Virtual Journal Club December
I hope you can join us for the second meeting of the Fall 2022 series of the Virtual Journal Club, sponsored by the College & Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association. We will meet next Thursday, December 15th, 2:00-3:00. This series is focusing on libraries and literacy. We will discuss:
Dewan, P. (2019). Reading in the age of continuous partial attention: Retail-inspired ideas for academic libraries. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 58(3), 177–187. https://doi-org.arcadia.idm.oclc.org/10.5860/rusq.58.3.7045
Here’s the Zoom link for our meeting:
https://kings.zoom.us/j/93660828235?pwd=MmxaNUszSEZEUTFOcWk0Y3RBUTZnZz09
Please feel free to reach out with any questions – correllm@arcadia.edu
So Many Lists, So Little Time
Librarians may not read books all day, but many of us do enjoy reading for professional development or leisure, giving books as gifts, and purchasing books for our collections.
If you fall into any of these categories, you may also take notice of the “best of” lists compiled each December. But during this busy time of year, you might not have as much time as you’d like to explore different recommendations.
In case you do want to refer to some lists when you have a minute or two, as I would like to, here are highlights. This isn’t a comprehensive overview, but should provide a snapshot of the year’s popular or recommended books.
- NPR: Books We Love – 2022
- Time: 10 Best Fiction Books of 2022
- Washington Post: Notable Works of Fiction
- BookRiot: Best Books of 2022
- The Economist: Best Books of 2022
- Book of the Month: Best Books of the Year
- Time Out New York: Best Books of 2022 According to the NYPL
- Smithsonian Magazine: Best Travel Books || Best Science Books
- Literary Hub: Best Reviewed Nonfiction
- CrimeReads: Best Crime Novels of the Year
- Publishers Weekly: Kids Book Choice Awards
- School Library Journal: Best Middle Grade Books 2022
As always, your suggestions are welcome! Is there a 2022 book you are recommending or gifting? What’s your go-to list of best books?
Using a Kanban board to manage work
Use of Project management and lean ideals to help guide my work has proven to be helpful. As a joint clinical and academic librarian, I find that my tasks are varied and plentiful! In my role as part of the Information Literacy Librarian team at Xavier University, we have all been introduced to the concept of working lean and agile. To institute this new way of working and thinking into our everyday workflows, we have been taking classes each semester to help us make the concepts more relatable to our daily tasks.
One of my biggest take- aways from this training has been the idea of using a Kanban Board. I have found this simple adjustment as made a world of difference for helping me plan and organize my projects and my daily routines. The idea is a simple one. Keep a tangible board in one place to list all the work that must be completed, that I am currently working on and what has been completed for the week.
The ideas behind the Kanban board are more complex than I am making it seem, but the outcome for me as been a positive one. This simple board has allowed me to see where I am on a given day on a task. I even try to reward myself for a job well done once I move my task to completed. You can find out more about this idea in many articles, and You tube videos. Here is a link to one that was shared during my training. Happy task managing!
Marlowe Bogino
Current Status of Library Space
As the semester winds down, I am finally finding time to tackle my professional development “To Be Read” pile: articles, books, blog post, and even webinars are related to my librarianship, but are chronically #11 on my list of 10 things to do on any given day. One of those was from April (yikes!): an EDUCASE article by Steven Bell “Moving to Mobile: Space as a Service in the Academic Library”.
It actually ended up being a happy accident that I waited until now to read the article. It especially rang true with the changes that I have seen in student library usage during this first real “post-pandemic” semester. Fall 2022 meant a relaxation of mask mandates, and a return to normal library hours and services, but it has not meant a return to the way students used the library before March 2020. Bell’s article focuses on the use (or lack thereof) of computer labs within the library space. He saw a decrease of desktop usage, and an increase in laptop checkouts. My library is seeing a similar trend, but even our laptop checkouts have decreased. It seems one result of the pandemic is an increase in students with their own laptops. Hopefully though, with continuing concerns related to digital divides, they are not relying on smartphones or tablets as their primary devices. Bell cites a EDUCAUSE poll from November 2021, stating that most (81%) use a laptop for their primary educational device.
My institution has not done similar survey, though I would be interested to see how our numbers compare. Our desktop computers have decreased usage, and even during instruction sessions, students would rather pull out their own laptop than log onto a public machine. We have had some informal feedback that some students are making do with Chromebooks or other devices that don’t meet requirements for many of the academic technology tools they need for coursework. Also, they often would rather struggle on their smartphones when searching for resources, or trying to use our cloud printing service, then logging onto a conveniently located desktop. I am not sure the motivation behind this: perhaps they are just unaccustomed to using desktops, or are concerned about the privacy of a public machine? It would be interesting to gather more data on this as well.
Aside from desktop computer use, Bell’s article also touches on the importance of the library’s space as a service or resource for students. During the pandemic we were often one of the few “public” spaces that remained open. Policies, hours, and occupancy numbers were amended to achieve as much access to the library space as possible. These adjustments, especially limits to groups and mask mandates, were not popular with our students. Though we were open, our library saw a decrease in gate counts during the pandemic. Even with the repeal of many of the pandemic restrictions, we have yet to see a return to pre-COVID numbers.
Again, I am not sure why, though I suppose I could speculate. I wonder if the lack of visits is due to something just as simple as a lack of practice. They just do not have the muscle memory of using the library’s space for group meetings and studying (and hopefully research help). Many of these students were not on campus pre-pandemic. For their last years of high school, and first years of college, they went to class and studied from their home or dorm rooms. They did not interact in-person with the classmates so there was no need for a public space to work in. Now even with the return to in-person classes and events, maybe they are still studying and meeting elsewhere just because that is what they have always done.
It kind of feels like we are having to “sell” libraries to students all over again. The value of libraries, and their spaces, has stayed the same, but the institutional memory of the library has been lost. I am having to find ways to tempt students into the library, so they can see all the awesome spaces, and services, we have there. I also wonder if, just as student knowledge and expectations for libraries has been “reset,” whether we need to reset our assumptions on the needs students have for the library. Just another angle to consider and evaluate. We may need to reintroduce ourselves to the students on our campuses, and I suspect that getting reacquainted will be a slow process.
Dear Pennsylvania Library Association members,
Registration is open for the 2022 Southeast (SEPLA) Chapter’s Annual Business Meeting and Workshop. This event will be held in-person at the Upper Dublin Public Library on Friday, December 2, 2022 from 9:00am until 2:00 pm.
Investment: $25 Member | $35 Non-member
Register now at:
https://www.palibraries.org/event/2022SEPLA_BIZ_WS
Registration deadline is Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
Workshop Details:
- Presentation #1: “Intellectual Freedom: Lessons Learned from Collections and Meeting Room Controversies”
Learn how to handle library collection and meeting room conflicts with grace and confidence. Cathi Alloway will share her experiences and recommendations from thirty years of library administration, managing book, music and meeting room controversies from white supremecist activity to drag queen storytimes.
Bio: Cathi Alloway (AMLS, University of Michigan) recently retired as Director of Schlow Centre Region Library in State College, PA, after fifty years of library experience in three states. A Past President of the Pennsylvania Library Association, she currently serves as a library and non-profit consultant with Library Strategies and other partners.
- Presentation #2: Intellectual Freedom Knowledge & Resources
How librarians, and library supporters can protect access to information and support the First Amendment while still maintaining the library’s identity as a welcoming and inclusive space that is an anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and social justice-based organization.
Bio: Sophia Sotilleo is currently serving as the Dean of the Library at Bowie State University in Maryland. She is also the Vice President of the Freedom To Read Foundation. She is a seasoned academic librarian with experience and strengths in collaborative grant writing, library programs, project management, and assessment.
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This message has been sent on behalf of Michael Celec, Vice-Chair, Southeast Chapter, Pennsylvania Library Association
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This project is made possible, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Tom Wolf, Governor.
*****************************************Support is also provided by the College and Research Division of the Pennsylvania Library Association https://crdpala.org/
It's Academic 