Textbook Alternatives Fwd: Message from the Interim Provost

I've posted this message from UIC administration recommending alternatives to hellaciously overpriced textbooks (my adjective :) ). No surprise here, but the new textbook and annually renewed edition textbooks are a publishing racket that I believe contributes to college student dropout rates.

Dear Colleagues,
Financial issues are the #1 contributing factor to students dropping out of college. UIC has invested heavily in financial aid in an effort to retain students through graduation. Last year 78% of our undergraduate students received some form of financial aid and 37% of full-time undergraduates had all tuition and fee costs covered by financial aid. Thanks in part to that investment the demographic profile of our student body has remained stable and diverse for the last decade while our six-year graduation rate continues to rise. It is in this context that I am asking all faculty to be sensitive to the cost of text books and other materials they assign to their students for the fall semester. As you plan for future semesters, I ask that you please consider carefully your textbook/course material options.

• Indicate if the text is necessary or for reference purposes
• Select the least expensive text among the appropriate options. Work with a textbook company to customize a version of your text excluding portions you never use or to receive a special bulk rate
• Make supplemental materials available through the UIC Library's E-Res service http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/reserves/eres/help.shtml 
• Use an open Source textbook option http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2008/09/open-source-tex/ 
• Use an e-book alternative
• Minimize the use of new titles or new editions. Doing so allows students to purchase used books and the bookstore to stock used books for a longer period of time. More students will be able to sell back the book at the end of one semester so that other students can save on the used books the following semester.
• Minimize the adoption of "bundled" textbooks with extra instructional materials such as CD-ROMs and workbooks. These bundles are often priced higher and include materials that are not incorporated into the class

I also ask that you make every effort to provide information about required texts and educational materials for the Fall semester to the UIC Bookstore or an alternative book store as soon as possible.Thank you for all of your efforts to support UIC's commitment to undergraduate education.

video and video tutorials

If you haven't already seen a library produced video on You Tube or seen one embedded in your library Web site, you probably will soon. One of the qualities of a good librarians is the desire to connect and share with their patron community and in the age of social media, video is one of the most accessible ways to do this. The question that comes up for me when I think about library produced video is, "What are you going to say, and why should I watch it?" There is still a novelty associated with short librarian generated video that will certainly create a little buzz in your user community and perhaps raise a general awareness of the librarians and services available. Videos that present a hearty welcome and an orientation to the library may have their place, but when this novelty wears off, users are going to have little tolerance for information in video form that is not clear and concise and above all, useful. Library users are not visiting the library Web site in order to "surf" it. They are there for a specific reason and are not interested in anything but fulfilling that particular need. We can use the video format best when we use it for tips, tricks and solutions to specific problems we know our users experience while obtaining the information they need.  For example, if there is a known problem with the Web site surrounding access to article databases, a 20 second narrated screencast about selecting an appropriate database could be inserted (embedded) at logical point where users are forced to make a selection between two paths. There are any number of examples that can be thought of where a context sensitive help video could be unobtrusively linked.

The great bifurcation

I have felt pulled in a couple of different directions since I started this blog nearly five (!) years ago. I started it to post about professional interests as a librarian, and the occasional personal or amusing post about anything else. But lately it has been harder and harder to decide which way to go, but I've finally made a decision (with the help of a parent-in-the-trenches). My Library-centric worldview will now be here at "Internet Librarian Ship." "Lost in the Stupormarket" will be about life as a 40-something dad of small children.Wow, such range.

Augmented reality by "Common Craft"

Re-posting a LITA-L email from Gerry McKiernan:

This video is an introduction to augmented reality - a new and growing way to use smartphones to learn about the world around you. This video introduces the technology and covers the basic applications. It includes:

•A high level introduction to the big idea
•Using it to find a restaurant
•Using it to compare products, be entertained
•A look at future possibilities of augmented reality

http://www.commoncraft.com/augmented-reality-video

can memes become extinct?

So this wikipedia article says "Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct." So, if a meme is recorded in some fashion, either textually, in pictures, video, et cetera, but is no longer in general use, can it be considered extinct? Unlike extinct biological life, a meme could be revived at any time be simply by a culturally influential person (or entity like a tv show or advertisement) reintroducing it. For example, what if Lady GaGa started saying "where's the beef?"

"zones of intervention"

I've been reading Carol Kuhlthau's writings about the "Information Search Process" (ISP) lately as research into an article I'm revising on the single search box. In them she reminds me that the early stages of the ISP include a level of anxiety and uncertainty. It is natural for the user of an information system to have an affective response to an information need as well as a cognitive one. The anxiety felt at the beginning of the research process comes from the user's lack of knowledge about the topic of interest, but also from a lack of focus on the topic of interest itself. This is usually where an information professional like a librarian might provide guidance to the user in the form of an interpreter of the information system, or as an interviewer helping to elicit a more focused information query. Kuhlthau writing in 1996 also refers to a "zone of intervention" in the ISP. "The zone of intervention is that area in which an information user can do with advice and assistance what he or she could not do alone. Intervention within this zone enables the user to move along in the information search process. Intervention outside this zone is inefficient and unnecessary; experienced by users as intrusive, on the one side and overwhelming, on the other." (Kuhlthau 1996) Interestingly, Kuhlthau was writing about this zone to address the question, "What is the role of the information professional as intermediary in an environment where information systems provide direct access to the end user?" (Kuhlthau 1996) Fourteen years later the question is still just as incisive, if not moreso since Google Scholar, Federated search, Article databases and link resolvers bring full text library content into the users lap. For remote users searching via the library Web site (the vast majority), that intervention must occur asynchronously through context sensitive help, or not at all. One philosophy of librarianship, — which is admittedly more nuanced than I am giving it credit for here — eschews a simplified search interface and feels that the user requires education and instruction on how to use library resources. I do not necessarily disagree that the user often needs guidance or instruction, but I am of the mind that we ought to be providing the best content possible with the simplest and least mediated interface that we can. Currently, the best technological solution to this issue is the single search box across multiple databases, including commercial search engines. The "zone of intervention" exists post-search when the user is reviewing and interpreting results. The presentation of search results is the most important point at which the librarian has the opportunity to exert their expertise by providing "contextual buttressing" (to borrow a delightful phrase, thanks Kathryn S.) to help searchers understand the types of information they are retrieving.

Joi Ito photo: Generation Gap

The thread that brought me to this picture started out as a You Tube search for my last name. That in turn lead me to a 2008 talk at UC Berkeley by the (then) President of the Digital Library Federation Peter Brantley. He spoke about his interactions with the newspaper industry as the president of Dig. Lib. Federation.

Generation Gap
Originally uploaded by Joi