Entries tagged as ‘i-school’
Image from the Library Juice Press website, libraryjuicepress.com.
An interesting read awaits me! Once I figure out how to buy a book that I am QUITE CERTAIN will not be at Chapters anytime soon I am buying The Politics of Professionalism: A Retro-Progressive Proposal for Librarianship by Juris Dilevko. He is a professor at the Faculty of Information (and from whom I took a fantastic class called “Literature of the Social Sciences and Humanities”), and has published a most controversial book on the shortcomings of library education. A shortcoming, he argues, that has resulted in a profession distracted by fleeting technologies, preoccupied with professional advancement,and unconcerned with “the possession of meaningful knowledge that can be turned toward social good.”
WELL.
The first chapter is online (Merci a Monica for sharing that information), and is an enticing read for those among us who care about library education. Which is me. Why? I dunno. But I’ve blogged about the issue before. And I’m NOT EVEN IN LIBRARY SCHOOL ANYMORE.
I think I agree with some of what he says regarding subject knowledge, and the need for more reflective thinking in our profession. But I wonder about where many of my colleagues fit into his vision of librarianship, i.e. Librarians who work with eLearning, or digital initiatives, or information systems. I’ve seen what happens when those arenas are left to non-librarian technical teams, and it ain’t pretty. Or those who manage the libraries, and worry about glamorous things like who’s going to cover the desk when everyone is on vacation, or where we’re going to get the money for more computers. I wonder about where they fit in. But perhaps those questioned will be answered in Chapters 2 through 6.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Faculty of Information, Good reads, i-school, librarians
In the short space of one week, my alumni association forked over a cool grand to me so that I could attend CLA, and then for the Jubilee Award. I officially love my alumni association! I applied for the FIAA student conference grant and got $500 to support my attendance at the CLA 2009 Conference and Trade Show. Here’s my write-up about the conference grant:
“As a recent MISt graduate and new academic librarian, this experience allowed me to gain invaluable insights about the newest trends in my field, giving me a significant advantage as I attempt to establish myself as a new librarian. The CLA Conference allowed me to see myself in this new profession, and gave me guidance for where to focus my own research and programming efforts. Furthermore, presenting at the poster session was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the exercise of seeing through a research project that involved survey-creation, collection, analysis and synthesis of the research for our presentation, and it allowed me to network with others in the field, to create key professional relationships, and learn more about the vendors and their presence in librarianship. I’m very appreciative of FIAA for providing generous financial support for what was an excellent professional opportunity.”
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: awards, conferences, Faculty of Information, i-school, librarians
I read a fascinating article in the New York Times several weeks ago, which I’m eager to write about – and not just to show-off the fact that I read the New York Times.
The op-ed “End of University as We Know It” is written by Mark Taylor, chairman of the religion department at Colombia University (Read it! It’s a fascinating piece). He argues that academia is broken, and has several recommendations for how to fix it. He states that the current arrangement of faculties creates divisions where there should be collaboration. Faculty encourage their graduate students to pursue research within narrow areas of work –subfields within subfields within subfields – ultimately robbing these students of an opportunity for a real stab at a teaching position upon graduation. These students are attempting to enter academia at a point when there is a glut of graduates and a diminishing number of openings, and they are completing doctoral work without a broad understanding of the field they’ve been studying, or the implications of their research beyond their own area of study (Taylor tells of attending a meeting of political scientists who had gathered to discuss why international relations theory had never considered the role of religion in society. “Given the state of the world today,” he writes, “this is a significant oversight.” Uh, yeah dude. I’d say so).
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: conferences, Faculty of Information, i-school, social context
I attended the TRY Conference last week (The fifth annual conference of the Toronto, Ryerson a
nd York University Libraries, which takes place each year at St. Mike’s college at the University of Toronto). The conference’s theme, “New Directions” sought to illustrate the ways in the roles of libraries, library staff, and the delivery of information are changing within and beyond the university library and the academic community which it serves. It was the first year Faculty of Information students were invited to participate – it’s a great networking opportunities for budding librarians and I gained lots of insight about my new career. (more…)
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: academic experience, conferences, Faculty of Information, i-school
I have been on temporary hiatus from this poor, neglected blog throughout the past semester. This is because I have been so busy at school, that all I want to do when I come home at night is: 1) Eat a delicious dinner, and 2) Allow my tired brain to be washed over with the mindlessness of prime-time television. Glorious, glorious television!
One interesting project that kept me busy was a presentation for the Housing Memory Student Conference, at the Faculty of Information. This conference was organized by two incredible students, Ania and Monica, who single-handedly organized the event, complete with 24 panelists, a brilliant keynote from information science superstar, Geoffrey Bowker (you can listen to the podcast of his presentation from the iSchool Podcast website here), and a roundtable with a whole bunch of really smart people, who discussed, “memory and its architectural manifestation in archives, libraries, museums, information systems and material and digital artifacts.” Can you IMAGINE doing all that while going to school full-time and working? Good lord.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: academic experience, conferences, Faculty of Information, i-school, knowledge management
The working life is a sweet one, but in a bid to fill those endless hours between 5 pm and 10 pm, I’ve decided to launch a journal with some friends from the Faculty of Information (formerly the Faculty of Information Studies – the “Studies” is being dropped later this summer). I felt there was a significant need within our faculty to create some sort of dialogue – an interplay between students, faculty and staff to create a real sense of intellectual community, and as a means to simply communicating with one another in a formalized, reflective venue. This need for communication is particularly pressing in an i-school; the information movement is a young one and we haven’t yet developed a common language with which to speak to one another (if you have to brush up on your i-school literature there is an official website: http://www.ischools.org/oc/index.html). Moveover, the relationships between library and information science, archives and records management, information systems, and museum studies are rocky ones – there are certainly similarities, but also some key differences that can be difficult for us to over; they create gaps in our common understanding and can prevent an appreciation for divergent views.
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Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: academic experience, Faculty of Information, i-school, open source, volunteer activities
