rest of the site is currently under construction, but for now you’ll find:
Special thanks to my SJSU SLIS grad assistant Patrick Siebold who worked very hard the past few weeks inputting the content. I know the examples from ’06 and ’07 may seem out of date and quaint in some ways, but I’m very proud of the framework we used for the works back then. Conversations, Community, Connections, Collaborations – all those great C words Jenny Levine and I used throughout our early social software roadshows in 2005 & 2006 provide a useful context for looking at Web 2.0. I hope these works are still useful to some of you. Comments are open for adding more to the chapters and I plan on doing some types of updating as time permits.
The site will also serve my course Web sites and other items related to my teaching.
This Week In Libraries has done so much for developing libraries worldwide. The show shares the stories of library innovations and best practices from all over the world.
Now it’s our chance to help out. Our favorite hosts Erik and Jaap need our help. We want to do some crowd-funding for them. We are committed to raising enough money to keep TWIL on the air for its third season in 2012. Our goal is $10,000 US / €7,800 EU.The good news is that you can help. By supporting the “Help TWIL” campaign, you can keep the cameras rolling. Everyone who donates can have their name and country listed on an episode of TWIL as a public Thank You! Anonymous donations is also possible.
All you need to do is click the donation button on the top of this page and donate via the PayPal accounts that have been set up for this special initiative. It is quick and easy.
If you love This Week In Libraries, the first-ever global library internet TV show, and want to keep it on the air, please make a donation today and go to our facebook page for updates and extras. Please pass this along to your colleagues!
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If you have in any way been touched by these wonderful fellows – Erik & Jaap – please consider donating to help them keep doing TWIL.
The mission of librarians and museum professionals is to foster conversations
that improve society through knowledge exchange & social action
Lifelong learning in & out of formal educational settings These topics are equally applicable to librarians and museum professionals These topics must be contextualized
The following values permeate these topics:
Openness & transparency
Self reflection
Collaboration
Service
Empathy & Respect
Continuous Learning/Striving for Excellence (which requires lifelong learning)
Creativity and imagination
The Salzburg Global Seminar convenes numerous meetings throughout the year focused on creating solutions for issues on an international level. In October, I was honored to participate in the session co-sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services “Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture.” Representatives from libraries and museums from over 20 countries came together for five intensive days of discussion and deliberations about the future of cultural institutions in a time of hyper-connected social participation. Working groups formed to provide solutions to the many challenges discussed. As part of my role, I was asked to participate, present about emerging technologies and blog the sessions.
I joined the working group devoted to building the skills of librarians and museum professionals. Lead by Dr. David Lankes, Syracuse University, our group adopted this mission statement: “The mission of librarians and museum professionals is to foster conversations that improve society through knowledge exchange & social action.” We developed several curricular topics/skills to frame our work: Management for Participation, Asset Management, Cultural Skills, Knowledge/Learning/Innovation, Technology, and Transformative Social Engagement. The framing statements are reproduced above this post.
Technology:
crowdsourcing / outreach
ability to engage and evolve with technology
ability to impart tech to community across generation
creating and maintaining on effective virtual presence
The technology focus I recently explored in SJSU SLIS’s Student Research Journal (http://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1067&context=slissrj )includesthe ability to engage and evolve with technology, the ability to impart technology to cross-generational communities, and the ability to create and maintain an effective virtual presence. These should already be part of an LIS student’s educational experience. Evolving as technology does afford information professionals the chance to continuously adapt services, access and collections to the information environments of our constituents. Online presence – what you do, what you say within the professional networks – can carry a lot of weight. See “The Role of Mentoring” for more.
Transformative Social Engagement
activism
social responsibility
critical social analysis
public programming – fitting to larger agenda
advocacy (organizing communities to action-political, policy)
sustainability of societal mission
conflict management
understanding community needs
Another interesting and dynamic section of the proposed curriculum – transformative social engagement – merits further exploration and discussion. Under this banner, our group selected a series of thematic areas future LIS grads should experience as part of their preparation for future professional positions. The forthcoming report from the seminar and IMLS will include further details, and Lankes explores the curriculum as well in an video at his blog (http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/blog/?p=1349). These ideas about transforming communities, however, have already illuminated my planning and content for courses and I wanted to share them.
Fluency in critical social analysis, “participating deeply within the community,” as our group defined it, transcends the more simple notions of community outreach and “going where the users are.” Consider the public librarian participating in community planning or development, or the academic librarian housed full time within their assigned liaison department. The potential for enhanced understanding of the needs of those particular communities is enticing. Stressing this need for participation, Lankes posited “Why showcase culture if we are not enabling conversations about that culture?” as part of his remarks during the seminar.
Related is understanding and participating in advocacy efforts. As part of my new faculty orientation at SJSU, I spent a day with other new professors touring various service agencies in the Bay Area. We were introduced to various initiatives, community service organizations and supporting entities. At a lunch and presentation at the Health Trust, a Silicon Valley organization promoting wellness, I had a realization – everywhere we visited could benefit from the skills, ethics and knowledge of an information professional as a means to extend, support and sustain the success of these organizations.
Both of these areas have something in common: the information professional with these skills may spend more time OUTSIDE library walls than within. This shifting paradigm is one that Lankes illustrates well with his emphasis on a positive future for librarians instead of libraries.
I took many good things away from my work at the Salzburg Global Seminar. I have a new appreciation for the work of museum professionals and cultural institutions. The boundary between what we do in libraries and what they do in museums – especially in a technology-enhanced participatory age – has become less blurred. Imagine a mash up library/museum school of the future where transformative social engagement, cultural memory and knowledge creation/curation techniques are cultivated and taught.
There’s much more to the proposed curriculum. My hope is this curriculum, began in Salzburg, will inform and guide the evolution of educational programs far and wide.
I am off to the ALISE meeting in Dallas today and thought it would be fitting to publish this post on the way.
One of the BEST things I’ve read about e-books in a long time:
In this transitional time, public libraries should aim for the future and invest in toolsets and programming that help their communities produce and participate in new digital works, not simply consume them. To make something is to understand something. If you build a radio from parts in your garage, you’ll have a very different relationship with every radio you listen to from that day on. A tomato you grow in your garden will always taste better than the tomato you bought from the grocery store, and you’ll develop a deep understanding of what that tomato is after you’ve nurtured its growth for months. Every time you have tomatoes at a restaurant after you’ve grown your own you’ll have a different understanding of tomatoes; what they are, where they came from, and the potential they hold. To help our communities taste better tomatoes, public libraries need media labs, hacker spaces, coworking spaces, expert staff, and a long term investment in technologies supporting community creativity.
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