Future me/Past me in the 2.0 digital world (Thing 23)

23 Things taught me that I actually know a lot more than I thought I did about Web 2.0. It turns out that I had intuited my way through this brave new world with such people in it, and I shocked myself more by own proficiency than by the challenges.

I tried to take the hardest path on every Thing, taking on the challenges instead of taking the easy path through technology I was comfortable with. I emphasize “tried,” however, because I know I wasn’t perfect and that I didn’t always take the harder path when it was before me.

What I most look forward to learning more about is podcasting myself. For my family, I would love to podcast to my nephews who live back home in Kentucky. For reasons of vanity, I just think podcast anecdotes would be fun to include on my personal blog.

I really enjoyed the 23 Things and honestly have no suggestions for improvement. I felt there were learning opportunities for all levels of experience and instructions were always clear and entertaining. I liked that there were blog prompts to keep Thing-ers on track and that there were Challenges for ambitious Thing-ers to really push their skills.

I’m glad NEFLIN plans to leave the 23 Things posted so that I can revisit Things and follow more links. The more information I am equipped with, the more I can share my knowledge with others.

(Thing 22) Janus: Looking back, looking forward

When I look back at Thing 1, I see myself reaching for new tools as I instantly added Google Analytics to my site and a widget for links in my blog sidebar. I was eager to learn more L2.0, and I couldn’t wait to read others’ blogs. I still check in on other blogs from time-to-time, but I have to admit I’ve cut back on that. I hope my 23 Things pals keep up on their blogs and let me see that window into their library world. I also wanted to use my 23 Things to network, and since meeting Jim Morris at Lake City Community College and linking up with some people through blog comments, I think I’ve succeeded at that.

I am about to take a NEFLIN course on Drupal, and I hope the class can spur my resolution to stay on top of my 23 Things blog. 23 Things has inspired me to always look for more links and to chain to new places. I want to resolve to write about my future discoveries and conquests and continue to explore links on 23 Things that I had to skip.

Thanks, 23 Things, for bringing me a huge network of links to follow. I look forward to learning more.

(Thing 21) Research my research

As soon as I read Thing 21, I started ROFLing. As a student, I would have plugged in all my data at the start of the semester, tuned out every e-mail reminder, and crunch it all at the last minute. As a professional, I can think of tons of reasons to use calendar tools to help keep me on track with events like upcoming conferences.

The “About RPC” states: “The traditional details of bibliography cards, outlines, citation formats, etc. often result in a view of the research process as daunting and tedious. Our goal is to help you bring the student to see the research process as empowering and rewarding.” I remember looking at bibliography cards as ridiculous as an undergraduate, then learning how significant a role they can play in crafting a good research paper in graduate school. A tool that helps students learn how to conduct research in a format they’re probably already familiar with—digital—brings the project from “tedious” to manageable.

Even facing resistance from professors about sharing in the research process, librarians can still participate when those one-shot information literacy students enter the library classroom. Assuming that the professor is skilled at the instructional principles of conducting a research project, the library instructor need only send a brief e-mail to the professor to see what his or her research topic will be for the semester. If the librarian reaches resistance even to this, a quick course catalog review of the course description should give an understanding of core themes. Adapting the RPC principles of research to guide him or her, the librarian steps into the role of research mentor in the information literacy course. As I’ve seen similar skills implemented at Flagler College, the research mentor role plays out when students ask for “that librarian that taught my class that one time.” Clearly, some information connection is at work between student and librarian.

(Thing 20) Read it! Online, offline—reading skills

First, a few fragments from my experience exploring the “Learn” section of Thing 20:

• Added TwitterLit.com to my Twitter. I love to Twitter, and I love to read—this seemed like an obvious union of two of my hobbies.

• Reading Trails sounds like the way I use the internet, following links to create the paths I want to pursue, but I didn’t join at this time as I have a big enough book backlog.

• BookBrowse also looks like exactly my thing, giving me Amazon style recommendations based on what’s popular and providing reader reviews.

When I receive reference requests from students at Flagler College, most are disappointed when we have access to an ebook only and not an actual hardcover print copy. “You don’t have that as a regular book?” is a question I get all the time. However, there are students who are thrilled about ebooks. They can go home and use their own computers to access the ebooks at their digital pace. They can print pages from their home computer and choose what chapters to follow based on “Search in text” features.

Last week, I had a student approach me with a journal and ask how she could print it. She only wanted a digital version, not the awkward bulky bound print. I was a little shocked, but I showed her how to use the photocopier to get what she wanted. There were only two pages from the article that interested her, which makes me think of “micro-research,” like following hyperlinks to get only the text you need.

I read the article “Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?” in the New York Times. I really connected with the concept of digital reading and its unique literacy, and I’d like to respond to a few quotes from the article.

“One early study showed that giving home Internet access to low-income students appeared to improve standardized reading test scores and school grades. ‘These were kids who would typically not be reading in their free time,’ said Linda A. Jackson, a psychology professor at Michigan State who led the research. ‘Once they’re on the Internet, they’re reading.’”

Children suffer if they are in a digital divide, a group which often includes low-income and minority students. As the article mentioned, students who do not develop internet skills may not become valuable employees. Their skill-sets may not match requirements of higher paying jobs in the Information Age.

“’Kids are using sound and images so they have a world of ideas to put together that aren’t necessarily language oriented,’ said Donna E. Alvermann, a professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia. ‘Books aren’t out of the picture, but they’re only one way of experiencing information in the world today.’”

Watching my husband teach digital literacy, art of film and video, and web-based skills, I directly see the way reading and interpreting audio and visual literacy plays into the skill set he teaches. The Flagler College Communication Department teaches information literacy as a core concept of their required major coursework. For the students’ future careers, multiple media formats are necessary to communicate effectively with diverse audiences, a trend growing across many majors.

Some critics argue that the digital age is destroying literacy, but my experience is that digital literacy is altering the meaning of traditional literacy concepts. As more libraries evolve to Web 2.0 concepts, digital literacy is necessary as much for the practitioners as it is for the users. How could I have completed Thing 20 without knowing to chain through a cloud of hyperlinks?

Ning Thing (Thing 19)

I joined Ning group Library 2.0 almost as soon as I started 23 Things. I wanted to be as in-the-loop and connected as possible, staying ahead of the Thing curve as I learned more and more about web extensibility and its application to libraries.

Today, to flex my Web 2.0 skills, I logged into Ning to do a couple of things. First, I clicked onto a post link titled “CMS is required for better library services.” Although I felt the argument for CMS over LMS wasn’t presented in the post, it did give me a moment to think about CMS. I had planned to use some library free-time to play around with Drupal this summer and determine if it would be useful to Flagler College’s small special collections holdings. I’ve always said I wanted to get my information into MARC and drop it in our OPAC, but I wonder what Drupal will do?

Thinking of Drupal somehow made me think of another interest, FRBR. When I read about FRBR in print resources, it seems quite promising. I thought I’d do a Ning search and see what the real world was saying on the virtual world. My search results weren’t huge, but I did find lots of interesting links posted by commenters that looked like they’ll be fun to follow when I have the chance.

Interestingly, one Ning commenter called for pronouncing the Library 2.0 group dead. He posited that everyone had migrated to Facebook. Hmm. While the Ning board seemed relatively inactive when I logged on (did I see tumbleweeds just then?), I wonder if he’s right about Facebook? Library 2.0 in Ning felt so physically dispersed as to demand different perspectives. Facebook seems like cliques of people who already know each other, which I believe produces redundancy. Where will L2 take the L2-ers next? Reminds me of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.

Facebook v. Myspace (Thing 18)

I already have both Facebook and Myspace accounts, but they are personal sites I use for communicating with friends, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing my links here.

Myspace is already a thing of the past for most social network users. The common belief is that Myspace pages are used to sell products and promote bands, and Myspace friend requests are almost always someone trying to get you to promote their band for free or catch your interest in adult services. As both a Facebook and Myspace user, I see far more adult entertainment spam on Myspace than I have yet on Facebook.

While some younger users feel that Facebook is going to be the next Myspace let-down now that anyone can join, it still gets heavy use. Since I see Flagler College students’ use of campus computers in the library, I can gauge how much time is spent on Facebook versus Microsoft Word.

I like Facebook better than Myspace because of the tools it brings together. I can watch my friends’ activities and updates as they scroll across my home page in real time, I can check and see who is online at that moment and chat with them in real time, and I can join groups that express my interests.

Groups that I join are often created by my friends regarding an upcoming event, where I get requests for social club meetings that are coming up. I also seek out and join political groups that reflect my concerns, especially during this past presidential election. It was probably pointless to say “Christine supports this presidential candidate,” but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Ultimately, Facebook has been the social meeting ground that Myspace tried clumsily to attempt. Myspace required blogs to broadcast information, and posting notes to friends was so cumbersome that it took days to have a simple online conversation. Facebook is probably on the verge of becoming obsolete as its newer better replacement rolls out, but, for now, it’s the place to be.

Listening in (Thing 17)

I listened to the Library of Congress podcast, “Voices from the Days of Slavery: Stories Songs and Memories.” Fountain Hughes was interviewed as part of the WPA collection in the 1930’s, recounting his days as a slave and his time after slavery was abolished. He described being a slave as worse than being treated like a dog, and he described his days after slavery as being lost like cattle turned out in a field.

The Library of Congress podcast was easy to find and easy to use. On the loc.gov home page, there was a link on the left that said “Podcasts.” I clicked on it to see what I could see, and Mr. Hughes’s summary interested me: “Fountain Hughes reflects on his childhood experiences before and after the end of slavery in Charlottesville, VA. Among other events, Mr. Hughes recollects slave auctions and the hardships endured by freed slaves after the end of the Civil War.”

I have been wanting to try my hand at podcasting, and had hoped to get one up for this Thing, but it didn’t happen (microphone/computer compatibility issues). Podcasting is a project I definitely look forward to experimenting with in the future.