The coolest elevator cab!

When you visit The Center for Fiction in NYC, you might be there for the great selection of used books on sale, or one of the neat author events.  If you’re a member you may be there to browse the collection, use the Reading Room or take one of the writer’s workshops on offer.  But I suspect some people come for the elevator cab:

Who wouldn’t want to use it?

All things to all people?

Recently I started working with The Center for Fiction (formerly known as the Mercantile Library).  It’s one of the few remaining subscription libraries in the country, with a focus on fiction (obviously) and a specialty in what they call suspense, but I call mystery.  There’s also a great reading room, many author events (this week, Jeffrey Deaver, Kristopher Jansma, M. G. Vassanji and Elizabeth Nunez), writing classes and… well, that’s it.

What I mean by “that’s it” is there are no rows of computers (wifi is only available to members of the writer’s studio).  No plans to create a makerspace or purchase a 3D printer.  No databases.  Just an old-fashioned library, catering to the reading tastes of its members/patrons.

For some, that’s a bad thing.  Our profession does a great job of telling us what a library today should be, how we must keep up with the technological times.  And then there’s Terry Deary, saying that libraries should close (wonder what he thinks about a subscription library… people so committed to reading that they’re willing to pay an annual fee to belong, rather than “merely” support it via their taxes).

Finding Commons Ground

Is it an information commons or a knowledge commons or a learning commons?  That’s less a question than what one exactly is: does adding a makerspace to your library mean that you’re now a “commons”?  What about redesigning to include collaborative spaces?

The other week I attended a HVLA meeting where two librarians discussed what their schools are doing.  Sarah Couri is the new librarian at the new upper school division of Grace Church School, and Susan Harris is the librarian at Harvey School.  Sarah’s had some input into the design of the new space, and is growing the program as the division grows (right now they have only a 9th grade); Susan’s library is in a long-term (since the 70s) temporary space and her school is redesigning and rethinking the space and the program.  Both spoke about the challenges they’re facing, particularly vis-a-vis administrative insight into the idea of a [something] commons and how the technology department and library department interact.

Minor Musings

Books, Reading, Etc.

• I’m loving the Three Things to Read, Watch and Use blog – what a great idea to get students and teachers to share theirs
• Jessamyn got a Kindle and has some interesting ideas about how to use it (and change it).

School Life

Tech Related

• Google’s How to Stay Safe Online information (something we need to share with teachers and students) via @harbeckc
• On the Day of Digital Learning, the NYTimes ran a piece asking Who Are You Online? great food for thought.
• While this list of 20 Great Public Library Websites is about public libraries, there are ideas we in K-12 can emulate
• Carolyn Foote’s Apps for Libraries slides. ’nuff said.

Attention Deficit Disor – Hey! Is that a pony?

The other day I was chatting with two friends who were colleagues at a school.  This school has, over the past few years, undertaken a few really impressive initiatives, ones that really have a meaningful effect on the students there at the time, and an impact on the community around the school not to mention a potential impact on the world at large.  The sad thing is that none of those initiatives have stuck; a program would be done once, then dropped.  Both teachers expressed sorrow at this, and wondered about the newest set of initiative – would they become part of the larger world? would they last long enough to really change students, the alumni community, the outside community, etc. or would they, too, briefly blaze in the school’s life and then fizzle out?

Speaking Up

A couple of weeks ago, there was a huge uproar about a teacher’s decision to make every student in her class participate, regardless of whether they were an introvert or extrovert. SLJ has a good round-up of the various posts and thoughts. I’d been discussing this (in a way) in my class on instructional design, so I posted the link to see what others in my class thought.  This week, we’re talking about engagement and again, I’m pondering the question of how to ensure engagement across age groups and personality types.

The difference is that my class is focused on online instruction, where engagement and “speaking up” is an entirely different thing.  There’s a lot of evidence that those who don’t speak up during face-to-face classes will often be very engaged in an online situation – a time where they can really think and ponder their responses, choosing the exact words they want, ensuring that their message is not overwhelmed by the more extroverted in the class.

What about the jobs that exist now?

Recently (within the past two weeks) I saw someone on twitter repeat the statement that we need to train students for jobs that don’t yet exist.  Oooookkayy.  I guess.  Here’s the problem: why aren’t we also paying attention to the jobs that not only currently exist but have existed (albeit using different tools, and with perhaps different foci) for millennium.

What jobs?  Doctor.  Teacher.  Author. Reporter. Artist. Repairman. Banker. I could go on.

When we talk about “jobs of the future” we’re talking about things we can’t see – someone 150 years ago could not have possibly imagined “web designer” or “social media director” because the technology needed to support those jobs didn’t exist.  Given the pace of change in technology tools, it makes sense to wonder what jobs our current K-12 students will have available to them and to do our best to help them become comfortable with technology and change so that they can fill whatever positions emerge.  But are we doing this at the expense of training students for those important jobs that exist now, that will continue to exist in the future?

When we push STEM programs, we neglect the arts and humanities.  Without those, we’re going to lose our doodlers, our poets, our authors, dancers, and deep thinkers.  Not recognizing that there is incredible value to reading works of literature from different cultures and learning the history of our, and other, countries and peoples is short-changing our next generation of politicians, reporters and thinkers.  Already we overuse the words “fascist” and “Nazi” (really, that Soup Nazi character – which, admittedly, I’ve never actually seen because I disliked “Seinfeld” – was not a funny idea).  Students don’t understand the Cold War, and how that still affects our daily lives (doesn’t the STEM push come from our Sputnick fears? I think so…).  They see our current gridlock in Congress and the culture that leads to lack of cross-party discourse and see that as normal.  How are we going to show them that it shouldn’t be that way, that it can’t stay that way?

When we cut arts programs, aren’t we showing students that “culture” doesn’t matter?  That no one cares about music, or art, or theatre? Those aren’t as important as computers and science and all those subjects, right?  What we tend to forget about Steve Jobs is that he was not the Big Computer Geek that Woz or Gates were.  Instead, he brought an aesthetic sensibility to the process that led to the cool, “sexy” look of Apple products – where will the next Jobs come from if we’re pushing people away from calligraphy in favor of coding?

All this isn’t to suggest that we drop math and science in favor of arts and humanities.  It’s to say let’s not forget about the current jobs, the current professions and that educating well-rounded K-12 students now (they can specialize later, in college) is critical to our nations health and well-being, let alone all our futures.

 

New romance genre?

(seen at Twice Sold Tales)

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY – whomever/whatever you crave

Curation mandate

The other day I was reading Where the Light Falls and this quote caught my eye:

Take my advice, Miss Palmer, and prune regularly.  Everything not indispensable is noxious, says Carolus. Applies to art as well as to life.

One could also add “and libraries” couldn’t one?

Joyce Valenza very kindly quoted from my last curation post in her recent Educon presentation (slides here), and she’s got great points to make about digital curation.  But what about curating physical objects, be they DVDs or books or technologies or even magazines?  Recently I was asked the question “why do we need school librarians?” and part of my response was all about curation.

Scholars are collectors: they see a book, might be tangential to their major topic of interest or dead on point, and they have to have it.  Just in case.  Miriam Burnstein’s This Week’s Acquisitions post highlights this quite nicely. Some schools have the same philosophy, and still tout their large collection size.  The question is: is it necessary? does it really help students find the information they need?  Librarians, with their knowledge of the curriculum not just for a class but both inside each department and across the departments, are ideally able to help curate the collection to reflect the best possible collection of resources for the school at that time.

Example? When I started at Hackley, we had books on the shelves that dated to the 1920s (not just copyright, purchased!).  Ordinarily I’d say “trash ‘em” but there was a project that started the 11th grade history class based on the Treaty of Versailles.  These books provided primary sources for this project, an invaluable resource for students.  There was reluctance to use them, because there was no index (shock! horror! they had to actually read the book to find the information) but also an acceptance that these were really helpful books.  Once the project ended, however, the books became less useful; thanks to Google’s scanning program, they’re now available online and don’t have to be put on a reserve cart.  One of the librarians I worked with was always reluctant to weed because there might – at some point – be a need for the book.

Sorry, but that’s not an acceptable answer any longer.  “Just in case” leads to many, many dusty books that clog shelves, obscuring the really valuable stuff that is needed now.  Think of when you’re go into a bookstore looking for a book on some topic, without a specific title or author in mind.  There’s no curation there, it’s a collection – an organized collection, but a collection just the same.  How do you know which book is the best? You flip through the offerings, evaluating the sentences and coverage, the layout, etc.. and then you choose something and hope that it’s the perfect book.  In a library with a curated collection, you know that someone has deliberately chosen selected resources that will give you the best information on the topic possible.

Which do you want your students to have access to?

Over the years, my thoughts on weeding/deaccessioning/curating have changed.  If a non-fiction book hasn’t circulated (and this includes In Library Uses – and if you’re not tracking those, start now because it’s an invaluable tool!) in 5-7 years, and it’s not a “classic” (eg, Darwin’s Origins of the Species or Campbell’s The Power of Myth) start looking for an update and ask the department if it’s really needed on your shelves.  Some departments want those books for their departmental library and that’s ok: let them have it.  Better them using it “if needed” than you keeping it when it’s not helping anyone.  Fiction? I’m giving it 3-5 years and then it can get sold or handed over to classroom libraries/favored readers.  That may give business managers fits, but in the 21st century we need to curate, not collect, in school libraries.

Minor Musings

Books, Reading, Etc.

• News readers still turning to printed, numbers suggest  (at least, in Canada; wonder if this holds true for US)
• Why a 17th-Century Text Is the Perfect Starting Point for Reinventing the Book  (YES! Need more of these!)

School Life

• Great site with a timeline of the history of information, from cave paintings to the internet!
• Why Writing With Our Hands Is Still Important  and Why handwriting matters (get out and buy yourself some stationery)
• The Atlantic Wire asks: No Teachers, No Class, No Homework. Would You Send Your Kids Here?  (I have a friend who sent her daughter to Sudbury Valley, and there are some definite benefits)
• The Globe & Mails’s advisory panel on how students learn (not the full conversation, but still very interesting)
• I know the “sounds of learning” are what we say we want/like in a library, but Salon makes a good argument for us to bring back shushing librarians: Library users plead for quiet places
• Following up on my post about What’s In a Name, @mytweendom pointed me to this link ‘Girls? Ladies? Folks?’ Here’s A Visual Guide To What You Should Call That Group Of Individuals.

Tech Stuff

• Tricks to keep your twitter archive fresh (plays into the whole personal digital archiving motif).
• Is RebelMouse a better curation tool than Scoop.it, LiveBinder or other new tools?  You decide.
• If you’re a Flipboard fan, you might find this list of 15 uses helpful.
• 12 of the World’s Most Annoying Technologies
• The Financial Times talks about Life after TED (“intellectual jazz” sounds more interesting than many TED talks!)
• Enter a virtual art world with Wondereur app  (could be great in so many cities! what about getting students to create one for theirs?)