Showcase Was Just the Beginning

Okay, after sweating over deadlines over the last few months, I nearly missed the big one. Happily, I did get my showcase project together in time, complete with GROWTh brochure and PowerPoint presentation (albeit just the first part). I also did a portfolio timeline to illustrate how my learning journey has spanned the last three decades.

Now the real work begins. It's time to start expanding and updating the "Search Me...!" presentation so we can start using it. You, my illustrious readers, can help by reviewing it and posting your feedback here on my blog. I plan to post updates as it comes together this summer, after which I hope to use it in a college prep program in the fall.


Showcase was a lot of fun, as usual. Although I understand the value of independent, distance learning in the 21st Century, I have to admit my favorite parts of LATI were the face-to-face gatherings. Not only was it nice to network with folks, the food was pretty good, too!

Here are a few pics from Showcase, held June 19.

My display—compact yet compelling.


Compared to other displays, mine was vertically-challenged.


Honore does the honors.


So glad it's over!

Showcase Project

I've loaded part of it to the bottom of this blog, but haven't yet figured out how to get the narration to play. Many of the slides won't make sense without narration.

Things are further complicated by the fact that I'm building the darn thing in Office 2007, while Google Docs only supports Office 1997-2003.

←Hair ripped out over my 35 LATI resource evaluations, officially due today.

A Whole New Mess?

A few reflections on the first three chapters of Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind:

[Note: This entry is a work in progress.]

Pink's book centers on the idea that the post-information age economy will require right-brained thinking—i.e., a creative, synthetic approach that is qualitatively different from the past. Whereas past "progress" was attained through the agricultural, industrial and information revolutions, Pink now sees the beginning of a "conceptual age" in which less rigid, goal-directed thinking is more valuable than the old systematic approaches.

While the "three A's" that Pink identifies—Abundance, Asia, and Automation—have definitely transformed the world's economy, my question to him would be: Aren't these things unsustainable? Continued abundance has already wreaked havoc on the environment, Asia is already severely overpopulated, and automation—essentially a fuel-based phenomenon—is bumping up against the earth's environmental limits. If we move past these stages of development without questioning whether they really constituted progress, where's it all going to end? Is Pink's hypothesis about the conceptual age predicated on us continuing to push up against the limits of sustainability?

Resource Evaluation Matrix

Sexy post title, I know.

Okay, I'm being sarcastic again. But those close to me are aware that I've been bashing my head against the wall over the 35 resource evaluations we have to submit for LATI. I've only entered 17 so far and they are due next week! Where did the time go?

My plan is to pull the rest of them together before the weekend. To that purpose, I had to make a chart to keep track of all the subject categories and genres we are supposed to cover. Rather than e-mail it to myself over and over again, I'm keeping it in Google Docs, so I can continue to update it over the next few days.

While we are allowed some overlapping of items, I believe the chart is necessary to make sure that I have a total of 35 different resources. That's because the "counter" on the intranet tallies things a second time if you copy and paste them into a different category. So using one resource in two different categories results in a total that is artificially high.

At least, I think that's how it works. The LATI coordinators attempted a clarifying explanation a couple of weeks ago, but I can't say that I was any less confused after reading it.

Google-MedlinePlus Challenge

1. Topic: Pancreatic cancer.

2. Google search on "pancreatic cancer" brought up about 3,030,000 hits in 0.32 seconds.

3. Top three hits:

General Information about Pancreatic Cancer, National Cancer Institute (http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/treatment/pancreatic/patient)

"Pancreatic Cancer," EMedicineHealth (http://www.emedicinehealth.com/pancreatic_cancer/article_em.htm)

"Pancreatic Cancer," Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.org/pancreatic-cancer)

4. National Cancer Institute, the first hit, has the most useful, easy-to-understand information. The Mayo Clinic's site seems geared toward patients who will be treated there, while EMedicineHealth's site has only very basic information, with few details.

5. MedlinePlus search on "pancreatic cancer" brought up 349 hits, including a preview of its main article on the disease. Clicking through to that page brings up a comprehensive linked index to subtopics such as treatment, research and current news.

6. a. I found MedlinePlus's results to be more useful and accurate than Google's.

6. b. In future I think I will start with MedlinePlus for information on health issues. Google is a little hit-or-miss while Medline has more tailored results.

Yikes

Okay, I'm freaking out a little bit today.

Thursday we got our weekly LATI e-mail and it seems I am really behind in getting the work done for this program.

Last week we spent 16 hours in face-to-face sessions, which only left me four hours of outside work time. Meanwhile, there seems to have been extra homework assigned last week (the intergenerational programming, readers' advisory, basic reference challenge and health information modules all culminated last week)! And because I was gone all week, I was sorely needed on the desk at my branch. So I had zero time to work on LATI assignments just when those assignments were heavier than usual.

One of the e-mails we received noted that we should be spending roughly 45 minutes on each resource evaluation, completing four to five of them a week. That would mean a commitment of nearly four hours a week—practically all my time off the information desk—just on resource reviews. Is it any surprise that I'm waaaay behind on those reviews?

Today we are scheduled to be in Baltimore all day. Again, I'm out of the branch and expected to be there tomorrow. Yesterday I was on the information desk for all but a half hour, and I needed that time just to recover from the rush of reference questions we had. Tomorrow the most I can expect is to have about three hours off the desk, but even that's not enough to get caught up at this point.

I realize that I'm probably kvetching to the choir here, but there just isn't enough time to do the assignments for this program. Again, I will be using my personal time because my branch simply doesn't have any leeway with extra hours right now.

Am I alone in feeling utterly overtaken by LATI assignments? I seriously feel like giving up sometimes.

Up the Downward Compatibility Staircase

I got a new laptop computer over the weekend. Exciting, yes?

Not exactly. Yes, it's nice to have all that extra memory and storage. I was looking forward to it and it's great. But there's a down side.

It's called Windows Vista.

Yeah, you've heard the stories. Turns out that they're true. In the interest of progress Microsoft appears to have upgraded itself out of compatibility with things like my not-very-old Netgear wireless router. So my fancy new laptop can't connect with the Internet except through a cumbersome Ethernet cord. So much for progress.

In the computer world it's called "lacking downward compatibility," and it's a common problem with Vista, judging by all the complaints I've seen. What it means is that the new stuff can't talk to the old stuff very well, if at all. What it implies is that I may have to upgrade my other technology (i.e., purchase a new wireless router) just to use Vista.

Downward compatibility isn't a problem just for computer geeks, though. It's something libraries are grappling with as well. In our case, the newer technology—online databases, the Internet, e-books, talking books, and learning software on CD-ROMs—sometimes don't connect all that well with the "old" technology: books.

Part of the problem is that there are so many new forms of information storage and retrieval that it's difficult to juggle them all. Or juggling them comprises an additional burden. A good case in point is this LATI class, with its blogs, e-mail, discussion boards, and assignment modules. Jumping from Web page to Web page has made me yearn for an old-fashioned, linear syllabus to guide me. It's also led me to form some new questions. Just because it's electronic, does that make it better? Just because we can blog, does that mean we should?

But there are other ways lack of downward compatibility plays out in libraries. Many teachers in my community—doubtless frustrated with students cribbing their assignments from questionable Web sites—now routinely require their pupils to use at least one or two books as resources for research projects. Their definition of "book" is pretty straightforward: information that is printed on actual paper with actual ink, and bound into a volume.

Problem is, many of today's "books" don't fit those specifications, and other information resources are starting to move away from the ink-on-paper model as well. What that means is that volumes on the shelves aren't being replaced as often, so many are less current than their electronic versions. It also means that a broad selection of printed materials on a given topic may no longer be available, because they've already been supplanted by online versions.

So how can we offer current information that also satisfies educators' demand for published information with integrity? Clearly we need to start thinking "outside the covers" if we are to meet this demand in the future.

But first we have to recognize that, as seductive as the new technology may be, it's still expected to be downward compatible, to serve the "old" requirements of a good education.

Rhymes with Time Management

No offense meant to the LATI coordinators, but in my experience "time management" has usually been a business buzz phrase for "too much to do and too little time to do it properly." So you learn to cut corners. After all, something's gotta give.

All the time management in the world isn't going to make up for the fact that I have to be on the info desk for 15 of the 20 hours I work each week. And mine is a busy library. So I am reading the Pink chapters and other books at home, on my own time. Likewise, I know I'm going to be spending some time outside of working hours doing some of those 35 resource reviews, because I would like them to mean something, not just toss them off like so much busy work.

Also, I have to wonder, isn't "time management" one of those "left-brain" activities that assumes a given task can or should be completed in a finite amount of time? That human beings are interchangable cogs when it comes to performing certain tasks? Think about it.

I'd like to think that the right-brained "work-smarter-not-harder" theory is really the key to time management, but my experience is that something always gets left undone. That's the nature of priorities—you perform triage to do the most essential things, which usually end up being finite tasks rather than big-picture conceptual brainstorming.

A case in point: I had to spend one of my hours off-desk today weeding a section of the library that has become way too tight. It's a task that waits for someone to have time to do it.

Half-Baked and McGolden

One of the readings we're set to discuss today is a New York Times article by Ralph Blumenthal on how the University of Texas at Austin has gotten rid of all the books in its undergraduate library to make room for a 24-hour "digital learning lab," i.e., a bunch of computers.

Okay, don't panic. I did, and it doesn't help matters. Take a few deep breaths, and listen. It's not what you think.

Further along in the article we learn that they haven't tossed the books, just moved them to other locations around campus. And UT still has the larger Perry-Castañeda graduate library, no longer the purview only of grad students.

UT's situation reminded me of a distinction I made between the University of Maryland's two libraries when I studied there in the early 1990s. Hornbake, the undergraduate library, had fewer volumes, less specialized information, and always seemed to have a lot of distracted undergrads milling about. I recall that it was generally noiser and had fewer of the specialized resources I needed for my classes in secondary education.

McKeldin, the graduate library, had a larger, more sophisticated collection, attracted more focused students, and was, in my estimation, vastly superior to the other library.

I remember parodying the distinction at the time by thinking of the two libraries as "Half-Baked and McGolden."

So what UT has done, essentially, is keep its McKeldin intact but redistribute its Hornbake collection to other locations around campus. Presumably this includes moving some titles to the graduate library and also to smaller departmental collections.

Okay, so now that we've gotten the scoop and calmed down a bit... what of it? Is it a good idea not to have an undergraduate library stocked with volumes? What signal does it send to undergrads that their central repository of books has been replaced by a bank of computers?

One answer: It tells them that books are not as central to an undergraduate education as computers. Maybe it also tells them that research in books is only for relentless pupils willing to track down a volume in some obscure campus location. Or that the random discovery of titles on the shelves is irrelevant to their learning experience.

But is that really all there is to it?

Of course not. It would be narrow-minded to believe that as human knowledge expands the methods for storing and accessing that knowledge should remain static. Granted, being published still indicates that the information in question has been through some kind of vetting process, an examination (and presumably validation) by educated peers. But the last 20 years have seen the publishing industry begin a remarkable transformation. Books, periodicals and reference works are now routinely published on CD-ROM or online. When I began working in online publishing in the mid-1990s it was known as "new media." Now the "new" is a misnomer.

Undergraduates at UT may not discover a title of interest while wandering among bookshelves, but they are just as likely to discover that title online, then electronically reserve it at the graduate library or a departmental collection. And academic periodicals—the mainstay of most college libraries—are now accessible online in subscription databases, freeing up voluminous space previously occupied by hefty bound volumes. This is a change that makes a lot of sense. After all, libraries are meant to house ideas, not just paper.

Several times a week I receive a request from a student for one or two books on a given subject, not because the child needs information on that topic, but because his or her teacher has required that they list at least one book among their sources. It's backlash against the use of Google—random online searching with little concern for the integrity of Web sources. I have been frustrated a few times when I suggest using an article from an online periodical, only to have the patron refuse the information because "it's not from a book."

Instead of reinforcing the polarized books-versus-online debate, teachers and librarians need to begin to respond to the changing landscape of information storage. And if that means making one library primarily electronic while the other remains more traditionally paper-based, maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Bear With Me for a Brief Rant. Regularly Scheduled Programming Will Return Shortly.

So far LATI has been a little convoluted in its methods. I understand that a big part of the training is becoming comfortable navigating various electronic media, so in that respect it may be intentional that we have been asked to jump through a few hoops to get to things.

But so far the specific class assignments and their deadlines are not clear to me. Or, if clear, they are often obscured by too many side trips of "discovery." Mainly I am concerned with completing the requirements of the class within a reasonable allotment of time. That requires prioritizing, which depends on knowing what's mandatory and what's incidental. And as I noted in my last post, more is not always better—that holds true for clomping around online to find assignments, as it does for other activities.

I'm not talking about eschewing the spirit of discovery that the program espouses. I'm just saying that the actual syllabus for this instructional unit should not be a seemingly random part of that discovery. Another way to put it: I wish there was one simple list of tasks that we are supposed to do, rather than a this-week and next-week lists on the PDFs, constant references back to the 23 Things site (which has a different schedule for completing the tasks), and suggestions that we print out an e-mail and use it as a checklist. While sorting through these materials this week I've been tempted to ask: Will The Real Syllabus Please Stand Up?

Eggplant 2.0

Well, it's mid-February, time to finally get some of those New Year's resolutions underway. So for dinner my partner and I assembled a batch of Weight Watchers^® eggplant parmesan. The good news about this recipe is that using less oil to cook eggplant means less fat. The bad news is... er ... have you ever tasted undercooked eggplant?

Back into the oven with the casserole for 45 additional minutes, and voilá—a new and improved (and palatable) dinner.

So what do eggplants have in common with my library associate training (apart from their uncanny resemblance to Richard Nixon, that is)?

Sometimes the basics are not enough. You need to jazz things up a bit. Cook the eggplant a little longer, so it reaches a value-added state. Here are a few more examples:

But does the same hold true for the Web? Or has our love affair with technology all gotten to be a bit too much? It's one thing to move libraries into the 21st century for quicker and more equitable knowledge retrieval, but is online always better?

I'm still pondering questions like that one. For instance, if your library has a Facebook page, is that a newly-essential conduit of information to the public, or is it window-dressing—or worse—pandering? What goals does it aim to achieve, and how do we measure progress toward those goals?

These, and other philosophical questions will dog me through the spring, I'm sure. As will another long-burning question: Barney—dinosaur? Or eggplant?

A Quotation on Learning

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it.

—Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

For our first assignment we've been asked to find a quote that reflects what we believe about learning. When I saw this tidbit from TR I just knew it was going to be my quote.

Yes, it has an arrogant edge to it, as if the listener can do no wrong, so why not get crackin'? What else could you expect from this larger-than-life architect of American imperialism?

But I like the emphasis on self-directed learning, the implication that the need or desire to learn something is all that is required to independently achieve it. To "get busy" finding something out is to take matters of learning into one's own hands.

Roosevelt also hints that experiential learning is the way to go. To me, hands on work has always been the most successful teacher. Walking through the steps teaches more than reading through the same steps, just as empowering a library patron to search a database will yield more results than exploring it for him.

What I really like about this quote, however, is its infectious can-do optimism—its unmitigated faith in human aptitude. That faith is a perfect jumping-off point for learning something new. Naysaying has no role to play. No excuses—just jump in there and do it.

Bully!

Amy Bloghouse

My word, blog design is not for the faint of heart. Having basically zero mastery of webpage design I generally opt for a shortcut: bootlegging someone else's XML and then tinkering with the code until the page looks more like mine than theirs. It is time consuming and often frustrating, but who said life was supposed to be pretty?

This blog still doesn't look too appetizing yet. I suppose I'll continue trying to rehabilitate it until it appears more respectable.

LATI and Yeti

Greetings, and welcome to the first post in my LATI blog. What is a LATI, you ask? As you can probably tell by the way it sounds, it's very much like a Yeti, the "apelike animal cryptid said to inhabit the Himalaya region of Nepal and Tibet," according to Wikipedia.

Unlike the Yeti, however, the LATI resides in Maryland's public libraries. Like the Yeti, the LATI is a huge, dangerous animal capable of vast destruction.

Yet both the Yeti and LATI have a tender side, as evidenced by Bumble in the much-watched holiday favorite, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.