Big mouth strikes again...

I have recently changed my approach to the library presentations I give to students.
This quarter I decided to not stand in front of the class and yamber on and on about how to search.
I asked for a topic and we searched it. Not only in the virtual library, but with the Googler, and public library. We evaluated websites to determine if they were experts, if the material had a bias, was the information from a primary source and so on.
I explained that searching a topic and only coming up with 6 hits through the discovery tool did not necessarily mean that was all that was there.  I recommended changing key terms, and also looking at bibliographies of works they were already using. Here I explained is a treasure trove of materials that could have useful information.
My hope is that the students were not bored and that they"got it."There was a lot more conversation and afterwards the faculty who was teaching the class seemed very pleased. Next quarter,I am going to prepare it out a little more, because it wasn't super polished, but I think hitting a few bumps along the way gives a real picture on how researching works.


My library workers constantly hear me spout off about information literacy, critical thinking, active research, and the like, so I  have also decided to give them a new assignment before their quarterly review. Typically, I give them a database or resource and ask them to answer some questions about it. This time I will  give them a topic and they have to provide me with an angle for a research project. They don't have to write an actual thesis, but they will have to exercise the info skillz and present me with something that they could use if they were writing an undergraduate paper.

I recently read "Teaching Information Literacy Reframed," by Joanna M. Burkhardt and I  really liked  it.
The exercises provided are really great. Not only to use as presented, but as a jumping off point when teaching information literacy.
I find that many in education love to throw around the term, information literacy, but many don't know what it means, and even more do not know how to teach it.

This book definitely offers practical exercises, tools, and terminology for someone who is actually going to teach information literacy.

Islands in the Stream

I read a lot of materials regarding library space, libraries 2.0 (and beyond) and how to keep libraries relevant. But it seems like much of the literature is geared toward other librarians, which is totally fine and helpful, but at times feels like preaching to the choir.

Maybe I am not making sense.

Below are two random thoughts.

If I was a library director manager person, I would make short and long term plans to bring excitement to the branch or branches.

The idea would be to chalk up as many checks in the win column a week, month, and year. 

There would be a lot of misses I am sure, but if you are really unsure something will work tell the higher-ups that it is a "pilot," program or event. A talk I went to once called it a "safe word," in reference to trying something new. Also, even though I don't particularly care for meetings I think debriefs are good after events take place because then everyone involved can provide their perspective. Being a community member would be important too. I would be on committees and I would want to get to know the local politicos and key business folks too. Also, anyone else who could be considered harder to see or identify. Everyone deserves to be part of the conversation. And really it is library for crying out loud. The only all-inclusive place left in any community. 

I am a sole librarian at the college I work for and I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work with other academic librarians side by side. It is hard for me to be the expert on all things the school I work for covers. It would be nice to be able to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to collaborate with on academic endeavors. With that being said, there are many librarians in the school system I work for and a few of us got together and did a presentation, which is now going to be a chapter in a book. Yes, the book is geared toward librarians, but the material is library manager specific. 

Information literacy is my gig. My mission is to help the students become better researchers. I know that many K-12 schools don't have librarians anymore and that their research is done either at home via the interwebs, or at their local public branch.

Maybe there should be a librarian reality show, or George Clooney should narrate a documentary about librarians who are really bitchin' and do cool things. 

Some of the masses have forgotten about libraries. How to be noticed again?