Friday, December 15, 2006

Thanks for a great semester

Just wanted to close out the blog here by once again saying thanks for your interest and participation in my first-ever round of teaching LIS 450. I think I learned as much as you did, but we're not supposed to admit that sort of thing around here. I tend to be hard to find around SLIS -- since I'm split between two departments and often teaching undergraduate courses -- so do keep in touch if we don't get to share a class again. And on that note, if you're at all interested in my Spring Tuesday afternoon seminar on "uncovering information labor," do let me know -- there are still plenty of open spots and we now have eight guest speakers scheduled. The readings and discussions in this class will take a lot of the ideas we introduced in LIS 450 to the "next level." Either way, have a good break and I'll see you at Wal-Mart ... I mean, at the library.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Week 15, Case Studies: One City, One Book and Mega Bookstores

One City, One Book
What else can I say about this idea except brilliant! Whether in the context of a community-wide program or of a middle and high school, being able to share a common reading experience provides a space for conversation and connection similar to book clubs. By freeing the participants from the pressure of reading as an assignment, again like book clubs, the one book campaign allows everyone to relate to the literature as they want to and levels the literary playing field. Like one student said in Debby Van Dyke’s article: “It didn’t matter who was smart or who was athletic; we all were at the same level”. It alleviates the stress of trying to do well or trying to say things students think are what the teacher wants to hear; it leaves the individual with only their free-flowing thoughts, and I imagine boosts students confidence in themselves as intellectuals by welcoming every and all unbridled thoughts on the book. With all the organization for the event happening behind the scenes, all the people are free to enjoy the benefits of having a well-coordinated, participation-friendly opportunity at their fingertips without contributing to the underlying planning. Personally, I think ensuring everyone has been assigned to a discussion group and access to any supporting materials they need is critical. This support network encourages those people likely to give up on reading the easiest to keep reading through a collective sense of community. I was thinking of joining a book club for this very reason: to find an open, non-academically pressured space to, quite simply, think about and discuss things I’ve read without trying to write them up in a paper or follow a rigid scholarly framework for interpretation. Just the book, my ideas, and a congenial forum.

Libraries v. Bookstores
As I was reading a few of these articles, it struck me that the underlying difference of objectives between libraries and bookstores is what causes the two to display their materials so differently. The purpose of the bookstore is to provide a consumer friendly space to sell! sell! sell! only the most recent releases and bestsellers. The library on the other hand, has no ulterior commercial motive. Libraries preserve materials, and so they need to use the decimal system to standardize collection organization throughout all libraries, not just one particular retail outlet. This is another significant difference. While bookstores may share the same corporate name, each individual store falls under that branch’s management without regards to a scheme that must transcend physical space. The best libraries can do to compete with these mega stores is to put lots of creative energy into temporary displays, mimicking the high priority tables of the mega stores or other highlight sections consumers are used to already. Since we live in a consumer economy, where individuals are conditioned to expect quick, efficient access to the goods they want immediately, bookstores cater to these instant satisfaction demands. Libraries, however, are not commercial zones and so they stand out as even more counter-intuitive to use compared to the ultimate consumer-friendly bookstores. Overall, when it comes to books, people want tables set out with items they might like because most people will find something they do in fact like there. People want books to be organized under unofficial popular section listings like ‘fiction’ or ‘drama’ so they can browse. If libraries want to keep up with the rising tide of mega store commercialism, we need to borrow some of their more effective marketing gimmicks to offer users as much of the convenience they know and expect from being in these comfortable reading areas with ambient lighting that are nearly as prevalent as Starbucks. Rotating, temporary displays provided easier browsing with catchy, popular titles or new releases is just a beginning.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Colbert's Truthiness and Webster's dictionary...

I saw this flash by in the "underlines" of CNN this morning and couldn't pass it up. Get you Faux News here...
http://news.aol.com/entertainment/articles/_a/truthiness-is-named-word-of-the-year/20061208184209990001

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Word of the Day

I subscribe to Merriam-Webster's Online 'Word of the Day'. Sometimes it's interesting, sometimes it's obscure, sometimes it's relevant to a class of library school students:

cybrarian \sye-BRAIR-ee-un\ noun

: a person whose job is to find, collect, and manage information that is available on the World Wide Web

Example sentence:
The library provided an e-mail address to submit inquiries to the cybrarian.

Did you know?
We've been using "librarian" for the people who manage libraries since at least the beginning of the 18th century, and the word was used for scribes and copyists even earlier than that. "Cybrarian," on the other hand, is much newer; its earliest documented use is from 1992. "Librarian" combines "library" (itself from "liber," the Latin word for book) and the noun suffix "-an," meaning "one specializing in." When people wanted a word for a person who performed duties similar to those of a librarian by using information from the Internet, they went a step further and combined "cyber-," meaning "of, relating to, or involving computers or a computer network," with "librarian" to produce the new "cybrarian."

Monday, December 04, 2006

Group Five Readings

Here's our reading list for the "Big Box Bookstores" topic, plus the rest of our bibliography. Note: soft music and an overcomplicated coffee beverage will greatly enhance your reading experience.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Group 4 Readings and Bibliography

In case anyone wanted to get a bit of a head-start on the readings, both our full bibliography and readings for class can be found here.

(Here's the URL if the link didn't work: https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jfcameron/web/LIS450/readings.htm).

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Pop Culture and Wikipedia

As a last minute activity please visit www.wikipedia.com and look up a pop culture idea with which you are familiar. Is the information posted on Wikipedia consistent with your understanding of the topic? If not, how is it different?