Reflective Journal: Chronicle of a First Semester SLIM Student

Maureen Pardee Redfield

November 30, 2010 LI801 Emporia State University SLIM

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield This document is a reflective journal kept during the course of LI801: Foundations of Information Transfer. This journal reflects my thoughts, largely in response to readingsboth assigned and not, as they relate to the profession of librarianship and my path into this profession. As I reviewed my journal prior to submittal I discovered that my thoughts fell fairly clearly into three broad categories: Technology, the Profession and its Values, and Personal Paths of Interest. Of course, there were overlaps between the categories but as the categorizer, I felt free to group the entries as I saw fit. Unlike a more traditional journal, the following entries are not in a particular chronological order but rather organized thematically. I hope you enjoy following me on this path of exploration.

Technology
Your Brain on Google Nicholas Carr asks Has Google made us stupid? in his Atlantic Monthly article from 2008 of the same name. Shockingly, the answer might be yes. He recounts his, and his colleagues, realization that the ability to concentrate in depth and for an extended period of time seems to have gone the way of the dial up modem. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. (Carr, 2008, n.p.). Carr argues, supported by anecdotes and quotes from bloggers, brain researchers, journalists, and even researchers studying how people research, that it appears that the way we think, after a decade or more of being bombarded by the Internet, has changed to be a much more fragmented process. We are now more likely to skim across the surface of whatever we are reading or researchingjumping quickly on to the next thing, through the next link, rarely reading more than a few paragraphs or pages.

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I see myself in this and it dismays me. In a lot of ways I have a real love-hate relationship with the Internet. As someone who finds information of all kinds extraordinarily valuable and is always fascinated to learn about new things, the Internet has been an absolutely amazing resource for me. At the same time, I feel my ability to concentrate has waned. I am easily distracted by this link and that. Even when what I am reading doesnt link me away from the article or post before Ive read to the end, I frequently find myself opening a new tab and perhaps, searching something that what I was reading sparked me to wonder about or looking up something else entirely unrelated. Before I notice, I have 30 tabs open on my browser all with something I want to look at in depth or read to completion. Eventually, Ill bookmark all the tabs in a foldersupposedly to look at laterand start the process over again. Ive found the only way to complete my class readings this semester has been to read them on paper (novel, I know). I simply could not concentrate long enough to get to the end of an article if I was reading it on the computer without feeling the overwhelming urge to flit on to the next thing. I feel like my ability to concentrate and read deeply has certainly changed in the last seven years while Ive been out of school. How much of that is seven years of surfing the Internet and reading very little in the way of sustained academic arguments? Im really concerned about the trend in our society of the instantaneous frenzied and shallow information overload. How are children, constantly exposed to this, learning to think? Are they learning to think? If I, someone who has a strong background of sustained thought, attention and academic investigation, am struggling with this how are others fairing? How are todays college students and teenagers faring? What does this mean for librariesinstitutions built on a societys need for information to think about and inform its intellectual pursuits? Does this

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield growing inability to pursue a thought, argument or line of research for the average user spell the demise of the library as I know it? I try to not think so negatively about what these technologies have wrought. I have no (well, only a little maybe) urge to advocate a line of luddite-ness. Innovation and progress are positives. Right? My life has been enriched and informed by the power of the Internet. I think.

It certainly allows me to pursue this degree and professional course. Im certainly not some kind of old fuddy-duddy. Im barely in my 30s for goodness-sake. Im very comfortable using new technologies. Im even the go-to fix-it techno person in my household. Maybe what Im really seeking is a more aware, conscious, usage of the abundance we are presented with. Perhaps this ties into the need to teach our children (and adults) a higher and higher level of information literacy. I think what I am wanting is a mainstream critique of the world we live in. I cannot swallow the current notions of progress every bit of media bombards us with on a nearly minute by minute basis. I am really glad I came across Nicholas Carrs essay. Even though, I cant for the life of me remember how I came across itI would nearly bet money it was following one of those chain of links that took me away from some article I was reading. I probably never got back and finished it either. Physical impact of technology on workers Rubin discusses the impact of technological change on the physical and psychological conditions of workers in chapter six of Foundations of Library and Information Science. I guess you could say that I had no idea of the impact technologies can and do have on our physical conditions! Rubins brief discussion coupled with something mentioned by a classmatethat studies are showing ocular degeneration in young children due to computer usehave really

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I had no idea that there could be actual physical injuries

caused by technology uses (short of beaning someone in the head with your smart phone). Yikes! This makes my desk at work (where Im on the computer for most of most days) go from unfortunate to downright scary looking. Also unfortunate is that I cannot imagine anything I could say or do that would facilitate fixing the problems at my place of work. That sure indicates a path for me though: finish my MLS, get out of there, do my best to be aware of these things and stay abreast of solutions and remedies in my future professional life, and make sure that any people I have any part in supervising are not placed in potentially harmful positions vis-a-vis technology. Wikipedia I dont really quite get the attraction of Wikipedia. Honestly, I was aware of it but am pretty sure I never actually read an entry prior to my foray into Library School. It boggles my mind that there are college students out there who are actually using it as a source in papers. To me this really speaks to the nearly complete lack of information literacy being taught to the children in our countrys schools. The concept is certainly interesting. The masses input their knowledge about a subject and help to collectively improve on each others information. But I just cant get over the squinshy feeling in my stomach. How in the world do people possibly view this on par with, say, a journal article in a peer-reviewed-well-respected-by-the-industry journal? Even Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of the site seems to feel similarly: For Gods sakes, youre in college now! (Read, 2006, p. 1) Im a bit on the conflicted side when it comes to libraries embracing this phenomenon. On the one hand, I do see the urge (need even) to stay on the front edge of what is popular and

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield going on in the worldon-line and off. Libraries need to continue to show themselves as

relevant and with-it to be able to continue to justify their place in society (and, unfortunately, in societys checkbook). I also see a real need for someone to be around and able to teach students how to evaluate resources like Wikipedia. Im sure my distaste for it wont make it disappear so the next best thing, I suppose, would be to give its users the tools they need to do a good job of accurately evaluating the information Wikipedia is providing to them. And if someone has got to do it, Id sure rather it was librarians than a lot of other people out there. Technology and the Negative Nelly I am aware that I have a tendency to be really negative when it comes to new technology. Im not entirely sure where this comes from. I dont have an iPod or a smart phone. Ive never spent hours watching videos on YouTube. Wikipedia is not a source of knowledge to my brain. And while I do have a Facebook account, I think it is more like a scourge on modern life than a boon and have been trying to personally boycott it for a couple of years. Rudin manages to take a far more even-keeled approach than I in his discussions of the impact and implications of technological change on the library: The fact that new technologies can have both positive and negative consequences is not to say that they should be discouraged; only that they should be applied appropriately and their negative as well as positive effects anticipated and, when necessary, ameliorated (Rudin, 2010, p. 225). Perhaps my negativity is a backlash against the un-critical positivity towards new technologies that our society as a whole has? Maybe my psyche is trying to do its little part to stem the wholesale swallowing of the next new thing without any evaluation of what any positive or negative consequences might be. How do I change my outlook to be more balanced? I most certainly will have to embrace new technologies in my information professional career and Id like to not have such a negative

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield knee-jerk reaction at the first introduction. Honestly, its not very professional to look at something new and automatically say: that sucks. Every new change does not equate to BAD. Sometimes, (often even?), change is good. I should be able to be even tempered enough to critically and fairly evaluate something before accepting or rejecting it. That acceptance or rejection should be based on merit. I should be able to back up, logically and soundly, my acceptance or rejection. I hope that my awareness of my need to change my negative reactions to new technologies will go a ways in the desired direction. Change is not going to stop. And really, even I dont want it to stop. There are certainly things that I think were better in the past but, on the whole, life has greatly improved due to technological innovations. When I was a kid my father used to talk about his amazement at the innovations in medical technology. Everyone in my immediate family would either be dead or seriously crippled if it were not for the advancements in medical technology that have occurred in only the last 50 years. Beyond the relatively easy point of advancements in medical technology, I am amazed all the time at just

how accessible information is now. In conversation with friends in a bar something will come up in discussion and, RIGHT THERE, we can answer our debate or question by looking it up on the Internet on someones iPhone. Perhaps my challenge as an information professional will be to help develop tools and methods for the fair evaluation of these technological changes in libraries. Perhaps I need to come up with new social mores and help spread them. Perhaps if the ways in which we interacted with and used these new technologies on a daily basis changed I would feel less overtly negative. Back to the weekly gathering of friends in the bar mentioned above, I may think the ability to look up things at nearly any instant is fantastic but all too often I can look

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield around the table and see that everyone there is on their phones rather than interacting with the people physically present. And I do not think that is fantastic. The ability to evaluate is most certainly needed. Rudin shares some results of the Pew

Internet and American Life project. They found that that one in six adult users could not tell the difference between unbiased search results and paid advertisements. Thirty-eight percent of adults searching the Web did not know the difference between sponsored links and regular ones and less than half could indicate which links had been paid for (Associated Press 2005) (Rudin, 2010, p. 236). From what Ive read, children and teenagers do not fair any better. But I do see some hopeful directions out there. Librarians are working to address this issue by, among other things, establishing their own Web pages that guide patrons to specific sites that have been vetted like other library materials.this service exemplifies LIS professionals tradition of guiding patrons to timely and accurate information (Rudin, 2010, p. 236). We cant do it all for them though. I think it is best to give people the tools and knowledge to evaluate on their own. I think that, in many cases, I would rather be able to figure out if something I come across can be trusted as a resource than always be handed an already vetted resource. For this reason, I am absolutely thrilled by the information literacy competency standards published by the ALA. I can only hope that these standards are actually making it into the curriculums for our students. Digital Distraction There is a serious tension between the emerging realities of students (teens in particular) needs for the critical technological skills that will enable them to succeed in our increasingly computerized daily world (this includes the workforce) and the growing body of evidence that the constant bombardment of digital media on still developing minds has a negative effect.

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield Schools (and libraries) are increasingly seeking to attract the attention of teens by upping the technological quotient. As Matt Richtel discusses in several articles published in the New York Times this year, neurologists are discovering more and more that the brain needs downtime to process learning.

These brain studies suggest to researchers that periods of rest are critical in allowing the brain to synthesize information, make connections between ideas and even develop the sense of self (Richtel, 2010b, n.p.). The constant stimulation from mobile phones, computers, TV and the Internet is contributing to an entire generation of young people growing up with an increasing inability to concentrate or pay attention. The problem isnt the exclusive territory of teens either. Adults are also drawn into the pervasive multi-tasking, using smart phones and the like to fill the small gaps in our days when our minds might otherwise get a rest to synthesize and process. What does this mean for libraries? What does this mean for me? What will the mindscapes of our future generationsthe very generations that will be running this show before we know it look like? Will they be able to think and discern and pay attention long enough to get through the voters pamphlet containing the library funding levy? Will they manage to read and think and write in depth enough to produce new works of visual and literary art? Perhaps, as Nicholas Carr says trying to be positive, this will bear a new golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom (Carr, 2010, n.p). Part of me sure hopes so. The other part thinks, quite sanely if I do say so myself, that the pendulum has simply swung a little far in this last decade and will swing back a bit in the next. People will, perhaps, stop finding all the glowing screens quite so fascinating and novel and take a break. Daily. Well leave the smart phones at the door with our coats and actually interact with the other people in our physical presence. Well read more booksall the way through. Parents will help their teens

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield to set personal limits and priorities. Our collective minds will calm and focus. If only, maybe, because the neurologists will have finally published all these startling reports theyve been working on. Movie: Desk Set

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I watched the movie Desk Set for this portion of the reflective journal project. As a side note, it has gotten surprisingly difficult to go somewhere and rent a movie! I was surprised how pertinent many of the messages in Desk Set were, fifty-three years after it was made. Even with so many leaps and bounds of technology that have occurred in the last couple of decades, the fears and uncertainties we have surrounding technology use have not really varied as much as I would have originally thought. We, as a people, are fearful of change. From the beginning of the movie, the boss, Mr. Azae, started everything off on the wrong foot for implementing a new technology in the studio: he didnt understand in the slightest the new technology he was implementing: I dont understand one word youre saying, but it sounds great! If you say it can be done, thats good enough for me. And he purposely kept people in the dark. These actions from the top did nothing but set the reference department into speculation and fears about losing their jobs and being replaced by machines. As Rubin so nicely summarizes in Steps to Alleviate Technostress communicating with staff and not keeping secrets are keys to smoothly and painlessly integrate new technologies into workplaces (Rubin, 2010 p. 262). The coming of EMMAREC, in true cinematic style, both confirms invalidates the Reference departments fears. The machine cannot possibly truly replace the humans as shown when Miss Watson and the other girls were able to answer the questions while the machine was stuck generating an inappropriate answer. (Of course, any mistakes made by EMMAREC are always

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield due to the human element and an incorrect input). However, even Miss Watson in the end uses the machine for a question that would take her weeks of research. The promise of danger from automation is driven home by the payroll machine (a glorified calculator) firing everyone in the building, including Mr. Sumnerits creator.

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I doubt this movie would be made quite the same today. Despite continuing concerns about information professionals (cant I just ask Google?) being replaced by technology, we have grown far more comfortable with technology in the last fifty years. In the end, this movies lessons remind me of something Jennie McKee, the Access Services Librarian at Reed College, said when I interviewed her. She said that when you go into someplace, step back and observe a bitdont just jump in and assume that the old way is inferior to whatever new ideas you have. Otherwise, you will almost certainly burn bridges between people that probably have a lot to teach you (personal communication, September 9, 2010).

The Profession and its values

Informational Interview I just completed my interview with Jennie McKee at Reed College and what a fantastic experience! Shes been a librarian at Reed for 30 years and it was really great to get her perspective on librarianship and where she thinks the profession is going in the next 5-10 years. Im really excited again. Ive been feeling pretty overwhelmed and a bit discouraged. Balancing my school work with working full time and trying to do basic things like cooking dinner, spending time with my partner and having a modicum of a social life has really proved challenging. I was feeling really bogged down with all the various assignments and such. I was beginning to feel like perhaps this wasnt the best idea.

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Jennie talked about how librarianship needs to be moving more towards being more of a service profession (yay! Im really good a customer service type thingsthats what my entire working life has been focused on) and education. Not so much education in teaching people how to use a particular tool but how to be a critical thinker and how to think about resource discovery and being analytic about resource discovery. The tools are changing so quickly that it really has to be about analyzing and learning how to do things on a more global level so those skills librarians teach their patrons can be utilized for longer than the brief moment a particular tool is utilized (or is not out dated). (J. McKee, personal communication, September 9, 2010). She also spoke about the googlization of information which leads to information overload and decision paralysis. (J. McKee, personal communication, September 9, 2010). The discussions of and references to information overload have been occurring everywhere. I wonder how much of the everywhere is due to me becoming more attuned to these discussions? Or, is this really becoming an issue that is becoming more mainstream? The overload of information is definitely one of the issues around information that strikes a chord with me. Ive frequently felt overwhelmed in my life by quantities of information, and the amount of info available is simply growing. I listened to a Fresh Air episode from NPR recommended by one of my class mates. Terry Gross interviewed New York Times writer Matt Richtel about the subject of information and technology overload. He talks about screen overload and likens information to food. We cannot live without food/information but some is good for us and some is not so good for us. There are also issues of moderation. At what point does the technology available to us cross the line from Twinkies to vegetables? Richtel mentioned some very interesting things they are discovering such that during downtime you record memories and lay down the basics for

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learning and that heavy multimedia multi-taskers have more trouble filtering out irrelevant info; more trouble staying focused and more trouble switching between tasks. This is many many of the adults, teens and children in our society: too much screen time, not enough time to process the information at hand, inability to make decisions due to too many choices and options, and a false sense of increasing productivity via multi-tasking. I think, as a society, we are becoming less able to fully synthesize the information we seek and want/need to use. This new, rapidly changing mode of operation in daily life is, I think, reducing the quality of human life. Our brains are not designed to be bombarded by screens and electronic media from the moment we awake until after we go to sleep. How do we enfold these new information avenues, healthfully, into our lives? Becoming a Luddite is not the answer. Though, I do sometimes see the attraction. We need a new genre of teacher. Perhaps, librarians are the answer. Or part of the answer. I think I need to figure out for myself how to handle the information before I can really possibly help teach someone else how to deal with it all. Among other things, this is one of the reasons I am in this program. Radical Librarians Radical Reference Librarians! How did I not know such people existed?! Perhaps because I didnt read Marilyn Johnsons This Book is Overdue until I was into my first semester of the SLIM program. The librarians have left the building (Johnson, 2010) Ive certainly been drawn to librarianship because (among other things) it is a profession of help; a profession based on giving and assisting, not the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Radical Reference Librarians take this assistance to a place I never imagined librarians. Using modern tools like smart phones and twitter and more old-fashioned tools like binders filled with maps to public restrooms, numbers to legal aid services, and copies of pertinent laws the Street Librarians from

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield Radical Reference provides support and information that could be trusted to protestors at the 2008 Republican National Convention in New York. What a fantastic example of people embodying some of the values that come with this

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librarianship territory: helping and providing information that can be trusted. And values that are becoming more important as the profession modernizes: being patron/learner centered (go to where the need isin this case, out in the streets). And since rumors are the engines of mobs, these protestors would need information they could trust (Johnson, 2010. p. 107). I dont consider myself particularly radical. I certainly do question a lot of assumptions that come my way (see also: my discontentment with working in retail). Ive only participated in a small handful of protests (fewer than five?) and none of them recently. I think that the right to gather and protest something you find unconscionable is of importance in maintaining our country in the way defined and intended. The actual reality of a protest, however, is pretty dang scary. (How much of that, I wonder, is caused by media hysteria?) There seems to be a constant fear of being arrested or injured. How much of that is fueled by rumor? Could protests be more effective and less scary if the people in the streets have information that can be trusted? The Street Librarians say yes and set out to help. I dont foresee myself participating in such a manner. (I think Im too much of a chicken to be a real activist) But it makes me really happy and hopeful that it exists. Kaufman and Her Parents Library Wow. Patrick, fellow cohort member, started a thread after reading this article on our Blackboard discussion page. Having generally enjoyed his points and discussions with him over the last few weeks I saved his thread to read after I read Kaufmans article Its Not Your Parents Library Anymore: Challenges and Opportunities in the New Webs of Complexity.

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield Wow. It has been a really long time since I encountered someone who interpreted a reading so

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utterly differently than I did. Patrick sees Kaufman discussing a vision of libraries that is utterly fantastic. I do not. I certainly cannot disagree with Kaufmans point that the choices libraries make now will be critical to the futures of libraries and librarians. But I absolutely cannot get behind the notion that we (libraries and librarians) should or need to take cues from the commercial sector on how to decipher those future-influencing choices. Last time I checked (and really, that was earlier todayI work in the retail sector for a large big-box multi-national company) the commercial sector has exactly one primary goal: to make money. Everything else is subsumed to that. Ethics, public good, everything. While there certainly are companies out there that are better than others, there is no getting around the fact that first and foremost their goal is to be profitable. These firms future depend on responding to the needs of the me first always-on, demand and control needs of todays generation and to whatever needs subsequent generations will express, and to continuously offering new services and acquiring or developing new businesses once thought to be only peripheral to their core businesses. Many libraries will engage in these same behaviors (Kaufman, 2007, p. 19). Why? Why do we (libraries) want to emulate this?? Yes, to an extent, we should look to ways to give people what they want. As weve been discussing in our 802 class about learner-centered classrooms and, by extension, patron-centered libraries. But to me, that does not mean chucking our values and ideals to the wind to follow behind the companies who have only the most tenuous grasp of the terms value or ideal. (And, perhaps, no grasp when we remove any economic connotations possible). To go furtherKaufman states some services may be so laden with additional value that libraries will offer them to users willing to pay for them (2007. p.20). Um. What?!? I suppose

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what I might need to do here is take a look at my assumptions. I assume that libraries are not and should not be in this information business to make money. [I am for the moment, setting aside un-analyzedthoughts about special libraries (like the ones at Nike, et al) and how they fit into my personal schema of The Way The World Works]. I assume that libraries and librarians (or information professionals) hold as a basic operating tenet that the free and easy access of information is a good thing. My reading of the ALA core values backs up this assumption. The information professional world is already cognizant of the issues of the digital divide, information poverty, and knowledge gaps. How can charging for content do anything but exacerbate these problems rather than help solve them? I, for one, do not want to take my cues from the private business sector. I do not believe that the mores and values espoused by the world of information professionals meshes with the notion of following the decisions of profit-seeking entities. History of libraries I am frequently amazed and heartened by the link between the philosophical foundations of this country and the philosophical underpinnings of the library. Our countrys founding intellectuals had deeply held philosophical ideals (of course, why else would they go through the trouble of nation building) and having information freely available to the public was paramount. I think this also ties into the American notion of success being available to anyone (think pulling ones self up by boot straps). Perhaps we (in the profession) need to bring some attention back to this; would funding really be such a messy stressful issue if it was unpatriotic to not support libraries? I am enchanted by the mission of social libraries in particular: to assist individuals selfimprovement and the search for the truth[members] believed that the sharing of books and

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield information led to character improvement (Rudin, 2010, p. 47). How much our society has changed! It seems to me the only currently culturally sanctioned form of self-improvement is physical. I just dont see a widespread acknowledgment of individual self improvement needs and the desirability of character development in our modern culture. Even higher education

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seems to be more a matter of learning what is being taught for the end result of earning a degree than some kind of path of self-improvement and search for the truth. I think that our modern culture needs more philosophical underpinningsparticularly explicit philosophical underpinnings. I feel that information professionals still subscribe to a mission similar to those first American social libraries. I wonder what kind of social media campaign would be required to make character improvement a re-discovered cultural value. Perhaps, if more people turned off all of the screens that are on all the time and spent more time with their own thoughts that value would come back all on its own. Library Laws I am totally delighted by Ranganthans Five Laws of Library Science: Books are for use Books are for all Every book its reader Save the time of the reader The library is a growing organism (Rudin, 2010, p. 407) On a certain level his laws seem totally basic to me, rather than something radical or new. I suppose my inclinations that way probably reflect my being raised in and around libraries that were adherents of his laws. I especially like number 3: Every book its reader. This law really resonates with me twofold: I revel in open stacks. I believe that one of the biggest pleasures in life is to wander among the stacks, stopping to pluck out something that catches your eye and peruse it a 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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bit. Browsing as a method for serendipitous discovery is fantastic as far as Im concerned. I am nearly always sad when I hear about libraries that have closed stacks or are moving toward off-site storage. I understand the competing needs and pressures of physical space and growing collections but I just cant get my soul behind having to always know what youre looking for and the death of browsing in those libraries. I think that the every book its reader has a corollary of: every reader his or her book. I have long felt that kids, teens and adults who dont like to read just havent found the right book. So many close off so many avenues to themselves because theyve internalized this idea that reading isnt for them. Guess what? I detested nearly everything I was ever assigned to read in English and literature classes in my twelve years in public school. If I hadnt been raised around people who read for fun I see how I could have become one of those people who dont like to read. If people are only exposed to the literature assigned in school, and those works are not for them, why wouldnt they lump themselves in as doesnt like to read? Gormans modernization of Ranganathans laws inspires me: Libraries serve humanity Respect all forms by which knowledge is communicated. Use technology intelligently to enhance service Protect free access to knowledge Honor the past and create the future (Rudin, 2010, p. 409-10) I can only hope that I will be able to live up to these ideals in my professional life. It is so easy to get bogged down in everyday life and forget what your real intentions are. I know I find myself getting annoyed with customers at my job. It is a classic example of the attitude if these dang customers would leave me alone, I could get some work done. I see it to various degrees in my 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield co-workers and myself. I know libraries are not immune. I imagine that I will slip into that

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attitude on occasion when I am working in the profession, if only because I am far from perfect. I am confident, however, that by engaging in a profession that I believe whole-heartedly is a Good to humanity I will be able to minimize my forays into being-annoyed-by-thepopulation-I-am-there-to-serve-itis.

My Paths of interest
Archiving and digital archiving I have always struggled with the question of what is worth saving and how to save it. My struggle is usually more along the lines of what is not worth saving. I come from a short familial line of packrats. My parents fall very much into the camp of this will come in handy someday and so they keep it. My childhood homes were always over-run with cardboard boxes (usually clearly labeled) and piles (not clearly labeled) of things. Paper things are particularly problematic: books, articles, magazines, notes, recipes, lists, inventories of boxes of things. I grew up surrounded by these paper things that numbered most certainly in the thousands. I inherited this trait. Though, I do pretty firmly believe that it is more of a nurture rather than a nature trait. My paternal grandmother is very much a thrower-awayer. She has a roll-top desk that lives in her dining room that contains the journals her mother wrote for over 80 years and several albums worth of photos that span most of the last 100 years but at the same time she has disposed of nearly everything my father remembers from his childhood. There are no Christmas decorations, books or toys. Oh I threw that [whatever someone might ask the whereabouts of] old thing away years ago. Perhaps in response to this complete lack of preservation by the previous generation, my parents dont dispose of anything that could be useful or wanted in the future. I could, today, find relics of every important happening and many that, at the present

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield time, are deemed unimportant, in my parents house or storage unit, in addition to innumerable books, recipes, lists, articles, and who-knows-what-all. Ive inherited a conflict. I have a very strong desire to preservation and feeling that you cant possibly get rid of x-thing because it

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might be useful (to me, to someone else) someday. But, at the same time, I appreciate the mental peace that comes from a physical space without the visual clutter that is caused by piles of papers, overflowing binders and bulletin boards. This calls for a way of organizing (sayarchiving?) all this stuff. This is certainly something I struggle with on a near daily basis. Ive only been provided with two paradigms of dealing with the amounts of stuff (and the information contained therein) generated by our modern life: keep it all or throw it all away (both indiscriminately). This extends to digital information. How in the world do I keep what I find interesting or valuable manageable? I think I have some serious anxiety surrounding the keeping and management of information. I actually have to severely limit myself with checking out books from librariesI have a hard time giving them back! I realized this my senior year of undergraduate school. As a senior, writing a thesis, I could check out an unlimited number of books for the whole year (no pesky due dates to keep track of!). As a library worker I was always coming across interesting books. By the end of the year I had over 100 books checked out to me that I had to give back! I, needless to say, hadnt managed to read them all yet, with the whole writing a thesis thing, and the vast majority werent in any way related to said thesis. I finally managed to turn them in only by making a list of the books with bibliographic information so I could find them again Ive since figured out I have anxieties around loosing information. What is the result of this info anxiety I find myself mired in? I am finding discussion of archives (particularly digital archives) really fascinating! Archiving hasnt come up much yet in

LI801 Journal: Pardee Redfield class work or readings so I was surprised to find the chapter on archiving and digital archiving (Chapter 11: Whats Worth Saving?) in This Book is Overdue so intriguing. Archiving has

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definitely gone on my short list of librarianship aspects Im interested in and want to delve into in more detail. How does one decide what is worth saving? Theres no real way to know what is going to be important next week, in twenty years, in fifty or a hundred years. I dont even know how to go about finding the answers. And, on top of that, we have (relatively recently) been presented with the added layer of complexity: digital information. The explosion of digital information adds the additional question of how to preserve to the already difficult question of what to preserve. The interplay of those two questions makes my brain itch and my stomach knot, which tells me Im on a track I need to be on. Im the person who has a thirteen year old desk top computer in the closet. I cant bear to part with it because of the information stored on its hard drive. School papers, poetry written by friends, journal entries, photos. These things exist nowhere else. For years it has been on my todo list to plug that behemoth back in and retrieve the things stored there. It is quite possible (probable even) that it is too late without some serious effort and cash expenditure. The only method of information retrieval is an interface my current computer lacks. The ancient (in computer years) machine has also been unplugged and boxed up for probably seven years, during which time it endured five or six moves. I cant be certain it is even functional at this point. And then, theres the lap top waiting for me in the living room where I set it a year ago August when I brought home my new laptop. Five years worth of bookmarked websites, recipes, my thesis, school papers and exams, blog posts, photos. All entombed in plastic and silicone.

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Maybe we need to teach, along with information literacy, some basics of digital archiving to everyone (even children). If we dont, what will be left of our modern life for our children and grandchildren in 50, 100 years? Our lives have certainly been enriched by the relics of generations before us. Their books, papers, letters, (lets not even talk about the lost art of the letter!!), notes, shopping lists all inform us of what life was like at other points in time and who those people were who paved the way for us. Life is a continuumI do not exist unaffected and separate from the people who have lived before me and my life can only be enriched by knowing about them. I think we will see a serious loss of information and knowledge coming soon. Or perhaps, rather, a realization of the losses weve already experienced. Im anxious to learn more about archiving and digital archiving. Perhaps Ill end up being an archivist? Organization Fears I have some reservations about my abilities in the world of librarianship. I am not organized. There. I said it. Not organized. Can I really be someone who works so intimately with perhaps the most supreme organizational things our society has (libraries)? Will it be ok because the system is already set up and I am charged with maintaining and caretaking and not creating and implementing? (Is the charge really maintaining and caretaking and not creating and implementing?) The state of my books, papers, photos, and even Internet bookmarks is atrocious. I gravitate, out of ennui perhaps, to piles. Looking, at this moment, down the dining room table Im sitting at I can see nine piles taking up most of the table that should seat eight. A pile of coupons, books (mixed between texts for my classes, research books for assignments, and recreational reading), mail, unread newspapers, magazines (also unreadgrad school plus full time work is not very conducive to keeping on top of all the reading Id like to do), my recipe

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binder (what little organization this binder started withand it was littlehas long gone by the wayside and it has, too, devolved into a pile), and several more. How can I possibly survive and meaningfully contribute to the greatness of organization that libraries represent? Reference tools I know this is only my first semester in library school. Not even two months into the first semester at that. However, I am pretty concerned about my abilities to actually be a librarian. I keep trying to tell myself that it is early and that I will learn what I need to know before they turn me loose as some kind of professional authority in a library. However, the thought of instructing someone in a reference session terrifies me. My worries are a bit eased after reading Instructional Strategies for Digital Reference: Methods to Facilitate Student Learning by Megan Oakleaf and Amy VanScoy for my 802 class. Here are concrete tools! Yay! Oakleaf and VanScoy studied instruction strategies in reference sessions and how often they were exemplified in digital reference transactions. I was really excited to learn about the eight different instructional strategies they identified. I feel that I now have some tools and methods given to me to file away and draw on when I find myself in the position of educating patrons and helping them with their information searches. Im sure that Ive had librarians use some of these techniques on me at points as I could nearly hear a librarian in my head directing me by thinking out loud and showing not telling nearly as soon as I read the catchy names for thembefore I even read the examples and descriptions. Im eager to try these strategies out and incorporate them solidly into my methods of interacting with future patrons. Technological outreach When I think of library outreach Ive always thought of books: getting books to readers who dont have them, bringing the library to the patron via bookmobiles and books by mail, and

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educating the community about what the library has to offer them. When I read Jason Hyatt and Angela Craigs article Adapt for Outreach: Taking Technology on the Road about the technology outreach efforts of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg Counties (PLCMC) for my 802 class, I was surprised to read about outreach efforts that were concentrated on technology, not books. Im not sure why this felt to be such a foreign concept to me; it makes perfect sense. As the authors relayed so effectively, computers and technology are rapidly becoming basic in our society. I was most struck by the notion that computers and Internet use are becoming a technology that is following the path of the telephone and is becoming a technology that is ubiquitous and used without a second thought (Hyatt and Craig, 2009, p. 37). My concern, and seemingly the PLCMCs, with this rising tide of normalization of technology and computer use is the thousands (millions?) in our society that are being left behind. I see it every day in my co-workers who have to think really really hard about every step of the process to help a customer because they are trying to use the increasingly computerized systems at hand. I can only imagine how much more of a rough time other digital immigrants are having as more and more daily tasks are being digitized. It boggles my mind that there are now aspects of our daily life that can only be performed online. I recently received a post card in the mail from the IRS. Next year, they will not be mailing me a paper copy of the forms and instructions to file my income taxes. Theyre trying to get as many people as possible to e-file. Now, if I want to do my taxes on paper, as I always have, I have to either print them out from the IRSs website or find somewhere in the community that may have them (the main post office? possibly the library?). Its really only a minor inconvenience for me. I have no problems navigating the Internet to find the forms I need. I also

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have a functioning computer, a printer, and high-speed Internet access at home. What about the people who dont have my advantages? This turns into much more than a minor inconvenience for people who, say, cant drive or easily navigate transportation around town. Or for people who cannot afford a computer and Internet service. What about the working poorsome working multiple jobs to make ends meet: they may not be able to get to the librarys limited hours and limited computers to go online and fill out their taxes. In our community, time on the librarys Internet capable computers is limited to an hour a day. This isnt enough time to decipher and file ones income taxes. More and more things are moving in this direction too. The authors discuss another example in their article: a school system in Charlotte, North Carolina that has gone paper-less. In order to register a child for school, the parent must go on-line. The technological out reach the PLCMC is doing seems like a good step in the right direction to make sure the already wide gap between the haves and the have-nots does not swallow entire segments of our population whole. Being someone who is not all that far removed from some of these super-disadvantaged populations, I am certain that whichever direction library school and my library career take me, Ill be thinking about and working at helping the people at risk of being left behind. Now, thanks to the PLCMC, library outreach will always mean both books and technology to me.

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Resources
American Association of School Librarians. (2007). Standards for the 21st-century learner. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_ Learning_Standards_2007.pdf American Library Association. (2009). Core values, ethics, and core competencies. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/governance/policymanual/updatedpolicymanual/section2 /40corevalues.cfm Association of College and Research Libraries. (2000). Information literacy competency standards for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency.cfm Bennington, A. (2008). Dissecting the web through Wikipedia. American Libraries, 39 (7), 4649. Carr, N. (2008, July/August). Is Google making us stupid? The Atlantic. Retrieved from: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/ Ephron, H. (Producer), & Lang, W. (Director). (1957). Desk set [Motion picture]. USA: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Gross, T. (2010, August 10). Digital overload: Your brain on gadgets, Fresh Air. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107 Hyatt, J., & Craig, A., (2009). Adapt for outreach: Taking technology on the road. Computers in Libraries, 29(9), 35-39. Johnson, M. (2010). This book is overdue: How librarians and cybrarians can save us all. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers. Kaufman, P. (2007). Its not your parents library anymore: Challenges and opportunities in the new webs of complexity. Journal of Library Administration, 46 (1). 5-26. doi: 10.1300/J111v46n01_02. Oakleaf, M., & VanScoy, A. (2010). Instructional strategies for digital reference: Methods to facilitate student learning. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 49(4), 380-90. Pressley, L., & McCallum, C.J. (2008). Putting the library in Wikipedia. Online, 32 (5), 39-42. Radical Reference: Answers for those who question authority.(n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.radicalreference.info/ Read, B. (2006). Students flock to an easy-to-use reference, but professors warn that its no sure thing. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (10). Richtel, M. (2010, August 24). Your brain on computers: Digital devices deprive brain of needed downtime. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/technology/25brain.html?ref=your_brain_on_comp uters Richtel, M. (2010, November 21). Growing up digital, wired for distraction. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?ref=your_brain_on_comp uters Rubin, R.E. (2010). Foundations of library and information science. (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers. Schiff, S. (2006, July 31). Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise? The New Yorker, 36-43

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Stage, F., Muller, P., & Simmons, A. (1998). Creating learning centered classrooms: What does learning theory have to say? Washington, D. C.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education and the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/files/collegelearn.html Stevens, R. (2010, November 8). Technological and economic shifts have only made libraries more valuable. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110507361.html