Roles.

[three reflections and then a tie-in.  this post is more abstract.  you can tell by my lack of capitalization and bracket use.  let's call this my "aha" moment.]

1. 

Once as I was checking out at Target, the cashier attempted to engage me in small talk.  Since I hate small talk but am still a decent human being, I smiled and chatted.  When I told her I was a librarian, she said something like, "Oh.  I didn't know those were still needed."

And you know how sometimes it isn't what the person says but the way they said it?

Yeah, it was one of those times.

You're a cashier, I thought.  Let me just go over to the self-check-out lane.

[But I didn't say that.]

2.

You all remember KONY 2012?  How everyone was like, "Yeah!  Let's go get the baddest of bad guys!"  And it was SUPER popular for like a month or two and now nobody talks about it?

It's like it was the first bad thing to ever happen in the world--the way people reacted.

Except it wasn't.

It was just what everyone was talking about.

Let's talk about the North Korean Concentration Camps.

Or child sex trafficking.

No?

3. 

Facebook status:

Hey does anyone know a really good site to download books from besides Amazon? 

[10 comments later]

April: The library.

So:

So, okay, this post is a little abstract.  But this is where I'm going with this.

We've read a bunch of documents this week about the changing role of the librarian.  The blended librarian.  The embedded librarian.  Moving beyond the one-shot.  These are all great things.

The fact is, our profession is a constant battle for relevancy and advocacy.

Why?

Mindsets.

It's going to be really hard to change the stereotypical image of the librarian.

A recent Pue Survey said that people still think of books when they think of libraries.

And how many,  how many times have you heard "You need a Master's Degree for that?"

My first three examples demonstrate mindset and the weight of buy-in.

It's almost like: how can we make the status of the 21st century librarian go viral?

Librarian/faculty collaboration is a key factor.

Convince the academics and the students will follow?


The relationship between faculty and the way we interact and sell our image to them is going to be key to our jobs.

How can this happen?

Maybe:
-Building relationships outside of our time of need.
-Advocating for the importance of information literacy.
-Marketing

(See: p. 374 of the Blended Librarian doc.)

Thoughts?

Review/Assessment

There were many, many assessment techniques presented this week.  Between Booth and the BCIT hand out, there were many suggestions for ways to get feedback from students in the lesson and afterward.

The Classroom Assessment Techniques handout listed many writing exercises you can use with students.  What I found especially fascinating was the "Planning" document on page three.  I honestly had never before considered coming up with an assessment based on what you want out of it. Does that sound dumb?  I guess maybe I did that, in part.  But it was much more casual.  "Oh, I need feedback.  I'll either ask for feedback or hand out note cards."  Or, "Oh, I need to insert an active learning component because my professor tells me I need active learning.  It's a best practice.  Let's pick one that will make students not fall asleep."

What a practical person I am.

I guess I never realized how many different types of assessments there were, even within one category!  For example, the packet lists muddiest point, one-minute paper, listing, application cards, matrix, one-sentence summaries, and summarizing.  While these are all writing assignments, each requires a different amount of time and gives you slightly different information.

Yes, essentially your goal with any of these is to see if the students "get it," but depending on the teacher and students, you can fine-tune the feedback for better response rates or specific issues (eg. muddiest point) to help you clarify mid-lesson.

I was intrigued by the "Confirmative Assessment" step that Booth talks about on p. 144.  She says that while "Formative and summative evaluation focus on the immediate and cumulative progress made towards objectives in an interaction...it is also important to examine the long-term realization of the ...goals and outcomes."

I wonder what this would look like in an academic setting.  Booth talked about having long-term relationships with the professors that are in charge of the class you gave instruction to, for example.  But that sounds like bugging professors during a busy paper-grading time period.  Hm.  I wonder how to approach this successfully.

Any thoughts?