I’m updating and expanding my “Participatory Service & Emerging Technologies” class for my new position at SJSU SLIS. I’m carrying over one of my favorite assignments – the context book report. 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 Checkout a sample book report here. What can librarians glean from these works? How might the focus of some titles impact library service? Users? The way we […]
Yearly Archives: 2011
251 posts
Graham Lavender points to a post by Mr. Library Dude concerning the realities of libraries school and the job market. Mr. Library Dude offers a few points to be considered: I don’t really care what library school course grades/GPA you have. Just get your degree and focus on getting some experience. Get a mentor! Someone who is a working librarian. Not a library school professor who hasn’t worked in libraries for 20 years. Geographic flexibility: I understand that not everyone can (or wants) to move across country for a job. Just be aware that you may be severely limiting your […]
THE BACKSTORY I wanted the teens using my library to do something creative this summer. I’ve recently grown weary of having programs for the sake of programs, so with this mindset I reached out to the amazing Sonya Tomlinson aka Sontiago to help unlock the amazing creativity of the teens here in Portland. Sonya’s an amazing hip hop artist based here in Portland who has already done some amazing work with teens in our community (click that link, please), so it was a no-brainer to have her be the person running this event. We met over lunch at Kamasouptra and we came up with […]
8BitLibrary: The Collected Writings of Justin Hoenke: December 2009-July 2011 It has been a fun almost 2 years. We’ve danced, we’ve went out and got tattoos, and most of all we’ve talked about video games a lot. But sometimes things just need to come to an end, and my part in 8BitLibrary has come to an end. Since I’m a librarian and all that, I’ve decided to organize my 8BitLibrary writings in a nice little PDF and post it here for anyone to read or download. I hope you enjoy my writings. I’ll continue to write about gaming in libraries […]
Reprinted with permission from John’s blog: http://johnmiedema.ca/2011/07/24/tedxlibrariansto-slow-reading/ Say the words, “slow reading”, and you will have a reader’s attention. In a time of information overload, we all feel pressure to read more quickly. Three years ago I performed a Google search on slow reading. I found studies on dyslexia and eye disorders, advertising for speed reading courses, and complaints about the scanning rates of I/O devices. At the time I was doing a Master of Library and Information Science, and decided to undertake a broad search for research and concepts about the benefits of slow reading. The results were published […]
An “Office Hours” reader writes: Just finished reading your article Transparent Library School, where you spoke about my fears of signing up and having old information is my concern. The only local (less than 2 hrs) school closed up its local branch so I’m looking into the various online schools, and have not found a good comparison. Do you know of such a site? The information on ALA on various programs I have found to be out of date. I have an obvious bias – but has anyone encountered a good comparison site of the online LIS programs? Update: Don’t miss: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/hack-your-program/
How cool is this recent ad for the position of Program Officer, Digital Media & Learning at the MacArthur Foundation?: (bolding is mine) Knowledge, Skills, and Experience: The Program Officer role requires graduate training and experience as a researcher or designer, with a strong grasp of research and theoretical literature relating to learning, adolescent development and new media, and practical, “on-the-ground” experience with youth, in libraries and museums or schools. He or she must be familiar with significant thought leaders and national organizations in relevant fields, and to be a respectful, collaborative colleague who can build bridges and actively engage […]
“You must understand video games. Seriously. You must. So if you don’t know a joystick from a jelly roll, spend some time getting up to speed on games played on computers, online, and on special devices such as Game Boys and Playstations. Ask your kid. Ask your neighbor’s kid. Or go into an electronics store such as Best Buy where the games are usually on display, and ask for a demo. You won’t regret it. And you may even become hooked. At the very least, you’ll begin to understand the powerful new grammar, narrative pattern, and thinking style these games […]
Note: This is an updated version of the “green sheet” I just submitted for review – it is a DRAFT until approved. Course Description Course Overview “The new tools provide powerful options for working with data, text, sound, and images. …. There is, predictably, an increasing departure in information handling from the simple pattern of read, think, then write. Computers are used for so much more than the traditional notion of “computing.’” –Michael Buckland, Redesigning Library Services, 1992 Library scholars have noted the ongoing impact of technology on libraries and have called for a redesign of services to meet the […]
“The time is now,” I keep telling myself. Let me tell you why. It’s been almost five years since I fell into being a teen librarian. I was working toward my MLS at Clarion University when I was approached to do some summer teen programming at the Clarion Free Library in Clarion, PA. Their proposal was simple: do stuff for teens, buy some cool books, and get them into the library. I was a one-person team tasked with pretty much creating a library for these oft-forgotten patrons. I did it, and the teens were happy, but I realized at the […]