Week 5: Reflection
This week, we touched on transfer, gave more attention to the gaming discussion, discussed and identified the key issues we found in our blogger readings, and picked partners for the book club discussion. I must admit, I was looking forward to a little more discussion of transfer in class, but I feel that neglected that topic a little in our eagerness to discuss McGonigal's ideas of gaming. I did find our discussion of the bloggers' issues very interesting. Some of the contrasts between the issues discussed by the different types of bloggers were surprising. I was surprised in particular by the more detached style adopted by the public library bloggers in contrast to the reflective, open style of the academic library bloggers. Our small group discussion delved into the ideas of audience, purpose, and branding, which turned into a pretty engrossing class discussion.
Week 6: Book Club & Socratic Seminar Readings
"The Book Club, Exploded" focuses on ways to mix up the traditional focus of book clubs, mixing media, fiction and nonfiction, focusing on topic or genre and letting the group compare and contrast bigger issues than the ones contained in a single book. Hoffert also suggests connecting to authors, offering book club kits, and including "bonus materials," like author interviews and other works on similar topics or with similar themes.
"The Evolving Book Group" focuses more on innovation in placement and conduct of book clubs - a mix of online and face to face discussion, group meetings in senior centers and bars, partnerships with local bookstores and other organizations, and also nontraditional book club fare, like graphic novels. Dempsey stresses the need to create book clubs "with careful attention to patron needs and interests," to be willing to think outside of the box with regard to meeting times and places, and to be unafraid to reconfigure a struggling group to better fit user needs.
Both of these readings hold important lessons for libraries - most importantly, don't be afraid to think outside the box, consider patrons' needs, and look for ways to attract non-users.
"Teaching Reading" looks at the day-to-day mechanics of using a Socratic seminar in the classroom, discussing tips for implementation, possible pitfalls, and positive results. It's more of a case study than a comprehensive look at the use of Socratic seminars in education. "Socratic Seminars," on the other hand, is more of an overview of their use in education, as well as a look at the positive results of their use.
Though I wonder if a Socratic seminar format would be useful for book clubs, it might appeal to those former liberal arts majors (like myself, sometimes) who miss college literary discussions. I could also see its appeal for professional development purposes, to facilitate conversation about new practices or innovation in the use of traditional ones.
"Detached." I think that's a good word for what I noticed too. But detached in the sense that they were not connected to daily practice, not that they were not connected to real issues.
ReplyDeleteexactly
DeleteAs another former liberal arts major, I also felt that way reading the book club articles. I feel like that's an element that's been missing from any casual book club I've tried to join, so I would be really interested to see what these library-sponsored book clubs are like.
ReplyDelete"Detached" is curious. I often wonder if public librarians simply have more time to think about stuff? (Unverified thought! Not evidence-based!) School librarians are one-man shows: teaching, cataloguing, shelving, dusting, planning, etc. Their work day is jam-packed. You will never see a school librarian (who is any good) READ at the desk. Academic librarians tend to spend their down time working on the projects and articles that contribute to tenure or advancement. But public librarians are the ones most likely to have desk shifts when they can just THINK between patrons. Again - unverifiable hunch, but there may be something to it?
ReplyDeleteMaybe another reason public librarians blog about more abstract issues is because blogging is one of the only avenues they have to think about that sort of stuff. Academic librarians are usually at a university and thus part of a larger academic community where people talk about issues of teaching and learning and broader intellectual issues all the time-- it's part of the discourse for lots of different people in lots of different roles. Public librarians, on the other hand, don't have anybody else in their immediate working environment who spends time thinking about these larger issues-- except, of course, for each other. Thus blogs are a way for them to share their thoughts about these "bigger," and less personalized topics with a larger audience, which is an opportunity that they're less likely to have than academic librarians in the course of their other daily work.
ReplyDeletehmmm, i did not follow any public or academic librarians, but your descriptions make me want to!
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