E-Tech: Comments

Comment on "Analyzing Open House survey data"

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 14:05:19 -0500

I am thankful for your post. It was really helpful to me. Thank you again.

Comment on "Analyzing Open House survey data"

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:24:35 -0500

Interesting about the classes! I heard several profs/instructors this year say they were telling their students about it, but not requiring participation. Maybe that explains the diff. in required vs. hearing about in class?

- ANNE BEHLER

Comment on "OpenHouse08"

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:01:05 -0500

I was there and it was very cool!

- Cole

Comment on "A mismatch in perceptions"

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:52:39 -0500

Hi Scott!

I agree. It's interesting that academic libraries have not thought as much about the central role of helping their faculty curate and access personal collections of information. When we talk about bringing longevity to the concept of a library--this is a key role--essentially providing the tools for each individual to personally and powerfully manage their own 'satellite' library.

I just finished reading this report (that was fun), and no explicit mention of the role you identified in there, either. Developing personal tools to help faculty and other researchers manage their flow, organization and use of information, is, as you said, something that tools like zotero are starting to do. Academic libraries like the repository role---let the users come to us---but in the future the library is going to have to co-exist on the user's desktop, hopefully in collaboration with other information search and management tools. I think Zotero Commons is a move in the direction you've identified.

I have to say that if anyone is organizing their information efficiently, it is you. :) I learned more from our tour of cool Mac organizational apps than I have in some time. Tools like Delicious Library just aren't on most libraries' radar yet----but they should be.

Keep in touch!

- Ellysa

Comment on "A mismatch in perceptions"

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:06:59 -0500

Ellysa,

I was recently on a panel to introduce new faculty to PSU's College of Education. I can tell you that a number of us extolled the excellence of the libraries and the librarians in particular. Also, my mother is a retired elementary school media specialist, so I am not unbiased.

What I think libraries (and I think more important, librarians) bring is not just a repository (as you said) or as a guide to finding, using and evaluating information. What I think librarians increasingly do, and could continue to expand their value around is organizing our digital intellectual lives. Software like Zotero, which is one I know you love and work with, just scratches the surface of this. As an academic, getting access to the information via the library is not difficult, but what is happening to me is that I am getting buried in all that "access". I have downloaded more pdfs of articles than I could read in a lifetime. I have scans of book chapters, notes in various forms across multiple applications, and just a flood of new information I tag or scrape from the internet. What I need is a toolkit for organizing my local information (or my local links to information in the cloud) that allows me to be nimble, smart and creative without being bogged down in "access". The more information experts like yourself can help non-experts like me with that, the more valuable and central the libraries become to the academic enterprise.

- Scott

Comment on "A mismatch in perceptions"

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:05:02 -0500

Ellysa,

Another interesting post.

As a former commuter student, I wonder how students view libraries, especially students in each of various categories: commuter, non-traditional and traditional.

Nikki

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:06:56 -0500

I was looking for an online copy of that article and came upon your Blog.

Thanks for the positive remarks!

- Leo Klein

Comment on "Information literacy makes all the wrong assumptions"

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:21:02 -0500

I'm encountering all sorts of coincidences in my life this month. For example, I just read this article (or re-read, it's hard to keep track of what I read a few years ago!) on Monday. It was referenced in something else I was reading so I took a look.

While Wilder makes some good points, I think he would have done well to remember that old line about getting more flies with honey than vinegar (though I'm not sure why you would want flies). The inflammatory comments got to me a bit.

That being said, interface design can reach and teach a lot more people than what we can do in instruction sections. However, the problem becomes, how do you sell the interface? How do you drive people to use your search tools? How do you get people to actually use the help files? Admittedly, these are probably easier questions to answer than "how do you teach information literacy in 50 minutes while trying to accomplish course-related goals."

More than all that though, my biggest problem with the article is that he seems to embrace the idea of "good enough" information instead of "good" information. I don't think I'll ever be convinced that "good enough" really is good enough. If college is an apprenticeship in reading and writing, as Wilder says, shouldn't they be working with the best information rather than the most convenient information?

Sorry I'm rambling, but it really is a thought-provoking article. To wrap up, I think Wilder falls a *bit* into the logical fallacy of excluding the middle. I think we would do well to adopt his ideas about concentrating on better interface to reach more students, but I think this works better as a complement to information literacy instruction rather than a replacement for it.

- RUSSELL HALL

Comment on "Learning Design Summer Camp"

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:51:52 -0500

This sounds cool! I wish I had heard about it sooner!

- AMY DEUINK

Comment on "Digital literacy and content creation"

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:34:35 -0500

Ellysa - we're very excited to have Digital Commons working with the Libraries! I think there's some potential for DC to contribute to your research as well. Let me know if you would be interested in collaborating.

- Chris Millet

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:47:31 -0500

Absolutely!

- RUSSELL HALL

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:28:53 -0500

Well, perhaps neither of us have. But one can hope, right?

- ELLYSA STERN CAHOY

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:24:45 -0500

Perhaps I haven't seen many good interfaces. :)

- RUSSELL HALL

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:47:44 -0500

Nikki---thanks for that recommendation---I am putting Design the Obvious on my reading list. I am trying to get through 'Here Comes Everybody' now--it is taking me a while. (My reading has gone almost Web-only, sadly).

Russ--I love your statement that the expert user is dead...by suicide. :) I agree that we need to give them what they need rather than what's they want (i.e. what's at the top of the results list.) I think a good interface can inherently teach the user, whether they are expert or novice.

- ELLYSA STERN CAHOY

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:22:30 -0500

Ellysa,

This is very thought-provoking. In most regards, I think the expert user is dead...of suicide. For most types of searches and general users out in the world, "good enough" information defeats "quality" information nearly every time. However, as educators, I think it's our duty to give them what they need instead of what they want. Yes, this is probably me still tilting at windmills, but I just don't want to give in to the Googlization of everything. I'm not saying we need to teach them how to be expert searchers, but I'm saying that the basic one text box search screen helps maintain a level of idiot users.

On a happier note, I love your Blogust project.

- RUSSELL HALL

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:25:32 -0500

Ellysa,

I would recommend arming yourself with a copy of Robert Hoekman, Jr.'s Designing the Obvious for your next meeting as well. Some of the same ideas are there too.

There's also the old 80/20 rule (actually there are many variations of the 80/20 rule, I think): 80% of your users only use about 20% of the features, so why not keep the main viewing area clean by displaying only the most used features? The other features (like an advanced search) can be buried; the "experts" are clever enough to do a little digging.

Good luck! (Sometimes committees tend to feature-creep a project until it is no longer useful even for the people who wanted the features. Hoekman notes that often a disconnect from what people request and what they really want.)

Nikki

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "The Expert user is dead"

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:30:28 -0500

Thanks again for pointing out a great article, Ellysa!

- Dan

Comment on "Google Book project"

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:27:44 -0500

Check out the Little Professor's blog for her take on Google Books: http://littleprofessor.typepad.com/the_little_professor/

- Lazygal

Comment on "A convergence of literacies"

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:58:52 -0500

I think we are seeing the birth of rethinking this on our own campus ... the Digital Commons was founded to promote digital expression across PSU. What is emerging is a growing conversation that is focusing on the deeper issues you are pointing towards. It might be cool to invite one of the DC folks to your lunch. I'll be reading the article you noted as well.

- Cole

Comment on "A convergence of literacies"

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:52:47 -0500

Hi Ellysa,

I love Converging Literacies as a topic! Can we throw Media Literacy into the mix as well?

Students need to be able to deconstruct the images and soundbytes pieced together for before them. As consumers and as citizens, these skills are important throughout life.

As a Stealth-Bomber Parent, I long for a day when Digital/Information/Media literacy is emphasized across the curriculum in the same way writing is today from elementary to higher ed.

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman