Give me a reason to cite

Last week I stopped by a class for a short visit. The professor was holding a mini-workshop on writing for her upper-level students and thought it would be helpful to have me introduce myself, explain the research help I could offer, and answer any questions the students might have. She was particularly worried about some students’ inability to use resources outside of their class readings to help intellectually beef up their papers and (more surprisingly) their lack of consistent use of bibliographic citation styles in their papers. Part of the time I would spend with these students would be used to address this shortfall in their writing.

Although still a relatively newish librarian, I am not usually surprised by the things professors lament that students can’t do. Assumptions are too often made about things students should know or should have learned in high school, their first year, early college, etc. I was, however, genuinely surprised that upper-level students were still struggling with consistent citation in papers. After talking with students and listening to them air their frustrations, my surprise was, of course, gone, and replaced with something else…understanding? empathy? a sense that the way students are taught about citation is just plain ineffective?

When I asked students to call out the number one reason they’ve been told to cite sources in their research papers, they all replied in unison: “So that we don’t plagiarize.” When I asked if they had any other reasons for citing sources I got a few different variations on “giving credit to original authors” but that was about it. Learning and consistently using citation styles is a chore to these students, a needlessly complicated task with no real purpose attached to it other than to avoid an abstract wrong (you’re being academically dishonest) or a concrete consequence (you’ll end up with a failing grade).

One student asked me point blank: “Why is everything so specific? What difference does it make if I don’t put a period in the right place or capitalize the right word or use italics?” Before I could even open my mouth to answer another student swooped in with an answer that illustrated what a crappy job we’re doing of teaching citation: “You have to be specific so that when your teacher submits your paper to Turnitin.com the site will pick up your citation and you won’t get your paper flagged for plagiarism.”

Seriously? Proper citations in papers are just a plagiarism detection software deterrent? I don’t fault the student for this response, but it does hammer home the point that the way we are teaching citation is not working.

Just this year I came across a 2008 on The Pegasus Librarian blog about teaching citation to students: Citation as a Lens for Interdisciplinarity. As usual, Iris Jastram, The Pegasus Librarian, managed to give more food for thought in one blog post than most peer-reviewed journal articles. In her post she talks about how citation not only “shows respect for your community,” but also “helps you communicate with your community, reveals what kind of evidence is most important to a community, and builds context for your argument.” Her reasoning was less punitive and more about students taking part in a scholarly conversation. Brilliant! I must admit I’d never thought about the differences in citation formats for different disciplines revealing the importance of certain aspects of a scholarly work, but it makes so much sense! Of course dates would be more prominent in bibliographic citations in psychology and the sciences since currency is such an important aspect of research.

Inspired by Iris’ post, I decided to try out this case for citation with this class (see my very rudimentary Prezi) and was pleasantly surprised by the results! The students seemed to respond to the idea of using citations to speak the language of their scholarly communities. One student even brought up a GREAT example to help illustrate this point. His freshman year he was in a class where the professor primarily had the students working with classical texts. In this class his citations included folios and verses and had to specifically state which translations were being used. The student thought the professor might be “messing with them” when asking them for all this crazy information in their citations. But when we talked about citation within the context of a scholarly conversation, it made sense that someone working with classical texts would find that kind of information important.

There is one thing I wish I’d had the time to elaborate on further in this class: The specifics of a citation format may seem tedious and unimportant, but it’s all about communication. Trying to read an essay with inconsistent citation is just as difficult trying to read an email from someone who disregards all grammatical conventions.  As someone whose mother used to send emails in ALLCAPS with little punctuation, I can attest to this fact. (Thankfully my mom has since become an expert typist, emailer, and Facebooker.)

I never went into the mechanics of citation in this class, because as far as I’m concerned students can easily look up citation examples online or take advantage of citation generators. I do think it’s important to make these sample reference lists and citation style manuals readily available for students to consult, but I think it’s even more important to give them a reason to do so.

(And yes, I do know that I didn’t actually offer a specifically formatted citation for the blog I consulted, but I’m not writing a scholarly essay. My community includes blog readers and other bloggers who benefit from in-text citations and links to other sources. I’m just speaking the language of my community!)

Starting Over Again

One of my favorite songs is My Life is Starting Over Again by Daniel Johnston (Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair do a great cover of it, if you’re interested). In some ways it feels very appropriate to my professional life. After almost 2 years of part-time employment and volunteer work, both in and outside of libraries, attempting to getting back in to a professional groove has felt very much like starting over again.

There are of course, the obvious things, like getting used to a 40 hour a week routine, learning the culture of this library and college, and learning new policies and procedures. Then there are adjustments I did not anticipate, like having to adjust my teaching style to new surroundings and students, trying to prioritize work demands, and developing a workflow to devote time not just to the library’s demands but to my own professional scholarship. I suppose I just assumed I could transfer the same workflow and processes I used at U of H to my new job, but I have quickly learned that not only is my library different, but I am a different librarian than I was two years ago.

I’m attempting to figure out exactly what about librarianship is important to me at this point in my life and career. I see so many CFPs coming through email or various blog posts, and I often wonder about certain aspects of librarianship, but I am still trying to figure out what’s worth writing about. I don’t want to spend time filling a CV with, well, “filler” and I want to write about what is meaningful to me as a librarian. I’m just still trying to figure that out.

In the mean time, I’m returning to this blog, which fell by the wayside for the past month thanks to the start of the semester, a hurricane, and a lot time spent teaching. I’m hoping that in writing a little from time to time I’ll lead myself to something worth writing more about.

What to do (and not to do) with your iStuff

Last week a friend of mine told me about one of her coworkers who was so excited about her new iPhone that she used it any chance she could get, including during her classes. This didn’t sound too bad to me at first. After all, there are plenty of educational apps available for the iPhone. But then she elaborated on the iPhone use. I won’t go into great detail for fear of revealing identities, but let’s just say, her iPhone use involved Wikipedia and having her large class of 8-year-olds huddled around her iPhone to watch a video.

It didn’t sound like a golden moment in instructional technology.

Contrast that use of iTech with a more reasonable one. My husband downloaded some kind of graphing application to his iPad, which he plans to connect to a classroom projector to display 3-d models of different mathematical equations (here ends my understanding of the math he teaches). It’s a great app with fun, interactive graphics that will help his students visualize the math they are studying.

In my last post, Miranda Bennett, a former colleague, left what I thought was a smart comment: “A few moments of reflection about what you’re trying to accomplish with a given gadget can make a real difference in how you use it (or even whether you choose to acquire it in the first place).” This has been on my mind quite a bit lately as I’ve been planning and thinking about upcoming classes. Will making use of classroom technology like instructor stations, student computers, and projectors make my lesson stronger? At what point do I just need to unplug everything and have a conversation with the students? When will using our wired classroom prove to be beneficial? I know that there are aspects of our teaching that are always going to have to be mechanical (here’s how you use the catalog, database, citation linker, etc.), but when I want to focus on transferable skills like developing a workable research question or an effective research strategy, or even just figuring what kinds of information are needed to answer a research question, what technology will I need beyond a chalkboard, my brain, and my voice? What technology have others found to be most helpful?

 

 

Mobile Devices Are Not Computers

Last month a disaster of EPIC PROPORTIONS occurred: My husband broke his cell phone. Although still capable of making calls, it was coming apart in the middle, with the screen precariously dangling from the dialing pad. “But how is that possible?” you might ask. “The iPhone has no middle joint! Nor does my Android powered phone!”

This is possible because my husband owns a flip-phone. A dumb-phone. An internet-capable-but-never-used-for-anything-other-than-calls-and-brief-texts-and-Tetris.

Purchased in 2008 for its global calling capabilities, my husband loves this phone. It is simple and ugly and makes calls. When it broke he tried to hide it from me, but I quickly noticed the cracks and the awkward way he was holding it when making calls (no one ever needs two hands to hold a cell phone). “We’re going to the store tomorrow,” I insisted. “We have an upgrade to use, and you’re using it.” He grudgingly agreed to my plan after I said we’d pick up some Starbucks along the way, but despite the calming effect of his latte, things quickly went south.

“What are you looking for in a phone today?” the friendly and helpful phone store salesperson began. The look of disgust on my husband’s face was easy for me (and luckily no one else) to recognize. He told me what he wanted to say once we were in the car, but I could read it in his face then: ” I want a phone that makes calls, like phones are supposed to do.” Despite his frustration he politely walked around the store with her, listening to her sales pitch, then at the first opportunity ran the hell out of there.

I was baffled. Why wouldn’t he want to upgrade his phone? It’s a new toy! And it did fun stuff! Only after I heard his explanation did I begin to understand his frustration. My husband is not anti-gadget. Between the two of us we have multiple iPods, an iPod touch, an iPad, and too many Apple computers. His beef lies with the smartphone alone, or rather, with the expectations attached to smartphones.

His words (more or less): “Everyone gets these smartphones and expects them to do all the stuff that their computers do. So they spent their time squinting at this tiny screen, sending emails with a bunch of spelling and grammar mistakes, pretending like their 3G or 4G or whatever connection is faster than their home or office network even when they lose service. They’re showing off all they can do with the smartphone like they do it all the time EXCEPT THEY DON’T. They still use their computers and I don’t understand how this little phone is supposed to replace my 27 inch iMac. Plus the data plans are ridiculous. I don’t need to pay a ton of money every month to know that someone just posted on their Facebook wall.”

He’ll correct me if I’m wrong, but that’s the jist of his argument, and I have to say, it’s somewhat compelling.

At the Handheld Librarian virtual conference I attended two weeks ago, Amy Vecchione of Boise State University and Tobie Garrick of Boise Public Library gave a great presentation on using mobile devices to provide reference services in their respective libraries. They were very pro-mobile devices, but at one point in their presentation they put up a slide that I was waiting to see all day. In a picture was the point: Mobile devices are NOT computers. They are a completely different animal. In some cases they are better than computers and in others computers are the winner. When we think about mobile devices we need to think of them as their own separate entities with their own strengths, weaknesses and purposes, NOT as mini-computers. This is, I think, my husband’s major beef with smartphone enthusiasts and my own hesitation towards the growing push push push towards mobile devices.

I want to jump on the mobile enthusiast bandwagon. I loved my iPod Touch when I first got it and I think my iPad is the coolest new gadget I’ve had in a while, but I don’t think either one replaces my computer. When I want to do research or write an article, or even write a long blog post like this one, I prefer to use my computer. I want to edit photos, video, and webpages on a big screen. I want to use my iPad to play Words with Friends or watch a movie on Netflix when I’m at the airport. I want to use my iPod touch to listen to music, jot down a grocery list, or check my calendar.

I think that all forward-thinking libraries should have a “mobile presence” but I don’t think it will look the same for every library. I wonder sometimes about the functionality of mobile-friendly research databases and how anyone could do any kind of substantial research on an iPhone. I see them being used more by students doing very casual searching, or by a researcher having a conversation with another researcher and needing to quickly look up the author of a paper s/he just read. I guess I just have a hard time seeing someone pouring over pages of research on an iPhone.

The January 2011 issue of College & Research Libraries had an interesting article on a series of focus groups conducted by two librarians at Kent State University on students’ interest in mobile library services. Although the students responded positively to the idea of using their mobile devices to access research databases, I thought that their comments about when, how and why they would access databases this way were telling. Most students expressed an interest in quick searching, the need to look something up in class, or the ability to get started on research when they are in a situation where they need to kill time. Few indicated that they would do serious research on their phones.  In fact the researchers indicated that “regardless of which section of the University Libraries’ Web site [was] being discussed in the focus group, participants identified the ability to contact a librarian as being of prime importance” (Seeholzer & Salem  p.17).

This is why I am just not ready to sing the death of personal computers. I see mobile technologies as an enhancement, not a replacement to computer use. They seem to be more about person-to-person connection and more useful as a means of enhancing relationships. I don’t think they are quite ready to take on the functionality of computers. I suspect that eventually tablet devices will have the same power and capabilities that my computer has, but for the time being, my computer still has a very central role in my professional and personal life.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes, my husband did eventually get a new phone. It was a free, provider-brand dumb phone, but to him it was the best phone in the world.

A Crisis of Our Own Making

Despite their best intentions, the prophets of the library-apocalypse are getting on my nerves.

Libraries are obsolete! The reference desk is dead! No one comes to our workshops! Our patrons don’t need us anymore! No one reads print! No one looks at our website! Libraries are just glorified computer labs! Google! Google! Google! Argh!

Did I forget anything?

The notion of librarianship in crisis is being drilled into our professional psyche at every turn, most notably in the latest ACRLog post and a forthcoming opinion piece in the Journal of Academic Librarianship, and yet, like a 10-year-old girl in line for a Justin Bieber concert, I refuse to be moved. I don’t doubt that there are some libraries stuck in the rut of out-dated practices, with staff still wondering what this new web 2.0 thing is all about. But I think that the VAST MAJORITY of libraries and librarians are forward-thinking, community-oriented, and working hard to remain engaged with patrons despite suffering budgets. Those that are signalling the down-ward trajectory of libraries are often citing practices that many libraries have recognized as inefficient and have either left behind or are actively working to replace with more productive practices (see the comment by Laura Saunders on the above mentioned ACRLog post).

Then there is the matter of the one-size-fits-all mentality that so many library futurists seem to suffer from. A library staff’s greatest strength is its ability to work itself into the fabric of its community, recognizing patron needs and developing practices to meet them. Just because a library isn’t using QR codes, circulating ebook readers, or cultivating an institutional repository doesn’t mean that it isn’t meeting the needs of its community. I love technology, and I am excited by new trends in librarianship, but part of being a good librarian is knowing the population you serve and finding ways to meet their needs. As a librarian at the University of Houston I was heavily invested in finding ways to virtually connect with students. It’s a large commuter campus with lots of working students who are frequently doing research at home and are in need of a virtual version of the personal research assistance other students normally receive on campus. The situation at St. Mary’s College of Maryland is quite different. Students at this small, rural, residential campus are in need of more face-time, and although a good web presence is important, so is my ability to be physically present and integrated into classroom instruction. Other libraries have entirely different situations to address. Library Journal had a great piece this summer about services to homeless patrons and outreach to families in shelters. Libraries like the San Jose Public Library are focusing on the community aspect of librarianship, offering the services of social worker to patrons in need.

Most of what I read about current practices in libraries only solidifies my belief that libraries are working hard to be nimble, forward-thinking institutions that place their communities at the center of all of their practices. I don’t believe in the impending demise of libraries. I think we will continue to grow and adapt. Writing about the “crisis” in libraries tries to elicit change out of fear, rather than a desire to better serve our communities. By continuing to write our own obituaries, we are dissuading enthusiastic, forward-minded young scholars, technologists, and community leaders from entering the profession by painting ourselves as stuck in the past and obsolete. Given that “perception matters more than reality” according to Anderson’s opinion piece, we are also doing ourselves a dramatic disservice by continuing to highlight our inadequacies without counterbalancing these critiques with helpful, useful alternative service models and practices.

So stop it already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on the Handheld Librarian Conference

After every (good) conference I attend I feel energized with new ideas and interesting perspectives on library practices. I have pages of notes, folders filled with handouts, and if I’m lucky, a couple new contacts on Facebook. Then everything gets placed in a folder (neatly labelled, of course) and despite my best efforts to use this new information, I inevitably get distracted by day-to-day tasks. Any new ideas or projects I’d like to pursue get placed on the back-burner, where, if I’m lucky, I might return to them in a few months.

I’m determined to break this cycle of excitement-distraction-oblivion. I’m in a new job, and, I think, a new, more positive mindset about librarianship. After every conference I’ll try to write a little about something interesting I learned or maybe even something I couldn’t quite understand. Hopefully this will keep me from shelving new ideas that really need to be at the forefront of my professional work.

HHL Conference

Last week I attended the all-online Handheld Librarian Conference. For anyone who has not attended this virtual conference, I highly recommend it! It’s specific to the use of mobile technologies in libraries, but it’s not just for programmers and systems folks. It’s great for reference, instruction and collection development librarians, archivists, school media specialists, and public librarians too.

One of the more interesting sessions was on “Evaluating Mobile Options for Your Library,” specifically mobile websites and apps. I thought I knew a decent amount about mobile sites, but I quickly learned that there were lots of different options available to libraries interested in developing a mobile presence. A mobile website is a flexible, cross-platform option for libraries with only a coder or two on-hand, and there are even companies like Winksite that will create and host a mobile site for you. Then there are webapps, that will allow you to have a more interactive relationship with mobile users, as well as proprietary apps for certain devices (like the iPhone or Android devices). I think for a library like mine a proprietary app might be overkill (and beyond our skill and budget), but a webapp or just a plain ol’ mobile site might be the way to go.

Other sessions of note: Using QR codes in library instruction & marketing, using mobile devices for reference services, and a keynote address from Mashable’s Christina Warren.

Grad School Do-Over

It seems as though every 4th or 5th library blog post or column I read is a discussion on the relevancy of current LIS graduate education, or a what-I-wish-I-would-have-learned-in-grad-school lament. I am hesitant to write about something I think others have covered more extensively and eloquently, but it’s difficult for me to stay silent after reading over Michael Stephen’s draft syllabus for a class on Participatory Service and Emerging Technologies.

It’s a wonderful idea for a class, one I wish had been available when I was in grad school. The course is not just about technology for technology’s sake. Instead it frames emerging social technologies within the context of engaging library users and visitors and creating a meaningful community. It’s this second piece, the application and meaningful use of technology, that to me is so important is often lost when teaching library students (or anyone for that matter) about new technologies. I think it’s easy for librarians (especially new librarians) to get caught up in the amazing variety of online social tools and technology without really thinking about how to use them to create a meaningful library experience for others. I think its a responsibility of graduate school instructors to not just teach librarians about technological and technical practice, but to engage students in discussions and assignments that lead them to think about the implications these practices will have on relationships within the larger library community of librarians, staff, and users.

My web development courses in library school were wonderful in terms of acquiring the coding skills necessary to create dynamic websites with clean code, but in taking these courses just a little bit further, my classmates and I could have learned about website usability testing or creating effective focus groups to gather feedback for website creation. In research methods and statistics, I wish that I had actually carried out the task of proposing a research project and determining which methods would be best to carry out my study, as well as learning about proper survey design. Instead much of the education that would have been beneficial to attain in graduate school has been gathered through on-the-job failures (which can be a good thing!), learning from people much smarter than I am,  and lots and lots of reading.

I realize that beefing up LIS courses requires more work for both students and faculty, but I think that incorporating a more critical, thoughtful approach to our profession, one based in user-study and solid research, would be well worth the time and effort.

I Should Know Better

It’s not always easy for me (or I’d venture to guess, anyone) to separate professional life from personal life. Things I read, hear about or experience outside of work often influence the approach I take to people and projects inside the library. So please forgive the somewhat personal nature of the first half of this post. There is, surprisingly, a library-related point, which surprised even me.

Those of you who know me and The Professor know that it has been a rough year or so for us, punctuated with some good news here and there. We are expecting our 2nd son this fall, and despite efforts to combat our anxiety, we often fall prey to fear. That was the case earlier this month, when we received some news about our baby from our 20 week ultrasound results. I won’t talk about the details, but I will say that after further investigation, the findings from the ultrasound turned out to be a diagnosis that doesn’t cause us much stress or anxiety. We’ll definitely be having additional prenatal follow-ups given our history and general tendency towards TOTAL FREAKOUT, but it’s something that will likely resolve itself in our baby before birth, after birth on its own, or after birth with reasonable treatment.

I am able to calmly write about these events this morning, but during the 2 weeks in between our level 1 and level 2 sonogram I was on High-Anxiety-Alert-Code-Neon-Flashing-Lights. Here’s where the librarian in me begins to cringe. I had an appointment with my OBGYN shortly after receiving the ultrasound results from a nurse practitioner at the practice. Our OBGYN assured us that this diagnosis was very common and that she was not concerned for the health of our baby at all. Our OBGYN, a highly qualified expert on this subject, was giving us a professional opinion based on years of experience and study. It sank in and gave me relief–for a while–but then I turned back to my favorite high-anxiety activity: trolling the internet for information.

Here’s where the librarian in me REALLY begins to cringe.

I was online any chance I could get, looking up everything I possibly could about this diagnosis. Did I stick to reputable sources of peer-reviewed medical literature like PubMed or Medline? No, although I did consult them. Did I stick to research hospital websites with medical information tailored to patients and consumers? No, but I consulted these sites too. Did I hit up message boards, blogs, Yahoo Answers (yikes), and various other sites of dubious information value? You betcha. I hit ‘em all. I couldn’t stop myself. I was motivated in large part by fear and was looking for every best and worst case scenario I could read about. I knew the people, articles, and websites I should trust, but I was desperately trying to support my fickle self-diagnosis. When I was feeling bad I went looking for every doom and gloom scenario I could find to support my equally negative point of view. When I was feeling good I only focused on medical sites or forums that would support my belief that this was really nothing to be too worried about. All of my years of teaching others about reputable sources and resource evaluation were erased with a keystroke. I was an information basket-case.

I now see how my emotions got the better of me and my research savvy, but I am seeing this from the comfort of a much more medically informed and reassured point-of-view (thanks to ultrasound no. 2). I can only think back on the different people I’ve helped with research over the years and wonder just how much emotions can help or hinder the research process. I’ve seen students who were so stressed with the stuff of life that they were constantly on the verge of tears, unable to really focus on the research assignment at hand. I’ve seen students who for one reason or another, just couldn’t get along with their professor, and as a result were really angry about having to conduct research for their class.  There were also students who, like me, were searching for information on a deeply personal issue. I have a psychology professor friend who says that often undergraduate student research is really MEsearch. They often look to a very personal place for inspiration for school assignments, and I’m sure they must bring their own ideas and prejudices (good or bad) to the research table. The idea that academic research occurs outside of the realm of emotion seems unrealistic to me. I don’t think that every student feels strongly attached to researching “cell phone use among college students,” but I do think there are times when research can’t be separated from the person that’s conducting it and all of life experiences they bring with them.

I know that I am not a counselor. I am a librarian. But I think that there are times when we librarians need to realize that we are dealing with people, not just databases.  We read studies about “library anxiety” or “test-taking stress” but there is also something to be said for the emotions that govern our students’, and our own, research behavior.

Freelance No Longer

It finally happened. After almost 2 years of part-time work, hand-wringing, and online moping, I am now, once again, a FULL TIME LIBRARIAN!

On Wednesday, July 6, I started my first day on the job as a tenure-track reference and instruction librarian at the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Library. To say I am excited would be an understatement. Although it is the summer, and most students and faculty are gone, I am spending my days getting settled into my new routine. Although I’ve worked part-time, on-and-0ff, and this library in circulation and reference for the past 2 years, there are lots of librarian-specific things I have to learn, not to mention brushing up on my teaching and collection management skills.

This is the first job I’ve started where I’m not completely “green.” It’s definitely a strange feeling, and I need to keep reminding myself to ask questions of people when I have them. I don’t know everything, nor should I.

Oh, and in case you’re interested in more details of this job, I’ll be the library liaison to the psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science departments, as well as being responsible for updating/maintaining the library’s website. I will also be doing a lot of teaching.

Free Advertising for EBSCO?

I’m a big fan of Library Journal. I review books in the social sciences for LJ and always enjoy reading Barbara Fister’s Peer to Peer Review column, but a recent article in this publication made me cringe. Liverpool’s Discovery, the first in what LJ calls “a series of articles coming this spring devoted to new developments in major tools for libraries” started off as a story about librarians at University of Liverpool’s Sydney Jones Library exploring different discovery tools, but then quickly turned into a “let’s talk about how awesome EBSCO’s new discovery tool is” session. It was free advertising for EBSCO, and was in no way helpful to librarians who are struggling to decide whether or not to have their institutions jump on the discovery tool bandwagon. I was so disappointed! I turn to LJ for insightful commentary on current issues facing libraries. If I want a sales pitch I’ll go to the EBSCO chicken lunch at ALA’s Annual Conference.