Reading Promotion

Is this a role an academic librarian should take on? It clearly is a major part of an elementary school librarian’s job. They spend enormous amount of energy encouraging young people to read with a variety of programs. As a student progresses in school less emphasis is placed by the library on reading, there is less emphasis in middle school, and then even less in high school. By the time a student gets to community college and university I don’t think libraries do much to encourage reading at all. Yes, we support reading for course work and research. I’m talking about reading for the pleasure of knowledge and learning and then reading for pleasure and entertainment. I just don’t see it happening much with our patrons. Maybe this is just the community college level.

I don’t see young people reading newspapers or weekly news magazines either. They get their news online – hopefully not just from parezhilton or similar pop culture pseudo news sites. Of course this really makes me feel librarians have a very important responsibility to help students look critically at their information sources.

I’m trying to think of ways I can promote reading. We try to have new book displays, some topic specific displays, etc. Some I’ve thought were really pretty good—luckily we have a part time librarian who is very creative and a staffer that loves to work on these things—so I’m not taking credit for them. I just don’t see very many students browsing them. Yes, I know students are busy—but literally I see some of them spending hours online doing absolutely nothing. I know there is research on the positive physiological changes that happen in the brain with reading; some research suggests intelligence is increased.

Our collection policy is obviously focused on supporting curriculum. We do have a small budget for buying current paperbacks. Another librarian and I were talking about starting to buy some of the New York Times bestsellers and then setting up a special display of those. I know some of our staff members would really like that. I know we’re not a public library, and could not possibly fill that role. I think though I’m going to buy the latest best sellers and see what interest there is in that. We have a common book initiative that I’ve helped with. It really hasn’t been marketed well, nor has it received the faculty buy in needed for it to be successful. I’ve wondered what else I could do to promote reading.

Advocacy is a term that seems to be all over library literature. We have become a culture that relies on expensive marketing campaigns to sell products and expensive lobbyists to advance agendas for both profit and non-profit causes. With all the hot campaigning going on now; it almost seems like it’s not the best candidates that wins or gets attention rather the candidate with the best campaign marketing strategies that are successful.

The chapter on The Communities of Academic Libraries I thought made some good points. Library service is more valued when there is frequent interaction between faculty and librarians. The more you know your faculty the better able you are to support their needs, and the more you support their needs logically the more important they will find the library. Interactions with faculty don’t happen by chance. I think librarians really need to actively look for opportunities. Faculty members are not necessarily going to come to the library. I help with a film and speaker series at campus, and a related student club. Originally I got involved because I was interested in some of the events, but the side benefit is I feel part of the community at my campus. I have gotten to know both students and faculty. I’m not so interested in the faculty senate although a lot of librarians are involved with that. Dana Rooks in her talk also reinforced this. She said it is important to show the flag. I really can see the importance of librarians attending campus functions, and talking with people other than librarians at those events. Also, her point that faculty should not ever have a bad experience in the library; we have to meet their needs. This really is a big deal, and I have found this is especially not obvious to library staff members. First, we have to support to support faculty to be relevant and then you never know who will be on a committee voting for funding, etc. for the library.

Related to advocacy, but from another angle is something Budd talked about. Hierarchical management makes it easy to make harsh decisions, and most academic organizations operate to some degree with that culture. It is important for libraries to have a human face; it protects our interest and makes it harder for administration to make decisions that might negatively impact on the library.

Also in my case a lot of my work is done in a pretty open environment in the library, and my office has windows and is just off of the main area. I am very conscious that how I appear and that what I am doing in a sense is part of the market image of the library. The old stereotype that librarians just read, and don’t do anything else still hangs around. Also that librarians reading at work are just reading for their own pleasure, not job related readings. A very public person certainly reinforced that stereotype when in an interview she talked about how she loved being a public librarian because she could read all the books on gardening she wanted to. Maybe that wasn’t her intent to imply she read on the job, but it was interpreted that way by many people. Librarians need to advocate by letting faculty know what they are doing. I’ve learned from several librarians that if at all possible I always immediately attend to any faculty requests, but I try to let them tactfully know what I was doing that they interrupted. I want them to be aware that I do contribute to our campus and that although I do see helping them as of high priority—there are other valuable tasks I am responsible for. I think it is not a given that the faculty is aware of the many ways librarians support a learning community and what is involved in having a relevant library.

 

 

Recently I found taped to my computer a column from Heloise entitled “Noisy libraries rile readers.” First, I don’t think that it was left there as a comment that our library is too noisy; although that is a possibility. I think most likely it was left by one of our part time librarians that shares any articles she finds about libraries in the paper.

Basically, the article had complaints from patrons about noisy libraries. Such as “libraries used to be quiet…” and “you can’t concentrate in the library.” Another reader thought librarians are responsible to keep the whole library quiet, and there shouldn’t be special quiet spaces. Noisy people should be thrown out. Another reader complained of kids running around. I realize they were talking about a public library, but I think some of things hold true for academic libraries especially at the community college level as well.

 

Why are libraries noisier? First, machines like computers, printers, copiers, etc. add to the background noise so people talk louder. The libraries I use are small for their service area; the crowding makes the libraries noisier. I think people are noisier; there just is more noise in our lives than when I was young. TVs, radios, computers are running in so many people’s lives all the time. Young people don’t do all their studying in quiet. Not to say that sometimes they don’t choose to have quiet for better concentration, but often they are doing multiple tasks at once. The article complained librarians are noisy themselves. Well, you know I do talk a lot in helping patrons. I spend a lot of time doing one on one instruction, and plain and simple that interaction involves a lot of talking.

 

Should librarians go around saying shhh all the time? I don’t think so. I think a place that is alive is going to have noise. We can ask people to be considerate with cell phones, but even then I can still see sometimes a certain level of conversation is just a reality of how we as people have changed and what has become a need to stay in touch constantly. People like a Starbucks atmosphere.

 

What should we do about people that demand libraries be quiet? Well, certainly they have a point about chaos and children running around unsupervised. Neither should be tolerated. We should as librarians and citizens strive for consideration and tolerance. We can model that behavior, but it wouldn’t be possible to make enforceable rules to demand that. My solution would be for libraries to have zones; some absolutely quiet, some for group interaction, some that allow for drinks, and some that allow for drinks and food.

People are looking for places to have a sense of community. So many people live fairly isolated from family and want a place they can be comfortable in. I think all libraries to stay relevant need to provide that place of community. If patrons don’t feel welcome and comfortable, even if we have the best possible resources, they won’t use the library.

Response to article by Jensen on “the myth of the neutral profession”

I was delighted to read the article by Robert Jensen, “The Myth of the Neutral Profession.” because I have heard him speak. The name is common so I had to look up his C.V. online at UT to see if it was the same Robert Jensen. Indeed it was. First, his editorials critical of the Iraq war made him very unpopular and generated a lot of criticism of him, and if I’m recalling correctly serious calls for censure of him. I liked his editorials and mentioned that to one of our professors—well, long story short she knew him from peace circles and brought him to speak at our school. The talk he gave was about pornography and violence. My friend did have a dinner party for him—so this is the first time I’ve had to read an article by someone I’ve had dinner with ( along with quite a few other people.)

           I really agree with him that we are flooded with political information, yet have fewer opportunities to engage in political discussion. I’m not quite sure how to articulate this, but I think for libraries to remain relevant we have to be a place for community. One of those things is the opportunity to learn with the varied resources of the library, but also to engage in political discourse through programming. I was late to class to today because I was part of a panel discussion on student engagement. I help with a continuing education class at my school that tries look at hot topics thru speakers and film. I think we have a bit of a reputation as being liberal, mostly true, but the issue really is that criticisms are usually of the status quo. Another way to look at is as a desire to improve  those policies or whatever it is that are already in place.

Collection development and the books put on display really are not neutral. I know of a very conservative librarian that quietly removes some items from display considered too liberal, and another liberal librarian that does that opposite. We do have a responsibility to purchase authoritative resources from a broad range of perspectives, and this is not just social issues but many other areas as well.

I am really glad we have this assignment, although at this moment a bit frustrated because I managed to delete the first small post I did after our first class session. It is really forcing me to learn how to use wordpress. It certainly ties in with readings on good instruction practices–this is active learning by doing.

I sure fit the description of the older librarian described by Michelle; age wise, no dependent kids at home (but with one still in college I don’t have the resources of no responsibility for children), and more time to devote to my profession than at any other time in my working career. I hope though I’m not like the librarians that she talked about that resist change and don’t contribute toward energizing our profession. It really made me think about what I can do to prevent that from happening. It helps I’m sure that I haven’t been a librarian for long, so I still feel so lucky that I am one. So what are some suggestions for staying current that I am going to try to do:

· Read library blogs, daily as suggested by Laura

· Make more of an effort to read the Chronicle of Higher Ed., and start reading Inside Higher Ed.

· I am going to ALA conference this year; not just as a spectator but rather to actively look for a way/group to get involved with. I want to look for the LITA interest group, big wig and their program.

· Work on my own Learning page at my school

· Put more energy into figuring out how to use library things, compare with goodreads.

· I do resolve to answer my phone at work smiling.

· Find out about net send and how that might work in our library

· A colleague has offered to help me learn camtasia, and I wasn’t sure it was worth the effort

By the way anyone interested in the community college level should check out the League of Innovation. http://www.league.org/index.cfm

 

It was also liberating to hear from Laura, if you try a technology and doesn’t work for you or serve a purpose –forget it. I was amazingly old before I realized I didn’t have to finish every book I start to read.

 

I really felt motivated after the class lecture on best practices. It was a very positive session. The class readings I did also were positive in that they looked at best practices for instruction by way of evaluation. One of the suggestions I think I will use for some classes is starting with an open ended question as a way to engage students. I have heard research compared to making a pizza from scratch starting with choosing the ingredients. I think I’m going to try that as a question, “how is research like making a pizza from scratch?” Rockman in “Creating that Teachable Moment,” is so right when she says library instruction lessons are not naturally engaging for students. Teaching is a very important of my job at a community college and I really do need to be aware of effective student learning and teaching models. Students need to know what we are teaching and why; how our lessons will help them. Modeling and guided practice are good strategies. I really liked Rockman’s reminder that checking for understanding is not asking are there any questions rather it is a task that applies the instruction. The reading by Nancy Dewald suggested that a student should leave a lesson understanding that the library and librarians are available to help. That is a big one.

 

In my community college we have really had a hard sell getting involvement and support for our virtual reference services; it was reassuring to hear that a university system has challenges with it as well.

 

I do like the idea of a learning commons and learning spaces that are appealing. I think we have to collaborate with the IT people, at least at the community college level, or they will gradually take over roles we should have.

01/19/2008

First thing I really like the setup of the classroom for learning and teaching. As a student the round tables with laptops I thought were great. I wonder what other students thought. Are there any room setups anyone has used and liked better? I really thought it had a lot of pluses as a learning environment. Everyone can see, small group work is possible, interactive setup for teacher – student and student – student. More and more classes are coming to the library for “lessons” not just introductory English comp classes and this is a very good thing, but I have the worst teaching setup I can imagine.

Organizational culture

I am really having trouble with the concept of organizational culture and how it impacts libraries. I can think of specific examples, as in a library really focused on enforcing rules, and one focused on meeting customer needs. Another example is your collections needs to support the curriculum of the institution. The reading Organizational Culture and Higher Education is not very clear to me, and I appreciate Laura’s notes, but I’m just not getting a handle on it. I can see how the vision, mission and goals are part of the organization’s culture and because they are written down it is more of a tangible item I can react to and see how important it is the library is inline and supports those. How do you know what your organization’s culture is and how that matters?

It was interesting looking at the historical perspectives of libraries and how they started and have changed. I think now we are facing some real challenges to the future of libraries, and I think librarians will really need to be proactive and open to possibilities if we are to stay relevant. Information technology departments can be in competition for funding.