[Sig-bwp] Sig-bwp Going where the Patrons are

Sun Aug 12 15:11:54 EDT 2007

I must admit...I normally do not post to list-servs but in this case
I can't resist.  I just returned from another conference where there was a strong 
focus on Web 2.0 and social networking.  It amazed me that the faculty seem
to think that if our students are in the social networking sites then we should be
too.  Have any of the faculty stopped to consider they may not be wanted in these
places?  To me is is not much different from showing up at a frat party with text books.
I came away from the conference feeling that our age group just doesn't get it.  I think
we have a hard time remembering what it was like to be their age and how we would 
have felt if our professors had shown up at our favorite places to hang out.  I was
pleasantly surprised to find a few sessions that had other ideas such as creating
educational social networking sites and one Canadian university in particular that is
focusing on making the library itself a social network.  Instead of trying to invade their
space, why don't we try considering what it is that would make students want to 
participate in leaning activities.  Perhaps if we make it interesting and fun?  Wow, 
there's a novel concept.  But our generation wants to keep that old mantra that leaning
isn't supposed to be fun.  Okay then, let's just settle for engaging?
Simply duplicating or invading the places our students hang 
out is not the answer.  It is no wonder that some of these social networking sites are
forbidding university presence - they know their real audience will leave.  Instead of
telling students that they need to grow up and learn the way that we learned or that 
their way of learning is wrong, we need to meet them half way.  For the most part,
I think that faculty have no clue how their students actually learn.  And it's comments
like these that usually prevent me from posting to these forums.  Please keep the
hate mail to a minimum :)

I found this week's conference fascinating and illuminating as always but walked 
away wanting to post a sign that says, "Wake Up!!"  As far as libraries in particular 
are concerned, the University of Georgia had this figured out over 20 years ago.  
I can remember going to the library to hang out.  What?!  Yes, and so did a lot 
of other students.  Why?  Because the first floor of the library was an open area 
with tables, couches, TVs, lounge chairs, other noisy objects, and of course a 
snack bar with coffee and other refreshments.  It was a very social place where students
collected in groups to study, complain, discuss, etc.  Nothing about the place 
screamed library and yet just a few feet outside the door was the reference desk and 
elevator in case your group needed something or had an idea.  And, God forbid, if you 
were too lazy to look something up and asked at the reference desk, no one asked if
you had visited the card catalog or made an effort to find it yourself.  They just provided 
the help without judging your academic savy. I don't think UGA professors said, hey our
students really like to hang out at frat parties, and they love those "new band" bars downtown.
Maybe we should hang out down there.  As a final thought, has anyone actually thought about 
asking students what they want?  Corporations don't just sit around thinking about making
new gadgets.  They do marketing surveys, market analysis, etc and then build what their
customers say they want.  Why is it that education always wants to build it and then ask
if they will come?

Sherry Piezon
(affiliation? I don't think they would lay claim to me for this post :)

----- Original Message -----
From: sig-bwp-request at asis.org
Date: Thursday, August 9, 2007 4:11 am
Subject: Sig-bwp Digest, Vol 26, Issue 3
To: sig-bwp at mail.asis.org

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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Missing in Action: Library Resources (Gerry Mckiernan)
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> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:27:18 -0500
> From: "Gerry Mckiernan" <gerrymck at iastate.edu>
> Subject: [Sig-bwp] Missing in Action: Library Resources
> To: <bibliocasting at listserv.syr.edu>, <sig-bwp at mail.asis.org>
> Message-ID: <46B9EEE6.B59E.0067.0 at lib.iastate.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15
> 
> ***APOLOGIES FOR RECEIPT OF DUPLICATE POSTINGS***
> 
> Colleagues/
> 
> August 8, 2007
> 
> **A List Without Libraries**
> 
> The Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies* list of Top 100
> Tools for Learning - culled from top-10 charts created by e-learning
> experts - names a wide array of tech tools that professors have 
> come to
> love. Among the items that made the cut are Web browsers, e-mail
> clients, RSS feeders, blogging programs, and, of course, Microsoft*s
> evergreen PowerPoint presentation software.
> 
> But online library resources, which would seem like a good fit for
> e-learners, are notably absent from the master list. What gives?
> *It*s not as if the responding experts ignored
> information-retrieval tools,* writes Steven Bell at ACRLog. *Both
> Google and Google Scholar are on the top-100 list. And it*s not as if
> these experts wouldn*t know something about library databases.*
> 
> [MORE]
> 
> [ http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2288 ]
> 
> The List [ http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html ]
> 
> Surprised?
> 
> Even More Reason To Go Where Many Patrons Are ? ... Social Networking
> Sites !
> 
> [ http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/ ]
> 
> /Gerry
> 
> Gerry McKiernan
> Associate Professor
> Science and Technology Librarian
> Iowa State University Library
> Ames IA 50011
> 
> !!! Social Networking is People !!!
> [ http://www.facebook.com/p/Gerry_McKiernan/16926735  ]
> 
> Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind Blows ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> End of Sig-bwp Digest, Vol 26, Issue 3
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