Information Tyrannosaur

The Information Literacy Librarian suggested that we make READ posters from the ALA website and I immediately hopped on board.  In about twenty minutes after the e-mail was sent out I had already found my books, staged my picture and created the poster.  I think goofy things like this are fun.  But our director also suggested that maybe we could get the president of the college to make one and we could hang it up.  We also thought we could have a display of other librarians or students who would want to make posters.  These all seemed like great ideas and I hope they go somewhere.  I like how something as simple as a poster gets people thinking.

I also used the poster to introduce myself in the Champlain College Library blog, “Check it Out.”  It is a little difficult being the new kid on the block, but I have already met a number of faculty and staff members and they all have been very welcoming so far.  I look forward to the start of the semester when I will be meeting a lot more people.

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There has been a lot of discussion lately about the effects of the interweb on reading.  Nicholas Carr and his fascinating article, “Is Google Making us Stoopid?,” brought up the idea that Google and the nature of the internet in general is making it more and more difficult to thoughtfully read books and longer texts.  The typical internet experience is made up of little kernels of information plucked from different locations, allowing you to create your own whole.  This is in opposition to the previous model where an expert writes his own coherent view of a certain topic and you get one view in its entirety.  These are two very different ways of thinking, as well as two very different ways of reading.

Another article, “Literacy Debate - Online, R U Really Reading?” by Mokoto Rich asks us if this new type of internet reading is an enemy of traditional reading or if it too should be respected as another type of literacy.  It is fascinating to hear how one of the children in the article, Nadia, does read, but instead of books it is fan fiction. These are stories produced by regular people who can have the story go whatever direction they want.  Nadia even writes her own story about a person who dies and is reincarnated as a half cat half human.  It is instances like this in which the internet really amazes me.

I am of the opinion that this sort of literacy is equally as valid as traditional book literacy.  In Nadia’s case, she is reading other people’s work, engaging with the material, and inspired to create her own.  This is literacy at its finest.  But what I have come to realize is there are all different sorts of literacy.  There is the basic literacy level where you gain knowledge of reading, grammar, spelling and can understand sentences.  But from there there are countless types of specialized literacies.  Being able to read a legal brief, a medical chart, or a philosophical tome aren’t things that many of us have to do unless we work in one of those professions, but they still all constitute different modes of literacy.  My point is that you can be literate in only the things that are necessary for you, your career and your interests.

I would argue, though, that in order to be a well rounded individual in this day and age one needs to have in some measure the two diametrically opposed types of literacy: web reading and book reading.  The web is so ubiquitous that there is no escaping it.  Even print newspapers refer you to their online content.  This is not anything groundbreaking but, the internet is shaping our culture, and if people want to be a part of that culture they need to know how to get information from the web and understand it.  A person is not engaged in society if they shun the web.

On the other hand, those who spend all their time on the internet reading blogs and social networking are missing out on a big part of humanity as well.  No matter how many wikipedia articles, blog posts, or sparknotes, you read about The Odyssey you will still never capture the same feeling as actually reading it.  You will not be able to understand Odysseus’ unbounded joy when he again sees his beloved Ithaca.  So much of our culture and knowledge is contained in books.  You can get much of this knowledge from the web, but it will be very superficial.  You will not have the same depth of understanding you would get from reading a book.  Thus, being able to sit down, concentrate, and read in depth books will continue to be a desirable skill.

Therefore, some degree of literacy is necessary to succeed in life, such as the ability to read and write.  It is not necessary though to be able to sort through web pages (John McCain has his wife do it).  It also isn’t necessary to read books or even long articles.  Even though neither of these things is necessary, I believe that they are still both essential to live a full and flourishing human life.

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I am close to being done with my first week of work at Champlain College.  From people that I have talked to, this is going to be a very busy year.  The incoming class is far bigger than any before it, and the new Core starts which includes information literacy as a strong component.  This adds up to a lot more instruction for librarians.  This will be a challenge, but one I think I will be up to.  Though I’ll have to get used to doing instruction again after not having to do any the whole summer.

I am also very excited to start implementing some of my own ideas.  I would like to make some video tutorials, and similar tools after I do some teaching and talk with people about how they should look.  Hopefully this would take some strain off the teaching librarians.  Moreover, I have a number of ideas to improve the website.  My overriding goal is to make the library and its services more user friendly.  Many library services are not even close to being intutive.  Users struggle through using our tools to find information.  We have to make the experience easier and more enjoyble, not a chore.  I hate seeing users getting frustrated and shutting down when they run into problems (such as no results in a database or catalog search…Google at least gives them something).  So, I am going to do what I can to allow users to have a pleasant successful research experience.

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