Microhoo!!?

Microsoft and Yahoo combine to give Google a run for its money.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/technology/microsoft_yahoo_google_search/index.htm?postversion=2009072912 and http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/29/technology/microsoft_yahoo/index.htm?postversion=2009072911

Student Display Names by Karl Fisch

Karl Fisch blogs on 21st century learning skills and works with high school students and teachers in Littleton, CO. Like many media specialists and educational technologists, he and his school have required students to hide behind user names that do not reveal identity for safety purposes. He came to question that policy when it occurred to him that a student's online work is really part of a digital resume or portfolio that would be built up over time. If students do not use their real names, they will essentially lose the work they have done. Why are we asking students to hide their work with vague display names if we are also asking them to develop a positive digital footprint and a robust collection of work for their online resume? http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2009/06/student-display-names-i-was-wrong.html

Google Book Search Settlement

The Google Book Search lawsuit has apparently been settled. See http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/ Implications for libraries? See Google's version:

• "We'll...be offering libraries, universities and other organizations the ability to purchase institutional subscriptions, which will give users access to the complete text of millions of titles while compensating authors and publishers for the service. Students and researchers will have access to an electronic library that combines the collections from many of the top universities across the country. Public and university libraries in the U.S. will also be able to offer terminals where readers can access the full text of millions of out-of-print books for free."

My question: cost of the subscription for my library? Access to the collection...will it really be limited to a "terminal" in the library? What about e-book readers like the Kindle or home access? How can this e-collection be integrated into the catalog?

The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle

Published in 2005, so a bit dated at this point, The Search is still very relevant to those interested in what Google is up to and what libraries/librarians should be aware of. Bartelle explores web searching and explains why he thinks "search" will come to rule our economy and maybe even our culture in the near future. His book is packed with information on searching, on Google, on Google's founders, and more, but the key points I focused on were the following:

• how search works/ed in various search engines in 2005,
• who is searching the internet and how (most searchers enter just 1-2 words and do not used advanced search features available to them),
• what they are searching for (according to Bartelle, Google says over 50% of the searches entered daily into its engine are unique! (28) and many searches could be considered "commercial"),
• how money is made via targeted advertising (ads that appear correlate to one's searches and/or clickstream and companies pay Google for keywords),
• why search results will be better as more and more information is digitized and entered into Google's system (ubiquity) and more clickstreams are analyzed
• how web search history (your clickstream) will result in a personalized result set for you and bring up confounding issues of privacy
• how tagging will result in a search more tolerant of semantics (the semantic web)

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

Nickel and Dimed has been on my reading list for almost 10 years. I'm incredibly happy that I finally got around to it! Ehrenreich's writing is easy to read even if her subject is not comfortable to read about. Essentially, Ehrenreich questioned the "conventional" wisdom of the late 1990s and early 2000s that welfare recipients simply needed to get out and get a job to live a better life. Ehrenreich tried it herself; she entered the workforce as a displaced homemaker, worked low wage jobs (waitress, maid, cleaning, nursing aid, sales), and struggled mightily to survive. Ehrenreich was not successful at survival, but her narrative of her attempts is telling. The best part of the book, however, is her evaluation of the experience and of public policy.

Ehrenreich will make most of us reconsider our welfare reform, the working poor, and our role in keeping the working poor in their place. To quote: "the 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else" (221).

Librarians often need to remind the rapidly digitizing, technologically connected world that there are technological "haves" and "have nots." Nickel and Dimed really cemented the "have nots" side of the world for me.

Mindspot: The Library as Universe

A YouTube video put up by Aahus Public Library. The library of the future? Focus on what is interesting and relevant to the users of the library. Library employees keep an ongoing and open dialog with library users about what the library should be.

The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr

Carr introduces the concept of computing/networking as a public utility (like water, electricity) rather than something that has to be done and supported in-house. Giving up control over one's computing infrastructure and letting it be housed and managed in disparate places throughout the world presents problematic questions of privacy and power. Libraries have always been interested in privacy for their patrons, so there is an obvious connection to the library world there. More interesting were Carr's frequent references to data-mining and how companies are using it to tailor information streaming to specific users. How will this impact searchers if they see only what they want to see and not what they need to see?

Mobile Devices, Libraries and Policy Panel, Shifted Librarian, Jun 12, 2009

Random statistics and quotes that I found interesting/telling are below. This is from a panel at ALA's annual conference in Chicago, July 2009:

• "over 60% of the people on earth have a mobile phone subscription service" --according to what source?!
• twice as many people use text messages than use email --again, source?
• texting is the "single most popular way in which the world accesses data" --source?
• "the early vision for a device is rarely the way it actually transforms the world. Henry Ford: “if I’d asked them what they wanted, they would have told me a faster horse. ”someone has to flip the switch and change things, and we’re very close to that for mobile devices. Clay Shirky - “the tools don’t get socially interesting until the tools get technically boring” we’re right at that cusp"
• For libraries, it isn't about collecting content that is out there, "but bringing your community to the world and making it accessible...you’re (the library) the only one that cares about that content being out there"

Writing to 'Build the Larger Conversation' from Weblogg-ed by Will Richardson, April 9, 2009

Will, one of my favorite bloggers, writes here about the future of writing and points to one of his mentors, Kathleen Blake Yancey and her "Writing in the 21st Century." The piece is excellent, but Yancey's quote, highlighted in Will's blog, is what caught my attention: "none of us really know what the answers are right now, but we are at a tipping point of sorts at least in our recognition that something “large” is happening, and that it’s going to have some “large” effects on our teaching and learning lives." I find that when I think about the futures of libraries and librarians, that I can sometimes panic because I don't know the right direction to pick. It is nice to know that I'm not the only one who doesn't know what the answers are right now!

If We Didn't Have the Schools We Have Today, Would We Create the Schools We Have Today? by Tom Carroll, 2000 CITE article cited by Will Richardson

Will Richardson's June 6, 2009 blog post on Weblogg-ed contemplates the changes in education that are coming and/or need to happen. In particular, he focuses his insights on Carroll's article. One of the quotes he pulls out is as follows:
"In the networked learning communities of the future, expert learners (we call them teachers, educators, scientists, and researchers today) are going to be recognized for their ability to learn and help others learn, as they continue to construct new knowledge and develop their own expertise. Their job will not be to teach – but to help others learn, as they model learning through collaboration to solve problems and achieve goals they have in common. (A significant part of the expert learner’s role will be organizing and managing the collaborative learning community.)"
This quote caused me to pause and think of what future libraries, or learning resource centers might look like...and what librarianship might look like. "Help others learn" and "organizing and managing" jumped out at me. Libraries or Learning Resource Centers should be sites for learning: support for learners, equipment and resources for learners, and expert learners to provide role modeling, guidance, and instruction as needed.

And the Word Was: Kindle (by Jeffrey O'Brien in Fortune Magazine, May 26-June 7, 2009)

The Kindle is one of those disruptive technologies that might save the newspaper industry. How it might impact the book publishing world, the textbook publishing world, and the library world, well that remains to be seen. A statistic they provided in the article that I find telling is that of all books that are available in dual format on Amazon (Kindle and paper), 35% are sold as Kindle books. That is huge. They also noted that Kindle buyers are not gadget people and I remember listening to a NPR program not so long ago that shared the fact that the 30 and older set are big Kindle buyers, so it isn't just a young person's fad. I personally like the idea of being able to carry my library around in one small container, and as a student, I would love being able to carry all my textbooks that way! I wonder how this will impact distance education library services? E-reserves? Library collections? Current e-books available online are not easily read/used. Maybe Amazon will allow libraries to checkout and retrieve Kindle e-content? How will the standard library ILSs manage that little trick? Times are changing!

Read the article at:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/storysupplement/kindle/

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Nobody "Bod" Owens lives in a graveyard with his deceased, adoptive parents and a community of the dearly departed. Bod is alive, but lives in the borderland between the dead and the living because the graveyard's inhabitants gave him the "walk of the graveyard" when he first arrived, as a toddler, with a murderer close on his heels. Bod's childhood years are delightful and filled with the macabre, but the murderer, Jack, is always waiting and as Bod grows older, Jack comes closer.

Neil Gaiman is one of my favorite authors. I loved the Sandman series and Coraline is one of the creepiest children's books I know. Read ANYTHING by Gaiman.

Books featuring the voices of the dead are also fascinating to me, so the Graveyard Book fits right into one of my favorite sub-genres. Other tales with dead people talking, that I would recommend, include: A Gracious Plenty by Sheri Reynolds, Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Warning! Spoiler!

In this book, a young German boy named Bruno moves with his family from Berlin to "Out-With" where his father has taken charge of a strange city filled with people in gray, striped pajamas. Bruno is curious about the people in the pajamas and jealous of all the time his father spends in their "city." One day, while walking the outside of the fence that keeps him outside of their area, he encounters a boy his own age. A friendship develops between the two and one day Bruno slips beneath the fence to join his friend and never returns.

The Holocaust through the eyes of a child is a particularly surreal and horrid thing. In this book, Boyne presents Auschwitz through the eyes of the commanding officer's naive and innocent son. The horror comes home to the father when he realizes his son has gone into the camp and been gassed by his own command. It is a disturbing book, in part because it does not allow one to view the Holocaust in black and white. Finally, a warning. This looks like a book for children because of the young age of its main character. It is not. For the youngest set, Rose Blanche by Roberto Innocenti is an excellent choice.

Palms to The Ground by Amy Stolls

Calman Puloitz has been in therapy since early childhood because his parents think it will prevent him from needing therapy. Instead, all that therapy has resulted in a slightly neurotic teen with a lot of self doubts. Calman's unintentional cure? A cross-country visit with his penpal Rizzy. The visit is full of suprises for both Calman and Rizzy, not the least of which is the fact that Rizzy is a girl.

A Strategy for Academic Libraries in the First Quarter of the 21st Century by David W. Lewis

Disruptive technology meets libraries! Here is some scary bedtime reading for librarians who fear change: Lewis asserts that within the next few years there will be very few books in most academic libraries (with the exception of monographs in social sciences and humanities). Instead, he asserts that collections will be digitized; research done almost exclusively online; library spaces repurposed (into information and learning commons); and libraries' focus on collections redirected to "curating content."

What does it mean for the K-12 library world? Are the same shifts coming? Will collections turn almost exclusively fiction to support leisure and humanities reading skills? Will K-12 research go almost exclusively digital? Will K-12 library spaces turn into information commons like the university model with technology integration specialists, writing centers, tutorial centers, and librarians working together to help teachers develop curricula and students complete projects?

Of particular interest to me are Werner's recommendation related to resources and instruction. First, he asserts that library resources need to be embedded into the "systems and tools students and faculty use" (10) aka Google Books and course management software systems. He even suggests that a combination of Google Books and WorldCat might at some point replace library catalogs. This is interesting and makes sense to me. Conserve's holdings, cataloged via CatExpress, have been part of Google Books' search. Also, I've been experimenting with CMS sources (free and for $ like Spring Share) to combine teacher assignments and library sources in the same world. I'm glad to see I'm keeping up!

In the realm of instruction, Werner asserts that instruction might include a "mix of tutorials, learning tools, and in-person classroom involvement" (10) and instruction would focus less on tools [specific reference sources or databases] and more on evaluation of authority, academic integrity and intellectual property (11). We are already doing this in the K-12 world; this is what my teaching focus has been at Conserve.

Finally, in terms of repurposing space, physical space, I think we had it exactly right a few years ago when the educational technology staff and the library staff were all in the same office. Losing and not replacing the educational technology staff member ended that leading edge type support. I'd like to get back to that...and combine the learning center and writing center into the library space as well. I can't imagine getting rid of the print collection at this point, however. I think in a small K-12 library that the collection is small enough and curriculum-focused enough to stay. But, then again...the Kindle 2 is pretty amazing...

https://idea.iupui.edu/dspace/bitstream/1805/953/1/DWLewis_Strategy.pdf

Living and Learning with the New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project

I'm still exploring Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Education 2.0 and what all of this new social media means for libraries. I'm also currently halfway through Disrupting Class, and I'm very aware that all of this 2.0 media is a "disruptive technology" for the library world and what libraries will look like in the near future.

Here are some quotes from the Living and Learning with New Media study that I've decided to ponder (coral emphasis is my own):

"This study was motivated by two primary research questions: How are the new media [Web 2.0 stuff: social networks, online games, iPods, etc.] being integrated into youth practices and agendas? How do these practices change the dynamics of youth-adult negotiations over literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge?" (1).

"The digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning" (2).

"New media allow...freedom and autonomy...Youth respect one another's authority...are often more motivated to learn from peers...and the outcome emerges through exploration...[instead of] set, predefined goals" (2).

"Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careers, what would it mean to think of it as a process guiding youths' participation in public life more generally?" (3)

http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Set just after World War II in the Channel Islands between England and France, this is a delightful novel full of surprises and wonder. The entire story is told via letters to and from one Juliet Ashton. Juliet was a humor writer during the war, but now that the war is done, she is seeking new, more serious subjects to write about. Her course is not clear at first, but when she receives an unexpected letter from a stranger on the Island of Guernsey looking for literary advice about Charles Lamb, her direction begins to reveal itself. Shaffer and Barrows have created a fine novel with that reveal life on the Channel Islands during and after World War II, but the historical accuracy in their fiction takes a second seat to their charming characters and engaging tale.

Inheritance by Natalie Danford

The truth is a complex, multifaceted thing difficult to understand and even more difficult to capture for close examination. Danford delves into the meaning of truth via the lens of parent-child relationships. The first is that of father-daughter. Here, the daughter, Olivia Bonocchio believes her father, Luigi, to have been a good, quiet man until she discovers a 49 year old deed to an Italian home in his effects. What she discovers when investigating the deed changes her understanding of World War II, of Italy's treatment of its Jews, and most importantly, of her father. Olivia's memory of her father becomes tainted with the knowledge of his actions half a century earlier. It is not until the second parent-child relationship is revealed, that of father-son, Olivia's grandfather to Luigi, that Olivia's view of her father is shifted again into a new and deeper understanding.

This is not my normal read but Danford swept me into the world she created with ease. She bridges the United States of the 1990's with the Italy of the 1940's. She explores the immigrant experience, the parent-child relationship, and the legacy of actions done and left undone. An excellent, thought-provoking book. Enjoy!

Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn by Catherine Friend

Here is another tale for those considering living more sustainably and/or off the land. Friend and her partner took up farming in their late 30's. It was a first-time experience for both of them. They decided to raise sheep and chickens for meat, and grow grapes for the local wine industry (in central Minnesota). None of these things were easy and their learning curve was steep to say the least. Friend shows how they grew as farmers, and she doesn't hide any of their trials and tribulations; they, like their rewards, are there in all their gory glory.

Note, I published this same review in the Conserve School Summer Reading List 2009 blog at:
http://conserveschoolreadinglist.blogspot.com/

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

What does it mean to be human? Is our whole greater than the sum of our parts? Can we play God and remain innocent of the consequences of our actions? These are just some of the questions that readers of The Adoration of Jenna Fox will find themselves pondering. Without giving too much away, Jenna Fox is your typical teenager: she has great friends, she argues with her mom, she struggles with perfectionism, and she makes some bad choices and (not so typical) is in a horrible accident. The choices her parents make as a consequence of that accident will set you back on your heels.

Great books to pair this book with are: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Eva by Peter Dickinson, My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer, Blueprint by Charlotte Kerner, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Icefields by Thomas Wharton

Jeff Rennicke and I have this deal: first he tells me what to read and then I tell him what to read, then we repeat the process. The deal keeps us from getting too bogged down in our own reading ruts: I like stories, he likes word imagery. Icefields has both.

The story of Icefields takes place between 1898 and 1925 on or near the Arcturus Glacier in the northern Canadian Rockies, near Jasper. In 1898 Dr. Edward Bryne, while crossing the glacier, falls into a crevasse. While hanging upside down, Bryne sees what he thinks is a winged human figure trapped in the ice. Bryne is rescued but the accident changes his life forever: he becomes obsessed with the glacier and spends all of his time both running from and seeking the figure in the ice.

There is more to the story than the plot. The figure in the ice is part of a series of seemingly mystic events and dreamscapes that take place throughout the book: ice sublimating into air; orchids blooming in rock; books falling to their death of shattered words; listeners that become part of the stories they hear; dead men in barber shops; and living corpses returning from war. The figure in the ice is the key, the rest are just clues to its meaning. Was the figure real? Was it a spirit or angel caught in the ice? Is it the reflection of a book with shattered words? Or is it the essence of a life unfolding, captured in the pregnant ice, waiting to be born when it sublimates at the terminus?

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

This is one of those books that relates a grim reality of modern life that no one willingly wants to explore. Here we have the experience of “Alice,” an abducted child who has been kept and sexually abused by her captor for over five years. The brutal emotional reality of the situation is captured so absolutely by Scott’s sparse prose that it will leave you nauseous every time you remember the book. This is one of those books you don’t know if you want to read and you aren’t sure if you were glad you read it once done; but you will never forget it.

Books with a similiar feel: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, Boy Toy by Barry Lyga, and When Jeff Comes Home by Catherine Atkins.

What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Evie Spooner is interested in everything that stereotypical teenage girls are supposed to be interested in: boys, makeup, and clothes. Evie's life, however, includes a stepfather just back from WWII and a war buddy he wants to avoid. When the war buddy, Peter, follows her family to Florida, Evie knows something isn't right, but she can't figure it out and despite herself, she falls for Peter in a big way. Unfortunately, war crimes, American anti-Semitism, parental deceit, and a tragic accident/murder force Evie to face realities she never knew existed.

This was a great book. I read it while Chad was taking his EMT-B national practical test and despite all the distractions (victims everywhere! head trauma! backboards!), I couldn’t put it down. It won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and begs to be made into a movie.

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

I picked up this book because I thought it would be a sweet animal story that I "had" to read because it won a Newbery Medal and was a National Book Award Finalist. This IS an animal tale, but the story is not sappy or simplistic. It is deep, complex, and delves into what it means to be lonely, what it means to love, and what it means to keep promises. The story is lyrically told and demands to be read aloud.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

In this book, Kingsolver and her family move across the country to Virginia to their family farm. Their move was made to enable them to eat only locally-grown or self-grown food, thus joining a growing population of people who are attempting to live more sustainably. Kingsolver's writing is inviting, conversational and quietly compelling. She shares her family’s experiences, month by month, and readers will be delighted with their adventures and may very well be convinced to join them in their quest. If you've ever wondered what it might be like to live sustainably, to grow your own food and maybe even to live off the grid, this is the book for you. I loved it!

Similar books I’ve read recently include Living the Good Life by Linda Cockburn, The Good Life by Helen Nearing, and One Man’s Wilderness by Richard Proenneke.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

This is a modern, literary version of Dracula and features more suspense than action. The characters are intellectual; the setting sprawls across Europe from Amsterdam to Istanbul; and readers will be enthralled.