Playing Telephone to Teach Information Literacy

Teachers of information literacy must impart a holistic sense of information to students. While, traditionally, school librarians have taught steps to effectively locate and evaluate information, our prime goal as educators must be to enable students to see the context in which information operates. Thinking about how information is created, shared, and ethically used is vital for information literacy. Students must also learn to recognize that variant points of view about a subject can exist, but information can sometimes be manipulated to try to provide "evidence" for unsubstantiated claims. (Facts are not a point of view.) 

There are many strategies for creating some understanding of information science. One main challenge is overcoming a student belief that they can find any information they need at the touch of a keyboard or click of a mouse. Typing a question or keywords into Google does not demonstrate an ability to efficiently and intelligently fill an information need. We need to break students of bad habits when it comes to information searching and we need to develop better strategies for doing so.

With a holistic approach in mind, the following are some teaching guidelines  when creating a curriculum for information literacy. Students must:

• understand that information is communicated in many forms. 
• realize that not all information is readily available. 
• search for different perspectives that analyze evidence.
• seek the viewpoints of those who are less visible. 
• recognize that the loudest voices are not always the correct ones. 
• realize that not all information is documented. 
• look for the origination of ideas and see primary sources as best evidence.*

Ask a class full of teenagers how many use one of the first five hits they find through Google to answer a question; it is likely that every hand in the room will go up. Ask them who wrote the information on those web pages, if they haven't been taught to evaluate authority and seek authorship, they will look at you with blank stares. Students may have never thought about from where information comes. Google might as well be magic.

A game of telephone 
can boost understanding
about information use

So, to introduce the idea of information as a science, I incorporate a game of telephone into introductory freshmen lessons. This exercise gets students thinking about the creation and distribution of information. In case you have never played:

1. Have a student think of a sentence or two and write it down. 

2. In the in-person/pre-pandemic version, that person will whisper their sentence in the ear of another student.

3. Student 2 whispers what student one said, into student three's ear.

4. Continue the passing of information through whispering until all students have heard the information.

5. Have the last person say the passed on information out loud and confirm against the written version that it was passed on correctly.

It will not be.

Explain that this is how information works. The primary evidence, the original, is the best source of information in terms of accuracy. When others write or otherwise pass on the evidence, it gets changed. Sometimes the meaning changes slightly with paraphrasing. Sometimes people purposefully (perhaps unethically) change the information to deceive. Sometimes the information was not properly conveyed or received and we just do the best we can with what we've got and pass it on. In other words, the farther removed you are from a source, the more likely it is to be incorrect.

Now, in my modified remote learning version of the game, we have the opportunity to do more than just whisper in a classmate's ear. I hope to try this version next year. Students can distribute their information in alternate ways. Have student one write some information to share with others. I think a short scenario might work well when we are talking about recorded information - something not too long, but not too short. Students can choose how they wish to share the information with one other person, but they must re-write it rather than forwarding or cutting and pasting. They can Snapchat, text, or post to Instagram. They can Email the information or snail mail it. They can tweet it or DM through Facebook. They can even call another student or use video chat to relay information verbally. I can see this exercise taking a few days, demonstrating how information travels through various channels and over time.

Weaving information literacy into lessons throughout the year, continually remind students about the lessons learned in telephone. Remind them that it is their challenge to find the best information, to seek the source, and to not assume that the original answer they find is accurate. Through one lesson at a time, convey concepts that demonstrate how the concepts of information science allow one to confidently find the right information, not just the easiest to find information.

Librarian in a Remote Learning Environment

High School Information Center Bitmoji Classroom

One of the best things about being a school librarian is that the job is constantly changing. One day I may be ordering books, or receiving book shipments (which makes me feel like I'm getting presents on Christmas). The next day I might be in the classroom telling students about my experiences as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Or, I may be sitting with teachers, reworking lessons to incorporate more opportunities for inquiry-based learning.  The job is rarely dull and certainly this spring was no exception. Not only did I crash teach myself about Google Classroom to support my teacher colleagues who were new to this style of learning, I also found new ways to reach out to tell my school community what their library has to offer.

Covid 19 is a lot of terrible things, but it has also been an opportunity. It has given a chance for information professionals to re-examine what they do and to find new ways to deliver. This spring I made a library Google Classroom where I started an online book club and made a quote wall using Padlet for us to share favorite books. I recorded myself reading favorite passages for my students to access. I also created a library Google Slide bitmoji to better engage my students. I designed online tools for my library users to better understand information literacy. I became more adept at creating teaching videos. While I missed my students and colleagues, I was productive with a new found purpose and new sense of direction. I became a school Google guru, filling a need for locating best practice information quickly to get classrooms humming in a new setting. I became knowledgable about accessibility issues so I could teach them to the teachers. This summer, I look forward to sharing with you some of what I learned this spring.

My archivist adventures have also continued and it has been awhile since I've written about them. I had great fun this past fall and winter consulting for a private school in Massachusetts. I used some old techniques for surveying collections on this project and had new adventures in using spreadsheets for collection note taking. It is fascinating to think about how my role as a consulting archivist has morphed. I look forward to sharing my new insights with you.

Finally, in this turbulent time and in my middle age, I am thinking about my now two decade long career. What does it mean to be a librarian and an archivist? What do I want to tell librarians and archivists coming behind me? What do I want teachers to know about librarians? What should be the future of librarianship.

It feels nice to be writing again and I hope my followers are still following. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

School Library and Museum Collaboration

Museums and schools should be natural partners. So, when I began working at a high school library three-and-a-half years ago, one of the first things I did was seek out an institution willing to try something a little different. My goals were mainly twofold:

• Promote hands-on learning and STEAM / Makerspace education in my town, while showing students the value of collaboration 
• Promote museum educational programs and outreach

Students check out the 3D printer that will
be used to build drone parts. It was acquired thanks
to a museum education grant that included our school.

I was willing to work with any type of museum, with the hope that this project will expand and perhaps involve multiple museums in the future. In July 2014, I met with a like-minded science museum director in my area to discuss ideas about a potential collaboration. This winter, our partnership and year-and-a-half of planning is resulting in a project launch with my high school teens. I have described our project on Donor's Choose as follows:


Our first collaborative project is to design and build a drone. The project will help students gather and evaluate information. It will support innovation, creativity and critical thinking. With the help of the librarian, administration, teachers, and museum staff, it will allow students to become comfortable with collaboration and communicating with experts. Students will work within a budget, create an engineering project plan, build a drone kit and modify the drone with CAD and a 3D printer, create a documentary about the experience, design a web site, write articles for the school paper and other media outlets outside of our walls and deliver presentations about our work.

This project is open to all students and will cater to varied interests and abilities.

Students will engage in authentic learning, picking up skills that will serve them in a 21st century world. Furthermore, the project will boost our sense of community due to its large-scale collaborative nature. We hope that this will serve as a model for other non-formal learning opportunities. [Donor's Choose, 2016]

In my original planning document I state the following: 

Students are invited to learn in an environment that distinguishes itself from the traditional classroom experience - to explore, to be creative and to discover new ways of thinking. We aim to make our school a model for community learning that brings informational and cultural tools from around the world into our educational space.

We see collaboration as an important part of our learning experience. Collaboration gives us more ways to access information. It enables us to rely on group diversity to accomplish tasks. It gives us multiple perspectives for more efficiently solving problems. Collaboration can help us grow ideas, stretch our minds, and garner new tools for information seeking behaviors.

• We aim to make learning fun and to connect it to the real world.
• We aim to help students adapt to different ways of communication, exploration, inquiry, and evaluation of information using diverse low and high tech tools.
• We aim to help students understand that you learn for a lifetime.
• We aim to show students that success relates to caring about something, getting involved, and following through with an idea from inception to completion. [GHS/McAuliffe Shepard Partnership, 2015]

 ...In fact, these points are what libraries are all about in the 21st century:

We most effectively reach our audience to convey these concepts and provide these opportunities through collaboration. I believe that such school and museum partnerships should be the model for the 21st century to the benefit of both institutions.

If You Build It, They Will Come?

We built a giant chess set for the last week of school. It seems like a perfect symbol for the first leg of my teacher librarian journey. It is also a fine example of how collaboration and community can come together and lead to great things.

In May, I eliminated the center tables in our library because the chattiest/ most extroverted kids seemed to sit there and their noise seemed to spread throughout the room. I felt that eliminating those tables would  encourage more pleasant chatter. (I was right.) But, then I had the "problem" of what to do with all this space. My principal passed through the library one day and, according to one of my assistants in earshot, apparently said something to the effect of, "What's she doing now? Making a dance floor?!" He was kidding (I think), but you can see that it was important for me to come up with something clever and worthwhile!

I had talked about building a life sized version of my students' favorite game many months ago. There was buzz around it among some of our more enthusiastic students. It seemed like a perfect fit for this perfect square. The board was created by a social studies teacher who offered his assistance when I  blathered about our plan to anyone who would listen. He had been in the carpeting business and had bits of carpeting lying around.

If there is one thing that working in this community setting has taught to me, it's that communication is the key to pretty much getting anything done. Word of mouth generates interest. Taking interest in the health and happiness of the group as a whole builds our sense of community, encourages positive spontaneous interaction, and builds trust in the library's work. My direct contact with people every single day is the key to encouraging participation. 

• Grab a good idea and don't let anyone look at you askance. Run with it!
• Tell everyone about your idea. (Do not do this if you are not actually going to follow through. Demand follow through from yourself no matter what!)
• While talking about your idea, keep you ears open for partners. If someone seems interested, make them fit into your scheme somehow.
• Be flexible! Your original idea may not be what works best in the end. Be open to others' thoughts.
• Be prepared to change things up mid-stream. If something isn't working, try it another way.
• Be patient
• Share your idea and don't treat it like your sole property. Let others do what they want with it.

The chess board I  conceived many moons ago was to be made of floor tiles and stryofoam pieces, but the teacher's idea of carpeting was perfect. The colors he chose even  matched our room decor. (I don't know if this was serendipitous or his choice because he sees the careful attention we've been giving to making our space comfortable and coordinated.) The building of the board was slower than I had hoped, but when the tiles were finally brought in, it turned out that the timing was perfect. It was the last full week of school, the students were ready for summer and something a little different. The board was a perfect way to hold their attention for just a bit longer.

When we put the tiles out, we had photocopied flat pieces. Students turned these down for their play and decided to use little regular sized board pieces instead. And though they had a great time, I wanted bigger pieces. Our flat pieces became three dimensional with some velcro and cardboard developed by one of my assistant. We then put string on them with the hope that some students might be interested in using them around their necks and becoming human pieces. I told everyone in earshot that would be so amazing to see. (We also made checker pieces on the request of some students and they added yellow dots to one side to denote kings. Not part of the original plan, but a lovely addition to the concept.)

On day four, a bunch of kids (mostly my extroverts) were sitting on the floor around the library. "Guys, I know we are getting near the end of the school year, but we are still functioning as we normally do. Would you please find a seat in a chair somewhere?"

"Ms. Mannon, we are waiting for our turn at the board. Is that okay?" I was pleased as punch.

"Of course. Sure thing," I replied.

When two students finished their game with the pieces on the floor board, a flock of kids got up and began hanging queens and kings and rooks around their necks. Someone had helped us spread the word that the game was there and new users were joining in library activities. My assistants and I immediately got to work recruiting more board pieces to help out. One reticent girls got very excited. "I've been waiting all week for this! I don't know how to play chess, but I want to be a piece!" She was welcomed into the fold. (Maybe the experience will even encourage her to learn how to play.) The kids worked it all out themselves - picked team captains, decided who would be what piece, and let everyone play from all different grades and all different cliques.

When I first fell into this position as library media specialist, the library was a place to hang out with your friends. During my third year, it has become a place for interaction and communication for our larger school community.

Getting  to know your audience as a cultural heritage / information professional is key to what you do. I do not play chess. I know how to play, but I would not call myself a chess player. Watching my students enthusiasm grow for this game over the past few years has been exciting. At times, every table in our library has a chess board on it with students playing. I always tell my students that their time in the library is productive time, not time for gossip. When they play chess, I know that they are working their brains and growing appreciation for something that could play a relaxing and joyful long-term role in their lives.

My role as an information specialist gave me a platform for a. introducing something they might like, b. helping them grow their interest, c. building something big and memorable that they latched onto because of a and b. The moral? If you build it, they will come IF you have laid a foundation of trust, collaboration, and community.

*For those of you who have followed my journey in this career shift, I am pleased to report that I am now an official teacher, awaiting my approved and paid for teaching license in the mail! I have also enrolled to pursue a post-graduate teaching degree (CAGS.)

The Age of Contested Knowledge

This week, I had the pleasure of listening to presentations from two local academic librarians. The librarians were visiting my high school to teach our seniors about college level research. They explored databases and discussed peer reviewed research with the students. They explained why "Google it" is not an acceptable academic search strategy. The information that the librarians provided was not unique, but it is something that students do not easily accept. Why? "Google it" seems easy. "Google it" helps us re-confirm what we already believe. "Google it" shows us what information is most readily available, not necessarily what is correct. Also this week, I listened to an National Public Radio podcast entitled "Why We Doubt Scientific Findings." A phrase stood out for me -- "the age of contested knowledge" -- and tied directly to what I see happening in the classroom. With a nod to Diane Rehm, this post discusses and questions the role of librarians and archivists in this new information age.

Rehm's program discussed how the world of information has changed. How people get their information has changed. There has been a disintegration of the old "gatekeepers" of knowledge. In my opinion, as librarians we have a responsibility to spread our own knowledge of information. People once saw libraries as the way to enter the gates and access information. Today information is at everyone's fingertips and most do not recognize the true value of a librarian's training.  "Gatekeeper" is too restrictive a word for what we do now. We need to re-brand ourselves as information "guides.

Information in Today's World

Rehm's program included science reporters and scientists discussing the way people gather and process scientific studies. The beginning of the show was most interesting to me from a professional standpoint, as it discussed general practices of information gathering:  The following parts of the discussion stood out to me:

• Information that we accept today often reflects our world view. "[People] often find exactly what they already believe." 
• People have a daily confrontation of their belief system with/against science. Science (information) was once much less readily available
• There is a norm of false balance. Some things are presented as two sided, when they aren't controversies at all. 
• Information is evolving. People sometimes point to new understandings to show why all information can't be trusted, rather than exploring how the new information evolved.
• A lot more risk analysis is demanded of us than in the past.

The Role of the Librarian

The information puzzle

People have many more outlets to get information. Do they know what the "good" sources are and why they are good? How can we better explain this? This is one reason why good school libraries and librarians are so important. We need to help our young people understand sources so that when they are adults, they can better navigate channels of information. A knee-jerk reaction to information that seems to challenge our world view should be replaced with a healthy skepticism and thoughtful evaluation of sources. Information is a giant puzzle whose pieces sometimes fit neatly together. Other times, there are gaps between pieces as we wait for bridges in knowledge to connect diverse ideas that are all grounded in truth.

As information evolves, people need to learn to step into the conversation. The college librarians talked about becoming part of the conversation; the need to gain a basic understanding of the subject and its issues before jumping in and making conclusions. It is up to individuals to educate ourselves on the basics of issues. How can librarians help with this? I'm thinking of displays in my school library that introduce a topic with which students may be unfamiliar. Additionally, maybe archivists can more prominently display and explain original sources from which secondary arguments are based. Can all of us work to make sure that when people "google it" primary sources float to the top? Can we even develop partnerships with companies such as Google to make this happen? My students are amazed when I show them scholar.google.com. Their eyes seem to say, "Wow! Google even distinguishes between different types of information sources. Maybe Ms. Mannon isn't lying to me after all!" How can we make the separation between information channels more visible and understandable?

On Rehm's program, journalists discussed how responsible professionals can help people see caveats in studies. How is the latest study different from the last one? How have things changed? Librarians can help people be part of that conversation. What tools can we create to help people see the changes? "Most people don't keep delving [to gain a greater understanding of an issue.] They will take the headline...they will take the first paragraph..." How can we help them delve?

Finally, "a lot more risk analysis is demanded of us." Despite this, from my experience as a librarian, I see that we are less likely to analyze information. Everyday, we need to ask if the information that is handed to us is good information.  It is harder and harder for us to evaluate knowledge due to the abundance of information. One of the main reasons that I decided to accept a job as a high school librarian was what I was seeing happening with information and its effects on people. He who yells the loudest should not be believed simply because he is yelling. How can librarians better help people evaluate information? How can we help them believe that they even want to be better evaluators?

Community Thanks

We are once again approaching my favorite holiday. To me it is a holiday grounded in the idea of community. I give thanks for all I have and topping this list are the people in my life.

I have always purported that archives are all about community. Individual stories sit together in special collections, while the handiwork of individuals makes up the institutional archives. We are surrounded by people who are walking stories. The archivist attempts to capture the essence of each individual and their communities to save and share with posterity.

This month, I have been listing something for which I am thankful, each day. I think about my friends. Their diversity rounds out my life, while their uniqueness touches my soul. I think about all of my communities - my family, my coworkers, and my students. Of course - always my students. They allow me to show them every day what community means to my, why it's important and how it can enhance their lives. Together we are working to build a library and archives that shows the best of who we are; that lets us reflect on our knowledge of ourselves, boost it  with information about others, and aspire to greater things.

I have talked on this blog in the past about a tradition I uphold with my daughter each year. We make a tree of thanks and add as many leaves as we can to tell for what we are thankful. I took this tradition to my school library when I began there two years ago. I have discussed the library tree of thanks in this blog too. Now is the time to get it going again. Our tree of thanks will be made of all of our hand prints, this year. Each student will trace and cut out their hand to tape to the library wall with a message about for what they are thankful. This is one of the best traditions I have started and I hope that you may find room in your own lives, even in your own institutions, to reflect on how your community influences you; how being thankful for what you have helps strengthen bonds.

Finally, I would like to say that this marks a turning point on the ArchivesInfo blog. when I began this school journey two years ago, I wasn't sure I was making the right choice. I wasn't sure if a school environment was right for me, if the teens would welcome me, if my unusual ideas would be accepted. I have found a second home in the arms of educators and now consider myself one of them. I have been taking some education classes and have plans to pursue a degree in advanced graduate studies. It is my hope that I can continue to show the role of community in the school and that my own education will enhance my writing. I am an archivist at my core, but I am more than that. I am a librarian, information specialist and most of all, I am an a teacher. I hope that you stick with me on this journey. I am thankful for you all.

More Finds at the Local Antique Shop: Reading Photographs

Photographs without descriptions require us to more carefully examine what is in front of us than we ordinarily might. While text and narrative can help us better understand an image, lack of text can help us figure it out for ourselves.

When you go to a museum, do you run up and read the label copy or do you first examine the object and see what you can figure out on your own? I am aware that the procedure of viewing that I choose may change my whole experience. Do I want the expert to tell me what to see? Or, do I want to take my time to decipher an item and then verify it with what the label copy tells me?  If I have a limited time at a museum, I'll read the label copy first. If I can afford the time, I prefer the puzzle. Both ways help me learn. Both allow me to connect information I am given to what I already know, but one way is much more passive than the other.

Why does this matter?

As an educator, it matters very much for my teaching,

Look at this image I found last week at an antique shop. What can YOU tell ME about it?

My students tend to tell me things such as: That woman lived a long time ago or that woman is wealthy. Fine. But we can do better. Let's reevaluate. Let's teach them to read an image. 

"Wait a minute! How do you know that?" They will look again and I will say, "Tell me something simpler about this image, such as it's black and white. Is that one clue that this woman lived a long time ago? How do you know she's wealthy?"

A young person might say, "She is wearing fancy clothes and jewelry. That tells us she has some money. And we don't wear clothes like that now. That is another way we know this picture is old."

"Okay, what else? Do you think a photographer took this? Why or why not? Do you think that everyone could have afforded a photographer back then? Let's look more closely."

The image is mounted in a cardboard folio. The photograph is covered with a thin tissue and there is a ghost image on the other side. Most young people would not think about this at all if I didn't point it out. The ink from the photograph is acidic and creating the shadow on the other side. When I point things like this out to students, they tend to start thinking about their family's own photo collections. The "life" of the photograph becomes as important as the subject. How can we take better care of our things? What does preservation mean?

When students learn to "read" a photograph, it opens new worlds of exploration. Notice the glasses on this lady below. Notice the oval frame. Notice her dress and tie. Notice that this image is not just black and white, but it's also browning. Notice this woman isn't smiling. "Ms. Mannon, they never smile in old pictures! They always look so angry!" Why?

I often hear that kids are not curious about the past and they are not interested in their family's heirlooms. Is this because we hand kids information that they cannot relate to their own lives and their own knowledge? Is this also because we don't encourage them to ask questions? Do we not teach them how to be curious and how to "read" a photograph or an item? I find that kids do not even know what questions a photograph can pose; what mysteries does it hold? Who cares about this black and white image?

Museums and archives can do the same thing that we do in a classroom by re-writing label copy to engage a younger generation. (Local historical societies, this is a good way for you especially to re-think your displays.)

Teach kids to ask:

What do you see? Is this something you would see today?

Teach kids to wonder:

Why does it look this way? Why are these people not smiling? Why is this image black and white? Why are these people dressed this way? Where are these people? Who are these people?

Teach kids to be curious:

Where and how can I find out more? Is it possible to figure out who these people are?

When we read a photograph, we may begin to see bits of ourselves in the faces that peer at us. We may see families like our own and people with hopes and dreams similar to ours. "Reading" images not only makes us smarter and more curious, it also makes us more empathetic. Images have the capacity for helping us to dig deeper into ourselves, to define who we are and how those who built history helped form who we are and what society is today. And I find that once we start encouraging them to "read", the curiosity won't stop. Keep providing more materials so those questions keep coming.

My Year in Review: A Community Archivist Brings "Community" to Education

My grand experiment. Does an archivist (albeit with a non-traditional archivist path) have something to offer secondary students? Does an archivist offer a unique view and noteworthy skills that others in an educational community don't have, but can benefit from? Does a background in librarianship, museology, and archives provide practical knowledge that can benefit a community learning about information? My year and a half working as a high school information specialist indicates the answer is yes.

What is information? I can continually explore this idea with my high school students and aim to show them that information is everywhere. From the signs we read (or choose not to), to the games we play, to the conversations that we have, we are continually bombarded with information. It is our job as citizens to look for information, to learn to filter it by taking in what may be important, to decipher it, and to make informed decisions. One bit of information relates to another. Historical information that we find in an archives may help us better understand modern information.

What is a community? Communities are built on information. We all have commonalities despite diversity. We must recognize what humans have in common so that we may responsibly improve society. Information about our past, our cultures, our lifestyles, our traditions help build bonds. We can celebrate these connections. Such bonding ties together information and helps us understand the paths we have taken -- how we have gotten here and where we are going.

How do I find information? We all have some understanding of our world. This understanding starts with the community that we know. We use our understanding as a base for discovery. We learn about tools that can lead us to broader ideas. We become adept at using these tools. We use our minds to decipher information and we remain open to allowing our understanding to grow and change, if we find our own base knowledge lacking. Diverse tools help bring us information, but we must be open to finding it. We also must have the patience to make use of the "facts" we find to turn what our brains take in into viable information that can be used.

I started with the premise that I could strengthen the idea of community. This is how I did/do that:

1. Call our common library space "our library" and say that as often as I can

2. Make myself visible throughout the building. The library comes to the people when it can. (I have a colleague who has set up library stations around her school building. I hope to follow her example) I go to classrooms to teach and sit in on lectures. I visit the school store. I carry books. I wheel around a cart decorated with funky birds. I dress up for spirit week. I take pictures of our happenings and invite those taking pictures around the school to share them in the library.

3. Set up a school archives and advertised it. Formed a committee for it. I pull out yearbooks whenever I can to show that we are all indebted to those who came before us. Our archives will be growing.

4. Made a pretty space. Taking pride in a space shows that we are proud of our community. I try to put up posters that reflect us. I invite art students to bring art in. I ask for kids to color pictures and hang them around the room. (Yes, high school student like to color. Don't you?)

5. Offer games. Collaboration on jigsaw puzzles is something I love to see in my... (ahem)... our library. We have legos and Battleship and chess and a whole lot more. We are aiming for a maker space.

6. This is a personal favorite and has not been easy. I ask for students opinions and encourage them to participate. At first, many didn't like me asking questions of them or asking them to do things. Who can blame them? They weren't accustomed to me. But now, many, many, students willingly give me ideas. Some do so without prompting. But most recently, I encouraged our community to make a paper chain that was wrapping its way around the library. I asked student to list all of their favorite books to make the chain grow. "I would like to know your favorite books. If you don't think that you like to read, reach back and try to remember a story from your childhood that brings back good memories." I had one wall to go with one day left to vacation. I begged and pleaded, "C'mon! You must love more books! We only have one wall to go!" One table of students grabbed a pile of colorful slips and they must have written about 50 books on those slips. One of the library assistants brought me a stack. She apparently had told the students to watch the look on my face when she handed it to me and luckily I didn't let them down. "WOOHOO! We did it! Our chain will go around the room. I will try to make sure that we have everyone of our favorite books in this library!" After all, we are a community and all of our books must be represented here - from Everybody Poops to Crime and Punishment

The chain start by the entrance to the library

By my office....

It wraps all the way around the room

The holiday paper chain lists the favorite books of our community members. 

I will count how many books there are and get back to you on that

It ends right beyond our circulation desk, which has the stairway leading into the room

7. Exhibits - From Archives Week to teaming up with a foreign exchange student to make a display about her country. (I also order books about the countries from which our foreign exchange students come and I place them in our collection with a dedication to them in it. After all, they are part of our community too. Once part of our community, always part of our community.)...

8. Events...

And this is where my world is now heading. December was a big event month. I've settled in to know my school and my students. I'm working on curriculum and research teaching ideas with teachers. I feel like I am an accepted part of their community, so now we get creative and build our information circle.

• We had ethnic food Wednesdays where people of all backgrounds were encouraged to bring in foods that reflected their heritage and the holidays. (taste new things. learn about new cultures)
• We made paper that will be bound into journals and put out into our town. Local businesses will help encourage residents to write reminiscences of the high school (show the value of the arts in any project. show that our high school is firmly rooted in the local community and that the community values education and its teens. build our archives.
• We are getting ready to celebrate our 50th anniversary in our current school building. I discovered this anniversary while browsing through the archives and brought it to the attention of the principal. Two years worth of events are in the planning stages. (The paper making event was our kickoff.) The growth of our school archives will be a big part of this push. Collection development and outreach has just begun.
• We will have a Human Library in April to showcase diverse occupations and the diverse people who choose different career paths.

Those with information and cultural heritage backgrounds have unique expertise that can fit beautifully within an educational community. What I've shared above is just a sample. I have spoken and been interviewed about alternative career paths for archivists. I continue to stretch to learn the ways our professional skills can benefit diverse communities. I encourage others interested in a wholistic view of information to consider opportunities outside the traditional archives arena. This has been an enriching year.

Building Community, Building Archives in Any Institution

People love to share their thoughts. They want to announce what is important to them. They want to see if what is important to them is important to others. They want to acknowledge shared traditions, noting differences, and making others' knowledge part of their own. One of the primary purposes of Archives is to capture individual experiences and to hold them together with other life stories. This enables our communities and those yet to come to extend their community circle. The stories that sit on our shelves are the stories of US. The archives represent individuals who have been acknowledged by us. Their experiences have been saved so that they may share their thoughts and we may make their knowledge part of our own.

Festive winter picture adds to the ambience
of this post. (Yes?)

These experiences do not need to just come to us passively to enter the Archives. We can build them. You can build experiences (and traditions) at a genealogy conference, in a public library, or with your family in your home. December is a ripe time for building community experiences - capturing the laughter and love, and creating a circle that brings in those who might normally feel left out. This is a difficult time of year for many and your institution can be a grounding force if you choose that path.

With all of this in mind, I have designated December as a special month in my institution. My goal is to help bring my large school community together in my library, to capture the experience of togetherness and to build upon it throughout the year. Each December we will pause to focus on traditions and diversity by bringing a microscope to who were are as a group.

So what did we do?

We began in November with our Tree of Thanks. This is the second year we've done it and it is wildly successful. The students love telling us for what they are thankful. We have people who tell us they are thankful for family. We have students who wrote the names of their best friends. We had others who were thankful for their phones. etc. etc. Some of the thanks are unusual, many are the same - togetherness and diversity in one. All of the leaves we placed on our tree last month have been saved and put in our school archives.

This month we are building a paper chain that lists our favorite books. What began as a simple way to decorate our library and generate some discussion about reading has become a challenge. Some students told me that they don't like to read, so I made them reach back to their early childhoods to remind them to think about how much they loved Dr. Seuss or Winnie the Pooh. Some students still didn't have anything to write down or resisted, so we've been having conversations about why they don't like to read. I ordered some books without words to show them another way of "reading" and we can build from there. We are hopefully building a tradition and culture of reading. Our main immediate goal has become to build a paper chain that wraps all the way around our large library. English teachers are grabbing piles of colored paper so that their classes will write books down and bring them to add to the library chain. I've been walking around every period talking to students and getting those slips into their hands. I then take their slips to add or let them add their own links to the chain if they want. And yes, the paper chain will become part of our school archives.

Last month we had an exhibit about food traditions that included recipes from our school community. Yes, the recipe book will become part of our archives. This month the exhibit morphed from looking at our own local foods to examining foods around the world. We took it one step further. Every Wednesday is food tradition sharing day this month in the library. I brought in potato pancakes this week. One of my marvelous library assistants brought Bucle de Noel. A family that is very active in our community supplied Hanukkah cookies. (Thank you community Mom. You know who you are and I assume that you are reading this! ;) We offered the food at the end of an early period of the day. It went fast. Word spread throughout the school fast. I walked around the library and asked students if they had tasted those foods and what they thought. Everyone liked the food and very few had tasted those dishes previously. We've asked staff and students to bring in their own traditional foods this coming week. I can't wait! The foods we offer this month will be noted and included in our archives. I'd love to build this up next year to capture students reactions...hmmm, maybe I can do that next week.

We have an extensive craft table set up this month to make ornaments that students can take home or hang on our "tree of thanks." The tree of thanks has morphed into a December holiday tree. I am trying to tell each and every person I see in the library about the craft table. Saved ornaments? Part of a special "archives" that will be reused each year so we can remember past students. Also, this month we will also have our second annual chess championship. This year it will become a Chess and Checkers event. We have a certificate of achievement handing on our wall with last year's champion who was a senior. We remember him and his certificate will be removed and stored in the school archives to make room for this year's champion.

We are making paper right before the holiday. This paper will bound into journals to help celebrate our school's anniversary...but I'll give more information on that in a later post.

And on and on...I have goals to bring the food sharing to the halls next year. I envision English classes writing poetry to put in our Archives. (It's poetry slam month and I'm judging in a week.) I can see our inclusive activities growing and being a regular part of the library and archives each and every month with December putting a cap on it all.

Yes, all of this can be done at home. Some of it can be done in your office. It can most certainly be adapted for your library, archives and museum. Record, record, record your events. It matters to your sense of community.

Have a very happy holiday season. I'll try to write at least one more update before the end of the year and I will also fit in the ArchivesInfo annual Top Ten and Year in Review.

Feel free to comment and share your family, archives, library and museum December inclusive traditions. I'd love to here them!

Why All Archivists Should Take a Library Reference Class

Any recognized gap between the fields of library science and archives management is becoming smaller. Yes, archivists and librarians handle different sorts of objects. Yes, each field requires its own specialized training. Yes, we often work in diverse institutional settings. ..Yet our materials take up the broad category of "information." And with the Internet, the diversity of our information does not quite make itself as clear to our patrons as maybe it once did. While it is important to maintain a distinction between primary and secondary sources, it is more important than ever that librarians and archivists learn more about the other profession's expertise to best serve our patrons.

Archivists should better understand what researchers are seeking when they write term papers or approach a library (or the Internet) to find information that serves a need in daily life. The archives has much to offer the general populace. As archivists, we should no longer view the academician as our most important patron. We must better serve a diverse populace to survive and thrive. Once upon a time, preservation was a good reason to discourage wide-ranging use of our materials. We could not keep everything safe if hundreds or thousands of people clamored to use our resources, but with digitization this is no longer the case. We must strive to see how archives can best serve most of the population's information needs.

An understanding of general library reference service has served me well in my archives career. I can easily recognize moments when my archives collections can serve as publicity tools or can be neatly related to published sources to enhance users' understanding of a subject. In my public librarian / public archivist role, there were many opportunities for me to tie primary resources to new books and popular ideas. In a school environment, I toss kids back and forth between archives, books and the Internet, explaining the difference between the media while highlighting how they mesh together.

For example, while looking through the Statistical Abstract for a math project with my daughter the other day, we noted the percentages of students who receive various levels of education. First, I knew enough to seek out that particular resource when she needed to find an example of a place that provides information in percentages. Second, It was interesting to connect the statistics I was viewing to the many school archives I have seen that list student achievement and performance markers. Understanding the creation and use of primary sources certainly made it easier to comprehend what the publishers must have been looking at or surveying to gain the mathematical information they provided us.

For another recent example I can cite working with a foreign exchange student on an exhibit about her country. The project brought to my attention that we had little published information in our library book collection about her homeland. So, I asked her to supply original photos that she had taken and to write something telling about her experiences. This will be added to our school archives. Though we lacked much published information on her country, I knew that a general cultural encyclopedia must have some basic background text, which we found and used to give some context to our display.  We supplemented the primary and printed sources with maps from the Internet. I was able to show the student books that I would order from a vendor's database that I found with an easy two minute search. My knowledge of the types of resources that should be available fleshed out our exhibit, but also demonstrated to the student the wealth of information that she too could learn to navigate.

Archives and secondary sources can work together to round out a subject for our audiences. Most people do not have experience with archives, but professionals can lead them into a subject and across platforms of information by beginning with published sources. The creation of exhibits, brochures, programming, finding aids, and other archivists' activities can benefit from the inclusion of secondary sources. An archivist should know search strategies and primary reference tools to provide context to their materials in a way that is understandable to the average person. Linking primary and secondary sources rounds out the world of information, opens doors to collaboration with librarians and provides a means toward better understanding of the value of archives by new potential patrons and supporters.

High School Archives as Independent Study

This is my second semester as a school librarian. With the third quarter coming to a close, I am happy to share one of this year's newest experiences, which has involved offering "directed study" to a few individual students. I outlined a plan for my school to have me teach students about library and information science in the areas of collection development, Internet resources, exhibits and programming or archives. To take my directed study, students must write a plan that focuses on one of these areas. This post, because of the nature of this blog, focuses on the archives option.

One student is working with me to explore the history of our school and is working on a project to jump start our school archives. In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of our school building, the student began working to compare students from the 60s with students today. Examining yearbooks, she listed areas of interest to teens, including such activities as sports, clubs, and studied subjects, noting differences between students "then" and students "now."

The project has grown and fleshed out in the past two months. We recently took a short field trip to the local historical society to check out the resources they have related to school history in our town. The student is now planning on a time line that she hopes to turn into a mural, showing milestones in our community story. The student has also begun helping me search for information about a school time capsule that is rumored to have been installed when the building was erected.

In the meantime, a teacher has donated copies of his photographs of school events to our archives. Slowly, word of our efforts is getting out. The library staff has done a couple of displays that have included archival material. I've begun taking my own photos of events in the library that we display on a continual slideshow on the library's television. These images will be added to our archives. The school information center will continue to work with the local historical society to build stronger local archives related to our history. I have offered to digitize their images related to school history so that we may keep copies on school premises for learning purposes. We are in discussions with the high school class of 1968 to complete some oral histories with them.  

I am offering copies of diary pages and other interesting personal papers I have collected over the years from outside sources to assist teachers with their lessons. Most recently, a teacher mentioned beginning a unit on the Industrial Revolution and I told her of my Waltham experience and how I can provide interesting stories and materials related to my work in the city where the American Industrial Revolution began. I hope that exposure to archives in the classroom will help make history come alive. I also know that introducing these materials will give our students a greater understanding of different types of information and the differences between primary and secondary sources. Perhaps tying archives directly to the curriculum will encourage even more students to pursue independent study in the archives field.

In my own life, I have found that my independent studies have been a good anchor for my interests and general education. They have allowed me to explore core topics, giving them a twist that best suits my personality. Independent studies in the a few different areas challenged me intellectually and creatively. Independent study has allowed me to flesh out the context of the subjects I studied. It allowed me to better define the purpose and value of my education through a personalized lens. [The most memorable independent study I did was as an undergraduate. I spent 1 1/2 years studying gravestone iconography, which gave  me a better understanding of history, art, cultural identity, religion, business, and more. The work culminated in a trip from New England to California to speak in an undergraduate research conference at CalTech University - my first public speaking engagement. In high school, I was lucky enough to have an independent study in the arts, that helped set me up for my future degree in art history.]

Exposure to archives should begin earlier than we have traditionally provided it in the United States. It is imperative as we move more into a digital world that students have a solid understanding of materials that are produced close to events as opposed to less solid and reliable sources. Students tend to believe what they see on the Internet. A solid understanding of provenance is very important to overcome this naivete. Before the line between primary and secondary sources fully blurs, we need to set up methods to make distinctions so that people better understand and examine the materials that provide them information. Directed study in archives has provided one way to capture a student's interest and to prepare her to better evaluate the world around her.

Give a student a thread and let them work to unravel the sweater. Let a student find one thing of interest that leads them to another jewel of information, and then another. Let the librarian be the guide to a path of learning that puts a student at the center. Let her understand that information swirls all around us and it is up to us to take it in, organize it, seek context, and connect thoughts that lead us to bigger and better ideas.

Young Adults, Sense of Place and Archives

ArchivesInfo has always promoted the idea that archives provide a foundation for building a sense of community. Using information as a resource for social connections and understanding can be applied in any environment. My school experience is a reflection of this in action.

I spent much of the first term as the new information specialist at a local high school, building a sense of place. Sense of place does not always come naturally. Sometimes it needs to be molded and focused, and cultivated to reflect this idea. To begin to create that feeling in our library, I've re-arranged the room a bit; I've hung posters and created exhibits aiming to get students to think about our library as the heart of our community; And, of course, I've started a school Archives.

There is A LOT going on in this very busy environment at the physical center of the school. We are building tech opportunities as well as focusing on the "traditional." But my focus here is on building a sense of place -- with a goal to make the physical center the metaphorical heart of our education.We aim to create a comfortable, enriching environment. This, I believe, adds to a feeling of community and certainly to the sense of place. In addition to trying to provide educational opportunities in diverse forms all around our room, we fill our display cases each month with exhibits focused on building community.  (Let me know if anyone is interested in the "educational opportunities" aspect and I can talk more about that specifically in a future post.)

• In September our first exhibit involved using mind-mapping to envision the library as a community space. 
• In October, we built an exhibit about Archives Month that introduced the idea of school archives. 
• In November, we focused on food traditions and encouraged students to dig up their own food memories and recipes. 
• In December we introduced a pen pal project with the Teen Center in Botswana where we will be connecting our community with one in Africa to explore a different culture and get to know people from across the world. 
• We are now focused on our favorite books. In December we encouraged teachers and students to create a holiday chain that listed their favorites. I've made a list of them, have ordered ones we don't have here, and made an exhibit with the help of my staff. With the help of this current project, and through surveys and collection development, we have added materials for all levels of library users. We are aiming for diverse educational resources to tap the needs, and spark the interests, of as many students as possible.

We aim to reflect the soul of our community and that's where the archives really shine. An archives committee, currently made up of just a couple of students and staff, is working to build a collection that focuses on our building. The building was constructed in 1965, so we are preparing for a 50th anniversary celebration. We are collaborating with the local historical society and have visited their collections to get a sense of where we, as a school community, fit in our larger town community. I'm trying to have students think of our school as just one ring among all the communities in which they participate. An alum contacted me about a blogging project his graduating class is building. We will be reaching out to them. We plan to conduct oral histories and ask the people in the town about their memories of the school and to see if they have materials related to the high school's place in the community. I hope that the project will spread to other schools as well and I will meet regularly with other school librarians to tie our respective educational communities together on an informational resource / sense of place level.

I have a sign on my office door that says, "Libraries are in the curiosity business." I hope that when one enters a space encouraging exploration that also reflects ties to the past -- a place that shows its roots AND a forward movement -- that one feels energized. I leave little "sparks" around the library with the hope that I can ignite students' interests, whatever they might be. I aim show them that no matter the subject in which they have an interest, there are learning opportunities to grasp. I want students to remember this place as one where they felt safe and free to learn beyond the classroom and that their experiences here will help them build an enriching life where they recognize opportunities for lifelong learning. The long-range plan is coming and this will continually be a work in progress.