Webinars and Change

The webinars I attended were all pretty good.  None of the ones I saw had any major problems, and everything seemed to go really smoothly.  The topics of helping a specific patron group in the library and copyright all gave me new information, so I learned a lot, too.

I was impressed with our ability to plan and present a webinar.  It really wasn't quite the struggle I was anticipating.  In fact, the worst part for us happened when we lost our sound several times in the middle of the webinar.  Also, even though we reserved a room in the library to hopefully cut back on the potential of technical problems, we still lost internet a couple of times.  Oh, and our recording did some wacky things.  So all in all, we did figure out how to pace and use the webinar tool Elluminate relatively painlessly, but we had unforseen problems that we couldn't really control.  Grrr.

I can see myself participating in and using webinars through the rest of my career.  Webinars allow you to present useful information to those who are long-distance.  Webinars are convenient to attend, and they can be archived so that if the timing does not work, you can still view one you missed.  Webinars are a great way to keep up with the goings-ons in libraries.  Plus, webinars are a great way to exercise new technology skills.

Keeping up with technology was the focus of the articles we had to read for today.  In all three articles, the importance of change and keeping up with change is important for librarians, especially in their role as teachers.  In the Semadini article, teachers took time out of their contract hours to highlight an area in which they wanted to become better teachers, and then met to discuss how their methods were working.  In the Blowers & Reed and Fontichiaro articles, teachers and librarians trained their peers to use technology effectively and to be able to quickly assist students and patrons should something go wrong.  In today's world, it is especially important to keep up with technology - for technology is now even being used to teach others about technology.  


I especially appreciated the picture in the Blowers & Reed article in which three successful older women held up their mp3 player prizes which they had won after completing the technology program offered through their library. As I grow older in my profession, I can see myself not wanting to keep up with all the new stuff that is certain to arrive.  But, like these women, I know I will have to take the initiative to stay current in my field.

Using Twitter

Last week in class Paul Courant came and spoke about the Digital Public Library of America.  In the midst of his talk, he mentioned that he thought textbooks would all eventually switch to online formats, and would become a necessary package to purchase along with a student's tuition.  As an SI student, I have become used to the numerous readings online, and so the physical textbook does not matter so much to me anymore.  The ability to have online textbooks and be able to access them whenever and wherever I want without lugging them around in my backpack would be a blessing.

Our second topic of the night was embedded librarianship.  I think the embedded librarian can be a great addition to a school department.  For myself, I do not think I would necessarily enjoy this position, because I would want to have fellow librarians on hand to run to if a patron came to me with a question I could not find the answer to.  I would also not want to be on edge about my embedded position being the first one cut in an economic slump.  

During this past week, we had to engage with Twitter as a resource for staying in touch with the library world, and I maintain that Twitter is not my favorite thing.  First, while I did have a Twitter account, I rarely use it, because I do not find it very useful or interesting.  All the information thrown at you in Twitter seems choppy and and there is no way to keep up with all the tweets ever posted on your account.  Publishers, librarians, and authors seem to throw up any sort of posting on Twitter.  Some of the news is interesting - perhaps an interesting article about an author or will be posted.  But most of the news seems to be more about what this author is eating for lunch, or what book this publisher recently released.  I also do not enjoy having to sift through the random information, find the few tweets I am actually interested in, and then click on the link to go to a whole new page.  On the whole, I find Google Reader a much better resource for staying in touch with the library world.  Blogs can be chosen based on the blogger expertise and personality, and once you find a blog you like, you can stick with it and generally be pleased with the postings.  Blog postings are long and generally thorough, and they have a title so you know what information to expect in the post.  Because of the nature of the blog post, bloggers do not post every little detail about their lives.  I much prefer the blog for library news.  When I check Google Reader, I know what to expect; when I check Twitter, I dread picking through all the useless bits of information to find the few that appeal to me.  Although I will say I did have fun designing my Twitter account.

Mostly About Webinars

Last week in class we presented our one shot workshops.  Overall, I thought they went quite well.  It was interesting to learn about the different topics groups had prepared for us, as well as the methods they chose to teach the material to us.  We had power point slides, handouts, discussions, and a bit of drawing and writing in order to help effectively communicate new material.  I really appreciated the handouts because when I forget everything the day after the workshop, the handouts will remind me of what we covered, as well as enable me to follow up with more research on topics that interested me.  My one shot workshop also went well, I thought.  Just like the book club, presenting wasn't nearly as awful as I anticipated, and I think people seemed interested in our topic, which was how to deal with challenges to books in a public library.  Also, I felt prepared going in, and that was a big help in monitoring time during the workshop.

For next week, we had to read up on webinars.  I watched a webinar called "Libraries are Essential: Connecting to Youth in Your Community."  The three panelists included two public librarians, and one school librarian.  Summer book clubs were discussed a lot.  One of the public librarians said make sure to talk to school librarians about the assessment of summer reading programs, and the school librarian said it would be great if they could team up with public librarians to create a list of summer reading materials.  The desire to work together seems clear, but perhaps the actual implementation leaves a little to be desired.  In class, we have talked a lot about the need for public and school librarians to work together, and I think that in working together, much more can be accomplished when teaching students.  Another point from the webinar that was especially interesting to me was when a public librarian said that there is an interest in seeing "libraries do some type of online version of their summer reading program...just to address another need and address some of those kids who aren't participating in summer reading programs." What an interesting idea - an entirely online book club. I want to try it.  

The teen public librarian from the webinar suggested reaching out to teen leaders in the community - perhaps dance and step teams, a male modeling group, etc. - to bring in for teen events. She had a very positive experience with a male modeling group, herself. She also recommended keeping an eye out for trendy things: Old Navy and Target for example can give insight into teen room color schemes, fonts, and other design elements. Finally, she suggested that the library can be a great place for the "super uncool." Teens often feel comfortable and even have fun making valentines for their moms, or participating in party games (such as a pin the kiss on Taylor Lautner game - haha) at the library.

So now having watched several webinars, I feel much more comfortable about giving one, especially since we will be presenting in groups. Also, the Montgomery and Matos articles for today discussed the benefits of webinars in teaching college students. Webinars can be a great way to connect to college students throughout a course, rather than only being able to give all library instruction in one class towards the beginning of the semester. Also, librarians that are designated for specific school departments can be very helpful to the faculty and students of that department, but the faculty and students must take advantage of the librarian in order for the librarian to remain embedded in that department.

In Ch. 7 of How People Learn, it was interesting to read about all the teaching techniques that resulted in students being able to think within each subject area, rather than just be able to spit back facts, dates, and equations. I wish I had had teachers like these, especially in the math and science areas, because some of those classes and experiments sounded much more beneficial and fun than how I remember math and science being in my elementary and high school. I also agreed with the author that in order to best teach learning with understanding, teachers must have a firm grasp of their subject and the major themes and ideas within that subject. By learning with understanding, students can also transfer their newly acquired thinking skills to other subjects in school.

Book Clubs and Intro to One Shot Workshop

My group had our book club this past week.  After reading some very interesting stories, I was curious as to what each book club leaders would have us discuss.  It turned out that we did get asked some interesting questions.  We also had an interesting mix of stories, and we had a very talkative group, so discussion was not lacking.  Leading our own book club was a very good experience.  Just having run through it once lets me know what things I would change for next time.  I can imagine that running through a book club several times would be very beneficial for cleaning things up and one can quickly become a pro at leading a discussion.  Our biggest problem was trying to get a word in edgewise.  Perhaps a talking stick would help.  :)  Overall, I am happy that all these teaching experiences such as the screencast and book club have not been as horrible as anticipated.  In fact, with a little practice, all are surprisingly manageable.

Our next project is the one shot workshop.  In class, we discussed how to create a one shot workshop. Basically, the one shot workshop includes announcements, icebreakers, giving new information, processing new information, and reflection.  I appreciate that with all our assignments, we fill out the ADDIE sheet.  This reflection process really drives home the purpose and implementation of each assignment.  By reflecting on all our projects, I feel that I will better remember and apply what I am learning now to my professional career.  So, I am looking forward to the one shot workshop for that reason - to add another very useful means of teaching to my repertoire.

A quick note about HarperCollins: I think publishers and librarians need to compromise on this issue.  So let's compromise, and then let's move on....I'm getting sick of reading angry blogs.

Ethics, Workshops, and HarperCollins

ALA Code of Ethics

I appreciate this short code of ethics, and I agree with everything it says.  I'm just wondering about the "resist all efforts to censor library resources" phrase: last week, I walked into a public library in which the rather provocative Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition magazine was prominently placed in the magazine collection.  In general, it seems like the only censoring the public library is in charge of is to place materials in their respective age level collection: children's, YA, or adult.  Am I wrong?  Is anything else censored at all?  Is it OK to have a swimsuit edition magazine out in the open, where young children might see it?  Is there any possibility to have a sort of "mature" section in a public library?  Just curious.

"Creating a Library Assignment Workshop for University Faculty"

I think it is important for academic librarians to be made aware of student assignments requiring the use of the library.  This way librarians can more effectively and efficiently help students.  I also think it would be really helpful if public librarians were to be made aware of local school assignments.  The public library can supplement the school libraries, and students can really benefit from a public library's resources, as well as become comfortable and familiar with the public library (and librarians) at a younger age.  Overall, collaboration among librarians and teachers will lead to better learning and a better library experience for the student.

HarperCollins


After reading several of the online blog postings and websites about the whole HarperCollins issue, I would have to agree that HarperCollins is being rather unfair here.  I'm surprised by the huge response that librarians have generated against HarperCollins.  Are librarians often so passionate?  Or is this just a particularly upsetting issue?  I would like to say that I am impressed with the effort librarians are making to boycott HarperCollins until the publisher reverses its 26-loan-ebook policy.  I am looking forward to joining such active librarian professionals who care a lot about their patrons and jobs.

Book Clubs

On a brief note, I was surprised by the overall negative reaction to Socratic Seminars this past week in class.  Everyone's past bad experiences and skepticism with this method of learning made me think again about the value of the Socratic Seminar.  Are they really that bad?  It seemed kind of like a good idea to me.

On to books clubs, the primary focus for the week.  I really enjoyed the guest librarian who came and spoke with us about book clubs, primarily for teens, in the AADL system.  She brought some books with her focusing on topics such as good books for a fantasy book club, or good recipes to make for this book club.  I enjoyed rifling through the pages of these books for fun, and I am looking forward to checking them out for further perusal.  She also talked about ways in which to spice up the book club.  Some of her suggestions included creating a playlist based on the book and skyping the author, or listening to an author interview online.  I like all of these ideas.  As a future librarian possibly going to take on a teen book club, I think the idea of a playlist would especially connect with teens, and skyping the author would bring more meaning to the book under discussion.  And of course, food can only be a good thing.  There are so many possibilities and ideas to bring to a book club, all of which can offer more insights and meaning to the book under discussion.

As for the book club we have to prepare for class as an assignment, I have just finished reading the stories for my book club group, and I am certainly intrigued.  Between stories about a computer taking over the world and a tiger who teaches a princess about love, I am rather looking forward to my group's book club discussions.  I am curious about which audience each book club/story will be directed towards, and what techniques each group will use to promote discussion and bring more insights to the reading material.  This will help me to decide which techniques are the most interesting for members of the book club and what will work well to promote more helpful discussion.

Transfer, Socratic Seminars, and Book Clubs

Last class, we discussed the importance of transfer. I always find it surprising when classes during one semester have much in common with each other.  For example, in 643 we are learning about creating surveys, transfer, and prior knowledge, and in 623 my group has to create surveys for a bunch of teenagers.  Using the knowledge from 643, my group can better create these surveys which will hopefully end up being a more accurate response from the teens, so that my group can gather the most beneficial data for our report. 

In terms of transfer, our current classes in SI should be providing us with a lot of transfer, since these are skills that we will need throughout the rest of our professional careers.  Most of my classes are providing me with good skills that will be very useful, but here is an example of one class which is not helping me very much: SI 500 is lost on me, because (to use terms from 643) I have no prior knowledge to offer to the class.  In addition, the lectures are not introduced on a basic-enough level for me, and so discussions, which may be useful, I cannot follow either.  So, overall I cannot transfer any material from 500 to other classes, because I do not understand anything.  Sad, I know.

While I cannot speak in 500 discussions because I do not know what is going on, I nevertheless really like the idea of the Socratic Seminars as discussed in our readings this week.  Based on what the authors have reported, I think it is great that student participants can collaboratively figure out major themes and ideas from their newfound reading strategies.  I also find it interesting that both articles reported that body language is important.  The one teacher, Mrs. Metzger, asked her students to observe the body language of those students involved in the inner circle of the discussion.  Just as the students must decipher additional meaning in reading with comprehension by paying attention to details such as words that capitalized, so too must students pay equally close attention to their peers while in discussion - this way, a comprehensive understanding and communication is acquired.

So are Socratic Seminars where the book club is heading?  "The Book Club Exploded" article also presents a lot of engaging ideas for book clubs today.  Just as the Socratic Seminar gets more people bouncing ideas off each other, it sounds like the more books used in a book club, the more ideas and collaboration among discussion members.  And the more interactive the book club (with more books, more use of media, and perhaps some guest authors), the more happy members are with the book discussions.  And this means people will continue to happily make use of the library.  I am a fan.

Learning by Making Connections

How People Learn - Ch. 3

• infants habituate - they stop responding to repetition
• children learn language through speech and action combined
• children do learn even when there is no reward other than self-satisfaction
• although born with no language, children can develop most of the basics of story telling in the first three years of life
• adults help children make connections between new and familiar situations

Put Understanding First - Wiggins and McTighe, 2008

• the mission of high school is not to cover content but to become thoughtful about and productive with content
• often, schools cover lots of content before they allow students to apply the content
• rather, schools should teach content and application simultaneously
• "purposeful and effective use of content is the ever-present goal"

Thoughts:

In class we talked about using formative vs. summative assessment.  I thought it was interesting that not only does formative assessment determine the student's level of understanding, but it also encourages student feedback.  I think that formative assessment can be very helpful for making students excited about learning, just because it encourages student involvement.  Students are not only able to improve their work, but they can reflect on what they learned.  In this way, students can better connect with their teachers in order to make more connections with their learning.

In Ch. 3 of How People Learn, it says that adults help children make connections between new and familiar situations.  Even before schooling begins, children are learning by making connections with physical objects or with language.  Children learn language skills through speech combined with actions.  It struck me that in all the examples, it seemed that infants were learning actively and applying their learning to other situations.  This active learning is also what high schoolers want.  In Wiggins' and McTighe's article, high school students wanted learning to be interesting.  This article argues once again for learning with understanding - rather than just feeding students the learning content, teachers should make connections and applications with the content.

It seems that students want to make connections to their teachers and peers for feedback, so that they can grow and learn from mistakes, resulting in non-boring learning.  Students also want to be taught content along with application.  Ever since  these students were infants, they have been  learning with application, such as when learning to talk, they associate words with physical objects and situations.  By enabling students and children to make more connections when learning, teachers better enable their students to make more connections in the real world - I thought such an interesting connection was hearing McDonigal talk about applying gamers' skills to the real world.  (By the way, McDonigal seems like a virtuoso to me - she applies her expert knowledge of video games and gamers to come up with new, creative, and useful ways of using that knowledge.)

A Cycle of Teaching and Learning

This Week's Readings:

How People Learn - Ch. 6

Interesting Points:

• learner centered instruction includes the sensitivity to the cultural practices of students and the effect of those practices on classroom learning - pg. 135
• "Overall, learner-centered environments include teachers who are aware that learners construct their own meanings, beginning with the beliefs, understandings, and cultural practices they bring to the classroom." -pg. 136
• give students the ability to think positively about making sense of their learning, and ask questions when confused -pg.137
• assessment must focus on understanding, not memory -pg. 140
• "Feedback is most valuable when students have the opportunity to use it and revise their thinking as they are working on a unit or project" -pg. 141
• Community centered environments: willingness to participate, willingness to make mistakes, grading practices, and attention from the teacher are all things that vary based on the student's cultural background -pg. 145-146
• learning environments should connect with the broader community including homes, community centers, after-school activities, and business -pg. 147

Formative Assessment and the Design of Instructional Systems - Sadler, 1989

Interesting Points:

• "The indispensable conditions for improvement are that the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher, is able to monitor continuously the quality of what is being produced during the act of production itself, and has a repertoire of alternative moves or strategies  from which to draw at any given point." -pg. 121
• feedback and self-monitoring = formative assessment -pg. 122
• teachers can find it hard to make a judgment of quality without comparing and basing it on other students' work -pg. 126
• teachers' conceptions of quality can remain static until changed by "fresh evaluative activity" -pg. 127
• lots of exemplars (key word = lots) are important for students to distinguish high vs. low quality -pg. 128
• "Something ordinary, therefore, is not "remark"-able.  Something out of the ordinary invites attention." This something out of the ordinary could mean a positive or negative comment. -pg. 133
• the learner has to be able to interpret the teacher's feedback -pg.135
• the teacher should be up-to-date on current expertise in order to pass knowledge on to the student -pg. 138
• students can collaborate with peers in learning and assessing each other's work -pg. 140

Thoughts: 

Learning is communal in that students should not only learn from their teachers and peers, but they should also be able to apply and gain knowledge across their entire community, including school and home, and other places they frequent.  Students come from a variety of diverse backgrounds, and so they take previous experiences into the learning environment.  Since students are encouraged to learn from their peers, their unique cultural and educational backgrounds will be shared as well.  Sadler mentions in his article that a teacher's evaluation skills remain static unless confronted with "fresh evaluative activity."  Perhaps with a wider variety of students coming from different cultural, or even simply different family traditions, or learning styles, a teacher can keep his or her "evaluative activity" fresh.  If students learn with understanding, rather than memory, it will be best if the students are allowed to learn drawing from each of their unique perspectives and backgrounds.  When the students incorporate their previous knowledge to their teacher's standards of quality, the students will benefit by learning these standards of quality, and so will achieve something out of the ordinary.  And whether this something out of the ordinary is positive or negative, the students will regardless be able to learn something new through feedback from the teacher and peers.  This feedback will hopefully encourage students to ask questions when confused, and not be afraid to look foolish - for their cultural and educational backgrounds are certainly not "wrong" or "foolish."  In addition, their teacher will be continuously challenged by new evaluative skills needed to address the out-of-the-ordinary.  

To bring this full circle back to Monday's lecture, it strikes me that the definitions and methods of teaching information literacy skills are constantly evolving.  I would like to propose that perhaps this is due to the constant need of librarian professionals to keep up with students' constantly fluctuating educational and cultural backgrounds.  Each student has his or her own unique learning style; teachers must also constantly fluctuate and evolve their teaching methods and evaluation of students' work and progress in learning.  It seems to me that effective teaching and learning is a collaboration between teachers, students, and peers, and so must constantly evolve to keep up with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, as well as the resulting new evaluative skills and perceived standards of quality.

Finally, in navigating between all this fluctuating teaching and learning, I would also argue that the multiple exposures to teaching and learning styles may better enable students' learning to be synthesized.  While learning more and more from teachers and peers through evolving standards of quality and differing backgrounds, this accumulated knowledge may better serve to open students' minds to new possibilities and experiences in learning, as well as enable students to better connect with teachers and peers as a result of previous exposure to other educational and cultural backgrounds.

Citing Citations Using KnightCite

Here is my screencast on using KnightCite, an online tool for compiling bibliographies:

http://www.screencast.com/users/nam5/folders/Jing/media/40c859ae-387c-4466-ace5-f20c3672966c

Information Literacy for Young Adults

Here are three articles about young adult information literacy:

Gilton, Donna L.  "Information literacy as a department store: applications for public teen librarians."  Young Adult Library Services 6.2 (2008): 39+.  

Interesting Points:

• public libraries are the only libraries which attempt to fill all aspects of teen information literacy: information, instruction, and guidance
• the public library is open evenings, weekends, and in the summer, which makes it convenient for teaching information literacy skills
• information literacy includes orientations, tours, basic computer instruction, as well as instruction on finding and evaluating information
• example of teaching information literacy skills: the librarian works with the teacher at the school - this way, instruction can be done in the library or school, and librarians can gain more of a sense of homework assignments and books that teens may want/need by supplementing the school library
• OR the the teacher works with the librarian at the library - this way, teachers can learn about the public library outreach and culture programs, and joint knowledge of the community may be useful to both the school and library
• the most effective public library instruction is often a result of traditional programming, networking, and outreach

Gorman, Michelle.  "Wiring Teens to the Library."  Library Journal (Net Connect Supplement Summer 2002): 18-20.  

Interesting Points:

• WFY (Wired for Youth): a program in which 10 libraries in Austin, TX offer computer stations for young people to learn and practice information literacy skills
• WFY has proved beneficial because: it reaches many Austin kids, the WFY stations are geared for the specific population at which they are located, and thousands of new patrons have come into the libraries for WFY
• classes include web design, graphics manipulation, audiovisual production, Internet usage, word processing, and desktop publishing
• the Youth Advisory Committee is comprised of WFY users who meet to brainstorm ideas for events and the direction of WFY
• money and staffing are the biggest problems when considering a program such as WFY

Doshi, Ameet.  "How Gaming Could Improve Informational Literacy."  Computers in Libraries 26.5 (2006): 14-17.

Interesting Points:

• librarians and students both want more conversational, two-way learning lessons in library skills
• not solely computer gaming, but also other unique ways of gaming: for example:
• give students a mystery to solve requiring them to search through databases and talk to reference librarians
• use evidence-based games in which students must find the answers online through a database in order to determine how to fix a car
• play a Jeopardy-like game in which the author found that students were more interested in learning what the right answers were to questions, rather than keeping track of the score
• computer games: could possibly recruit computer science and engineering students to create graphics 

Thoughts:

After class this past week, I better understand the value in teaching skills that are (1) easily transferable and (2) relate to the student's prior experience.  In the three articles I found above, I have discovered that the goals and procedures of teaching young adults information literacy skills relate to providing these patrons with knowledge that is easily transferable, and that also relates to his or her prior experience.  

In providing young adults with knowledge that is transferable according to Gilton's article, the public library is the only library that is able to provide young adults with all three aspects of information literacy: information, instruction, and guidance.  In this way, the public library enables teens to find information not only at the public library, but also at academic and school libraries as well.  Also, if the teacher and librarian work together as Gilton suggests, the teen will understand that both people have helped in his learning process, and will feel more comfortable with approaching and acquiring more information from both people.  As Gorman discusses in her article, knowledge that teens learned while using the WFY program first enabled teens to participate in classes by simply playing around on the computers, and then in turn classes enabled teens to apply their new skills to schoolwork and entertainment.  In today's world, teaching teens transferable literacy skills will go a long ways in enabling them to navigate successfully through the wealth of online information.

Addressing teenagers' prior experience in teaching information literacy skills is useful in that according to Gorman's and Doshi's articles, learning these skills can be fun.  Young adults already play computer and video games as a source of entertainment.  Gorman makes a point of saying that the teens in WFY initially played games on their computers before becoming interested in classes and learning other skills.  Doshi says that students become much more interested in learning information literacy skills when there is some sort of game involved, whether or not it is a computer game.  The appeal of gaming may relate in part to being able to interact more with peers in the process of learning, or perhaps gaming just simply appeals to the teen's sense of adventure and desire to determine the outcome/answer to the game.  Through gaming, teens can also adopt a new role other than that of the student forced to learn.

Collaborative Librarians as Teachers

Apparently the new role of the librarian is teaching.  In class I learned that in order to better prepare for our roles as teachers, we will be creating screencasts, webinars, and a blog (this one).  All this computer stuff is new to me, so I must say I am not entirely looking forward to another semester spent learning new technology.  Also, I am slightly apprehensive that librarians are heading in the educational direction, because I purposely dropped the education part of my undergrad music ed degree.  I am slightly curious to understand why teaching is such a large part of the field now - is it teaching colleagues, or patrons?  Why do librarians all of a sudden have to teach so much now? - Is it because technology is moving so fast patrons and/or colleagues cannot keep up with it?  I'm also curious as to whether public librarians have to teach as much as academic or school librarians.  With new information and in accessing information, it is important for librarians to remain connected to each other.  Colleagues and professionals in the field can help a lot by keeping each other in the loop with what is going on in the library world.  With online tools such as Twitter and blogs, it seems that librarians can keep track of almost anybody or anything in the field.

A particular method of instruction is the workshop.  I found it interesting that the reading from Create the One-Shot Library Workshop by Veldof covered all the pros and cons of the different options in working with or without others to produce a workshop: the options are working individually,working individually with a sounding board, working with a partner, or working with a team.  Here at SI the answer would be with a team.  I am still surprised by how many semester class group projects we do here.  I do believe SI will have more than prepare me for working with all types of people.  I wonder if the best results for such a workshop would be the result of a team effort?  It seems unlikely that someone would want to create a workshop entirely individually with no feedback whatsoever.  My theme for the day seems to be working collaboratively in connecting with fellow librarians to remain knowledgeable and accomplish instructional tasks.

Drawing from the Yelinek, Johnston, and Griffis articles, it looks like creating instructional tutorials, pathfinders, learning models, etc. online is not only beneficial to users, but is also cost-effective.  I would say that librarians working together as a team could most effectively utilize these various free online tools for instruction.  By working as a team, librarians can best anticipate users' needs by coming from multiple perspectives.  Hopefully as a team, the amount of time spent on creating an online tutorial could be lessened, and by using free online tools, the total cost of money and time would be quite low.  Users could greatly benefit in learning something new from such an efficient creation.

Reaching Out to Young Adults in the Public Library

Having read the YALSA core competencies, I was struck by how many of these points resonated with my quest in thinking about how to make the public library relevant to today's teens.  Ever since a fellow SI student mentioned to me that she thought public libraries would disappear in our lifetimes due to lack of funding, I have been wondering how the public library can become of better use and service to young adults.  For example, one of the YALSA core competencies says "Encourage young adults to become lifelong library users by helping them discover what libraries offer, how to use library resources, and how libraries can assist them in actualizing their overall growth and development."  This point sums up a lot of the rest of the core competencies.  In order to encourage teens to use the library, librarians must figure out how the public library can best serve teens in a public space - and make sure to incorporate teens in as much of the planning and services offered as possible.

In my role as a librarian, in thinking how to best serve the young adults of today, I need to figure out how I am going to best "Become familiar with the developmental needs of young adults..."  The textbook How People Learn will perhaps help me understand how young people learn.  So far the most interesting points I learned from the textbook are that students need to learn with understanding, in that actually understanding concepts rather than just memorizing facts will enable students to more readily use what they have learned and to better accomplish future tasks.  Also, learning that enables the student to creatively adapt to new situations is more beneficial, rather than learning which only enables the student efficiently improve upon the same task over and over.

In order to further improve my service to the young adult population in a public library, I think I may want to look into taking a young adult psychology class or a comparable class in which I learn how young adults think and what exactly their brains are thinking about.