Today, Rebekah Cummings joins the podcast to talk about her new PR role for the Utah Library Association.  We discuss an amazing play about Librarians coming to Utah called Alabama Story and ULA’s recent statement about Net Neutrality.  Don’t worry friends, Rebekah is still working at the Mountain West Digital Library as well.

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Resources we discuss:

Alabama Story

ULA and Net Neutrality

Mountain West Digital Library

It has been a long week at work and thus I have failed at posting to Innovation Action Update like I was supposed to! I wrote a draft of a long post about homeless populations and libraries, but never quite finished it up (you know how that goes, right?). So here are a few thoughts for your Friday afternoon, catalyzed by my week at work, and some conversations with colleagues.  They are Jessica’s Rules for Work and are based entirely on my own strengths and weaknesses, which may not be your strengths and weaknesses, but nevertheless may get you thinking about the topic.

1. Be kind. It is just as easy to be kind as to not be kind, so even if you are annoyed, frustrated, and pissed off (and even if you have every right to be), still be kind.
2. Do take a deep breath but don’t take it personally. By which I mean, when I feel put upon or pissed off about a situation at work, I hereby instruct myself to take a deep breath and remind myself that work is not me. What happens at work does not define me, so I shouldn’t take it personally when things don’t go my way.
3. Be honest. This does not mean brutally honest (a phrase which has never made sense to me), but be honest with colleagues, supervisors, employees, and patrons. Will my supervisor get this project from me in its best form at 8am on Monday? If not, then instead of promising it to them, I should say, “I can have a draft ready for you Monday. If I have a few more days, the project will be in better shape when it reaches you.”
4. Do not expect honesty. By which I mean, people often spread themselves too thin and overpromise. If someone guarantees that they will have something to me by Monday and I don’t have it by Monday, I can throw a fit and be pissed at the person for not telling me the truth, or I can say, “Look, I know you have a lot on your plate. I have to your part of this project by X date. If I can’t get it by then, I will need to ask someone else to provide it for me. Can you get it to me or do you have too much on your plate right now?” That said, sometimes people are not honest for a variety of reasons, some political, some emotional, some other miscellaneous. Do not expect too much of people.
5. Keep your mouth shut. If you’re feeling whiny or put upon or unfairly treated, it is best to lay those troubles on folks outside of work. It’s better if your coworkers and supervisors don’t know what you look like when you’re pitching a snit fit.
6. What is told to me stays with me.
7. Give and get help. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” and the corollary to that is not to be afraid to say “I don’t know. Can you help me?”
8. Ask for what you want and be assertive. But also be prepared with evidence and documentation that you need what you need.
9. The corollary of #8 is: don’t get attached to outcomes.
10. Volunteer for stuff. Nobody has time for these committees. I certainly don’t and you probably don’t either. But you know what? Sometimes you get to meet cool folks and learn something new. Sometimes the work is deadly boring, but at least I can socialize with others outside of my department, which can lead to other fruitful collaborations.
11. Sometimes stuff just doesn’t go your way. Go have a glass of wine and hang out with your fluffy puppy. 

Today, Tegan and Dustin are talking about transitioning to new positions at new libraries.  They focus on the need to be humble and listen to others as much as possible.  Starting a new job is exciting and terrifying, and most of the time you do not know which!

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If you’re a teaching librarian, you’re probably familiar with the CRAAP Test. In fact, “familiar” is probably a major understatement. I’ve peddled it for years. For those of you who are uninitiated, the CRAAP Test was created by the good folks at the Meriam Library at CSU, Chico; it’s a quick(ish) test for evaluating information that you find, oh, anywhere, but predominantly on the Open Web.

While I have taught CRAAP to students, it’s definitely not ideal. No disrespect, Meriam Librarians. But in my experience, it’s a pretty tough sell–even when points are attached to completing it–and, generally, students don’t retain much in spite of the catchy acronym. So, I decided to go a different route and make the learning experience more active and less rote. One of my colleagues suggested taking a constructivist approach based on cognitive development, which assumes that some of the methods we use to teach information evaluation, like the CRAAP Test, are developmentally beyond undergraduates’ abilities. Most freshman (if they’re part of the typical demographic) believe in right answers and wrong answers; their analytical skills aren’t so nuanced that they can easily determine if information is relevant to their research needs. They’re simply looking for “good” information, whatever that means–especially if it’s on the first page of Google results. (I say that with all the compassion I can muster, no judgment.)

Benjes-Small (et al) wrote a great piece last year for Communications in Information Literacy called “Teaching Web Evaluation: A Cognitive Development Approach.” I totally recommend looking it up (citation below). I’ll give you the nutshell version:

1. Put students on teams, show them a site that isn’t credible, ask them to come up with five reasons why it’s not.
2. Give students a topic, ask them to brainstorm what a gold standard site for that topic would look like/include. Who’d write the content? How current would the site be? What about the URL extension? And so on.

In both activities, you can categorize their responses according to the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why).

3. Ask the students to apply their gold standard criteria and find a credible website about their topic. You can do this piece as a competition. They kiiiiiiiind of love it.

Needless to say, because you give them a safe place to start by saying, “Hey, this is what BAD information looks like” and also give them autonomy to identify what’s “good,” they tend to be more nuanced in their evaluations. They’re also more invested because they’re actively participating in discussion and brainstorming, rather than having to reply to a lengthy list of questions. And if you’re like me, you fire them off, auctioneer-style to make it more high action. (I kid, I kid.) I’ve used this approach for one-shot and multiple-shot visits, and it’s been wildly successful. You actually get the students to talk to you!

Okay, so, now it’s your turn: What do you folks do to teach information evaluation?

 Bibliography

Benjes-Small, C., Archer, A., Tucker, K., Vassady, L., & Resor, J. (2013). Web evaluation: A cognitive development approach. Communications in Information Literacy, 7(1), 39-49.

By: Adriana Parker, University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library 

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thursday, December 25, 2014

and

Thursday, January 1, 2014

If you need a fix, just visit the podcast tab, I bet there are a few you haven’t yet listened to!!!!!

A bipartisan bill titled, The USA Freedom Act of 2014 (full bill here), went to the Senate floor for a vote (Tuesday, November 18th).  This bill did not renew the entirety of the Patriot Act, but did extend the ‘lone wolf‘ provision, the ‘roving wire tap‘ provision, and a reformed Section 215 — commonly referred to as the ‘library provision’ (remember FISA orders and national security letters, that was so 2005, right?!)  The American Library Association, along with other advocacy groups and companies, have urged the Senate to pass this bill and yesterday, ALA asked us, as librarians, to act!

The bill only needed 60 Senators to vote YEA……..the result: 58 voted YEA.  JUST 2 VOTES shy!  (Read why.)  Now, the Senate has the remainder of the current legislative session to pass the USA Freedom Act.  We can still press our representatives!

Local, National, and World Affairs matter; they effect policies and policies effect our lives and our profession.  Libraries assert that they facilitate informed and engaged citizenry.  If this is our core, then librarians should be modeling this behavior in their community.  Informed and Engaged Librarian; now, I’d wear that button!

How to stay informed via ALA:

ALA Legislative Action Center

ALA’s Washington Office Blog

Choose Privacy  ….  If anything, watch Glenn Green’s Ted Talk on Why Privacy Matters.

By: Tegan Davis | Eagle Valley Library District | PR Librarian

Today, Tegan and Dustin are talking about NET NEUTRALITY and why it is important that we all pay close attention. Policy set by the FCC now, will impact our society and culture for generations. The Internet needs to continue to be as free as possible, and ISPs are not worried about our best interests.

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Resources we discuss:

President Obama

David Weinberger

The merits of Net Neutrality are being debated throughout America right now (Net Neutrality is being both heralded and demonized). It is important that we take notice as librarians, and make our voices heard as citizens and information professionals. This issue affects each of us personally and professionally. President Obama has made a strong statement urging the FCC to reclassify consumer broadband services as a utility that should have universal access and protection, just like telephone lines.

The key to this, is to stop service providers from charging twice for the same services. They want to charge both content consumers and content creators for the same service, charges that inevitably filter back to the content consumers. Reclassification would stop service providers from BLOCKING, THROTTLING, and PRIORITIZING information as they see fit. There are many sides to this conversation, so it is essential that our voices be heard. The Utah Library Association will be drafting a letter to our Representatives and Senators soon, in hopes of representing our profession and the communities that we serve.

“The Internet has been one of the greatest gifts our economy — and our society — has ever known. The FCC was chartered to promote competition, innovation, and investment in our networks. In service of that mission, there is no higher calling than protecting an open, accessible, and free Internet.” –President Obama

President Obama’s Statement

By: Dustin Fife, Utah Library Association President-Elect

Today, Tegan and Dustin are talking about searching for work and the hiring process. Both Tegan and Dustin are in a transition period and they discuss insights they have gained recently while searching for jobs, preparing resumes, interviewing, and the many other facets of the JOB HUNT! Tegan and Dustin also discuss their exciting new positions.

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