Information for Student Bloggers

I found out about this through the Resource Shelf. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, those great paladins of intellectual freedom in cyberspace, have put together an FAQ Sheet on Student Blogging. While it is focused on students in middle and high school, it also contains some good information for college students. One sample question is "what about blogging about my own private life?" Here is the EFF's answer:

"Keep in mind that whatever you post on a public blog can be seen by your friends, your enemies, your teachers, your parents, your ex, that Great Aunt who likes to pinch your cheeks like you're a baby, the admissions offices of schools and colleges to which you might apply, current and future potential employers, and anyone else with access to the Internet and a search engine. While you can change your blog post at any time, it may be archived by others. "

This is something that a lot of bloggers may not think about. There are options to blog anonymously, and you can visit EFF's site to learn about some of them. However, if you blog under your name and do so publicly, you really need to keep in mind that someone somewhere can and will see it, and this can include people with less than noble motives. This leads me to point out this other item. A lot of college students use the popular social service Facebook. Very often, students who use this service post on it all sorts of personal information, including the photos of the latest drunken party, and they do so thinking that only their friends may see their posts. Well, students and other users of Facebook may want to think again as some college administrators and even police may use the service to crack down on those doing illegal acts. This post talks about using Facebook to spy on college students. Regardless of where someone stands in regards to services like Facebook, users should be aware that any information they make public can be found, and stuff on Facebook, or any other social service like MySpace or MSN Spaces or Yahoo!'s 360 for instance, is no exception. The message here is be aware, be informed, and then act accordingly.

Update note (12/16/05, 3:30p): Coach Brown at A Passion for Teaching has a great post. He is a teacher who as an experiment decided to set up his own MySpace account and see what happens. He reports on the results here. I found the post through the Carnival of Education Week 45.

Article Note: Small article on collaboration and information literacy

Citation for the article:

Scales, Jane, Greg Matthews, and Corey M. Johnson. "Compliance, Cooperation, Collaboration, and Information Literacy." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 31.3 (May 2005): 229-235.

I accessed the article via the OmniFile (Wilson) Database.

This is a short article about collaboration between librarians and the rest of the campus. The context is the revision of a one credit course on information literacy at Washington State University's Distance Degree Program. The authors basically look at their collaborative processes and discuss them in the context of Kenneth Bruffee's theories of collaboration. Kenneth Bruffee is the author of Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interpendence and the Authority of Knowledge (1993).

The article provides a literature review on collaboration and librarians. The authors point out that the topic of librarians collaborating with individual faculty is well documented. I should know since I had to read some of that literature to prepare for a presentation I had to give for a job interview last summer. This article, though a bit light, would have made a good addition to my search. After the brief literature review, the authors describe the course and how they went about revising it. They then look at their collaborative experience in terms of assumptions (what assumptions members collaborating brought in), authority (who was responsible for what), group composition, and language (as in the language of the tasks and vocabulary). These are all Bruffee concepts.

The authors conclude the article by saying they accomplished the task at hand and that they learned some valuable "lessons." I simply question the value of the lessons because I don't think they learned anything new. What the article does is put a theoretical frame to the experiences that many members of committees and group projects go through. They just wrote it down. I am not saying this is a bad thing. There is value in reflecting about experiences and making meaning out of them. In fact, a lot of articles in the LIS field are librarian or library experiences framed by some theory. After all, there are many academic librarians who have to publish for tenure, and this type of article is an example of one way to work towards that goal. And in case a reader may say I am cynical, I will say that I am repeating the advice I got from LIS faculty as well as the practicing librarians I worked with during my library school days. They taught me a few other tricks about publishing, but that makes a different post. Overall, my readers probably know that I am a strong advocate of reflective practice and practice grounded in research. However, this article is not ground breaking. I will list some of the lessons the authors provide to illustrate my point, with some remarks.

• ". . .the collaborative process can be uncomfortable and confusing, the ultimate outcome unclear while underway." (This sounds like every other group project I have had to work with. We like to think that we are all professionals and get along, but being professional does not mean we are all comfortable with group situations)
  
• "However, if the collaboration is successful, constructive synergy develops, and the goals of all players are reasonably met. Issues and conflicts are reconciled, and the outcomes are stable and enduring." (Then again, if it is not successful. . .)
• "In addition, collaboration is a recursive process that requires time and planning" (234) (This includes coordinating all those calendars, making sure there is place to meet, so on. And this is just for starters)

I think I was expecting a little more of this article. As far as academic articles go, this one is pretty lightweight. I probably would have added it to my bibliography for that presentation, but not likely to have referred to it very much because its lessons seem evident to me. As a teacher, I could have told readers a lot of this. Maybe that experience colors my view. Public education is notorious for latching to all sorts of theories to justify the obvious, and this article reminded me of that. At any rate, for some librarians or students looking for a very basic overview of collaboration concepts, this may be a start.

Booknote: A la Orilla Azul del Silencio/On the Blue Shore of Silence

Title: A la Orilla Azul del Silencio/On the Blue Shore of Silence
Author: Pablo Neruda
Translator: Alastair Reid
Publication Information: New York: Rayo, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-059184-6
Genre: Poetry
63 pages

This is a bilingual edition. It is a small poetry book with beautiful watercolor illustrations that complement Neruda's poems of the sea. Neruda's poetry is a pleasure to read, and fans will be pleased by this soothing and evocative collection. The rhythm of the verses will transport readers to the ocean; the art enhances this feeling. The book also features an afterword by Antonio Skarmeta. The book is highly recommended for fans of Pablo Neruda and for poetry readers in general. Read it at bedtime and take yourself away to the sea.

World AIDS Day: Be Aware, Educate Yourself, and Take Action

(Cross-posted from the Itinerant Librarian)

Today is World AIDS Day. It is a day for people to get facts about HIV and AIDS, to become aware, and to find ways to take action against this terrible disease. According to the website, "World AIDS Day is now in its 18th year. The first international health day was initiated following a unique summit of health ministers who met in London in January 1988. They realised that a united global effort was required to halt the spread of HIV and AIDS. The first theme was 'Join the Worldwide Effort'." In support, you will find the red ribbon on the column area of the blog.

Other places for information include, but are not limited to:

Johns Hopkins AIDS Service
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Medline Plus

And in case you need convincing why this is a significant issue, this article from the BBC might shed some light.

A hat tip to the Moorish Girl's blog. She also points out to some authors who provide a literary take on this. The Dewey Blog also has a note on World AIDS Day including telling us under what call number works on this topic fall.

Poetry Reading by Dionisio Martínez

This is the second of the campus events I attended shortly before the Thanksgiving break. According to the flyer provided, Dionisio Martínez was born in Cuba and raised in California and Spain. He is the author of three poetry collections: Climbing Back, Bad Alchemy, and History as a Second Language. Mr. Martínez spoke on our campus on Wednesday November 16, 2005. Some notes from his reading:

• Language is already there. A poem is created from our ideas, perspectives, and points of view. Poetry is not created in a void. It is important for poetry to bring in bits and pieces of the real world.
• A way to die: sitting by a lake with the moon reflecting on the lake. That way, someone writes a poem about you. This was prompted by reading about poet Li Po.
  
• Poetry is the art of lying, of reshaping the truth.
  
• On writing, that's what the trashcan, the delete key, and paper planes are for: for when things don't work out. He tells publishers who reject his poems to go on the roof of their building and make a paper airplane with his rejected poems.
  
• I would love to tell a publisher that rejected my work something like that. Is that cool or what?
  
• The important thing is you vision and experience, so use them. Don' try to be a journalist. The great thing is doing something that cannot be duplicated.
  
• Research leads to things you are not expecting to find. Discover things as you write: from memories, previously read, creativity. Also, don't edit while you write. Write without fear; edit when you are done. You never know if something you use now may come to be used later or where. Also, you never know who or what may have an influence.
  
• This is a lot of why I write in my blogs and my journal: to discover things. Now the fear part, that is a little tricky. Though I usually care little for what other think, I still cannot help a bit of trepidation since exposing what one writes involves some element of risk. And very true, you never know who or what may have an influence. Hey, who knew I would become a librarian?
  
• You cannot surprise your reader if you cannot surprise yourself. Take a leap.
  

More information on the poet can be found here or at Inprint, an nonprofit organization founded by a group of community volunteers and members of the UH Creative Writing Program.