Tame The Web

http://www.udel.edu/smdc/

Spaces for students, faculty and staff in university and college libraries are evolving rapidly. Here’s another to add to the list: the Student Multimedia design Center at the University of Delaware Morris Library.

From the site:

 Make your PowerPoint presentations come alive with video and animation. 

 Practice your presentation skills in a studio. 

 Create a custom sound track. 

 Access a wide variety of computer hardware, software, and peripherals.

This speaks to me about the need for coursework that emphasizes planning, implementation and staffing for digital creation spaces in libraries.

I’m always happy to hear from former students. I just got a nice email from Mick Jacobsen. TTW readers may remember him from his info about LibGuides. He’s moved on to some cool stuff:

Our first gaming event is taking place later today (spearheaded by me).  We have a Wii and PS2 for DDR.  So far nearly 50 kids of signed up, luckily we also have lots of board games so no riots.  We will have an adult gaming event in the near future and I am working with the senior centers to bring the Wii to them.

The website is rolling along.  I added a new rating system to our blogs, 1-10 stars.  I am hoping it will bring more interaction and ownership of the website to the patrons.  http://www.franklinparklibrary.org

I created a Summer Reading Blog http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=blog/12.   The patrons can submit books using a form I built which emails me the submission and permission to post it on our blog.  I also check out our hand written entries and contact individuals with interesting, different reviews of items.  All the patrons seem pleased to see their reviews of items on the website (especially the elderly who normally don’t look at computers).  Our comments on these items are also stronger than the average blog entry.  I am wondering if I should continue the blog past the Summer Reading and make it just a patron recommendation blog.  I am not sure if the authorship would be there, but it would be a fun experiment. 

I had an article written about one of my projects in the local newspaper.  I am using Google maps to “map” Franklin Park.  I created an image and description Historical map and a modern Places of Note map.  I am in the midst of working on a map of all the road construction taking place in Franklin Park.   I embed the maps on our website and try to get  people involved.  

http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=node/292 for the Places of Note map
http://www.franklinparklibrary.org/index.php?q=node/291 of the Historical map

I am in the midst of a “Splash Page” experiment.  I know many are anti splash pages, but I think they could really work for public libraries and I am conducting a study to see if my hypothesis is correct.  It is not pure science, but does lead to some great conclusions.  

So I emailed Mick and asked if I could publish his update on TTW and would he answer this question:

What’s helped you be most successful with these projects?

His response says a lot about organizational culture, that important sense of play, self-motivation and the wealth of info available online:

In no particular order:

1.  An innate desire to try new things (why else go in to Library Science but to try new cool stuff).

2.  Complete confidence that I have the support from my management (top to bottom) to try new things.  How many libraries would let a new graduate (graduated in January) the freedom that I am given?  I got to redesign, reorganize, rethink an entire website in Drupal and much, much more (I have not told you about very important but not sexy stuff I have implemented e.g. email notices for nearly overdue items, pc reservation, print release, etc.).  Most of the time they have no idea what I am doing, simply trusting that I am doing something beneficial for the library.  It has become a sort of joke, “What have you added this week, haha.”  And I say, well this cool thing called LibX or rating stars or a suggestion form or a summer reading blog or an online sign up for programs, or Google translate, etc.  

3.  The willingness to fail in trying new things (these projects are not necessarily successes as of yet…).  And many grand ideas have failed and been buried, but not forgotten.  

4.  The joy in reading blog after blog ferreting out great info and trying to turn them to library uses.  

5.  Making the time to research, play with, and eventually (or not) implement new ideas.  

6.  Being able to enthusiastically bounce crazy ideas of coworkers without having them get annoyed.   

7.  Not being bogged down by bureaucracy.  

http://libraryclips.blogsome.com/2008/07/27/counters-to-enterprise-20-objections/

John at Library Clips weighs in on 15 Objections to Using Social Learning:

Objection #5: How Do You Know it’s Accurate?

What if someone posts inaccurate information (unlike email it’s visible to a lot of people), and someone acts on it?

I actually mentioned this in a previous post as the garderns job, to go back to old posts and re-edit them or use comments to correct situations. But this is self-organised as well, the ecosystem may correct itself to an extent, people are quick to catch people out and correct things. The blogosphere is self-regulating in this way, you say something that is bad practice, and you are knocked down…in the enterprise I would hope that you don’t lose your credibillty (once bitten twice shy).

Actually, these occurrences are lessons learned we all witness in the open blogs, so we all learn from it as it happens, we experience it together…it sticks in our minds.

I almost like the idea that the openess and informalness of blogs can reveal bad practice. If you want to stamp out bad practices start some internal blogs, people’s inaccuracies will come to light, we can all evolve and correct behaviour. It’s like the wound healing itself.

Kevin shares a story where a manager didn’t like the idea of non-authoritative people posting for all to see for fear of inaccuracy and the consequences that may follow.

“Leaving the meeting she walked by some cubes where she overheard one person describing an HR policy to the other person that was completely incorrect. And the second person took it as gospel.”

She suddenly realized, 1) How many times does this happen and I don’t know about it? 2) If they asked this question using the tools we were talking about, more people would be able to respond and the right answer would surface

What a great story!

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9018594

So many college students I’ve met — even at some of the nation’s top universities — are there because they have an aptitude for memorization. Many straight-A high school students have few interests, little curiosity and zero inclination toward intellectual discovery. Our system rewards the memorizers and punishes the creative thinkers.

An iPod, when used during tests, is nothing more than a machine that stores and spits out data. By banning iPods and other gadgets, we’re teaching kids to actually become iPods — to become machines that store and spit out data. Instead, we should be teaching them to use iPods — to use that data and to be human beings who can think — and leave data storage to the machines.

By banning iPods, we’re preparing our kids for a world without the Internet, a world without iPods, a world without electronic gadgets that can store information. But is that the world they’re going to live in?

Let me pull out a bit of the above for emphasis:

Many straight-A high school students have few interests, little curiosity and zero inclination toward intellectual discovery. Our system rewards the memorizers and punishes the creative thinkers.

That nearly knocked me off my chair. Who do we want eventually running our libraries? Rote memorizers or creative thinkers. To me, the answer is obvious and as I prepare for my third year of full time teaching, I see where the emphasis should be.

• Objection #15 - The Silent Yet Deadly
• Objection #14: Prove It!
• Objection #13: How Do You Measure ROI?
• Objection #12: How Will You Measure That It Is Working?
• Objection #11: Too Much Info
• Objection #10: Wasting Time
• Objection #9: They Aren’t Technical
• Objection #8: Out of Date Information
• Objection #7: The Information is Wrong!
• Objection #6: Mixing Things Up
• Objection #5: How Do You Know it’s Accurate?
• Objection #4: Posting Anything, Including Bonobos
• Objection #3: Control of Information
• Objection #2: What Does This Have To Do With Training?
• Objection #1: Socialize!

Via Litandmore

I am working with Franklin Consulting and authors from all over the world on this project. Please take the survey and pass it on! I was honored to be asked to contribute part of the report on the use of social technologies in higher education. I think the results will be fascinating!

From the survey intro:

This survey is being undertaken on behalf of the Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience for all the UK funding agencies. The survey’s specific remit is to report on the changing use of Web 2.0 technologies for teaching, learning, support and administration purposes in higher education. This survey is being undertaken in five countries to help inform an international comparison. The survey has 4 pages and should take about 20 minutes if you have use of Web 2.0 examples to share.

Here is the survey announcement:

Nicole writes:

This is an interesting interview:

Palestrant rattled off his ideas...The pair made sense of Palestrant’s fuzzy ideas…Diagrams in hand, Palestrant went to venture-capital funds and returned with $40 million in start-up money. Firms like Humantific, whose founders are designers, apply the same process used in designing sleek MP3 players and ergonomic teakettles to unwieldy intangibles like cell-phone promotions and hospital organization, transforming their effectiveness. Along the way, the field is creating some unusual teamwork between designers and business people.

and

“Kamille Friis, a PhD student at Learning Lab in Denmark, … thesis focused on “Conscious Design Practice as a Strategic Tool.”

Contributor: Lee

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6556146.html

With the help of Dominican GSLIS student Sarah Dribin, I blogged John Berry’s talk at Dom this spring. He, in turn, picked up on the post for an LJ column on experience:

I think it was Dribin who asked me after the talk what I thought about “experience” as a qualification for a library job. My response to the question “resonated” with her. “Experience is possibly the most overrated asset that an individual can possess,” I had said.

My own students complain bitterly when they find “experience” that they haven’t yet been able to gain listed as a preferred attribute of candidates for entry-level library positions. My comment results from decades watching those in possession of that experience. Some are the great librarians of my era; others, however, have used experience to impede library progress in a host of situations.

I know this must ring discordantly, coming from someone with nearly 50 years of the stuff. But experience isn’t just overrated. It is frequently, too often, a quick and easy way to block change. While change isn’t always positive, it is wrong to use experience to prevent experimentation to see if a change might improve library service—and more common than it should be. Experience has stopped librarian reassignment, clogged upward mobility for the young, stifled new ideas and innovations, and stalled new services and approaches. “We tried that, and it didn’t work,” has put an end to more good ideas than all the budget cuts in library history.

I made the last sentence bold because it’s oh so true. Over lunch today with a dear colleague, we bemoaned the fact that so many innovations and people get stifled while the same old same old continues up above. I applaud the libraries that take chances on new hires, “not so experienced” but oh so eager employees and new ways of thinking.

via Librarians’ Internet Index: New This Week on 5/22/08

“This guide is intended for individuals without ready access to print resources and subscription databases in the field of library and information science. It compiles free, full-text resources available on the Web. … In addition, the Frequently Asked Questions page provides answers to a number of the most common library and information science questions received by the Library of Congress.” From the Virtual Services Digital Reference Team of the Library of Congress (LOC).“

You do now library students. Thanks Reference Team!

This one time I had a Professor tell me you have to start something new at least once a month. Her idea was that we are these “perpetual discovery engines” Apply, apply, apply was a core tenet. The greatest ideas she believed came from remixing. School was this ultimate test of your ability to create.

School, she felt, should be a complete playground where you push yourself to work within the confines of; to be creative in spite of everything, everyone may ever throw at you. I always liked that idea. Working from the inside out always seemed to be where the most effective change comes from anyway. Sure, a new pair of Nikes makes you feel fast -when you’re in Kindergarten. Later you learn where real speed comes from: years of training that make you look like an overnight success.

Anybody can be creative outside of their organization but can you be creative within those confines?

TTW: Lee

But Web 2.0 is about much more than the technology—it’s about a change in focus to participation, user control, sharing, openness, and networking.

Mike Eisenberg, Dean Emeritus and Professor, University of Washington, Seattle offers a balanced, thoughtful look at emerging technologies and libraries:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6551184.html

Consider this passage on social networking:

Opportunities Social networks provide an important vehicle to reach important users—upper youths, teens, and twenty- and thirtysomethings. Libraries currently support various real-world groups by providing space, resources and information services, education, and organizing assistance, and many are already experimenting in these social networks. (See www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Social_Networking_Software for some examples and best practices.) But most libraries could easily do much more for these digital communities. Librarians must learn more about these users and their needs and can do so by participating in social networks, perhaps by offering digital reference services. Libraries need to set up their own social network to serve users. Lastly, libraries might adopt some form of digital social networking as a service itself, for example, by providing instruction in how to become involved and use social network systems.

Threats The primary threat related to social networks involves safety and trustworthiness. This became clear during Kids Speak Out, a forum on technology in the lives of middle school students held in Seattle in April last year. Numerous parents and caregivers asked questions or offered comments about safety. The young people themselves seemed less concerned, noting that they were careful in revealing personal statistics and that they didn’t trust the information posted by those they didn’t know. All students who participated in social networks only did so within a selected subset of friends. In terms of libraries, involvement in social networks poses the same time, effort, and money cost-benefit threat as do the other technologies.

I just caught it and wanted to post here, so I haven’t read it closely - but wowza. Good food for thought. This will surely be a required reading for many of my courses. 

I owe Kathryn Greenhill an apology. She tagged me in this meme while I was in Australia and I’ve been catching up ever since we got back.

The meme: Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.

If you’ve heard me speak in the last year or so, you know I always end with three of the statements in the picture. I usually say that “in a nutshell” what I want for my students at Dominican and for any of librarians I talk to is for them to realize what great opportunities there are for libraries and librarians in this ever-changing world:

If we learn to learn, it doesn’t matter that this week’s shiny new tool is Twitter and next week’s even shinier tool is something else. We can still figure it out, use our foundational knowledge to make sense of it and decide if it works in our situation. I teach blogging sure, but the real skill I want my students to get is that they can master any technology/system I put in front of them or their new employers may put in front of them and make it work. Blogging is just the vehicle, like using any of the tools we cover in LIS768.

If we adapt to change, we aren’t thrown every time the world shifts. There’s no knee-jerk  ”I don’t need to know anything about that” or  ”That doesn’t really have anything to do with me” response. Or some other excuse that essentially means “I can’t think about the future” so I’ll point out some more reasons it just won’t work.  We use point one and dive in and figure it out, and then get ready for the next change.

If we scan the horizon, we’re trendspotting for the future. Pondering, for example, what the popularity of a certain technology might do to library service. Or what bigger trends will mean to libraries in the next 10-20 years. 

If we make sure to be curious about the world, it makes all of the above super easy. My friend John Blyberg turned me on to this idea and I think it’s a perfect fit for my philosophy of teaching.

Finally, please remember to bring your heart with you. Yes, it’s touchy-feely but it’s pretty darn important as we move into a more emotion, experience focused world. Social networks even enable us to extend the heart across cyberspace. What happened to some of us in our careers in library land that we lost sight of the heart?  I think getting to bring your heart to work is one of the reasons many of us got into the profession in the first place, and it hurts my heart when I hear some of the stories I hear about the way we work with each other and with our users. . User-centered planning, engaging, exciting spaces and a chance to share, keep or make a story are all part of the heart of libraries - you know, the library should encourage the heart. David Warlick, who I’ve only met once and who made a big impact on me in that short time, turned me on to this idea. 

If my students leave my classes as curious librarians ready to figure out the next big thing and make it work in their libraries, then I am doing my job.

Kathryn, I hope it’s not too late to add to the meme and to pass it forward.

Please see: http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2008/02/25/meme-passion-quilt/

I’ll tag:

• David Warlick
• Helene Blowers
• Amanda Etches-Johnson
• Cindi Trainor
• Peter Bromberg

Marcus writes:

But something funny happened on the way to OJS: I became firmly convinced that the traditional journal model is antiquated for sharing research and knowledge among librarians.  A better course is to develop and nurture excellent blogs, with multimedia capabilities and guaranteed preservation of the postings. This could be an entirely new blog that starts from scratch, or an established journal that evolves into a blog. 

One of his arguments:

Peer review should be a post-publication process, rather than a pre-publication process that sometimes drags out for many months.  If physicists can post pre-prints that get discussions flowing quickly, why can’t librarians?

Read the whole post. I am particularly interested in this for two reasons: I’m on the tenure track and peer-review is important for me and much needed AND I’d like to see more and more opportunities for folks to get their ideas out there, get credit for them, receive feedback, and move forward.

Practitioners and students alike should be able to experience the value of the blogosphere and use it to expand their thinking.I know many great folks in the field are blogging and extending the conversation.I think  Librarians like Cliff Landis, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor who are actively pursuing scholarly endeavors and working to make their libraries better could certainly benefit from a peer-reviewed, blog-based community-focused “journal” environment to get credit for their work, etc. And it should count for those librarians on the tenure track even as the feedback rolls on.

Students too. I just read 15 papers from my Library 2.0 & Social Tech Class — top notch stuff approaching emerging technologies, foundational library practice and more. I’d certainly send many of them to Library Student Journal but I also wish for more channels for publication. 

Finally, as a recent editor of an issue of IRSQ, it amazes me how long it takes from a call for papers to the publication date. Another benefit then is rapid dissemination of content. Why wait months or years?

One of my goals for the summer is to get a handle on Drupal. I’d like to incorporate it into LIS753 Internet Fundamentals and Design at Dominican. I’d like to assign workgroups the task of creating a library Web site with the OSS app. How’s the learning curve folks?

I missed this presentation, but luckily Ellyssa Kroski, who just got a great review for her book in LJ, put up “Drupal & Libraries” from CIL2008 at Slideshare - complete with audio track:

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2008/drupal-and-libraries-at-cil2008/

To get started, I’ll be listening and watching tomorrow in my office. Then, I’ll ask Blake for a sandbox. 

From the Chronicle February 29, 2008

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i25/25a01501.htm (I think it’s expired )

As iPhones and other “smart phones” become more popular on campuses, and as computing becomes even more mobile, it seems that some form of Twitter-like service may become part of student and faculty life. But the technology has potential costs in terms of money and privacy. Some observers, essentially arguing that there is such a thing as too much information, say that Twittering will never catch on the way blogs and
e-mail have.

David Parry, an assistant professor of emerging media and communications at the University of Texas at Dallas, says he was reluctant to try the technology. Mr. Parry’s first instinct was that Twittering would encourage students to speak in sound bites and self-obsess. But now he calls it “the single thing that changed the classroom dynamics more than anything I’ve ever done teaching.”

Last semester he required the 20 students in his “Introduction to Computer-Mediated Communication” course to sign up for Twitter and to send a few messages each week as part of a writing assignment. He also invited his students to follow his own Twitter feed, in which he sometimes writes several short thoughts - not necessarily profound ones - each day. One morning, for instance, he sent out a message that read: ”Reading, prepping for grad class, putting off running until it warms up
a bit.” The week before, one of his messages included a link to a Web site he wanted his students to check out.

If you have access to the Chronicle, checkout the full article. I’m intrigued with adding Twitter to one of my courses to see how it goes over. 

Watch the video: http://chronicle.com/media/video/v54/i25/twitter/?utm_source=at&utm_medi

Via Steve Garwood:

http://tinyurl.com/33zzbz

Before I start, let me tell you that I teach graduate and undergraduate students in Library and Information Science and Information Technology and Informatics respectively. The classes I teach are: Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Agencies, Web Design, Multimedia Production, Social Software Literacy and I’ll ocassionally guest lecture in Research and Reference classes. I teach these classes on-campus, online, and in some cases a little bit of both.

In my position, I generally need to keep up with the library world and technology in the library world. I also need to be at the intermediate level with computers and networking (Mac and PC, esp. so I can troubleshoot), MS Office (2000, 2003, 2007), standards based xhtml and css, Adobe/Macromedia CS3/Studio8 (DreamWeaver, Fireworks, Photoshop, Flash), social software applications (wikis, blogs, rss, podcasting, vodcasting, IM, etc.), and I need to be able to use/utilize educational technology, which for me mostly means screencasting - Camtasia, Jing, Captivate, etc. (I’ll knock out, on average 5-10, of these a week).

I usually start my day checking in on my online classes, especially the Virtual Office and online Discussions…these areas are like the ocean…don’t want to turn your back too long…I can usually get in/out of that in about 1/2 hour or so, but sometimes I get sucked in and 2 hours later I’m still in there answering questions, participating, causing trouble, etc.

From there it depends on the day…am I teaching on-campus that day? then I’m prepping that day…I may have printed out materials beforehand, but I like to get my brain good and active with the material on a “teaching day” so I’m gonna spend an hour or so with material I’m familiar with just to make sure that I don’t miss anything during a “lecture”…if it’s a “lesson plan” that I just came up with…well, then I might be spending all day, if not the day before working through details and making sure my plan will actually work.

Thanks for the post Steve! I’d love to hear from more LIS educators and LIS students.

http://acrlog.org/2008/02/10/what-i-did-learn-in-library-school/

Melissa Mallon shares some of the things she’s glad she learned at Louisiana State University’s School of Library and Information Science:

4. How to Give a Good Presentation. Another thing we were taught in library school was to never underestimate the value of a well-done PowerPoint presentation. It won’t hold its own, but it will certainly make what you have to say a lot more attractive. I can’t even count the number of group projects, presentations, etc. that we were required to do. I can tell you, however, that my presenting skills have stayed well-maintained and I always jump at the chance to use PowerPoint as a visual aid.

6. Networking, Networking, Networking. The professors couldn’t stress it enough — grab up every opportunity to network that you possibly can; you never know when that person can be of assistance to you down the road. This may seem obvious, but I had honestly never thought that much about networking before I got to library school. Now I feel a lot more confident making the initial contact, knowing how beneficial it really can be.

I couldn’t agree more with her thoughts. I would also add to the last point about networking: Attitude is everything. Having a positive attitude in class as well as in networking opportunities goes a long way.

You answered, Why am I a librarian (or insert your favorite information professional title here)? Thank you for a set of fun responses. Why I did I open the question to all information professionals? There are a lot of unique roles in libraries. There are a bunch of names for those roles within libraries. Some people remind us to not take titles too seriously. Some are for reals. Still need more proof?

Next, I adhere to the be nice rule. Yes, I do not think we need people who are bullies -in their professional or personal lives. We need less sardonic, mendacious, apathetic, dejected and mean-spirited people in our profession. I still included those comments though.

Which reminds me of the time I got stabbed by a pen knife standing up to a bully. I stood there staring him in the eyes, unflinching. Then, he ran off scared. You are only as weak as you believe you are. Don’t let those comments dissuade. Fight the good fight. Say fair, good things about people you know; ignore the rest. They’re not worth your time. Snarky is so web.0.

“to be nobody but yourself in a world doing its best to make you everybody else is the hardest battle any human can ever fight and never stop fighting.”
-e.e. cummings

———————–

Your responses below

———————–

1. I prefer to call myself an “Information manager” because that’s what I do all the time: manage information and because I do not work in a Library. I like helping other people find what they’re looking for and design new ways of makes things more findable.

2. It’s an easy job

3. It combines my love of people with my love of the hunt (for information!)

4. I needed a job with a salary.

5. It seemed like a career in librarianship would give me a lot of options. At the time, I didn’t know where I wanted to live….My first job was as “Acquisitions Specialist” for a federal government contractor. About 2 years later, I was an “Internet Librarian.” Then I was a “Internet Terminology Librarian.”

6. I wanted a career with no stress. Being a librarian is totally stress-free. I’m a career-changer. I came from the corporate world. The library world <i>really is</i> stress-free compared to the “real world.”

7. I Need

8. See #2. [Respondent means the second question I asked. Post coming soon.]

9. I like the work, I find people’s questions interesting, and it’s different every day, which suits my attention span.

10. I wanted to be a professor but I liked too many subjects to pick just one. As a librarian you can study whatever you want.

11. Don’t know why you are a librarian. Let’s speculate: - you’re a huddled mass yearning to breathe free! - you lost a round of beer pong and the loser had to go to library school! - you won your library degree as a Publishers Clearing House.consolation prize!

12. I am an information wonk and I like to help people find all sorts of information.

13. I like to help people. My Dad is a Social Worker for the blind and my Mom is a retired Registered Nurse.

14. I am a librarian because I er ah … darn it I don’t know. It seemed like a good job at the time and I don’t think I’d like anything else quite as much. I feel like I help bring order to the universe.

15. Because I love the job. I love helping people find information, I love books, knowledge and libraries in general. I adore the fact that I can spend hundred’s of dollars on books for the library that people will enjoy reading. I enjoy working with children, sharing books, doing programs, helping with homework and thus chose to become a children’s librarian.

16. Schooling harms children by forcing them to deny their life’s passions, teaching them that learning has discrete end-points (final exams, graduations, etc.), and — worst of all making them intellectually dependent on expert teachers. I became a librarian to help children become more intellectually independent, to foster a love of self-directed learning.

17. Computers and books are fun. Getting paid decently is good. Sucky pay rules out chain book stores, but allows for librarian jobs.

18. In the end I had to give in to genetics. I’m third generation.

19. Gives me a chance to help people, make a little ey, and keep learning stuff too.

20. I love research. I like teaching people and I like books. What else was I going to do?

21. Because I like the work, parts of it anyway, and the pay is good. There are times I actually don’t mind helping people. Since I work in a college library I feel a little bit like I’m “doing some good” as well.

22. It’s an honorable career that suits my skills and talents and it pays decently. Plus I get to work with books.

23. I am a librarian because I am a people-person and a dilettante. I’m a smart person who couldn’t settle into one discipline.

24. I have my MLS and need to recoup my investment so I can become something else. I entered the field as an idealist.

25. The thrill of the hunt.

26. It presented itself as the best way to earn a living at the point that I finished an MA in my chosen field and needed to help support my student husband.

27. - couldn’t think of a better fit for my skills, interests, and previous work experience - wanted a job with continuous challenges (ie: you never know when the person approaching the desk is going to ask you a tough reference question), and variety of duties - I like people, and I like helping them - it’s not physically demanding.

28. I got the degree so what else am I going to do, huh?

29. I like to read, to learn and to discover. I like helping people.

30. I believe access to information is one of the most important things nowadays. And I think there’s no other professional who cares more about how the user will access and use this information than librarians.

31. I enjoy helping people, organizing things, and being able to use my liberal arts background. I don’t have to work with food or business people; I enjoy being at an academic institution.

32. Good question.

33. I like helping people and some of the other traditional roles (doctor, lawyer, accountant) didn’t seem as good a fit.

34. This is a “straight” answer. I wanted to teach (and coach sports) outside the context of the classroom, and a high school library seemed like the best way to do that. After early experiences in high school libraries, I was fortunate that the public library job opened in the low population rural area where I wanted to live. Getting to share with people of all ages and interests over the last 33+ years has been exceptionally rewarding … except for the pay and benefits.

35. I am a librarian for a lot of reasons. Mainly, I enjoy helping people. But I also like earning my living doing something that that helps further knowledge, that supports education and openness and equality, and that doesn’t exist solely to make rich people or corporations richer. I am a librarian in an academic library because I believe that access to higher education can change a person’s life for the better and because I enjoy being part of a collegial and inquisitive environment. I am a library manager because I want to inspire at least one person as I have been inspired and create opportunities for growth and learning for my staff as opportunities have been created for me, and because I want to prove that a woman can excel in leadership positions traditionally dominated by men.

36. So I can participate in useless pseudo-academic nonsense like this survey.

37. Because some mean, public “librarian” would not help me find information when I really needed help.

38. I am a librarian because I have this unquenchable thirst for finding information. Also, I like to work with books and other reading materials. Indeed, my intent was to stay in academics for a lifetime by working as an academic librarian. After earning other post-secondary degrees that could never guarantee any job whatsoever, I decided to earn a Master of Library Science (MLS) degree for practical work skills. As for my career prospects, they are rather slim because I compete with other librarians for a limited number of librarian jobs. Contrary to popular opinion, there is no such thing as a “librarian shortage” whatsoever!

39. because I get to tell stories to 4 year-olds, 84 year-olds and everyone in between……… and get paid for it!

40. I went to the careers office at my undergrad school less than 2 years in. I talked with someone there about what I could do and what I wanted to do, and she suggested the possibility of being a librarian. I had never thought about it before, but it really seemed like the obvious thing for me to do. Throughout most of my life I’ve been better and using libraries than other people my age and I also love using them.

41. Librarianship was just a perfect fit for me. I was told by several teachers and professors that I should go into teaching, but I didn’t have a passion for it like I did for libraries. Now I work in a college library and get to collaborate with the professors and teach the odd online research skills course.

42. Because it pays slightly better than my other job options, and has better hours.

43. It allows me to work with information and also help people access and understand information. In my case, the information is local history and preserving history.

44. i love books and reading.

45. Because I ENJOY interacting with library staff (I’m in a consortia that offers services to libraries. Have been in consortia work for 24+ years). [Email me.]

46. Because there is no one other field where u can be a book lover, gamer, techie, geek, and love your job.

47. I am a librarian because I get to help people (I am an academic/instruction librarian), play with technology, work with very nice people AND, best of all, I do not have to sell one thing to make a living…

48. The usual — loves books & libraries.

49. Public librarianship manages to link up all the things I like to do with the things I believe I ought to do. It allows me to combine my feeling of responsibility for my community and/or craving for social justice with my liking of books and technology.

50. I’ve always been a Librarian - it was my favorite game as a kid; better than school or store or house.

51. Because no other profession would have me. Also, I am obsessive and picky.

52. For the money.

53. At first it was a job at a college, now it is part of my life mission to help others get a college education.

54. I seem to have an affinity for finding things, although I am not very organized….

55. To make sure people find the information they need.

56. Because I wanted to be one, I like the work.

57. I like solving problems and thought I could do so at the reference desk.

58. I love finding answers, people and books!

59. I got an undergraduate degree that would have required a Ph.D. to do anything with. I picked librarianship because it was a “safe” choice (short, easy degree program; could complete via distance education), and I didn’t know what else to do.

60. I enjoy working with people, I like to read, and I love discovering new information.

61. I love books, and I love working with kids. It’s perfect.

62. What other job offers such variety of work?

63. Because I really believe in libraries. I believe libraries are about the last institutions in the world to offer free education for anyone who wants to learn.

64. It was was that or a career as an archaeologist. And when I discovered that being an archaeologist wouldn’t include searching for treasures like Indiana Jones (yes I was very young) I decided searching for information would be the best choice. The proximity to all the books was an added bonus.

65. Because I love connections. I connect people with information, people with people, people with answers, people with books.

66. I enjoy helping people, but can’t stand blood, so I couldn’t be a doctor or nurse. After working in some bookstores, I discovered that I like helping people find information (I am a confirmed bibliophile), so I went to library school.

67. When I was in high school, the librarians were amongst the most influential staff when it come to fostering a love of reading, and appreciating literature. Once I graduated from my undergraduate humanities degree, it seemed like the obvious choice, where I’d be able to share this knowledge with other people who are just as passionate about books and reading.

68. Because I matter (make a significant positive difference) to the people who ask me for help or who accept my freely offered help.

69. I like the ability to work independently, and I like the diversity of projects I can undertake. I also like to help people.

70. because I love to get people to information, organize everything, and break barriers at any given opportunity.

71. Because I have learned one of my best strengths is as an intermediary and facilitator of information and people.

72. For the variety of questions I am able to answer at the reference desk and the variety of things I get to work on (collection development, programming, etc.,).

73. It provides an intersection of thinking and using my intuition that I find satisfying. It’s about the intersection of people and systems, and you really have to become familiar with both to do the job.

74. I chose to become a librarian, because I wanted to help others engage with information and encourage a passion it. I also had a love of knowledge and research and wanted to find an occupation that allowed me to pursue this daily.

75. h.

76. I’m very nosy and want to know it all. And want to know what others want to know.

77. it’s a combination of a love for learning and helping people…and fate..haha!

78. It is the best job in the world. I get to learn something new every day and help others to find the information they are looking for. I like meeting new people and doing different things. I love that everyday there are always new things happening at work.

79. I really like helping people find information.

80. I am a librarian because I love research and learning, and as such I love helping other people find interesting and useful information on a daily basis. That and of course I am a self-professed bibliophile.

81. I like to handle data and help people find data.

82. Because I love what I do and I love going to work every day (and I’m pretty good at it). I find new challenges & opportunities each day, giving me the variety I want from my work environment (never a dull moment).

83. Because it allows me to do three things I love: help people, explore new things, find solutions to problems.

84. Because I recognized that libraries were in a time of exciting change. I wanted to be a part of it - especially the technological change.

85. i thought i would be an academic and then realized i would be miserable. i slouched around in lame jobs for a couple of years and then decided that librarianship would keep me close to academia. I was right!

86. I love helping people and I love knowledge– I have to wonder if I would like this profession as much as I do know if I’d been been 20 in 1950, before we had such instant access to information. I am really not a fan of those old green books.

87. Because I don’t always deal with huge amounts of stress very well, and the audition to audition life of a musical theatre performer would have obviously not been a good fit. So - I needed to get a degree in something that would actually get me a steady income at my day job (vocal performance degrees aren’t really good for anything) Music librarianship sounded interesting, and librarianship in general was surprisingly appealing to my personality.

88. I like finding things and helping people.

89. I like libraries. I have OCD, so I like things to be in order. I like helping people. It seems like a stress-free job, and pays fairly well. It is something I can do as a second career, and I can probably choose my location.

90. I love books and I wanted to help people.

91. Because it paid 3 times what I was making before I went to library school.

92. I worked for ten years in the admissions office of a psychiatric hospital. I decided I wanted to work someplace that people WANTED to be.

93. Because those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it. Because I do love a cracking good story and like to make sure others like me can find them. Because I like helping people without needing to know their history or their business.

94. Because I think making information available to all, no matter who you are, what you look like, how much money you make (if any), is important and a good thing to do.

95. Essentially I am a librarian because I have a strong love of books. But that’s not all. I am a librarian because I like finding things and helping people find things. That’s my favorite part of the job. The books are an added bonus. I love finding difficult information for patrons and helping them figure out where to find information.

96. I like helping people.

97. I have nearly insatiable curiosity about almost all things. This really lends itself to reference work and reader’s advisory.

98. Helping myself and others make a clearer sense of information in the world.

99. After all this time…mainly inertia.

100. h.

TTW Contributor: Lee LeBlanc

I read with interest this article at U.S. News &World Report:

Professor, Day in the Life

After that, you check out an online discussion that’s part of an Internet class you’re teaching. You post a couple of comments and answer a dozen student E-mails. Next, it’s off to a faculty meeting. Your department is debating whether to add another master’s degree to its offerings, and the discussion is dominated by a powerful faculty member who argues that an esoteric course—which happens to be in his area of expertise—is essential. Finally, you get to work on a textbook chapter you’ve been asked to write.

Parts of it rang true. Others were obviously part of the under-grad experience. It got me to thinking I ought share a brief “Day in the Life” for my work at Dominican GSLIS. I’d be interested to hear what other LIS professors do as well. I chose Wednesday because it’s my busiest “school” day. I also have 2 weekend classes this semester - three meetings each throughout our 15 weeks. Other days of the week are spent working on writing, class prep and speaking here and there. Many days I’m home in Indiana as well.

A Day in the Life of an LIS Educator

I’ll be describing a typical Wednesday. After a couple early morning hours drinking my tea, posting some stuff to TTW, catching up on email and feeds and looking over the To Do list (which I need to call “Next Actions” in good GTD fashion but it never seems to be that focused), I head to campus. I have late morning office hours to be available to the daytime or full time students, but usually I don’t see anyone in person. Emails from students or a Facebook question might come in. I might be checking the citations formatting for an article I’m finishing: highlighting the citation in the text and checking it in the references list just like I did in school. Or I might be finishing up a longer blog post.

Lunch hour might be spent with colleagues - typically off campus for a chat session, or “exchange of ideas” - read “here’s what happened in my classes this week” — or solo looking over the material for the evening class. It’s good to give the readings a once-over for questions and discussion in class. A board member of the student association might stop by and check in. I’m the adviser for our group this semester. I might also be grading short reaction papers to various articles. I look for critical thinking, flow of argument and error free writing. This always conflicts with my ideas about “the Culture of Perfect,” but we have to be able to communicate effectively in writing in our profession. Grading, in general, puts me through the paces because I so want students to do well. I’ve really grown in that aspect these past few semesters. It’s hard to grade down but I hope it ultimately helps the student grow.

Every Wednesday afternoon, at 1:30, Faculty Council convenes. We discuss an agenda of various items and report out from various sub-committees. As chair of the GSLIS IT Committee, I share our meeting minutes with the whole faculty. The funny thing is, I was very quiet in early meetings my first year teaching. I felt it was better to get the lay of the land before talking too much. Recently, I reported on our ongoing work with new technologies for teaching such as AdobeConnect. Other reports are shared and there’s general discussion - and some laugh out loud moments too! We’re prepping for our COA visit these days so that’s on everyone’s mind.

After Faculty Council, I gather my things and head into downtown Chicago. Dominican offers courses in various off-site locations and faculty take turns teaching there. This semester I’m teaching LIS701 Introduction to Library and Information Science in the Staff Development Office Training Room at Chicago Public Library. I have office hours for the downtown students from 4-5pm at Panera Bread and then head into CPL for class. We discuss the week’s articles, I lecture from the readings a bit and the students breakout into discussion groups. Last night, for example we spent 2 hours on collection development. I absolutely love this module and enjoy sharing some SJCPL stories.

After class, I’m done for the day and I head back to Oak Park. The late evening before bed is usually spent watching an iTunes TV show, Netflix movie or reading a bit of whatever is in the stack by my bed. I may check in with the TTW Contributors and answer a few more emails, send some texts, etc. I go to bed early these days because there’s tea waiting in the morning and I really enjoy watching the sun come up.

I’m interested in other “Day in the Life” posts - please share yours. And maybe Kyle or Lee will share a day as a student.

Via Sean:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23516.wss 

It seems IBM is getting into designing 2.0 applications with UCLA students. Here’s the part of the article that really caught my eye:

Choose Your Own Technology Adventure at UCLA

To help prepare students for the ongoing demand for open computing skills is a class project IBM pioneered for UCLA’s CS130 Computer Science class. “Choose your own (technology) adventure” operates on a simple principle — harnesses students’ interest-areas to shape the coursework rather than on standard textbooks and syllabi.

Selecting from open technology areas, students propose their own course projects, ranging from a mobile phone mashup that alerts users about local events — to an iTunes-like personal music player that lets users play music trivia games, share playlists and build communities. From start to completion, IBM experts provide hands on mentoring to students to boost their software engineering skills, improve team collaboration and gain exposure to best-case practices from IBM’s own development groups.

“Choose your own (technology) adventure is giving UCLA students a truly unique opportunity to learn software engineering skills from the best and brightest at IBM such as working in a team environment while learning collaboration, networking, rapid decision making,” said Professor Paul Eggert, who teaches the CS130 class in UCLA. “Throughout the project, they are researching and evaluating technologies and connecting with open source developers and industry experts. This method is helping us attract more students to learning about these key technology areas by making things like Java and Eclipse extremely relevant to their areas of interest. ”

This is something I’d like for our students. Some of them have advanced tech skills and have worked in IT or other technology-based environments for awhile. It’s hard to ask them to register for “Internet Fundamentals,” a course that is perfect for other less tech-savvy students. Maybe we need a choose your own adventure course, where we negotiate projects and focus for the semester individually or in small workgroups that self organize. I’ve experimented with this just a bit with LIS768 and self-selecting group projects. My learning, however, would have to ramp up. I’m fascinated by the inroads that CMSes and OSS are making into libraries and want to see them represented and offered in LIS edu.

Any students or professors interested in weighing in on course offerings such as this?

Click here to see Kyle’s Slideshare presentation

Kyle Jones is a Dominican GSLIS student and my graduate assistant. Kyle was in my LIS701 class last fall and now we are working together on various projects. I wanted to point you to his presentation on digital literacy and a post he wrote at his blog about “The Power of Web 2.0.” It illustrates on a personal level how social connections and involving yourself in various networks can have a positive spin. Kyle writes:

Web 2.0 is more than a buzz word. It is a virtually living environment that can positively affect your personal and professional development. I’d like to think that I’m proof of that.

I believe LIS students are in a perfect position to tap into these networks and share their thoughts, insights and concerns as a viable and needed part of the conversation. In the 90s, during my program, it was highly unlikely that folks might see one of my class presentations on the Web with an invitation to comment. Now, anyone with access can click on the link above and participate in a digital extension of Kyle’s work.

I am very happy to have LIS students Kyle Jones and Lee Leblanc writing for TTW.

Via Karen Schneider on Twitter comes this link to a job description at San Jose State University:

The Associate Dean for Digital Futures, Information Technology and Technical Services will provide leadership for the development of San José State University Library’s digital initiatives & the utilization of emerging technologies to better serve students and faculty.

The Associate Dean may be in charge of the Library in the Dean’s absence and work as a member of the Dean’s Senior Management Team. The Associate Dean will exhibit leadership, solid management skills, effectiveness in resource management, and the ability to build partnerships within the University, throughout the California State University system and with the community.

A little farther down are the requirements of the position:

Critical Success Factors
The successful candidate will have:

• Vision for the library of the future
• Ability to lead change
• Demonstrated effectiveness in planning and assessing technology-based projects
• Demonstrated effectiveness in organizational leadership within a highly participatory team-based
workplace environment
• Awareness of and sensitivity to the educational goals of a diverse population
• Excellent presentation skills
• Excellent oral, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Successful experience in administering budget allocations
• Academic library experience is preferred

I agree with Karen: it’s a neat job. I also see the list of skills as a roadmap, a justification and a set of standards for LIS education.Planning, and not just technology planning, is important as is leadership in a participatory environment. Also, presentation skills and the holy trinity or oral, written and interpersonal skills. That’s why I urge my students to practice their writing, to take every opportunity they can to speak in class and give presentations, and to be mindful of how they interact with each other, with faculty and with their future colleagues.

Now, how do I make the dreaded group project a useful experience?