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Apr. 14th, 2005 @ 03:26 pm Library School, 1.0
This blog started out as a tool for blogging the 16th ICCTL conference, but that event being over it's time to turn to evolving topics. I recently started an online Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) program and will use this area to chat out my trials triumphs and failures. That is, what I've learned, what I've thought about what I've learned, and what I think about those thoughts.


The program in question is the Drexel College of Information Science and Technology: http://www.cis.drexel.edu/home/. It is taught totally online, which has several advantages for me: 1. I don't live in Philadelphia, where the school is, so the choice is online or nothing, 2. I've taught online for many years, and experiencing the other side should make me both a better student and a better teacher. Finally, Drexel has their shit together re: online courses, and I've already begun adopting some of them for use here (a Bb sandbox for students; launching online courses at once, etc.).


In future missives I'll discuss the assigments, the readings, the discussions, and reflect on all of it, plus who knows what. I am discovering a multitude of online resources, and I'll share them as well.


I ran into our Library director in the hall the other day and she said something to the effect that it was going to be fun to have me in school because I'll be able to bring in so many interesting ideas and the like. I concur -- life was getting humdrum around here and I needed something challenging to get my edge back, and I think this is just the thing I need. As it turns out, about the time my first course started as Drexel I was accepted into another online MLIS program I think will benefit me to a greater degree, but more on that later. To paraphrase Pepys -- and now to Info 520 . . .


Robert, robert.a.harris@gmail.com

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Apr. 14th, 2005 @ 03:55 pm Grant Writing -- Info 520, Week 2 -- Drexel U.
The first subject treated in Information Science 520, Professional/Social Aspects of Information Science, was grants. Yes, begging for money. Writing a grant is also the capstone project for the course.


Why grants? The professor explained that in today's world of shrinking budgets libraries are getting it up the ass. I'm paraphrasing, of course. Being able to write a grant might well mean determine the viability of an institution. Apparently the MLIS program faculty decided that grant-writing was a vital skill to teach, and this course was the only one which had room for the unit.


Not surprisingly, the subject of grant-writing surfaced in the discussion board. The first week of the course was dedicated to introductions and a discussion of creating community. Because there was no real substance to pin down the conversation it went everywhere, and the asynchronous discussion was long and rambling. Largely pointless as well, but what else are you going to do on the first week?


The second weeks discussion involved more substance and generated less discussion. Week three and discussion dwindled to close to nothing. Branson -- people are talking about Broadway and - gurgle - Branson, which shows you how desperate things are getting in asynch-land.


I'll have more to say on the art and artifice of grant-writing as time goes on, as it is the subject of the capstone assignment. Week three brings us to associations, so that is what we will visit next.


Robert, robert.a.harris@gmail.comrobert.a.harris@gmail.comrobert.a.harris@gmail.com

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Apr. 14th, 2005 @ 04:11 pm Professional Associations -- Info 520, Week 3 -- Drexel U.
Now this is more like it, associations. I like associations -- I've been involved in enough of them, yes? More on information science associations anon, here is something on my experience with associations --

Associations I have worked with include the Organization of American Historians, The American Association for Higher Education, the TLT Group, and the American Federation of Teachers. The first two are large professional associations, while the TLT Group small and very narrowly focused. The AFT is labor union, which has similarities and difference from other professional associations (see Hovecamp's discussion in this weeks reading).

The OAH is a professional associations for historians who study the US (as opposed to the American Historical Association, which is comprised of American historians who study anything at all). Membership is relatively cheap and the only immediate return is a quarterly journal. The journal features articles and reviews and is usually a good read. Long-time professors have bookshelves lined with copies dating back to their graduate work. For the young professional perhaps the greatest benefit are the conferences. Going to the yearly conference has the effect of making one feel a part of the larger profession. Suddenly the people whose books one has been reading are up and walking about, asking questions during talks, offering talks of their own, and answering the questions. Getting free books at the exhibit, kibitzing with the big hitters and asking pointed (or snotty) questions at sessions made me feel more like an historian than anything I'd done, including lecturing 400 people twice a week.

The AAHE is (or more recently, was) also a large group. If they had a journal I don't recall it, but they did have a number of conferences. I had the opportunity to give papers at some of them, and even assembled my own panel a few years back. As with the OAH conferences, participation meant rubbing elbows with all sorts of educators and I found them to be quite stimulating.

Ten years ago the AAHE sponsored a study group on teaching and learning with technology. That group sponsored conferences of their own during which they promulgated roundtables: groups of people from across the curriculum and the campus getting together to decide technology-related issues. Eventually that group broke off from the AAHE and became the TLT Group, a small organization based out of the Metro DC area. Working with the TLT Group has been for me a different experience than the previous two associations in that it has allowed me to be something of a "big fish in a small pond." I've written two editions of a nationally distributed workbook for them, have hosted webcasts and online workshops, and have given conference talks under their auspices for nine years now. In the process I've made contact with some wonderful educators and can say without any doubt that my teaching, not to mention my sense of professionalism, has improved as a result of work with the TLT Group.

The union is a different matter altogether. Being a labor historian it is not surprising that I have been active in the American Federation of Teachers here. I helped to found a graduate student in the SUNY system and was a member of Local 2 back when I was a chef in San Francisco. For half of my tenure at William Paterson I was the secretary for our local here, and now I chair the promotions committee. Unions offer some of the same sense of profession that participation in the other organizations have, but it also gives me a chance to offer something back to my university. All the other associations take me out of the university, even if the general effect has been to improve my performance as an educator. But activity in the union means something for the people I work with every day -- taking notes, putting out a newsletter, and maintaining the website are all important activities that benefit myself and my associates.

To sum up, I've mentioned four groups: two large, international organizations; a small and focused professional group, and a labor union. All have served my professional interests by distributing periodicals and/or Internet material and by hosting conferences that allow me to enjoy and understand my profession in the larger scale. Participation in the internationally-recognized groups probably looks better on my CV, but remaining active in a small and focused group has given me the opportunity to engage in projects I'd never have the opportunity to otherwise. Finally, the union offers all of what I have suggested above as well as the chance to give something back to the people with whom I work on a local basis.

Robert, robert.a.harris@gmail.com
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