February 2009 Archives

There has been quite a lot of fascinating discussion on Cole's blog lately about the current state of K-12 education, and how we can effectively reach out to K-12 educators.  I've loved reading the ideas shared, the frustrations, and the overall impressions of the K-12 landscape.

Having worked in a private school in New York City, of course, I am completely spoiled in my vision of what education can and should be.  Because of that experience, however, I also feel realistic in my expectations of public schools.  My local K-12 counterparts are not working in resource-rich, moneyed private schools with demanding parents who can be demanding and force more rapid change because they are paying over $20K per kid.  (There were good and bad sides to that last part.)  My local K-12 friends are dealing with more limited resources, mandated curriculum, standards and assessment, a unionized environment, and a much more intellectually diverse student body. 

All of this was a long way toward introducing the topic for this post--strategies for connecting with our K-12 partners.  When I moved here eight years ago, I hoped to find a way to connect school, public and academic librarians.  As a school and public librarian myself, I wondered often about academic libraries---What were they teaching their students?  What were the challenges in the academic environment?  Unfortunately, I never encountered an easy framework for shared discussions with academic librarians.  Once I started work at Penn State, I knew I could help effect change in that area.

Five years ago, my wonderful colleague Lesley Moyo and I co-founded the Central Pennsylvania K-16 Information Literacy Network.  The Network really exists because of Lesley's persistence in making it happen.  Along with me, Emily Rimland has continued to develop the Network to this day.  Because there are so many challenges in every educational environment (including those that I've just listed above) we envisioned our Network as a place for librarians at all educational levels to come together, share ideas and connect.  We were careful not to construct our initial workshops as, "come and let us teach you", but rather, "let us learn from your experience."

I think this approach has been successful.  We have established a positive, thriving community of librarians who get together at least once a year to explore topics, and who email each other frequently in between.  We've discussed and strategized around important issues in schools, including the Pennsylvania State System of Assessment, and its (negative) impact on curricular inclusion of library research skills.  Personally, I've engaged my capacity to learn as much as I can about the challenges faced by my K-12 friends.

I have close colleagues now in our area schools and in our downtown public library.  Most importantly, I've learned from the insights, challenges and ideas of our local K-12 librarians.  I understand the advantages and limitations of their environment much more now.  I hope that they understand the challenges of an academic environment a bit more too.  Have we changed the face of school librarianship in the state of Pennsylvania?  Of course not.  But we have enabled a supportive community who can rally together and advocate for shared issues when needed.

If we want to reach out to K-12 teachers, it also needs to be a shared discussion.  And much as we have done with our area librarians, we need to go into it with an open mind.  What can we learn from them?  The librarians in our Network have consistently communicated their amazement that, in their words, "Penn State was interested in them and what they had to share."

Showing interest and acceptance is a first step towards developing a symbiotic K-16 community, where perhaps, together we can effect and implement real educational change.

This is what I have been waiting for---a way to assign Creative Commons rights and downloading capability to YouTube videos. (via LifeHacker)

Almost two years ago, I created a video (about the futility of library catalog searching) for a conference.  Post-conference, the video circulated around some different library communities, and was featured in presentations given at other conferences.  I'm no Michael Wesch, mind you, but it was neat watching people latch onto this video and virally share it among other librarians.

Of course, viral sharing also meant that attribution wasn't always there when it should have been.  And it meant that there really was no mechanism within YouTube for users (who were interested in downloading the video and using it in their own conference presentations) to download a high quality version of the video.

Of course, I still can't do that with my video today, but it looks like it is coming soon to more areas within YouTube.  Currently, you can see downloading and Creative Commons rights and attribution in play on Stanford University's YouTube channel (just click on a video and then look for the download link below the video).  It looks like an initiative that they have begun with specific (perhaps only a few higher ed.) partners, and may soon roll out more widely. 

Reinforces my belief that attribution and sharing are going to get easier and more intuitive as social media spaces grow and mature.

My friend Lazygal posted an interview meme, along with the offer that she would pass along the meme (and new interview questions) to anyone interested.  Of course, I had to take her up on it!

If you'd like to try this too, just follow these instructions:
1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I'll respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions.)
3. You'll create a new post on your blog with the answers to the questions. Be sure you link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Here are the questions Lazygal sent me (along with my answers):

1. What do you miss most about working in a K-12 school?  What do you miss least?
I was a middle school librarian in an NYC private school for girls prior to my work at Penn State. (This is where Lazygal and I met, as a matter of fact.)  There were so many things I loved at that school, but I especially miss the students and the technology.  The students were, of course, all amazing girls, and it was a privilege to get to know all of them and watch them develop as readers and researchers.  I don't get that sort of sustained interaction with students in my job here, and there are certainly days that I miss it.
The technology at that school was also amazing--and visionary (I know Lazygal agrees because she knows who the Director of Technology was at that time).  This was almost ten years ago, and we were doing things (in an entirely Mac/Apple environment, of course) that we are still struggling to implement in a Windows environment here.

What I miss least is the (relatively) set curriculum.  I never liked the feeling that if it was October, we must be studying Native Americans.  I like the fact that my work here varies tremendously from year to year, and even from class session to class session.  Nothing is ever set in stone.

2. What's your current philosophy of librarianship?
Oh, golly.  In academic libraries, we're still bridging the transition from a physically focused organization to one that is equally oriented towards the online library and online library services.  I feel like we can't change our orientation soon enough (especially with regard to building collaboration with campus IT).  In that respect, I suppose my current philosophy is that libraries and librarians must embrace and anticipate constant change and continual collaboration with partners located outside of our physical walls. 

3. How has that changed over the years (if it has)?  I'm not sure the circumstances have changed over the past few years, but libraries and librarians have been slower to catch on to this than they should have been.  My colleague, Lisa German, pointed out a fantastic JAL article on this topic by Debra Riley Huff: Web Services as Public Services:  Are We Supporting Our Busiest Service Point?

4. What's the one thing you're proudest of having accomplished in the past five years?  Receiving tenure and raising two terrific kids!

5. For all the newcomers to your blog, tell them something important about yourself that you don't think is obvious from reading previous posts.
Lazygal, I have no idea how to answer this one.   You now know that I was a school librarian, and in previous posts I've mentioned that I was a children's librarian.  I love children's books--picture books, especially.

Now, would you like to be interviewed?  Let me know!