intj + library school = this.

On Multiple Intelligences and Learning Styles (Or, "I Heart Logic, Numbers, and Words")

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:26:25 -0500

Wrote this for my #ist663 class, but since it’s posted in Blackboard, y’all didn’t have the privilege of reading. So here goes! :)

I’m curious if anyone else in this class has studied multiple intelligences theory before, or at least finds it interesting. I’ve always had a penchant for personality theory, on the whole, and multiple intelligences is sometimes considered under that umbrella (although we’re looking at it in a education/learning-focused way in this module).

I fully admit, candidly, that my interest in personality theory stems from my own difficulty understanding people (and I include myself in that). I found this website rather informative in regards to learning styles, and it’s a bit different than the learning styles presented in the book based on Kolb’s research. (The website is listed in the ‘more resources’ section of Chapter 3 on the teachingforinquiry.net website, for the record). Although I think one could simply read through the various learning styles and probably identify their preferences, I thought I’d share this with anyone interested - it’s an assessment for multiple intelligence/learning styles.

My preferences fall in line as such:

Logical/Mathematical

75%

Verbal/Linguistic

75%

Intrapersonal

70%

Musical

65%

Bodily/Kinesthetic

45%

Visual/Spatial

35%

Naturalist

30%

Interpersonal

30%

So I’m curious if anyone else is curious about this subject, or has any thoughts regarding it! I use this knowledge not so much to reinforce my own preferences, but to see where I could stand to gain a bit more understanding - trying to find a greater balance between ‘interpersonal’ and ‘intrapersonal’ is an effort I’ve been undertaking for a while!

Thanks for letting me geek out on this subject. :)

day 1, semester 2.

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:20:59 -0500

Here we go! Today marks the official day one of semester two, year one, of my experience as a graduate student pursuing a Master’s in Library and Information Science with a school media specialization.

I’m spicing things up this semester. Translated, this means I’m taking two courses online while taking one on campus. Translated, this means I’m currently freaking out and attempting to not freak out about this switch to a predominantly online learning environment.

Therefore, this being day one, I’ve set up some general ground rules, which I’m hoping will alleviate some of the stress while also make the online environment just as comfortable as the in-class environment. (Sidenote: the fact that I can now be ‘in class’ while wrapped in my favorite fuzzy blanket with a never ending supply of delicious coffee only a few short feet away in my kitchen is a perk.)

When the laptop is on the desk, it’s school time. Correlaries to it being school time are:
-Two hours at a time, max. Preserve the mental health.
-Pandora. Reading of a screen is something I’m still not quite used to - music helps.
-Nix on the social media. No facebook open, no tweetdeck (my favorite of favorite distraction), not even pinterest (I don’t even like pinterest yet, but it’s a decent distraction.)
-No checking email. (Sidenote: email annoys me anyway. Figured I may as well throw in a perk.)
One day a week is designated “non-school day”. Last year, I had three on campus classes, and it’s a bit easier to think of them as “Monday’s work, Tuesday’s work”, etc. Online classes have the potential to sneak into “every day’s work”. So, one day each week is non-school day!
-Correlary: non-school day just might also be bake-cookies day.
CALENDAR. I really need to get to work with a calendar for the semester, and keeping track of when things are due. It’s a bad habit I’ve never fully dropped. (Sidenote: I highly doubt I will fix this in one semester.)

I’m sure I’ll come up with a few more guidelines as this adventure continues. Anyone with advice is welcome to contribute! :)

a cool idea.

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:23:35 -0500

something I picked up while listening to a favorite podcast of mine that *isn’t* library-focused at all. the husband is a fairly recent school library media specialist, though.

A QR-code Scavenger Hunt, for students in the middle and high school library. The librarian got approval from the school principal for students to use their smartphones, if they had them (and depending where the school is, there may be many) and worked in teams of 4 to find certain books, magazines, newspapers, and other physical objects in the library using clues. Each of the items in the scavenger hunt had a QR code, which the students then scanned.

I didn’t catch all the details (since it was just a sidenote of something fun in the podcast) but I really liked the idea. Especially if you give students clues to certain things that may or may not require using research skills to find… I like it.

And I don’t even have a smartphone!

Polling My Audience.

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:31:00 -0500

I know I’m not the only person in graduate school for library science that still reads YA fiction on a regular basis. I’m not going to force you to admit that you read it, but I’m curious, from those of you that will admit it - what are your go-to, top 3/top 5/top arbitrarynumber YA fiction books?

I was looking at my bookshelf and realized I was curious if there was overlap. Teen/YA/”mature YA” fiction has expanded in the last decade or so - from authors to topics explored - and I love soliciting other people’s opinions. So I’m asking. Let me know, if you will. :)

At least three books that would be in my TopArbitraryNumber:

Mini Book Reviews.

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:14:41 -0500

Because at least if I comment on the five novels I read this weekend, I’ll feel like I was productive, instead of being wracked with guilt over reading five novels. I don’t actually review books. I just…talk about them. That said, my mental health hasn’t been this good in a while, so apparently my guilt-inducing weekend has been good for something.

YA Novel — Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins.
The rundown: there’s a girl, a boy, some other girls, some other boys, and some parents. Set in San Francisco. Modern, quirky characters, who are both likeable and annoying as hell as the case needs be. Very Sarah Dessen-like story. Easy read, but not a weak filler novel.

YA Novel — It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. Follow-up to the oft-talked-about The Summer I Turned Pretty, which I read a while ago but didn’t find all that interesting. This was sitting on top of the bookshelf at Salina Library, however (as in, not enough room on the shelf) so I took it. This one I’d definitely chalk up as a filler read, but then again, I’m not exactly the targeted age bracket. Plotline moves slowly, somewhat predictable, and just feels…lacking. It successfully helped me avoid real life for a few hours, but wasn’t all that entertaining.

Adult Fiction Novel — Embrace Me, by Lisa Samson. I’ve read a few other novels by Samson in the past; they tend to fall under what many would consider ‘inspirational fiction’, but they’re not the overdone, driven-by-a-lack-of-plot usual fare under that banner. She creates rich, deep characters, and in this novel, flips between two characters in two different time frames to piece together a story. Overwhelming theme: redemption. Doesn’t work for everyone, but I found myself drawn in by the reality she interjected into her mostly-believable tale. In the interests of full disclosure, part of that was just self-identification.

Bunheads — by Sophie Flack. The first novel from this author, and one can assume semi-autobiographical, although she writes it as pure fiction. The author was a member of the corps of the New York City Ballet, and writes what she knows - and writes it rather well. Could be cliche in that “choose between your current life and what could be” way, but somehow manages not to be. Granted, will it change your life? Probably not. Will it serve as entertainment and perhaps even edification? Most likely.

Adult Fiction — Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. My mom told me to read this book more than a year ago, and in my terrible decision making I ignoring it, despite owning a paperback copy (I think I picked it up for 25 cents knowing that I’d want to read it one day). Seeing that they created a movie based on the book, I chose to read it now - before the potential of ruining it could come to pass. Fantastic. Slow at first, but became engrossing and I fully admit I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning last week simply because I had to get to the end. If you’re thinking of seeing the movie, but tend to be a reader, read it first. I can’t evaluate the movie for you, but engaging the imagination is rarely a poor choice.

this is not a rant.

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 23:44:35 -0500

If this was a few days ago, this would have been an angsty blogpost that would make you remember high school and want to listen to Linkin’ Park’s “Crawling”. and let’s face it, no one wants to do that.

But it’s not. I saved that post as a draft, and now I don’t want to revisit it. In the spirit of this week - as in, the week that precedes the feast we here in the United States refer to as Thanksgiving - I’m going to say a few things that most decidedly were not in the previous incoherent ramble.

I’m in library school.
It’s an adventure.
It’s frightening, at times, because it’s the unknown.
It’s fascinating, at times, because it’s the unknown.
It’s frustrating, at times, because it’s the unknown.
It’s flipping awesome, at times, because I know that we have the potential to flip this field on it’s head, over time, and do really fantastic things.

So with that in mind… I’m happy to be here, and I’m thankful for the opportunity.

And as a sidebar, I read five books (yes, books. those antiquated bound volumes of printed pages pieced together coherently) this weekend. Five. Perhaps a book review or two would be warranted.

Bird After Dark.

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 09:19:38 -0500

So this weekend, because I wasn’t at NYLA like many of my peers, I volunteered to help with the library lock-in on campus. What did I know about the event before volunteering? That it was held in the library, supposed to be fun, and went into the wee hours of the morning.

Well, all of those expectations turned out to be true! Undergraduate students signed up in teams of two to participate. Part of the event was a type of scavenger hunt where they were required to find answers to questions using *only* library resources - print or online. The other part involved playing skill games. I had the pleasure of running a game called “A Bit Dicey”. The student had 60 seconds to hold a popsicle stick in their mouth and stack six dice, vertically, on the popsicle stick. If they could keep them standing for at least 3 seconds, they got a sticker and “won” that game. I probably had one of the easiest games, judging by how many stickers I handed out (and for the record, I tested and did mange to do it myself). There were a variety of strategies employed… but on the whole, entertaining.

In between the two sessions of answer-finding and game-playing, we had breaks for food, caffeine (read: diet Coke, noms), sugar (read: Reese’s), and more games. The video game company that produces Just Dance 3 had brought equipment to set that up, and students played that during break. They had raffle tickets and students were winning a number of different prizes that had been donated to the event.

The event went from about 9:30 til after 1 AM. We stuck around and cleaned up the chaos that was the first floor of Bird Library. We, the volunteers, managed to snag a few of the extra swag bags. And then we ventured out into the incredibly chilly evening - well, it was morning - and left the library locked behind us.

I’m glad I ended up volunteering. I had my qualms (see also: chaotically caffeinated undergrads) and I did have to deal with someone who wanted to steal my dice (I got them back though! Nothing like straight-up asking “hey, did you steal one of my dice?”) but I also got to work with some of my fellow library students and some of the library staff at Bird. And most importantly, we took the whole idea that the library is a quiet space full of individuals and flipped it on its head, if only for a night.

New Librarianship requires New Librarians.

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:10:36 -0400

I got into an email conversation this week that went something like this.

“I’m a teacher and I want to be a school librarian. What classes do I need?”
“It’s a 37-credit hour program; you’ll earn your MLIS and NYS certification.”
“No, no, no, I’m already a teacher. I shouldn’t have to take that many classes.”

A few days later, I got into a conversation while in the learning commons about the idea of a learning commons.

“Oh, are you a student here?”
“Yes, I’m in the Master’s of Library and Information Science program here at SU.”
“Oh, so you can explain to me why it’s not quiet in here?”
“Ah, yes, I can. It’s a learning commons. Conversation is encouraged, collaboration among students, and you’re surrounded by great resources to use as well!”
“Hmph. I don’t see anyone studying or using resources. I just hear noise.”
“Well, the other five floors of Bird Library, as far as I know, are quiet floors, if that’s what you want…”
shocking: she didn’t move from her place on the “loud” floor.

And this got me thinking. We know what the ideas and concepts and theories behind “new librarianship” are. But to look at us… you wouldn’t necessarily think “new librarian!” (well, at least in the “not-using-old-standards” way. you might think “new to the field”.) So… I decided to do a very high-tech, super-resourceful Google Image search.

Librarians:

This is what the general populace thinks of when they think “librarian”.

I tried Google-Image searching cool librarian, awesome librarian, hip librarian, badass librarian… and the results were less than impressive. I did find these gems, though:

So…apparently it’s hip/awesome/cool to be…old-fashioned. Huh. Go figure.

All this to say…

WE are the face of librarianship. And as time progresses, we will be what people think of - we’ll be the new results on a google image search page (dear goodness, I hope so, anyway. Enough stereotypical clipart already.) So… what will be the mental image of a librarianship once we’ve successfully integrated all our fantastical plans and innovative (drink!) ideas? Just something to consider…

And as a closing - to be totally stereotypical librarian - this pictures makes me think one thing: WANT.

on web design.

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:21:19 -0400

Random, but we’ve got an interesting discussion going on in 605 on how to evaluate teh internetz and use it as a resource. A key comment that’s brought up on a regular basis is web design - opinions vary as to “If it looks good, I’m more likely to believe it” to “If it looks good, they might be putting up a sham front.” Like I said - opinions vary.

I remember posting something on facebook a year or two back - a statement of frustration that “if your website is poorly designed, I’m not giving you my business. I don’t have time to click around searching for everything I need.” Oddly enough - or not - this frustration came about when I was undertaking a search for graduate schools in library and information science. Go figure. And you know what? Students don’t want to have to take a class in internet research to learn how to use your website. And if you don’t make that information easy to find, I’m not going to spend the next ten minutes of my life searching for it. You should want to give me that information. It’s in your best interests.

So, web designers…colleges and universities…places that have an informative website that they want other people to actually read… more information isn’t necessarily more helpful. In fact, I would argue (based purely on anecdotes and personal opinion) that simple is better - even in this age of superfast internet.

And I suppose that’s all I have for you tonight. Keep searching, my friends!

This awesome tool bubbl.us helped me construct this. Anyone who...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:06:00 -0400

This awesome tool bubbl.us helped me construct this. Anyone who has talked to me at length this week has understood that I’m at the stage of the semester where it feels like everyday is three-steps-from-a-mental-collapse. I realized I needed to re-center my focus. School has a way of dragging us into a bunch of different directions, and it’s easy to lose ourselves in the process. Thus…enter bubbl.us and this nifty little not-a-flowchart into which I managed to sort out my thoughts.

(ahem, also, the image won’t display fullsize/high-res so clicking on it to enlarge should help. kthx.)

having trouble putting all my thoughts into words this...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:05:19 -0400

having trouble putting all my thoughts into words this week.

made a tagxedo and filled it with the smattering of words that keep echoing around in here.

thoughts and such.

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:21:40 -0400

We spent an incredible amount of time (read: three hour class) today discussing economics and how they apply to the information field as us, as information professionals. If this sounds like an incredibly boring topic to you, or even moreso, an incredibly useless topic, I beg you to think again. While I could easily play the nerd card and admit that I have always found economics fun to study - Marie plays the nerd card for +10 to a lack of street cred! - I’m re-evaluating what I already know and applying it to information and discovering all sorts of new things.

Information can be treated like a commodity or a public good. In this case, public good does not mean a good that’s supplied by the public, or owned by the public, or financed by the public per say but is defined by the non-rivalry inherent within. If I am reading a journal article online, I am not preventing you from also reading that journal article, and both of us are able to benefit from reading it. Thus the public good aspect of information.

For class, we had to read a book by Bruce Kingma entitled “The Economics of Information” that I would recommend everyone at the very least skim (also, if you’re taking 618 in the future, and you will be, it probably wouldn’t hurt, since it’ll probably be required again). Understanding how to effectively analyze and conduct a cost-benefit analysis *might* seem a bit complicated and overdone at first, but if you end up in a position of management in a library - or anywhere, for that matter - it’ll be ridiculously helpful. I’d by lying by omission if I didn’t admit that I CBA lots of things in my life. Making decisions based on opportunity cost and the time-value of money may not always work, but it certainly attempts to remove one from the situation and make a less emotion-based decision. And, well, I have no problems with that every once in a while.

And herein I apologize for how absolutely boring this blogpost is. And now I will shrug.

reinventing: not a bad idea.

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 03:35:32 -0400

It’s 3:11 in the morning and I’m creating a new blog post. Because sometimes inspiration strikes, and the best thing to do is acknowledge it so that you can work past it.

We, as human beings in this somewhat-crazy world we live in, are constantly reinventing ourselves. I had an interesting and introspective conversation with a friend tonight that forced me to acknowledge that though, over time, I’ve had to change and reinvent myself, that’s not all for the bad. And to think this all began because I mentioned, half-jokingly and half-seriously, “oh no, I’m becoming my mother!” It brought me to a realization that not only isn’t this a bad thing, but it’s something I could embrace - and should embrace - if I’m truly to move forward and not horizontally on this never-ending track that is life. (Editor’s note: my mom is freaking awesome. I talk about her all the time, with good reason.)

My oldest brother has held more than 30 jobs in his life. Continually seeking the next good thing.
My next brother went from being a college drop-out to a sergeant in military intelligence. Now he works as a citizen for a federal intelligence agency, and is such a proud dad and husband that it gives me hope for the world.
My next brother (ed’s note: yes, I have three) went from being a soldier - the path he’d always envisioned himself on - to being a war veteran who now works what most would consider a minimum-wage job so that he can solely afford to travel and adventure. He sends me pictures of the wild animals he encounters - last ones I got were of a herd of elk.
My sister, known as the music and drama queen of the family, went on to become a therapist and works with severely disabled clients. It’s a good day at work when she can say someone actually improved a skill, and yet every day she trucks off with a bit of optimism in the tank.

I graduated high school (ed’s note: in a small town in Ohio!) and headed off to college. Everyone knew my path: get a degree in chemistry, take over the world, in that order of course. Within a year, I’d had numerous career-counseling sessions, declared an abhorrence for laboratory work, though I loved the theoretical, and switched my major to history. History, the field that most consider “the study of the past with lots of memorization of names and dates.” Three years later I graduated with a BA in history and approximately zero plans to pursue a career path specifically linked to that field.

Now, here I am. In a new state, at a new school, with new professors and a new path. I’ve reinvented myself yet again. From chemist to confused to historian to student all over again, with the hopes of going on to the librarian path. And how does any of this (minus the last clause of the last sentence) apply to school?

As a field, librarianship is continually changing. Like we mentioned with medicine, it didn’t go out of style and fail to exist simply because of germ theory. The field took itself where it needed to go, established itself as relevant yet again, and flourished. Librarianship has been doing the same thing over the ages. While we may have originally been the hunchbacked scribes, creating transcripts and storing them in a logical order, we are now ‘information professionals’. We are people with answers, and people willing to take the necessary steps to procure an answer. We have reinvented ourselves and maintained our relevancy through yet another age. We’re learning how to be ‘new librarians’ and excited to take what we’ve learned into the field to continue to shape it, mold it, and reinvent it, for the modern day.

But medicine didn’t continue because doctors decided to catch up to germ theory and figure it out. They didn’t decide to start developing pharmaceuticals because it was a way to make money off a disease (not starting a political discussion here, just roll with me). They successfully integrated their knowledge, the information at their fingertips, their willingness to serve, and their tangible goods, and created modern medicine. One would not consider going to a doctor who announced he only served, but would not dole out a physical drug to treat an ailment. Likewise one would be hesitant to approach a physician who claimed to write prescriptions, but was unwilling to listen to your list of symptoms and diagnose you first. In the same way, we as librarians must take up the challenge of integrating our willingness to serve the public with information, and the goods we have at our disposal with which to do so.

We can learn from the past. We can witness the present and all that we’re doing right. But we must also look to the future - to spy that which has not yet come over the horizon - to perceive that which is still as yet indiscernible - and be prepared to reinvent ourselves. Constant vigilance, my friends! The future is ours, should we bolster ourselves with just enough confidence to continue offering goodly service and servicely goods to those who seek them.

(Ed’s note: it’s now 3:34 AM and I’m actually tired now. Keep this in mind as you re-read that last sentence. Thank you, and good night.)

—Marie

ramblings and ruminatings.

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:27:05 -0400

hey, y’all. It’s Saturday evening and I’m fully aware I need to blog, but the Buckeyes are playing and I am both a) a native Ohioan and b) a huge sports nut so you’ll just have to wait in suspense. I’m leaving this window open in the hopes that I’ll find blogging motivation during halftime. :)

…well, this blog is going to have to wait some more. The most useful feature of G+, the hangout, is to occur. Why do I feel this will be officially posted after midnight?

It’s 1:26 a.m.

I’ve got to be up in 7 hours. I’ll come back to this tomorrow…thus rendering today highly unproductive. alas, I did read an entire novel. #nerd :)

-Marie

we've got class!

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:46:03 -0400

Actually, we’ve got multiple classes, most of us. But this week we had our first experience with IST 511, technically known as “Introduction to the Library and Information Profession”, though I affectionately (for now) refer to it as “Intro to Libraries”. Rolls off the tongue a bit better.

What did we talk about this week? A little bit of everything. It was like a delicious pasta salad - not too much dressing (gag), not too much pepperoni (also gag), a good handful of green pepper and cheese, with a solid base of slightly-al-dente pasta. If by pasta you mean “general talk about libraries”, with everything else serving as a relevant tangential topic. That said, I’m going to expound upon something that, while not overly discussed, is going to be crucial from here on out, forever and ever.

To paraphrase Prof. Lankes - because I didn’t write it down verbatim, and misquoting is horrific - You can not be unbiased.

What does this mean? It means stop parading around that little sign around your neck that says “I know how to be objective, I really really do, I swear! It’s called presenting you with all sorts of sources so I can’t seem biased in any one direction, while secretly hoping you only read the source I support most fully!” (Sidenote: I have a tendency to the overdramatic. Don’t take it personally, fellow students.) When a patronusermember asks for information, they seek information. They don’t seek it with a side-dish of bias, but they certainly don’t seek it with a side-dish of bias-disguised-under-a-cloak-of-objectivism.

I think it’s especially hard for those of us who -desire- to be objective to realize that it’s impossible. I know I spent the last four years of undergrad doing my damnedest to write “objective” papers, knowing full well I was spinning those sources around my personal wheel of beliefs. But therein lies another issue - how to balance the art of acknowledging a bias, while not letting that justify being lazy and completely nonobjective? I think that’s what I’m going to keep tossing around in my mind over the next couple ~~days weeks months~~ years.

I recognize my bias, I know it, and I know it’s not the common - that’s something I’m learning in all my classes so far. Yet I want to work past it without denying my own self-knowledge. Thus begins a quest that I’m sure will continue long past this semester, or this school. Well, I do love a good quest…

new.

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 22:20:05 -0400

I don’t even know what number blog this is for me. Really.

I think I’ve had four xangas (four?! gosh)… three blogspots…and this is my second tumblr. I admit to never having grown to like wordpress. I used to blog on myspace - remember myspace? - which oddly enough, was one of the *worst* features on myspace. And we all know the “Facebook note” - I’ve used those for blathering and/or mindless words. Because really - Facebook as a blogging platform? I laugh.

So, here we go, with tumblr account #2. For the purposes of exculpating and exaggerating and examining my experience studying library and information science, school media specialization, at Syracuse University.

Here goes nothin’!