Is technology inherently better? A thought.

Wow! This statement summarizes so much of what I think about technology and mindfulness.

I'll be ordering Sherry Turkle's new book Alone Together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other for the library's professional development collection.

Our habitual narratives about technology begin with respectful disparagement of what came before and move on to idealize the new. So, for example, online reading, with its links and hypertext possibilities, often receives a heroic, triumphalist narrative, while the book is disparaged as "disconnected." That narrative goes something like this: the old reading was linear and exclusionary; the new reading is democratic as every text opens out to linked pages - chains of new ideas. But this, of course, is only one story, the one technology wants to tell.
There is another story. The book is connected to daydreams and personal associations as readers look within themselves. Online reading - at least for the high school and college students I have studied - always invites you elsewhere. And it is only sometimes interupted by linking to reference works and associated commentaries. More often, it is broken up by messaging, shopping, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. The "other story" is complex and human. But it is not part of the triumphalist narrative in which every new technological affordance meets and opportunity, never a vulnerability, never an anxiety.

Thoughts?

Causation-Correlation

There are certain themes that repeat when I teach research skills to students.

Don't passively accept the first source.

Use the databases that the school pays for.

See if you're looking at causation or correlation.

As I recently read an article about research on ebooks and culture, I came across this statistic. Approximately 58% of Japanese people say that they would never read an ebook, while the number was 4% for Chinese respondants.

Does being Japanese cause you to not read (or at least intend to read) ebooks? I'd say not. You can read the article or take the highlights. http://www.thebookseller.com/news/japan-rejecting-e-books-claims-report.html

Parsing through the rest of the article, I learned:

-the study didn't account for the high number of Japanese people living in rural areas, where the digital divide is great.

-the study didn't take into account age, and 22% of Japan's population is 65 or older.

-the study didn't fully account for the ways that digital reading devices influence the reading experience.

There's potentially a causal relationship in expectations of quality, and it's possible now that the digital experience of reading does not equal the print experience. Here's a telling quote from a CEO of a digital publishing house:

I think users sense the lack of maturity in the e-book market and users are not being tempted to try e-books in large numbers rather than that they are trying them, rejecting them and going back to print. In a nutshell, Japanese consumers are pro-tech but even more pro-quality.

Reading, Psychology, and Superiority Complexes

While I was reading the New York Times book review last weekend, this article prompted me to think about our judgments on reading. People frequently ask for my professional opinion on reading "paper" versus reading "digital." Without going into too much detail, it's hard to separate out my personal preferences from any professional expertise in the area.

I'd like people to read in the manner that will keep them reading, whatever is comfortable.
This article steps back further and questions reading "paper" versus "listening." I started listening to audio books with the sixth Harry Potter, an excellent work read by the talented Jim Dale. This was on a trip driving from Baltimore to Seattle, so there was ample time to listen to a 24 hour recording. I don't read too many audio books, but I do read some on several long car trips each year. (Personally, here's what I'm looking for. 1. Something I can listen to in a relatively concentrated period of time 2. Something driven by plot 3. Something with an engaging reader or readers---adults, don't try to sound like teens!)

In reading this particular article, I was drawn to the idea that there's judgement implicit in questioning how others read.

The truth, it seems, is that the way we read, and our reasons for loving or
disliking audiobooks, are deeply personal. They are expressions of self, so tied
to what we are. If you belittle the way that I read, you're belittling me.

While we've studied learning styles in other environments, it seems as though similar studies should be completed on adult leisure reading. None other than multiple intelligences expert Dr. Howard Gardner says that "he hadn't heard of any research in the area."

Gardner's wife, psychology professor Barbara Winner, is a fan of audio books while Gardner is not.

Winner said she listens to books while exercising, grocery shopping or waiting in long lines at the airport. And what kinds of books? “Great literature, classics that I would not have the time or patience to read if they were in print.” She has happily worked the treadmill to “Bleak House” and “Daniel Deronda,” “Crime and Punishment” and “War and Peace.” “I want to just sink into a fictional world,”
Gardner, for his part, sounded a lot more like Jeanne (the author's wife). “I like to provide my own soundtracks in life,” he said, adding that he loves listening to classical music, and not as a means of escape. “I’m not trying to get away from anything,” he said.
As a practical matter, Gardner went on, he wants to read at his own pace, and to be able to flip back
to earlier passages — no easy feat on an iPod. “To me, reading is something I do with my eyes,” he said.

Fascinating thoughts from the man who pioneered the notion that we learn in different ways.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/books/review/wired-for-sound.html?pagewanted=all

What's your preferred method of reading?

Caption Contest - Book Review

Since I returned from my travels, there's been a dearth of comments. I miss interacting with readers. Or knowing I have readers... This picture is begging for a caption. If you want to go one step further, a brief book description would be great. Why? Because this was the image that accompanied a review in the New York Times Book Review recently. Did I want to read the book based on the review? Not really. Does the picture potentially persuade me otherwise? Absolutely!

Happy New Year, and I hope for comments soon.

Academic Team Win

The Saint Stephen's Academic Team came in first place at the Academic Team competition last night! They competed against 15 other Manatee County high school teams, and we're so proud of the students' performance. Here are some of the questions that the students answered correctly.

Identify respectively the verbal phrases in the following four sentences as gerund, participle, or infinitive. 1. To carry on was her goal. 2. Carrying on was what she had been taught. 3. The people carrying on the most were in trouble. 4. They should have known better than to carry on.

Which one of the following four statements is possible concerning the movement of an electron from the fourth major energy level to the second. 1. It would absorb energy in the form of ultraviolet lig.ht. 2. It would emit energy in the form of ultraviolet light. 3. It would absorb energy in the form of visible light. 4. It would emit energy in the form of visible light.

From the following descriptions, identify respectively the four people associated with Julius Caesar. 1. son-in-law and fellow triumvir of Julius 2. daughter of Caesar and Cornelia 3. uncle of Caesar who fought on the side of the assembly in the first Civil War 4. grand-nephew and heir of Julius Caesar.

And here's one of the questions that no team even attempted to answer. (They lose points if they guess incorrectly.)

To two significant digits calculate respectively in hertz the first three harmonics of a 1.0-meter long pipe that is closed at one end.

If you see members of the Academic Team around school, congratulate them on a great meet. It also goes to show that even in a digital age where facts are easily available, there's value to quick knowledge retrieval.

How Librarians Organize Libraries

It's still surprising to me how many people ask for books by the the color or image on the cover.

Yes, I'm a visual learner too, but that's not our organization system.

Enjoy this sketch from The Two Ronnies on the subject.

Anchorage Library Video

This just fuels my obsession with Alaska. Yes, this obsession was fueled entirely by Northern Exposure, which I watched 19 years after it's debut.

Trivia on the reasons I started watching. 1. The 1st season DVD was available in the library. 2. I remembered that there was a moose in the opening credits from back when it was on television. 3. The back of the box mentioned Columbia University, and I was missing living in Morningside Heights.




RuthAnn's store was not a library. Cicily needed a community space beyond The Brick.

Kindle Renewal Ethics

I'm torn on this. Libraries are by nature a shared resource. As someone who has single-handedly paid for a library foundation in late fines, this is awfully convenient. Also, Manatee Library now supports Overdrive for kindles.
http://librarianbyday.net/2011/10/26/how-to-extend-the-due-date-of-your-library-ebook-on-the-kindle/

Just a friendly tip from your friendly online librarian.

It is pretty easy to “extend” the due date of the library ebook you check out to your kindle, just turn your wireless connection off until you’re done with it. This will allow you to keep reading the book until you’re done. The title won’t expire until you reactivate your wireless connection.

Can’t remember to turn your wireless off or just don’t want to keep it off all the time? Consider that handy email notice telling you that you have three days left that you get from Amazon (not your local library), you know the one that includes a link to buy it from Amazon, the signal to turn your wireless off if you aren’t done reading the book. When you’re done, turn your wireless connection back and on the book will “expire” as usual.

Is it important that there are not yet renewal options available for the kindle? What if the book hasn't been requested by anyone else? Your thoughts?

Interim Quest (IQ) Excitement

Our students are fortunate to have a week of focused study after May exams. They choose subjects of interest, and they spend the week immersed in learning about them. Choices include global textiles, cooking, a service-learning trip to the Dominican Republic, playwriting, etc.

This year, I've been selected as the female chaperon for the trip to China. We'll start in Beijing, and then we'll spend most of a week in Guilin, visiting our sister school. Expect lots of updates on this site. Thank you, Saint Stephen's!