Teaching Naked

Intriguing thoughts on how digital learning environments should be reshaping the way instruction is delivered in traditional classrooms.

ARL Career Enhancement Program Call for Applications

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is now accepting applications for the ARL Career Enhancement Program (formerly announced as the ARL Minority Fellowship Program). LIS graduate students from underrepresented groups, who have successfully completed a minimum of 12 credits hours (or will complete 12 hours by the scheduled internship) from an ALA accredited MLIS program, are encouraged to apply for this enriching program experience.

Deadline September 30

Follow this link for more information:
https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:11423.2276616929/rid:294e25e7967783b9a237b3f0e17780f2

University of Tennessee Diversity Resident Program

The University of Tennessee Libraries’ Diversity Librarian Resident Program is seeking candidates for a two-year residency that begins fall 2009. UT Libraries will select two librarians for a new cohort group in this successful career growth program active since 2003. The purpose of the program is to attract recent library school graduates from underrepresented groups to a challenging and rewarding career in academic librarianship.


For more information: http://www.lib.utk.edu/employ/faculty/diversitylibrarian.html

2009 Diversity Research grants

ALA’s Office for Diversity has announced the recipients of the Diversity Research Grants for 2009. The grants consist of a one-time $2,000 annual award for original research and a $500 travel grant to attend and present at the ALA Annual Conference. The grants will go to Clayton Copeland (University of South Carolina), Diana Tedone (UCLA), and Stephanie Maatta Smith (University of South Florida).

Read more about it here.

Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Diversity Programs are accepting applications for the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce, a program designed to recruit LIS graduate students from traditionally underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds into careers in research libraries. The Initiative includes a stipend up to $10,000, leadership and career development training, and a formal mentorship program.

Promoting Diversity in the Digital Curation Disciplines

A recent IMLS grant of interest:

University of Arizona - Tucson, AZ
Award Amount: 910846; Matching Amount: 201889
Category: Continuing Education

Contact: Dr. Peter Botticelli
Professor of Practice
520-621-3565; pkb@email.arizona.edu

Project Title: "Promoting Diversity in the Digital Curation Disciplines"
Since 2007, the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science (SIRLS) has offered the online “DigIn” graduate certificate program to train library professionals to create, collect, and manage digital information. Though the DigIn program has recruited diverse participants in its first two years, recruiting data show that many applicants from small, rural, or specialized organizations, as well as members of culturally or ethnically underserved groups, are disproportionately unable to self-fund their own professional development. With IMLS funding and in partnership with the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Sedona Conference, and the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, SIRLS will recruit and provide scholarships to 80–90 new students to earn the DigIn certificate. Recruitment efforts will target geographically, culturally, and ethnically diverse students, with the goal of diversifying the workforce of digital information management experts.

Archives shedding light on slavery

I just finished Adam Hochschild's excellent book Bury the Chains yesterday. It is the story of how abolitionists built the movement that ended the slave trade in Great Britain and eventually brought slavery to an end within the empire. In many ways it is a great print culture story about how the systematic collection and distribution of information was able to convince the British people to pressure their government to end the abuses of slavery. This was at a time when common people where every poorly represented as well, yet hundreds of thousands contributed their signatures to some of the largest petition drives the empire ever saw.

What made this book all the more interesting was a story I came across in the Financial Times yesterday while waiting in the Frankfurt Airport. "Rothschild and Freshfields Founders Linked to Slavery," was about how archival documents have begun to uncover how pervasive slavery was within the British economy. Nathan Mayer Rothschild was, until now, perceived as a total opponent of slavery who was an important figure in making the abolition of slavery happen by assisting the British government in buying out slaveholders. It turns out that one of the people who received bailout money was Rothschild himself. He received title to slaves that were used as collateral in one of his bank dealings.

Job search tips from the pros

Earlier this month Adín Palau, a training officer for the UW Office of Human Resources, and Sandra Guthrie, Director of Business Services at Memorial Library, met with students to discuss job searching for librarians from diverse backgrounds. Below is a distillation of their advice by topic area.


Job search

You need to create a brand for your job seeking, with large pools of applicants you need to find a way to stand out (eg. at UW, there were 60 applications for a cataloger position, a position that normally gets many fewer applicants).

Depending on your background, there may be quite a lot of job offers. However, sometimes an employer will assume that everyone will want to hire someone with a diverse background, so no offer is made.

The interview is the last thing you have to take into consideration.

You have to know where you want to go and based on that prepare yourself. Do your homework for each job. Check the institution out.

Make sure your references are prepared, ask them ahead of time.


Resume

You can't be shy with your resume, it is a marketing tool. It needs to catch their interest early on. Have it reviewed by many people. No typos! In academia you can have more info (3 pages), but in other positions you need less. To write an effective resume use power verbs, address the resume to the job. If your resume needs to be longer, make it longer.

Do not just put your background out there. If a job is looking for a diverse individual you have to illustrate your commitment to diversity. Demonstrate your background. You need to augment your application to show commitment.


Cover letter

In your cover letter you need to speak to why would they benefit from hiring you, not about how much you would like the job. Bring up actual experiences, but do not overdo it.

Address the job posting requirements directly. Speak to the requirements in the cover letter. Job postings for academia are very intentional, the words are very carefully chosen.

A portfolio can really help to illustrate what you have done. Especially highlight volunteerism.


Interviews

Question: How are the interviews decided at academic libraries?
Answer: At UW-Madison everything goes through a search committee. They will set up a grid and have certain requirements. If you do not hit the required elements you will immediately be eliminated.

For libraries you need to show intellectual curiosity. Come to the interview with questions that show curiosity. Search and screen committees appreciate these questions. Managers will ask what applicants what they know about the place they are applying, they are looking for this. If you see weak spots at the university highlight those as opportunities to help them.

Treat everyone at your interview well! You don't know how connected they are.

Even when interviewing on the phone you should consider dressing up. It communicates to yourself your attitude.

Libraries do ask behavioral questions: "What would you do in this situation?" type of questions.

Keep positive about prior jobs.

Think about the questions you might be asked ahead of time: what is your greatest weakness? Spin it into a positive on what you are working on improving. Share a story about yourself to illustrate how you are improving yourself.

Why should I hire you? At this point drop the modesty. It is your closing statement.


After the interview

Persistence pays off. If you don't get a job with a place the first time, try again. Sometimes it will take 3 or 4 applications before getting a job.

If you get a personal call, that is a good sign. Stay on good terms for the future even if you do not get the job; maintain the relationship.

Send a thank you note.

Sometimes individuals might be pigeonholed by institutions into certain jobs based on their backgrounds, you should try to get a feeling for this during the interview. However, these situations can often be made into opportunities.

A job is what you bring to it.

Wolfram Alpha vs Google

It has not had its public release yet (the website says that it is "launching in May 2009," but does not yet work), but Google may get a run for its money with the new Wolfram Alpha search engine. The idea behind this engine is to give an answer to a question directly rather than display a list of websites. The answers will come from information in a number databases. Unlike most search engines today the engine will focus on natural language rather than search terms in order to figure out the data it thinks you are looking for.

Read more about it at the BBC.

Screenshot from Readwriteweb.com

Growing Optimism About Race Relations

This New York Times article highlights how race relations in America have improved since Obama's election to the presidency. Basically, the optimism stems from people having civil conversations with each other and showing respect in small ways to each other.

What's Wrong With Graduate Education?

I just finished reading Mark Taylor's op-ed in the New York Times End the University as We Know It. It is well worth a read and I recommend checking it out.

He makes a compelling argument as to why graduate programs need to be seriously revised in order to help make them relevant to the modern world. I have to say that, by and large, I agree with his argument. I do, however, think that it is somewhat different when it comes to library programs, such as the one here at UW-Madison. The focus of our program is professional; it's objective is to produce competent and knowledgeable individuals practicing what they have learned in the field. In many other programs, though, it seems that there is a an over-abundance of supply to demand. One example to that springs to mind is someone I know with a PhD in English who works where I used to delivering library books. Now, there is nothing wrong with delivering books for a living. I did it for a 2.5 years. But it is not what he wants to do.

The more experience I get with the university the more I think that a few shakeups in the basic structure of education wouldn't hurt. And while library programs could probably be shaken up themselves, I think that many programs could learn something from us and the way we have adapted to current needs.

Public Library Association Workshop on Serving Diverse Populations

Because demographics in the United States are increasingly changing PLA is offering a two-day intensive workshop in Houston to help librarians learn how to better serve diverse populations. Read more about it here.

Towson University Albert S. Cook Library Residency Librarian Program

Since it is the season when soon-to-be library graduates are looking for jobs (including myself) I thought that I would post some of the employment opportunities I have found focused on promoting diversity, starting with the following:

Towson University Albert S. Cook Library Residency Librarian Program

A Week of Good News and Events

Red Cliff Library Reopening

After having been closed for over a year the Red Cliff Library is reopening with limited hours and fueled by volunteer power. Earlier this month our tribal libraries, archives, and museums class had the opportunity to visit with the tribal government and other important stakeholders on the reservation. At that time it was decided that a number of volunteers would get the library tentatively open again on April 20, with a grand reopening to follow. We helped organize and clean the library in anticipation of this event and look forward to hearing how the reopening is going.

You can read more about our trip and service-learning work at Red Cliff here.


Loriene Roy

Well, I forgot to promote it here before it happened, but this last Wednesday and Thursday we have the honor of having past ALA president and library professor at UT-Austin Loriene Roy come speak with us at UW-Madison about indigenous librarianship. She highlighted many of the things that have been going on in the US regarding indigenous librarianship, but also spoke at length about international initiatives such as the ones by IFLA and the International Indigenous Librarians' Forum. She is one of the advisers for the ongoing American Experience documentary series We Shall Remain and a great speaker.

If you missed the first episodes of We Shall Remain you can still see them at the PBS website.

LAMP Now Accepting Applications for Fellowships and the Summer Institute (April 3 Deadline)

LAMP is now accepting applications for fellowships to prospective students at University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee , and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and undergrads interested in learning more about the field of librarianship can apply to attend the Summer Institute. You can find the full announcement here and application form here.

If you have any questions please contact me through the comments link below.

A Trip to Menominee

Check out my post describing my trip with the tribal libraries group to the Menominee Reservation. More to come shortly on our visit to the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation the next day.

LAMP at ACRL Seattle

Check out LAMP scholar Roy Brooks' blog about his experiences at ACRL Seattle where he is presenting for the UW-Madison General Library System's ISIP program and LAMP.

A Visit to the Potowatomi Cultural Center

On Friday I went up to the Potowatomi reservation with the Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums class. It is a good drive from Madison to Forest County, near Crandon in the north of Wisconsin. Most of the trip went pretty smoothly. We did manage to get lost in Rhinelander and learn that Google maps is not always perfect. Our main stop was at the Forest County Potowatomi Cultural Center Library and Museum. We were given a tour by Kim Wensaut, the cultural center's librarian, and Mike Alloway, the cultural center's director. The facility that they have is very new and well-equipped, and the library is an expansion from a much smaller one. In fact, it is new enough that the library still has many empty shelves waiting for books. The collection actually shrank some in the move from the old library to the new because many books that were racist and inaccurate were weeded out. Their current objective is to carefully collect materials that tell the story of the Potowatomi from a Potowatomi perspective and serve the community's needs. The first step down this path was to devise their own system for organizing the materials. In the past year Kim has been hard at work in this task had has created a system that reflects the priorities of the Potowatomi today (at the very beginning under the "A" heading is languge, reflecting their efforts to revive spoken Potowatomi among the people-- this is also reflected in the mural in the library with Potowatomi words for each of the months next to images). The museum adjoining the library is also very modern with multiple interactive video displays highlighting dances, language, and oral histories. It includes high-quality dioramas and artifacts, some on loan from the Milwaukee Public Museum.

The main challenge for the center today is educating the public on the services it provides and developing programming to increase library use. There have already been some successful programs, such as a Summer Creative Writing Workshop and the ongoing Neshnabemwen, or language classes, and it is likely that the community will become more involved as the word gets out about the services the cultural center provides.

Participate in Making Decisions on Campus

This year I have had the opportunity to serve on both the University Library Committee and University Child Care Committee as an Associated Students of Madison (ASM) representative. If you are a student at Madison I highly encourage you to look at the list of committees and apply for one or two. They do not require a large time commitment and they are valuable experiences that let student voices be heard.

Below is an excerpt from the announcement.

Want to help make decisions about campus life instead of reading about them in the paper?

Join the Associated Students of Madison (ASM) Shared Governance Committee – Apply for a standing committee seat for the 2009-2010 academic year!

Another 24 Hour Library on Campus?

The Daily Cardinal student paper reports that ASM, the student governing body, is looking into trying to increase library hours at Steenbock Library. With increased demand for expanded hours and shrinking budgets this could become a difficult issue to address.

A Tuesday Night with Pizza

Last night a number of the LAMP and AOF students at SLIS, and Professors Whitmire and Kim gathered for the consumption of pizza from La Roca's, my favorite local pizzeria. We talked about everything from what is going on in our classes and campus jobs to what we plan to do over spring break. A few of the students were looking forward to attending the ACRL Conference in Seattle and others, including myself, are looking forward to a trip to the Menominee and Stockbridge-Munsee reservations to visit their libraries, archives, and museums as part of our group independent study on the topic (it only sounds like and oxymoron: it is a group study that we had to sign up for as independent studies; we are independent of an instructor leading the class though). Good food + good conversation = a good time.

Myth Busting With Stats

As we all know, even the most educated of people can get some very strange and anachronistic ideas. In this talk at the TED Conference Hans Rosling shows how statistics, and a powerful display format, can give people a much better idea of what their world looks like. It's all about the the power of information to create understanding worldwide.

Easy Reader

Last week I was at my local public library and picked up a DVD copy of "The Best of the Electric Company" on a whim. This was a show made by the folks from Sesame Street starting in 1971, a little before my time. I recall a few of the scenes in from my childhood, but not a whole lot that is substantial. What is remarkable about the program is that it is still just as entertaining today as it probably was then and must have been incredibly progressive for its time. Anyhow my two-year old son absolutely loves it. He especially likes to sing the below song featuring Morgan Freeman as Easy Reader.

Latin@ population growth in Wisconsin

Last night's story about the growing Latin@ population in Wisconsin.

UW Panel Discussion on Race

Issues of race and diversity on the UW campus were highlighted in a panel discussion at the Memorial Union last Friday. Read more about it in the Badger Herald here.

Social TLAM

A lot that has happened since my last post (hello new president!). The LAMP, AOF, and international students at SLIS had an end of the year potluck social. We had way too much food since we were the recipients of food that was left over from a retirement party for Dian Bobb just before our event. Too much food is way better than too little, isn't it though? Some other things that are underway as well include planning for the 2009 LAMP Summer Institute and discussions about a Webpage redesign.

Potluck Social Participants

Trying out the different dishes.

The single largest diversity project that I have been involved in lately, however, is an independent study with nine other students (it is ony an "independent study" on paper, since there are ten students, one professor, and two librarians working on this) where we are creating a Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums (TLAM) class. Our hope is that this will lay the groundwork for a class that could be offered next year as a regular topics course.Our focus has been on service learning, and one of our achievements already has been applying for a receiving a Kauffmann grant to help pay for trips and activities related to our study. One facet of our class has been to build on work that was done last year by three SLIS students (often referred to as the three Cs: Christina and Cat-- both of whom are in the current class as well-- and Chelsea). They conducted an assesment of the Red Cliff Reservation Community to determine whether it would be feasible to reopen their public library. Hopefully we will be able to help them take those first steps towards getting the doors open again, and eventually help lay a foundation that will lead to an entirely new library, since the existing facilities are inadequate. Other activities for this class have included numerous speakers visiting our class and getting ready to visit the TLAM at Oneida next Friday.

For more about our class experience please check out our class blog. I'll write more here in future as well. If you have any ideas or feedback, we'd love to hear from you.