Whales, games, conferences and teaching

Apologies that my blogging has been a little like the sporadic surfacing of a Cuvier's Beaked Whale lately! I have a lot I want to reflect on and, as I've said previously, the times when I feel least like I have time to reflect are precisely the most important times for me to do it. (I wonder why I use breathing metaphors so much when thinking about reflecting...) So I'm sticking my head above water to give a quick update to reflect a bit on what has been going on since I started my new job in November.

• Attended a course on game design for libraries put on by the CILIP School Libraries Group. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this was being taught by some HE librarians and they were talking about the HE sector for the most part, so the content was very well suited to me, but it was also fantastic meeting and talking to lots of librarians from school libraries. We don't often get to meet school librarians in HE but I was struck by how different the support for information literacy is in the different schools. It reinforced the idea that we can't assume what undergraduates arrive knowing because just within London there is very different exposure to critical reading and information literacy depending on the school.
• Attended various talks by the fabulous Office of Scholarly Communications. These guys just seem to get it. They just formed last year and already they're tackling a lot of big issues facing researchers such as open access, open data, and managing one's online profile. This overlaps with some of the work librarians are doing but rather than fighting for supremacy, the OSC have made sure to leverage the might of librarians in Cambridge, providing training and ensuring that we have a lot of buy-in with what they're doing. I think it's absolutely brilliant - rather than having to navigate the vast and confusing information "out there" online, we have a local resource I can point people to and in turn they're making sure librarians are better prepared to answer some of the questions we get from academics. Big shout out to these guys! Check out their blog as well - it's well worth a look.
• Attended the Libraries@Cambridge conference. I was also one of the live bloggers for this event. You can read my hastily typed post on the first Keynote Address here! It was my first time at this event and I was very impressed. I like going to external events like the CILIP SLG course because of the chance to meet with people from diverse backgrounds but it was clear from the conference that there is huge diversity within library roles just in Cambridge.

I've been learning quite a lot in my new role, helped along by my brilliant co-workers. From my perspective it's a relatively small team, but there's a lot of interlocking expertise. Some of us overlap in places but we also complement each other's expertise very well.

The big thing on my mind at the moment, however, is teaching. For a very, very long time I've known that I wanted be involved in education in some way, just not in front of a classroom day in and day out. (I have respect bordering on awe for those who can summon the energy to do so and do it well!) This meandered from thinking about tutoring for a non-profit to interpreting heritage sites for visitors to doing museum outreach and education and lately being focused on information literacy education through libraries. I've taught roller skating with the local roller derby league and absolutely loved it - the feeling of helping someone "get it", of breaking things down to help them, giving pointers and knowing when to step back and let them practice on their own.

So I was fairly nervous but also excited when I found out I was to begin teaching last week! I've taught a couple of sessions so far and I think they went pretty well. Areas I want to work on are deepening my knowledge of the areas I'm talking about so I can speak with a bit more understanding and developing a storehouse of pertinent examples for each point. What I think I'm good at: being engaging/holding people's attention, appearing relaxed even when I'm feeling nervous or flustered and developing sessions that take into account different learning styles. I think it's a little early to start making much deeper statements about teaching. I can certainly see how it is an incredibly dynamic process learning to teach!

There is a lot more going on at the moment that I would love to get into, such as the UX study for which I'm currently applying for ethics approval, and my new-found evangelism for Open Access, especially at moments when I'm dealing with tricky Inter Library Loans requests, but I will save those for another time!

Radical librarianship?

I have a lot of thoughts bumping around in my head today, prompted in part by attending some classes and meetings with really amazing, inspiring librarians, but also from reflecting on my job and my place in the vast information landscape. I'm going to try to let some of these ideas out so I'm sorry if this blog post is a bit ad hoc.

I think the place to start with is admitting that libraries, particularly higher education libraries, are part of a system that traditionally reinforces privilege at every level. Although libraries can fill a radical role in communities, that ability lies chiefly in the actions of individual users and librarians. As institutions, libraries are traditionally prescriptive; us (the librarians) telling them (the users) what's good for them and how to get it. To quote nina de jesus, "Libraries as institutions were created not only for a specific ideological purpose but for an ideology that is fundamentally oppressive in nature. As such, the failings of libraries can be re-interpreted not as libraries failing to live up to their ideals and values, but rather as symptoms and evidence of this foundational and oppressive ideology." It is important to identify privilege in order to begin to address the problems it creates in terms of barriers between potential users and information resources.

HE librarians may not be able to rectify the admissions processes and broader economic issues that mean some demographics are underrepresented in our institutions, but we can dismantle our ideas about a hierarchical information landscape in which we sit at the top, or at a choke point between users and information. Many (I would think most) librarians already think this way, but many of the institutions in which we work and the systems in place are inherently conservative and over time the radical politics are driven out of individual librarians by time or my feeling the need to work with the system in order to progress in their careers.

The thing is, institutions and systems don't change unless people make it happen, which is why it is up to us, from the Librarians-with-a-capital-L down to the library assistants like me to struggle to change systems that we think are unfair, outdated or ineffective. I operate under the idea that one should never EVER tell oneself that caring about fairness and access is above (or below) your pay grade. The most revolutionary thing librarians can do is relinquish our power and realize that it was never real. Libraries are at their best in the hands of users. That means our role is to facilitate, to listen, to empathize, to collaborate and to be imaginative more than to instruct, preserve, dictate or control. Our expertise can be deployed in handing over the maps and keys to users and ensuring they understand how to use them rather than clinging onto them and insisting that they follow us.

I've been working with librarians throughout Cambridge lately who are of the same mind, pushing against institutions and ideologies that seem intractable at times to change the face of academic libraries. It's inspiring and humbling to sit around the table with them and have a voice. This encompasses everything I'm trying to do at the moment, from making the rare books and manuscripts collection more accessible to working on creative and engaging ways to help students develop their information literacy to conducting UX studies to find out just how much we don't know about our users. I know a lot of this is old news to lots of librarians, but privilege doesn't go away as soon as you embrace a user-focused approach. We need to constantly check ourselves to make sure we are not making assumptions about our users, what they know and how they work. We especially need to question our assumptions about our role in our users' lives. I believe that the more we hold on to the role of gatekeeper, the more irrelevant we will become. Conversely, the more we empower users, the more central to their academic and social growth we will become.

Anyway, these are the things I've been contemplating lately, sitting at the desk all quiet and everything.

Envisioning a pastoral role for college libraries

I know it's been a while since I've posted, so forgive me for launching into an explanation for that before getting to the main topic of my post. I've been doing a lot of personal (i.e. not necessarily library related) growth and reflection this year, and started another blog about these issues that I have been much better about updating. I suppose I also felt like a bit of a poseur having a library blog as a relatively low-level employee and not having done much Postgrad-Level research. I started this blog with the intention of using it for CPD and networking because as I finished my PGDip in Information and Library Management I very much wanted and, to be perfectly honest, expected to see myself climbing some kind of career ladder with a speed proportional to my enthusiasm. That did not happen and my reaction to that fact has played a large part in the aforementioned personal reflection. I am trying to let go of attachment to "success" and "accomplishment" as they are often measured in our society and trying to do what is in front of me from moment to moment to the best of my ability.

Today I wanted to write, though, about a topic I've been carrying in the back of my mind for a while. It came up in conversation with a colleague from another library yesterday, so I thought I would get some thoughts out about envisioning a role for college libraries.

There are many libraries in Cambridge, the roles of which vary immensely. Broadly speaking, the University Library is a research library with a vast collection of resources at its disposal and is in many ways the nerve centre of all of the libraries, maintaining a broad view of the extensive academic community in Cambridge and related networks beyond. Their role is breadth. The departmental and faculty libraries specialise in particular subjects and the librarians there will be knowledgable about the research environments relevant to their users. Their role is to provide depth.

College libraries are a strange mixture, positioned not exactly between the other two. Because colleges are made up of students and researchers from various departments, college libraries need to provide a breadth of material, but to a sufficient depth to be useful to first years through research fellows. As such, it is difficult to characterise college libraries, especially given the vastly different sizes, resources and cultures of each college. A colleague told me that some view college libraries as not much more than "an extra reading room", i.e. a physical space to sit and work. Given the passion of the college librarians I know and the centrality of the college to the lives of its members, it would be a shame to have such a limited impact on our users.

As such, I have thought for a long time that it would be wonderful for college libraries to occupy a pastoral role in our users' lives, and to develop strategic visions that have that as a central aim. "Pastoral" is most often associated with religious or inter-faith chaplaincy, but I don't think the phrase is inappropriate to college libraries. It evokes the kind of caring environment that takes into consideration a whole person - intellect, body, emotions, consciousness, relationships - in a supportive and non-judgmental way. It is not a didactic, hierarchical teacher/student relationship, nor is it simply service-based, never delving beyond filling book requests and making sure the printer has paper in it.

So what would pastoral care look like in college libraries? That could be the subject of months of brainstorming involving people much smarter and more creative than I am. However, I thought I'd get some ideas out there just as a starting point.

College libraries are located physically "close to home" for students. We're their "home" libraries. In many cases we're probably the first HE library they'll use. While departmental and faculty libraries can offer very targeted, subject specific information literacy interventions, why couldn't we introduce more universal ideas, like critical analysis, time management and understanding their place in the academic landscape? If this is integrated skilfully with tutorial work early in the first year, it could ease the transition into HE and set up early on the idea that the college library is there to support the skills and development of its students.

Garden International School's commitment to student welfare. Source: https://www.gardenschool.edu.my/student-environment/student-welfare-support/

I think there's also something to be said for focusing (as much as possible) on physical comfort, ease of access and social spaces in the library. My library is sadly very lacking in these attributes but I think it's something worth focusing on in the future. Could we provide places for people to relax, chat and eat food while they're taking breaks from working? Could we provide different kinds of seating arrangements, like sofas and floor cushions for people who are not comfortable working at desks? Could we stay open 24/7 since that's something users say they want? Traditionally, we have been more concerned about our physical collections than what our users want, but a library that sees its role as pastoral would do the reverse. The physical collection is important, yes, but only because there are users who give it - and us - a purpose.

Could we also be doing more for general health and wellbeing? It's not uncommon for libraries to offer information literacy instruction these days, but could we offer courses on things like sleep hygiene and stress management? Maybe we could work with Student Welfare departments in the colleges to have borrowable "de-stress kits", quiet chill out spaces and snacks available during exam term. All of these would not just be useful for students but would change our reputation from rule enforcers and book stampers to active supporters of their educational and personal development.

From "De-Stress Fest 2014" at Langara Library. Source: http://www.langara.bc.ca/library/news/articles/11212014-destress-fest.html

As the information environment becomes more complex and so-called "digital natives" are expected to arrive at Cambridge pre-loaded with all sorts of skills and literacies, it's important to remember the individuals behind those assumptions are often confused, self-conscious, frightened or overwhelmed. As a college librarian I would love to have a more hands-on role in my students' lives, creating safe spaces for them to develop research skills, knowing what's going on with their tutorials, what their schedules are like, what's stressing them out, what they're doing to relax, etc. in order to anticipate their needs. I want to have more opportunities to show compassion to library users, developing programmes and services that will not just give them what they need to grow as academics but will improve their quality of life. Should college libraries be able to do this? Is it even possible?

I don't see why not.

Penumbra shadowing experience at the English Faculty Library

I was lucky enough to do a job shadowing afternoon at the English Faculty Library with Libby Tilley and Helen Murphy on Thursday the 8th of May. The shadowing experience was focused on user education, at my request, and so primarily involved sitting in on a training session entitled “Quickstart for Part 1 dissertations: processes and resources”. This built on a session held in Lent term on building bibliographies using Zotero, so knowledge of this was useful as a prerequisite, though they did cover it again for those who did not attend. The rest of my time at EFL was spent at Issue Desk and in conversation with Helen and Nora, a work experience employee about libraries in Cambridge, the differences in our libraries etc.

The training session

The EFL has a small but very nice IT training suite on site, and this was where the training session was held. There are laptops at each station and the person at the lectern is able to switch from projecting their screen to any of the laptop screens. The laptops can be locked away beneath the surface of the desk when the room is not in use.

The session was a quick overview of the process of planning and writing a dissertation, targeted at first year English students. Its purpose was to allay fears and also introduce students to some of the resources available, particularly those provided by the library. It was based on a hand-out that divided dissertation writing into 5 steps or sections, and each section had a “hook” or useful tidbit that I think students will find memorable when it comes time to start writing. Everything covered was on the hand-out and the services or resources provided by the library are highlighted in a different colour so that students know what the EFL provides. Furthermore, students were asked which section they thought they needed more help on. Responses were a little timid, I think possibly because no one had thought that far ahead yet, so all of the sections were covered.

SECTION 1: Choosing a topic

First, Libby emphasized that in the dissertation the library could help, but that students’ directors of studies/supervisors are gods as far as the dissertation is concerned. However, she pointed out that the first port of call for English students is the “Guidance on dissertations” on the faculty intranet. She recommended reading it over the holidays, since it’s quite comprehensive, and noted that in October there will be an additional and more comprehensive guide to referencing. The second resource she pointed to was a folder of past dissertation topics, which is available to use in the library and can be borrowed from the Issue Desk.

SECTION 2: Planning for effective working

Post-it note exercise - Everyone was handed a post-it note and asked to write one effective working habit they have. A couple of brave volunteers said theirs out loud, but the rest were collected and will be collated and passed on as advice to next year’s first years, so that they are getting advice from their peers rather than tutors, librarians etc.

Libby recommended starting early in case there are niche, hard-to-get resources, but emphasised that the library could get these resources for them if they were given enough warning. Additionally, the library is able to help by performing a literature search. They provide postcards that students fill in with their names and dissertation topics and hand in to the library if they are stuck, if they don’t know where to start, etc. This doesn’t take much staff time but sounds like a really big help to the students. The theory behind having a postcard rather than just giving out an email address is that there is a physical reminder of the service, and because you just fill in the back of the card advertising it and drop it back at the library, it’s a pretty user-friendly way of going about it.

Next, they did a refresher on Zotero, a free piece of referencing software that lives in your browser and recognizes bibliographical information, saves it, and automatically generates bib. references in your chosen format. The final useful advice on planning that was handed on had to do with time management and managing due dates from different libraries through the libraries@cambridge iCal app. (We could easily link to this from the web page and point it out to students who tend to get late fees.)

SECTIONS 3 and 4: Primary Reading and Secondary Reading

Most people indicated that they felt pretty confident with these aspects of dissertation research, but it was interesting to note that most of them had only one or two ports of call and did not cast their nets wider. Also they didn’t know the drawbacks of the databases they used (namely JSTOR and its out of date information, and the fact that many people assume that just because it’s from JSTOR it’s “solid”, so they don’t have to think critically about it). Of the sources listed on the handout, people seemed not to have heard of a few of them, and hadn’t used most of them.

They were given a chance to play around in some of the databases using a topic chosen from a list. This let people get more familiar with things like Project MUSE and LION, which have complementary coverage to what JSTOR provides. They also pointed out the UL’s uncatalogued book search function, which allows you to search for books by ISBN, request they’re moved to the front of the queue, and then have them put on hold for you. Because most people said they felt comfortable in this area, they did not cover every idea listed, but the handout would provide further guidance if people wanted it when it came to doing their literature searches, and it seemed like most people picked up on something new they could use.

SECTION 5: Writing and referencing

Libby once again emphasised the importance of the DoS/supervisor in this process, but pointed out some additional resources and tips, such as Transkills for English and Scrivener.

Overall impressions:

The teaching session worked really well. It never seemed to lag and it wasn’t too overwhelming. I think each section had a memorable hook that students will have come away with, and it was very nicely broken up with activities. I think it’s especially useful giving people the time and encouragement to try at least one new database on their own rather than doing a demo on a projector screen and mandating what they try. The EFL website is also really sensibly laid out with resources grouped by subject and then overarching, key resources like LION, Zetoc, Project Gutenburg, etc. down the side (grouped by primary and secondary resources). The single handout means that students weren’t sent away with loads to read so I think that was a really manageable amount of information overall, and the main starting point, the “Guidelines for Dissertations”, was reiterated at the end so people were reminded where to go first.

Other things I noticed about the EFL

- Duplication of knowledge and abilities: EFL tries to make sure that there is nothing that only one person knows how to do. This makes people’s roles more diverse and ensures that if someone leaves or is on holiday things get done. - Issue Desk entails other duties when the circulation slows down: Made possible by the fact that most users come just before or after lectures so the rest of the time is fairly quiet. Duties include checking the library email and sorting messages into relevant folders, book labelling, book repairs etc. - Issuing is done with RFID tag readers and there is self-issue as well as staffed issue desk, but books issued at the staffed one are still stamped out and in, which slows the process down. - Tea@3, poetry wall, relaxed rules about bags, comfy seats etc. make it a very comfortable library to use, people seem happy to approach library staff. Issue desk is low down, makes it look approachable. (Side note: I hate our Issue Desk. It’s like a fortress of doom.)

What I’ve taken away from the experience

First and foremost I’d say that it’s always worth visiting other libraries. It gets you to question the way you do things, generates ideas and promotes the sharing of knowledge and resources between libraries, which can only be good for the users of those libraries.

Second, I am very interested in and impressed by the reference help that the EFL provides. Not only are there clever and user-friendly schemes like the dissertation topic postcards, but the entire culture and design of the library promotes the impression that the staff are there to support learning, not as an obstacle to it. I think TCL needs to realise that whatever our sentiments about reader services may be, we do not give off a friendly and supportive impression and that should certainly be addressed.

Third, I feel like there is the potential for us to provide support in the form of user education initiatives. They would certainly look different from those at Faculty libraries, as they would not be subject specific, but we could have closer relationships with the directors of studies, point students toward the right sources of information and target our information toward the specific assessments that students of the College are doing. I will brainstorm ways of doing this. If we don’t have space to do it in person I think that we could develop something good online.

If nothing else, I think we should focus on structuring the library to be more approachable and develop some form of reference service, especially in subjects that do not receive that kind of support from their Faculty libraries, and on working more closely with Directors of Studies in the College.

Many thanks to Libby and Helen for letting me sit in/chat with you guys about library things!

Book notes #2 - Vision

Andy: Do you have a vision for your book?
Me: ...Yes? As in do I know what I want it to be?
A: Not what you want the content to be, but what you want it to accomplish.
M: Yes.
A: Have you written it down?
M: No.
A: You should write it down.

Andy got this piece of advice from a book he's reading on software start-ups and entrepreneurship. The point of writing a vision down is that the particulars may change as you develop  your company, write your book, change your professional development plan etc., but if you have a consistent vision to refer back to, you will always be progressing in the same direction. The same is true, of course, with strategic planning within existing organisations. While you're slogging it out with the details, getting frustrated, getting sidetracked, you always have the vision to refer back to.

This will probably also help those of you that actually read my previous post figure out what the heck I was on about, and potentially provide me with a useful way to succinctly answer the question I keep getting: "Oh, you're writing a book? What's it about?" This has up until now been followed by a resigned sigh from me as I prepare to launch into a rambling explanation beginning with, "Well, it's a bit complicated to explain..." So I thought I should do this sooner rather than later.

At the most grandiose level, I suppose I want to live in a world where everyone capable of making decisions (especially through voting but also in general) is armed with the tools of critical analysis and information literacy in order to make informed and ethical decisions. I also want readers of my book to question the compartmentalisation of disciplines and not be afraid to make inquiries in unfamiliar territory, transferring the skills and knowledge they have to new contexts. In doing this, readers will challenge the idea that learning takes place only in academic spheres and instead feel empowered to explore and learn independently, and to ask good questions of experts such as teachers, journalists, writers and politicians.

At a more practical level, it should give readers of many different learning styles a primer for understanding how knowledge is constructed in many different disciplines and how it is used in many different formats, so that an artist can pick up a neuroscience article in a newspaper and can understand whether the conclusions are valid, and a mechanic can listen to a political speech and know whether there is an attempt at manipulation, just as two random examples.

The audience I have in mind is explicitly not an academic audience, though it could benefit people in academia. I haven't decided if I want to write it specifically for pre-teen students or keep adults in mind as well, but I think that's a challenge I can face later. The main thing is that I want it to be engaging, visually interesting (part text book, part infographics, part graphic novel), full of activities and humour as well as really challenging and surprising.

On a personal level, I just want to try to write a book that makes people as excited about learning and investigating as I am. I want to inspire the kind of wonder about learning and information literacy issues that books like the classic Dorling Kindersley books and other such books inspired in me when I was a kid. I'm looking forward to the challenge, and even if it never gets off the ground I'll have had a lot of fun researching it. But some day I want to hold this book in my hands, regardless of what it looks like, and know that I made it.

I hope this makes sense. I'm sure I'll write more on this soon as I appear to be a little bit in the groove of thinking about this stuff.

Book notes #1

In the autumn of last year I got an idea for a book. It's a book I want to read, but it doesn't exist, so, as many writers before me have done, I'm setting out to write it myself. I have only just begun really sitting down to think about it since my course ended at the end of December so these represent some of my first notes. I've written them out by hand and I think I might just transcribe them directly by way of backing them up somewhere other than a flimsy, eminently lose-able Moleskine notebook, in a city where Moleskines outnumber people 3 to 1. (Probably. I'm just making that up.) Feel free to skip this - it's for my own safe keeping, but together these entries may provide an interesting insight into my writing process, or a black box if the project fizzles out.

HWKWWK [my abbreviation for the working title "How We Know What We Know"] - 16/1/14

I spent the evening combing over the shelves of Waterstone's in Cambridge, looking for something useful, relevant or inspiring in some way to my endeavor, but found very little. In some ways this is comforting - apparently there is a niche, and given the prominence and recent proliferation of books on infographics, I think my book will look appealing to fans of that trend. However, I had hoped to draw inspiration from somewhere fairly directly. In the spirit of viewing nothing as a failure as long as it teaches you something, I did at least refine what my book is NOT, and the sort of sources I can safely avoid. I spent a lot of time in the popular science section, systematically disregarding books of 'facts', books about the internet, books about the brain etc. Dawkins' Magic of Reality still looks intriguing but perhaps more comparing science and mythology. One I did consider buying (and stupidly forgot to write down or take a picture of) was a collection of writings by scientists about their discoveries and claimed to be as much about the cultivation of a scientific way of thinking - insight into the scientific mind for 'outsiders'.

Overwhelmingly, however, anything that looked likely was either a compendium of scientific 'facts' designed to sell to the "Brainiac: Science Abuse" crowd with titles like Why Do Men Have Nipples? and taglines like "What your science teacher DIDN'T tell you!" The aforementioned books on infographics have a similar feel: dense with very visual information but with little to link them. It's like reading a novel abridged and posted on Twitter. Are you learning something? Sure. But is it deep learning you can transfer to other contexts? That is doubtful. In some ways, not only is this what my book is not, it's what my book sets out to remedy; the shallow, passive acceptance of facts presented in uncomplicated ways, which authors assume is okay because it's for the 'uninitiated'. Though I suppose it's likely to end up shelved here (or with philosophy?), my book should give people the tools to question this, social science books, news, political arguments, art criticism etc. Emma used the colourful phrase 'crap detector', which is partly true, but it is also about breaking down the idea/assumption that if you aren't part of the discipline you can't deconstruct an argument.

Emma helped me clarify what I mean by this. She said it's about allowing/enabling people to deconstruct an argument by a scientist, for example, on their own terms. As in, it isn't about a mathematician reading a social science paper and saying, 'Well, that was a logical leap and therefore invalid.' Rather it's saying these are the conventions and criteria for validity that this discipline has established. Does it meet those criteria? Y/N Where does the argument break down? Tied to this are the epistemological questions: are there really 'facts'? If so, why do 'facts' change over time? What is knowledge? What can we know? But there's also the practical element of giving people a key to the maps of different disciplines and conventions, such as academic writing, journalism, infographics etc.

This feels like an absolutely monumental undertaking and it is ambitious in the extreme, but it isn't intended to be a definitive work on any of the topics; I intend to provide a lot of suggestions for further reading. However, it should be a useful and engaging starting point. My own starting point may be with something like intellectual histories of disciplines - historiography, history of philosophy, history of science, history of criticism, etc. - as well as books on conventions for journalism, academia etc. and books on rhetorical techniques. I want to break down the imaginary barriers between disciplines and make readers feel empowered to investigate and question ANYTHING.
...
[Written later:] Rather than 'peering behind the curtain' [of other disciplines], [the book is about] arguing that the curtain is a false construct and the only barriers to understanding linguistic and conventional assumptions perpetuated to protect specialist knowledge. This is not to say experts are useless or don't exist. On the contrary, [I believe that] they should have the confidence in their own expertise to both allow their work to be questioned and to be able to explain it clearly to individuals who are not aware of the assumptions made in that discipline [e.g. 'outsiders'].
...
[In a list of areas to research:]
- History of epistemology: shows us that what we consider knowable ([within our] paradigm) shapes not only what is 'known' in disciplines but the very idea of disciplines and their relationships to each other [(their layout)]. Removing the assumptions that place FACTS at the centre of knowledge and disciplines at odds with one another allows one the freedom to investigate first principles and underlying assumptions within any framework. However, it's a 'threshold concept' and therefore very difficult to come to terms with, rather like identifying and subsequently questioning privilege. One could say that the current dominant epistemological paradigm privileges expertise and facts over trans-literacies, experiential learning etc. People working w/in that paradigm, e.g. academics, need to question that privilege.
...
"How we know what we know" : The mechanisms through which knowledge is created, both within the current paradigms and how those paradigms came to be.

Academic Literacies - Part 2

Hey, look at this, I'm actually blogging! It's almost like there's a looming deadline I'm ignoring... As promised, part 2 of my brain dump after job-shadowing Emma Coonan. It ended up being more of an 'End of PG Dip' decompression post, so sorry about that!

It was an auspicious if sub-optimally-timed day when I finally introduced myself to my secret mentor, Emma Coonan (sub-optimal because she's about to leave Cambridge). Thankfully, she seemed quite pleased to have a chirpy little acolyte running around and we have since had some great conversations through email and my job shadow afternoon earlier this week. I won't go into specifics but I wanted to talk about some of the themes we've discussed, my thoughts, and some reflections on where I see my career heading as my final term of my PG Dip Information and Library Management course winds down.

Emma's job at the UL is Research Skills and Development Librarian, which is in theory my dream job. As such, we share an interest in Information Literacy (IL) as well as consternation with some of the ways in which it is taught, measured, ignored, misinterpreted, or under-valued by various parties in higher education. Information literacy is a term with fairly porous edges, but various groups have come up with useful definitions (see CILIP, SCONUL, ANCIL etc.). They all hover around the idea of IL as a range of skills and literacies necessary to succeed in an information-based world through life-long learning and the ability to successfully and ethically search for, evaluate, manage, synthesize, and present information.

I'm currently finishing up an assignment for my PG Dip course that is a literature review of the methods of 10 studies on information literacy (the choice of topic was mine), and I'm looking at studies that have taken various approaches. The most disturbing trend I've noticed is the tendency for researchers to want to qualitatively measure students' IL as a way of evaluating interventions. To quote an email I wrote:

I've been finding with the studies in my literature review that many researchers are looking for very straightforward, quantifiable ways of measuring skills they've just argued in their literature reviews are complex. Some of the assessments are so obviously missing the point of information literacy, for example a multiple choice questionnaire that asks, "If you want to search for journal articles about 'The prevalence of drug abuse in the UK', the quickest way of finding this would be to search in:..." (McKinney, Jones and Turkington, 2011) Of course the answer they're looking for, the "right" answer, is "a bibliographic database" and they make a big deal about the fact that most people said an online search engine before their IL instruction. But if you have the ability to evaluate sources, why on earth couldn't you construct a perfectly thorough search strategy based on search engines, depending on the topic? And asking the same question at the end of the module only proves that you've trained them to parrot back what you think the "right" answer is. But surely this is epistemologically misguided on the part of the researchers to say that there's a "right" and "wrong" answer in information literacy.

This attitude has given rise to things like Project SAILS, a standardized test claiming to be able to measure the complex and individual literacies associated with IL. This reminds me so much of a standardized, multiple choice test in reading I took when I was in high school. I tested at something like a 2nd grade reading level and because that was very obviously not true, they actually brought in one of the people who designed the test to talk to me, have me read a passage and interpret it. I remember it took place in a jungle and there was a sense of tension and mention of someone/something watching from the trees. When I came up with an incorrect but totally plausible answer to what the passage was about (I said I thought it might be about Guerilla warfare, having read about it a few weeks previously), the woman asked me, "Why do you think your score didn't reflect your reading ability?" I told her that I don't think you can measure reading comprehension with a multiple choice test at all. I brought to the passage my own experience, knowledge and connections, just as students bring their own strategies, preferences and interpretations to the practice of academic literacy. That is not something you can pin down with a standardized test.

The state of IL practice in this country is interesting. Relatively few universities have specific IL-based learning outcomes and policies (see Corrall, 2007), but IL encompasses many of the hidden expectations universities have of their students and researchers. And yet, if they are not taught, how are students expected to know about them, let alone practice them and receive the feedback and guidance of teaching faculty one would expect to get for any other academic topic? At the moment there is underwhelming support from universities, despite the fact that graduates who know how to solve problems, evaluate information, contribute to knowledge and present it to a high standard are in demand. It seems that in a bid to gain funding - or to not lose it - from institutions, practitioner/researchers are left with little choice but to try to demonstrate value with exactly the sort of quantitative instruments that de-values information literacy.

It is not across the board. Within higher education there are managers who support the development of IL curricula with more than just lip service, but this is very much dependent on where you are. So it seems as though I'll either have to seek out employers that already support these programmes, or be prepared to fight tooth and nail to get one established.

Reflecting on the last 18 months, I am amazed at how much I have changed. It seems the rapid transformation of the undergrad. years is not solely due to transitional issues of living away from home for the first time, but owes a lot to the intensive intellectual process of digging down into subjects about which you are passionate.. I have changed my ideas radically - or perhaps 'clarified' is a better word - and reached out to seize my burgeoning professionalism with a much clearer sense of what my ideal future in library work is.

• I want to help people. I want to help them get excited about learning, empower them to be life-long learners and to continue to learn from them.
• I want to be involved with the IL research community, to encourage good practice and perhaps contribute to the body of knowledge in this field.
• To that end, I would like to someday do a Ph.D. Maybe the topic will occur to me through work, maybe through keeping up with research in the area, but I feel I want to challenge myself to do such an in-depth research project.
• I want to write my book - the sort of book on critical thinking that I'd like to read - and I would LOVE to see that book on required reading lists for GCSE or A Levels.

So, I have more than a little ambition, but a lot of inspiration. If I do half of the things on that list I think I'll be able to feel proud of myself.

Watch this space.

Academic Literacies with LibGoddess, Part 1

Caveat: This is a brain dump post and it is very long. Read at your own risk, and also get a nice big cup of tea before you do.

On Wednesday (11/12/13 - I wrote the date on everything because it was fun) I job-shadowed Emma Coonan (LibGoddess) of the Cambridge University Library and had a fantastic time doing so! I also attended her last class ever at Cambridge, Academic Reading and Writing for first year Engineering Ph.D. students, in order to get a sense of the kind of teaching librarians do, how to engage students with information literacy material etc. I'm writing this up as a way of keeping record as well as sharing my experience if anyone else is interested. Part 1 deals with the class and Part 2 deals with my general thoughts on the job shadowing experience, the conversations I had with Emma, and where I see my career going.

The class was held in the evening and was pretty well attended. It seemed like Emma had built up a rapport with the students in her previous sessions, which was very nice to see. I acted as a participant in the class because I thought I might get more out of it that way, but tried to also make some observational notes as we went along. In general, the class was mostly lecture style with slides signposting the main topics, along with two practical activities. I enjoyed the lecturing style as it was pretty casual and spontaneous in feel but still kept to the main points. Overall I noticed that Emma made a point of normalizing difficulty and confusion by pointing to examples of her own struggles and acknowledging differences in study style. It was good to hear that although there are certain practices that are more efficient than others, the strategy and style of research is up to the individual - there is no right or wrong way to study.

Emma began with a brief discussion of context - of why it's worth learning about academic reading and writing. There is an assumption in the UK that if you are at University you know how to read and write. Or perhaps that should be written as 'Read and Write', because there are many hidden expectations in academia and in the UK these are seldom made explicit to students. Two of the students in the class had been taught academic writing, in Austria and America, and Emma invited the group to chip in if they thought 'Hang on, that's not what my supervisor told me to do.' In a way, I was really hoping this would happen because it would have made for a very interesting discussion and it would be interesting to hear how teaching faculty in STEM disciplines handle research skills, but I suppose part of my brain was expecting them to have set a less-than-optimal example, which is a stereotype the members of the class quickly made me question.

She went on to explain that, 'Reading and writing are not separate in academia' - that reading is an active process and that writing is a form of thinking. I'm definitely finding that as I become a more self-reflective learner. I am a fervent note-taker when I'm reading, as I form my own ideas about the significant themes, evidence, etc. and I'm a huge fan of reflective writing as a way of establishing what you think, making sense of an experience and getting out the ideas bouncing around in your head. That being said, I'd never made that direct a connection between reading and writing, so it was a definite light-bulb moment.

At this point, Emma asked us to split into groups and discuss what we find challenging about academic reading and writing. In my group I think I was the only native English speaker and one of 4 women in a group of 5, so that was cool! They were a little reluctant to speak so I got the ball rolling, trying to give a very generic answer, though I realized after the fact that I probably set the tone for the kinds of responses the others gave. (Incidentally, I LOVED having this conversation. It was so cool to hear about the challenges STEM students face and their strategies for dealing with them. I had a really good time getting them to open up about some of their issues and listening to their ideas.) I could write an entire blog post about each of the points the groups came up with, but I'll just do bullet points for now.

Group 1:

• Technical jargon and reading in a language that isn't your mother tongue
• Figuring out what the main points of a paper are
• Deciding which author has the most valid argument (this was stated as 'which one is right' - I'm not sure if this shows a lack of epistemological depth or if this is actually a valid question in STEM. I think that's a very philosophical crux.)
• Structuring arguments (my trying-to-be-generic contribution)
• Writing with a particular audience in mind

Group 2:

• Staying on track, not following distractions
• Concentration in reading and writing
• Understanding whether a paper is relevant when you aren't familiar with the concepts

It was interesting how different the answers were. Emma brought these together by discussing the different levels of challenges in academic reading. First, there's the physical demand of getting through the volume of reading. Then there's the question of selectivity: WHAT to read. Finally, there's the analytical stage, determining what lines of argument/methodologies are most successful, etc.

With regards to the first level, Emma noted that you are not expected to read everything, nor should you try. Instead, develop strategic reading. This involves:

• Getting to the core of a paper's argument as quickly as possible (try to get to the point where you can explain its purpose or main bullet points after 5 minutes of reading)
• Assessing its value to your work (what can you get out of this? How good is it for your needs on a scale of 'meh' to 'Awesome!'?)
• Making better notes (captures your response to the author. I'm a pro at this. I have elaborate conversations with authors in my notes.)
• Skimming! Not just for lazy people anymore! (This helps you maintain a critical distance when you read a paper for the first time so you don't fall for sexy rhetoric. It's not just a time-saver.)

In practice, you do this by first focusing on the skeleton of the text, which is often made easier by academic writing conventions, for example abstracts, headings, figures etc. All of these will give you clues as to why the paper exists and whether it will have value to you. In STEM papers, often you can see all of the relevant material just by looking at the figures/tables. Finally, reading the first sentence of each paragraph will often give you a good idea of the flow of the argument.

I was glad to see that most of these were strategies I already follow, particularly in doing my lit review assignment for Northumbria, as writing about 10 articles on a given topic involves looking at a lot more than 10 articles. However, I did kind of want to speak up and say that if something does slip through this process that ends up being irrelevant, it isn't a wast of time if you consider why it is irrelevant and why it managed to escape your filters. At worst, this helps you focus your search strategy and it may even help you focus your research question.

At this point we did a strategic reading exercise. Emma handed out copies of an academic article (some students had brought their own) and she gave us 5 minutes to practice strategic reading. At the end of the 5 minutes we were all able to say very roughly what the articles were about. I'm pretty sure all of us used different tactics. I was probably the most prolific note-taker, but that's what print-outs are for! I noticed I was still using some strategies left over from the literature search for my lit review, as right after looking at the conclusion paragraph, my eyes went to the bibliography and noted with slight derision that they only cited a paltry three sources although they presented no original data. For shame! (Just kidding.)

This brought us to academic writing, because the conventions we'd just used to read strategically are the same conventions we're expected to use in academic writing. They are effectively hand-holding techniques to bring your readers along and tell them the WHAT, WHY and HOW of your paper in the clearest terms possible (see the handout linked below). This portion seemed a lot more extemporaneous, with a lot more examples from Emma's own experience as an academic, probably because the writing process differs so wildly between individuals. She observed that academic writing and research is half Project Management, half crazy creative mess, and you need to allow yourself both. I especially need to remember to allow myself the necessity to be creative and messy when writing for myself. There was also the fairly standard advice to Ph.D. students: start writing now, don't get hung up on the end product, etc.

Finally, we were given the chance to free-write for 8 minutes. I had forgotten how terrifying/fun that is. I do reflective writing from time to time for my own benefit, but it's fun to have the pressure of not being able to stop or edit, as I'm the sort who will spend 20 minutes re-writing the same sentence before I've finished writing the paragraph.

I left the class feeling I'd had a good mixture of reinforcing things I already knew and getting inspired by new ideas. It does make me want to do a Ph.D. at some point. If I ever do, I'm going to try the technique of reading my own writing using the strategic reading method to see if I sign-post as well as I should. I suspect I don't. I also found the tip of looking at the Manchester Academic Phrase Bank for some non-copyright linking phrases to use when stuck VERY useful.

Next time: my random-ish thoughts on the shadowing experience, conversations I had with Emma and where I see my career going from here.

Emma's write-up on her class: http://researchcentral.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/academic-reading-and-writing/
'How to read 10 books (or thereabout) in an hour' handout: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/courses/Documentation/10_books_an_hour.pdf
'Academic writing survival guide' handout: http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/courses/Documentation/essay_writing.pdf