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Archive for September, 2007

Some videos

Posting about serious stuff will likely be light here for a couple of weeks- lots of big projects coming due. Though I tend to procrastinate by blog posting, so you never know.

I made a couple of videos for my Introduction to Information Technology class project: 10 Things to do in an airport when you’re bored. I made this list in June when I had a 4.5 hour layover in the Detroit airport coming back from ALA. I didn’t have near the nightmare travel others did, the 4.5 hours flew by. A camera, sketchpad, and MP3 player were more than enough to keep me entertained.

First, a video of the fountain in the airport- quite fun to watch. I originally had this set to the White Stripes “Girl you have no faith in medicine,” but that, of course, is not creative commons licensed. I found the new music at ccmixter.org/media/files/DJ_Rkod/11554 - it fits even better.

Fountains from karindalziel on Vimeo.

While walking the pretty tunnel under the concourses, I saw this little girl dancing to the new age music. I took a quick video- it’s not the best, I was trying to be surreptitious, so as not to look TOO creepy. She was really cute. Music from ccmixter.org/media/files/oldDog/11739.

Kid dancing in an airport from karindalziel on Vimeo.

karin :: Sep.25.2007 :: School Stuff, Sites and Stories :: 5 Comments »

Ethical question about library reference services.

As part of my never-ending schoolwork, I am currently searching the NebraskAccess site looking for a question to ask about it for class next Saturday. One of the pages on the site is a list of trivia questions that can be answered using the NebraskAccess databases. I found this question a little creepy:

Q. A patron of yours is interested in finding out more about a young boy that recently won three separate 4-H competitions at a Nebraska county fair. The patron knows there was definitely an article about the event in Wednesday’s edition of the Omaha World-Herald, but doesn’t know the boy’s name or the county where the fair was held. Can you help the patron find this article?

I know it’s partly because of media hype, but I would be concerned as to the patron’s intentions. If I had such concerns, would it be OK to ask why he or she wanted the information? Would it be OK to refuse?

I really, really hate to say this, but my gut instinct would be different depending on the person asking. A disheveled looking man might worry me more than a middle class looking woman, even though both could do potentially bad things with the information. My first question to myself would be: “How would my reaction differ if the patron looked different?” However, even if the patron was a middle class woman, I think I would still have some doubts. After all, I would feel horrible if something bad happened and I was the one that gave out the information.

What would you do? Has anyone had to face a dilemma like this at work?

karin :: Sep.17.2007 :: Library, School Stuff :: 4 Comments »

Final Literacy diagram

Well, it’s done. It was due last night, so I had to finish up. It’s waaay simplified. If anyone wants the SVG file to play with it in Inkscape (my new favorite program), let me know. The graphics come from mattahan.deviantart.com (you can download them as an icon package) and are creative commons noncommercial share alike licensed.

Information Media and Digital Literacy smaller

Bonus: I originally was going to include a librarian (information ninja) in the diagram, but it just didn’t fit. So here it is as a separate graphic. Here’s the CC license, and you’d have to credit mattahan.deviantart.com as above. Again, I have the svg if you want it.

information Ninja

karin :: Sep.15.2007 :: Information Literacy, Library, School Stuff :: 6 Comments »

Chart about…. you guessed it! Information literacy.

I swear I’ll be done with this topic soon! After my last post, in which I theorized the different types of literacy were more alike than not alike, I made a chart (because I misread the assignment- I’m supposed to make a diagram, not a chart. oops) about the differences between the 4 types of literacy I discussed before. I was surprised at how easy it was to separate these terms out into 4 distinct categories. Maybe they’re more different than I thought.

This is an awfully simplified version of the differences between Information, Media, and Digital Literacy. For the purposes of this table, I have treated the concepts as separate, but in reality there is quite a lot that is the same between all four concepts.

Note#1: I reserve the right to change this as I change my mind. :)
Note #2: On Jenny Levine’s suggestion, I’ve added “evaluating” as one of the primary activities in Information Literacy.

  Literacy Information literacy Media Literacy Digital Literacy
Primary Activity Reading and Writing Reading, Writing, Evaluating, Using Reading, Watching, Listening, Writing, Using, Creating Reading, Watching, Listening, Writing, Using, Creating, Combining (mashups), Remixing
Sources Books, maybe newspapers Books, newspapers, magazines, journals, vetted content Books, newspapers, TV, Radio, Internet (mostly corporate/official content) Text, Video, Audio (emphasis on user created/user filtered content)
Emphasis on The basic ability to read and write, for fun and comprehension. Finding good sources for information. Being able to get information from various kinds of media. Content over source. Being able to evaluate material for quality regardless of source.
Pros Emphasis on reading for fun and comprehension can lead to deeper understanding. Focus on authenticated information means less time spent determining accuracy of information. Also decreases chance of using bad information. Embraces absorption of information from a variety of media, thereby expanding possible sources of information. Maximum amount of information considered, delivery methods make it likely that information will be fresh and timely.
Cons User can miss out on a lot of material not in traditional text based formats. Focus on authenticated content means one can possibly miss out on other, useful content. Might ignore delivery methods other than text. Major media outlets can leave out a lot of content and may be influenced by funding, some media hard to reuse or cite. Focus on user driven creation and selection of content can lead to a confirmation bias, and popular does not necessarily = right.
Term used by Everyone Librarians, some educators Educators (esp. K-12), some librarians Educators, some librarians, and techno-proselytizers
Sometimes confused with Level of intelligence Bibliographic instruction, Library Use instruction N/A? Computer literacy

karin :: Sep.13.2007 :: Information Literacy, Library, School Stuff :: 6 Comments »

Do we need so many literacies?

Thanks to those that commented via email and on the blog to my post yesterday. I think I’m starting to get a clearer idea of what the different literacies may mean- though, of course, they will mean different things to different people.

I can’t help if it is futile to try and identify and define specific literacies, when “Information literacy” encompasses so many. If it’s just a shift in language, fine- then we need to add Math Literacy, P.E. Literacy, Band Literacy, etc. to our curriculum. But if we’re talking theory and learning paradigms, we might be better served by sticking to a somewhat more general term.

Of course, the problem is, as librarians, we tend to fully accept, embrace, and use other’s terms for things- at least, on a working level. So when teachers use terms like digital literacy and media literacy, what choice do we have but to use them too?

My own personal opinion is that “Information Literacy” adequately serves to describe the skills one will need to survive in a  constantly changing environment. It’s the term I’ll use most often.

All this theorizing is just that, though, because I still have to ponder this stuff for school. In the end, it’s a useful exercise,  because it forces me to research what others are calling what I think of as information literacy. This opens up the door for conversations. Also, in continuing to think about this, I’m clarifying in my mind how to explain why information literacy is important- as well as collecting anecdotes, stories and statistics from various articles.

karin :: Sep.13.2007 :: Information Literacy, Library, School Stuff :: 1 Comment »

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