Wikis

I have very mixed feeling about using wikis after using it to create my pathfinder. I like the layout we used for this class, but I really preferred using Sharepoint (Frontpage) to make an actual web page in html in our other class. This was a lot simpler for the assignment, but rather restrictive since it didn't allow for the embedding of videos or really designing an appealing layout for the page. If I were doing it in my library, I would prefer to take the extra time to build the site to host on the school server instead of using a 3rd party wiki site for hosting. I want students to be drawn in visually, and then hopefully they can value the site for its functionality! They are definitely a tool I would suggest to non-tech savvy teachers to use, or in a setting where collaboration is needed, but for my personal pages, I want the freedom to be me.

Pathfinder

I was very lucky with my pathfinder topic I chose. I knew that it was an area that the 5th graders studied...but after I began gathering resources, I had a huge project handed to me for their time in the lab. It had a rubric, but almost no actual resources for them to use. I started directing them to the sites that I was already collecting, and I'll be sending them directly to the pathfinder the next time they come in. We have been discussing the powerpoint layouts, but these sites will be a wonderful time-saver as they begin to scour the web for the information that they need to include. It is amazing to me when things work out like this!

Search and Destroy?

I feel pretty confident in my ability to find answers to even the most obscure questions. The internet has literally put the world at my fingertips. Almost every question that friends and family pose to me is something that I can find and answer for them with just a few minutes online.

These questions are BY FAR the exception. We have intentionally made these questions fall into the category of those that would probably arise only once every couple of years...not 24 per every two weeks. While it is a novel approach to making a simulated research desk...I'm not sure that we wouldn't (as a class) be best suited with a "race" format of addressing and answering questions online. These questions are designed to take time...yet a real research desk setting (in this modern age) seems to be more about speed and calm under pressure. I've developed that on my own for personal reasons...but I think the rest of my cohort could really benefit from this different sort of pressure. We need to figure out how to use Google under the pressure of a patron sitting and staring at us AS WELL AS using the few databases that may be available to our particular library setting. That is just where we are as a society, and the majority of people over 35...as well as a deceivingly large portion of those of us under that age...just aren't experienced enough to do it.

I would propose breaking up the S&D questions into two categories...half that are pretty obscure and best answered slowly on our own, but the other half used as a speed game in class. I think that could really help us expand as researchers just as much as these nuanced questions that we currently delve into!

Article #3

Loertscher, D. (2009). The Front End Load of Student Research. Teacher Librarian, 36(4), 42-3. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from Library Lit & Inf Full Text database.

This article was a short but potent reminder of all the excuses that student use to procrastinate and avoid using their library. I think that this would be a great article for everyone to have printed off and posted behind the main desk at a library. It is easy to forget what challenges and inhibits an open relationship between the librarians and students, so an occasional reminder would be a great idea. Sometime I think we tend to spend too much time thinking about developing/re-shelving our collection and bags of trick, and then forget about doing the things that make the library an inviting environment to DO the research that with the tools that we strive to make available!

Google searching Vs Databases

I can't stand the thought of missing out on good articles because my carefully constructed search didn't catch them. I am used to giving Google a general idea of what I want and letting them present the options that are most valued through their extensive algorithm. When I do a general search in that manner through an EBSCO database...I am always disappointed at the results. I just don't tend to trust the results from a paid database. I feel like they are grandfathered in from long standing contracts with educational, public, and research libraries and have therefore become complacent in their efforts to expand and improve their product. There are few established names in the research-providing field that they don't really have to compete and can live off of name recognition alone.

I really hope Google Scholar can at least start to push them. Even being a free tool, the availability and ease of search will hopefully make them at least worry about their collective monopoly enough to push in a modern direction with their search functions. Google brings out both the best and the worst in its competition. Maybe Google Scholar will, at least indirectly, allow us to grow as a collective academic community in our ability to publish, find, and connect our ideas in this age. Every level up until you reach academia are able to share ideas openly and (relatively) "free"-ly. Why can't we?

Second Reference Observation

Finally, a busy afternoon in the library. I have stopped by and "used the computer" a few times to try and find a day where there were people there and utilizing the reference desk. I chose to do this one "silently" because I didn't want to let them know I was waiting on an actual busy day for them, in case this would somehow offend them (since most days just didn't seem busy.)

A group of 4th grade kids working on their presidents. They were tenative on approaching the desk, but after one student asked where the presidential biographies were, they all started to stroll up asking questions as they worked. I wrote down a few.

How do you spell Gerald Ford?
Is Bill Clinton still alive?
Who was the 19th president?
What is polio?
What decade is the 19th century in?

She was very polite in helping them find the books and navigate websites through NCLive finding the information they were looking for for their class...as well as all the random questions that popped into their heads. They bombarded her for a solid 40 minutes of my observation, but she never seemed to get frustrated with their questions.

After the students left an older couple come in with a dispute on how long a cubit and a span is. It came from the Bible story of David and Goliath, where it said Goliath was six cubits and a span. The wife said it meant that he was over 10 feet tall, but the husband held firm that he had heard it mean he was just over 7 feet. The librarian on duty first took them to a bible reference book, but ended up just searching for it online. Google said that it translated to 9.75 feet, so the wife thanked the desk and they left.

A guy came in looking for old yearbooks after that. Almost every time I have been in the library someone seems to ask about those, so I guess that is a big demand there.

As my time and I discretely walked out the door, there was a guy coming in looking deep in thought and heading directly toward the front desk. I'm not sure what his question ended up being, but I'm almost certain he had it answered in a polite and helpful manner!

Article #2

Buckland, M. (2008). Reference library service in the digital environment. Library & Information Science Research (07408188), 30(2), 81-85. doi:10.1016/j.lisr.2008.03.002.

Buckland's article focused on the premise that a reference library's goal should ultimately be to empower the user to find information on their own (as opposed to empowering the library staff to find the answers). It went back through history to discuss how reference service has almost always been defined with the librarian as the mediator between the patron and the answer.

I think the biggest problem we face in moving to an atmosphere where users are capable of using the resources on their own, is the fact that librarians are still having a hard time using the continually changing reference tools. However, the current generation of librarians entering the field are digital natives and will find it much easier to teach the tools that they grew up using.

Therefore we may be moving toward a time where we are capable of changing the meaning of "reference service." The tools are much simpler now than they were 20 years ago, so the required skill/experience/intelligence level to have a self efficient patron is much lower.

This is a core belief that I held long before the article brought it up, however, because I want people to be comfortable looking for their own answers and have worked to teach this for a long time. A movement to change the views of our field is great, but my views were pretty much there all along.

Article #1

Schaffhauser D. Make It Work. T.H.E. Journal [serial online]. August 1, 2008;35(8):34-37. Available from: ERIC, Ipswich, MA. Accessed April 5, 2010.

This article was essentially a look into a few different situations where budget constraints were directly holding back the implementation of technology for schools and media centers. It was a collection of ideas on how to "make it work."

It really seemed to line up with my frugal philosophy with electronics. I would prefer not to spend $500 on an ebook reader if my netbook (that I already own) can serve the same purpose. Some of the situations were solved through book fairs and grant writing, but I don't think you can expect to depend on unexpected funds coming in. I was more partial to where they hooked up with other libraries to split the fees to access a database, or decided to set up a Google Custom Search Engine to help their patrons.

Speaking of a Google Custom Search Engine, as I was reading it I knew that I had seen that option in the Google Apps listings, but I didn't realize how useful it could be to restrict access for students to sites and content that you want them to search. It would be pretty useful to create alongside of a pathfinder to allow students to search the sites on the pathfinder collectively!

I'm not sure if frugality is learned or innate, but this article showed me that I am already well suited for facing the budget constraints in my field. It just takes a bit of creativity to "Make It Work."

So much for a "liveblog"

UNC-G's guest wifi wasn't equipped to handle such a heavy load as a room full of laptops, it seems. There wasn't too much new territory covered (for me) but I did find an interesting site that hosts wiki pages: PBworks.com. It's a neat example to show people how they could set up their own personal wikis.

They also covered delicious, but I still only like to use that as another means of searching for useful sites...I don't really have a use to "share bookmarks" at this point. They spent a large amount of time describing all the interesting and exciting activities we WOULD be doing if the internet were working, but it wasn't, so the excitement was certainly not there for this workshop

Another great little nugget!

If you are using wordle to make a work cloud...it connects any phrases that are linked by a '~'

Meaning, social~networking, would show up as one term, instead of social and networking appearing separately.

That would allow you to set up any surveys that you want to copy/paste your results into Worldle in a manner that would let you keep key terms together!

Web 2.0 PTEC Workshop

I'm spending the day in a Web 2.0 workshop in Greensboro, and 30 minutes in, I already know I could ace the "final" on the day's information. I'm now shifting to observer mode. I want to see how teachers are accepting and responding to these new tools for my future reference in teaching them to my staff. I'm going to attempt a live-blog to try and not lose my mind to boredom. We've watched two videos about people talking about technology so far with nothing being taught about the actual technology.

I did gleam a new tip on Google Docs through their initial survey they had everyone fill out. There is apparently a Forms option that allows you to create a quick and easy survey that you could send out to the staff as a weblink. I have used surveymonkey in the past, but this seems much more feasible and connected to my other tools I use!

Reference Librarian Practice

I was pleased with how my answering of the question went, however, compared the the relatively easy question I was asking, I was rather stumped at how to answer the one that was asked of me. Looking for a bibliographical list of book titles around a theme didn't have a clear tool to use. I fought my urge to immediately go to Amazon.com and fumbled through the Belk Library tools to find a tool that would work. My initial thought was that I needed to find a book with such a list, but once I began searching it hit me that all they needed was a search results page to give them the same answers.

I guess my room for growth would be more along the lines of trying to coax them into telling me what form they want their answer in. While I'm great at finding raw data, I'm not really sure how other people prefer to have that data presented to them. A short answer would be simple, but a more general theme is hard to pass along to a patron.

Teleplace

I really feel like Teleplace is so far past the old AET Zone, I get very frustrated when I have to spend time in the old setting. With one class being held in each place, I feel like I'm splitting time between Windows 95 and Windows 7. Everything is different, and to be the de facto "tech guru", it makes it tough to continually switch mindsets to try and troubleshoot issues that arise with the class. I'll be glad to see all of the courses move over to the newer zone!

S & D Qestions

I managed to spend 4 hours in the Yadkin Public Library last Friday working on the questions...and I still only had less than 5 to show for it. With the overlapping areas that each resource falls into, I keep losing track of what type of question I was trying to ask it to begin with! I had chosen to use "sushi" as my topic originally, and that wasted the first whole hour. I then changed to "sports" as a topic, because I was sitting beside a giant Baseball encyclopedia that was calling out to be read. I later realized that since sports was a relatively non-academic topic, it was hard to create questions directly on topic, and I had to come at it from different angles to get what I wanted. I am over half way, but am completely mentally drained! I think I've already done the easy categories now, so I don't see the difficulty level going down from here out! :-\

Looking back, I am almost embarrassed at how little I have visited my local library since I left elementary school. It used to be a weekly trek for my mom, my sister, and I to get books and we went twice a week during the summer to their special programs they would have. Before my observation I had barely been inside the doorway in years (the doorway is where they sell used books and I always get sucked in when I am trying to waste time downtown.) I was quite amazed at how little it had changed except for the large row of perhaps 20-25 computers in the center. Every section was just as I remembered...even the same turtle lived in the same aquarium...in the same spot about the periodicals shelf.

The library seemed stuck in time, but the patron's obviously weren't. During my observation, 85% of the people that walked through the door promptly signed up for a computer terminal. The only reference questions they had were about the cost of printing and where the printer was located. Two patrons came in to use the fax machine, three returned books and hung around to discuss the impending snow storm this weekend, and one guy came in look at old yearbooks (the follow up to an earlier reference question on the phone.)

There were only two genuine reference questions that stuck out to me. One lady phoned in to ask what the title was for Dave Pelzer's brother's book (it was A Brother's Journey and his name is Richard Pelzer.) The other was quite a bit more interesting...but was already wrapping up as I got there. A lady had come in from Minnesota and was in Mount Airy for a limited time doing genealogy research. She was looking for a certain listing on microfilm, but all the other libraries she had called said they didn't have it. The librarian I was observing was able to locate the item in the Regional listing and found that it was located at the Surry Community College Library (where the lady had previously called and was told no.) We called them from the Yadkin Library and had them go actually check their holdings where it was listed as being, and they found it. The lady was so excited about finding the record and was very grateful for the help.

LIbrarian Interview

Malinda Sells has been the librarian since 1977. As far back as I can remember, she has been the stereotype in my mind when I think of "a librarian." The best description of my childhood description of her would be the "rigid guardian of the hall of books." Quite honestly, I've always been slightly scared of her. However, I recently was able to sit down and interview her for my class. I knew going in that my previous analysis was foolishly based on childhood memories, and that the few interactions that I have had with her in my adult life would point to her being more of a regular person. I found out that both descriptions would fit. She is regular person who takes her role as the custodian for knowledge very seriously.

She said her favorite aspect of the job was that it was to server everyone free of charge. She also enjoyed watching the community grow and change through the years.

While most younger patrons want instant access, she says she works hard to bound books that the older patrons feel a need to continue to use. She said it also didn't hurt to have them around to surprise the younger patrons with...in the event of a computer or internet malfunction.

The reference items she feels most compelled to keep updated are the tax codes, medial "advice" sources, North Carolina information, and the general statutes. In looking around the library afterward...I could see this was exactly the case. Budget constraints means she has to focus her funds toward the actual bound copies that will be requested most often...and less on copies that will be ignored to find the answer on NCLive or Google.

Most of the librarians rotate time at the reference desk, so she wears many hats in the library.