I am going to give you guys a little preview to what you can expect from my group (Emily and Elise) on Monday. Our topic is the need for librarians in public schools. With the current economic crisis around the nation, many school libraries are reducing their library staff to part-time or are eliminating them all together. Because of this students are not receiving the instruction they need to become successful in college nor learning necessary skills. We will be presenting our workshop to administrators in charge of the budget, and try to convince them that the need for school librarians. (I know you all our excited!)
Class
We had a lot going on in class that night. We went over our assignment for next week, the one-shot workshop. I think that this is interesting approach to convincing a specific group your view or benefit for whatever issue you are presenting. At first, I thought these workshops would be similar to our screencast where we demonstrated how to use a tool. I never considered using a workshop to advocate certain concerns. I am excited to see what ethical issues everyone presents and if I would be convinced or agree with them afterwards.
We also discussed HCOD and had a guest speaker, Bobbi Newman, through a webinar. She was extremely level headed about the whole HCOD debate. Most librarians seem to just rant and state how mad they are in their blogs (though they do have good reason to). I am continuing to follow this issue and am curious how libraries will continue to deal with this issues—not just HCOD, but the problems with ebooks in general. Will other companies follow HarperCollins examples? How many libraries does this really affect right now? So many questions! I do not like being left hanging!
Of course I am excited! I am always excited to hear someone (other than a school librarian) think school librarians are worth talking to administrators for! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely an interesting time for libraries and librarians. I think the whole ebooks/HCOD thing is just the tip of the iceberg. Issues related to access and equality will continue to surface.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you-- it was refreshing to hear Newman's level-headed response to HC. I talked about it with some librarians at work this week (which I'll talk about in my blog soon), and they seemed to have similar views-- it's a shame, but a boycott isn't the answer. Plus, there are so many more pressing issues for libraries in Michigan, with our funding being cut.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I am in your group for tomorrow and I am very excited for your workshop. I love school libraries!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't remember if Bobbi Newman mentioned it or someone else, but a lot of publishers don't offer ebooks to libraries at all. So for some companies offering a limit of 26 would be an improvement. Kind of weird how that works.
Yeah, as much as I love a good rant, and ohhh how I love a good rant... It was very nice to see a level-headed and unbiased approach. It may have been more for our benefit that she may have somewhat obscured her real opinion, perhaps, but even if that's the case, it shows she's thought about both sides and not just from a cursory standpoint.
ReplyDeleteNow that she's done that, time to rant!
Your workshop had some great visuals; I enjoyed it a lot!
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