Community Spaces in Academia

Laura Cohen recently started a discussion about the place of academia in relation to online social spaces in a post entitled The Abdication of Community Spaces. In the post, Laura asks “Are any campuses hosting the kinds of spaces that can accommodate the immediacy of the need to create communities online?” She concludes that “institutions of higher education are abdicating their responsibility to host such communities.” Part of the inspiration for this post was the high number of communities that sprung up on Facebook after the April 16th shootings at Virginia Tech. One point that Laura makes is that by not hosting such communities itself, Virginia Tech has lost a vital piece of its social history in relation to the tragedy. Laura is also concerned that by abdicating their role in such spaces, academia will not be able to preserve important parts of its history. This is a great post with some excellent comments – all worth reading.

I commented a couple of times – pretty much agreeing that I think it is problematic that academia isn’t jumping into the social network arena and sharing my reasons why. I’m coming at this from the viewpoint of a student in a distance program who believes that one of the biggest problems with online education is the lack of engaging communities that foster both social and educational interactions. I and many of the students in my program that I have been in contact with over the past couple of months feel the lack of social space quite keenly. I have discussed my frustrations with this previously. These frustrations led me to try and create some type of social space for students in the MLS program – particularly distance students. The only sustainable options at this point are to use 3rd party products like Facebook, Google Groups or Yahoo Groups. Honestly, I’m not happy with these products. They haven’t really done what I thought they would – or what I thought we needed. Undoubtedly, Facebook is the best option and the best product to facilitate social interaction.  However, there have been several problems (mostly with email addresses and the way I created the group) have made the Facebook group less than ideal.

I have come to the conclusion that academia needs to be participating in this arena in order to successfully fulfill the social component that is an important part of students’ educational experiences. Colleges and universities spend an inordinate amount of time and money to give students a sense of communities on their campuses. They really need to follow this through to the online arena – especially for distance students. As online education continues to flourish, I believe that it will be this type of attention to web-based communities that will attract students to one college over another. I know that if I were to even consider another online program, I would be much more vigilant about the services offered to distance students – something that I honestly never even thought to consider when choosing my MLS program.

What Constitutes A Good Library Education?

Earlier this week, Amy J. Kearns from Library Garden asked What are the library students of today learning? I have been mulling over the post and the accompanying comments all week – thinking about my own library education. I have questions: How do we define a good library education? How do we know if library students are learning what they need to know while in library school? What do current students need to know to be successful? How often do people meet recent graduates that are ill-equiped to take on the challenge of librarianship?

Personally, I didn’t go to library school to learn about practical skills. I’m lucky enough to have learned these skills on the job. Honestly, I was much more interested in the foundations of librarianship – learning its history, reading about and researching important historical figures, discussing philosophical and ethical concerns and developing a sense of how my own beliefs affect what librarianship means to me. I can say that in my educational experience, SCSU has covered the foundations of librarianship extremely well. In fact, I have been happiest with the classes that covered these topics. I am developing my own sense of what it means to be a librarian and what librarianship means to me.

It is important to note that customer service is included with the foundations of librarianship. The primary importance of the patron and their information needs and desires is something that has been stressed in almost every class that I have taken. I would include cataloging basics (MARC & AACR2) and reference basics in the foundations category.

So, the basic building blocks have been covered. What have I learned beyond that? I have been taking as many management classes (and classes relating to academic libraries) as possible. These classes have focused on managing resources – including people. I sometimes find these classes painful because so many of the case studies and discussions reflect my real world experiences. However, they are vital classes – and I think they are making me more confident about my ability to make managerial decisions (I do have a job where I manage a department). One of my least favorite assignments was an “in-basket” exercise where we (the students) took the role of library directors and had to deal with a number of issues – personnel, budget, temperature wars, etc. - in our in basket within a tight time frame. The crux of the assignment was to identify which problems needed to be dealt with immediately, which ones could be delegated and which ones could wait. It was painful, but was a wonderful learning experience – in a safe, controlled environment. I think it is one of the best assignments that I have been given thus far.

What about technology? In the aforementioned post by Amy J. Kearns, she wonders whether students are learning about Web 2.0 technologies. There is an interesting quote in the Kearns’ post from another library blogger.

LibraryNation said…
I’m in library school right now and I’d have to say that there’s a division of thirds in regards to the level of skill we future librarians have: a third of us are really up to date on technology, web 2.0, and the like; a third don’t know a lot about these things, but really want to learn more . . . The last third don’t have much interest in learning about these technologies, or perhaps don’t even know that this is something they should be teaching themselves…

… And maybe you’re right about needing to educate our professors. I think they also fall into the three categories: those in the know, those who want to be in the know, and those who think it’s relevant/unimportant or are unenlightened.

Kathleen Houlihan from LibraryNation makes an important point about the divergent nature of technological skills among library students – which doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the wide range in age for MLS students. There is a significant percentage of library students who don’t have a decent comfort level with technology itself when starting their program – which oddly enough mirrors my experience with people who work in libraries. I strongly suspect the same can be said of LIS faculty – some are technologically savvy, some would like to be and some don’t care to be. For the students, many need help and guidance with the basics: email, the internet, computers, etc. Web 2.0? So many students are not ready for that during their program – not even close.

In my time in library school so far, we haven’t talked about Web 2.0 or about Library 2.0 in any specific capacity. We have used some Web 2.0 technologies – wikis, blogs, chat rooms, etc. In each instance, however, there were students who were very uncomfortable using these tools. Anything significant that I have learned about these subjects has been self-taught – and is part of my process of keeping current and learning about what is new in the profession. I can’t say whether the faculty know about they technologies or not. I suspect that most do know about them, but have specific agendas for their classes – and many times Web 2.0 technologies do not fit.

Technology is a big problem – one that I don’t think we have dealt with successfully in the work environment never mind in the education environment. Everyone who works in library-related fields needs to be technologically competent. It isn’t going away. We will only continue to become more dependent on systems, on the internet, on computers and portable devices. With new operating systems that continue to lock down computers and impose stricter restrictions to fight spyware, viruses and intrusion, people need to know how their computers work – and how to configure them. I am concerned about how we teach this to people. We do not do a good job of it. This isn’t something that happens at library school.

I am in no way saying that we shouldn’t be learning about Web 2.0 technologies in library school. I’m just saying that we can’t really teach them to students who don’t have basic computer skills. Personally, I’m a proponent of learning about Web 2.0 by doing. Not only does this help one learn about new technologies, it can help students be more comfortable in a computer environment. The answer to how library schools could teach this stuff is by engaging in it. Follow the lead of LIS faculty like Michael Stephens (see http://lis753.wordpress.com/) and Amanda Etches-Johnson (see http://lis757.blogwithoutalibrary.net/). Both of these people are putting their classes online in a variety of ways – interspersing Web 2.0 technologies into the learning environment. LIS schools could make, sponsor or encourage students to create and participate in social networks. Education has social components that fit in nicely with Web 2.0.

In the end, it is difficult to know what constitutes a good library education. There are many variables – students come into programs with different levels of knowledge, they have divergent expectations, there are different educational tracks for academics, special librarians, archivists and school media specialists, faculty teach differently and have different experiences, etc. No two people get the same education from the same professor never-mind the same school. So far, I’m fine with my library education. Remember earlier (yes, this is a massively long post, I know) when I wrote that my educational experience is about developing my own sense of what it means to be a librarian and what librarianship means to me? I have taken it upon myself to make that my goal. Library school is helping me achieve this, and in that vein, I would have to say that my experience has been enriching, challenging and in line with my expectations. Could library education be improved? Of course, it could. I think there is significant room for updates to the curriculum and other improvements. But, there is already a solid foundation to library education. It could just use some sprucing up!

Excitement Reigns Supreme!

I have just booked a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon for next week. I would call it a joint anniversary gift (today is actually our 7th wedding anniversary – how quickly time flies UPDATE: it flies even faster since it is our 8th anniversary), but my husband – who is not a good flier – isn’t entirely sure he plans to go. Since we are going on vacation with my parents, my mother may end up going in his place. As one who loves to fly, I’m looking forward to my first trip in a helicopter – and more importantly, the Grand Canyon itself. I decided on one of the trips with a descent into the canyon. I am thinking this will be the highlight of the vacation (for me at least). I can hardly wait!!!

In addition, we are also going to see Cirque du Soleil – the “O” Show, I think. I was very wishy washy about going to see a show. We – meaning my husband, my mom, my dad and myself – dragged our feet, went back and forth about what we wanted to see. I’m not opposed to Celine Dion, but not in a hurry to spend lots of money to see her – and I doubt I could drag my husband. Fortunately, everyone seemed intrigued by Cirque du Soleil.

I can’t wait!

Killer SPAM

The amount of SPAM that is making it through WordPress’ SPAM filter is on the rise – exponentially. Over the past week, I have had to delete between 30 and 50 comments or trackbacks about 4 times. ARGH!!!!! The SPAM filter is also catching much more. It seems as if every-time I log on, there are over 200 comments in the SPAM queue. Sadly, I’m not going through them all to check for false positives – it just takes way too much time.

On that note, I will mention that I won’t be deleting any SPAM that makes it through – or responding to comments or questions either – next week. I am on my way to Las Vegas on Saturday, June 2nd. I will be back late on Friday, June 8th. I do not plan on spending much time online – I’m hoping not to take my laptop. Hope springs eternal!