What is Democracy?
I was responsible for today's LST097 lesson, "Organization of Information." In preparation for the day, the students were required to read chapters 1 & 3 from Everything is Miscellaneous, by Weinberger. I used these chapters to set the stage for a quick lesson in CAT searching.
Points I pulled out from chapter 1, "The New Order of Order."
The CAT. The way the public - our students - access that which has been organized by catalogers using the Library of Congress cataloging system.
I did a CAT demo here, hopefully effectively illustrating the technique of moving from keyword searching into subject searching - showing students how to find out what subject terms to use, and how to access the books they need and that are relevant. - it was a very quick demo and so the students went away with our great Savvy Searching in the CAT guide.
The next step was to move beyond the CAT, and what LC subject headings have to offer us, and into chapter 3 of Weinberger, "The Geography of Knowledge." This chapter started with Dewey, who was definitely a bit out there, as was his system, but he also held the core tenet that library patrons needed to be able to walk into a library and know where to find what they were looking for. No more one library arranges things by size, another by color, and another by date acquired...Libraries are for the people, they're democratic.
And what Dewey did way back then set the stage for - jump in your time machines and travel with me to the 21st century - what companies like Amazon.com are doing now. We live in an age of the Democratization of Information.
Pause here: I ask the class what this means. No response. So I ask what democracy means. Also, no response - not even lightbulbs in eyes. One student finally offers that it's people choosing our own leaders.
Close - and yes, that is a part of it. I explained Democracy as "anything for the people, by the people - something that we create together." Information creation is now democratic.
Which brings the question of, "What's next?"
Who will be the authors of our information?
Who will catalog that information?
How will we access that information?
I emphasized how exciting this state of being is. We all - and they all - have the opportunity to influence how information is created and accessed on a daily basis, and will chart the course for future interactions with knowledge.
Some heads nodded, others spun. I'm happy to say that no one had glazed eyeballs :) One student astutely pointed out that "Hey wait a minute! Doesn't that mean that anybody can post whatever the heck they want, even if it's not right?" (ahhhh, teachable moment!)
I closed with this: "Information creation, storage, and access is changing, and you will be a large part of how that comes to pass..."
My hope is that I inspired the students, helped them to understand more about the system we currently have in place @ the library, and sparked thought about what new systems might look like.
Blog topic for the week: How do you think library materials should be organized, and how should patrons/customers gain access to them?
Feel free to join the LST class in posting on this topic...I look forward to reading their, and your, ideas!
Points I pulled out from chapter 1, "The New Order of Order."
- "If only there were a way to arrange the stuff in stores so that every possible interest could be captured." - This quote set the stage. Isn't it everyone's desire to be able to walk into the place that houses what you want (whether it be a store, library, or something else) and easily find what you are looking for? - Students cited many different reasons they liked their own favorite stores: good service, easy-to-find products, specialization in a type of product, spontaneous discovery...
- The Library has a lot to do with how our world is organized, and it all stems back to Library of Congress subject headings (according to Weinberger - and I think he has a point or two to make here!) - There are many different ways to organize things, subjects being a primary way. Beyond that there are paper catalogs, shelf finding aid systems, or online methods of organization, which leads us to...
The CAT. The way the public - our students - access that which has been organized by catalogers using the Library of Congress cataloging system.
I did a CAT demo here, hopefully effectively illustrating the technique of moving from keyword searching into subject searching - showing students how to find out what subject terms to use, and how to access the books they need and that are relevant. - it was a very quick demo and so the students went away with our great Savvy Searching in the CAT guide.
The next step was to move beyond the CAT, and what LC subject headings have to offer us, and into chapter 3 of Weinberger, "The Geography of Knowledge." This chapter started with Dewey, who was definitely a bit out there, as was his system, but he also held the core tenet that library patrons needed to be able to walk into a library and know where to find what they were looking for. No more one library arranges things by size, another by color, and another by date acquired...Libraries are for the people, they're democratic.
And what Dewey did way back then set the stage for - jump in your time machines and travel with me to the 21st century - what companies like Amazon.com are doing now. We live in an age of the Democratization of Information.
Pause here: I ask the class what this means. No response. So I ask what democracy means. Also, no response - not even lightbulbs in eyes. One student finally offers that it's people choosing our own leaders.
Close - and yes, that is a part of it. I explained Democracy as "anything for the people, by the people - something that we create together." Information creation is now democratic.
Which brings the question of, "What's next?"
Who will be the authors of our information?
Who will catalog that information?
How will we access that information?
I emphasized how exciting this state of being is. We all - and they all - have the opportunity to influence how information is created and accessed on a daily basis, and will chart the course for future interactions with knowledge.
Some heads nodded, others spun. I'm happy to say that no one had glazed eyeballs :) One student astutely pointed out that "Hey wait a minute! Doesn't that mean that anybody can post whatever the heck they want, even if it's not right?" (ahhhh, teachable moment!)
I closed with this: "Information creation, storage, and access is changing, and you will be a large part of how that comes to pass..."
My hope is that I inspired the students, helped them to understand more about the system we currently have in place @ the library, and sparked thought about what new systems might look like.
Blog topic for the week: How do you think library materials should be organized, and how should patrons/customers gain access to them?
Feel free to join the LST class in posting on this topic...I look forward to reading their, and your, ideas!
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