crossing over: academic to public. got advice?

I really would like to work in a public library but have experience only in academic libraries. I recently got engaged and moved to the Midwest during the middle of a hiring~freeze and found the only job opportunity I have at the moment is a part-time reference librarian position at a public library. While I am *almost* perfectly qualified for the job, I still am lacking some crucial experience: understanding of / previous experience working in public libraries. I really, really would love to start work in a public library, though, and wondered if anyone out there had ever gone through a similar experience with moving from an academic library to a public library setting. What were your experiences? I would be grateful for any feedback or suggestions:)

Signed,

The Librarian’s Hair

BUBBL.us….the neat brainstorming tool!

space travel: a keyword brainstorming chart

I have been looking for tools that would easily help students brainstorm key words and ideas as they begin their research (though their is no quick-fix, easy way to do this!). I work with undergraduates, and have had success using tools like WORDLE and other tagging tools to “teach” research. As instructors, we know a huge obstacle is conveying the importance of experimentation and creativity with keywords in order to help students (re)shape their inquiries. Students will often do one–maybe two searches–and then give up after locating little useful information. Add to that the constraints of time, bad traditions, and curricular limitations and no one librarian gets much more than 50 to 75 minutes with a group of students. Were we given more time, and were we stronger collaborators with other teachers, we would be able to spend an entire 50 minute session on KEY WORD activities.

A worthwhile keyword searching activity utilizing BUBBL.US might look like this:

1. Students get into groups or work individually
2. Students brainstorm key words that represent each concept within their research inquiries
3. Students use tools like Bubble.us to create a word web or map for their topics
4. Students test key words in catalogs and search interfaces
5. Students adjust their webs to include key words and subject headings found during the 50 minute session
6. Students re-test their searches with newfound terminology
7. Students record the results of their findings and document their most effective search strategies

**A completed key word brainstorm chart may look like THIS

At the end of this type of class, students would have a solid understanding of how to be creative, patient, and inquisitive when doing research. If more instructors and librarians would be open to spending time in the classroom this way–instead of repeating the old worthless demo–students would be well equipped to tackle research. Boolean operators, truncation–basically all of the “skill sets” that dominate information literacy sessions–would come later. Those are little details–things that students can learn after they have hands-on experience with articulating an inquiry, locating precise language, testing search terminology, and re-evaluating their initial inquiries. “Big Picture” instruction is something we can and should be pushing for; but it’s certainly difficult to break bad habits.

On Privilege and Oppression

I recently revisited some notes I had taken while reading a book simply titled Feminism. I found the book a couple of years back at my local public library. After reading most of the essays, I really started thinking about privilege and oppression and how they produce similar effects but originate from different  circumstances. I copied down a passage that was particularly insightful. Last night, I happened to re-read it. After two years, the passage still shakes me to my core. From Kay Leigh Hagan’s “Confessions of a Former Man-Hater”:

Privilege is quite swarmy, marked by a kind of arrogant ignorance (Prince Charles comes to mind here). Where oppression casts us into the sharp-edged realms of deprivation and desperation without a buffer, privilege creates a cushion of distance and protection from the “great unwashed,” fostering a distorted sense of reality framed by willful ignorance….indeed, for people of conscience, acknowledging privilege is not nearly as fun as claiming oppression. Rage and righteousness are much more appealing to me than regret and reparations….as I work to raise my consciousness to discern how to be an ally to people of color, poor people, and people with disabilities, despite my privilege in these areas, I have had an epiphany concerning men. Where once I was mystified by what seems to be their complete denial of a social system that systematically advantages them for being male, I realize now they are simply wrapped in the soft prism of their privilege–as am I. Suddenly, I can empathize.

Just wanted to share this passage at this point. I’m working on applying this and other representations of privilege in the context of librarianship. More to come.

Keyword tools: not just a profit venture

The concept of “maximizing profits” is so embedded in our American culture that even “research” is code for “business.”

That said, I’ve been playing around a lot with how I can relate online key-word tools to research for Undergraduates. Not surprisingly, a Google search for key words and tools brings back some interesting results–most of which are geared toward users maximizing their profits (by zeroing in on the most popular keyword and phrase searches used in search engines). One particular tool, Wordtracker, similar to Google’s Adwords, defines itself as a “leading-edge research tool.” Well, that sure sounds like music to my librarian ears.

Of course, “research,”  in this context, does not refer to scholarship or discovering the deepest possible meaning on a subject because it’s more about how you can use the tool as a strategy to enhance your marketing prowess and make The Money. Like D.H. Lawrence, I’d like to kill money as well, but I need it. Damn.

The good news? Librarians can totally use this tool in the classroom and integrate it into a keyword searching and discovery activity. I try to emphasize in various ways the importance of key words–particularly the importance of being able to find and use database-supplied keywords. This task is extremely tricky. Getting students to experiment with different word combos, explore, and have FUN, is also tricky. But using a tool like wordtracker, not as it’s intended but rather as a tool for beginning scholarly research, could at least help students make the transition between familiar search engines and library interfaces.

who knows? i’ll keep you posted on how this works or fails….

Twitter: Pondering Beyond Impulse

So it’s a fat chance you happen to meditate on your past tweets, but doing so unlocks a lot of potential for Twitter. I’ve pegged it before as a tool of impulse–one that doesn’t enable much reflection or contemplation….but uses can not be restricted.  How hasty have I been. It would be interesting to see what people do with past tweets. Poetry? Evidence? Short story? Book of Haikus? Here are several of my past tweets, most of which reference ACRL 2009. Nonetheless, I used Twitter to keep track of setlists (live band performances), remember potential research paper topics, and ironically as a portal into the past (the one Twitter can easily dissolve.)Hey, it’s a diary. Print it up and get it bound for 2 bones at Kinkos and call it your contribution to some time capsule you’ll vow to bury and dig up for the sake of nostalgia, sentimentality, research, or just kicks. Or whatever you want…. as long as you (I mean I) ponder beyond the impulse….

i don’t imagine twitter would be useful beyond current news and updates unless you printed off your tweets or pondered beyond impulseless than 20 seconds ago from web

hooping it up. diggable planets. don’t eat even a little bit of dough wash down with beer because it expands in your stomach. pain.suffering3 minutes ago from web

#acrl2009 seeing jimi’s strat and his little richard inspired wardrobe was soooo amazing and surreal!10:36 AM Mar 15th from txt

just saw jimis fender strat at the hendrix museum in seattle11:18 PM Mar 14th from txt

at a talk about integrating twitter in library work3:13 PM Mar 13th from txt

learning gow to weild the power of jing1:17 PM Mar 13th from txt

buffy references in tact! what would acrl be without buffy?12:44 PM Mar 13th from txt

learning about info retrieval and instruction in the context of The Ring. naomi watts conducting laborious research! brilliant12:41 PM Mar 13th from txt

listening 2 an interesting talk about cyber efforts and infrastructure…no time 4 comments….boof10:58 AM Mar 13th from txt

naomi klein cancelled her talk. Humbug.8:29 AM Mar 13th from txt

en route to seattle6:09 AM Mar 12th from txt

Librarians and Composition Teachers Should Join Forces

It wasn’t until recently (seriously–like, today) that it really dawned on me that information literacy “programs” are most effective when librarians and compositionists combine forces. (Apparently, I felt that a picture of famous Ghostbusters “[Don't] Cross the Streams” image would illustrate this necessity.)

That said, I have begun building what I hope will be a beautiful relationship with the English Department on campus. I have been particularly interested in the relationship between Librarians and Composition Instructors in part because I have experience in both areas. For a brief two year stint, I taught basic composition to college freshman and have an understanding of the concepts and practices instructors try to instill in students through regular writing assignments that culminate in a large research paper.

Enter my librarian self. Having a past life as a composition instructor, I certainly feel more equipped to deal with some of the challenges of teaching the writing and research processes. As a composition instructor, I liked to think I had some knowledge about conducting sophisticated research inquiries (I had, after all, composed a Graduate Thesis). But I found that I didn’t know much more about finding information than my students did. I could suggest databases I had used, but I was in no position to articulate key difference between subject and general datatbases, subject searching versus key word searching, or expanding thesauri  to determine the anguage being employed to classify information.

Long story short, I wanted to be able to find information. Good, reliable, and worthwhile information. But I’ve discovered that the research process, like the writing process, is tedious, laborious, and discursive. The reductivist approach to writing (“master your skills in a semester!) and research (“get certified in library skills in one visit!”) is just a bunch of malarchy that misguides and disillusions.  Composition and Rhetoric Instructors and Librarians are in a unique position to support each other and to join forces for a common cause. We just need to decide on what that cause will be, and how we will “teach” research and writing. Is our cause responsbile citizenship? Critical, lifelong learning? Praxis? (Whoa….I said praxis. I never say praxis. And I think I got that from Paulo Freire)

In an article called “First Year Writing Teachers, Perceptions of Students’ Information Literacy Competencies, and a Call For A Collaborative Approach,” (availabe here )Elizabeth Birminham of North Dakota State University and Company address th opportunities that librarians and writing instructors have to form alliances. Really, after I read the piece, it just confirmed my suspicions that we are not getting together as much as we should–that there is a great disconnect between librarians and instructors of writing which I can certainly feel.  Part of the problem is that we’re not seeing how we are striving toward common goals–to challenge students to enter into a larger conversation, to question actively, and to contribute to that conversation. And one solution would be that librarians and composition instructors go beyond their own disciplines and seek out pedagogical and theoretical underpinnings in each other’s field for a more wholistic understanding of the writing and research processes. To quote a poignant statement in the above named article, “the writing process does not begin where the research process ends” (19). Too often, I think we’ve unwittingly compartmentalized these two processes and presented them as skills to be obtained (they are….but you know, they’re not).

I’d be interested to hear how other librarians and composition instructors are collaborating to offer students opportunities for engaging the research & writing process(es). I’d like to hear, too, how other instructors from other disciplines are teaching research and writing which is not strictly limited to English Departments and Libraries….or at least should not be.

Can I help you find anything? No thanks, I’m just browsing!

In a previous post, I mentioned an article I read by Anne-Marie Deitering. She talked about using Wikipedia as a browsing platform in the information literacy classroom; or at least that perhaps it’s better suited to browsing then the databases we’re advocating. Inspired by her article, I decided that most web 2.0 applications are better tools for teaching students how browsing is different than searching. I also decided that because browsing is overlooked in favor of searching (or we assume the student has already gone through those motions prior to coming in for library instruction), I wanted to emphasize the importance of browsing as a crucial component of the research process because it leads to discovery.  Instead of just saying that, however, I wanted to actually host a browse session.

After doing some ice-breakers and introductions, I opened the class with a browse session. In other words, I created a fun handout in which I encouraged students to think about topics that “boiled their blood” or “confused them beyond belief.” (Students were in between assignments when they came in.) The handout had a picture of a woman pushing a shopping cart through the aisles at walmart. Below that, I urged them to choose topics guided by their own interests (the former composition instructor in me.) I provided a list of news portals (BBC news, CNN news, Yahoo news, Youtube, New York times, etc.) and gave them 7 minutes to peruse the headlines noting things that caught their attention. (Only a 50 minute class…)

What I found was a little shocking, though: students were really browsing AND writing things down! What joy! As I walked around the room, occasionally glancing at monitors, no students were checking their email, looking at their facebook page, or playing solitaire. It was a miracle. I was witnessing the beginnings of the research process and it was a beautiful thing. I really hated to have to stop them because I could tell they were really using their time productively.

I asked them: “so you just did a brief browse session to see what kinds of things are out there. What’s the difference between “browsing” and “searching”?

One student is always willing: he said that you search when you want something in particular, but you browse when you don’t have anything in mind. Indeed! Here, I insert a little anecdote about shopping with my mom. A clerk would always ask: “is there anything I can help you find?” My mom replied: “No thank you:) I’m just browsing.” I think this little anecdote exposes my humanness and clarifies the differences between searching and browsing quite simply.

I was pleased that students got to see that browsing is a crucial part of the whole research process…AND the library was a premiere space that celebrates and facilitates that discovery and curiosity! The browsing activity was a great segue into the group work that proceeded it: how you can begin to create a search strategy and brainstorm key words.

All of this experimenting with browse sessions and collaborative group work hints at my obsession with how NOT to teach information literacy to undergraduates. (That wretched demo comes to mind here in which the instructor stands like a statue at the front of the classroom while students sleep or talk to their friends.) We are always walking a fine line in the information literacy classroom, and students’ “success” comes from the balancing of engaging instructors on one hand and and motivated students on the other. It get’s really exciting somewhere in the grey areas.  I am trying to be careful not to place all of the burden of effective teaching on the shoulders of instructors alone. (You may have heard musicians talk about the energy exchange between performer and audience: there are bad audiences–the unaffected or uninspired.) But the best of instructors or performers have the ability to shape an experience and draw people into it, even if only for a little while.  (Bill Hicks did this often. He worked with “tough crowds” that were virtually unresponive and was able to amazingly reinvigorate them.)

That said, it’s tough NOT to talk too much when you’re an instructor. But I’ve been getting away from talking the more I teach. My last two classes, I think, were far more engaging then any other class I’ve taught. I included a mixture of mediums in the classroom to better serve a multiplicity of learning styles. (I had some individual work, collaborative work, and integrated web 2.0 technologies like Youtube in addition to the browse session.) For the most part, the students were always doing something.

It’s easy to do boring demos,  but I can’t do that anymore in my work with undergraduates. Maybe that I’m a new librarian makes me overzealous. But when you lose the responsiveness of an audience, you lose the energy that propels the class forward. It’s the energy and motivation that make a classroom environment stimulating and meaningful; and I think you can get that by creating a space of action or hands-on learning rather than the space of sedation or passivity that just won’t cut it anymore–if it ever did.

Academic Librarian’s First 3 Days On the Job in the Tennessee Valley, Ya’ll

Recently, I was asked to be a speaker at a brown-bag lunch series and talk about my first three days in the wonderful world of libraryland. I have to admit that at first I was a bit reluctant: what kind of authority did I really have in the matter? After all, I had only just begun my career in librarianship and hadn’t even received my first paycheck. I haven’t co-authored an article, written a review, or sat on a professional committee. But let me tell ya: I can say a lot about those first three days.

If you think it’s early, it’s probably not early enough. On my first day, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready and be at the UT Conference center by 8:00 a.m. sharp for my first orientation regarding Employee Benefits and Retirement plans. By the time I finally arrived–10 minutes late–the backs of my heals were dripping with blood. Seriously. But dang it, I made it….even if I had parked in the wrong garage, gone to the wrong building, and added unnecessary distance to my harrowing walk. I won’t make the mistake again of going sockless in a new pair of shoes, nor will I never forget to bring another pair of shoes for when those deceptively harmless flats rub my heals raw.

Don’t know what a PPO is? Neither do I. Okay, I really do know the difference between a PPO and POS health benefits plan, but it took me a full week to get through all of the paper work and choose what kinds of health and retirement benefits would be best for me. I accept now that these things come with experience. The 4-hour long orientation I went through to learn about employee benefits was overwhelming and confusing. For the 5 years prior to landing a job in libraryland, I subsisted on stipends and tip money–didn’t know a thing about health plans or how to allocate money into a retirement fund. I can’t tell you how many different people I had to meet or speak via the phone with in order to put all of the pieces together; but eventually, I did, and now I know what a Roth 401 K is all about. My accountant friend would be pleased I’m a big kid now.

The Tour. You’re going to love the tour. This is the part of your first few days where you get to see the innermost bowels of the library and all of the great and kind creatures who live there. The amazing people in the Personnel and Training Offices take you under their wing and make sure you know how to set up your various accounts (email, library) and complete your employment paperwork. These great people will help you to prepare for upcoming meetings with library administrators, schedule professional development workshops, and stay informed on future training opportunities.

The Office. Indeed, one of the most memorable parts of your first few days will be discovering your new office, er, cube where you will live in the Libraryland. (If you get a door, you’ve hit the big time.) One of the best parts of your first few days will be creating your own small space in the library and taking inspiration from the pros around you. Indeed, your space reflects your love for handsome pirates, Sicilian guitar Gods, and lovable, furry friends. But make sure you”ve got a proper trash can, a good stapler, and a dependable coffee cup.

Lunch, anyone? You’ll be scheduling lots of appointments to meet with lots of special library people. Many of these appointments will be down the street or in the library coffee shop over the lunch hour, so go with the flow and order plenty of slow-burning carbs (or coffee and chocolate) to keep you energized throughout your busy days. Having lunch meetings are a great way to get to know each other in a relaxing and casual atmosphere:)

Observation. I observed just a few library instructors before I got into the classroom myself. A better way to get some experience would also be to team-teach a couple of courses if you’d like more experience before taking the reigns yourself. Plus, two teachers can energize students and each other in ways often unavailable to individual instructors.

Networking, networking, networking. If you think you’re not the networking kind, you’ll become that kind soon. I discovered immediately that being in libraries requires a willingness to brush shoulders with librarians, teachers, administrators, and students on a regular basis. During my first days, I got to meet and begin collaborating with area subject librarians and teaching faculty from many departments. As we know, librarians have had to rely on each other to sustain themselves and their professions and to advocate their services and prove their value. But as I’ve found, the true spirit of collaboration comes so naturally that you would think it was invited in as the most welcome of guests.

Outreach! I was also able to see how the library represents itself to incoming freshman at the beginning of the semester. During my first few days, I was given the opportunity to participate in welcome events where the library promotes educational and instructional services to students, parents, and faculty. I can’t tell you how much fun I had passing out candy and free post-its as an incentive to check out the awesomeness that doesn’t stop at the library. You will be participating in internal library outreach incentives (maybe a graduate student browse session) and external/campus-wide incentives in which you represent the library on the college campus. Have fun with it:)

Meetings. Wow. My last boss wasn’t kidding when he said academic librarians are constantly going to meetings. Since I started by new job, I’ve been to several meetings, some of which are one-on-one and very intimate while others are library-wide meetings regarding budgeting, strategic planning, the hiring and tenure processes, and retention of employees.

There’s no such thing as “easing in.” Rather than easing into my job, I had to be willing to step up and articulate the role of the library on the college campus. By my third day I was giving my first presentation to a roomful of graduate teaching assistants and first-time instructors in the English department. Of course, my colleagues were there to back me up and to fill in the gaps as I went along.

In such a dynamic environment, you will be designing course materials one moment and then walking through the library with a group of freshman leading a tour the next. During one hour you may be planning fun undergraduate programming activities, but by the next you’re teaching a student how to use a database at the reference desk.

The first three days of my job were enough to show me that I would have the opportunity to learn new skills and apply and teach them in everyday situations. I have to say that all of our experiences will be quite different depending on the libraries we work in and the possibilities we see and make for ourselves. I am fortunate to be in a position that is brand new and has not already been mapped out for me. In a sense, I’m setting a standard which can be a scary thing. But as one professor of mine said to me: “You can’t make a big deal about things because you’ll never get anything done.” Basically, you have to be ready and willing to jump in, work with people, get the creative juices flowing, have fun, and get things done.

As one librarian said wisely when I was in library school: “every day is game day.”