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.