NYLA Conference 2006

My unofficial theme for this conference was ‘Emerging Technologies’. I got to thinking about that phrase and why it makes me uncomfortable. For one, I can talk about technologies emerging, but the fact is that if I’m talking about them at all, it is because they’ve been out for a while and people are using them, creating a buzz around them until they find me or come up on my radar. That’s just the way it works. As I continue to improve the way that I get hip to new technologies, I realize that the speed at which these technologies ‘emerge’ (or launch) is accelerating and perhaps their cycle of usefulness also continues to get shorter. The real challenge is getting the word out when we continue to see new technologies on the horizon. It’s easy to get distracted enough to breath out and say “Finally, I can talk about everything at once!” But we can’t, and we may never get to say that again.

That’s what I came away with from the talks I heard on the subject of Blogs, Wikis, and ‘Web 2.0’ at the NYLA conference in Saratoga Springs, NY.

Linda Brandon gave a good overview Web 2.0 technologies and how schools across the country are using them as effective, engaging learning tools. Great, and I know we all got a lot out of that message, but how do we anticipate what comes next? What is the direction? More importantly, why should we librarians get involved in these technologies?

Jenny Levine, author of The Shifted Librarian blog, in a lecture that covered much of the same territory, made it clear that social networking technology is not just a good learning tool for teachers and librarians, but an even better advocacy tool. Jenny demonstrated how libraries across the country are soliciting feedback from their users through blogs and Wikis, and how users are getting more out of their library experience by reporting on it displaying it (one user, said Levine, has been displaying their library reserves on his personal website, because his library’s RSS feature allowed him to). The implications for a library’s ability to reach its community, advertise events, programs, and new materials are enormous. But perhaps more importantly as we see ‘Web 2.0’ take hold, the library needs engage in the use of these technologies for their own sake – just to do it – so that it can be ready for the advent of the next wave of web interactivity.

Knitting a scarf, making a friend

Who would've thought that an issue like starting a knitting program would create such controversy?
Trying to explain to colleagues and friends why something as simple as a teen knitting group can't get off the ground can get depressing. Who knits? Who can work with teens? Who can do both? Not many, apparently.

I've been searching for a while for someone who has the patience to work with young people on such a complicated but difficult task. I deliberately had to pass over some folks who made it clear that they would tolerate no behaviors that are associated with normal teens (laughing, goofing off).

I worry that we adults are distrusting our young people more and more. We worry about that the general behavior of teenagers indicates a decay in the world we once knew. We blame parents, we blame television, we blame war. Popular media seems to indicate that society is raising a generation of ever more petulant young savages. I just don't see it. I would describe our fear of youth as a receding trust in ourselves which prevents us from making the connection with adolescents that is so necessary for them to make sense of the world.

I've finally found a librarian who, I believe, is up to the task of teaching knitting without being overly judgmental or demanding of teenagers who are undoubtedly still finding their way in a harsh world. The main thing is to make the task enjoyable and rewarding. I don't think it is particularly difficult. It may take time, patience, and some understanding, but that's also what we get back.

Karaoke saves lives

At the moment I'm watching Alain de Botton discuss status-conciousness on a PBS show based on his book "Status Anxiety". His questions about spiritual richness, material wealth, and what people aspire to when pressured to want it all in a democratic society are poignant when considered from an educational perspective. What should we be teaching our children to want? Is it really OK to tell a child that he or she can be anything they want to be (like a pop star) when they may not have the tools to acheive that dream? Well, I don't know, but I am determined to do what I can to try to awaken the potentials of all the kids I work with, and I'd like to think that a kid might one day discover they're unique talent while they're singing a karaoke tune. Or not. Maybe they'll just have fun singing, and isn't that enough sometimes?

Onion Article

Dewey Decimal System Helpless To Categorize New Jim Belushi Book

DUBLIN, OH—Members of the OCLC Online Computer Library Center's Editorial Policy Committee, which oversees the Dewey Decimal System library...

Drop DOPA!

Drop DOPA!
Originally uploaded by libraryman.

DOPA is the worst of the worst and it's up to librarians, really all workers in the public sector to save democracy - yeah, I said it - save democracy by opposing this legislation and telling our senators to oppose it.

What the Deletion of Online Predators Act (DOPA) would do is cancel federal funding to organizations that do not filter social networking sites. So librarians and teachers and couselors are not professionals? So parents and leaders and children themselves do not have the right to make informed decisions? This legislation operates on the principle that our lives are ruled by fear and that the poor and underprivileged (those that rely on publicly available Internet time, by the way) aren't smart enough to know how to keep themselves safe online. And to librarians and library workers out there: there's a job we have to do, namely teaching information literacy. It's not always acknowledged and it often leads to more difficult and thornier questions, but the world is better for it.

Here are some thoughts on my reading about youth participation in libraries. I’d like to write a much longer essay on the subject. I feel very strongly that parents and educators should look to models of participation and real-world applications of concepts in trying to solve some of the biggest problems with our current education model. For now let this be an outline of some basic principles that I can build upon later:

Youth Participation: why it works, why libraries should make it a priority

1. Youth Participation is not a new idea, the concept of youth being out of the work environment until they are 18 years of age is actually the new idea. We provide choices for our students as to what they would like to do as a career, but these choices need to be applied at some point. Internships and independent study was a solution once students went to college, but the indications are strong that students in high school and grade school need this kind of experience too. In NYC, the education department has made more high schools “specialized”, but this does not always mean that students are actually able to participate in and learn skills and trades in their schools.

Here is an opportunity for libraries to bridge a divide between conceptual, classroom learning and real-world application.

2. Youth who participate have a greater stake in the community environment. This is demonstrated in the reports I cite as well as in my own experience working with teens and groups in the community.

3. Public Libraries are the perfect venues for a youth participation model. They can structure an environment that allows for the mistakes that youth must make in order to learn. Libraries can also provide un-structured learning that will help foster decision-making where staff is always available to provide structure and guidance.

4. Youth participation in an organization can act as word-of-mouth marketing, meeting the expectations of the public, allowing youth to become more familiar with the organization, and fulfilling a deep need not always met in low-income communities.


Articles Read:
Making Youth Participation and Service the Common Experience and Expectation of all Youth: The Story of Youth Service America
by Michael McCabe
What Works in Youth Participation: Case Studies from Around the World
Edited by Silvia Golombek,Ph.D.


New on the Shelf: Teens in the Library
Summary of Key Findings from the Evaluation of Public Libraries as Partners
in Youth Development, A Wallace Foundation Initiative
Julie Spielberger Carol Horton, Lisa Michels 2004


An Overview of alternative Educaton by Laudan Y. Aron
http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411283

Just came across a really good piece of advice that is pertinent to my work world – from the current issue of ESQUIRE magazine of all things - in an article about improving health and well-being they suggest changing the way you use your lunch hour:
“…run errands…go to the gym. Grab lunch on the way back and eat it slowly over the course of the afternoon. You’ll get the energy you need from the food, but you’ll get it slowly, as you need it, and you’ll avoid that 3:00pm urge to close your door and take a nap [emphasis added].” [Esquire, May 2006, p.112] These are the kinds of tid-bits I’d like to work into a training I’m contributing to on the management of Out-of-School-Time. What role does our own personal health and energy play in our ability to manage stress? Well, as it turns out, a big one!