For the first time since the 90s, my email is actually first.last [at] domain [dot] edu. No numbers. No aliases. Just my name. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.
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Bigger role. Shorter commute.
I am happy to announce that on October 5, I’ll be starting a new job at Loyola Marymount University as the William H. Hannon Library’s Outreach & Communications Librarian.
My joy is bittersweet as I have loved working at Whittier College and will miss my colleagues. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the few years I’ve spent here, but I’m also looking forward to the new challenge!
Aletheia just drew a picture of the magnadoodle on the magnadoodle. She also just learned the word meta.
Metaphors we teach by
The metaphors we choose to describe library instruction matter, as Sarah Polkinghorne points out in her recent article for In the Library with the Lead Pipe, wherein she problematizes the concept of “teaching as entertainment.”
“In conceiving of students as recipients to be entertained, edutainment contributes to a transactional environment where students expect a fun experience to consume. As such, the edutainment discourse is incompatible with the active, constructivist aspirations articulated by the authors of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ new Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. For librarians who focus on critical information literacy, aiming through their teaching to problematize library and information systems and to equip students to contribute to change in the world, edutainment is even more irreconcilable.”
When I talk about “performing” for students in my own teaching, more often than not I mean stretching beyond my professional persona to become a more enthusiastic, engaging, and empathetic person. I’m not being disingenuous: I’m simply bringing out an aspect of my personality that I usually reserve for close friends and private settings.
Readers who are interested in learning more about how metaphors describe and create not only our language but also our experience should check out Metaphors We Live By [public library] by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. This book was the central critical text for my thesis in grad school and holds a special place in my heart.
QOTD: Assert, assert, assert
One must needs make and seize his soul, and then cleave fast to’t, or go babbling in the corner; one must choose his gods and devils on the run, quill his own name upon the universe, and declare, ‘Tis I, and the world stands such-a-way!’ One must assert, assert, assert, or go screaming mad. — John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor.
The 30-day challenge
At the beginning of last month, I challenged myself to get up every morning at 4:45 and walk the dog. Both she and I need the exercise and it’s a much gentler way to wake up in the morning than being jolted into awareness by a hot shower or cup of coffee. This is the first time that I’ve tried a month-long challenge, an idea that I picked up from Matt Cutts. It was such a success that I’m working on a new 30-day challenge this month. No spoilers: apparently, telling other people your goal [SLYT] is a great way to ruin your motivation to complete it.
Instead, here is a list of 30-day challenges that I’m planning to attempt, many of which were inspired by Cutts’s list. Which one should I do next? What others do you recommend?
- write a page of text daily
- eat vegan
- get 8 hrs of sleep each evening
- give my partner a new compliment each day
- meditate for 30 minutes daily
- eat more slowly (take 10 seconds between each bite)
- remove the work email app from my phone
- stretch daily
- record 1 second of video per day
- stop reading the news
- play the ukulele daily
- draw a picture daily
- discover something new to be thankful for each day
- learn a new word daily
- take a non-selfie picture a day
- no facebook
- no refined sugar
- no caffeine
- no TV
- set a vacation message on my personal email
- get rid of one household item each day
The goal of each of these isn’t necessarily to learn a new skill or develop a new habit, but to see how I react to a concerted effort to change my daily routine. To spice things up. As I said, I’m working on one of these already for the month of September. I’ll let you know how it goes in a few weeks!
Dancing in the library lobby
The Roesch Library at the University of Dayton is doing some amazing outreach work to engage students with library services. Communications and Outreach librarian Katy Kelly recently wrote about their new library tour photo hunt for the ALA’s Programming Librarian blog:
“Another clue that is entertaining to watch is, ‘Every year during final exams, the library offers FREE chair massages, free pizza, free taxi rides, free coffee and tea, visits from therapy dogs, and sometimes a midnight dance party in the lobby. Take a photo of a group member dancing in the first-floor lobby.'”
Back in 2012, Kelly also wrote about how the programming team monitors social media to design relevant and timely finals activities:
“My daily interactions on Twitter via the library’s account show students that someone is listening. We’re also able to make an impact by making some of their comments, suggestions, and ideas into realities. I think a lot of students are really clever and have funny and important things to say. Twitter is a great way to see what students are saying and an outlet for finding creative programming ideas by students.”
Katy’s creativity doesn’t stop there. If this inspires you, check out some of her recent posts in the ACRL Library Marketing and Outreach group [Facebook].
QOTD: Imagine it possible
“Do not imagine that, if something is hard for you to achieve, it is therefore impossible for any man: but rather consider anything that is humanly possible and appropriate to lie within your own reach too.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.19.
The internet isn’t what we hoped it would be
Currently, I’m reading two articles by journalist and blogger Quinn Norton. The first discusses the convergence of encryption, journalism ethics, and digital literacy in light of recent hacks and data dumps. Of particular interest to librarians and teachers, Quinn urges that:
“Kids should be learning about networks from a young age, and the basics of how computers work. This means teachers need to learn about these things, need to make it their business, if their business is still preparing child to be functional 21st century people. From there, kids will know how to demand a better network as consumer and political actors when they grow up.”
The second article is also a good read for those interested in digital literacy. In “The Hypocrisy of the Internet Journalist,” Quinn describes her experience building tools that track consumer behavior online. As she notes, credit card companies have been doing this for decades and most people probably wouldn’t bat an eye at it. What is more insidious is the way in which, Quinn claims, these tools can change your behavior.
“What I’d do next is: create a world for you to inhabit that doesn’t reflect your taste, but over time, creates it. I could slowly massage the ad messages you see, and in many cases, even the content, and predictably and reliably remake your worldview. I could nudge you, by the thousands or the millions, into being just a little bit different, again and again and again.”
My reaction to consumer “analytics” oscillates between a stoic agnosticism and utter Stallmanism. I like seeing ads for bow ties when I visit the New York Times. At the same time, I often contemplate building my own secure system at home and completely dropping off the social media landscape.
Somewhat related is Jennifer Granick’s recent talk at blackhat 2015:
Ask a magician. Ask a librarian.
I’ll be honest. I was teary-eyed by the end: A Love Letter to Librarians.
That said, it’s worth noting that as an academic librarian, I don’t feel this necessarily applies to me. And yet, the bibliothecarii of higher education ultimately perform the same duty. We introduce students to the mysteries of greater knowledge and the joy of delving deep into the complexity of a topic. We help them to develop the mental tools for lifelong learning and liberal thought. As I see it, we are less magician and more scientist in our approach to student learning.