This week's readings reiterated (for the umpteenth time) the ubiquity of the practical experience we gained from 501; we will need to assess situations, work harmoniously in groups, and produce plans that will ideally improve our clients' information-related interactions. The first pages of the One-Shot Workshop reading, particularly, stressed the importance of structure and forethought in the design process through the acronym ADDIE:
Analysis: The Yelinek et. al. and Johnston articles both cited use of surveys to gather information from users to obtain background information in order to form an idea of what needs to be done, what goals need to be met. But I've spent enough time at SI to know that surveys are only one way to gather information; surveys were likely used in those two cases due to the internet-based and/or long-distance nature of the systems they were assessing. Interviews with clients and future students and discussions with coworkers/staff members with relevant experience and subject knowledge should be favored, time/money permitting, especially if the project is to produce an in-person workshop instead of a digital tutorial.
Design: First the content and then the delivery methods are to be decided. The Johnston article covered content by chunking information into modules, a step into which I could fondly tie some of what I learned in Information Architecture. The One-Shot Workshop reading spoke of teaching methods, but our focus this week is actually on screencasts; Yelinek et. al. and Johnston used Adobe Captivate, and the Griffis piece gave an overview of free screen capture tools with their features and shortcomings, mentioning what can be gained through commercial products (Captivate and Camtasia).
Development: The actual building of the session. Materials have to be created and compiled and the structure set. The design step should keep this step in mind; the screen capture tools selected should include the functionality the design process plans for.
Implementation and Evaluation: After two design process courses last semester, I am well aware of the need to test and reflect, test and reflect when designing anything. In fact, as it is a cycle, evaluation of the implementation run right back into analysis in the interest of improvement. What do we need? More surveys!
I had a few comments on the One-Shot Workshop section about groups, a subject many SIers feel strongly about. First, the concept of developing a group of more than four people, let along being able to choose the members based on well-known abilities and dispositions, is an odd one to me. How many people should it take to develop a 50-minute workshop? I can understand getting input from a dozen people over enough time, but having more than a few people assigned to such a project feels like overkill. Maybe I simply don't understand the magnitude of such a project.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Week 1 Class
It was nice to go over the concepts from the readings in class and be able to gain perspective on my own thoughts through what others had to say. I feel that I still have a ways to go in grasping the possible incarnations of different types of libraries (public, academic) and the services that can be offered toward education, information access, and foundation of community.
It seems that those ALA core competencies might be considered an ideal, aspirational blueprint for those graduating from accredited schools, not so much the CV sheet employers should expect when hiring new grads. Some sections can only be fully realized after an extended period of practice, and others may be easily avoidable for students who simply have no interest; my discussion groupmates and I agreed that, while we can understand the importance, none of us felt particularly enthusiastic about fundraising. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to have employees and coworkers willing and capable of covering those duties in our future jobs...
We spent a good deal of time talking about ways of being more active in providing information and knowledge to the library's community. More and more, the librarian seems to be moving from The Original Search Engine toward the educator general; instead of teaching a room full of kids around the same age and (supposedly) education level across all subjects, librarians have single and groups of patrons with knowledge and skill levels across a broad spectrum needing instruction on, yes, information retrieval, but also potentially any subject. Kristen told us about the library that held a butchering demonstration, and there seems to be a movement, at least locally, to incorporate Maker Space into libraries. After visiting the All Hands Active maker space on Saturday for SI Service Day, I can see how well social learning and community tools fit in with the community and continued learning aspects of the library. Not that public librarians should expect to be well-versed in 3D printing, but it's a wonderful example of dedication to learning beyond school at any level.
All of this looks amazing for public and school libraries, but I'm not sure I can envision such programs being prevalent in academic libraries. But is this even necessary? I can see their future in electronic information systems and continued physical information, but how much will these institutions' service structures be changing in the foreseeable future?
It seems that those ALA core competencies might be considered an ideal, aspirational blueprint for those graduating from accredited schools, not so much the CV sheet employers should expect when hiring new grads. Some sections can only be fully realized after an extended period of practice, and others may be easily avoidable for students who simply have no interest; my discussion groupmates and I agreed that, while we can understand the importance, none of us felt particularly enthusiastic about fundraising. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to have employees and coworkers willing and capable of covering those duties in our future jobs...
We spent a good deal of time talking about ways of being more active in providing information and knowledge to the library's community. More and more, the librarian seems to be moving from The Original Search Engine toward the educator general; instead of teaching a room full of kids around the same age and (supposedly) education level across all subjects, librarians have single and groups of patrons with knowledge and skill levels across a broad spectrum needing instruction on, yes, information retrieval, but also potentially any subject. Kristen told us about the library that held a butchering demonstration, and there seems to be a movement, at least locally, to incorporate Maker Space into libraries. After visiting the All Hands Active maker space on Saturday for SI Service Day, I can see how well social learning and community tools fit in with the community and continued learning aspects of the library. Not that public librarians should expect to be well-versed in 3D printing, but it's a wonderful example of dedication to learning beyond school at any level.
All of this looks amazing for public and school libraries, but I'm not sure I can envision such programs being prevalent in academic libraries. But is this even necessary? I can see their future in electronic information systems and continued physical information, but how much will these institutions' service structures be changing in the foreseeable future?
Monday, January 14, 2013
Week 1 (Readings)
As I read through the ALA's Core Competencies, I found myself thinking that the whole thing seems like a tall order. Of course, I was able to come up with ideas and knowledge I have studied or at least touched on in my courses for the eight groupings, and I thought of SI courses that I have taken or read about as I read through the individual competencies. But what, I think, trips me up is the sort of "comprehensive vagueness" which, while I understand as necessary for the brevity and lasting validity of the document, causes me to quickly lose my mental grasp of what abilities I should expect myself and others to amass before graduation.
Something I found interesting; I am aware that the MSI program as a whole is ALA accredited, which means that I could have continued my former trajectory toward a concentration in human-computer interaction and been able to fulfill a job posting's ALA-accredited program graduation requirement despite being decidedly lacking in many of the competencies listed.
The textbook readings were helpful in my discovery of the differences in archives versus libraries: the emphasis on direct human interaction and guidance. Two of my courses last semester were focused on human behavior, but these were design courses, so it was interesting to see what concepts were brought up again and what aspects of active education I could see building upon some of the more basic principles of perception and performance. I specifically recall learning about the decision-making patterns of experts in a reading for my cognate course, Cognitive Ergonomics, in the context of designing systems that provide these leaders with the appropriate information to make those decisions both soundly and quickly. From an education perspective, we can use our knowledge of experts' mental organization and action patterns in order to facilitate an appropriate information base and structure in the minds of future experts; building internal instead of external thought and decision support.
Reflecting on the need for education reform from broad-but-shallow subject coverage to more directed structuring of a basis for recognizing and understanding recurring, influential concepts is a good way to consider useful ways to guide users and patrons through information outside of schools, or perhaps to organize displays or materials. The thought is daunting, at the moment, from my viewpoint as a new libraries convert, but I am excited to see what direction we will take from here.
Something I found interesting; I am aware that the MSI program as a whole is ALA accredited, which means that I could have continued my former trajectory toward a concentration in human-computer interaction and been able to fulfill a job posting's ALA-accredited program graduation requirement despite being decidedly lacking in many of the competencies listed.
The textbook readings were helpful in my discovery of the differences in archives versus libraries: the emphasis on direct human interaction and guidance. Two of my courses last semester were focused on human behavior, but these were design courses, so it was interesting to see what concepts were brought up again and what aspects of active education I could see building upon some of the more basic principles of perception and performance. I specifically recall learning about the decision-making patterns of experts in a reading for my cognate course, Cognitive Ergonomics, in the context of designing systems that provide these leaders with the appropriate information to make those decisions both soundly and quickly. From an education perspective, we can use our knowledge of experts' mental organization and action patterns in order to facilitate an appropriate information base and structure in the minds of future experts; building internal instead of external thought and decision support.
Reflecting on the need for education reform from broad-but-shallow subject coverage to more directed structuring of a basis for recognizing and understanding recurring, influential concepts is a good way to consider useful ways to guide users and patrons through information outside of schools, or perhaps to organize displays or materials. The thought is daunting, at the moment, from my viewpoint as a new libraries convert, but I am excited to see what direction we will take from here.
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