From "How" to "Why": Reflection on Second Half of My Blog

Looking back on this blog and on our class, I realize that I was going through the motions of reference before, but without any thought behind it. Now I have strategies, set in stone, that I know will work, and have thought through the motivations and actions of myself and actual/potential patrons. I know that I like to go to Google, but now I know why I do it, and why it's okay, and when to move on. I know how to incorporate mini-lessons when helping a patron, showing them click-by-click so they are empowered to do their own research, but also showing them the reasons to click instead of just where to click. I can use the time to sneak in a lesson on controlled vocabulary versus natural language, and explain how that will help them to build better search strings while writing a research paper. I can show a patron when a subscription database is more useful by starting at Google and working my way up the ranks and comparing the two responses. I knew "how" before, but now I know "why," and I also know it's important to give patrons both.

Also, in my very own commitment to Web 2.0, I have labeled my digital portfolio with tags to indicate which entries belong to which parts of the assignment. A, B, C and D items are tagged on the lefthand column as reference practice, internet public library, reflection, personal activity, group activity, etc. The tags are to organize my portfolio for my professor to see I have fulfilled all requirements, but also for my readers to zoom in on any possible topics of interest, and to get a bigger picture on what it is I discuss in this blog.

Librarianship is so exciting!

Ellie Collier was such a great person to have speak to us. My little sister always comes to me for advice over our parents because she knows I was just there a few years before her- I just struggled with decisions like what to do after college, what to do with creepy boyfriends that you can't seem to shake, and what it's like to be a independent twenty-something in 2007. Ellie felt like that older sister to me. She just finished library school at UT. It took her a little while to find a great job. She wanted to stay in Austin. That's just like me and my classmates. Because of this, I felt I could really take her advice to heart. I wrote down a bunch of ideas, even though she so sweetly linked us to all of them. I was just that excited.

Ellie gets to incorporate what she likes best about being a librarian into her daily life at work. That is so important, but hadn't really been clear to me before. She gets to read blogs and teach people about Google Gadgets. I love reading blogs and teaching people about the latest and greatest web tricks! I want a job where I get to give presentations to my audience, which happens to be teens. It's okay that I want to book talk to them about 14 year old protagonists- in fact, it's great! I should be excited to show them swaptree.com and yelp.com, because Ellie gets excited to show her fellow staff members about customized search engines. I'm doing the same things, but my audience is a little different. The whole idea of this got me really excited, and I loved running parallel lines between Ellie's life and mine, and seeing that she was so happy and satisfied made me really happy and satisfied. Hooray for Ellie Collier! She got me so motivated and proud!

Also, I added a Google Gadget she showed us to my Google iHome. It's flickr's gadget where it shows you the last 10 photos uploaded by your friends. Loving it!

Revisiting old Entries

I am also to revisit my entry on the process of finding scholarly information on the last US Presidential Election. Here's my first entry:

Since anyone can post anything on the Internet, it's imperative to evaluate your sources if gathering information on the Presidential Election. Information that has been reviewed and considered sound by a group of the writer's peers is referred to as "scholarly information." Sometimes it's easier for the researcher to immediately limit their search using only sources of scholarly information than having to evaluate previously unevaluated material. For this reason, many people, when researching a topic like the latest Presidential Election, go straight for sources of scholarly information, where they know everything they come across will be logical, reliable, and authoritative.

Typically, places where a lot of research is done, like schools and libraries, love to give lots of options of scholarly information to their students or users. They will use their funding to supply these sources, usually by subscribing to lists of information that is owned by a trusted company who has a reputation for only listing scholarly information. These lists of information are called databases, and can be mind bogglingly large. They can contain many kinds of information of many different subjects.

To find the information you need, you can perform a search. A search is just what it sounds like- you tell the database what you're looking for, and it tells you what it has on those topics. The trick is that you have to carefully choose your search terms. Perhaps using the name of a candidate would work- but make sure to be specific. Searching for "Clinton," for instance, will return scholarly information on both President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2008 Presidency.

Now, let's see what I would change. Since I know now that I should use every available opportunity to educate a reader/learner, I should give more information on the critical importance of evaluative skills, and give a couple examples. Examples are the best way to learn. I give an example on Clinton meaning Bill or Hillary, but I should also explain the difference between controlled vocabulary and natural language searches, and how you can pearl between the two of them for better terms by doing a subject search.

Speaking of examples, I should maybe list a few of my favorite subscription databases (although most of my favorites seem to always end up being the ones targeted for kids, like NetTrekker and Searchasaurus). I can tell them the advantages to these databases (which are also available earlier in this blog, dear reader- I am here to serve you!) and why sometimes it's easier to go to a trusted source than to figure out whether a random source is trustworthy.

The Internet

I am to revisit my mental model on how I would explain the Internet to an intelligent recluse who has been shacked up since the 80s.

I think that generally, I stand behind all of my previous notions. My big revelation of the semester being that you can always sneak a little more information in, though, means that I need to edit. At the end of my previous take on the Internet, I typed this paragraph:

Websites exist for many purposes. You can make a page with your basic personal info on a commercial site (mostly popularly http://www.Myspace.com, for instance) with the sole purpose of connecting with other users. Make a list of addresses of interesting sites and store the list on a website, and get to all these sites by directly clicking (using a mouse) on the address. The address will typically be underlined and in blue text to let you know that the text is linked to another site. That's why these instances of underlined blue text are called "links." Make a page for your business. Sell your products online in the global market- just tell your customers what you have available, and make a form they can fill out with their credit card information. Don't worry- many customers shop frequently online and are comfortable with giving you their credit card information. Once you get an order, ship out (or email) your good or service. In fact, you can buy and sell books, groceries, stocks, memberships to certain websites, or anything else you can think of on the web. Meet your future mate by joining a dating site that calculates compatibility using complicated mathematical algorithms. Got another idea for expanding the Internet? I bet you can put it on a website, get the word out, and chances are that it will catch on!

I still agree with all this, but I think this would be a great opportunity to talk about the importance of evaluative skills. I can also talk about how evaluating websites, since anyone can post one, is a critical skill taught in schools and libraries today.

Similarly, in a section of my previous passage where I talked about search engines, I could talk about how certain search engines are better for different purposes, and go into the differences between the free web and subscription databases. I could also relate this to evaluative skills.

Why We Teach

In class on 11/12, we received a handout that outlined the major players and ideas of libraries since 1960s. A dossier on the revolution, so to speak. I wrote some margin notes and ended up with a little theory I'd like to share, though it's not the most radical. I found a strong correlation between what was happening in the libraries and what was happening outside the libraries as well.

In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a lot of struggle for equality between genders, races, etc. In the libraries, patrons were also struggling for equality, and librarians, or the leaders from a library's point of view, were fighting to give their patrons equal rights. How cool is that? Libraries are a microcosm for the outside culture.

In the 1980s, libraries focused on the individual, and how to best suit everyone's needs. Well, its called the "Me Generation," isn't it? I bet librarians and patrons both donned large shoulder pads, as patrons learned how to teach themselves to best use library resources.

By the 1990s, Generation X took over. They were skeptical, critical, and cynical. Libraries took a more positive take on this, focusing on evaluation, and teaching patrons to be more critical of their sources, both in print and online.

When the 2000s rolled around, library anxiety and affective needs were hot-button issues in libraries. This makes sense with our current culture of "talking about feelings," discussion of the possible mental health crises, etc.

Using the Research Process

As a new teacher (hooray for Kindergarten!) I am always looking for are called "teachable moments." It's when you didn't really think you were going to be teaching something, but you end up doing it. The letter of the week is N. We're writing down words that start with N. My student Zachary suggests "night." I go to write it down, and he asks, "That means the man that fights dragons AND when you go to sleep?" Voila- instant lesson on homophones to show night and knight sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things.

Maybe because I'm a new teacher, it is kind of rare for me to plan these ahead, letting the kids thing we are temporarily derailed. I can probably get an idea of how to predict these once I get around to my second year.

In class though, we collaboratively developed a cheat sheet- a veritable list of ways to sneak in meta-lessons: lessons on the lessons! While teaching kids the research process (gather your sources, and don't worry- you will all be overwhelmed and that's okay!) you can sneak in a little lesson on fact tools vs. finding tools, or the differences between primary and secondary sources. Need help searching? Let me tell you all about subscription databases and the differences between controlled vocabulary and natural language. The best part is that you don't even have to tell them you're doing it. I am always taking concepts down a notch for teaching my kindergarten students- we read a version of the "Three Little Pigs" from the wolf's perspective, and the kids point out to me that that wolf seems like he's trying to trick us. I didn't use the words "unreliable narrator," but do they get the concept? You betcha!

Education is a beautiful thing.

Under the Tuscan Sun

My practice question today: The local book club is about to read "Under the Tuscan Sun" and they'd like to be able to find authentic Italian recipes, timelines of Italian history, reliable wine reviews, driving tour routes through Italy, images of old Italian houses, and/or other materials that can enhance their understanding of Italy. Help them understand how to use Boolean logic to find useful web sites, portals, magazine articles, and other resources. [Tip: identify search strings that lead to generic Italian or Tuscan tourism materials then contract that with search strings which let them drill down to specific points of focus, such as the driving tours or wine reviews.]

As you may remember from a previous post, gentle and attentive reader, I have officially decided that non-academic requests such as these are best initially attacked by a subject search on the Internet Public Library. I searched for "Italian Travel," and decided this was a search string that led to generic Italian or Tuscan tourism materials. It provided such gems as lonelyplanet.com.

I also Googled "italy" to find italiantourism.com. I "focused on" a map of Tuscany, and got information in the following categories: "general," which had a subset called "cultural." I mined it for CV terms to use as search strings that drill down to specific points of interest to these book club members. Google is also useful for image searches, for architecture and other visual interests. I used "tuscan villa" to start, and played around with it for a while to find real Tuscan homes, rather than McMansion-copycats for sale in the U.S., of which there were a frightening amount. "Tuscan architecture" ended up the best choice. What beautiful buildings!

Figuring out the controlled vocabulary gave me better search strings that led me to websites like scooterbella.com, which sells Vespa tours of Italy, and artofcookery.com, which gives Tuscan recipes. Wishing you were in Italy yet? Try using your local library catalog to search for travel books on Italy which will give you all sorts of interesting information.

Here are some other successful search strings and the subsequent websites found, on Google:

"Tuscan Wine Review" led to winereviewonline.com
"Italian History" led to knowital.com/history/tuscany/tuscany-history.html
"Tuscan Driving Tour" led to hearsajourney.com

Again, like the tip suggests, it helped to start with general sites, cull them for controlled vocabulary like "villas" or "vespas," and then use those to make more specific searches.