tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75613696983872649152024-02-02T01:07:29.633-05:00the Anthropologist in the StacksDonna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.comBlogger89125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-54750227856919152572014-09-24T08:55:00.000-04:002014-09-24T08:55:21.817-04:00A Domain of my Own<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.donnalanclos.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEild058sDrq4NVZjQ8a0xpo5S12dvfvGks6vHJKTE5KNaGvptZ5QEX8HWB-MiLEjz-0y41scYZAPvklc1lI-cZxxQs86x5F2f9BRgGuRlYCxIgEr3arBi6qmycsOe1_dT12qhm-4QmLTnU/s1600/New+Blog.png" height="529" width="640" /></a></div>
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So I've been reading a lot lately about people moving their webstuff from wherever it's being hosted (institutional sites, Google, WordPress) and paying for hosting their own domain, under their own name. I've been contemplating the same thing for a variety of reasons, including wanting more flexibility to add content, and realizing that my blog title, Anthropologist in the Stacks, was not being searched for (according to my blog analytics), but my name was.<br />
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That I've reached a point in terms of visibility where people are Googling me by name is alarming and also satisfying--if I didn't want to be visible, I wouldn't be here, or <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos" target="_blank">on Twitter. </a><br />
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But this post is to say that I'm not actually going to be here at Blogspot anymore--this blog can serve as an archive, and there are still some links to this in my site that I'm hoping to get fixed at some point. But from now on, if you want to find me, I'll be <a href="http://www.donnalanclos.com/" target="_blank">myself, in my own Domain.</a><br />
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Seeya.Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-33046260798465033912014-09-22T11:55:00.001-04:002014-09-22T13:30:18.760-04:00It was EPIC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The <a href="http://epiconference.com/2014/" target="_blank">Ethnography Praxis in Industry </a>conference was in NYC earlier this month, and I was delighted to have a chance to attend. I followed the #epiconference twitterstream avidly when they were in London last year, but couldn't attend because I was busily <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/02/into-field.html" target="_blank">applying for funding for the research I did in March. </a><br />
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I wanted to attend for several reasons (NYC was just one of them). Primarily, I wanted to be in a room full of people who do private-sector ethnography, because increasingly I am in contact with people, in libraries, in higher education generally, and also in architecture and computer science, who are interested in ethnography as a methodology but not necessarily in anthropology as a disciplinary frame for that method. I need to have more familiarity with the range of ways "ethnography" is being talked about, used, justified, critiqued in practical contexts. Industry is just one, but it's an increasingly visible one, and is one that actually inspired the creation of library ethnography jobs, <a href="http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/booksanddigitalresources/digital/Foster-Gibbons_cmpd.pdf" target="_blank">starting with Nancy Fried Foster at Rochester.</a><br />
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You can find the history of <a href="http://epicpeople.org/" target="_blank">EPIC as an org, as well as the papers from all 10 years of the meetings since they began, here.</a> And the <a href="http://epiconference.com/2014/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DRAFT_EPIC2014_Proceedings_Download.pdf" target="_blank">draft papers from this year's meetings are here. </a>They are all worth reading. <br />
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If any of you follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos" target="_blank">Twitter,</a> you know that I live-tweeted nearly the whole damn thing. I will say again that is now one of my favorite ways of experiencing a conference--there are connections you can make in Twitterspace, not just with the attendees, but with people who are not in the room with you, around the content of the discussions. I find it stimulating and enriching. It's like doing the reading for graduate seminars and getting to have the discussion all at the same time--I think better, IMO, in groups, I understand more, I have questions that can be thrown back at me and more interesting questions take their place. I attend conferences alone, without Twitter, at my peril these days.<br />
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I was struck by a few things. The first thing was how much of an anthropology conference it seemed to me. This despite the fact that those in the room were not exclusively anthropologists, but were also designers, programmers, other kinds of social scientists, like sociologist <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/sladner" target="_blank">Sam Ladner.</a> Perhaps I was swayed by the unapologetically anthro-centric keynote of Christian Madsbjerg of<a href="https://twitter.com/ReD_Associates" target="_blank"> Red Associates</a>. Perhaps this sense varies from EPIC to EPIC. Nonetheless, I felt very at home in the discussions about the work and its implications. I got a lot out of (<a href="http://epiconference.com/2014/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DRAFT_EPIC2014_Proceedings_Download.pdf" target="_blank">to pick just a few out of a great sea of content)</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sladner" target="_blank">Sam Ladner's discussion of embodied practic</a>e, Emilie Glazer, Anna Mieczakowski, James King, Ben Fehnert's (from <a href="https://twitter.com/eclipse_london" target="_blank">Eclipse</a>) discussion of trust as an important part of motivating people to engage with digital devices, and <a href="https://twitter.com/katecrawford" target="_blank">Kate Crawford's</a> electric keynote about Big Data. <br />
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Part of the anthro-centricity too was the explicit contrast that EPIC-goers and presenters offered to academic work, and to anthropology in particular. The insistence on the word "practice" in contrast to "applied" anthropological or ethnographic work was evidence of this, too. I think I understand the reasons for it, but it was something to think about. I still, for all of the practical work I am doing these days, identify as an academic, and I felt distinctly neither fish nor fowl in that sense while in the room at EPIC.<br />
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I loved that it was basically a plenary conference, with a few exceptions for workshops. Everyone heard the same papers, attended the same keynotes, saw the same Pecha Kucha sessions. I think it made for a richer conversation about the content of the conference, as people's experiences were not fragmented across several small rooms. <br />
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The Pecha Kucha sessions. I adored them. And <a href="https://twitter.com/ideasbazaar" target="_blank">Simon Roberts</a> <a href="http://www.stripepartners.com/reflecting-epic-2014/" target="_blank">has already said a lot of what I was thinking</a>. But I would also point out that I think that as a form, as a provocation, I wish the AAAs would do Pecha Kucha sessions at least as much (if not more often ) than regular paper sessions. They are limited in time, visually arresting, and felt like really good uses of everyone's attention.<br />
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I really enjoyed being in such a high-energy room full of people who wanted to think critically and engagingly about the practice of ethnography, and what it meant to their work, the work of the people who hired them, and to the wider world. I may not make it to Sao Paolo in 2015, but will be happy to get to Minneapolis in 2016, to be in that room again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#shoetweet #epiconference</td></tr>
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-54205933320158252762014-08-26T10:50:00.000-04:002014-09-01T18:40:23.424-04:00Guest Blog: What the Hell is A Johari Window, and other Questions. featuring Lawrie Phipps and a little bit of Dave White.<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhCWSay8I8Nji9mvV_RjJdt-mkhgBaJE4Py4t9yPK9TKZRyRz5l1mRC2rNS9V11D1QpcbOCvtH2KX1ijnBsTpe2gQDVnc4UaPtxA7lwEUJKmcKe-7xxSR-DbTGfDGKOzskr10_BOvSYY/s1600/Lawrieandadonut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWhCWSay8I8Nji9mvV_RjJdt-mkhgBaJE4Py4t9yPK9TKZRyRz5l1mRC2rNS9V11D1QpcbOCvtH2KX1ijnBsTpe2gQDVnc4UaPtxA7lwEUJKmcKe-7xxSR-DbTGfDGKOzskr10_BOvSYY/s1600/Lawrieandadonut.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lawrie was on holiday when I posted this. He got<br />up to donut-eating and other mischief.</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post began with <a href="https://twitter.com/Lawrie" target="_blank">Lawrie Phipps’</a> curiosity about an instrument called the Johari window. It’s still mostly Lawrie’s words, with some of my (Donna’s) thoughts, and a bit here and there that is either an argument with or an agreement to something that <a href="https://twitter.com/daveowhite" target="_blank">Dave White</a> said.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fundamentally, we are wondering about the utility of the Johari window, and about how it might be used to reflect and elicit feedback for individuals who see their practice as being more ‘resident’ as originally defined in the First Monday paper by Dave</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049">White and Alison Le Cornu</a>, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more recently in the Visitors and Residents Info Kit at Jisc InfoNet</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-1098fd93-12b4-ddf4-5994-2f862844c0bd" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Readers may recall that <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/search/label/VandR" target="_blank">I do go on a bit about the Visitors and Residents project.</a> I agree with Lawrie that the V&R model is increasingly considered a useful way of thinking about how we behave online.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/visitors-residents/)">Recall that in its simplest form it posits that there is a continuum of users online exhibiting behaviours ranging from ‘visitor’ to ‘resident’.</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I quote below from our <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/" target="_blank">InfoKit:</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Visitors: “When in Visitor mode, individuals decide on the task they wish to undertake. For example, discovering a particular piece of information online, completing the task and then going offline or moving on to another task...In Visitor mode individuals do not leave any social trace online.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Residents: “When in Resident mode the individual is going online to connect to, or to be with, other people. This mode is about social presence...Resident behaviour has a certain degree of social visibility: for example, posting to the wall in Facebook, tweeting, blogging, or posting comments on blogs. This type of online behaviour leaves a persistent social trace which could be within a closed group such as a cohort of students in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)/Learning Management System (LMS) or on the open web.”</i></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Academia there are various forms of currency and value associated with practice, including publishing in peer reviewed journals, being invited to give keynotes, and a variety of metrics including those of research assessment frameworks and public engagement. These more traditional practices are now accompanied by less well-established modes of scholarly communication and networking, via digital tools, practices, and places such as blogging and Twitter. There is manifest tension between the struggle to establish one’s scholarly bona-fides in traditional ways, and taking advantages of the benefits of new modes of credibility, many of which are expressed via the web, and are not universally recognized as either scholarly or valuable. (Dave talks about shifting notions of credibility and academic currencies in the short film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO569eknM6U" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> An emerging theme around discussions of value is the role of “presence,” especially in an academy which is being played out increasingly on a digital backdrop. Many individuals in education have changed the nature of their relationship with their host institutions or departments through stronger (and sometimes aggressive) online presences, and many others are seeking to develop in this area (Phipps, 2013). As an individual’s online catalogue of artefacts grows, such as blog posts, images and tweets, so does their network of readers, followers and where appropriate collaborators. As a direct result of their online presence the nature of building and maintaining relationships changes. In a post-digital academy, where presence may be seen as having value, understanding how an online persona is perceived is important, especially if one considers that opinions and </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">judgments</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> will be formed often with no direct interaction with the owner of the presence.</span></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One method for exploring and mapping forms of presence is the Johari window. This technique</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was developed by Luft and Ingham (1955) and is used to help individuals understand their relationship with self and others.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The window use four sections, shown below and in the original model it also used 57 adjectives that were used by an individual to describe themselves and by others to describe the individual. </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Known to self<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Not known to
self<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">Adjectives used in the original model<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Known to others<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.05pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Open<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.05pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Blind Spot<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 54.9pt;" valign="top" width="73"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">able<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">ambivert<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">accepting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">adaptable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">bold<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">calm<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">caring<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">cheerful<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">clever<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">congenial<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">complex<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">confident<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">dependable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">dignified<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">energetic<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">Extrovert<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">friendly<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 54.95pt;" valign="top" width="73"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">giving<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">happy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">helpful<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">idealistic<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">independent<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">ingenious<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">intelligent<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">introvert<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">kind<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">knowledgeable<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">logical<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">loving <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">mature<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">modest<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">nervous<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">observant<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 54.95pt;" valign="top" width="73"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">optimistic<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">organized<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">patient<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">powerful<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">proud<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">aggressive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">reflective<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">relaxed<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">religious<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">responsive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">searching<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">self-assertive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">self-conscious<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">sensible<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">sentimental<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">shy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</td>
<td rowspan="2" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-right-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 54.95pt;" valign="top" width="73"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">silly<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">smart<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">spontaneous<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">sympathetic<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">tense<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">trustworthy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">warm<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt;">wise<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 85.05pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes; page-break-inside: avoid;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-rotate: 90; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 28.35pt;" valign="top" width="38"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 5.65pt 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Not known to Others<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.05pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Hidden<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 85.05pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 85.05pt;" width="113"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Unknown<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Users of the window choose 7 or 8 of the adjectives to describe themselves. Colleagues or friends then also choose 7 or 8 to describe the user. The mapping and duplication will dictate the open, hidden and blind spot window size. Therefore, terms that individuals come up with for themselves that are also chosen by colleagues would go in the “Open” section, which is for that area that is known to yourself and is known others. This includes behaviours, knowledge, skills, public history etc. Terms selected by colleagues or friends but not by one’s self would go into the ‘Blind Spot’ section is that area that is known to others but not oneself. This might include very simple things, but may often bring deeper issues to the surface. Terms picked only by the individual, but not by colleagues/friends go into the ‘Hidden’ section is that area which is known only to you.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-1098fd93-12b6-a763-efe2-5cf5ee6eb718" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The unknown area is that area that is neither know to yourself, or others. It may also be thought of as the area with potential. It is left blank, to inspire discussion, encourage reflection.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Johari window has uses in both individual development and team development. In these contexts, many see the objective as being to enlarge the Open area. The assumption here is that having a larger Open area means that people know more about you, and you are self-aware, and that openness should make collaborating and effective team work easier. This valorization of Openness asserts that teamwork requires self-disclosure, and personal give-and-take. The more one shares about one’s self, the more the Hidden area shrinks. In theory, more feedback can also decrease the Blind Spots. The Johari window model posits that people with many characteristics listed in the Open area are easy to talk to, communicate effectively and may be good in group dynamics. The opposite would therefore be true of those with smaller windows. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So perhaps individuals who consider themselves at the residency end of the continuum may wish to use a process based on the Johari window as a reflective tool to understand how they are perceived by peers, how they are situated within the communities they value and areas they may wish to exploit. In a workshop context, they might also come up with additional adjectives relevant to online interactions, if they find the original list doesn't capture what they need to communicate.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would additionally note, this model assumes benefits of openness which might bear some disentangling. Anyone who is familiar with<a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos" target="_blank"> my Twitter presence</a> and the content of my blog here knows that I agree with the positives around open practice on the web, but not everyone does, and there are disciplinary and individual difference of opinion about the utility and risks involved in resident-style online communication. </span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have blogged before about the </span><a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-cartography-of-learning.html" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 17.25px; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">utility of mapping as a way of reflecting on practice</a><u>.</u><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In a workshop context, people mapping their online practices with the help of a Johari window exercise could generate</span><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a potentially useful conversation about how people perceive the pros and cons of open practice on the web. Examining their personal practices via Johari mapping (and also via <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/mapping-process/" target="_blank">V&R mapping</a>) can begin to reveal fears and ambitions individuals might have around non-traditional, web-based, resident modes of scholarly production.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">References that are not online resources:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Luft, J.; Ingham, H. (1955). "The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness". Proceedings of the western training laboratory in group development</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Phipps, L,. (2013) Individual as Institution. Educational Developments 14:2</span></div>
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-14392665608886379192014-07-16T11:04:00.002-04:002014-08-01T13:02:38.674-04:00Webinars, Graduate Students, Visitors and Residents<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So the Visitors and Residents research team (myself, <a href="https://twitter.com/daveowhite" target="_blank">Dave White</a>, and <a href="http://oclc.org/research/people/connaway.html" target="_blank">Lynn S. Connaway</a>) conducted a Jisc/OCLC webinar (with the generous and effective chairing of <a href="https://twitter.com/lorcanD" target="_blank">Lorcan Dempsey)</a> yesterday. The purpose was to introduce people to our <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/" target="_blank">InfoKit</a>, and also to have a chance to talk a bit more about research results and practical implications for transforming HE (and other) approaches to digital tools and places.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my part of the webinar I focused on graduate students, and the story that I think is emerging from our data about the potential impact that digital places and communities can have on the relative isolation of graduate students from their peers. I'm reproducing part of what I said here, and a link to the webinar and full powerpoint are available <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/evaluating-online-behaviours-15-jul-2014" target="_blank">here</a>. (scroll to the bottom, thanks to the capable skills of our colleagues at <a href="http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/range/vandr.html" target="_blank">Netskills</a> for making this available). I Storified the session <a href="https://storify.com/DonnaLanclos/evaluating-online-behaviors-a-visitors-and-residen" target="_blank">here.</a> The GoogleDoc with links to project outputs, etc. is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KC3-WI7-LC0EwK3WHMw42fiEnZmiv0-xly5OZLvo9FU/edit#heading=h.iuv87aqiooi" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I started off talking about sources and authority, actually, going over some of the findings that we cover in the <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/people-trust-people/" target="_blank">People Trust People </a>, <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/convenient-simple/" target="_blank">Convenient Doesn't Always Mean Simple</a>, and <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/think-less-find-more/assessing-non-traditional-sources/" target="_blank">Assessing Non-Traditional Sources</a> part of the InfoKit. These pieces are important background to thinking about the experience of graduate students, because they are at a moment of transition, from being those who are expected to learn about authoritative sources and use them effectively, to those who are expected to become and produce authoritative sources of information themselves, as practitioners in their fields. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This transition used to take place almost entirely in physical places, in seminar rooms, laboratories, academic libraries, and at face-to-face conferences. But the
Internet is a now a place<span style="vertical-align: baseline;"> where things happen, things that used to
only happen face to face. A holistic
picture of academic </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">behavior</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, of information seeking </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">behavior</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, therefore has to include these digital places, and should pay attention to resident
practices as we define them in the<a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/visitors-residents/" target="_blank"> Visitors and Residents project</a>.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2c3841;">People use social media tools and
spaces like Twitter and Facebook to connect.
This is not a surprising or new thing, but needs to be kept in
mind, as it's a phenomenon that is certainly not going away. We also need to collectively keep in mind that just because these digital places exist, not</span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in;"> everyone is excited by Twitter or Facebook or Instagram. Awareness of these social media environments and the communities within them is not
dependent on a generational identity, but is about personal</span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"> preferences and individual
motivations to engage. We cannot, should not assume
monolithic attitudes towards these places and tools. </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">Digital places like YouTube and
Facebook and Twitter are not easily classed as only “entertainment” or
“academic” in character or purpose, because of the wide range of activities that now occur in those spaces. Knowing that someone goes to YouTube doesn’t
tell you why they are there, or what they might do, or who they might seek out there.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So these graphs are interesting to me, because they seem to point to an opportunity to help graduate students.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #2c3841; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve
put a red oval around the post-graduate/ grad student category, that we call Embedding.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2c3841; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notice
here the purple line for face to face contact, and notice in particular how low (comparatively) the mentions of face to
face contact are for grad students. They are texting with people, making phone
calls, and in particular emailing far more than engaging face to face.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2c3841;">Notice here who graduate students
are in most contact with-professors,</span><span style="color: #2c3841; vertical-align: baseline;">
then peers. For Professors, it’s the
reverse order—they are in touch with peers and then with experts, mentors, and
librarians at similarly low rates. </span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in;">Think about future of graduate
students,</span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"> of them as future (and current)
practitioners in their fields. Contact
with professors makes sense, of course, but contact with peers seems
crucial. How else are they going to build their community, find their voice, engage in the back and forth of scholarly communication with their fellow practitioners?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2c3841; vertical-align: baseline;">The
Blue line is FB, red is Twitter, purple line is Academic Libraries (physical
spaces). </span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in;">Graduate
students narrow contact that they have with people, and are also physically
isolated, working in the library, offices or labs.</span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in;"> </span><span style="color: #2c3841; text-indent: 0in;">I see this in the other ethnographic work
that I do as well, the maps that graduate students, particularly in the
sciences, produce of their learning landscapes are restricted to one or two
places, in sharp contrast to the wide-ranging maps of undergraduates and
professors.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2c3841;">But when we look at the places
they do go, in addition to being present in academic libraries' physical
spaces (w</span><span style="color: #2c3841;">e </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">see a radical difference in the role of academic library spaces in our interviews with graduate students, compared to other educational stages)</span><span style="color: #2c3841;">, graduate students are present in </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">significant </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">rates
on Facebook, and Twitter. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #2c3841;">We </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">need
to think about implications of online resident practices for grad students. </span><span style="color: #2c3841;"> Their social media </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">presence might be an opportunity for them to facilitate contact in the
isolating environment of graduate </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">school .</span><span style="color: #2c3841;"> This is something we need to look at
further—what is happening as they transition from student to practitioner in
their field? How are their experiences
in physical spaces like libraries related to the academic work they do in
digital places like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, etc.? Where are they resident, where are they
visitors? If resident practices are
those that facilitate the finding of voice, and the production of scholarship
(in a variety of modes), what </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">can
it </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">look
like in grad </span><span style="color: #2c3841;">school?</span></span></div>
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-45013333282196337772014-07-03T11:54:00.002-04:002014-07-07T22:26:30.219-04:00The Cartography of LearningSo, I've been thinking about mapping, not just because I have these maps I collected at UCL in March, but also because I've been thinking more about the utility of processes<a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/mapping-process/example-maps/" target="_blank"> such as the V&R mapping that we have been using in our research</a>. What <a href="https://twitter.com/daveowhite" target="_blank">Dave White</a> has said to me is that mapping exercises like V&R give us processes to offer people, but no answers, that in fact people use the processes to find their own answers. It's not our job as researchers to provide answers, in this framing, but to ask effective questions that prompt people to find their own way. <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/04/post-digital-learning-landscapes.html" target="_blank">As usual, my first instinct was to be annoyed by this</a>. My annoyance stems now from thinking that Dave is probably correct.<br />
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I am often asked for Answers when I give talks about what is going on with faculty and students and libraries and education generally. While it's tempting to try to provide Answers, I think that I'm much better at coming up with more questions. And ultimately, that might be more useful, as I think I'm probably not the one who should be Answering. <br />
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Cognitive mapping exercises at <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/11/playing-with-cognitive-mapping.html" target="_blank">UNCC </a>and <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/04/post-digital-learning-landscapes.html" target="_blank">UCL</a> reveal people's learning landscapes. Thinking about cognitive mapping in the larger context of mapping exercises made me consider the possibility of a discussion around the cartography of learning, that is, all the different ways we try to capture and visualize what people are doing when they are learning. We are mapping (or having people map for themselves) what they perceive to be there, and in the mapping we receive a revelation, not something predictable, or predicting. We also do not have a precise rendering of actual practices, but an interpretation of practice. How can we use the maps to build more deeply observed pictures of behavior? How do we deal with the fact that maps are only ever representations of a lived reality?<br />
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If the Google Earth of Bloomsbury looks like this:<br />
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And the Google Map looks like this:<br />
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And the Tube map, itself a concept map of sorts, looks like this:<br />
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Then we have a map like this one I collected in March:<br />
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<br />
For this first year archaeology student, UCL is a series of spaces isolated from each other, but connected by the fact that he needs to do things, different academic tasks, in each space (my favorite is the professor's office in the lower left, filled with clutter except for a small clearing in which professor and students can sit to talk). I can see that these spaces are connected, but he does not represent them that way. <br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJ3N9E6YR5YRpo3bKPsaIDI8sm627ajlHQmMTBLHsEzNa8MVVn4e0NqJTBGtSGKcT7DpqAqIKMWhw09-NyUfexVryrzmuJlMU5BcpQ2lXRKrZ_03GwUMBh0c7aiOZrEeyBvmBi4xrVqE/s1600/UCL11+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWJ3N9E6YR5YRpo3bKPsaIDI8sm627ajlHQmMTBLHsEzNa8MVVn4e0NqJTBGtSGKcT7DpqAqIKMWhw09-NyUfexVryrzmuJlMU5BcpQ2lXRKrZ_03GwUMBh0c7aiOZrEeyBvmBi4xrVqE/s1600/UCL11+map.jpg" height="382" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This PhD student has drawn lines indicating how connected her spaces are, the ones in Bloomsbury, and the ones that are not. She annotated the map with notes about the technology and particulars of the work she does in each space, which places have particular resources (content and people) she cannot get anywhere else, and marks cafes with the cups of tea or coffee that she goes there for. She has glossed her own map--I can bring my own spin to things (and I will), but there is already interpretation here.<br />
<br />
Cognitive maps, the V&R maps, these are all contributing to a kind of cartography of practice. In the case of the cognitive maps I've been collecting from faculty and students, the mapping is an emic process, where the the practitioners themselves represent their own practices as best they can.<br />
<br />
In V&R mapping workshops, <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/mapping-process/" target="_blank"> people map their own practices, but they are also asked to think about the practices of others. </a> We've done that in the V&R research project as well, for example in this map, where we took practices invoked by the interviewee and plotted it in the V&R continuua:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIwtw1QWuGuJYgp52fNMdxaVjwa1dfdOizbOtQWj1vY6SQC12BAYALp4JFRzMd7vK4Rlm61nJnpUwq2OeWabs812nW9enpPc_6qcwACHrdUdKQeRN95jjvWZ4tSnoX92C3-RIPlASleo/s1600/USS4+etic+map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIwtw1QWuGuJYgp52fNMdxaVjwa1dfdOizbOtQWj1vY6SQC12BAYALp4JFRzMd7vK4Rlm61nJnpUwq2OeWabs812nW9enpPc_6qcwACHrdUdKQeRN95jjvWZ4tSnoX92C3-RIPlASleo/s1600/USS4+etic+map.jpg" height="448" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">map by Dave White and Erin Hood.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Here we engaged in the mapping of the traces of practices of others as an analytical tool, engaging in an etic process, imposing our interpretation of meaning from the outside looking in.<br />
<br />
They map, we map, and possible meanings and definite questions can emerge from the process of mapping. <br />
<br />
I have been working my way through Latour's <i>Reassembling the Social</i> with a Twitter group of colleagues, and am only part way through. Latour invokes the "cartographies of the social" (p.34) when discussing the need for researchers to pay attention to actual practices, to the lay of the networks in play, and to de-emphasize the interpretive leap while still in the process of figuring out what it is we are looking at. I am also struck by Latour's insistence that the best social science cannot privilege the perspective of the researcher, but must be embedded in the meanings and practices generated by the people being studied. This, to me, is a plea for anthropology, but also for the sort of lack of privileging that mapping exercises like these can inspire--these maps get their meaning from the intentions of the people drawing them as much if not more than from the interpretations we researchers later layer onto them.<br />
<br />
Anthropologists are not always fantastic at not-privileging their interpretations of meaning, and I've been helped in this regard by the neo-Boasian appeal of Bunzl. I frequently talk about being a sort of "native ethnographer," as an academic studying academia, but Bunzl's critique of the necessity of outsider status to anthropology is making me rethink that. Our position as "outside" or "inside" is not as important as paying attention to what is present, and describing it as thoroughly and thoughtfully as possible. It is not that interpretation is impossible, but that what we think things mean can and should be informed by a variety of perspectives, including that of the people among whom we are doing our work. <br />
<br />
What is important about the maps, and I think about research generally, is the process, the questions and the discussions they inspire, not the end result. Thoughts about meaning should emerge from the discussion, from the process, and should never be framed as The Answer.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
References:<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">Bunzl, Matti (2004), Boas, Foucault, and the “Native Anthropologist”: Notes toward a Neo-Boasian Anthropology. <i>American Anthropologist</i>, 106: 435–442. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', Geneva, Verdana, Helvetica, 'Lucida Sans Unicode', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">Latour, Bruno (2007) <i>Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor Network Theory.</i> Oxford (Oxford University Press). Page numbers refer to Kindle edition.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;"><br /></span></div>
Images:<br />
Google Maps, Google Earth screen shots<br />
Tube map is a crop of: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/large-print-tube-map.pdfDonna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-34538007173538486072014-06-02T13:26:00.003-04:002014-06-03T11:42:40.796-04:00Guest Blog: Two Paths Forward, by Stanley WilderBig transitions happening at J. Murrey Atkins Library this summer, with the departure of my current boss Stanley Wilder for his new position as Dean of Libraries at LSU (both of my parents went to LSU, so Geaux Tigers!). When he shared the content of the talk he gave when interviewing at LSU, I encouraged him to let me host it here. And he agreed! So, here is the (slightly edited) talk Stanley gave, laying out his vision for libraries.<br />
<br />
What I appreciate about Stanley's take on the Future of Libraries is that it's not about specific solutions, but about relationships and processes.<br />
<br />
<div style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<b>Two paths forward</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">an edited version of Stanley Wilder’s candidate speech </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small; line-height: 150%;">for the</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dean of Libraries position at Louisiana State University</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: center;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">March 30, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> Images by Maggie Ngo, UNCC</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Here
are some things I hear: Everything I need to know is on Google. I’m a faculty
member and I don’t use the library. I’m a senior in college and I’ve never been
in the library. I’m a senior in college and still use my hometown public
library. Hasn’t the Internet made libraries obsolete? I don’t need a library. I
don’t read books. Information wants to be free. Librarians are scary people and
I <i>don’t trust</i> <i>book</i> <i>stacks</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Every
one of these comments is easily and demonstrably wrong, and at the same time,
each one is a <i>gift</i> of the first
order. Each one is the gift of attention,
an invitation for us to explain who we are and why we’re here. We librarians ask
for nothing more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Oh, we <i>get</i> where these questions come from: In
an age of dizzying change in the nature of academic work, and the shifting
shape of the discourse that drives it forward, where should the library go from
here? As I see it, the library has two paths forward, and I submit this vision
as my response to the prompt you’ve given me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">The
first path for the research library is its traditional role. A crucial aspect of
the nature of learning and research is timeless, <i>absolutely</i> so. In this sense, if you want to know what research
library will do in the future, well the answer is that it will <i>do</i> what it has always done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">If
you’ll bear with me, I’ve drawn a picture of what I mean. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600"
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o:title=""/>
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<span style="color: #000090;"> </span><span style="color: #000090; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="color: #000090;"></span></div>
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</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrqN02OInd-6q5UCG8Lif1TIdkVldDA7z8zsSGGpp4JD9rPcArRCFGdsSAHn5kuTQ26GrUNfk6aPf62LqnsXAfb0pOydCmMsX-YE8Lqy0_Y-EDQFq1M_eUAENR45a8M5nnTb_48XUu-g/s1600/Scholarly+Record+SW.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmrqN02OInd-6q5UCG8Lif1TIdkVldDA7z8zsSGGpp4JD9rPcArRCFGdsSAHn5kuTQ26GrUNfk6aPf62LqnsXAfb0pOydCmMsX-YE8Lqy0_Y-EDQFq1M_eUAENR45a8M5nnTb_48XUu-g/s1600/Scholarly+Record+SW.png" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">This is
the scholarly record. It is the record of what is known or imagined about the
world. Teaching and research consists of <i>assimilating</i>
the scholarly record as it pertains to the disciplines we study, in such a way
as to enable us to synthesize something new. In the case of faculty, this
synthesis is the creation of new knowledge or new art that adds to the
scholarly record, where the cycle starts over. This picture applies to students
as well, wherein the syntheses they produce often take the form of apprenticeships
for the work their faculty do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Assimilation,
synthesis, reading, writing. Here is teaching, learning, and research, as an
endless, virtuous cycle around the scholarly record. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">I
worked for a great Dean of Libraries who came up with the beautiful aphorism:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">“A
library is a place where readers come to write, and writers come to read. “<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">I say
YES to that: the core function of a research library is now and always will be to
build the collections that drive this cycle. Of course it’s not enough to simply
build collections, the library also has to facilitate how people interact, at
both ends. For example, teaching generations of new students how to work with the
literatures of their chosen disciplines. But really, all library <i>services</i> can be characterized in this
way. They cluster at these transition points, here and here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">And
with that, I’m going to stop myself because I promise you, I could go <i>much</i> further with this silly drawing. My
point is this: the <i>idea</i> of the library
is so embedded in the fundamental nature of learning and research that it makes
no sense to ask whether you <i>need</i> one.
The real question before us is whether you need a <i>great</i> library. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">That,
then, is my first path. Everything about it relates to the “what” of academic
work, what it is fundamentally, what it intends to do in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">And
yet, at this very same changeless moment, <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/04/post-digital-learning-landscapes.html" target="_blank">we are now in a period of full-scale revolution in how academic work getsdone. </a>Students and faculty alike are using new tools, in new ways, to produce scholarship
in forms that were unimaginable just ten years ago. I used the word “dizzying”
a while ago, and I meant it: in this environment, uncertainty abounds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">But
here’s one thing I <i>am</i> sure of, and if
you retain nothing else from this presentation, please let it be this: this new
environment is going to allow smart research libraries to perform that ancient
role in ways that produce <i>spectacular </i>new
value. This is the library’s second path: embracing, inventing the future so as
to do better what we have always done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Like
what, for example. There are so many opportunities that really, our problem is
choosing from among them. I’m going to just call out some, a simple list of
examples that… illustrate my point, obviously, but I’ve also taken care to
choose examples that I have experience with helping produce. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span style="color: #000090; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_i1026"
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<span style="color: #000090;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Every
item on this list is now or should be a new part of a research library
portfolio. What’s more, each one relates directly to issues that faculty and
institutions are wrestling with right now. In many cases, they are <i>wrestling</i>, but not knowing that what
their library has to offer. There’s nothing dismissive or condescending about
it, they just don’t know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">Ladies
and Gentlemen: the biggest threat to research libraries is <i>low expectations</i>. Sometimes they come in thoughtlessly dismissive ways,
“Aren’t libraries obsolete?” But just as often, low expectations feel warm and
fuzzy, filled with nostalgia for a world that no longer exists. To my ears,
both are equally <i>toxic</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">So no,
our communities <i>can’t</i> be expected to
just <i>know</i> enough, say, about the dangerous
instability in the scholarly communication marketplace to understand the
importance of open access, or any of the other ways we librarians can make
things better. No, we have to <i>tell</i>
them, and we have to <i>show</i> them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">I think
constantly about how the library positions itself vis-à-vis students and
faculty. Imagine a continuum. At one end is library as simple service provider,
and on the other end is library as full partner, contributing in a substantive
fashion to any campus conversation relating to the institution’s core academic
mission. Yes services are crucially
important.<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/06/look-to-present-of-libraries-to-see.html" target="_blank"> But make no mistake: real sustainable relevance on campus requires assertiveness, it requires visibility.</a>Everything on this list is an invitation to do just that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: #000090;">I have
one more thing that I must say about the list. The work required for each is
grounded, in one way or another, in traditional research library values and
expertise. At the same time, every one of them is <i>situated</i> in an entirely new context. I feel a real sense of urgency
on this point: <i>this</i> list is turf, and
it is ours for the taking. But doing so means that as a profession, as a
library, we must recognize that producing the transformational outcomes that
are possible here also requires <i>new</i>
skills that we must either learn for ourselves, or hire into our organizations.
This is not a phase, it’s the new normal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #000090;">Let’s talk about students. </span></i><span style="color: #000090;">The<i> </i>library’s student
role is large and diverse, as it always has been, but here again we find watershed
developments all around us, and once again, the new opportunities that come
with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Half of
a research library’s student function is pedagogy. Instruction. The thing we <i>do</i> here is to increase the
sophistication of students in interacting with the literatures of their chosen
disciplines. Fine, but as you see from the list on the screen, that pedagogy isn’t
just situated in terms of discipline, it’s also situated in a broad range of
learning environments, which makes it subject to the same seismic change that
is shaking teaching throughout higher education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">A quick
story to illustrate: Recently, the head of our instruction programming discovered
that faculty are very receptive to hearing about ways they can pare back on research
paper assignments, in cases where doing so allows them to focus attention on
the topic-choosing, question-framing, literature searching, basic-synthesis-forming
skills. Library instruction can help with <i>all
</i>of that, and this librarian and her staff have created web-based,
interactive, and discipline-specific instruction modules that support that use
case. And now <a href="http://guides.library.uncc.edu/profile/stephanie">Stephanie Otis</a> has
a fine trade in advising faculty with their course design. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">That’s a
small but significant example of what I mean by proper <i>positioning</i> of the library on campus. Stephanie puts us <i>exactly</i> where we want to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">The
second half of our student function is building-related, the spaces we provide
for student academic work. I have a missionary’s
zeal as to the following idea: <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/11/entangled-technology-and-aaa2013-or.html" target="_blank"> research libraries can be instrumental in building the culture of study on campus.</a> There is a powerful synergy here that only we can offer: the co-location
of librarians with collections, and <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html" target="_blank">technologies, placed in appropriate spaces,with appropriate furnishings, long hours, and reliable security. </a>No one else
can do that!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">I like
to say that a good research library should be like a zoo. <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2012/05/ephemera-of-academic-work.html" target="_blank">As you pass through it,you will see students in the very act of learning:chemistry equations here, Chinese vocabulary there, marketing, biology and all the rest, live and happening right before your eyes. </a> You can even point at
them, you can <i>throw popcorn</i>, they
don’t mind, but the thing you’d be <i>pointing</i>
at is the thing we all work every day to produce, it’s our professional reason
for being. If you don’t walk through that zoo and feel energized, I suggest you
may want to find another line of work. I would have all students socialized in
this way, to where those zoos are just normal: long hours of intense group or
individual study?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">The
title I’ve used for this section is “the world,” as shorthand for a whole range
of externally-focused responsibilities that take the library far beyond the scholarly
record drawing I talked about earlier. I might also have used the word “leadership.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">I’ve
got a bit of show and tell to do for you now, a bit of bragging, maybe, but my
intention is to give you a feel for this vision in action. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">My
story begins this time last year, at UNC Charlotte. Our library was presented
with an exceedingly generous bit of one-time money in a more or less blank
check fashion. At that moment in time, a number of very prestigious University
Press book publishers suddenly made their current lists available, as a package,
and in digital format. No limits on simultaneous users, no digital rights
restrictions, and good preservation characteristics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">We
jumped, bought everything of this sort that we could. We added 75,000 monograph
titles last year, average price per ebook volume: about $10. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">By
June, everything’s in place, the community has full access to these books. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Now,
our staff looked at those titles and recognized that there were many among them
that were going to be assigned reading for students in the fall. If we could
get the word out to faculty and students, we could save students lots of money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">With
this insight, our staff flew into action, and just in time for fall semester, produced
<a href="http://library.uncc.edu/node/13083">this web page, complete with links
to the ebooks</a>. They also prepared a social media campaign to alert students
and faculty. Here’s what we learned: if you use Twitter and Facebook to spread
the word about free textbooks? Get out! In a PR sense, nothing we’ve ever done
has been so successful, so fast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">So fall
semester follows, and the use data on these new ebook packages starts to roll
in. Friends, I’m here to say: the scholarly monograph is NOT dead, its use in
ebook format is fantastic. Quick example: we have a huge investment in Springer
journals and ebooks: our book chapter downloads, from day 1, run slightly ahead
of Springer <i>article</i> downloads. Sure,
this is a bit of apples and oranges, but on the face of it, it flies against
every instinct a research librarian could ever have. Kinda mind blowing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Spring
semester comes, and this time we have had more time, we’re better prepared, and
come up with this web page, and associated PR. The results have been stunning,
faculty and students alike <i>galvanized</i>
around our initiative, we know of a history professor teaching <i>graduate </i>classes for which the students
have heavy reading lists, but no books they must buy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Now
we’re up to 4 weeks ago, our staff unveiled their own invention, <a href="http://library.uncc.edu/etextbooks/search">a database that faculty can
use to “shop” for ebooks appropriate for assigning for classes.</a> The
database consists of 140,000 titles, every ebook we own, plus every ebook we
can get easily get from one of about a dozen University Presses. As you can see, if you’re a faculty member,
see something you want to use for class, we buy it immediately if we don’t
already own it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Now
class, let’s review: this anecdote gives us a shiny example of both paths: path
number 1: exactly what is new about a research library buying books to support
curriculum and research? And then once we’ve got them, what is new about making
those books available for class use? It’s reserves! OK, there’s our ancient function, but we’ve
also got path number 2: everything about <i>how</i>
we did all this is new, not just new, it provides brilliant new value that
wasn’t possible before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">One
last point about that anecdote: I ask you: did the University ask the library
to invent a program like this so as to lower the cost of going to college? Because
that’s <i>exactly</i> what’s at stake here. NO!
They couldn’t have, they couldn’t have known to ask! I talked about low expectations
awhile back: sometimes low expectations flow from folks just not knowing what
we’re capable of. But I can promise you, people <i>will</i> listen, and they’ll certainly notice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">At this
point our staff are fielding queries from all around the country, folks wanting
the code, wanting to see how we did every aspect of this. Meanwhile, back on
campus, our entire community looks at the library in a different, and better
way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Here
again, a well positioned library. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">I should
pause here to give full credit: the vision behind this anecdote owes entirely
to <a href="http://library.uncc.edu/directory/employee/32">Chuck Hamaker</a>.
Once Chuck had this idea, he had inspired help from a large number of staff
across units. Oh, and here’s another point: my role in this project? I
supported it. Nothing more than that! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">Seeing
your library also means seeing its staff. Committed professionals every single
one, they possess a spectacular range of expertise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">And
yet, like the books on the shelves, these people in front of us also evoke the
generations of staff that preceded them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">I’d
like to tell you a story from my early days at LSU. So early that I was still
scrambling to remember the names of my new colleagues. One day a meeting. We
were discussing the consequences of a decision made by a staff member, and,
wishing to contribute, I suggested that I could meet with her to negotiate. Which
prompted whoops of laughter: this person had retired sometime in the 1960s, and
had long since passed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000090;">What an
epiphany in that moment, though: such a testament to the enduring quality of
our work. We can only conclude that we <i>did
not build this thing.</i> It was handed to us as a trust, a sacred trust, that
through <i>our</i> brains and hard work, we
ensure its renewal, and then hand it over in our turn. Stronger than before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-45675489767969820732014-04-17T10:11:00.000-04:002014-04-17T21:14:55.190-04:00Post-Digital Learning LandscapesSo I've just started to look at what I collected in London last month, but I've actually been thinking about and playing with cognitive maps for the past year or so, and I've got some preliminary analysis already.<br />
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Primarily, what I see in the maps that I collect from undergraduates, post-graduates, and faculty/academic staff are learning landscapes. There is much talk of learning "spaces," but I think the problem there with that terminology is that they can be thought of too easily in isolation. "Landscape" implies a network of spaces, with a relationship to each other. Some landscapes are extensive, some are relatively local and limited, but they are all networks, and involve buildings, people, technology, modes of transportation, institutional spaces, commercial spaces, domestic places, and so on. The reasons that people locate themselves in particular places tend to have less to do with the absolute qualities of a particular place, and more to do with a complex calculus of motives, including not just what they want to do in that place, but where they need to be beforehand, and after, with whom they will be (or want to be, or cannot be with).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61fXu5wuhhyylExh54_qIYSJTdOX68yZtadHHD0i111-Z_JHU4-aodOo9CZzKKwKy2jumF5HtoA5lUeNH62cklzIwJPqIqjFxOHAfmFJ_QQUO62fB4y_GEvYVndZw1hhKQK4bPx3YntE/s1600/UCL20cogmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi61fXu5wuhhyylExh54_qIYSJTdOX68yZtadHHD0i111-Z_JHU4-aodOo9CZzKKwKy2jumF5HtoA5lUeNH62cklzIwJPqIqjFxOHAfmFJ_QQUO62fB4y_GEvYVndZw1hhKQK4bPx3YntE/s1600/UCL20cogmap.png" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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The map above was generated by a 3rd year student in Project Management for Construction. He has drawn UCL on the left, and then broken UCL down into the various institutional spaces he visits for his academic work (the Library, lecture halls, tutors' offices). These institutional spaces are embedded in a larger network of cafes, domestic spaces, and even (weather permitting) parks. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPb7Wkh0zv1rsOvU5yyST8uBRpz_jWaaPiuRTnOTB_GQxh7N3kcwDBM7puu66V3EXinKrtGd0uYXCqrNTwRLiAx2hUBFNpbw14gmCf7kDjSZIZjwDXOElJWRQMUs5u7Q4Os3UmVZ8Vnc/s1600/UCL22cogmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXPb7Wkh0zv1rsOvU5yyST8uBRpz_jWaaPiuRTnOTB_GQxh7N3kcwDBM7puu66V3EXinKrtGd0uYXCqrNTwRLiAx2hUBFNpbw14gmCf7kDjSZIZjwDXOElJWRQMUs5u7Q4Os3UmVZ8Vnc/s1600/UCL22cogmap.png" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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This MA student in Russian literature has spaces all over London in her map. Her home has sub-areas she has identified for particular sorts of work, her commute on the bus is earmarked for certain sorts of reading or listening work, and the UCL part of her map includes not just the SSEES library (ostensibly, her academic "home"), but also the Institute of Archaeology library, the Post-graduate common room, the Main library, and various cafe spaces. She has called out her laptop in the UCL spaces as a crucial part of her landscape.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-cqZ3tKc7FUbKnijMTuCDc4ZF3qWht6pWdLlbTl0y8_agjIzjhiXBtKuQA3ZamrbINslybq3M6rb2ofzfiyoXExgg_b6_DfZQ3sJBdoUQtpOa9pBQO3L8XkZ7MLhMJnk1ebvLiqkyxOU/s1600/UCL15cogmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-cqZ3tKc7FUbKnijMTuCDc4ZF3qWht6pWdLlbTl0y8_agjIzjhiXBtKuQA3ZamrbINslybq3M6rb2ofzfiyoXExgg_b6_DfZQ3sJBdoUQtpOa9pBQO3L8XkZ7MLhMJnk1ebvLiqkyxOU/s1600/UCL15cogmap.png" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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This faculty member in the Institute of Archaeology has separated his London landscape from his other significant locations, and has included labels for London libraries (the British Library, Senate House, the IoA Library, and in particular the Wellcome Library, limned in red), antiquity societies and museums, the Tube, and his office in the IoA. Cambridge is important because of its connection to his brother as much as it is for its academic resources. Yale's Beinecke gains additional importance because of New Haven's pizza. His home setup is represented by him in an armchair with his laptop and a cat.<br />
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What strikes me most about these maps, especially given that I followed up the mapping exercise with a structured interview (modeled on the V&R instrument) is the relative lack of representations of "the digital." We get some tools (computers, iPods, phones), and occasional representations of places/services such as Dropbox or Evernote, but in general, the digital is shot through these, but invisibly. If I were to try to layer "the digital" onto a map such as this, it would simply light the entire thing up.<br />
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I want to pause here and note that when I first heard "post-digital" in conversation with <a href="http://lawrie.jiscinvolve.org/wp/" target="_blank">Lawrie Phipps</a> and <a href="http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/author/whited/" target="_blank">Dave White,</a> I was incredibly annoyed. What on earth could they mean by that? It smacked of "post-racial," which in my experience is a phrase used by people keen to deny particular sorts of realities. But these maps, and the interviews that accompanied them plus the last 3 years (yikes) I've spent working on the <a href="http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/evaluating-services/" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents project </a>have apparently made me less resistant to the idea of "post-digital" than I would have been if I'd heard about it when the 52 group <a href="http://davecormier.com/" target="_blank">(Dave Cormier</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/HallyMk1" target="_blank">Richard Hall,</a> Lawrie Phipps, Dave White,<a href="https://twitter.com/iantruelove" target="_blank"> Ian Truelove</a>, and<a href="https://twitter.com/markchilds" target="_blank"> Mark Childs</a>)<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 30px;"> </span></span><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TkCUCisefPgrcG317_hZa4PwZoQ8m7rL5AJF6PazHHQ/edit?pli=1" target="_blank">came up with their concept paper in 2009.</a><br />
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I think I have post-digital learning landscape maps here. The digital is just understood. It's water to these academic fish. And it's not just academics; people generally take the digital so much for granted, that when we ask them (as we do in the <a href="http://oclc.org/content/dam/research/activities/vandr/resources/semistructured-for-emg-est-emb.pdf" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents structured interviews</a>) to think about what they do "with technology" or "on the web" they are taken aback, they have to think about disentangling it to talk about it separately, because their everyday practices are so completely wound around digital tools and places. The role of the digital is practically unspeakable, we in our interviews are asking them to describe what it's like to breathe. And when people do talk about technology, it takes very few sentences indeed for them to switch over to talking about people, or information--that is, the stuff they are accessing via technology is far more important, and far more the point, than the technology itself.<br />
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From the 52 group's 2009 concept paper, thanks to <a href="http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2011/11/28/the-pre-digital-and-the-post-digital/" target="_blank">Doug Belshaw and his blog</a> for leading the way to the cite:<br />
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"<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not only is the digital subservient to the social, it is, in some ways (and soon most ways), transparent. We are moving towards a postdigital age where the tools driven by the microprocessor are common to the extent to which they will no longer be noticed. As the 'digital' calculator and the 'digital' watch have become calculators and watches, so will the ebook become a book and IM become 'message': the 'instant' will be taken for granted. Things digital will be accepted alongside our other technologies and the slate swept clear of many of the distracting dualisms (and technological factions) that pervade the educational discourse. The postdigital frees us to think more clearly and precisely about the issues we face, rather than become tied to an obsession with, and the language of, the new."</span><br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-83916821904337146592014-04-15T12:13:00.000-04:002014-04-15T12:13:09.963-04:00London Travelogue, Part the Third: Senate House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Thanks to<a href="https://twitter.com/preater" target="_blank"> Andrew Praeter</a> and<a href="https://twitter.com/SimonXIX" target="_blank"> Simon Barron</a> I got a fantastic tour of the Senate House library (and building) just before I left London for home.<br />
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It's a spectacular building--apparently, if WWII hadn't broken out, it would have been part of a complex that extended all the way up through Gordon Square (right in front of the current Institute of Archaeology building). Crazy to think about. It was the first skyscraper in London.<br />
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It's a landmark in Bloomsbury, and I've been walking past it for years, never quite realizing that's what it was. Senate House is an interesting library in that it's not attached to any one particular University, but rather has (someone correct me if I'm wrong) member institutions who pay for their students to have access. Senate House showed up in some of the<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/11/playing-with-cognitive-mapping.html" target="_blank"> cognitive maps</a> that I collected from people at UCL, as a place where people enjoyed working. It's a lovely building, I adore Art Deco architecture and design, and it's a pleasure walking around it. The specific history of the building is fascinating, as there are elements that are simply unfinished (especially decorative flourishes that never happened), because of the War. The decorative flourishes that did manage to happen are stunning.<br />
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Stained glass windows.<br />
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The Senate Chamber. I want to give a talk in this room SO MUCH.<br />
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More stained glass. <br />
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Beautiful clock (with the reflection of Simon for good measure).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQlA6X8G-gGTrOOx82HxYbZrsdgU3w7IvoTBZN2zr9GDP96ahMjx1cjzjtB-3Gj_D6RU6WbWBJ2qVNPNZ7j8AAcArXmiJd5_1LwLSUhrK_EzsHT5O3mTAVFq7L3F27_zT-mz6VchdcO8k/s1600/2014-03-27+14.05.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQlA6X8G-gGTrOOx82HxYbZrsdgU3w7IvoTBZN2zr9GDP96ahMjx1cjzjtB-3Gj_D6RU6WbWBJ2qVNPNZ7j8AAcArXmiJd5_1LwLSUhrK_EzsHT5O3mTAVFq7L3F27_zT-mz6VchdcO8k/s1600/2014-03-27+14.05.16.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovely fabulous marble hall.<br /><br /></td></tr>
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The library-specific spaces in Senate House are uniformly Traditional Quiet Library spaces--there are no group study spaces in Senate House (although, apparently, students will walk up to the desk and ask "where are the group study rooms?"). The assumption is that there are such spaces provided by the home academic departments. I wonder how accurate that assumption is.<br />
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At any rate, as Traditional Library Spaces go, the ones in Senate House are nicely appointed, and are a good fit with contemporary scholarly behaviors (and technology).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHFFCG3QDAWg5XYHFNJ1eUVlCRSjekLbpJBWzSrFqDswxIYQ3QOk4nZiuhk3tS8J4Ixm_ET0cy5R9OYv7zrI8a_DOuuGNObmeCy8MH85aD59NwJcn2BzzlppKv9oPTqjoi0DSkmyQGEo/s1600/2014-03-27+14.08.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzHFFCG3QDAWg5XYHFNJ1eUVlCRSjekLbpJBWzSrFqDswxIYQ3QOk4nZiuhk3tS8J4Ixm_ET0cy5R9OYv7zrI8a_DOuuGNObmeCy8MH85aD59NwJcn2BzzlppKv9oPTqjoi0DSkmyQGEo/s1600/2014-03-27+14.08.12.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This traditional reading room has tables big enough for people to spread out, and also use their laptops/tablets<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAugZ_aeCy7btTPIlPYxyID9bjRi70imHSfFIhlabZd-mfkpqDSd5Tbjkc3GhxlfDCPXwjrX6N0TevZvxLqyOwheb9wq7HHttm9GA3F7ElVKUnl7zL9TZhIolpUoNXWngngadcsT9RVBs/s1600/2014-03-27+14.13.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAugZ_aeCy7btTPIlPYxyID9bjRi70imHSfFIhlabZd-mfkpqDSd5Tbjkc3GhxlfDCPXwjrX6N0TevZvxLqyOwheb9wq7HHttm9GA3F7ElVKUnl7zL9TZhIolpUoNXWngngadcsT9RVBs/s1600/2014-03-27+14.13.12.jpg" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This reading room used to have desktop computers in it, but they moved those out and now just have large tables as shown.</td></tr>
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<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzYPB80A5mn51ZERT0iS0fqPc-gjWX-XtR2kylvEJHaaaN8ZLAjLnw32CExiBJvJYcKwl54uL_RgSC57ZbAxh7dQWug1j-G8PVGZtsoZcmmVAFs1q-QjIDkchstzhGyG6kgvUc5lghyphenhyphen0/s1600/2014-03-27+14.23.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzYPB80A5mn51ZERT0iS0fqPc-gjWX-XtR2kylvEJHaaaN8ZLAjLnw32CExiBJvJYcKwl54uL_RgSC57ZbAxh7dQWug1j-G8PVGZtsoZcmmVAFs1q-QjIDkchstzhGyG6kgvUc5lghyphenhyphen0/s1600/2014-03-27+14.23.13.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a><div>
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Self-service laptop checkouts have replaced desktop computers distributed throughout the Senate House spaces. Patrons can take the laptops wherever in Senate House they feel most comfortable working, and don't have to rely on where computers happen to be, if they don't walk in with their own devices. Wireless is throughout the building.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWXj5WPhxOnolm9vlo4cxoN75p_XsW_UiHrI3dKxKKRR7GNOY3B0xuzmOPt_mBduL13wlaWtRqpnVzzZWpeNwgihCXhHZxnoTy_OrF6Dhbf54EvRlEKKYGDqTfcqIn5aVkH09uT6FUPvQ/s1600/2014-03-27+14.52.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWXj5WPhxOnolm9vlo4cxoN75p_XsW_UiHrI3dKxKKRR7GNOY3B0xuzmOPt_mBduL13wlaWtRqpnVzzZWpeNwgihCXhHZxnoTy_OrF6Dhbf54EvRlEKKYGDqTfcqIn5aVkH09uT6FUPvQ/s1600/2014-03-27+14.52.05.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a>Up in the stacks, there are workspaces as well. These little window seats have always been popular (windows are popular in Atkins, and really in nearly every library I've ever seen, at least in terms of where patrons like to park themselves). Senate House recently got new fittings for these window areas.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHwVQl5exSBAmrY5qdvZnwl7LFkDKvJ3nVMpThbx50MIdBJ1D3DLgHpnQrpguBGFcg31OAclWz931ExtgzI5yMS60oUpwz2fpW07cZMM3uXLwzKT39YeZfnrxLfVPtPB_FWFQ6oggIhk/s1600/2014-03-27+14.52.10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbHwVQl5exSBAmrY5qdvZnwl7LFkDKvJ3nVMpThbx50MIdBJ1D3DLgHpnQrpguBGFcg31OAclWz931ExtgzI5yMS60oUpwz2fpW07cZMM3uXLwzKT39YeZfnrxLfVPtPB_FWFQ6oggIhk/s1600/2014-03-27+14.52.10.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A light, a shelf, a work surface, and outlets/powerpoints. And, a chair.<br /><br /></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbkzGDZB_WFZ3iKr2LJH9VAUu3ZwD4Ap_-hp5_MObKWmjK-B8NfLOYIUw0HZzhethJcrdPSe2Sj_103yg2ajtSkv3u0_Vq6PNYX8F09bT5CJqNu5dXd0JgOdCaHkFEuTDIrHXpnfsIT70/s1600/2014-03-27+14.53.04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbkzGDZB_WFZ3iKr2LJH9VAUu3ZwD4Ap_-hp5_MObKWmjK-B8NfLOYIUw0HZzhethJcrdPSe2Sj_103yg2ajtSkv3u0_Vq6PNYX8F09bT5CJqNu5dXd0JgOdCaHkFEuTDIrHXpnfsIT70/s1600/2014-03-27+14.53.04.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a>There are also these tables, with powerpoints and room to spread out. The funny pillars on the end of the table are artifacts from when there was a fixed desktop and monitor on one end of the table. Senate House has moved away from desktops in their library, except where they are used for catalog check stations.</div>
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This, however, is my favorite space in Senate House. Filled with huge tufted leather sofas. Magic. </div>
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Apparently there was some initial worry that the sofas would encourage talking. I think that the arrangement of them in rows, the fact that they are massive heavy pieces, and the placement of them in a room that is clearly a "Traditional Reading Room" all sets the tone nicely, and it's clearly a quiet place to study that just happens to be filled with soft seating rather than desks and hard chairs. <a href="http://instagram.com/p/mDvB6WIadN/" target="_blank"> I would spend all of my time here, if this were My Library.</a></div>
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-87888916593059683332014-04-12T11:30:00.001-04:002014-04-12T17:26:48.274-04:00London Travelogue, Part the Second: Mostly not London, the Pitt-Rivers Museum (with a bit of the Soane at the end)<br />
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My favorite thing about Oxford (once I figured out that <a href="http://kpbs.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/croppedphotos/2012/07/16/LewisV_FS_t614.jpg?a3ca5463f16dc11451266bb717d38a6025dcea0e" target="_blank">DS Hathaway</a> was not in fact waiting for me in a pub alongside the Thames) was the<a href="http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/pittrivers.html" target="_blank"> Pitt-Rivers Museum. </a> You have to walk through the Oxford Museum of Natural History to get to it.<br />
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Once I walked into the room, I laughed aloud. It was 19th Century Anthropology Overload. It's magnificent and mad.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRom9ovTafmfD2S-t4FPDAG6m-oaUzUqav-sK84bjGbWsinmn-aKtNCakXNwiWFVgom3ss2kvfcp8XzYOAGw3yRABibsCD_lnp7Bv_DMzR5tnOFNRNiYdQweuIjIzPulXdBejZfyzmUGc/s1600/2014-03-22+10.59.35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRom9ovTafmfD2S-t4FPDAG6m-oaUzUqav-sK84bjGbWsinmn-aKtNCakXNwiWFVgom3ss2kvfcp8XzYOAGw3yRABibsCD_lnp7Bv_DMzR5tnOFNRNiYdQweuIjIzPulXdBejZfyzmUGc/s1600/2014-03-22+10.59.35.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every case is chock-full of artifacts. Check out that totem pole.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Pitt-Rivers was an amazing collector, with connections to collectors, explorers, and ethnographers who worked all over the planet. The Pitt-Rivers Museum's <a href="http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/virtualtour.html" target="_blank">website </a>is a great resource for visualizing the collection, and exploring as much as they have been able to reveal so far online. All of the items collected were either given to the collectors as gifts, or purchased from the people who created the artifacts, and then donated to the museum. The Pitt-Rivers site also <a href="http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/pittrivers.html" target="_blank">describes the rationale </a>for having all of these cases arranged as they are:<br />
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"In most ethnographic and archaeological museums the displays are arranged
according to geographical or cultural areas. Here they are arranged according
to type: musical instruments, weapons, masks, textiles, jewellery, and tools
are all displayed in groups to show how the same problems have been solved
at different times by different peoples. The cases appear to be very crowded,
as a very large percentage of the collection is on view. In some instances
the 'displays' are primarily visible storage, due to the museum being first
and foremost a teaching and research institution and the curators are also
university lecturers in either cultural anthropology or prehistoric archaeology.
A number of degree courses are taught to both graduate and undergraduate
studies. If you look carefully you will see that actually a great deal of
information is provided about individual objects. The small labels, many
of them hand printed by the first Curator, are very revealing. We offer more
contemporary interpretative displays in our special exhibition gallery."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2g0JT5CoHw7ahuUaL714wLKXL7RaHPwzczKHzsJJd1h1myaqxJAbcOR2j9JvCmFrse7WbAwhZtVzOgasqKQHBm89SVKQbYvniL3eNIMdvs0FiDCy0cegX7_MejhGaUTkTbXTcsTnGVT8/s1600/2014-03-22+11.07.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2g0JT5CoHw7ahuUaL714wLKXL7RaHPwzczKHzsJJd1h1myaqxJAbcOR2j9JvCmFrse7WbAwhZtVzOgasqKQHBm89SVKQbYvniL3eNIMdvs0FiDCy0cegX7_MejhGaUTkTbXTcsTnGVT8/s1600/2014-03-22+11.07.06.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Collected by E.B. Tylor!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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My problem (you knew there was going to be a problem, didn't you, I'm just having that kind of week) with these sorts of museums/collections is that they make it terrifically easy for those who are prone to think in terms of Human Universals to continue to think that way. While a nuanced reading of these packed cases allows us to see the variety of ways that people approach similar natural phenomena, or social phenomena, there is a curious flattening effect that can occur when so much variety is put in a glass case. It becomes "people all play music!" "people all represent animals!" "people do body mods!" And in the drawing of connections, the distinctiveness of each culture can be lost.<br />
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While I value tremendously the sense of shared humanity that anthropology can bring, I think it's dangerous to take collections of human artifacts from the 19th century, a time of tremendous cultural upheaval and colonial violence, and draw uncomplicated inferences about the shared human condition. I should be clear here that I do NOT think that is what the Pitt-Rivers museum or their (fantastic) staff are doing. I do think that this sort of museum is most effectively experienced with some sort of mediation. The context in which these artifacts were collected is as important to the meaning of the museum as are the artifacts themselves.<br />
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The most striking case for me was this one:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1Q4GYZzg74HXe9_WGQeQvTgSRhDCwpFaxAiJTh_95S4BaC2qtc4NnIAoBT03VxlaC_ya6s6cAxIBbUXTkH3m_a5bQICZkSNoABnpg-f0caaaiYsGTmG6QXIxWuNLxdwj18rrQZHzUIc/s1600/2014-03-22+11.14.39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt1Q4GYZzg74HXe9_WGQeQvTgSRhDCwpFaxAiJTh_95S4BaC2qtc4NnIAoBT03VxlaC_ya6s6cAxIBbUXTkH3m_a5bQICZkSNoABnpg-f0caaaiYsGTmG6QXIxWuNLxdwj18rrQZHzUIc/s1600/2014-03-22+11.14.39.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Many of the human remains in this case (a two-sided case) were from South American and Papua New Guinea. They are fascinating, repellent, sad, fierce. They deserve a book (at least) all to themselves. How can we interpret the meaning of these remains in the isolation of the glass case? How do we dare?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wQNM7cTqbZizN46f-wuALucoA2mqDgK71njY06q_GXarDiLe66sb931uscClE8AoBJ0kHD0ljnPJeLeMZXuKNle1fk1JhxyN8KXtUL2g89BzKdr3udBXrDwjzroHGaFejNJQfUeiTiU/s1600/2014-03-22+11.14.33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1wQNM7cTqbZizN46f-wuALucoA2mqDgK71njY06q_GXarDiLe66sb931uscClE8AoBJ0kHD0ljnPJeLeMZXuKNle1fk1JhxyN8KXtUL2g89BzKdr3udBXrDwjzroHGaFejNJQfUeiTiU/s1600/2014-03-22+11.14.33.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjUciM9htkxKrSSHRrr4sX80aNa1o1cc-ssa7lCZTV2cJ6ryV7GbYJcpeEsKZhgxUSwRdjaf6DzP6l2Zpxqka-VbJJJIlS0fn3wJj7x1GckY-gV73VphPLocVdyWC1AVRJJyxho_WASw/s1600/2014-03-22+11.24.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjUciM9htkxKrSSHRrr4sX80aNa1o1cc-ssa7lCZTV2cJ6ryV7GbYJcpeEsKZhgxUSwRdjaf6DzP6l2Zpxqka-VbJJJIlS0fn3wJj7x1GckY-gV73VphPLocVdyWC1AVRJJyxho_WASw/s1600/2014-03-22+11.24.50.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a><br />
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It occurs to me that the Pitt-Rivers collection is of a piece with the Regency House in London that is now <a href="http://www.soane.org/" target="_blank">Sir John Soane's Museum </a>. The architect Soane (who is one of my favorite people only because he designed the <a href="http://www.soane.org/collections/soanes_london/monument/1" target="_blank">TARDIS</a>) filled his house with furniture, bits and pieces of sculpture, architectural details from buildings, some of it copies some of it originals, from all over Europe, from Egypt, and parts of Asia, in the grand tradition of colonial Britain. He put together disparate pieces on the same wall, in the same room, according to what he thought went together, regardless of where it came from, of the lost intentions of the people who made it. He was a magpie, plucking attractive things from their original location, and decorating his own home with them.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUne7gv85mPM13udSDl7jJiFbgIdbMyphWh2aPDZCPI5nfpF4EF90QPximhkMmj7Ini4NLpZAITNiDYbZQvH0knTsGR2oCzgtZD5kWZK9SAO0SdoLY7VD9Ru1UXSdg9IR-eZoSVHFDI4/s1600/2014-03-01+12.41.16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWUne7gv85mPM13udSDl7jJiFbgIdbMyphWh2aPDZCPI5nfpF4EF90QPximhkMmj7Ini4NLpZAITNiDYbZQvH0knTsGR2oCzgtZD5kWZK9SAO0SdoLY7VD9Ru1UXSdg9IR-eZoSVHFDI4/s1600/2014-03-01+12.41.16.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exterior of Soane's House in London.</td></tr>
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I think it's worthwhile (and I know this is not an original thought on my part) asking what the purpose of such collections was, and is today. Is it to illuminate the study of form (as was clearly the case with Soane)? Of function? Of meaning? Yes, of all three. But collections of objects disassociated from their origins, I think say much more about the collectors of the objects than they do about the the people who created them.<br />
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The Pitt-Rivers museum has <a href="http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/" target="_blank">a great deal of contemporary interpretation</a>
to overlay onto this collection, and their upper galleries take on some
of the issues of representation and collections like these. I suppose
everyone can visit the museum they think they are in. My preference
would be that visitors to museums like this be directed very explicitly
to the particular nature of collections like these, how situated they
are in history, how important it is to approach these objects
thoughtfully, as a way of thinking about the people who produced them,
not just the scholars, explorers, and colonists who acquired them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Azl1pi_GnRb_J9SclnEkWC5uJ3bhDfCWGI-av-OrynMl4TwhUHyYB4D8EmdYjE-uxVu_fctsGKh3fvQi48p-zQmTo1Mda0G-T2Gz5_LTuH-Cykdn7Djjzf4kA9yI4lL0zCupbgvg3cI/s1600/2014-03-22+11.04.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Azl1pi_GnRb_J9SclnEkWC5uJ3bhDfCWGI-av-OrynMl4TwhUHyYB4D8EmdYjE-uxVu_fctsGKh3fvQi48p-zQmTo1Mda0G-T2Gz5_LTuH-Cykdn7Djjzf4kA9yI4lL0zCupbgvg3cI/s1600/2014-03-22+11.04.03.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spectacular mask collected from the NW Coast of N. America. I am proving my own point by not having recorded which tribe this is from. I want to say Haida or Tlingit.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4gGqrA6slPJtpGtIKVZdaVXcp5ir9mvKaJN2JwBFBVPrG9xaKM2waTBd1FU850Bfr17wc-AGXlXi9SR1TsNePrGR6-KiW3IK1CK9GKwZWekxXxQVydlCXfZ9RJSinN6otvuN7B2hBVik/s1600/2014-03-01+14.29.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-11684872619327207352014-04-11T10:45:00.000-04:002014-04-11T10:45:31.663-04:00London Travelogue, Part The First: Not London, but Oxford and Manchester<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4gmhncfWeDmrbSU23Asvzl6EDjrV-wM7UO7kdZJOjOXB321W7otsFsZ2gHlTYVkuapQRPc8ubkAlqBR4iGmlakAbEcPmIzefTvnDJamwqqvUmUOuPPb4ZZSduzL2_XT_F64rxZvbIfMg/s1600/2014-03-22+10.37.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4gmhncfWeDmrbSU23Asvzl6EDjrV-wM7UO7kdZJOjOXB321W7otsFsZ2gHlTYVkuapQRPc8ubkAlqBR4iGmlakAbEcPmIzefTvnDJamwqqvUmUOuPPb4ZZSduzL2_XT_F64rxZvbIfMg/s1600/2014-03-22+10.37.03.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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So in addition to working in London, I had a couple of chances to do field trips to Very Special Libraries, one in Oxford, and one in Manchester. The one in Oxford I've known about for a while:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCjCS0tzsCYHuCjeZGBzGR2kQXb_o16leqOibuYlFQ6uRXoihcNm4q0MT5KcnvytCy8AKTbY5zvHS8LBm_6UsK1iRWpK72-gxJn9qqEnqV60KL0avMaI17l5syy0MMXX5Gk9AM6bHCJw/s1600/2014-03-06+13.49.15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmCjCS0tzsCYHuCjeZGBzGR2kQXb_o16leqOibuYlFQ6uRXoihcNm4q0MT5KcnvytCy8AKTbY5zvHS8LBm_6UsK1iRWpK72-gxJn9qqEnqV60KL0avMaI17l5syy0MMXX5Gk9AM6bHCJw/s1600/2014-03-06+13.49.15.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bodleain</td></tr>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
Oxford is lovely, old, and filled with high walls, locked gates, and closed doors. It is a secret society, I will never know the handshake.<br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/447384843186618370">March 22, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the many beautiful closed doors in Oxford</td></tr>
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I know, I know, Oxford is not a "public" university, there should be different notions of access, I cannot expect the walls and gates and doors of Oxford to be open to all comers, because it's just never been that way. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You have to climb up pretty high to see into the enclosures of Oxford.</td></tr>
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But the collective experience of the closed-off feel, the tour wherein we were assured that the most important people in the building were The Scholars (and therefore, Not Us), and signs like this:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No Smoking I can get behind. SILENCE PLEASE is different.</td></tr>
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really hammer it home--"This is not for you."<br />
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The Rylands Library, on the other hand, is a Special Collections library associated with the University of Manchester (a red-brick state school). <br />
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You can walk right in, no charge, even if you are not a student (which is not necessarily the case at UCL, even, where you have to swipe your bar-coded-card to enter every library, and most of the academic buildings). The Rylands is a Gothic Cathedral to knowledge (<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2011/07/new-york-public-library-and-thinking.html" target="_blank">I've blogged about libraries that make me think of ecclesiastical monuments before</a>), and the reading room is open to anyone who wants to work in there, even if they are not working with the Rylands collections. It's a beautiful building, and a rare example of an inspiring space that is also accessible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaZD8MebF7ctgpJn5gDyPPihMB5OdX2HCcJ7wAEdqR1WpFaAPt8uYKkbZg4w_O2ir-bbeuxnyQ0eV3J6DBLBAnlUciZ2HlY2LoQYwXaGCgkfEJfI2dxCbv28sRHjgFFTA_N_cuj9Q7AU/s1600/2014-03-07+10.49.25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaZD8MebF7ctgpJn5gDyPPihMB5OdX2HCcJ7wAEdqR1WpFaAPt8uYKkbZg4w_O2ir-bbeuxnyQ0eV3J6DBLBAnlUciZ2HlY2LoQYwXaGCgkfEJfI2dxCbv28sRHjgFFTA_N_cuj9Q7AU/s1600/2014-03-07+10.49.25.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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We talked briefly in our <a href="https://storify.com/senorcthulhu/spaces-places-and-practices-ucl-ioe-joint-library" target="_blank">Spaces, Places and Practices </a>seminar about the impact of spaces, in particular Traditional Library spaces that invoke places like the Bodleian and Rylands. But Traditional Library spaces, while they can be used by students and faculty to get themselves into a desired state of mind (for reading, for writing, for scholarship of various kinds), can also feel exclusionary. It's as if some students internalize the signs that the Bodleian puts up (and sells in their gift shop!), and transfer that to all library spaces. It's not enough to be respectful of the space, you have to act so that they cannot tell you are there. SILENCE. I understand the utility of focus and quiet. I understand less the signals that emphasize the otherworldly nature of scholarship to the point of alienating people from the traditional places of scholarship. I am not convinced they are necessary.<br />
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They also make me want to stomp my boots and dance around in the courtyard of the Bodleian.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Probably not my dance partner, though.</td></tr>
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-36243046395977838592014-04-06T13:54:00.002-04:002014-04-06T13:54:15.037-04:00A Whirlwind March, some Links<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#SunnyLondon from Primrose Hill</td></tr>
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I am just barely back in the US, I'm quite certain my brain has not arrived yet. Already there are things on the internet that can give you ideas (because you haven't been following my every move on Twitter, for which I commend you highly) about what I've been up to. In particular, there are Storifys up of conversations I participated in at the <a href="https://storify.com/ibrar/the-digital-and-the-material-mapping-contemporary" target="_blank">SRHE in London on March 28th</a>, with <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/45255.html" target="_blank"> Lesley Gourlay</a>, <a href="http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/author/whited/" target="_blank">Dave White</a>, <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/lklb_39.html" target="_blank">Martin Oliver</a>, and <a href="http://leeds.academia.edu/IbrarBhatt" target="_blank">Ibrar Bhatt</a>. (there will be a podcast <a href="http://www.srhe.ac.uk/events/pastevents/details/?eid=130" target="_blank">of the four talks,</a> I'll be sure to share the link when I have it), and of the <a href="https://storify.com/senorcthulhu/spaces-places-and-practices-ucl-ioe-joint-library" target="_blank">joint UCL-IOE sponsored event, Spaces, Places and Practices, on March 31st</a>, which involved presentations by <a href="http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/bryony-ramsden/" target="_blank">Bryony Ramsden</a>, <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/about/people/martinReidHeadOfAcademicServices.aspx" target="_blank">Martin Reid </a>and <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/library/2014/02/13/showing-how-lse-library-works-2/" target="_blank">Anna Tuckett</a>, and myself and Lesley Gourlay.<br />
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The <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23UKAnthroLib" target="_blank">#UKAnthroLib</a> hashtag was followed by people outside of the room on March 31st, and the enthusiastic reception (and conversations that actually started long before March 31st) resulted in the swift creation (by <a href="http://cambridge.academia.edu/GeorginaCronin" target="_blank">Georgina Cronin</a> and <a href="http://libreaction.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Andy Priestner</a>) of the new <a href="http://ukanthrolib.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">#UKAnthroLib blog</a>, which will involve multiple authors and I hope a great deal of interesting discussion.<br />
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Oh and of course there's <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2014/02/into-field.html" target="_blank">the actual research Lesley Gourlay and I did, in partnership with Lesley Pitman at UCL.</a> The Storifys will give you some sense of the preliminary things we are saying about the data we have collected so far, but I've got about 19 hours worth of interviews to get transcribed and then analyze, along with the cognitive maps we collected, and the <a href="http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/spaceassesstool" target="_blank">SUMA data</a> we gathered in each of the site libraries (Bartlett, SSEES, Institute of Archaeology at UCL, and the IOE library as well). We should have enough analyzed to be able to say something interesting (I hope) at the <a href="http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/events/hecu7/" target="_blank">HECU7</a> conference in Lancaster (well, Lesley will have to say it for us, as I am not Made of Money), and we have high hopes for more conference presentations (TBA!) in the Autumn.<br />
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In the meantime, we will be digging into what we've got, and attempting to figure out what we think it means. Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-54467616493420655092014-03-19T11:36:00.001-04:002014-03-20T09:29:12.715-04:00The Mixed-Method, Interdisciplinary Library<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So at this point I've given 2 different versions of this talk, once at UNC Greensboro, in the library, and just recently at the University of Huddersfield, also in the library. I talk from a combination of notes, script, and the Prezi, so this is an approximation, but I'd like to share it because it's a relatively coherent statement of what I think is possible via qualitative work like mine, and where I think academic libraries can create opportunities for their voice to be heard within higher education generally. Special thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/barkivist" target="_blank">Erin Lawrimore </a>for inviting me to UNCG, and to<a href="https://twitter.com/librarygirlknit" target="_blank"> Bryony Ramsden </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/kshjensen" target="_blank">Kathrine Jensen</a> for getting me to Huds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">I don’t get much chance to speak about the nature of my work in a systematic way, and this is giving me a chance to put together thoughts that I’ve been accumulating over the past year or so about the nature of the information that informs library policy. It has been changing over time, and the attention paid to things like qualitative research marks a real shift in administrative focus, and has implications for assessment, as well.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I’m speaking to you today (as I speak every day) as an anthropologist, and so an outsider to library science (but not to higher education, as I am an academic through and through). But I am also someone employed by an academic library. I was hired as library ethnographer in 2009, with arrival of a <a href="https://twitter.com/sjwilder100" target="_blank">university librarian</a> who had been at Rochester, where <a href="http://www.sr.ithaka.org/people/nancy-fried-foster" target="_blank">Nancy Fried Foster</a> was at the time. Her hire inspired by the participatory design policy of places like Xerox, who hire social scientists, including anthropologists, to do research into user behavior, to inform their products.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Nancy’s work has certainly made participatory design a highly visible part of what qualitative research agendas can do in higher education, but I’ve been asked to take on an ethnography of academic work generally, to find projects (small and large) that illuminate the behavior of students and faculty on our campus, not just within the library.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The use of words like “disruptive” and “provocative” within library policy discussions (and higher ed generally) has become cliche, but I find them useful in trying to frame the role for anthropologists (and even other social scientists) in academic libraries. Positions like mine are a provocation, not just to library-land, but to Higher Ed. generally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So, why be provocative? <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/liminality-and-practicing-anthropology.html" target="_blank">The Anthropology meetings in November of last year included a panel on liminality (included Nancy Foster, as well as researchers from Intel and Xerox).</a> The liminal state is one of “betwixt and between,” of being poised on the threshold. Again and again the panelists made the point that </span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the presence of anthropologists in industry and institutional settings creates a liminal space, which in turn is an opportunity for change and innovation. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Qualitative research provides opportunities for change, moments to disrupt current practices, to dwell with the possibility of something else.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The researcher from Intel pointed strongly to the potential for innovation that comes out of persistent and embedded anthropological attention to technology and the processes involved in producing that technology. She worked with engineers, who were so immersed in the production of technology that they lost sight of the people who would be using it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Likewise, anthropological attention to uses of technology in information seeking can help us think more carefully about how we use technology to engage with people in academia, students and faculty alike.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I know there are people with anthropology and sociology training working as librarians now, but the qualitative work is seldom their full time job (so many people run up to me at library conferences and confess their undergraduate degrees in anthropology!). Myself and <a href="http://works.bepress.com/andrew_asher/" target="_blank">Andrew Asher (At Bloomington)</a> are the only two I am aware of who are employed full time by universities in the US, and I know of one anthropologist who was just hired by the London School of Economics in the UK. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I've blogged before about the role that we play in libraries as anthropologists, <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/entangled-technology-and-aaa2013-or.html" target="_blank">especially regarding the discussion we hosted at the 2013 AAAs in Chicago. </a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The idea is not to thumb our noses at current practice, but to actually provide a place for the new to emerge. Margaret Mead talked about anthropology as making the “exotic familiar, and the familiar exotic.” She is talking about the power of cross-cultural insights allowing fresh eyes on our own society, the practices of others helping us think critically about our own practices.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We are fundamentally searching for insights into why. Anthropology assumes that there is a logic to people’s behavior. It’s not enough to describe or count the things people do or interact with or own or use. And furthermore, there are things that we can observe are important that we cannot count--or there are things we should be counting that we don’t know are important. We need multiple ways of talking about what is happening--a holistic approach can include counting, but needs to incorporate other ways of observing/describing. Ethnographic practices can provide such a thing. And I would argue that they are most effectively deployed as a part of a full-time qualitative agenda, not just carved out of already existing jobs, or brought in short-term.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Qualitative methods need explanations and defense in part because they are not the norm in library-land, and are still contested outside of qualitative-centric fields like anthropology and sociology. My experience working with LIS has reflected this--I have participated in longitudinal qualitative studies that my LIS colleagues are still still very very nervous about if it’s not embedded in a survey that we also conduct. I see this concern about generalizability, etc. reflecting a general unease with actionability of qualitative data.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Higher Ed is quantitative in part because of a policy orientation where evaluation is the equivalent to counting and measuring (think: grades). Assessment, however, should be about information that can lead to changes, and ideally, improvements. A reasonable question to ask is to what extent the massive amounts of quantitative data libraries collect every year has led to improvements</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For example, UNC Charlotte Atkins Library recently participated in the<a href="http://www.misosurvey.org/" target="_blank"> MISO surve<span style="color: black;">y; </span></a> we now have all of these numbers, what do they mean? For example, these "satisfaction" graphs from various constituencies:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the bars are basically the same length. What can this mean? What does it mean when we ask about "satisfaction with the library?" How can that be quantified? Why would we want to quantify that?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">Qualitative data can move library improvements in a way that traditional treatment of quantitative data has not. This is the power of insights, of epiphany, of something beyond just description. Evaluation and analytics are descriptive, and not necessarily with an eye to change. Assessment should be about that which can drive change.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">We cannot get rid of quantitative data, nor should we want to, but I believe it needs to be embedded in the context provided by qualitative researchers. Approaches to our quantitative data can be transformed with considered uses of qualitative research in libraries, and higher education generally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 2;">Think of individual projects that characterize themselves as “mixed-method.” Imagine a “mixed-method.” library, drawing on both sorts of information.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> What does that look like?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It can look like me: the Anthropologist in the Stacks. The permanent staff presence of a qualitative researcher means non-LIS people working within the library. Disciplinary knowledge from outside of LIS can illuminate higher education policies, not just within library, but across the university. So, I am not just talking about a mixed-methods library, but an interdisciplinary one.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I have blogged already about examples from the Atkins library --here is the point in the talk where I use Prezi to give visual examples of the kinds of data I've been collecting, including Photo Diaries, observations, and cognitive mapping. If you peruse the stuff tagged <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/%23anthrolib" target="_blank">#anthrolib</a> you can get a feel for it, if you haven't already.)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">We need to know what people are doing to effectively engage. Anthropology, ethnographic techniques, qualitative research can help us learn this. There are additional implications for the position of academic libraries within their institutions, once they commit to a qualitative research agenda.</span></div>
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For example, a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline;">t UNC Charlotte, the library is represented on a campus-wide meeting about Student Success. We are positioned as colleagues within the university, rather than as "helpers"--we are part of a scholarly community, and we also provide, in the library, a neutral ground for the coming together of scholars (including ourselves).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;">There is tremendous potential for libraries in higher education to be sources of qualitative research about student and faculty work/behaviors. This research can give us a voice on campus around issues that people in Higher Education are interested in: what students do, where they go, what faculty do, why. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> Anthropologists and other social scientists can produce data which may be brought to bear on policy decisions at the college and university, and which has the potential to positively impact student academic success. The fact that these studies come out of the Library has implications for the role academic libraries can play in higher education generally, potentially transforming the kind of voice libraries have in university policy, because we are producing information/data that no other sector of higher education is doing. This is powerful. We need to do it more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">Both times I gave this talk, I just sort of stopped there, and asked for questions, and was really gratified by the engagement and thought that was put into the discussion. I wish I had transcripts to share of what we talked about at UNCG, and also at Huddersfield. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;">Dave Pattern and Bryony Ramsden were kind enough to tweet some of the content of my talk, I Storifyed it here: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 2;"> For the conclusion of this blogpost, I will simply share an image of part of my speaking fee at Huds, safely ensconced in my bag, on the train back to London.</span></div>
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-1670780171894838922014-02-10T18:20:00.000-05:002014-02-10T18:20:38.423-05:00Into the Field<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlDRRJ2syVc4BhLpYk42Mdf6P3A7UjDa6ctgiw2wibHntKBopuPiA8PNJC5fQQVgOwGiwbhHvd9i4JbcUJB3zgNAY_Qi2568rAutAntIk7gMEl-y_lAluO0YpOyGwNdXdypVFgiMMi_c/s1600/IMG_8925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXlDRRJ2syVc4BhLpYk42Mdf6P3A7UjDa6ctgiw2wibHntKBopuPiA8PNJC5fQQVgOwGiwbhHvd9i4JbcUJB3zgNAY_Qi2568rAutAntIk7gMEl-y_lAluO0YpOyGwNdXdypVFgiMMi_c/s1600/IMG_8925.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a><br />
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So I have been noisy on Twitter lately, but relatively quiet on this blog, and that is in part because I have been gently (and not so gently) freaking out and getting prepared for going to do six weeks of fieldwork starting at the end of February.<br />
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The project will allow me to collaborate with the estimable <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/staff/45255.html" target="_blank">Lesley Gourlay at the IOE</a>, and <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/lesley-pitman/1b/200/622" target="_blank">Lesley Pitman at UCL</a>, and extend and expand a project that I piloted in 2011 with the help of the UCL Institute of Archaeology. There's a <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/e3j2a49pie32fwi/UCL%202011%20Report%20Final.pdf" target="_blank">.pdf of the report here.</a><br />
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March is going to involve me collecting cognitive maps as well as conducting interviews among students and faculty at the <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/" target="_blank">Institute of Archaeology,</a> the <a href="http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/architecture/about-us/facilities/library" target="_blank">Bartlett school of Architecture</a>, and the <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ssees" target="_blank">SSEES</a>. I will also be spending time doing immersive observation in each of the 3 libraries, using the <a href="http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/spaceassesstool" target="_blank">SUMA</a> tool to facilitate head-counts and also an accounting of activities within each space. Lesley Gourlay will be doing the same among IOE students and faculty, and at the <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/services/4389.html" target="_blank">IOE library.</a><br />
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<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/11/playing-with-cognitive-mapping.html" target="_blank">I have collected cognitive maps from undergraduate and graduate students at UNC Charlotte already,</a> and my graduate assistant will be conducting interviews and observations in Atkins Library while I am in London.<br />
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By the end of March, we will have a lovely comparative collection of qualitative data to play with. Even a project as small as this will generate hours of interview data, and a rich body of field notes to mine for insights that such a comparative exploration of academic libraries can yield. I am so, so excited to get to do this.<br />
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And part of my excitement comes from my strong investment in "going into the field." The anthropologists out there know how deeply felt that trope is in our field--yes, my work at Atkins library is my primary research location, but I have been "brought up" to think of field sites as Away (however problematic that may be). And academic libraries in London are distinct in many interesting ways from the large, generalized, suburban one in which I work in Charlotte. UCL/IOE libraries are specialized places, scattered across an urban landscape, and also contain materials on some of their shelves that would rightfully be in restricted-access special collections in the US. I will acquire a new "arrival scene," coming into the site libraries for the first time, I will have a new set of "key informants," participants in my research, to interview, who are willing to share what they know with me so that I can learn, so that I can approach my library "back home" with fresh eyes, the familiar made exotic through the field experience.<br />
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It won't be a completely isolated field experience, I've never been able to achieve that, and I think it's probably to my benefit. When I did <a href="http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/product/At-Play-in-Belfast,2185.aspx" target="_blank">my research in Belfast</a> I was lucky to be embedded in a network of Queen's U, Belfast graduate students, colleagues and eventually friends who helped keep me grounded when I was struggling with the usual alienating cliches of doing fieldwork.<br />
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In fact, I think that field experiences in applied anthropology in particular give the lie to the Anthropologist in Splendid Isolation cliche, not just because no anthropologist ever truly works in isolation (they are working with people!), but also because anthropology is always a team effort, even if it's not immediately visible as such. I am collaborating with colleagues in UCL and IOE, and this project began as an effort initiated by <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/sillar" target="_blank">Dr. Bill Sillar</a> in the Institute of Archaeology. The work I have done and will do in London is a direct result of the work I'm doing here at UNC Charlotte, working with my colleagues in Atkins, and with my graduate assistants (the Atkins Ethnography project has benefited from the work so far of 4 different graduate assistants, and will continue to hire graduate students as a part of its research workforce), and undergraduate researchers. My work is informed not just by what I find interesting, but what my boss needs from me, what questions my colleagues bring to me. It's a group effort. There are no lone wolves.<br />
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I will also in this trip, have opportunities to talk about my work with colleagues old and new. I'm participating in a workshop on <a href="http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr.html?urlm=160260" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents</a>, along with <a href="http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/author/whited/" target="_blank">Dave White </a>, <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/staff/ben-showers" target="_blank">Ben Showers,</a> and <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/staff/lawrie-phipps" target="_blank">Lawrie Phipps</a> at the <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/jisc-digital-festival-2014-11-mar-2014/workshops" target="_blank">Jisc Digital Festival.</a> I'm speaking about my work at UNC Charlotte with <a href="https://twitter.com/librarygirlknit" target="_blank">Bryony Ramsden </a>and her colleagues at Huddersfield. There will be many chances in London to talk at length about my work, and especially to listen to people engaged with work that I need to pay attention to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwi8VQj3xsMgfJtr_5fan83OZqBBVow474c_yZsoAnXUPK0jQoA3tOd1B3RsGFvskE_ZuGLcPzEOkfVSrbn8_3DrG5Wwi95eoLayQEGKQ6R-vk98bey5cD8dVcmbiB-AUcsUObMKsV7x0/s1600/IMG_8920.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwi8VQj3xsMgfJtr_5fan83OZqBBVow474c_yZsoAnXUPK0jQoA3tOd1B3RsGFvskE_ZuGLcPzEOkfVSrbn8_3DrG5Wwi95eoLayQEGKQ6R-vk98bey5cD8dVcmbiB-AUcsUObMKsV7x0/s1600/IMG_8920.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a>I can't put into words just how delighted I am that I am finally getting to make <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/07/ala-2013-ethnography-ethnology-and.html" target="_blank">my ambitions for a comparative, international ethnography of academic libraries</a> begin to come to pass. This phase of my research is funded by a UNC Charlotte Faculty Research Grant, and I hope to be able to take this project and springboard to a larger, more comprehensive treatment of all of the UCL site libraries, with an eye to informing with qualitative research much larger discussions of the role of academic libraries in Higher Education in the UK and the US.<br />
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But in the meantime, I get six weeks. I'm going to make them count.<br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-5451600734057826722014-01-06T14:29:00.002-05:002014-01-06T14:30:17.424-05:00Interested in 2014So several conversations with people in my professional and personal circles have led me to the conclusion that it's not terrifically important or effective to try to be interesting. Either as an individual, or as an institution, it's just too subjective and hard to figure out how to be interesting, and who on earth can define for sure what "interesting" means in a given context?<br />
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Working in an academic library since 2009 means I've been witness to ongoing low- (and occasionally high-) level anxiety about how to get people interested in libraries, which I usually interpret to mean a concern with levels of engagement with us as institutions. How do we get people on campus to come to us? How do we make sure they know we are important? How can we convince them we are interesting?<br />
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Well, telling people we are important doesn't work (showing them, OTOH...). And I am skeptical of the "hey, we're interesting!" tack as well. What we can to is be interestED. We can reach out to people doing cool work on and off campus and ask questions, find things out, and then connect what they are doing with stuff that we are doing. Expressing interest in other people is, not incidentally, a great way to make friends as well.<br />
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Basically, Be Interested. Interesting things will follow.Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-52993272255611703392013-11-26T15:01:00.002-05:002013-11-30T10:24:40.939-05:00Entangled Technology and AAA2013, or, What I did on Friday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWZnlsLZLe66o0Q1LqaHn8zsyliAT-9rbQ-0Y71scjSogWdb_XRUlfZDua9AMD4IU5VisUSoqpruXL0LPy_AEbrkxcCrcJ_E6ltAB3ZvksxCuzXVuGIGQdTDQ0SZjhxOA5TvU_K-_4gk/s1600/2013-11-22+12.16.33-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFWZnlsLZLe66o0Q1LqaHn8zsyliAT-9rbQ-0Y71scjSogWdb_XRUlfZDua9AMD4IU5VisUSoqpruXL0LPy_AEbrkxcCrcJ_E6ltAB3ZvksxCuzXVuGIGQdTDQ0SZjhxOA5TvU_K-_4gk/s1600/2013-11-22+12.16.33-1.jpg" width="238" /></a><br />
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My <a href="http://aaa.confex.com/aaa/2013/webprogrampreliminary/Session9001.html">AAA 2013 partners in crime this year</a> were some people I have presented with before (and was delighted to have a chance to again: <a href="https://twitter.com/aasher">Andrew Asher</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/mauraweb">Maura Smale</a>, <a href="http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/members/regalado/activity/222027/">Mariana Regalado</a>), and some new-to-me colleagues I look forward to working with some more (<a href="http://web.library.emory.edu/about/staff-directory/woodruff/jahnke-lori.html">Lori Jahnke</a> and <a href="http://www.ioe.ac.uk/study/45255.html">Lesley Gourlay</a>).</div>
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Andrew brought the donuts. We managed to wait until after our session before eating them. That is some seriously professional self-control. Yes, that is bacon on four of the donuts, from<a href="http://doritedonuts.com/"> Do-Rite Donuts.</a> The other two were pistachio.</div>
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Never let it be said I don't blog about important things like donuts.</div>
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Our session, Embedded and Engaged In Higher Education: Researching Student Entanglements with Technology, (<a href="http://tinyurl.com/techentangle">here's the link to the Prezi </a>we used as a visual aid for the discussion) was a roundtable, where we presented and then connected the work we are engaged in, picking up on four main threads of discussion.</div>
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<b>1) How institutional disconnect from student behavior and expectations affects access to education, to information, to what they need to engage with resources they need for their academic work, but also for the life they will build post-college.</b></div>
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Maura and Mariana's work at CUNY spoke most powerfully to the everyday details of this, but I think Lori's work text-mining IT and University strategic plans was equally important. The content of those strategic plans is just so strikingly distant from the priorities and realities of students and faculty members in higher education. We need to pay more attention to those sorts of documents, and in particular the urgency with which they need to be informed by social science research results.</div>
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<b>2) How cultural, political, and social values are embedded not just in search, but in Higher Ed institutions generally. And again, the impact that has on #1</b></div>
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Andrew is doing such important work with this. Search is a cultural construction. Higher education is a cultural construction. Libraries are cultural constructions. They are not free from the values of wider society, and need to be observed critically if we are to truly concern ourselves with access to higher education, and the benefits, privileges, and problems inherent in the system.</div>
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<b>3) The use of anthropological research to ground higher education policy (macro and micro) in the behavior of people, and the potential of the applied anthropological approach to improve outcomes of educational agendas broadly written, where ultimate goal of education is an engaged and informed citizenry.</b></div>
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I think this second theme is also linked to the underlying themes of the <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/11/liminality-and-practicing-anthropology.html">Liminality</a> session that NAPA sponsored the previous day. <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html">My own work at UNC Charlotte </a>is a nice example of what can happen when administrators are on board with a social science-informed policy perspective. Lesley is also trying through her work to effect change at the University of London. But not all administrators are sympathetic. It can be challenging to inform policy beyond quantitative metrics, if qualitative approaches are not valued. Our challenge as anthropologists is to insert ourselves into institutional conversations, to become part of organizations that need more qualitative approaches, to provide perspectives that are currently all-too-scarce.</div>
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<b>4) Our positions as professional outsiders in higher education contexts, but also as sort of native ethnographers, as we are all products of and participants in the kinds of systems we are studying.</b></div>
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My boss told me today that he values me at least in part because I am an outsider to the library. On the panel, our positions as people both within our institutions and tasked with thinking critically about those institutions can be personally and professionally challenging. And also, terrifically worthwhile.</div>
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Andrew, Maura and I live-tweeted this session, and I <a href="http://storify.com/DonnaLanclos/entangledtech-aaa2013">Storified</a> it rather than put it here, because it's kind of long.</div>
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I also quite liked our session abstract, and since you can't see it without being a registered AAA member, I am going to reproduce it here:</div>
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<b>Abstract: Embedded and Engaged In Higher Education: Researching Student Entanglements with Technology</b></div>
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"In this roundtable we propose to explore our status, research, and findings as we work as interdisciplinary collaborators with non-anthropologists in academic settings. Our projects initiate and facilitate scholarly as well as policy discussions about the nature of information, the configuration of digital and physical spaces in academia, and the changing state of academic work and scholarly communication in the 21st century. Some of us, employed in academic libraries, are positioned as native ethnographers, as we are tasked with observing and analyzing the thoughts and behaviors of our own communities: the students, faculty, and staff in the practical, everyday spaces of academia. Our outside eye is valuable in pinpointing not just ways that academic institutions and libraries can reshape themselves for the 21st century, but also in illuminating the nature of scholarly work among our peers and the relationship of that work to the world outside of academia. This roundtable provides a forum for sharing our work and our perspectives on anthropology in higher education settings.</div>
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The panelists represent a variety of ways that anthropological knowledge and research are presented and conducted. Through a range of methods, including mapping, time logs, drawings, photo diaries, and research process interviews, we have examined how students and faculty engage with and are constrained by technology as they navigate the spaces and systems of academe. As researchers we are diversely engaged, bringing not only anthropological methods and theories to our projects but also the methods and theories of library and information science, science and technology studies, education, sociology, and user experience research.</div>
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Our research actively explores the role of technology for students in their academic work at colleges and universities. At this moment when educational technologies are very much a part of the broader, global conversation about the cost and value of higher education, we examine how these technologies constrain and enable students, and how they fit with the essential learning mission of college, especially in the academic library, a traditional locus of student use of information technology. As social scientists embedded in academia, we leverage our research to bring student voices to these discussions. Our studies produce data which may be brought to bear on policy decisions at the college and university, and which has the potential to positively impact student academic success.</div>
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As researchers who are well positioned to observe the complex interactions between digital technologies and the social organization and practices of students and faculty member, this roundtable will speak not only to how technologies are used within higher education, but also to broader cultural transformations within and outside the academy. For example, how do political and cultural values embodied in digital tools and technologies constrain or empower students? How do the social contexts of students’ communities and universities affect their technology use? By examining these questions, anthropologists working in higher education can contribute both to improving the learning environments of our universities, but also to better understandings of the meanings, effects, and lived experience of technologies and technological change. "</div>
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-76420100627914018282013-11-26T09:36:00.000-05:002013-11-26T09:36:09.127-05:00Liminality and Practicing Anthropology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The first session I attended at AAA2013 was the NAPA sponsored <a href="http://aaa.confex.com/aaa/2013/webprogrampreliminary/Session9753.html" target="_blank">Liminality and Crossing Boundaries in Applied Anthropology.</a> My primary motive to attend was to see <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthroLib" target="_blank">Nancy Fried Foster</a>'s paper on participatory design in libraries, but I was delighted that I had the chance to stay for all but the last 2 papers, because as a whole the panel was thought provoking and inspiring. <br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
At the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23NAPA&src=hash">#NAPA</a> Liminality panel being encouraged to ask what is new and to experiment in my practice of anthro <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403613892275761153">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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If there is IQ and EQ then anthros can provide institutions with solid CQ <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403614295776194561">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Patricia Wall from <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Xerox&src=hash">#Xerox</a> talking about liminality leading to innovation <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403619282451312641">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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This is the big takeaway for me from the panel. That the work, and even just the presence of anthropologists in industry and institutional settings creates a liminal space, which in turn is an opportunity for change and innovation. It's a powerful frame in which to see ourselves as professionals, and also one that requires responsible thought about what role anthropologists and anthropology should play in effecting institutional change. Patricia was explicit about her hopes for social science (she was one of at least 2 panelists who pointed out "I am not an anthropologist") in institutional settings:<br />
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Anthros can help orgs find "balance at the edge of chaos." help navigate through liminality, make processes viisible <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403633369981804545">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Maria Bezaitis from <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Intel&src=hash">#Intel</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23EPIC&src=hash">#EPIC</a> talking now.<br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403633867585617920">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Maria's energetic presentation pointed even more strongly to the potential for innovation that comes out of persistent and embedded anthropological attention to technology and the processes involved in producing that technology. In particular, we can bring up to people like engineers points about technology and the digital that we, as social scientists, largely take for granted, but not everyone else does:<br />
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"The social is always shaping the technological world" <a href="https://twitter.com/mariabz">@mariabz</a> I think tech and social interact with each other, too <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403635050354192384">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Digitization changes relationships possible between 1) strangers and 2) people and things <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403636119503261698">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Technology requires that we become more flexible in thinking about connections <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403636417466605568">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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"Instrumented products" are also "social products" that facilitate data sharing that people use to build community <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/mariabz">@mariabz</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403637305249767424">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Social Scientists in industry get paid to produce liminality = opportunities for change <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/403637778283372544">November 21, 2013</a></blockquote>
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I single out these two papers in particular because I think the themes of the potential for change, and the importance of a consistent social science-informed perspective on the processes, technologies, and organizational structures coming from and constituting industry/institutions, is one that also resonated through my own panel. That is post #3 (which, now that I have called it out, I hope I will actually write).<br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-49227565815106186302013-11-25T12:45:00.000-05:002013-11-26T13:55:51.893-05:00AAA 2013, Anthropology and Open Access<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just back from the American Anthropological Meetings in Chicago and I am so amazingly glad I went. Library and IT conferences are a part of my professional rounds these days, but there is something so comforting about being surrounded by friends and colleagues to whom I don't have to explain myself. We can just have conversations (so many conversations!) starting off from our common ground as anthropologists. It's such a freeing feeling. I am already looking forward to being in DC for AAA2014.<br />
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I was particularly energized by the panels I went to, and I will talk about the second one more in part because it was such a surprise to me. When I saw the title, <a href="http://aaa.confex.com/aaa/2013/webprogrampreliminary/Session7948.html" target="_blank">"The Future of Writing and Reading in The Digital and Open Access Eras,"</a> I was worried, because much of what I'd been hearing about Open Access from my colleagues in anthropology was full of worry and pessimism, not to mention themes that appeared to be straight out of some publishers' handbooks. I had a pre-panel chat with my colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/julezig" target="_blank">Juliann Couture</a>, who is the ACRL liaison to the AAAs as well as social science librarian at the University of Colorado, Boulder. We went over all of the things that we wished the panel would be about (but were afraid it would not be). And then we went to the panel, and <a href="http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/boellstorff/" target="_blank">Tom Boellstorff</a> from UC Irvine got up and said everything we had wished for. I live-tweeted it. I wanted to stand up at the end of his part of the panel and shout AMEN.<br />
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I have an <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> crush on Tom Boellstorff . Just going to say DITTO and WHAT HE SAID <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404339819561504769">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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RT <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos">@DonnaLanclos</a>: Tom Boellstorff appalled at level of ignorance among <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23anthros&src=hash">#anthros</a> about <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> (I am, too!) <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/405015062521208832">November 25, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Issues: political economy, genre, authorship and collaboration, peer review, assessment, access and social engagement <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404337130240876544">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Can have: not digital not <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a>, not digital yes <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a>, yes digital not <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a>, yes digital yes <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404337680508411905">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Online journals are not "just blogs"--still take resources and $$ and labor <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404338129248587776">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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make sure people know difference among Green <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a>, Gold <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> (he prefers the latter), need to think about paying for it <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404338621622149120">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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A lot of book publishers don't care if the dissertation is <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a>, they know the book MS is different <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404340067415519232">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> can be an important part of making sure that <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23anthro&src=hash">#anthro</a> knowledge is public <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Amen&src=hash">#Amen</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404340341387427840">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Need to think about how we assess value, how emergent models of evaluation are generated by new tech, forms <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404341740737282048">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Trust, Value, Authority, are related and different and are increasingly situated in individuals not institutions <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/daveowhite">@daveowhite</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404343158474956800">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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The above tweet gets at some of what we are starting to talk about in the <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/search/label/VandR" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents </a><br />
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project, how online forms of communication, scholarly production, and community have the potential to fundamentally transform notions of where scholarly authority, trust, and value lie. Where before it has been associated with institutions such as universities and publishers, altmetrics and social media give us the possibility of individuals as their own authoritative selves, independent of institutions.<br />
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Life histories of MS are now much more complicated. Afterlife of article is more important than ever. No final version. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404343771266949121">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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The <a href="http://aaa.confex.com/aaa/2013/webprogrampreliminary/Session7948.html" target="_blank">subsequent speakers</a> were equally thoughtful, if a bit more cautious about some aspects of OA. The fact that <span style="background-color: #f7f4ed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Gustavo Lins Ribeiro and </span></span> <span style="background-color: #f7f4ed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Giovanni Da Col</span></span><span style="background-color: #f7f4ed; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="background-color: #f7f4ed;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">are in </span></span>university contexts outside of the US contributed a great deal to the critical eye they brought to the peculiarly market-driven narrative around OA in the US, and how problematic that is.<br />
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What happens to academic freedom when universities submit themselves to capitalist needs? <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404349782463746048">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Discussant Alisse Waterston highlighted the questions that needed to be answered about OA for academic publishing and the production of other forms of scholarship, but also made the point that<br />
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There are multple audiences for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23anthro&src=hash">#anthro</a> knowledge, our publishing strategies should shift to reach them <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404353577096716288">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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During the discussion Juliann and I both pointed out the role that university libraries are playing in the OA discussion, and that some of the models that anthropologists and other scholars are searching for could be found collaboratively, working with people in other fields (such as Biology, which has a robust OA scholarly presence, as well as Library and Information Science), as well as elsewhere on their own campuses. <br />
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There are structural solutions to the concerns about equity in an <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a> model of publishing. Libraries can be partners in solutions <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404355611862650880">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos">@DonnaLanclos</a> but challenge is trying to support OA while unis & libraries are still paying outrageous $$$ for trad scholarship. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23aaa2013&src=hash">#aaa2013</a><br />
— Juliann Couture (@julezig) <a href="https://twitter.com/julezig/statuses/404355636336418816">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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And the managing editor of Cultural Anthropology, <a href="https://twitter.com/timelfen" target="_blank">Tim Elfenbein</a>, contributed his thoughts from his experience in trying to figure out what OA might look like, and the energy required to think not just about publishing, but broadly about scholarship.<br />
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Need to talk about scholarhip as a commodity sometimes and as a gift at others <a href="https://twitter.com/culanth">@culanth</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23AAA2013&src=hash">#AAA2013</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OA&src=hash">#OA</a><br />
— Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/404356825174130688">November 23, 2013</a></blockquote>
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This circles back around to the idea broached in the early parts of the panel by Boellstorff, that new forms of scholarly production, including OA forms, do not mean the death of the article or of the book (I wonder if it might mean the death of the journal, as we know it). These are not mutually exclusive forms, they can co-exist and work within a more rich, complex system of scholarship. <br />
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The point about the need for us to be open and transparent in our scholarship, not just to our colleagues, but to the people among whom we do our research, is also crucial. OA is an important tool to use in our project of making anthropological knowledge accessible to wider publics, not just the public of our fellow anthropologists, or even just other academics. <br />
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The potential OA has to transform the processes of scholarship, to make clear how people write, and what is involved in creating manuscripts for books, articles, even blogposts and other experimental writing genres, is so exciting to me. All of my work, now that I am in an academic library, is collaborative, and I have no choice but to share awful rough drafts with my collaborators. It is liberating and satisfying to take nascent ideas, and really work with people from the first word to get our collective ideas shaped and temporarily fixed into what we want to say. There will always be a time and a place for working alone, but working with other scholars is, I think, the best opportunity for truly new things to arise.<br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-37236205853276419122013-11-19T14:05:00.000-05:002013-11-19T14:05:18.438-05:00Playing with Cognitive MappingI am messing around with cognitive mapping instruments, stolen with <a href="http://works.bepress.com/andrew_asher/" target="_blank">Andrew Asher's</a> blessing from the <a href="http://www.erialproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Toolkit-3.22.11.pdf" target="_blank">ERIAL toolkit</a> (I know, I know, I don't need anyone's blessing because hey, that's what toolkits are for! Especially those posted on the web). I am doing this in part because <a href="http://learningspacetoolkit.org/needs-assessment/data-gathering-tools/photo-interviews/" target="_blank">photo diaries</a>, while useful and capable of yielding rich information, are really really time consuming and difficult to get students to do. I am still very much hoping to get back to University College, London, to continue the <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/news/studying-the-studiers" target="_blank">work I started there in 2011</a>, and when I am there I'd like to use cognitive maps as well as structured interviews and immersive observations to get a sense of how and why various learning spaces are being used by UCL students and faculty.<br />
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So, I'm doing some here at UNC Charlotte. At the very least, such an exploratory exercise can give us a sense of what our undergraduate and graduate students' spatial networks look like when they are written down. The data I'm collecting can also begin to serve as a comparative set for the data that I hope to be able to collect in the UK.<br />
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I just want to put some of the maps here because I think they are really interesting. I am of course far from the only one doing this--<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/lesleygourlay" target="_blank">Lesley Gourlay at the IOE</a> and her colleagues have done some mapping exercises, and of course there is the aformentioned <a href="http://www.erialproject.org/" target="_blank">ERIAL </a>work, among other ethnographic projects in the US. The students were given 6 minutes to complete each map, and were asked to map all of the places that they go to/inhabit in some way for their academic work. I was specific in saying that the spaces could be on- or off-campus. The maps posted here are undergraduate maps--I have maps from graduate students that we are still processing. In general, undergraduate space maps indicate the need for them to be in places that make it easy for them to get to the other places they need to go to. If they have class in a particular building, they are more likely to study in the Student Union than the library, because the former is closer. If they live away from campus, they might be likely to have off-campus cafes, etc. on their maps as work spaces. The choices they make about where to settle in to study are not made in a vacuum. There is a similar diversity to the spaces they find themselves in, however, in part because undergraduate classes occur in a variety of buildings in different parts of campus, and are not necessarily taught in the building that house their major programs. Graduate student maps (in process) have less diversity of spaces, because they are much more tied to the departmental labs and spaces of their degree programs.<br />
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The students worked for 2 minutes in each pen color, beginning with blue, moving to red, and then ending with black. Some students finished before the 6 minute mark, resulting in some maps in just 2 colors (such as #7 shown here).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLNQgaj0xzQSe1B3pfr7kFt_FFE221VQMYsrBWlyK9psdKv-WRBMiTPB4IWUO3Ag51KnDgja_pzGvH-G21o4PwI2LI4Z2CgOrGdjh2_qiKKiP2eEbOr-9d4PEpHpVaQw66LAclAioJM30/s1600/Map+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLNQgaj0xzQSe1B3pfr7kFt_FFE221VQMYsrBWlyK9psdKv-WRBMiTPB4IWUO3Ag51KnDgja_pzGvH-G21o4PwI2LI4Z2CgOrGdjh2_qiKKiP2eEbOr-9d4PEpHpVaQw66LAclAioJM30/s1600/Map+7.jpg" height="387" width="640" /></a><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This undergraduate lives on campus, and has drawn straight lines connecting all of the places he needs to go. The library is one place in a larger network, of course. Several of these building are classroom spaces. This senior lives in an on-campus dorm. There are no off-campus spaces shown here.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2KTGWAys6HDVid1Q1O3Fr7WpdeJYFcvrziUe-VffI4OfDfiqQ5t0M1di7-i2p_by70Uz8TVsUrsrCggzcBxtUSQdACoSfP-6v0SLNl8HBzJGZNyoq8_BwOWCgybxAN7e0TSEW_XVzhc/s1600/Map+9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj2KTGWAys6HDVid1Q1O3Fr7WpdeJYFcvrziUe-VffI4OfDfiqQ5t0M1di7-i2p_by70Uz8TVsUrsrCggzcBxtUSQdACoSfP-6v0SLNl8HBzJGZNyoq8_BwOWCgybxAN7e0TSEW_XVzhc/s1600/Map+9.jpg" height="388" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This sophomore lives in an off-campus apartment relatively far from campus, but her boyfriend's apartment (the building in the upper left corner) is closer in. She has mapped campus buildings such as the Student Union and various classroom buildings, but also included important spaces such as where her youth group meets, and the 24-hour cafe Amelie's. The library does not figure in her mental map of learning spaces.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDcGqz2J3mAA2j21YtkEPN_i8PDtSeGySpysepjavh9seT7uqDvy8h8dZ2v8I1aPKeI4ZU9o1LoZ8nWIN4KWBycaaIXstgphS0Ia0p_Cexg3aiOgLA4fZ3gC-OX_9m4bGXp11Om77cJcs/s1600/Map+10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDcGqz2J3mAA2j21YtkEPN_i8PDtSeGySpysepjavh9seT7uqDvy8h8dZ2v8I1aPKeI4ZU9o1LoZ8nWIN4KWBycaaIXstgphS0Ia0p_Cexg3aiOgLA4fZ3gC-OX_9m4bGXp11Om77cJcs/s1600/Map+10.jpg" height="388" width="640" /></a><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This student lives close to the South Carolina border, nearly a half an hour from campus. She has included several cafe or bookstore spaces, all of which have free wi-fi, but not all of which are open 24 hours. "School" is the university campus, and she has not differentiated places within the campus, because she has so many other places she inhabits. The library on this map is the public library closest to the university.<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISu558vnviBY5aRIYZxozDf-dLFxdWBqjiRMsVSVWwngsi0k65XSbhxTzQox9MdYGnrXe7JY-IV-aaItbJ6Ag2TwbSL9PCUs0RCQMNgf0KqOLF_Q35QaPBmqezbbyhQcgewhy-i67GSk/s1600/Map+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISu558vnviBY5aRIYZxozDf-dLFxdWBqjiRMsVSVWwngsi0k65XSbhxTzQox9MdYGnrXe7JY-IV-aaItbJ6Ag2TwbSL9PCUs0RCQMNgf0KqOLF_Q35QaPBmqezbbyhQcgewhy-i67GSk/s1600/Map+1.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />This junior has sketched only the places within the library he inhabits on the left hand side of the drawing. He has put in study rooms, and indicated where the study rooms are in the building by their proximity to round tables with computers on them (these are on the 1st floor). His other learning spaces are in his close-to-campus apartment, on the right hand side. He has sketched his living room furniture (comfortable chairs as well as desks), and his bedroom.</td></tr>
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-50271810454258440142013-10-22T17:22:00.003-04:002013-11-18T13:41:42.949-05:00EDUCAUSE 2013: Finding our Way in Anaheim<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj1QU2IVDNG7ThCVDvRof8xTLlt1V4usscvSsi4S0oiJtP8wML-hXbNFQ4MtS9K4B4bi-3ZFifB75PE7DkoqUGYVWiemstSNEuDdOIKbKL1j7Y1Y8rlfxw_X2cnhpGJvpkxhL_a7FfeQ/s1600/Gate+to+California+Adventure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrj1QU2IVDNG7ThCVDvRof8xTLlt1V4usscvSsi4S0oiJtP8wML-hXbNFQ4MtS9K4B4bi-3ZFifB75PE7DkoqUGYVWiemstSNEuDdOIKbKL1j7Y1Y8rlfxw_X2cnhpGJvpkxhL_a7FfeQ/s1600/Gate+to+California+Adventure.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
My second attendance at Educause, and this one was in Anaheim. <br />
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I had a full Wednesday of presentations. One presentation was with my <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/search/label/VandR" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents </a>collaborators, <a href="http://www.oclc.org/research/people/connaway.html" target="_blank">Lynn Connaway</a> and <a href="http://www.oclc.org/research/people/hood.html" target="_blank">Erin Hood</a> from OCLC (but sans <a href="http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/author/whited/" target="_blank">David White</a>, who was with us in spirit even as he stayed in Oxford). We talked about our analysis of the data we've been collecting since 2010 on modes of engagement with digital places, people, technology, and information. I was gratified that the themes revealed in our work, and in particular our conclusions about how important people and relationships are to the choices people make when engaging with technology and the web, were so well represented in other presentations at Educause, including <a href="http://www.educationdive.com/news/3-hard-education-questions-ken-robinson-says-need-to-be-answered-educause/182762/" target="_blank">Sir Ken Robinson's keynote</a>, and Mimi Ito's <a href="http://www.itofisher.com/mito/weblog/2013/01/new_research_report_on_connect.html" target="_blank">presentation on her work regarding Connected Learning.</a> As an anthropologist, I am of course a big fan of researchers (like fellow anthropologist Mimi Ito!) pointing out to Education Technology specialists like the ones who attend Educause that that they need to pay attention to people, their behavior, and their motivations, and not get distracted by the specifics of the shiny tools that people are using at any given moment.<br />
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I also presented a poster session with my colleague <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobrprice" target="_blank">Bob Price</a>, Director of Digital Initiatives at UNC Charlotte. We were focusing on two primary things: the wayfinding tool that our
Digital Initiatives department built, and the research processes that helped inform
why we wanted to build the tool (not just because it would be shiny!), and the plans we have for it going
forward.<br />
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Here's our poster (in two parts, designed by our fantastic colleague and web graphic designer <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiengo" target="_blank">Maggie Ngo</a>, click to see larger versions of each poster)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/gcnqgmi9eybmp7p/Educause_Poster2013.pdf" target="_blank">Click to see larger version of Posters 1 and 2</a></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" 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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20204292/Educause_Poster2013-2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="387" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgVbAEwR2v-GPfCEGFOxb_6NWEK1vB7P5bf5_Cccli6OTFzE9yVS27549FbuiESmECTZvXqFvAZx11oisAoOwKwfGvtjEFLhcxzvFQfoWBXY1bNO2R748-17Tt9apO60XcYqm_v6nB1jg/s1600/Educause_Poster2013-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/gcnqgmi9eybmp7p/Educause_Poster2013.pdf" target="_blank">Click to see larger version of Posters 1 and 2</a></td></tr>
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One thing we tried to emphasize in our discussions with the people who came by to see the poster (thanks to all who stopped by, the conversations were wonderful, and the interest in our work truly gratifying) was that this sort of project was inspired in part by the open-ended exploratory research I've been doing among our students. The photo diaries I have been having undergraduates do for the last 3 or 4 semesters have been a way to evaluate and observe the habits of our students in terms of where and how they do their academic work, regardless of whether they are in the library or not. Some of the prompts ask library-specific questions, and some ask much broader questions about their practices, without cues to talk about the library (I adapted the photo diary instrument from a similar one used by <a href="http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=2322" target="_blank">Nancy Fried Foster and her team, in her research at Rochester</a>). The photo diaries from our UNC Charlotte students revealed a deep level of ambivalence about some library spaces, in particular the stacks, and the corridors. Valuable resources are in the stacks, and along the corridors--the latter is how you find study rooms, classrooms, and our reference librarians, in our physical building.<br />
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We saw leveraging digital tools to give students a way to become more familiar with our building as a way of encouraging them to become comfortable with the building before they even walk into it. In the same way that people use Google Maps to figure out where they are going in an unfamiliar place, our students can use our digital wayfinder to plan their route, to see what lies where, and to generally get a feel for the physical spaces, before they are even there.<br />
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The campus population at UNC Charlotte has many first-generation college students, as well as transfer students who were accustomed to buildings and resources at their previous institution. Even traditional first year full time freshmen might have mental barriers to entering a university library building, which can seem large and intimidating to someone not used to these sort of institutional spaces. It is our responsibility to try to respond to the need for students to access our useful spaces (like libraries), by making them navigable, familiar, friendly.<br />
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In future iterations of our wayfinding tool, we hope to go beyond the physical building, which is just a part of what our library has to offer. Linking our digital resources and spaces in with the wayfinder will give our patrons a more holistic vision of what we contain: electronic resources, <a href="http://library.uncc.edu/node/13065" target="_blank">booking software that allows students to connect with each other in study groups</a>, connections with liaisons via chat, text, and email, and other tools we haven't built yet.<br />
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We welcome comments, and those interested in collaborating with us on future versions of the Wayfinder.<br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-38363053024490263182013-08-27T14:40:00.000-04:002013-11-05T13:41:46.648-05:00Sleeping and Successful Library Spaces<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">.<a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos">@DonnaLanclos</a> have
you read the ‘learning aviary’ paper yet? Fave quote so far is if students fall
asleep in 1 area then design success :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">— Bryony Ramsden
(@librarygirlknit) <a href="https://twitter.com/librarygirlknit/statuses/372300744411844608">August
27, 2013</a></span></blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">So the article my
colleague Bryony is referring to is this one : <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Legerton, G. (January 01,
2013). Encouraging choice, serendipity and experimentation: experiences from
Griffith University library (G11) extension and Gumurrii Centre. <i>Journal
of Interprofessional Care, 27, </i>51-62.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am
interested to read it further, but her tweet reminded me that I had never
pointed out one of the fun facts uncovered by the <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html" target="_blank">behavior mapping that myarchitecture grad student, Alison Schaefer, carried out last semester. </a>
First, I want to show you a typical circulation pattern through our ground
floor collaborative space. This map was generated not long after the
space opened, but this primary pattern has yet to deviate substantially. Then look at the next two maps, in black with beige highlights.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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paths. This map was made on Jan 24th, representing the pattern at
12.40PM. </span></span></td></tr>
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January 2013</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4mZB35E9uc_UBApp_qrYSkYGFIAjAdw51A9ijKzlqoE-JHNz0v5kGTlRSaG5c72YHN5svGa9D8QAJOPVOP0aeqxIrfxjw75posAlvFwRGxVWIwGhuzK4Gbroa6zW9LpeQw0H3A6_o4A/s1600/ZoningSleeping.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4mZB35E9uc_UBApp_qrYSkYGFIAjAdw51A9ijKzlqoE-JHNz0v5kGTlRSaG5c72YHN5svGa9D8QAJOPVOP0aeqxIrfxjw75posAlvFwRGxVWIwGhuzK4Gbroa6zW9LpeQw0H3A6_o4A/s640/ZoningSleeping.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sleeping Map, April
2013</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Notice, in the two maps above, where people were sleeping</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">While some of the
sleeping is indeed happening away from the high traffic areas, some of it is
certainly happening right in the middle of relatively noisy and active parts of
the ground floor. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Another thing to note is
that these maps were not created during finals week, a time when it is assumed
there will be lots of sleeping in the library, along with studying (and,
avoiding studying).</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">In short, making
assumptions about where students will sleep in the library based on a) where we
think they should be sleeping, or b) where we would prefer to sleep, or even c)
conventional wisdom about where students sleep, will not get you very far.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our students sleep
anywhere, as they need to. They are working hard, and sometimes need to
recharge. If sleeping students are symptoms of successful spaces, then
Atkins Library is doing very well indeed.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-58776864317128476692013-07-09T14:44:00.003-04:002013-07-09T14:44:54.226-04:00Visitors, Residents, Learners, Academics: ALA2013 and Communities of Practice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnJChD1Cw29YCEkHcqTxOGV6DZKANrmCc2bjNHkGwBWv_uN4GxG_cCZeGsufteusWxFxVMQHEv_KunN2Wid2HavJDF97gJMGMspmGqCnaO0X7ig45pqxaXHoFuFyLnE0qe5tR5vE1U4w/s1600/2013-06-28+12.40.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMnJChD1Cw29YCEkHcqTxOGV6DZKANrmCc2bjNHkGwBWv_uN4GxG_cCZeGsufteusWxFxVMQHEv_KunN2Wid2HavJDF97gJMGMspmGqCnaO0X7ig45pqxaXHoFuFyLnE0qe5tR5vE1U4w/s640/2013-06-28+12.40.02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I was at ALA to help conduct participatory design sessions on behalf of the <a href="http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/projects/visitorsandresidents.aspx" target="_blank">Visitors and Residents Project</a>. We are at the point in our long-term project that we're conducting expert sessions on modes of engagement with technology and information, where we'd like to produce resources that can help others think about and configure the things they are doing with a focus on what their patrons/users/constituencies need and want to do.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrFPjXOc4c4XCzWxJ_mHggenJDSm9NHJcZWB4cobj0atQ8H5bcIFTZR6WFhmnBKzCN29Imgwt8lTNuJzq-ZyOWTkJK1xBfr_r8eHt15yfSR7GWQgDbweTfgBfAiEQhM2WgZiiALDa5bkU/s1600/ALA2013-professional.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrFPjXOc4c4XCzWxJ_mHggenJDSm9NHJcZWB4cobj0atQ8H5bcIFTZR6WFhmnBKzCN29Imgwt8lTNuJzq-ZyOWTkJK1xBfr_r8eHt15yfSR7GWQgDbweTfgBfAiEQhM2WgZiiALDa5bkU/s400/ALA2013-professional.jpg" width="400" /></a><br /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><br />V and R map of a library professional, showing lots<br /> of Visitor mode and Institutional contexts (in these maps, the P-I axis is<br />Personal/Institutional)</span></td></tr>
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To that end, we (where "we" = <a href="http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/vandr.html" target="_blank">Lynn Sillipigni Connaway and Erin Hood from OCLC, David White from Oxford, and myself</a>) convened 2 different sessions with library experts--leaders in their fields, in their libraries, in their departments. We asked them<a href="http://tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk/index.php/2013/06/05/vandrmapping/" target="_blank"> to map themselves on the Visitors and Residents polechart</a> that we've developed and have been using with librarians and educators (in the US and the UK) to discuss how individuals get information and engage with technology for their personal and professional/academic needs. <br />
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We then asked the participants to map their constituents. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVqSuq-UdoSEEZ5bIk0pXVHcZYG5ZQpIcD2IBOOXGYe6UluCzgvKsBCt9W3sdtb1idojlWb6B3kt2J6Cmnl78pioIRvfYi9kHRXEic43AzqeFXfygwgGfq_nD0nPmlX_TOEMwUL1V-hw/s1600/ALA2013_undergrad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrVqSuq-UdoSEEZ5bIk0pXVHcZYG5ZQpIcD2IBOOXGYe6UluCzgvKsBCt9W3sdtb1idojlWb6B3kt2J6Cmnl78pioIRvfYi9kHRXEic43AzqeFXfygwgGfq_nD0nPmlX_TOEMwUL1V-hw/s400/ALA2013_undergrad.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">The same professional who produced the above map chose to map their perception<br />of Undergraduate engagement, with heavy emphasis on Resident-mode and Personal context.</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />
And then we talked.<br />
<br />
There was a lot of talk, and it was fantastic and constructive. So now, we've got a great deal to process. I have blogged before about <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2012/11/educause-2012-part-second.html" target="_blank">where things like Facebook show up on V&R maps</a>, and I have the persistent sense that what tool/digital space people are using/inhabiting is less important than what they are doing in that space/with that tool. That is, as Dave pointed out during the session, it's not enough to count how many students are on Twitter, or FB, or whatever. You have to do the qualitative work that tells you just what they are doing in these environments. Some use FB to connect with people, but some connect with people only via direct messages, others post everything to their wall. Some use FB as a clearinghouse for all of the events and organizations they want to track. And so on. Our analysis of what people are doing to engage with resources should ideally be tool-agnostic. It is the same way that IT support should be device-agnostic; you should be able to do your work whether you walk into academic spaces carrying a Mac or a PC, a netbook or a phone, etc.<br />
<br />
So, a media strategy that identifies FB as important, but fails to grasp the details of why, is not going to be a terribly successful one.<br />
<br />
One of the other things I'm processing is something we've been talking about amongst ourselves in the V&R group for a while, because it's coming out of our data loud and clear.<br />
<br />
This will surprise very few of you, I think: There is a difference between Participating in Academia, and Learning.<br />
<br />
Our interviewees reflect the tension between learning and academic practices every time some of the participants apologetically talk about how they use Wikipedia as a starting point to get themselves ready to dig deeper (or not) for the work they are doing. Lower division undergraduates describe a process familiar to many a college instructor when they talk about constructing an argument for their essay first, and then going in to do quick searches so they can insert relevant references. They are producing something for the academic process, but are not necessarily learning. <br />
<br />
We do see them talking about learning, when they are engaged with the material, or with the person teaching the material, or if there is so much at stake for them to learn it that they do it even if they are not really interested. <br />
<br />
This disconnect makes me think of the reading I've been doing in the Community of Practice literature, especially the work of Wenger and Lave and Rogoff (cites below). My take away from reading this literature is that C of P theory is a really nice way of framing what happens when people learn how to be members of groups. The literature describes a wide variety of groups, including vocational, educational, and recovery. Central to Lave and Wenger's 1991 discussion of Cs of P is the idea of Legitimate Peripheral Participation. I'm going to quote here:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">"We intend for the concept to be taken as a whole. Each of the
aspects is indispensable in defining the others and cannot be considered
in isolation...Thus, in the terms proposed here there may very well be
no such thing as an 'illegitimate peripheral participant.' The form
that the legitimacy of participation takes is a defining characteristic
of ways of belonging, and is therefore not only a crucial condition for
learning, but a constitutive element of its content. Similarly, with
regard to 'peripherality' there may well be no such simple thing as
'central participation' in a community of practice. Peripherality
suggests that there are multiple, varied, more- or less- engaged and
-inclusive ways of being located in the fields of participation defined
by a community. Peripheral participation is about being located in the
social world. <i>Changing</i> locations and perspectives are part of actors' learning trajectories, developing identities, and forms of membership (35-36)."</span><br />
<br />
They further make the point that legitimate peripheral participation
occurs within social structures, involving relations of power. So,
different power relations can serve as barriers to participation, or
facilitate it. There is no inevitable progress towards a "center" in
this structure, but an attempt to give theoretical structure to a
malleable manifestation in society.<br />
<br />
<br />
They emphasize that it is not "itself an educational form, much less a
pedagogical strategy or a teaching technique. It is an analytical
viewpoint on learning, a way of understanding learning. (40)"<br />
<br />
I find it tremendously useful to have this in my head when I am thinking about the interview data we are collecting in the V&R project. The practices they engage in are acquired in social matrices of friends, family, peers, teachers, co-workers, and supervisors. The relationship our research participants have with the people from whom they learn practices, in turn, informs the relationship they have to the practices they acquire, the resources they choose to consult, or reject. <br />
<br />
The confidence they have in the practices they acquire appears to be directly related to how connected they feel to the community they are participating in. And that has less to do with abstract notions of best practices than it does with the familiar (not to be confused with convenient, although that comes into it as well), that which is engaged in by people whom they trust, with whom they already have relationships.<br />
<br />
So, if we in libraries want to transform the ways that people are engaging in academic work, or at least, actively participate in the changes that are happening around us, we need to be fully embedded as community members. Students will come to us and work with us when they recognize us as part of their network. As <a href="http://gavialib.com/2013/03/unpacking-faculty-status/" target="_blank">faculty members, and/or people who work with faculty members</a>, we in the library need not just to engage in the practices of academia, but advertise widely that we are engaged in such work, so that we are visible members of the community. And when we recognize barriers to that participation, we need to work collectively to overcome them--such problems cannot be solved by individuals.<br />
<br />
The beauty of the Legitimate Peripheral Participation idea is that there is no one "right" way to do any of this. There are potentially many effective ways.<br />
<br />
We also need to think about which community we are preparing our students to participate in as members. Are we preparing them to be Academics? Is that the best overall approach? Or should we think about what to do to prepare an informed citizenry? I really appreciate Barbara Fister's blogpost from <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/library-babel-fish/un-american-affairs" target="_blank">today</a> on this last point. Our responsibility, in libraries and in education generally, is not, I think, to merely reproduce another generation of academics, but to send people out into the world better equipped than they were before for participating in civil society.<br />
<br />
******************************<br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
<div class="csl-bib-body" style="line-height: 2; padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;">
<div class="csl-entry">
Lave, Jean, & Wenger, Etienne. (1991). <i>Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation</i>. Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.</div>
<div class="csl-entry">
<span style="line-height: 2; text-indent: -2em;">Rogoff, Barbara. (1990). </span><i style="line-height: 2; text-indent: -2em;">Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context. </i><span style="line-height: 2; text-indent: -2em;"> Oxford: Oxford University Press.</span></div>
<div class="csl-entry">
Wenger, Etienne. (1998). <i>Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. </i>Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.<br />
<br />
[with thanks to Lynn S. Connaway for editing suggestions, and Erin Hood for the V&R scans, and Dave White for saying things that I wanted to write down in this blogpost]</div>
<span class="Z3988" title="url_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fzotero.org%3A2&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=book&rft.btitle=Situated%20Learning%3A%20%20Legitimate%20Peripheral%20Participation&rft.place=Cambridge&rft.publisher=University%20of%20Cambridge%20Press&rft.series=Learning%20in%20Doing%3A%20%20Social%2C%20Cognitive%2C%20and%20Computational%20Perspectives&rft.aulast=Lave%2C%20Jean&rft.au=Lave%2C%20Jean&rft.au=Wenger%2C%20Etienne&rft.date=1991&rft.tpages=138"></span></div>
Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-5350631586845194992013-07-05T12:44:00.000-04:002013-07-05T12:45:22.210-04:00ALA 2013, Ethnography, Ethnology, and Libraries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, Chicago. Wow, eh?<br />
<br />
Those of you who have been to ALA know what it's like. Apparently the 2013 meetings were even more massive than usual. So, I have lots of thoughts, and will attempt to get some of them in this blog, but not all at once. That would be crazy.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
The first thing at the top of my head is the <a href="http://ala13.ala.org/node/10050" target="_blank">panel I attended on social science practices in Libraries,</a> sponsored by ANSS. At this point, there is a thin but widespread tradition of doing ethnographic work in libraries to inform the design and deployment of spaces and services in libraries. I think it's clear that it's another useful method for helping us figure out what to try and why it might or might not be working--for assessment, as well as planning.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/aasher">@aasher</a> says we need more
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23anthrolib&src=hash">#anthrolib</a>
that talks about the embedded structures and power relationships that
libraries are in <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ala2013&src=hash">#ala2013</a><br />
—
Donna Lanclos (@DonnaLanclos) <a href="https://twitter.com/DonnaLanclos/statuses/351419417399271424">June
30, 2013</a></blockquote>
<br />
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br />
But in the discussion after the panel, one question piqued concerns that I've had for a while--that there isn't enough work out there on the structural causes for what we see in libraries (in particular, academic libraries), and, importantly, the power relationships that are shot through how and why libraries look and work the way they do now. I would love to see someone in ILS take this on as a PhD project. Maybe someone already has? I think that embedded in some of our worries about access, fluencies/literacies, and informed citizenry are class, race, and gender inequities that underlie all of our society, not just the one that erupts in libraries. Explicitly connecting those could well facilitate getting closer to more effective information landscapes for everyone.<br />
<br />
I also think that we anthropologists working with library folk need to do a better job of bringing up the importance of ethnology in the field--that is, comparative work, not just deeply descriptive work. Both ethnology and ethnography are necessary for effective analysis--how can we know that a problem is unique, if we have never tried to see where else this might occur, how else it might look? How can we talk about gender constructs, for example, if we only observe and describe them in one culture? How can we talk about student work if we only observe it in our university? How can we reimagine librarianship in the absence of comparative data? There are comparative projects out there--<a href="http://www.erialproject.org/" target="_blank">ERIAL </a>was one in that it was more than one university, and <a href="http://projectinfolit.org/" target="_blank">PIL </a>is certainly trying, in a North American context. There are international presentations in the ALA2013 program, <a href="http://ala13.ala.org/node/10220" target="_blank">discussions about issues in libraries in Africa,</a> for example, and this <a href="http://ala13.ala.org/node/12126" target="_blank">poster session about librarianship in Germany</a>. (apologies to those for whom those links will not work--you might need an ALA password to see the program)<br />
<br />
As anthropologists, each of us working in library-land need to encourage people engaging in qualitative work to look beyond the confines of their own institutions, and even borrow from insights gained in other research. Ethnology helps us not just triangulate, sorting the unique from the widespread, the structural from the individual, it can also helps us realize (from a policy perspective) we are not alone, there are solutions and suggestions to be gathered from the experiences of other institutions. <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/news/studying-the-studiers" target="_blank">My own small project at UCL's Institute of Archaeology</a> was an attempt to try this, and I hope to continue.<br />
<br />
That is, we don't need to encourage everyone to do their own full blown ethnography project. We do need to try, those of us engaged in such work, to network and speak and collect our data and insights so that they can be considered, critiqued, added to, refined, and acted upon by a larger group. I am frequently in the "better living through anthropology" camp, and this is no exception, but ethnography is not the same as anthropology. It's one methodological piece, one analytical angle. Library-land can benefit from borrowing much more. We should encourage them to do so. And support them as they do.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPLSQVQzqR1TB7f-t7Gmb4GOgK229gErhgBdRCti2nqNfYuzAcfRWXexwJyavLJV2X6Zz9cfIXy7ezRIGzB41QKdRqMEwR80LcTtlha1FVNc2M-drO6QJVq2VN4cQxLqXGBtmARls_H6M/s1600/2013-06-28+09.06.02.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-29957266986010666172013-06-03T10:22:00.001-04:002013-06-03T10:22:27.228-04:00Look to the present of libraries to see the futureWhen I was doing <a href="http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/product/At-Play-in-Belfast,2185.aspx">research among children in Northern Ireland,</a> one of my projects was to write against the notion that "children are the future." Yes, children will live in the future, but they are also living in the present, and their behaviors need to be observed and interpreted as very much Of This Time. We do them a disservice if we marginalize their importance to the world as it is now.<br />
<br />
I feel that way about the recurring conversations about the Future of the Library (and in particular, "<a href="http://bibwild.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/one-scenario-for-the-death-of-the-academic-library/">the death of the academic library"</a>). There are things happening now in library-land that are important because they are happening now, not because of what they may or may not signal about the future. And, if we speculate too much about "the future" we run the risk of missing important things that are happening now.<br />
<br />
These thoughts are tied up with my lingering musings about ACRL 2013, and what I got from it. The low-level hum of anxiety about relevance and engagement (between the academic library and the rest of the university) felt strange to me, given how engaged I see my colleagues at Atkins are in the current work of UNC Charlotte (and, how engaged many people at ACRL were in scholarship of their own). It made me think of my colleagues in folklore and anthropology wondering why no one asked them for help/advice/expertise. When the answer is, you don't wait around for them to ask. You offer. You act. I see people offering and acting all the time.<br />
<br />
In my experience and opinion (disclaimer: I am not a librarian, even as I work in an academic library), libraries are far more than the resources we provide. We who work in academic libraries are
contract-negotiators, we are digital tool-wranglers. We are fellow researchers with our own range
of expertise, we are partners in the delivery of curriculum to our
students. We are not waiting around for someone to
include us in their research project, or their classroom strategies. We are doing our own research, and teaching
in our own spheres of influence. We are
experts on how students and faculty do their work, and we are advocates for and
providers of digital and physical spaces in which that can happen. We are facilitators of interdisciplinary
connections, we provide the places in which scholars encounter each other, work
together, learn and explain old ideas, and brainstorm new ones. We
are champions of faculty and student copyright holders, and of open access and
all that it can yield to the new landscape of scholarly production. We are
humanists, we are scientists, we are social scientists. We are the heart of the university.<br />
<br />
If we continue to frame libraries as containing staff and
resources that merely “help” the rest of the university, yes, we will
marginalize libraries. This is why it’s
important to continue to advocate for<a href="http://gavialib.com/2013/03/unpacking-faculty-status/"> faculty status </a>of librarians, because it
removes a perceived barrier between “faculty” and “Library.” Academic librarians are doing faculty work,
and are more properly conceived of as colleagues and partners in the university’s
larger goals. The question should not be, “what can I do for
you?” but “What can we do together?” <br />
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-91520746967912407812013-03-08T11:59:00.001-05:002013-03-08T11:59:56.846-05:00Field Trip! NC State Hunt Library and Spaces to Think With.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Wednesday I visited not just NC State for the first time ever, but I got to have a comprehensive tour of the new <a href="http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary">James B. Hunt Library</a>. They had an open house yesterday, and the place was full of people who work in libraries (visitors came from all over the region, including out of state) being led around the amazing spaces.<br />
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There are pictures of the Hunt library all over the internet--I reproduce mine here not because they are fantastic photos, but because I took pictures of things that help me think about library spaces, and about what is possible in our own spaces at Atkins (which I've been <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html">uncharacteristically (for my blog) chatty about </a> <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/03/guest-blog-mitchell-l-mcgregor-on.html">recently</a>). It is an objectively spectacular space, and the fact that not everyone has the resources to create such a space should not deter people from going into what NCSU has created, learning from it, and dreaming big. I intend here (and everywhere) not just to think about spaces, but to think <i>with </i>spaces, not just fancy ones like there are at Hunt, but in the more mundane everyday spaces in which our students and faculty find themselves.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The small 3-D printer that NCSU students<br /> can use for prototypes for classes, or just having fun.</td></tr>
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I am going to blog here mostly about space, although the tech stuff possible
in the Hunt library is just as cool, and just as worthy of anyone's
attention; for example, the fact that students and faculty now have 3-D
printers at their disposal in the Hunt makerspaces. </div>
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The Hunt library is, to my mind, the biggest branch library I have ever seen. It is the library for the new Centennial Campus at State, which means its primary users are in Engineering, Textiles, and other science programs. It is also envisioned as a "second main library" for the entire university, and I will be interested to see what other constituencies use the spaces in that building. They are undeniably attractive.<br />
<br />
Color has been used in simple but effective ways to mark places that students need to look for.<br />
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Yellow is for Stairs.<br />
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Blue is for Elevators.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53C1Ps3xmy3q5E58HyVQmenARxxBIgOIrEh_sWdBic2bi_CY740Rg_GeR_C6yz3WZw3bqXYSNjyUvz3DI7uCAAf7pjDjPkSxWMQIVUdGgQvrF1OnCrdvNmBnkaEBQABpGgxvvRMIrDSk/s1600/DSCN0093.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53C1Ps3xmy3q5E58HyVQmenARxxBIgOIrEh_sWdBic2bi_CY740Rg_GeR_C6yz3WZw3bqXYSNjyUvz3DI7uCAAf7pjDjPkSxWMQIVUdGgQvrF1OnCrdvNmBnkaEBQABpGgxvvRMIrDSk/s320/DSCN0093.JPG" width="240" /></a> Orange is for restrooms.</div>
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Red is for Asking for Help (as well as the Wolfpack).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinJMFioaaTJSdwopN3XwxEhtis5DtHM2gpntbMpLtL6dzbEX8FFwLOwEmQoT8V3zPujEoQBI4ydavGPa1CtmKzrc8Efujclf87CfDLjGv0RWiYBcLFN2b0R-QgNv6AsbJhv97k92fWe8c/s1600/DSCN0077.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinJMFioaaTJSdwopN3XwxEhtis5DtHM2gpntbMpLtL6dzbEX8FFwLOwEmQoT8V3zPujEoQBI4ydavGPa1CtmKzrc8Efujclf87CfDLjGv0RWiYBcLFN2b0R-QgNv6AsbJhv97k92fWe8c/s640/DSCN0077.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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All people going into and out of the library have to pass by the Ask Us station, which is not just an info point, but an all-services point, where students can go to for reference, technical, and circulation help. In addition, workers can be deployed (via walkie talkie) to parts of the library where people need help (this is apparently very popular for IT type help). Reference specialists can be called from other parts of the building if a question is particularly in-depth. Books that are retrieved by the "Book Bot" are put in this space within five minutes of the request.<br />
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And hey, let's talk about that Book Bot.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAO-vNf3bShRsqvw3-vK4mw30yTkyxET4OggefYl4sKlYVP_H-xmkRpKfgAn5lpyipD_EykTA-tfp0q3U435fogfmcltEXY-KmEYr-EFAyzBYr18APk7M9VAtmw-r6H1lv0t7hsnu821k/s1600/DSCN0070.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAO-vNf3bShRsqvw3-vK4mw30yTkyxET4OggefYl4sKlYVP_H-xmkRpKfgAn5lpyipD_EykTA-tfp0q3U435fogfmcltEXY-KmEYr-EFAyzBYr18APk7M9VAtmw-r6H1lv0t7hsnu821k/s320/DSCN0070.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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Entering on the 1st floor of the Hunt Library gives you a great view of the "back" of the automated vertical storage unit, which holds 1.5 million volumes. Books, folios, microfilm, and DVDs (among other things) once requested, can be made available for patrons in 5 minutes (and retrieved from the Ask Us station), or delivered to faculty offices. They are sorted by size, and bar-coded for identification (although they are also RFID-ing each thing that is circulated, with the hope that at least the most circulated things will be RFID-tagged eventually, if not the entire Hunt collection). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizC8eHvfLDl1aMbxd9k4NoF50oQrnvkIQIvzwrpr-nwnVoCxHZ77ceUeOayHwZpyWY1fF2IMUUqBJoCcRpmowPY9-B48kMoSdSHx75_UZgvogD22cW08tx2v6s5MxkUmg69cNAlxkytII/s1600/DSCN0110.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizC8eHvfLDl1aMbxd9k4NoF50oQrnvkIQIvzwrpr-nwnVoCxHZ77ceUeOayHwZpyWY1fF2IMUUqBJoCcRpmowPY9-B48kMoSdSHx75_UZgvogD22cW08tx2v6s5MxkUmg69cNAlxkytII/s320/DSCN0110.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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This is the "front" of the system, showing one of the robots that retrieves the books, with one of the bins, showing how the books are sorted. <br />
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So, yeah, the system is cool, and really makes me think about the future of stacks maintenance, but what I was struck by was what NCSU's library IT has built to make it possible to browse closed shelving (it's currently in Beta).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKBK46ILoe65SimlCzZp3se3-tERAyruPeGMbNVrjCLDtteOURsVZXXKQUYHlVR7dfS8uffK86fBKifRaIoIdRyH-j9D3FqkeRjT0oiIopE0L6x5n7-IH_tv7-7fkmsNzb2HO9Vb9UHI/s1600/Virtual+Book+Browser.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKBK46ILoe65SimlCzZp3se3-tERAyruPeGMbNVrjCLDtteOURsVZXXKQUYHlVR7dfS8uffK86fBKifRaIoIdRyH-j9D3FqkeRjT0oiIopE0L6x5n7-IH_tv7-7fkmsNzb2HO9Vb9UHI/s320/Virtual+Book+Browser.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0KQQTc3ereBfZlzhqpsx4QP7z-SQse7r363eqJTK9hAmnyz6HWF_t1zZZkJ5L_GfdPY9eOgRSB7fDo8uVP-3TZN12YmTko19YNBhYP-22hd7pgVM7aef0txbZbixCuLivKQYzu5WOcE/s1600/DSCN0094.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
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They call it Virtual Browse, and it's a touch screen that is currently mounted on the 1st floor, before you enter the library proper, between the large windows that give you a view onto the back of the Book Bot. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB0mdEbmNvgEKuXX5hBxsVXlH9qKO6uvqGWyumpcMQAJyTaYqcOpJGO4hbUZNV54UtV10vHPwycrHXcihi8DEZELrC3oYjju5nfBl-mI6HoH-rLuJ9lJTWRDsqLeltcu2UL7l2onbwCY/s1600/DSCN0066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZB0mdEbmNvgEKuXX5hBxsVXlH9qKO6uvqGWyumpcMQAJyTaYqcOpJGO4hbUZNV54UtV10vHPwycrHXcihi8DEZELrC3oYjju5nfBl-mI6HoH-rLuJ9lJTWRDsqLeltcu2UL7l2onbwCY/s400/DSCN0066.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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This allows for browsing the Hunt collection in a way that is simply not physically possible anymore, given that the books are all in the automated storage system, and that it was never possible to look at the physical collection and browse the electronic resources at the same time. The Virtual Browse includes electronic resources as well as physical. This exercise in stacks virtualization, I think, is not just useful for libraries with closed/automated/off-site collections, but for all of us. In my experience, many of our patrons experience our stacks as "closed" even if they are technically open, because they don't know how to navigate or read the stacks. This tool allows them to navigate the stacks and find things even if they don't understand the call number system, even if they aren't exactly sure where in the building those books are. I think I'm more excited about the virtual browser than I am about the book-finding robot.<br />
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The collaborative work spaces in open parts of the Hunt library (spread across 3 floors) are colorful and configured in a variety of ways (with very attractive and fancy furniture). <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrL6TP8q-7mdOh4NksM29ca77F6NWcPKkCwvEFg_dGS9wP-1rp9woxYFwL9zllW_aPnq-h-99SygUjSLxvRfdNrt9Y60qUa6f22K9D0_OfEoS2VzupCMy-AmkG70IHNcUCof8le8z_yGQ/s1600/DSCN0146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrL6TP8q-7mdOh4NksM29ca77F6NWcPKkCwvEFg_dGS9wP-1rp9woxYFwL9zllW_aPnq-h-99SygUjSLxvRfdNrt9Y60qUa6f22K9D0_OfEoS2VzupCMy-AmkG70IHNcUCof8le8z_yGQ/s400/DSCN0146.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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Some booths. This one has a view beyond to the Graduate Reading Room.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEaf8X95O5FZqKpm3u6SBHdUgfamiEURDuOUMkBMXs6fAL3b2FBH38ILo_Tg91dsOURWDaZqBjaczbuR5NMfJkp9DQg488MOcCtXHE9ptwvsooocIFaH0ovYVgwenDroT26NVWN29E-Do/s1600/DSCN0115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEaf8X95O5FZqKpm3u6SBHdUgfamiEURDuOUMkBMXs6fAL3b2FBH38ILo_Tg91dsOURWDaZqBjaczbuR5NMfJkp9DQg488MOcCtXHE9ptwvsooocIFaH0ovYVgwenDroT26NVWN29E-Do/s400/DSCN0115.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Some tables with task chairs, rolling whiteboards, stools.<br />
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Some bar-type computer banks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUU8xlgNk3pxu_l1uonjeiVbF0zFSbU0HO9DCLOH6GlSafKAttUhMLtseId93PnpW6XqqYv-4oqco8HyUwvHgjWHtwTKjgOKX01ZkVmw1hkAR94aKywaAacWJ6Ics2Wv3QZKdSqBRCjU4/s1600/DSCN0131.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUU8xlgNk3pxu_l1uonjeiVbF0zFSbU0HO9DCLOH6GlSafKAttUhMLtseId93PnpW6XqqYv-4oqco8HyUwvHgjWHtwTKjgOKX01ZkVmw1hkAR94aKywaAacWJ6Ics2Wv3QZKdSqBRCjU4/s400/DSCN0131.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
(the computers were Coming Soon).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKO8UbRCLF82zIH7AC9nMFW-bQw1A6ptycA-RyAhjcQqyeeNwSsEaGpcIxydBdRHO3GPBDCgnom-tbH5q7HalERbgqVoGNs2q3LvRoqebjMRQYiCgL2QT4TwytpYiKTbu27xjBM1oRlNA/s1600/2013-03-06+13.17.12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
And so on.<br />
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There are also spaces that evoke the design trope of the reading room, also spread across at least 3 floors of the Hunt Library.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixz1mX8oYTAikFY-ASaIYNhzhi3G9Vb8hEEjQ4hpbmzvG9K4SJwTmPQ5XkeIHoVzgNCBmefhYFGRfxoxFIFrrdatX7j6YZzxkEM4ZXSXJbH2BfNi4FLxDu0ERI8Pw3SOAXhq6VVbJhwqw/s1600/2013-03-06+13.19.18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixz1mX8oYTAikFY-ASaIYNhzhi3G9Vb8hEEjQ4hpbmzvG9K4SJwTmPQ5XkeIHoVzgNCBmefhYFGRfxoxFIFrrdatX7j6YZzxkEM4ZXSXJbH2BfNi4FLxDu0ERI8Pw3SOAXhq6VVbJhwqw/s640/2013-03-06+13.19.18.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0KQQTc3ereBfZlzhqpsx4QP7z-SQse7r363eqJTK9hAmnyz6HWF_t1zZZkJ5L_GfdPY9eOgRSB7fDo8uVP-3TZN12YmTko19YNBhYP-22hd7pgVM7aef0txbZbixCuLivKQYzu5WOcE/s1600/DSCN0094.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0KQQTc3ereBfZlzhqpsx4QP7z-SQse7r363eqJTK9hAmnyz6HWF_t1zZZkJ5L_GfdPY9eOgRSB7fDo8uVP-3TZN12YmTko19YNBhYP-22hd7pgVM7aef0txbZbixCuLivKQYzu5WOcE/s400/DSCN0094.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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I especially appreciated the simple trick of integrating physical books into spaces for effect. The silent study reading room at one end of the main floor is lined on at least two sides with book shelving.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE0KQQTc3ereBfZlzhqpsx4QP7z-SQse7r363eqJTK9hAmnyz6HWF_t1zZZkJ5L_GfdPY9eOgRSB7fDo8uVP-3TZN12YmTko19YNBhYP-22hd7pgVM7aef0txbZbixCuLivKQYzu5WOcE/s1600/DSCN0094.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br />
The rain garden reading room just before that integrates some of the reference collection, faculty book collection, and new books into the furniture arrangements.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ZrWW69vhEAri_XbUqVGVEi4uUVTcrHjIcVJyjteO9J7r7wZz5J-ZvMHXrWUNyM9f2HqFdCnA8RVnLyE4eDzNhdrLhlqPtNo5RboYVNcTAndFbodh4FuVJeqISXjVXAqeaMpz_5foHIU/s1600/DSCN0089.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0ZrWW69vhEAri_XbUqVGVEi4uUVTcrHjIcVJyjteO9J7r7wZz5J-ZvMHXrWUNyM9f2HqFdCnA8RVnLyE4eDzNhdrLhlqPtNo5RboYVNcTAndFbodh4FuVJeqISXjVXAqeaMpz_5foHIU/s400/DSCN0089.JPG" width="400" /></a><br />
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What books do here is set expectations, they read "library" to people, and they say, without any signs of any kind , volumes (ha) about where people are once they walk into those spaces. When we start downsizing our physical collections, I think we who work in libraries would do well to think about the other properties of books-- to think carefully about all the different ways that books speak to our communities, beyond the delivery of content.<br />
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And here's the thing: we don't have to have all the resources in the world to engage in the kind of thinking that NCSU put into its Hunt Library spaces. I think (to be utterly immodest) that we are trying to do that kind of thing in Atkins at UNCC, right now. Every library should aspire to be: clear about what is where, beautiful in its execution of design, deliberate in providing a variety of spaces, and thoughtful about how and where to deploy appropriate technology, and dedicated to the staffing levels that create seamless access to services and resources. We need to think with the spaces we already have, pay attention to what is trying to be done in those spaces, and imagine beyond what is there now to what could be.<br />
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<br />Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7561369698387264915.post-30106282737779897522013-03-05T10:05:00.002-05:002013-03-05T20:08:30.243-05:00Guest Blog: Mitchell L. McGregor on groupwork, observing spaces, and the Prequel to our new spaces<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html">Last time</a> I blogged on some of the work my current architecture student, Allison Schaefer, is doing in the new ground floor spaces of Atkins Library. This time you are going to hear from Mitch McGregor, whom I advised last year during his MA (architecture) thesis research. Mitch did his work in our ground floor before it was reconstructed, and the work he did helped inform decisions we made about furniture and technology in our new student spaces. All of Mitch's work was covered by the Atkins Library Ethnography IRB Protocol. <br />
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I wanted
to find a way to design a space based on research of what inhabitants really
expected from the space. I chose the Atkins Library due to the amount of people
that use its spaces, and the variety of activities done there. My intent was to
observe the activities that were taking place, and to try to understand why certain
group spaces that had been tried in the library were not being very successful.
What was causing these spaces that were equipped with new useful technology to
be overlooked?<o:p></o:p></div>
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After observations and a few low technology experiments in
different parts of the library, I decided to find a specific space that would
be more conducive for group dynamics. I chose the
corridor on the Atkins ground floor connecting the main stair and the coffee shop as the area of study.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7fai_EoBKvlFK1Juovia4-yV-SvZdrPBL8_bl-jDEulJu_lDsYwTKtUmskiqQxQ8dUvD8z-lu3XChcUtJ6_mCvU_15MKkDz2vm-XigJDYGydMd6cNE6kDpDuW2TcuQFyzm5NoH2EHyeE/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7fai_EoBKvlFK1Juovia4-yV-SvZdrPBL8_bl-jDEulJu_lDsYwTKtUmskiqQxQ8dUvD8z-lu3XChcUtJ6_mCvU_15MKkDz2vm-XigJDYGydMd6cNE6kDpDuW2TcuQFyzm5NoH2EHyeE/s400/0.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the ground floor in Atkins Library, Spring 2012.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2010/09/ground-floor-reconfigure.html">This space had areas that allowed both private and group work mainly due to the type of furniture and arrangement of it.</a> I observed that people wanting to be alone would come and sit at the long tables between each "bay" with a whiteboard, couch, coffee table, and soft chairs. This “living room” arrangement of furniture facing white boards promoted group use of the space. The space was adjacent to
a busy travel corridor, and people working there seemed comfortable
communicating aloud to group members. During my observations, I sketched diagrams to analyze the types of
activities that were happening in this space. Here are some examples of the cleaned-up drawings (created in Adobe Illustrator): </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTlww3cjDje4m4L9o0NUqB6XXkeT9k8WRCNIkm7Q5EXfoIJMuL8H-1bQsyMXLKXkhc8anDSRBM9Oj9tAADMPnCr4J5JbwiTrX9YHpK6gepECaLprjXwYl_wvURFvMMSQ9kUzrhBwlOe8/s1600/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijTlww3cjDje4m4L9o0NUqB6XXkeT9k8WRCNIkm7Q5EXfoIJMuL8H-1bQsyMXLKXkhc8anDSRBM9Oj9tAADMPnCr4J5JbwiTrX9YHpK6gepECaLprjXwYl_wvURFvMMSQ9kUzrhBwlOe8/s640/3.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The long table that tended to attract students studying alone is on the left. The "living room" arrangement is in the center, comprised of a couch, chairs, and coffee and end-tables. In this sketch, 2 students are working at the whiteboard, and using the coffee table to hold the laptop and textbook they are consulting for their studies.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJgCLHM1xJDt98X4YG5NyPOlhtICKq7TJeEXs6GbwltkYrSfP7wQ1yeuR9Bw8UVAgsQla7KTXI6omFt2BbjD96eNcEBqinQe9OW6Jt1axJWU2v9sMyw91E4bgVFjcLNUBUyyL3AskJm0/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJgCLHM1xJDt98X4YG5NyPOlhtICKq7TJeEXs6GbwltkYrSfP7wQ1yeuR9Bw8UVAgsQla7KTXI6omFt2BbjD96eNcEBqinQe9OW6Jt1axJWU2v9sMyw91E4bgVFjcLNUBUyyL3AskJm0/s640/2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here one student is taking notes on the couch, referring to material on the laptop, while the other sketches out thoughts on the whiteboard.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEDQJmxf4hsimB1n_xqR5CKeha1mwLKfQ_LGCJ7ors_fMQsQfbvFts1CFEhw1SYkijRQSnCMJZfSTU-3dk22z43yrD4H2M4dZaWu2vTZszh4d3Nvoi_5KtEEgAWm7xmfW0jxFUSQZeic/s1600/4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidEDQJmxf4hsimB1n_xqR5CKeha1mwLKfQ_LGCJ7ors_fMQsQfbvFts1CFEhw1SYkijRQSnCMJZfSTU-3dk22z43yrD4H2M4dZaWu2vTZszh4d3Nvoi_5KtEEgAWm7xmfW0jxFUSQZeic/s640/4.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The student at the long table is referring to a textbook and laptop while the other uses the whiteboard to think through the reference materials.</td></tr>
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My goal was to understand what people were already coming to this space to do.
Rather than recreate the space with a new type of activity in mind, I wanted to think about redesigning the space to enhance the current use. I observed the space for about 12 hours, and found that I groups were coming to this space for a few main
reasons. One was that groups would come to the space to work on
problems or brainstorm, often using the whiteboard while referring to a book or
laptop. This often became difficult
because there was no place to put books or laptops that was adjacent to the
white board. Other groups used the space to work on group presentations,
by sitting in the couch area and working from one or multiple laptops,
discussing a group project. I then derived scenarios for additional activities that could happen in this space if
certain amenities were added. I thought the space
could benefit from a large screen adjacent to the whiteboard that students could
hook up their laptops to. To allow for multiple uses, I decided the screen should
be able to be connected to while near the whiteboard, as well from sitting in
the sitting area facing the screen. I chose this arrangement:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiQr4Q06fFK-i5qF3GILjLcnYtdSprd0kM52g3iq3l3FTMdBBbxDhI4g1siZKMmfgHIOhBqzZMZpU-kzsSS3lP2wATbEPngBbY3PMS56-cQsMvAbP1mP5wFJor9u6iWbujbwTZkbYihk/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSiQr4Q06fFK-i5qF3GILjLcnYtdSprd0kM52g3iq3l3FTMdBBbxDhI4g1siZKMmfgHIOhBqzZMZpU-kzsSS3lP2wATbEPngBbY3PMS56-cQsMvAbP1mP5wFJor9u6iWbujbwTZkbYihk/s400/7.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>In one week I spent about 56 hours observing this space,
varying my time of observations from early morning to after midnight. I
observed the screen station was used for every thing from a cell phone charging
station , to practicing power point presentations, to solving physics
equations. The first few days proved to
be difficult, because some things that I as the designer took for granted were
not obvious to new users. For example, I thought it would be obvious how to plug into the screen, but ended up having to make the cords far more obvious than "sleek" designs would allow for. </div>
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As I worked through these issues and tried to make the installation more user friendly, I also conducted several interviews. I asked users of different varieties what they
liked and disliked about the space and what could be improved. Most students
said they really liked how they could move things around in the space, such as
the furniture or where they connected to the screen. The space met their basic
needs, yet was manipulable to specific groups’ needs. The more flexible spaces can be the more apt
people are to use them. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaQwzVkwxsOGJIzHAj9oJRX93jmEnEadBOfiYWC1qGjUNefb_eBhA6twLsi4qbMMzqpBv_x3NrA3p5-0F12FO0owFaVpF6lWab9wvvtbDCksonlH_czkjwcV7qHDuT6EUVzPkKlnfF0Q/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYaQwzVkwxsOGJIzHAj9oJRX93jmEnEadBOfiYWC1qGjUNefb_eBhA6twLsi4qbMMzqpBv_x3NrA3p5-0F12FO0owFaVpF6lWab9wvvtbDCksonlH_czkjwcV7qHDuT6EUVzPkKlnfF0Q/s640/13.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cUFYtXS64GErY97HGs6TnFaq7UzlyMeAosoyZJJZewmy2tO7mUXZZlUAfCRz_ZJk_o8t11Tv0ZEfu8TXA8qzoEDnkWEp8bQX4nahjr4IKdoBhHuHRdyfIk_h53Vbgj5AfXcD8JMQxTo/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cUFYtXS64GErY97HGs6TnFaq7UzlyMeAosoyZJJZewmy2tO7mUXZZlUAfCRz_ZJk_o8t11Tv0ZEfu8TXA8qzoEDnkWEp8bQX4nahjr4IKdoBhHuHRdyfIk_h53Vbgj5AfXcD8JMQxTo/s640/11.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This process showed that with research into what a space is
currently used for, and how those current uses can be enhanced proves much more
efficient than just creating a space and intending for specific activities to
take place there. Students wanted a semi-private space that they could
adapt to various types of group work. The possibility of multiple types
of media showing information at the same time, in this case, whiteboard and media screen,
allows the group to function even more efficiently. Students also want this
technology to be easy to use; if the technology in this space takes too much of
a learning curve it is possible that students will avoid it. Overall, a research-based process allows designers and educators to greatly increase the success and efficiency of a space.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Looking at the <a href="http://atkinsanthro.blogspot.com/2013/02/new-learning-spaces-and-role-of-ongoing.html">new spaces now, </a>a year since the original
research started, it is great to see how the new spaces have implemented some of
the discoveries of the research. The new spaces that have both white boards and
media screens where students can connect allow for the group collaboration and
efficiency. The type of furniture and
dividers being used also give the students power over the space they are
working in. </div>
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I would add to what Mitch has written here that while his research was just part of the information we compiled and responded to in thinking about and designing the new ground floor, it was a crucial part. Because it was grounded in the actual behavior of our students, we could use this work to think through ahead of time the details that demanded our attention.<br />
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McGregor, Mitchell L. <i>Principles of Space and Interaction</i> (unpublished M.A. thesis) Department of Architecture, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC.</div>
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Donna Lancloshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05808845005669459897noreply@blogger.com1