Library 2.0?

Everyone is talking 2.0, a term that implies improvement, but Andrew Keen argues in The Cult of the Amateur that Web 2.0 is elevating amateurs above experts and ruining our culture. The prime examples of Web 2.0 are wikipedia and youtube, both of which rely on user generated content to draw eyeballs to the advertising space they sell. Keen believes sites like these, along with illegal content downloads (primarily music but video is just down the like), are edging out the professionals who produce content (news, music, video, etc.) for a living in favor of amateurs who work for free. He argues that this phenomenon is bad for culture because it offers few rewards for the hard work that creativity requires.

His is a compelling argument if you can get past his occasional potshots at the ACLU, but it only goes so far. It is difficult to ignore the fact that many creative people create with very little promise of compensation. They do it for love. It is also difficult to imagine that the marketplace for creativity won't help sort the good from the bad.

The library world is also abuzz with 2.0 because we compete with it and because we could use more of it: our catalogs should provide the amazon.com style functionality that allows readers to share reviews. Database users should be able to save, notate and annotate the information they find. So 2.0 has great applications to library resources, if our Web 2.0-trained users can ever find them. And that is what worries me. Some students seem to believe that anything outside the world of web is irrelevant or unworthy of the effort. But if they cannot or will not use published sources, they still need to be able to distinguish high quality information from schlock, and Web 2.0 doesn't always make that so easy.

Feedback from Student Focus Groups

In May, 27 students participated in 3 focus group sessions to give feedback on the library web site and the proposed research model. It was an extremely positive experience. Of course the students were highly motivated (grant $$), but they were thoughtful and sincere and expressed appreciation for the opportunity to share and learn about the library. So what did they have to say about the research model?

Learning / Marketing tool - The students were immediately receptive to having such a teaching/learning tool, and excitedly suggested places and methods of using it throughout the college. They crave assistance with the research process and developing information literacy skills, and many wondered why teachers don’t connect more with the librarians. Many felt it was the ideal answer to the lack of a good tutorial - a concern expressed earlier when discussing the web site. While the promotional ideas were both practical and silly, it was obvious that students enrolled in classes with an information literacy/research component would find the model extremely useful as they encountered each piece of the puzzle.

Room for improvement - Everyone felt that the model needs some introductory, descriptive text to guide both independent learners and teachers who want to incorporate it in their curriculum. Language was a big issue, as was identifying the starting point. We need to work on clarifying the content of the model to ensure that students, faculty, and the college as a whole can embrace it as a positive learning tool.

What's in a name? When we asked students to suggest possible names to make the model recognizable and memorable, they offered several variations on the themes of “how to …”; “... thing” (fill in the blanks with research or information literacy). One student suggested the verbs from the ALA’s IL definition, another the verbs stated in the model itself. And a few felt that “IL for Lifelong Learning” was just fine.

Retreat Follow Up = IL Action Plans

For some participants, the retreat led directly to IL action plans. For others, the event led to new partnerships and new thinking about teaching and learning.

• Carin & Cynthia have recommended that the Distance Learning committee adopt IL as an additional requirement for distance learning course grants. The DL committee as well as proposing faculty will need support for understanding and evaluating information literacy outcomes.
• Michael plans revisions to Humanities 105 (Intercultural Communication) - he is making structural changes to the course to improve student involvement in presentations.
• Denise reported that ESL 096, 097, and 098 - a group is planning to get together to work on curriculum plans to coordinate the content of these three courses.
• Nursing faculty are collaborating on an incultural communication/awareness assignment
• Karen reported that through interaction at the retreat, nursing and ESL faculty discovered they have much to collaborate on -- and they've made plans to do so.
• Yun suggested creating a "learning respository" -- including information literacy content -- for a given course (for example, MIC 101) to share course information among the several faculty who teach it. Angel was suggested as a useful platform for sharing information.
• Liz reported that Science & Math faculty are planning to present on IL to their colleagues at their fall retreat. They'll brainstorm IL connections in science and math courses.
• Nada and Karen will offer a plagiarism workshop in fall 2007.
• Jim is revisiting his music research assignments to improve the IL component.

More Fellowships Available! We still have several grant-funded IL fellowship opportunities for faculty. The purpose of the fellowship is to teach your colleagues about IL. Grants provide $150 per facutly participant; groups are encouraged to apply. The planning and content must be developed by July 15, but your presentations may be done in fall. Contact Karen Michaelsen (x4098) ASAP if you plan to apply for a fellowship.

For example, you could…

• Write an article about your experiences with IL
• Develop a model curriculum component to present to collegaues
• Develop a more general IL presentation
• Develop training materials to accompany the research model

Taking Action - May 11 retreat

Goals for the day:

• Strengthen participants’ awareness of IL in their curriculum
• Enable participants to promote IL among their colleagues by sharing its value and teaching and learning strategies
• Prepare participants to leave retreat with an IL action plan

Defining IL: Kelley presented IL concepts and issues facing us and our students. Since some participants have been to other IL workshops while others had not, this presentation and the following activity helped to make sure that all present had a common understanding of IL. Following the presentation, small groups created a poem, song or picture to describe the information literate person. Please see Appendix 1 for descriptions of the group presentations. The PowerPoint for Kelley’s presentation is available to participants on the “IL Toolkit” CD and to others who are interested.

From Library Skills to Information Literacy: Three faculty members, Tracy Lai (history), Jim Cauter (music) and Kate Wolfe (psychology), presented their experience integrating IL into their courses. They described the experience of improving their assignments over time and collaborating with librarians to give their students a richer experience. A common thread to their stories was how IL assignments enriched their courses and teaching and developed their students’ ability to successfully find and use appropriate information.

The SCCC IL Model: Lynn presented the graphics for the IL Model and library logo. The artwork, posters, bookmarks and other collateral have been made possible through a marketing grant from the Washington State Library. Tracy and Jim facilitated a brainstorm about how the model can be used for instruction and then groups of participants created assignments addressing different parts of the IL process “puzzle.” Selected assignments are described in Appendix 2. For the record, the instructions for this activity were not as clear as they might have been and there was some confusion over the task. If this exercise is repeated, ‘evaluation’ should be integrated in the other aspects of the IL process rather than as a separate aspect.

Plan for Action: Participants were invited to complete an IL Action Plan individually or as a member of a team. The action plans were to define one action to be taken at the personal, course, program, or institution level. Participants were actively engaged in this activity, but there was no time allowed at the end of the day for individuals and groups to tell us what their plans were. As a result we are planning a follow-up event so participants can share their plans and learn about resources and support for carrying out the plans for action.

Perfect IL Person Activity

A song:

A student went to SCCC
To see what she could see, see, see
And all that she could see, see, see
Was the big, bright world through liter’cy

Word Poems:

Critical
Ubiquitous
Relevant
Inquisitive
Open-minded
Unstoppable
Successful

Passionate
Organized
Willing to wonder
Evaluative
Resourceful

Pictures:

An IL person balancing plates full of the following qualities:
inquisitive engaged
persistent open minded
thoughtful efficient
multi-disciplinary practical

People connected to other people, books, computes, cell phones, and the world, over a birth to next-life timeline.

A person juggling books, electronic devices, and standing on a globe with the words: Information = Power Flexible Adaptable

IL Assignments Activity

Selected assignments resulting from IL Model Brainstorm

Access: Select a topic (such as Executive Order 9066) and use each of the following tools to locate resources on that topic:
- Library Catalog
- ProQuest
- Ethnic NewsWatch
- NY Times Historical
- Britannica.com
- Google or Yahoo
Describe and compare how you searched each tool and the types of resources each provides.

Strategize: Identify and evaluate scholarly secondary sources related to the experiences of WWII veterans (1945-1960).
- Assessment strategy:
o Source addresses the correct topic
o Source is or is not a scholarly secondary source
o Student can explain why they chose a certain article
o Degree of relevance

Evaluate: Select a nursing topic and find articles from Google.com and ProQuest. Compare the results and articles from the searches and address:
- Quality
- Usefulness
- Ease
Write a citation and description for each article.

Synthesize: Prepare and deliver a training model for a software application.
- Students need to know methodologies for teaching and learning
- Students practice different presentation formats

Google Books

Historians weigh in on the quality of the books scanned in Google:

http://blog.historians.org/articles/204/google-books-whats-not-to-like