The Pumped Librarian

Reflections on Code Academy and Code Year so far

2012-01-17T18:24:00.000-06:00

I've started Code Academy and as of last night, completed Week 1. This is a free program with weekly, online lessons to learn how to code (Javascript). Librarians have started using the hashtag, #codeyear to communicate with each other on their progress (and you can sign up for the lessons at the Code Year site). There has been a push in Libraryland for librarians to learn coding so we can be more self-sufficient in developing digital services and products, as well as just communicating better with IT professionals. There is even a newly-established ALA Connect group for librarians to discuss and help each other with the weekly lessons.

My impressions so far of Code Academy are mixed. Of course, no doubt, this is a great thing. It's free, it's accessible, and it's an intro-level program that is incredibly interactive. It can be hard to teach yourself these types of skills, so opening up the playing field is huge.

It's also nice that the lessons are given in increments, so you get Week 1 for a week, and then are sent Week 2 the next week. You can do more if there is more content up on the site, but it at least makes it more digestible. The leveling up and getting badges is another thing I like. It could be a little bit of gamification, but since these lessons have been made more social through Code Academy and also through the library community, it adds a little more fun to it. I've taken a particular interest as well as to how the Mozilla Open Badges project will relate to library instruction (or could relate), so experiencing a badge-generating program is useful to me and I'm seeing how it could potentially work with students. Although the Mozilla Open Badges project is for open access education, I still think it could be a beneficial concept to try in university and other formal academic settings as well.

Back to Code Academy, there are also some things that I am finding problematic. When considering good pedagogy, detailed feedback contributes to effective learning. Code Academy does not really give any feedback. You put your code in and run it, and then you are right or wrong. There is a little bit of info that pops up when you do enter wrong code, but it's not often enough to help you figure out where you went wrong. The hints are great at the beginning of the lessons, but get more obtuse and mysterious as you progress. I think it can be a good method that they are giving sort of a sandbox atmosphere to try out coding without being bogged down with theory and memorizing definitions (and where you don't have to be afraid of failure, which is a quality of a good game BTW) but at the same time, not really understanding the logic behind how some of the code works makes it very hard to understand why your answer does not work. I was glad to have other librarians who understand coding logic explain why my answer for Week 1, Lesson 8.2 was incorrect, so I was able to progress and finish the week.

Overall, I really do think Code Academy is great, and I'm going to continue on with the lessons. It can be difficult to weave detailed feedback in to an automatic, teach yourself-type program, but at the same time, it is essential for people who are just starting out. I think this article by Tech Crunch, "Will we need teachers or algorithms" (interesting read also for emerging trends in education) rings true here to a degree. Human or AI-driven though, if you can't figure out what you did wrong in a meaningful way, you can't learn from your mistakes and progress.

Catching up to reality

2011-12-12T17:58:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted in awhile, so thought I'd do a general update. Typically, it's pretty boring when bloggers just talk about themselves in posts, but since I've had a lot of (awesome) recent changes and projects going on, I'm going to just barf them all out on the page for you so everything is up-to-date... I'll try to be quick!

My new office (prior to a couple more pieces of furniture)

First, and most important, as of the end of October I've started my new position as an Instructional Services Librarian for the University of Arizona! I left my job at the community college, and although it was a great experience and I met some nice people in Dallas, this is an amazing fit for me and I'm so happy to be at the UA. And this is a tenure-track position -- exciting!

After getting settled in Tucson, I've had a few other things going on:

One) My article with ALA Emerging Leaders teammate, Erik Bobilin, has been published in American Libraries Magazine. We are continuing to work on our plans for research in socially responsible selection of videogames, an expanded MARC record, and delving into the burgeoning area of critical theory and gaming. You can keep up more with that on our project site. **Update: Our proposal for ALA EL 2012 has been selected, so Erik, JP Porcaro, and I will be mentors for Team H! And we are lucky to have Jenny Levine as our ALA Staff Liaison! (Excited, obviously.)

Two) Staying on the topic of Emerging Leaders, an article I wrote with Justin Hoenke, one of Team G's mentors, will be appearing in the February 2012 issue of the LLAMA journal. We wrote it in September in the format of interviewing each other, reflecting on the Emerging Leaders experience, leadership skills, and how to be an effective teammate.

Three) I was a panelist on the SLIS Library 2.011 Virtual Conference panel, Riding the "Long Tail:" Leveraging a niche to build a network. Moderated by John Jackson and Young Lee, myself (Librarian Wardrobe) along with Micah Vandegrift (Hack Library School) and Daniel Ransom (Info Amateurs Social Club) discussed building grassroots professional networks within niches. We had some really interesting questions and conversation -- the recording is available at that link.

Four) For the North Texas Collective of Radical Reference, I've published an Alternative Guide to Dallas for ALA MW 2012. Radical Reference collectives have created guides for various cities, so this was put together for people looking for things to do that might not be in mainstream city guides -- especially vegans hoping for assistance on where to find edibles.

Five) Most recently, I have a guest post on Erin Dorney's Library Scenester blog talking about the concept of a "career compass" that I came up with as a panelist for the REFORMA's session on finding your first library job back at ALA Annual 2011.

Otherwise, I hope to meet many of you at ALA Midwinter in Dallas. Please say hi! I am a Co-chair for planning the ACRL Instruction Section Soiree, am organizing the Tweetup with John Jackson, and will also be helping with the Unconference. And keep an eye out for both special edition posts on Librarian Wardrobe for packing interviews and conference photographers' profiles.

Uf that wasn't quick at all!

Research as conversation: Critical thinking and affect

2011-09-19T13:42:00.000-05:00

http://creativecommons.org/weblog/page/10

For a quick lunchbreak post...

I was catching up on recent On the Media podcasts and a particular segment on publishing, scientific journals, and retractions really caught my eye... well, ear.

Brooke Gladstone was interviewing Ivan Oranksy about issues surrounding retractions and their effect on the scientific community and its publications ("Ivan Oransky is a doctor, the executive director of Reuters Health and founder, along with Adam Marcus, of Retraction Watch, a blog that scours scientific journals for retractions and investigates the stories behind them"). I thought this would be interesting for information literacy purposes, and what I especially thought was of particular significance was:

BROOKE GLADSTONE:
[LAUGHS] Having covered the medical research business so closely and of these retractions, what do you think about the state of scientific journals and the way that scientists communicate with each other before all of that stuff gets communicated to the rest of us?
IVAN ORANSKY:
When you look at a paper, there's a kind of finality to it. It’s, look, here it is. It's something you can almost frame and put on your wall or, in this case, on your CV.
If you were to say, look, here's what we found so far, and let us open up the data for you, let us show it to you, which would have probably prevented some really high profile cases from going as far as they did, if you treat that as a process and say this is how science works, nothing is final, we’re just getting there.
BROOKE GLADSTONE:
So papers are artificial endings to a process that doesn’t end.
IVAN ORANSKY:
Absolutely. When you actually look at the process of how science works, there aren't that many eureka moments. And when you learn the most is when you’ve actually made a mistake or tried something that didn't work. And if we start using that narrative and don't have to end it

This really drives home the concept that research is a conversation and can teach students that publications, while they should have some authority, are not always 100% accurate nor final. Other researchers will respond and the conversation will continue. This helps students learn that they should always have a critical eye, and not only that, but it helps them better understand how to write a research paper themselves: that it should be their ideas responding to the research they read, and not just a summary or a personal opinion piece with nothing to substantiate that opinion. Explaining research as a conversation (and as non-linear) can also tie in to Kuhlthau's Information Search Process [PDF] (which I also wrote about here, examining if the ISP is still relevant today through participating in the Sheffield iSchool Journal Club). Students seeing that researchers make mistakes -- and even they have struggles and can get frustrated -- can make the research process seem more human and relatable.

Learning about instructional literacy

2011-08-01T11:06:00.002-05:00

http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2896

I finished Char Booth's Reflective teaching effective learning: Instructional literacy for library educators (RTEL) this weekend. I had started it back in the winter, but got very wrapped up with Emerging Leaders research and had to postpone other reading.

A lot of library instruction books I've read tend to cover only one aspect of instruction, are too heavily rooted in theory (or the other extreme, are practical only), and often are not very customizable. What I especially liked about RTEL was that it had an even balance of theory and praxis, was able to be customized for academic instruction librarians and trainers (with some applicability for other librarians as well), and also had a personal voice. It's not too often that authors will talk about personal struggles getting accustomed to doing instruction, so it was really nice to hear that someone as capable and skilled as Char Booth was actually nervous at some point and was able to grow into the skillset she has now. Knowing how to teach is not really an innate quality in most people.

The book introduces theory, gives practical examples, and offers opportunities for reflection in worksheet-style questions and summary questions after each chapter. Different aspects of instruction (information technology, educational theory, and instructional design, for example) are drawn upon throughout the book through Char Booth's USER method: Understand, Structure, Engage, Reflect. It's also holistic in covering developing lesson plans, differentiating instruction to reach multiple learning styles in student-centered instruction, and the very important assessment.

A common theme throughout the book is to consider WIIFM, or "What's in it for me," that students either actively or subconsciously wonder, and this is an important key to get and maintain interest, as well as direct instruction.

Analyzing students through this principle as well as some suggested learner analysis strategies helps to paint a better picture of how to develop instruction and related materials. This more naturally leads to better assessment, and for those confused on the distinction between objectives and outcomes, these are delineated with real-life examples given for each. To clarify, according to the book, objectives are, "...learner-focused, action-oriented statements that provide the concrete criteria to evaluate if learning has occurred." Objectives are linked to Bloom's Taxonomy, and examples are structured as a condition, one or more actions, and a performance standard. An example given in the book is: "Given access to bSpace and a computer, the faculty member will be able to upload ADA-accessible files to the Resources are a of a course site. (taxonomy level: Understanding, Applying)."

Outcomes, on the other hand, are "the actionable, real-world result of the interaction..." A related outcome provided as an example is, "Faculty will provide more online course material through open access and library subscriptions."

There is so much more great information in this book I'd love to highlight, but I'm going to cut it off here; as you can see from these examples, material is explained in an easy-to-understand way that is still intelligent and thought provoking... just how instruction should be.

Make it happen with mentorship

2011-07-25T18:13:00.005-05:00

http://www.wpclipart.com/education/reading/reading_2/cat_and_dog_in_library.png

After asking a librarian friend for his opinion on something, I got thinking about the importance of having mentors and a support network. Starting out as a new librarian can feel pretty chaotic at first, whether it's navigating a job search, navigating a new job, or getting more involved in professional associations and publishing. From what I've noticed, it seems librarians with more experience are often pretty open to mentoring a new librarian, but you don't want to just assume that anyone is willing to be a mentor. Some workplaces have formal mentorship programs in place, where others have nothing of the sort and you are essentially on your own. In either situation, it's still really beneficial to have a connection with an outside mentor. And if possible, not just one mentor, but mentors.

I feel like I've been extremely fortunate in my friends and contacts where I have someone(s) to turn to when I'm unsure of something, stressed out, or just have some good libraryland-related news to share that my non-librarian friends might not understand what the big deal is. A mentor doesn't have to be a great deal older than you to be effective: my ACRL Instruction Section mentor is only a few years older than me, but she can really relate to questions I ask and has a specific interest in early career issues. That's not to say a librarian with a decade or more of experience would be any less helpful: another mentor I have from when I was in library school is always supportive when I need some guidance and has scads of great advice to offer. Some of my mentors I don't even consider formal mentors, but I've admired them in some way or another, gotten to know them, and feel comfortable asking their opinion. It's invaluable to have a variety of perspectives as you make your way through your career.

One thing I was worried about when signing up for a formal mentorship program was that I didn't want the relationship to be all one-sided... I didn't want to feel like I was just taking and not giving anything back; but I do know in sharing experiences, and also offering a confidential ear, a mentoring relationship can certainly be useful to both parties.

If you're not sure where to start in finding a mentor, try looking at the associations you have membership in and see which offer mentorship programs; ALA Connect also has an option for your profile to add you to the mentoring community. If still in school, you can see if there is any faculty mentoring available or find a librarian on campus you can talk with. Being brand new doesn't have to be a scary thing, and even librarians with more experience seem to have mentors throughout their whole career. Building a great support network will get you through confusing times and build you up when there are exciting things to share.

MMMMetadata, ephemera, and image aggregator culture

2011-07-14T10:17:00.004-05:00

I just read a zine/art text from Edition MK: DDDDoomed—Or, Collectors & Curators of the Image: A Brief Future History of the Image Aggregator, which forms Vol. I of VIII of a series titled Img Ctrl—texts regarding the contemporary image world.

Looking back at Image Aggregators (or IA, as it's referred to) from the supposed future, the argument is made that Tumblr et al destroyed contemporary visual art and the art of curation. The main culprit seems to be the IA, FFFFound!, inspiring the title, DDDDoomed. FFFFound! is an aggregation of images, mostly random, that tend to fit a certain aesthetic. Tumblr and its ilk started out inoccuous enough, but turned into an "all out style-fest." This aesthetic seems to fit what the text refers to as "hipster capital," (as opposed to cultural capital) sort of hilariously exemplified as,

"They would've effortlessly clicked their little 'like' and 'reblog' buttons in response to some viral image, posted by some anonymous, reactionary IA supporter on his Tumblr blog, of some skinny, half-naked, tousled-haired, Brooklyn-girl, shot Terry Richardson style and wearing a screen-printed t-shirt emblazoned with some snarky referential one-liner like 'I FFFFind Therefore I Am" (p.3).

To better explain the microblogging platform Tumblr, or other IAs, in the sense they are being referred to here, they are kind of like scrapbooks... but scrapbooks without any contextual meaning. On Tumblr, you can collect and compile a variety of images, quotes, or video, which can be original, swiped with or without attribution, or "reblogged." If you see another Tumblr with an image you like, there is simply a button you can click to have it reposted, or "reblogged" on your Tumblr. You can also "like" content. This could be considered curation, but DDDDoomed quotes Christian Brändle to counter this with, "Those who curate... also comment...; they evaluate, and thus it is indispensible that collectors know the background of their objects" (p.3). Although this is in regard to museums, the text argues IA's curation contributions are to the World Wide Web.

However, DDDDoomed compares IA "curators" to "wealthy collector[s] of Renaissance painting[s] [rather] than with the visual anthropologist out to record our cultures" (p.17). So with this collecting of hipster capital, the argument is made that the purpose of (most of) these IAs is more so to feed a personal brand, rather than to contribute to culture.

IAs promote anonymity and the erasing of authorship through their format, which the text relates to playing telephone.These IAs, could have used "ordering interventions" that contemporary artists employ to respond to visual overload, such as appropriation, archiving, collage and bricolage, and typology (p.48-50). Instead, the IA is, more interested in, "solidifying their own authorial claims on the selection and arrangement of images that were, in most cases, never theirs to begin with" (p.67).

I enjoyed reading this zine because I do have Tumblr accounts, one being Librarian Wardrobe, and also a personal one that I have more recently abandoned. I also think it's both good and bad how IAs erase metadata and make content more "free." Sometimes, it can be used in the sense of culture jamming; regardless of understanding the creation story of the artifact, using it in a different context can provide revitalized meaning; at the same time, not understanding the background of an image makes appropriation of it somewhat irrelevant. Often, Tumblrs are "style-fests," but some have intrinsic value.

What are your opinions from the perspective of libraryland? What are your favorite Tumblrs and why; do your favorites have a specific curation mission or are they based on style alone?

Edit: from brief, yet engaging discussion on Facebook, seems happy medium is appreciated, where Tumblr is fun to look at, but can also view high art and "professional" curation, too. Doesn't have to be all good or all bad. Agree!

ALA 2011 reflections

2011-07-06T16:13:00.002-05:00

2011 ALA EL Team G

After getting caught up with everything after ALA 2011, I now have a chance to reflect on the conference. There are some other excellent reflection posts recently done by Aaron Tay and Andromeda Yelton, and Patrick Sweeney has some inspiring vlogs up on his YouTube channel. This was one of the best conferences I've ever experienced (not that I've been to a whole lot, but still). Being more involved in programs, and meeting and reconnecting with a ton of great people really made the conference experience; it helped that stale professional development advice come to life, where I realized oh wait, I was just networking or wow, I just stepped outside of my comfort zone.

If I were looking back to my (student) self in 2008 who attended ALA Annual in Anaheim, here is some advice I would give myself:

Me, mid-sentence next to fellow panelists

Get involved: apply for special programs (like Emerging Leaders), participate on panels, contribute to unconferences, plan a party or event, make/do something. Being an Emerging Leader this year, as well as being on REFORMA's How I Landed My First Librarian Job and What I Did 'in Between' panel were not only just good experiences to have, but gave me even more interesting things to talk to people about. (By the way, the REFORMA panel will be available as a free webinar in October if you missed it and would like to catch it next time.)
Don't play hard to get: I officially met some people that I've been following online for awhile and felt kind of fangirl-ish when the opportunity arose to connect with them in person. Believe it or not, people actually like compliments! It might feel awkward and stalkerish to say, "Oh yeah I [read your blog] or [noticed your work on x committee] or [love your stylish outfits] or [etc] and I think you're great!" But if it's the truth, and you're not actually a stalker, it's always nice to make people feel good about themselves, and hey you started a conversation.
You know more than you think: Just because you're not an expert in such and such librarianship with 10+ years of experience doesn't mean you have nothing to contribute. Look at Hack Library School and all they're doing, it's fantastic! I love reading Bohyun Kim's blog where she talks about early career issues and what she is learning along the way. 8bit Library / #MIH has found a niche and are known for what they write and create about videogames in libraries. In fact, JP and Justin were my Emerging Leaders team mentors, and now that our group has done this project we also have contributed a lot to the topic -- and two of us will be continuing on with more research that we're very excited about.
Other suggestions I can't take full credit for: From the Emerging Leaders session, it was reiterated by Peter Bromberg, Maureen Sullivan, and other ELs in our group discussion to think of librarianship as a gift culture (be generous), volunteer for things (say you'll do something and do it, committees and others will be pleased), and always have a drink in your hand (open body language + interest in talking to others = ability to make friends).

Last I'd say, as networking is really a big part of conferences, to not think of it as networking. It is what it is, but I really just thought about it as making new friends and talking to interesting people. Librarians and other info professionals are often fun to talk to; just strike up a conversation, and if you keep those other suggestions in mind, you'll have a lot more to talk about (less awkward is always good, right?).