tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50613569883878507972024-03-05T05:53:05.997+01:00And books will fly...... who knows where they'll take me? (An ex-librarian on her new doctoral journey.)Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13469208260969641953noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-27737767477660633452017-07-10T07:00:00.000+02:002017-07-10T07:00:35.980+02:00Sketchnotes from #LILAC17<br />
I've been meaning to post this for a few months now but I seemed to never have time... I finally do now!<br />
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I was very happy to return to LILAC this year and honoured to be able to do so thanks to a <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/lilac-2017/bursary" target="_blank">bursary</a>. Leanne Workman interviewed all bursary winners and <a href="https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/CC-V11-I1-4" target="_blank">you can find her article here</a>.<br />
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It was amazing to be once again in this bursting explosion of ideas that is LILAC and I went home with a buzzing head full of exciting leads to follow.<br />
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As last year, I made sketchnotes of the presentations I attended and shared them on Instagram / Twitter.<br />
Here they are finally in blog form - I hope you find them interesting!<br />
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Keynote by Josie Fraser – Librarians and Information Professionals as Open Practitioners</h2>
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<a href="https://videostream.swan.ac.uk/contentglobal/9176_4x~8ERZ8LtV.mp4" target="_blank">Video available here</a> - <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/the-library-is-open-librarians-and-information-professionals-as-open-practitioners-josie-fraser-lilac-keynote-speaker" target="_blank">Slides available here</a><br />
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Critical Reading Made Easy, Pip Divall</h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/critical-reading-made-easy-pip-divall" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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<h2>
Students as positive disruptors, Vicky Grant, Kate Grisby, Sophie Carlson, Rosa Sadler </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/students-as-positive-disruptors-codeveloping-an-information-and-digital-literacy-festival-using-a-participatory-action-research-approach-grant-grigsby" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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You don’t know what you don’t know, Shirley Yearwood-Jackman </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/you-dont-know-what-you-dont-know-using-reflection-to-develop-metacognitive-skills-for-information-literacy-yearwoodjackman" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Keynote by Barbara Allan – Making an impact beyond the library and information service </h2>
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<a href="https://videostream.swan.ac.uk/contentglobal/9177_4y~AsgpJWFi.mp4" target="_blank">Video available here.</a><br />
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Getting bums on virtual seats, Katherine Moore and Nicola Beer from the Open University </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/getting-bums-on-virtual-seats-for-library-training-the-benefit-of-hindsight-moore-beer" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Academic integrity and doctoral education, Lene Østvand and Helene Andreassen </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/academic-integrity-and-the-university-librarys-role-in-the-doctoral-education-ostvand" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Practitioner research for librarians, Adama Edwards and Vanessa Hill </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/practitioner-research-for-librarians-a-dprof-case-study-edwards-hill" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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And the winner is… Samantha Brown and Abigail Heath</h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/and-the-winner-is-does-competitive-teambased-activity-enhance-learning-for-undergraduate-students-in-il-classroom-environments-heath-brown" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Keynote by Alan Carbery – Authentic Information Literacy in an era of Post Truth </h2>
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<a href="https://videostream.swan.ac.uk/contentglobal/9231_4p~QjzwupJp.mp4" target="_blank">Video available here</a> - <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/authentic-information-literacy-in-an-era-of-post-truth-alan-carbery-lilac-2017-keynote-speaker" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Flipped classroom intervention, Torstein Låg </h2>
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<a href="https://www.slideshare.net/infolit_group/effects-of-a-flipped-classroom-intervention-in-a-large-enrolment-academic-skills-course-lag" target="_blank">Slides available here.</a><br />
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Final words by Jane Secker and Nick Poole – The Future of Information Literacy</h2>
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<br />Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-10019402092438726792016-06-28T13:05:00.000+02:002016-06-28T13:05:05.794+02:00#ARLG16: Teaching electronic resources to students with computer anxietyI'm just back from a short trip to Birmingham where I had the chance to do a workshop at the ARLG conference on my theme of predilection: teaching electronic resources to students with computer anxiety.<br />
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If you want to <b>have a look at my presentation</b>, here it is:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/caiboKnXOZ7lLC" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px; text-align: center;">
<b> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AurlieGandour/teaching-electronic-resources-to-students-with-computer-anxiety-arlg-presentation" target="_blank" title="Teaching Electronic Resources to Students with Computer Anxiety - ARLG presentation">Teaching Electronic Resources to Students with Computer Anxiety - ARLG presentation</a> </b> from <b><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/AurlieGandour" target="_blank">Aurélie Gandour</a></b> </div>
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For <b>a more detailed version</b>, you can <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/lilac16-teaching-electronic-resources.html">have a look at my -quite similar- presentation from LILAC</a>. The main difference here was that we actually tried out some of the activities I proposed.<br />
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The participants kindly went along with my activities and completed some <b>worksheets about the main problems they face with computer anxious students</b>. <a href="https://dl.orangedox.com/DvaRfcHNh7bu9X4RGL" target="_blank">If you want to have a look at what they came up with, have a look over here.</a><br />
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Finally, I put together <b>a very complete handout</b> including <b>most of what I said out loud</b> as well as many of the <b>materials I actually use with my students</b> (so you can use them too!).<br />
<a href="https://dl.orangedox.com/Xl1NLsSIxwffMFR8zL/ARLG2016-handout.pdf" target="_blank">You can download it over here.</a><br />
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Hoping you'll find all of those documents useful!<br />
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<br />Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-42960266822629591772016-05-23T07:00:00.000+02:002016-05-23T07:00:01.208+02:00How to start sketchnoting<br />
<i>This article is a translation from <a href="https://twitter.com/magalielegall" target="_blank">Magalie Le Gall</a>'s article, <a href="https://sacamainetsacados.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/sketchnoter-un-compte-rendu-de-reunion-ou-de-formation-en-direct-live/" target="_blank">published in French over here</a>. Magalie is a French librarian in Paris, fan of Lego and visual mapping. (And she's awesome.)</i><br />
<i>Reading her article some time ago made me fall instantly for skechnoting... as you may have noticed from <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.com/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html">my recent notes from LILAC</a>.</i><br />
<i>So I wanted to share her article with you, hoping that it will inspire you to try it out too!</i><br />
<br />
<br />
On 25-26th January, I went to the workshop I had gifted myself for Christmas: the <a href="http://www.lafabriqueabonheurs.com/les-ateliers-de-visual-mapping-en-juin/" target="_blank">#visualmapping</a> workshop by <a href="https://twitter.com/heuristiquement" target="_blank">Philippe Boukobza</a> (from the excellent blog <a href="http://www.heuristiquement.com/" target="_blank">Heuristiquement</a> - in French) near Paris.<br />
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Besides madly hearting this workshop and intending to continue until I get certified, I have resolved sketchnoting my meetings, trainings, or study day reports. Anything coming my way, actually.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Why?</h3>
Because (I know you think so too) a report is usually effing boring. So there are good chances you won't ever [re-]read it again. And if you forward your pretty 15 pages long, 11 font-size Word document to your colleagues... ? In short, a lot of work for very little results.<br />
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<h3>
Sketch... what?</h3>
Philippe Boukobza <a href="http://www.heuristiquement.com/2012/12/sketchnote-ou-croquinote-une-technique.html" target="_blank">defines</a> it this way: "Sketchnoting means translating concepts, process, ideas, conversations in visual thoughts, individually and as a note-taking technique." By putting forward keywords, expressions, relationships and pictograms, you have to not only really understand the content you're transcribing, but also simplify it as much as you can. Down with parasitic sentences that weigh your reports down!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIv7s5f5Eu9u218qpzhBvCpVtvE78d2Y8bSYojTAP96h9jYKtTiIq23N8LUjfGwZcQZegLgEJzAKKi1rhyEMvOWNGRadz4LaEerTlCDNW7g-nqMLYWVT7hELuQTlJdKtrr9sOcLqU6Lo0/s1600/sketchnotes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIv7s5f5Eu9u218qpzhBvCpVtvE78d2Y8bSYojTAP96h9jYKtTiIq23N8LUjfGwZcQZegLgEJzAKKi1rhyEMvOWNGRadz4LaEerTlCDNW7g-nqMLYWVT7hELuQTlJdKtrr9sOcLqU6Lo0/s400/sketchnotes.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
Let's tackle the "drawing" issue</h3>
After talking about it with lots of people, I know we're touching a sensitive point. Seeing my sketchnotes, many colleagues or friends exclaimed "oh you're gifted, that's obvious, there's nothing crossed out, and you're a creative person. I wouldn't be able to do this, my writing's a mess and I don't know how to draw". I can tell you that this makes me mad. Like, for real.<br />
<br />
I'm just a clumsy oaf as far as art drawing goes. It's true that I like for it to be neat, but I really don't care if it's "pretty" or not, I'm just having fun. And since we're on the topic, let me underline that a sketchnote is not destined to be pretty: it is destined to be understood, [re-]read and memorised.<br />
<br />
Let's get back to drawing: we're all able to draw! I bet that when you were little you didn't even ask yourself the question. Paper, pens and hop! You were gone. You even did it for hours. Unfortunately school, negative judgements from others, the framework imposed by work, all these things had their effect. And that's just as true for sports, music, languages, maths, writing... You're amongst the gifted ones or you're not. And if you're not, then you're absolutely not touching it ever again. So it's not so much our ability to do this or that that is the problem, but the trust you have in your ability to do it. You're self-limiting yourselves, here, I said it.<br />
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Now, take a sheet of paper, a pen, and have a look at the following video:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7TXEZ4tP06c" width="640"></iframe>
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See! You can draw too!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1uRwhyYlfvKrBDsSk3dRDLEXpsX93FyfR9_xSnJowKAQnUx2JgWm9HgupkiOh42WA01G_fGdl1UrrjG7xdKN8654FOGnlmeOKXvvLYZHHv9jvdyMD3ivtUfIi4Lf8dEwuYoZvvjtybc/s1600/drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv1uRwhyYlfvKrBDsSk3dRDLEXpsX93FyfR9_xSnJowKAQnUx2JgWm9HgupkiOh42WA01G_fGdl1UrrjG7xdKN8654FOGnlmeOKXvvLYZHHv9jvdyMD3ivtUfIi4Lf8dEwuYoZvvjtybc/s1600/drawing.jpg" /></a></div>
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<h3>
But it must take ages! </h3>
No more than typing up a report, re-reading it to complete it and tweak the layout. Of course, you need to take new habits and admit that you won't write everything down, instead only keeping key concepts from what's going to be said. That's also why your typography and pictograms need to be simple to do.<br />
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<h3>
Let's try it out (yay!)</h3>
<ul>
<li>Just as Graham Shaw says in his video, you need to be open minded: let go from expectations, don't think about the results. Remember what <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/zohra473" target="_blank">Zohra Kaafar</a> wrote in one of her <a href="http://visual-mapping.fr/presentation-pensee-design-creativite/" target="_blank">presentations</a>: "creativity is contagious, make it go round."</li>
<li>Do know that, the first time, your colleagues are probably going to watch you with a weird look on their face (but they'll soon be very interested!).</li>
<li>To start easy, you can sketchnote very short meetings or just your train of thoughts for a project or a training session you're going to give... [tip from Aurélie: you can also go online and sketchnote a TED talk, a MOOC lesson, or even a podcast - and remember: there's nothing at stakes and nobody needs to see it... just have fun!]</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Sketchnoting, how does it work? </h3>
<ul>
<li>In order to represent visually an idea or an abstract concept, think of shapes (square, circle, rectangle...) or of the image it makes you think of. Here are a few examples:</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FYKRCMz93PUBpaGFekJaRDSk47Bi52nD4W1_m1p6NqnS0muGlkCiAnaY4mzLHf4pJSJHHEgUgNRn88yxTWqOV6ezw9w71KGPgvNm1EAdYIjn25iCriWmwBPKshHf0kGRY5bcE-eRUTk/s1600/icons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4FYKRCMz93PUBpaGFekJaRDSk47Bi52nD4W1_m1p6NqnS0muGlkCiAnaY4mzLHf4pJSJHHEgUgNRn88yxTWqOV6ezw9w71KGPgvNm1EAdYIjn25iCriWmwBPKshHf0kGRY5bcE-eRUTk/s320/icons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/58KI-QUB-t0" width="560"></iframe>
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<ul>
<li>Use arrows, banners, different typographic styles in order to push the main ideas forward. Visually, it changes everything. And it's really easy to do!</li>
</ul>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKiN8BEIZHu79NZLI35N_aF7uBWVes-VqvcA0KCcmWyj-06IX0xAUFXgMWGENznsEb4wnS2eiaTZZeR49OTcKCxzCpi3SJUFtxUQOXavZuYhDUNhe1z3CM5E8wYScDToNuS_TMVZ7IdgA/s400/tips.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rockourworld/12576243464/in/faves-131896028@N07/" target="_blank">source</a>) [tip from Aurélie: I've printed this reminder and glued it at the end
of my notebook... so useful when you're trying to think of a different
bullet point idea in the middle of a sketchnote!]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<ul>
<li>Make sure you have a good balance between pictograms and keywords: your sketchnote needs to still be understandable several weeks / months later.</li>
<li>In one of <a href="http://visual-mapping.fr/les-7-habitudes-une-tres-belle-sketchnote-a-decouvrir/" target="_blank">his articles (French link)</a>, Philippe Boukobza reminds us of the main principles for a good sketchnote: use space to let the note breathe, accentuate keywords by playing with typography, insert very simple illustrations to strengthen the message and, finally, stay simple as far as colours go.</li>
<li>And, let me repeat this to make sure you got the message: don't try and make something "beautiful" and compete with Leonardo da Vinci. For example, I like to say that I'm "scribbling" my meeting report. That helps getting rid of inhibitions.</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuN25_W1YqQaZfgnazCCbAZyTz7G1DnsoUu9WNqYBjh0feNDkJ03LqYM6HtpyZKgalJS8oI9XMiApg7RjYF3OwI06sW9UHLRClit8AbAKG2Dw1YGYZQjos1bLe37LgRFmYu4gFHveVrcA/s1600/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuN25_W1YqQaZfgnazCCbAZyTz7G1DnsoUu9WNqYBjh0feNDkJ03LqYM6HtpyZKgalJS8oI9XMiApg7RjYF3OwI06sW9UHLRClit8AbAKG2Dw1YGYZQjos1bLe37LgRFmYu4gFHveVrcA/s320/photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCOjWh8KoqvzFZ9TQvJ52-o16Xs29KZ4vfj5a9naGZ2jdioKuLXhO-UyMFaB1L2tawi3RZz5iOb0hGISyUWelROR22GatrDsRGFcMO-9E_DvRsgvBJ1X98di_I0L5NByxOXjtrVPVo8Q/s1600/sketchnotes2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJCOjWh8KoqvzFZ9TQvJ52-o16Xs29KZ4vfj5a9naGZ2jdioKuLXhO-UyMFaB1L2tawi3RZz5iOb0hGISyUWelROR22GatrDsRGFcMO-9E_DvRsgvBJ1X98di_I0L5NByxOXjtrVPVo8Q/s400/sketchnotes2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
Advice regarding stationery...</h3>
(NB: I'm going to let you know what I'm using but any kind of paper / pens would do the trick. Personally, I think that the quality of the tool and the pleasure you get from using it are important, but it's really up to you.)<br />
<ul>
<li>Being a Moleskin addict, I recommend their <a href="http://www.moleskine.com/gb/collections/model/product/sketch-album-pocket-black-soft-cover" target="_blank">sketch album</a>, their new collection of <a href="https://store.moleskine.com/gbr/notebooks/journals/volant-journal/p6?lang=en-gb&ic=Rmygiw%3D%3D" target="_blank">Volant journal</a>, or their <a href="http://www.moleskine.com/en/collections/model/digital-covers" target="_blank">digital covers</a> compatible with tablet covers. Whichever brand you choose, make sure to get a notebook with blank pages (or with a <i>dot grid</i> that will help you calibrate your outline).</li>
<li>Work on only one side of the page (in portrait or landscape - doesn't matter).</li>
<li>In order to play more easily with the width of lines, you can use black pens having tips from 0.05 (very fine, perfect for the face of your little people) to 0.8 (very wide, perfect for separations, banners, or arrows). Personally, I like <a href="http://www.rougier-ple.fr/etui-de-6-feutres-techniques-pointe-calibree-noir-4-2-gratuits.r.html?utm_source=GoogleShopping&utm_medium=COMPARATEUR&utm_campaign=catalogue&gclid=CMLayIyzjssCFUWNGwodC0sHhw" target="_blank">Staedtlers</a> pens very much, or <a href="http://www.rougier-ple.fr/pigma-micron-feutre-pointe-calibree.r.html" target="_blank">Micron</a> pens. </li>
<li>For finishing touches, you can shade your drawings. Ideally, use a brush pen in a lighter colour (I'm using Pitt Faber-Castel pens in <a href="http://www.faber-castell.fr/beaux-arts/produits/pitt-artist-pens/FeutrePITTartistpennuancesdebleu%C3%A9tuide6/167164" target="_blank">blue</a> or <a href="http://www.faber-castell.fr/beaux-arts/produits/pitt-artist-pens/FeutrePITTartistpennuancesgris%C3%A9tuide6/167104" target="_blank">grey</a> shades. You also have the <a href="http://www.equipement-seminaire.com/fiche_produit.php?ID=588" target="_blank">ArtMaker from Neulands</a> which are just crazy good. </li>
</ul>
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<h3>
You want to sketchnote form your tablet / smartphone?</h3>
Download the free (in its lite version) app <a href="https://www.sketchbook.com/mobile" target="_blank">Sketchbook Pro</a>. Having tested it, I do recommend to use a smartpen if you want to sketchnote a full report, that's much more practical than with your finger.<br />
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And lastly I'm recommending THE book on sketchnoting: <a href="http://rohdesign.com/handbook" target="_blank">The Sketchnote Handbook</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/rohdesign" target="_blank">Mike Rohde</a>. He's a specialist on the topic and also the author of a workbook (with more advanced techniques) as well as a series of videos.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuq5r7vyROCfpd0Tzbaw7dYywBBT8BQGKoGwi5a8iuMjkWkpZ5QiPQa8SL7WxmS-KMotYc05fLlxPibtaax8a19A2tfC1CSPwahGFUYa07WoFKgsiytHE3Io3LqhE4vYBiPTW9DxsDKM/s1600/books.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuq5r7vyROCfpd0Tzbaw7dYywBBT8BQGKoGwi5a8iuMjkWkpZ5QiPQa8SL7WxmS-KMotYc05fLlxPibtaax8a19A2tfC1CSPwahGFUYa07WoFKgsiytHE3Io3LqhE4vYBiPTW9DxsDKM/s1600/books.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(yeah, the lego book has nothing to do with it, it's just that it came in at the same time as the other two...)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I hope I've got you to want to try it out!<br />
If you do, let us know and post your own creations online!<br />
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<br />Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-71147566326019739852016-04-01T09:00:00.000+02:002016-04-01T09:32:31.124+02:00Sketchnoting my way through #lilac16I enjoyed<i> </i>Lilac way more than I should admit; it was such a blast!<br />
I got lucky to have <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/lilac16-teaching-electronic-resources.html" target="_blank">my own session</a> out of the way quite quickly so I was set free from worry early on.<br />
Lots of lovely people came up to talk with me - which is really perfect when your introverted self has a hard time going towards people you don't know. I'm very grateful to everybody who came by and said hi!<br />
But aside from the social side, I also enjoyed all of the talks I went to wholeheartedly.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Reflection </h3>
<br />
So, let's reflect a little on the actual content of the conference.<br />
(That's a lot of text down there, but if you scroll down a bit you'll find pictures!) <br />
<ul>
<li>I loved learning about teaching students how to create better research topics. That's not something I've taught before, but now I really want to pitch it to the tutors I'm working with!</li>
<ul>
<li>Anne-Marie Deitering <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#CURIOSITY">explained</a> that if students seem to be lacking curiosity in their choice of topics, it's because they tend to go for the "safe" option. It's hard to be adventurous when what you do is going to determine your grades!</li>
<li>Mason Brown came up with <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#COMICS">a great program</a> to teach pre-freshmen how to ask good questions, and it's all based on panels from comics. It's such a great idea and he seems to have had a lot of success! I would love to try it out on my students... </li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Innovative systems for iSkills programs:</li>
<ul>
<li>Librarians from the University of Liverpool came up with <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#KNOWHOW">an innovative way</a> to organise all the different workshops that were being proposed throughout the university: by managing it as if it was a start-up.</li>
<li>The IDEA model <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#IDEA">demonstrates</a> how to merge instructional design with information literacy to create bespoke iSkills training for a specific course.</li>
<ol></ol>
<li>Librarians tend to create games that teach mechanics or test knowledge. But it's actually better to just use <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#KEEPS">game mechanics</a> to frame your normal content. It was great to see how Catherine Fahey and Marcela Y. Isuster have successfully been doing it for a pre-freshman course.</li>
<li>Using the actual <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#STANDARDS">standards of the profession</a> your students are going to integrate is a great way to drive home the point that information literacy is <i>for life</i>, not just for university. And that they will be expected to use the skills you're teaching them during their professional lives.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Avoiding to do the same thing over and over... </li>
<ul>
<li>Since David Bedford's library works with several universities, he creates <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#STANDARDS">"institution-neutral" materials</a>. Genius.</li>
<li>I also loved the idea of <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#KEYNOTE">creating "playlists"</a> of resources depending on a person's skill. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>It's reassuring to hear that we all come up against the same kind of
problems: students lacking <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#PEER">basic literacy skills</a>, trying to get them <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#STANDARDS">motivated</a>, finding <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#IDEA">collaborative tutors</a> and getting the <i>non-collaborative</i> ones <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#CURIOSITY">on board</a>, getting the right <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#MASTERS">timing</a> for the sessions, etc. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Training other professionals</li>
<ul>
<li>The <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#COPYRIGHT">copyright literacy</a> of librarians is not at its best. Thankfully, Chris Morrison and Jane Secker have <a href="http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=300600#.Vv1K3UCUIsQ" target="_blank">written a book</a> about it and created <a href="http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/10949/19369" target="_blank">a (downloadable) card game</a> to teach us! </li>
<li>All staff member need skills in all areas of <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#KEYNOTE">digital capabilities</a>. But you can't learn what you don't know that you don't know... This problem gets solved by James Clay's Discovery tool. </li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Getting published!</li>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/sketchnoting-lilac16.html#JIL">Emma Coonan</a> patiently explained that getting published by the <a href="http://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/ojs/index.php/JIL" target="_blank">Journal of Information Literacy</a> is actually doable! Now, I just need to come up with a good topic...</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
My Notes</h3>
<br />
<i>A foreword before the actual notes:</i><br />
<br />
<i>I've always loved taking non-linear notes... But the week before Lilac, I learned about a technique called <a href="http://sketchnotearmy.com/about/" target="_blank">Sketchnoting</a>, and decided to try and use it throughout the conference. </i><br />
<br />
<i>I'll tell you more about how it works next week... But for now, I just wanted to warn you that my notes look a little different that what you're probably used to. And they're not typed up. But I hope you enjoy them anyway!</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="JIL"></a>21/03/2016 – Publication without tears: tips for aspiring authors, by Emma Coonan, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Information Literacy. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/publication-without-tears-tips-for-aspiring-authors" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSiAcZ9B0c2FnDMTL0JjXxqmv_EfSAbk8PAjGKWxfBowVqBkA2RxUvHDs52pVwTM6TqH4lsyIsXzbcdy82HHzmiicZeFqvzCCUw6djfh6AXYZU1XLSTwnNfqnkfYAO0KN_xLkJeIF5Rg/s1600/JIL.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqSiAcZ9B0c2FnDMTL0JjXxqmv_EfSAbk8PAjGKWxfBowVqBkA2RxUvHDs52pVwTM6TqH4lsyIsXzbcdy82HHzmiicZeFqvzCCUw6djfh6AXYZU1XLSTwnNfqnkfYAO0KN_xLkJeIF5Rg/s640/JIL.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="PEER"></a>21/03/2016 – Peer Support for the Development of Information and Digital Literacy Skills at the Institute of Technology Tallaght, by Philip Russell and Dr Gerard Ryder. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/peer-support-for-the-development-of-information-and-digital-literacy-skills-at-the-institute-of-technology-tallaght" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="COPYRIGHT"></a>21/03/2016 – Copyright Literacy in the UK: tackling anxiety through learning and games, by Jane Secker and Chris Morrison. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/copyright-literacy-in-the-uk-tackling-anxiety-through-learning-and-games" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8Jz84d2_Vd9w2L5Vfvqgjr1ncvXnexFhLYt5XrcshOYqGLWdL4hWCz0sb9O2Hda6hp4iqdOSbeUZCurqeNCIu7w05S4S5_AsYdSSuyIAv9NveoF4EA9UipUmyL79PpHUuSHGwkBxEkc/s1600/copyright3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji8Jz84d2_Vd9w2L5Vfvqgjr1ncvXnexFhLYt5XrcshOYqGLWdL4hWCz0sb9O2Hda6hp4iqdOSbeUZCurqeNCIu7w05S4S5_AsYdSSuyIAv9NveoF4EA9UipUmyL79PpHUuSHGwkBxEkc/s640/copyright3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="KEEPS"></a>22/03/2016 – Playing for Keeps: Game Design and Implementation for Long-Term Learning, by Catherine Fahey and Marcela Y. Isuster. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/playing-for-keeps-game-design-and-implementation-for-long-term-learning" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="KEYNOTE"></a>22/03/2016 – Keynote by James Clay<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEifgNaS6HE0XzyhiQOmD7lRYkumTjuyGugo3d4TFvnSAIrhJPwLrGU-XuZjvQpUoSxTHmiEPo6wUFo2-xyWYUGm0DsuyaFjHP1w42ZoABx-3WVHDf5TUjkxqCQ-GfdJS-41EVdFHdX2Y/s1600/keynote3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEifgNaS6HE0XzyhiQOmD7lRYkumTjuyGugo3d4TFvnSAIrhJPwLrGU-XuZjvQpUoSxTHmiEPo6wUFo2-xyWYUGm0DsuyaFjHP1w42ZoABx-3WVHDf5TUjkxqCQ-GfdJS-41EVdFHdX2Y/s640/keynote3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="IDEA"></a>22/03/2016 – Great IDEA: An Instructional Design model for Integrating Information literacy, by Kimberly Mullins. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/great-idea-an-instructional-design-model-for-integrating-information-literacy" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwslivx1TVHgNMnQ_IVZbq0aa9KTLQlM9PWdPqRGyh3Rnj2P5brq3l2FJh-GelOLEQr5CXC2kES8BkRlOsPQAzqzbynFjIvb-P7-Nbs_qoBCnwFCN154vdNPMQDGy6U2U31nhiDJraFEI/s1600/idea-model2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwslivx1TVHgNMnQ_IVZbq0aa9KTLQlM9PWdPqRGyh3Rnj2P5brq3l2FJh-GelOLEQr5CXC2kES8BkRlOsPQAzqzbynFjIvb-P7-Nbs_qoBCnwFCN154vdNPMQDGy6U2U31nhiDJraFEI/s640/idea-model2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="MASTERS"></a>22/03/2016 – Masters of the UniVerse! By Holly Singleton and Phil Jones. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/masters-of-the-universe" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB88s4uXrhu137s_gM545_kQ-KzuEAM7W-O2fHA5IQeqC5VKntjIPD1HBAsUajkqhoEpRxbF9wZzBY-4YmfpYrfttnBoPaicWTCwpfRYT5VuIOVw9SF1HncVMHMbXKyR5Uiu74UzmiWM8/s1600/masters-universe.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB88s4uXrhu137s_gM545_kQ-KzuEAM7W-O2fHA5IQeqC5VKntjIPD1HBAsUajkqhoEpRxbF9wZzBY-4YmfpYrfttnBoPaicWTCwpfRYT5VuIOVw9SF1HncVMHMbXKyR5Uiu74UzmiWM8/s640/masters-universe.JPG" width="458" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="CURIOSITY"></a>22/03/2016 – Does the research paper kill curiosity? Collaborating with faculty to support learning and exploration, by Anne-Marie Deitering. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/does-the-research-paper-kill-curiosity-collaborating-with-faculty-to-support-learning-and-exploration" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkABcdHwIWxCnQ-AASKge0vDZWWcT26jFqaP7iPb_mg6Us5BHLClAZw8440qGhn3bwYD9yoPBXyFTW8wpqNJAG_6hst5zeqan7w1YQNQSLzuOrzOluFQqih9g9efOf59MxC3Ryonhiw0I/s1600/curiosity2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkABcdHwIWxCnQ-AASKge0vDZWWcT26jFqaP7iPb_mg6Us5BHLClAZw8440qGhn3bwYD9yoPBXyFTW8wpqNJAG_6hst5zeqan7w1YQNQSLzuOrzOluFQqih9g9efOf59MxC3Ryonhiw0I/s640/curiosity2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="KNOWHOW"></a>22/03/2016 – All you need to startup is KnowHow: creating a scalable information literacy programme at the University of Liverpool, by Nicola Kerr and Zelda Chatten. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/all-you-need-to-startup-is-knowhow-creating-a-scalable-information-literacy-programme-at-the-university-of-liverpool" target="_blank">Link to Abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="COMICS"></a>23/03/2016 – Is it a bird? Is it a plane? What can students learn asking questions about comics? By Mason Brown. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/talking-it-out-making-it-work-turning-reflection-into-action" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="STANDARDS"></a>23/03/2016 – Using professional standards to inform information literacy work, by David Bedford. <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/using-professional-standards-to-inform-information-literacy-work" target="_blank">Link to abstract.</a><br />
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<br />Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-49017634891926012862016-03-24T14:00:00.000+01:002016-03-24T14:53:10.201+01:00#lilac16: Teaching electronic resources to students with computer anxietyLilac went by so fast... and it's already over!<br />
<br />
On Monday, I presented a short paper to an impressively packed classroom...<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7y05rNUmtqAjuPUeinntG20HeUj94fr2c-SQW7XoulPIx7Z9mt5xLEAfdJJ97joJRcVKdawPZJBI1bjUwTp-wDRA5JZ9tfrQ3VsWF9qJQtirrHNriZ52mjdoN11taCYCpODFiChbLzo/s1600/presentation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7y05rNUmtqAjuPUeinntG20HeUj94fr2c-SQW7XoulPIx7Z9mt5xLEAfdJJ97joJRcVKdawPZJBI1bjUwTp-wDRA5JZ9tfrQ3VsWF9qJQtirrHNriZ52mjdoN11taCYCpODFiChbLzo/s640/presentation.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Picture by Heather Dalal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As promised, here is my presentation, with added notes so that you get what I was talking about...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="485" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//fr.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/e5ralK0ZKL0nBv" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #ccc; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="595"> </iframe> </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px; text-align: center;">
<b> <a href="https://fr.slideshare.net/agandour/teaching-electronic-resources-to-students-with-computer-anxiety" target="_blank" title="Teaching electronic resources to students with computer anxiety">Teaching electronic resources to students with computer anxiety</a> </b> from <b><a href="https://fr.slideshare.net/agandour" target="_blank">Aurélie Gandour</a></b> </div>
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Note that lots of the active learning activities I mention come directly (or after modification) <a href="http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/5704/" target="_blank">from this book</a> (aka: the Bible).<br />
<br />
I will try and post "how-tos" for some of the activities I adapted on this blog later on.<br />
<br />
In the next few days, I will also post my notes from talks I attended... Stay tuned!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-8158913450869646442016-03-18T11:00:00.000+01:002016-03-18T12:00:10.336+01:00#Lilac16: preparing for it!Let's revive this blog from its slumber...<br />
<br />
Just a short word to say that I'm very much looking forward to going to #lilac16 next week.<br />
<br />
I've been preparing the best I can: being an introvert at a conference is not always easy!<br />
<br />
So far I have:<br />
<ul>
<li>Booked a hotel room near the conference venue so that I can retreat for quiet times if need be. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Printed all of my itineraries, plane tickets, coach tickets, hotel bookings... And also saved everything on Google Drive... </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Studied the program and booked the talks I want to go to. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Tweeted to all the presenters of those talks to say hi. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Updated my <a href="https://twitter.com/Aurelie_Sol" target="_blank">twitter account</a> for the occasion! :)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Looked up some "escape routes": if I go to the networking event / conference dinner, I need the reassurance of being able to leave without having to wait for the official coach back. Big events like that are always very stressful for my little introvert heart! </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Practiced my presentation as best I can - I will be talking on Monday afternoon about teaching <a href="http://www.lilacconference.com/events/lowering-students-anxiety-during-information-skills-training-with-active-learning" target="_blank">electronic resources to students with computer anxiety</a>! Come and see me! I'm terrified that nobody will come... </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I also printed some little handouts with most of the content of my talk + references, just in case anybody wants one (come and ask me!). </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>And finally, I followed <a href="http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/2016/03/webinar-recording-getting-the-most-out-of-the-lilac-conference/" target="_blank">this useful webinar</a> on getting the most out of the conference (and practiced my sketchnoting at the same time...)</li>
</ul>
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Are you going too?<br />
How have you prepared so far?<br />
Let's meet!<br />
<br />Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-28610373155299054312014-12-03T09:00:00.000+01:002014-12-04T14:32:48.175+01:00Inter-library loans - a French fairy tale<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><br />Here is the post I had submitted for the CILIP Blogger Challenge. If you haven't yet, you should go and have a look at the <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/enter-cilip-blogger-challenge">highly commended entries</a>, they're really great!</i><br />
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<i>[EDIT:] If you want to go further, here is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OYIbwgpvuV2b3uNH1BOcc34dDF6NMWWOaIa6i_GG2WQ/pub" target="_blank">a page in English about Sudoc</a> by Émilie Liard (who I mention further down this post). And here is the <a href="http://lafacette.wordpress.com/winibw-jaime-jaime-pas/" target="_blank">page (in French) where she links to all her posts on the subject</a> (she published a couple new posts since I wrote this article).</i><br />
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I’d like to tell you a story. It involves a charming prince, a troublesome monster and an army of determined villagers. It's also about inter-library loans.<br />
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Our story begins in France. As a French librarian, I'm well placed to tell you that libraries there are rarely praised for anything. We look over in awe at the UK’s 24/7 opening hours in university libraries, your idea stores and how you’re ready to fight to keep libraries open despite budget cuts. But I also think there might be a thing or two you could learn from how things are done on the other side of the Channel.<br />
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When I started my first library job in London, I was shocked to discover that librarians here weren't participating in a shared catalogue with other HE libraries – something I’d taken for granted while working in France. So how, I asked, do you fulfil inter-library loans? Well, "inter-library loan" often seems to be a synonym for "asking the British Library if they have it". I learned about SCONUL and its access scheme, and about getting records for documents from other sources. But, to me, it still felt like something was missing.<br />
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Nostalgia overwhelmed me, and I began thinking of le Sudoc...<br />
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<h3>
CHAPTER 1 – PRINCE OF CATALOGUES</h3>
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Once upon a time, in 1994, on the sunny shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in the lovely town of Montpellier, was born l'ABES.<br />
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This elegant acronym stands for <a href="http://www.abes.fr/">Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur</a>, France’s bibliographical agency for higher education. Its first aim was to create <a href="http://www.sudoc.abes.fr/DB=2.1/SET=1/TTL=4/LNG=EN/?COOKIE=U10178,Klecteurweb,D2.1,E4f429b9b-a3f,I250,B341720009+,SY,A%5C9008+1,,J,H2-26,,29,,34,,39,,44,,49-50,,53-78,,80-87,NLECTEUR+PSI,R82.26.23.53,FN">Sudoc</a>, Système Universitaire de Documentation (universities system for documentation), which it did in 2001, after a seven years of incubation.<br />
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Le Sudoc grew up fast. It's become a giant of a catalogue, to which over 1400 higher education and research libraries contribute. Today, it hosts over ten million records of documents, with their exact location (down to the shelfmark) all over France. Its OPAC is easily searchable, and there’s a mobile version proposed too. Through its network of libraries, users from everywhere can access a fully integrated system for inter-library loans, which is called PEB (for Prêt Entre Bibliothèques) in French.<br />
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Also, having this huge shared catalogue allows HE librarians to spend a lot less time cataloguing: on a good day, this means checking that your document already exists in the database, that the record contains no mistakes and then just adding a mention at the bottom basically meaning "we have it too!".<br />
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It's an amazing tool and treasured by students, researchers and librarians alike.<br />
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<h3>
CHAPTER 2 – BEAST OF BURDEN</h3>
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But le Sudoc has a dark side. Behind the princely, charming exterior, lurks a fanged beast from a bygone age, ready to thwart many a noble quest.<br />
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Its main problem is its back end, which is not quite as handsome as its friendly user interface.<br />
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The database is accessed through a software right out of the 90s, called WinIBW (or, once you're acquainted with it and it’s just died in the middle of a two-page long record losing the information forever, you're more likely to call it "Putain de Bordel de Winnie de Merde!" – a phrase that’s a little too indelicate to translate here).<br />
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You can have a look at its interface here to get an idea: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWIS-1855kc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWIS-1855kc</a><br />
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WinIBW is ancient. It's unintuitive and crawling with bugs too.<br />
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One of my favourites is "le bug de la ligne 16", which occurs because, in an earlier version, lists used to appear in pages of 16 items. So now, once in a while, when you click on an item past line 16, it will display the record corresponding to the one on line 16. Charmingly eccentric, perhaps. But it quickly becomes tiresome.<br />
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The records are displayed in UNIMARC, a 1977 version of MARC mostly used in France. The data capture area is basically a blank screen where you can write your record entirely by hand. Not super-helpful when you're new to cataloguing. It's been made slightly better by the creation of helpful macros that will automatically add the fields most often used for the type of document you're creating. But if the field you need doesn't appear, you're on your own.<br />
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If, as I explained above, le Sudoc has made it quick and easy to catalogue new, commonly used documents, it loses all its advantages when you have to retro-catalogue older items. Yes, some of your 19th century books might have been catalogued already by someone else, but for most of them, you're going to have to create your record from scratch, taking your chances with the temperamental WinIBW interface.<br />
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Also, as is bound to happen when you've got thousands of people working on one common tool, there are lots of duplicates. Once in a while, campaigns are led to remove them, but a week doesn't pass when you have to send messages to other libraries asking them to check if they're sure that their new record isn't really a duplicate of an existing one. And you can expect to receive your fair share of the same kind of requests, of course.<br />
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Finally, not everything's rosy on the users' end either. To get a loan, you must be affiliated to a library. The book you ask for will arrive to the library, not on your doorstep. And it can take quite some time to arrive, since there's usually only one ILL officer per library, to take care of all the requests and scan them or send them by post. And it can be a laborious task. ILL officers have to keep up with the loans by hand, and since it's a library-to-library service with no direct contact with the end user, sending reminders for late documents can be a challenge. Perhaps inevitably, there’s unrest…<br />
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<h3>
CHAPTER 3 – PITCHFORKS AT THE READY?</h3>
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For years, the library villagers lived with le Sudoc’s half-prince, half-beast nature. They nurtured it the best they could. But back in their homes, in the dead of night, they would talk. Had the time come to slay the beast within? Or could it be tamed?<br />
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Has the story so far convinced you of how impractical and complicated this all is? Have you pictured thousands of French librarians pulling their hair out in despair after falling victim to another of Winnie’s bugs? Do you wonder why they haven’t tried to escape??<br />
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Well, the answer is, I think, there’s an element of Stockholm Syndrome. We wail and whine and despair, but we go back to the task. We find the ancient interface "charming" and "vintage" – in many ways, we truly are captivated. We often just laugh sadly when the next bug strikes. The adversities of the system have actually brought us together in a community of traumatised cataloguers.<br />
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In French university libraries, when you arrive on your first cataloguing job, you're sent on a three-and-a-half-day course to be introduced to the great Winnie. You come back, now an official member of the WinIBW's cult, with a folder full of documentation and a new mantra: "F1 for help". From now on, you're going to hit the F1 key approximately every five minutes to get to the online help and check all the crucial information on the various UNIMARC fields and subfields that’s missing from the software.<br />
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If F1 is not enough, you can then ask on the (also ancient, but still very active) "Sucat" mailing-list. But even better than this, is the Twitter community of French librarians. Over the years, I’ve submitted dozens of weird cataloguing questions and got an immediate answer almost every time. We also got into the habit of <a href="https://storify.com/aurelie_solenne/voiceslibrary-with-aurelie-day-2-livecat-aloguing">live tweeting</a> some of our cataloguing sessions. This is a great way to share professional practices and stimulate discussion on some particular cataloguing points.<br />
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Tweeting librarians are also very often blogging librarians, and they like to share their tips and tools. For example, Pierre Marige created an online tool to check some key points of new records and shared it on his <a href="http://akareup.hypotheses.org/383#more-383">blog</a>. There’s also <a href="http://lafacette.wordpress.com/">Emilie Liard</a>, who, earlier this year, stirred up ideas for how to improve WinIBW in one of her <a href="http://lafacette.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/winibw-jaime-jaime-pas/">blog posts</a>. She then submitted the suggestions to the ABES group she works with, which is now thinking about what to do next.<br />
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So will there be a happily ever after? WinIBW won't be around forever, but le Sudoc hopefully will, and it will get bigger and better. The French library folk are stuck with their charming beast for now, and will treat it with as much patience and good humour as can be mustered.<br />
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Of course, the scythes and pitchforks are kept nearby just in case, but the day to use them hasn't arrived yet. And they know that if they keep talking, keep working, they’ll be stronger for sticking together. The le Sudoc story is far from over and I can’t wait to see what the next chapter will bring...<br />
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<i>This blogpost has been kindly edited by the fantastic <a href="https://twitter.com/AnthonyFarthing" target="_blank">Anthony Farthing</a>.</i><br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0px;" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above picture is by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/burgtender/4572757334" target="_blank">Pier-Luc Bergeron</a>. It is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span>Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-84504319517027427322014-11-26T09:00:00.000+01:002014-11-26T09:03:57.342+01:00Rebus: Tutorial - Creating online tutorials for you own resourcesEarlier this month, I went to a <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/events/library-tech-meet" target="_blank">Lib Tech Meet</a> at Cilip's. An array of different people did three or seven minutes presentations on topics relating to the use of technology in libraries.<br />
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So here is the three minutes presentation I did (slightly re-arranged for Web use - the initial one had much less words on it!).<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/41861304" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> </div>
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If you want to have a look at Guides on the side, <a href="http://code.library.arizona.edu/gots" target="_blank">here they are</a>.<br />
And here is where you can get more info on <a href="http://www.rebustutorial.com/" target="_blank">Rebus: Tutorial</a>.Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-88984319252935414092014-10-27T10:00:00.000+01:002014-10-27T10:00:00.301+01:00Identity, gender and libraries<i>Today, <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">my French blog</a> turns 3 years old! To celebrate, I decided to translate one of my most popular (and personal favourite) blogpost (<a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/identite-professionnelle-et-etats-dame.html" target="_blank">original version here</a>). I wrote it after attending my first ever librarian conference at Paris Book Fair in 2012.</i><br />
<i>Two and a half years later, I own up my librarian identity with more strength, but I'm still churned up by all those questions...</i><br />
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I didn't count how many of us were there, <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.fr/2012/03/faut-il-encore-des-bibliothecaires.html" target="_blank">that Monday</a>, pressed against each other to be reassured by our governing body on the future of our profession. So, I didn't count, but it was absolutely obvious. There were only women. Well, there was a handful of men, including two on stage, but the feminine mass was unbearable. And I felt a powerful uneasiness yelling in my head that I wasn't supposed to be here. I should have known, though. I know the numbers. But it was the very first time that I was witnessing an actual librarian gathering, and I was shocked.<br />
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I'm really annoyed to admit it, but I'm deeply ashamed to have a girl's job. It might go back to my science studies during which, each year, <a href="http://osp.revues.org/index1137.html" target="_blank">the proportion of female students diminished</a>. I felt at home amongst my male peers, I was happy to be on my way to a man's job (I don't have any numbers, but let me assure you that Earth sciences researchers are mostly male), to show them all, to corrupt the system, to indulge my pride. But I finally understood that muddy outdoors research wasn't for me and a part-time job as a library assistant led me to Higher Education libraries.<br />
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Higher Education, that wasn't that bad. Research libraries were even better. Anything not to become a "kid's librarian". I'm not maternal, I'm not girly, I don't like pink. I don't identify with female professions, and children librarian seems to be in the top three of girls' jobs, amongst kindergarten teacher and nurse. And housewife. So, when I got a new job in Higher Education and was asked to take on the "youth literature" collection, it hit me hard.<br />
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But why? That's so stupid! I'm ashamed of a job I love! I'm ashamed when I think of turning towards public libraries so as to move back to my mountains more easily. Ah! I was good in school, I should have gone for a man's job, opening the way, thwarting the glass ceiling, rather than going for lower female tasks! I'm ashamed, when I introduce myself, to say what my job is. It sounds like a failure. I'm "only" a librarian. So, very fast, I add: I work for a university! I work with students and professors! I'm not <i>that</i> librarian, the one who reads to inattentive classes, who shush children from behind her desk! No, that's not me! No! No?<br />
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But why do I have, engraved in my brain, all of those idiotic prejudices? I do rationally know that public librarian is a great and indispensable job, made of communication and popularisation, and I'm sure I'd love to do it, to make it mine. It actually was one of my ambitions, when I began thinking about going towards information sciences: how great would it be to popularise the sciences I love so dearly in a public library! How I would like to promote reading and culture in my town!<br />
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So why are those sexist pictures pinned on the walls of my brain? Why "youth librarian" stays a female noun in our mental dictionaries? Where are the men? Show them to me! They should give themselves up! They should promote themselves! They should tell us of their joy and pride to do this wonderful "girl's" job in those numerous public libraries around the country! They should reinvest those professions <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.fr/2012/03/inaccessibles-sommets.html" target="_blank">from which they had withdrawn</a>, taking with them the value, the prestige, the big names and the high salaries. Let us have some real equality, a world where caring or meticulous jobs are really welcoming all genders, where little boys can look after dolls and dress in pink without being pointed out by the rest of their community.<br />
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In the end, I feel guilty to think that much about it. As Caitlin Moran, I'm asking: "are the boys doing it?". Are the boys worried about the gender balance of their professions, do they spend hours banging their heads against walls to try and decide if, by choosing the job they chose, the lifestyle they live, the shoes they wear, they aren't deserting their gender, they aren't letting their comrades down? No, do they seem to say, too preoccupied behind their computers, behind rows of cots, behind the wheel of their lorry, crouching in front of the 305.42, looking for a missing book.<br />
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"Then, we can use the technical term, and call it bullshit."</blockquote>
They don't care. So we shouldn't care either. And move forward, rather that staying there pondering over and over. Let's just hope that our daughters may never feel this stupid failure feeling when choosing a job that is neither male nor female. Just a human's job. And, what's more, <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xpei9w_bref-je-suis-bibliothecaire_webcam" target="_blank">a really cool one</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/" rel="license" style="clear: left; color: #7c4417; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/2.0/88x31.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 0pt solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" /></a><i style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Picture taken myself at the Père Lachaise, Paris, in March 2012.</span></i></div>
</span><span style="color: #5b5b5b; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 12.6000003814697px;">Both text and pictures are licensed under a </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" rel="license" style="color: #208ca9; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 12.6000003814697px; text-decoration: none;">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License</a><span style="color: #5b5b5b; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 12.6000003814697px;">.</span></i></div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-58488317681185397332014-10-16T12:01:00.001+02:002014-10-16T12:01:18.980+02:00Stationery LoveAt first I read <a href="http://librariangoddess.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/the-power-of-the-post-it-on-studying-sensemaking-and-stationery/" target="_blank">Library Goddess's post on "The Power of the Post-It"</a>, then came <a href="http://twinsetnpurls.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/my-notebooks-and-other-animals.html" target="_blank">Twinset & Purls' one about her notebooks</a>, and the sparked <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23stationerylove" target="_blank">conversation on Twitter, #stationerylove</a>.<br />
So, really, I couldn't resist.<br />
I've written <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/organisation-quand-tu-nous-tiens.html" target="_blank">a little post about my organisational tools</a> on <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.fr/" target="_blank">my French blog</a>, last August, but didn't translate it for one reason or another. So, maybe the time has come to tell you here about my notebook compulsions...<br />
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I've been on the lookout for the perfect organisational tools for quite a while. It's quite an obsession really. I like to be on top of things, and that means that I need to always remember what, when and how... From a medical appointment to my writing projects or the training sessions I'm giving at work. I don't feel good if everything's not under control.<br />
So I've tried a lot of online stuff, like automated to-do lists or specific apps... But, as much as I like a good spreadsheet, for my day to day mess, that's not working for me. The only digital thing I've stuck with is Google Agenda. It's the first thing I look at on my phone or when I open my computer, even before my emails or Twitter notifications...<br />
But for all the rest, I'm a paper girl.<br />
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Notebooks</h2>
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A long time ago, I decided to use only one journal for both my personal and professional stuff. I tried to have two different ones but I really prefer being able to write down everything in one place: if ideas for my grocery list come up in the middle of the day, it goes in my journal. If I remember an activity I wanted to try with a group of students in the middle of the night, it goes in my journal. Everything goes in the same place, so it's a bit of a mess, but at least I'm sure to have everything on hand.</div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzl4nrVreY-lQ3Pcw2AdccSXZnwKiORjivzO1RnR_5EhLhjAHmaXu-DdC0cn4Ic9t2CwW0s7WhggbRdKnamcejdvleBQsWwjriSuBmawsPqyeIccarqjADiPmmsqmFpI1N5824_67Cwk/s1600/IMG_7876+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7c4417; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxzl4nrVreY-lQ3Pcw2AdccSXZnwKiORjivzO1RnR_5EhLhjAHmaXu-DdC0cn4Ic9t2CwW0s7WhggbRdKnamcejdvleBQsWwjriSuBmawsPqyeIccarqjADiPmmsqmFpI1N5824_67Cwk/s1600/IMG_7876+(copie).JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px;">My current journal, decorated by my lovely sister, <a href="http://babaloufactory.blogspot.fr/" style="color: #7c4417; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Julia</a>.</td></tr>
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Why a paper notebook? Well, first because it's pretty. (Yes, it counts. A lot.)<br />
And because it enables me to draw a little, to create mind maps and even to some <a href="http://aliedwards.com/blog?tag=Art+Journaling+%2B+Collage" target="_blank">art journaling</a> when I feel like it, without having to try to find and learn to use the best software for whatever I want to create.<br />
Also because I love writing by hand. I think better when I'm writing. Moreover, I write a lot during my commute and, you can say whatever you'd like, typing on a virtual keyboard isn't the most practical thing ever.<br />
Finally, I'm a much faster note taker when I jot them by hand during conferences and workshops. Because I love abbreviations and big arrows that go all over the place. So I tend to think that it's worth it to have to type it all up when I come back from a study day. And that's always good to get some order back into the sometimes sibylline presentation structures of some speakers...<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqD_XgBb3k9UFkIYXfeJarkbxTN6SzeUQ5j9dX8UtmA_NXNDIPHutHVoXxDrEgLEsaw3ZzAg8CNA29dCOsoUFcCWsC5YXyC98gIMLBoD4HYDVFpvPUisJO3NaRLCMd15UdpKXpA7o2AK0/s1600/IMG_7888+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7c4417; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqD_XgBb3k9UFkIYXfeJarkbxTN6SzeUQ5j9dX8UtmA_NXNDIPHutHVoXxDrEgLEsaw3ZzAg8CNA29dCOsoUFcCWsC5YXyC98gIMLBoD4HYDVFpvPUisJO3NaRLCMd15UdpKXpA7o2AK0/s1600/IMG_7888+(copie).JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px;">A bit of mind-mapping in an old journal.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2>
To-Do Lists</h2>
<div>
One of the most important part in my journal are the weekly lists that I update every Monday when I arrive at the office. On a double page, I write down on one side my professional to-do list and on the other my personal one.</div>
<div>
For my pro one, I use the technique of the <a href="http://www.bulletjournal.com/" target="_blank">Bullet Journal</a>.</div>
<div>
I tried their index system but quickly gave up: I just don't have enough pages about particular themes for it to be worthwhile. I might try and use <a href="http://blog.highfivehq.com/posts/a-little-known-hack-from-japan-to-get-your-notebook-organized" target="_blank">this technique</a> instead, that I learned about through <a href="https://twitter.com/LibGoddess" target="_blank">@LibGoddess</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/alkegw/" target="_blank">@alkegw</a>. It's simple and elegant. But for now, I use bookmarks made of masking tape. It's pretty and I don't have to number all of the pages anymore.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOkA285BdRz1FD0RwlK2VwBFGKQgamMNhpUGNSYyfoQUEvPrBYxs0lN5LSU3hqG_nwHmvxtpwIS6Slgqz8iMwLoAE3VoYRVvlFh-kF0SFquIJ0i-ShNZawuJJfnSn9PRAMIigoKOW60A/s1600/IMG_7870+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7c4417; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinOkA285BdRz1FD0RwlK2VwBFGKQgamMNhpUGNSYyfoQUEvPrBYxs0lN5LSU3hqG_nwHmvxtpwIS6Slgqz8iMwLoAE3VoYRVvlFh-kF0SFquIJ0i-ShNZawuJJfnSn9PRAMIigoKOW60A/s1600/IMG_7870+(copie).JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px;">Masking tape bookmarks in one of my last notebooks.<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
The monthly calendar is not that useful to me either, since I'd rather use my Google Calendar and other paper stuff, but I really like the idea of the monthly to-do list, in order to highlight the big projects coming up.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnvKF3_WHLD7neswy_L3ZpDs4QboTmQYd9FS7RTvA4gD4gVyPt-mZ0IYqs24dfT_W9rbwJxMUgrulpi1Kp1Ib_guzOeux0eWJ7fLA31Hnn_cM1vcwrKCFBe1bGoPDlLq4T8bluGJ2oyg/s1600/IMG_7881+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7c4417; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnvKF3_WHLD7neswy_L3ZpDs4QboTmQYd9FS7RTvA4gD4gVyPt-mZ0IYqs24dfT_W9rbwJxMUgrulpi1Kp1Ib_guzOeux0eWJ7fLA31Hnn_cM1vcwrKCFBe1bGoPDlLq4T8bluGJ2oyg/s1600/IMG_7881+(copie).JPG" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px;">Calendar and to-do list for August.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div>
So one of the only things I've really kept is the "Bullet List" technique of the Bullet Journal. You do circles for meetings, squares for to-do items and sub-lists when there are several things to accomplish for one single project. I used to add colours by theme (Chartership stuff in light blue, training sessions in green...) but now I use colours to highlight urgent stuff instead (see below). And I use different types of pens to distinguish my professional lists (in felt pen) from my personal lists (in ball point).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9FK0xKNrZ5XSbXPeVbHvuoTAT4oEQXB4G57YZxmutz-cPQfAxWvtmVks_Z97S636ljMZZo1GMynrOwQ1yxiAP_55FXxNlCzjxAR1v46mOL5Zt33xSVDwIlUKUXkbTQoz960W6tE-9HM/s1600/IMG_8080+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW9FK0xKNrZ5XSbXPeVbHvuoTAT4oEQXB4G57YZxmutz-cPQfAxWvtmVks_Z97S636ljMZZo1GMynrOwQ1yxiAP_55FXxNlCzjxAR1v46mOL5Zt33xSVDwIlUKUXkbTQoz960W6tE-9HM/s1600/IMG_8080+(copie).JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My To-Do Lists from last week.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Finally, to decide on the priority level of tasks in my list, I use <a href="http://blog.pickcrew.com/squash-burnout-boost-productivity/" target="_blank">this technique</a>: the idea is, instead of doing the easiest or least unpleasant first, to go through your to-do list by following this model:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 4px; position: relative; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLNOiugMpjFHqJqs9fAyGu6TL1oRYvPhtqmrkSwivGuNsdNTQ0ClwXOKhi7QQ7a7qAkFelqPQYhtegqI3YPGO8KrDgrXN4_ziojfkouuKBA7SscfK1OHDKWsIAi9O_B6tD-eIk6HrsgKs/s1600/chart.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #7c4417; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLNOiugMpjFHqJqs9fAyGu6TL1oRYvPhtqmrkSwivGuNsdNTQ0ClwXOKhi7QQ7a7qAkFelqPQYhtegqI3YPGO8KrDgrXN4_ziojfkouuKBA7SscfK1OHDKWsIAi9O_B6tD-eIk6HrsgKs/s1600/chart.png" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top-left-radius: 0px; border-top-right-radius: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(203, 203, 203); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10px;">To adapt this model to your own job, replace "training" by your main mission.<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I do first things that would go in the area #1: those who will have the most impact on my training with minimal effort. Then I go to area #2 (high impact but lots of effort), #3 (low impact and low effort: those are often the most amusing tasks) and finally #4 (low impact, lots of effort).<br />
Sometimes, I highlight my priority tasks with little stars in front of the bullet. Just because. And sometimes, I do low importance tasks before higher impact ones, because I'm just human and nobody's perfect. And it's much funnier to update the library's Twitter rather than running after unwilling tutors who don't want their students to be trained on EndNote.<br />
<br />
<h2>
The right journal</h2>
<div>
Last, I wanted to say a few words about choosing the right journal. I began with Moleskines, which are beautiful and practical but so damn expensive. So I moved up to random ugly notebooks that I found for free. But ugly doesn't do it for me. I want beautiful objects to write in. Beautiful and cheap. So, when my relatives aren't giving me beautiful journals (like the one at the top of this post), I try to diy my precious notebooks. I just buy a £2 notebook from Sainsbury or wherever and I cover it with beautiful paper from Paperchase and lots of glue.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrZBSKyPaDIquGIVc-BhZ9icvgqtzbuUv_sKYg0_TV4FPuN81bMmCNNFZFZYaTlKGa2uhlVzrcrXAzWC2cqEwxlM9cbOsdx40a0FYiKJnzxtq6vLKTNLp-IzFCAdHH3HXTHv00XazBN8/s1600/journal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYrZBSKyPaDIquGIVc-BhZ9icvgqtzbuUv_sKYg0_TV4FPuN81bMmCNNFZFZYaTlKGa2uhlVzrcrXAzWC2cqEwxlM9cbOsdx40a0FYiKJnzxtq6vLKTNLp-IzFCAdHH3HXTHv00XazBN8/s1600/journal.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of my latest journals, hand covered an all pretty!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
I'll keep doing it for my next journals except that I think that I'm going to move to 100 pages notebooks (instead of 200) so as to make my handbag a little lighter...</div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-24226595639689011632014-10-13T10:00:00.000+02:002014-10-13T10:00:00.880+02:00Library anxiety<i>This post is a translation from Thomas Chaimbault's post in French, <a href="http://www.vagabondages.org/post/2014/09/09/L%E2%80%99angoisse-de-la-biblioth%C3%A8que" target="_blank">"L'angoisse de la bibliothèque"</a>. His blog, <a href="http://www.vagabondages.org/" target="_blank">Vagabondages</a>, is an essential one in the French libraries' blogosphere. He writes about libraries and information sciences, mostly from an Higher Education point of view (he is in charge for information skills training in an Higher Education setting, in Lyon). If you can read enough French, I definitely recommend to add his blog to your reader and to <a href="https://twitter.com/Vagabondages" target="_blank">follow him on Twitter</a>!</i><br />
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<br />
In 1986, Constance A. Mellon formalized the concept of library anxiety.<br />
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This anxiety is supposed to be concerning quite an important number of readers, to various degrees, and would refer to both an anxiety of the library as a place (in its size, its fitting, its organisation and the classification of its documents) often considered as unclear, and of the library as a mean to find resources (services, resources, training...). It's a strong psychological barrier keeping students from using the library in an efficient manner, on site and online.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ErFMZiuN9rs" width="420"></iframe>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
The Anxiety of Searching for a Book, UCLA</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
1. Theorizing Library Anxiety</h2>
<div>
In her grounding article (which at least, formalized the concept, since other studies had already showed some apprehension of the public), "<i><a href="https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/40906" target="_blank">Library Anxiety: A Grounded Theory and Its Development</a></i>", published in <i>College and Research Libraries</i> in March 1986, Constance A. Mellon describes a study carried out over two years about the students' feelings when beginning a library search. The results are clear: 75% to 85% of students mention a feeling of fear when using the library for the first time and this feeling is even more present when the time comes to do a search. An analysis of personal writings of students allows her to also identify recurring themes of fear, confusion, of being of out of their depth, lost, without resource, still at that fateful moment of the information search. It's by connecting those anxiety feelings linked to maths or tests that she coins this notion of "library anxiety".</div>
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This anxiety can be translated in several ways:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Fear of the library as a place, often described by its impressive size;</li>
<li>Not knowing where to find information, nor how it's organised;</li>
<li>Lack of self-confidence concerning how to conduct a search;</li>
<li>Fear of the librarian him/herself with a refusal of asking for help;</li>
<li>Feeling like they're the only one not to understand how the library works;</li>
<li>Feeling of paralysis when starting an information search.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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From there, students seem less focused on their work and can't do their searches correctly. Mellon specifies: "<i>Students become so anxious about having to gather information in a library for their research papers that they are unable to approach the problem logically or effectively</i>". It can even result, according to the research of our American colleagues on this topic, in the failure of obtaining a diploma (Onwuegbuzie and Jiao, 1998).<br />
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Without going that far, other researchers have shown since then the permanence of this negative feeling towards libraries (Bostick, 1993), while Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein fleshed out the concept, explaining that those feelings could have cognitive, affective, physiological and behavioural consequences directly interfering with the carrying out of informational tasks (Jiao, Onwuegbuzie and Lichtenstein, 1996).<br />
This anxiety is considered as a unique phenomenon, specific to the library environment and not in connection with the general anxiety linked to the first years of higher education. Even though it has been suggested that some of its dimensions, like asking for help, can be linked to character traits independent from libraries, no empirical proof has been provided to support this proposition.<br />
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<h2>
2. A measurement scale</h2>
<div>
In 1992, Sharon Bostick proposes a measurement scale to detect and evaluate the potential anxiety caused by the library on students. This scale identifies several areas carrying anxiety:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Barriers with staff: staff members are perceived as intimidating, inaccessible and anyway too busy or having other more important tasks to do rather than helping readers;</li>
<li>Affective barriers (perceived informational skills): the student feels incapable of doing searches and of using the library as a place for resources, this feeling being reinforced by the idea of being the only one to be lost and confused;</li>
<li>Being comfortable within the library (as a physical space): a feeling of comfort, security, of being welcome in the library, also linked to the layout and furnitures favouring or not how students are welcomed in the library;</li>
<li>Knowledge of the library (internal organisation): the student doesn't understand how the library is organised, doesn't feel familiar with it, feels frustrated;</li>
<li>Mechanical barriers: feeling linked to the machines, equipments, computers... A student having a hard time using machines is susceptible of developing a deeper anxiety.</li>
</ul>
<div>
[<a href="http://www.vagabondages.org/public/Documents%20%C3%A0%20joindre%20aux%20billets/Library_Anxiety_Scale.docx">download the Bostick scale</a>]<br />
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In 1997, Owuegbuzie adds:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Resources anxiety: frustration related to the resources availability, especially linked to not finding full-text during an online search.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Several research studies have then focused on this anxiety's origin, trying to detect direct or indirect antecedents. If no direct antecedent was revealed, several indirect antecedents were then proposed, with situational, contextual or dispositional (that the student brings herself) origins.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em;">
<a href="http://www.vagabondages.org/public/Images/library_anxiety.jpg" style="color: #8a3207; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" src="http://www.vagabondages.org/public/Images/.library_anxiety_m.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(187, 196, 163); display: block; margin: 0px auto; padding: 4px;" title="library_anxiety.jpg, sept. 2014" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Source: <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=75LczxSey3sC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Bostick%27s+Library+Anxiety+Scale&source=bl&ots=CEp3Qh5-3x&sig=r1QIPVSGfTPTAKI8mdfZHxQEZzY&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=ZpcNVOXLJsG6ygOBi4GwCA&ved=0CF0Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Bostick%27s%20Library%20Anxiety%20Scale&f=false" target="_blank">Library Anxiety: Theory, Research, and Application</a> by Anthony J: Onzuegubzie, Qun G. Jiao, Sharon L. Bostick</div>
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Among those variables, Jiao and Onwuegbuzie mainly identified:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<ul>
<li>Low level of perceived social acceptance;</li>
<li>Social injonction for perfection;</li>
<li>Academic procrastination;</li>
<li>Bad study habits;</li>
<li>Low reading skills;</li>
<li>Learning style;</li>
<li>Low computer literacy;</li>
<li>Low hopes to overcome hurdles linked to goals' pursuit;</li>
<li>Social interdependence.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Some of those research studies identify a complex link between this library anxiety and other anxieties linked to higher education, research, public communication; a whole set affecting the student more or less directly.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; color: #29303b; font-family: Georgia, Verdana, Arial, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<img alt="" src="http://www.vagabondages.org/public/Images/.library_anxiety_2_m.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(187, 196, 163); display: block; margin: 0px auto; padding: 4px;" title="library_anxiety_2.jpg, sept. 2014" /></div>
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Source : <a href="http://books.google.fr/books?id=75LczxSey3sC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=Bostick%27s+Library+Anxiety+Scale&source=bl&ots=CEp3Qh5-3x&sig=r1QIPVSGfTPTAKI8mdfZHxQEZzY&hl=fr&sa=X&ei=ZpcNVOXLJsG6ygOBi4GwCA&ved=0CF0Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Bostick%27s%20Library%20Anxiety%20Scale&f=false">Library Anxiety: Theory, Research, and Applications</a> by Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Qun G. Jiao, Sharon L. Bostick</div>
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<h2>
3. Fighting against library anxiety</h2>
<div>
Studies trying to reduce library anxiety focus on how to make the library more acceptable, comfortable for students by giving them either the skills to develop their knowledge of the space and self-confidence, or to reassure them concerning the normalcy of the phenomenon and explaining strategies to use so as to overcome its negative effects.</div>
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The idea is to work on the training provided, regarding its content as well as the librarian's attitude. Indeed, better trained students will feel more familiar with the space and will see their anxiety limited. More broadly, it means making it easier to meet professionals, getting students to understand and know that there will always be someone to welcome them, answer their questions without judging them and supporting them in their searches.</div>
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<div>
Simply recognizing such an anxiety helps reducing it. Thus, several proposals have been drawn up:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Recounting this feeling or similar experiences with more or less humour through videos or discussion sessions between students;</li>
<li>Telling students that bad experiences at various levels of information search are normal;</li>
<li>Talking about this kind of anxiety during training sessions.</li>
</ul>
<div>
But generally, the idea will be to get the library to become a friendly space, turned towards its users, to work on librarians behaviours, to provide a positive experience of the library as a space and to reinforce training sessions. So nothing extraordinary.</div>
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Several libraries actively work on the topic and don't hesitate to follow up on students who could be victims of this anxiety. For example, the <i>Washington State University</i>'s library proposes a specific libguide giving leads on <a href="http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=256769&sid=2119349" target="_blank">how to apprehend the library better</a> or playing on the <a href="http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=256769&sid=2119252" target="_blank">librarian's stereotypes</a>.<br />
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Actually, we're doing the same and are also working through digital mediation to improve the user's experience, and thus to reduce this anxiety linked to the library. It goes without saying. But it's better to say it anyway.<br />
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To go further:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Try this short <a href="http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=256769&sid=2475048">test</a> to know if you have library anxiety</li>
<li>Atlas, Michel C. "Library Anxiety in the Electronic Era,or Why Won’t anybody Talk to Me Anymore?" Reference & User Services Quarterly, 44. 4 (2005): 314-19. </li>
<li>Bostick, Sharon L. "The Development and Validation of the Library Anxiety Scale," Research in Reference Effectiveness, vol. 16, 1993. </li>
<li>Mellon, Constance A. "<a href="https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/40906">Library Anxiety: A Grounded Theory and its development</a>," College &Research Libraries, vol. 47, March 1986 : 160-65. </li>
<li>Carlil, Heather. "<a href="http://ucsclibrary.pbworks.com/f/AA%26RL_Jun07.pdf">The Implication of library anxiety for academic refernce services : a review of the litterature</a>". AARL, June 2007 vol 38 no 2 </li>
<li>Hartman, Shawn “<a href="http://sc.edu/fye/events/presentation/annual/2009/download/CT-191.pdf">Library fear deconstructed : overcoming Library Anxiety</a>”, 28th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience, February 6-10, 2009, Orlando, Florida.</li>
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Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-43679125378860398992014-09-22T10:00:00.000+02:002014-09-22T10:00:00.678+02:00Low-Tech Information Literacy Training Sessions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm lucky to work in an institution that receive quite a diverse public. Actually, a lot of my students follow their courses part-time and have been working for several years.<br />
With them, a problem I encounter quite often, is a weak computer literacy, which keeps them from using many of our resources. And since I don't have the possibility to up their level directly, I have to get creative...<br />
Here are the methods and the tricks I use to take their needs into account during my training sessions, in seven points.<br />
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- <b>Know who you're talking to.</b> I systematically send a questionnaire the week before the training session, so as to ascertain the level of the students. I don't ask them what they know how to do (<i>do you know ho to...? > yes / no / I'm not sure</i>) but how confident they are regarding different tools (<i>how do you feel about...? > very confident / confident / not really confident / what is that?</i>).<br />
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- <b>Create level groups.</b> If possible, dividing the students in level groups is so much better!<br />
I either ask them to sort themselves in different groups on their own (it does work quite well) or I divide them myself, based on their answers to my questionnaire.<br />
Hence, I get to isolate the weakest students and I can spend some time, at the beginning of the session, to check that they do know how to use Firefox (yes, indeed...) and how to find the library's website before doing anything else.<br />
With the other groups, I'm going to be able to go faster and see more things.</div>
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- <b>Learning without the stress of the tool. </b>The important bit that I'm trying to pass onto my students, is not how to use a particular tool (it's part of it, but it's definitely not the first point on my list), but the method behind it. This is where the transferable skills lay, that will enable them to use, not only this particular database, but all similar databases (for example).<br />
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So, if we're getting away from a particular tool to go towards the abstract concepts behind it, we can get away from the computers to play with more physical materials, like graphics, "hands on" activities or other pedagogical tools.<br />
And that's really good when you're talking to people who get extremely stressed out when using computers. It enables us to talk calmly of a particular concept, to make sure that they understand the basics before going back to the computer to apply it.<br />
Other use: to give a class in a room with no computer, where the students won't get a chance to try out the tool immediately. It allows us to make sure that they, at least, got the concepts.<br />
And it works even with the most computer literates, who shouldn't need this crutch to understand how to write a search equation, for example. In my feedback survey, the hands-on activities I propose always are what the students liked best in the session.<br />
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So what does it look like? It can be worksheets such as the "Good Search / Bad Search" which I talked about in <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/active-learning-in-libraries.html" target="_blank">my post on active pedagogies</a>.<br />
It can also be <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/libraryplay" target="_blank">real little board games</a> created to illustrate a particular concept, group games, puzzles, do-it-yourself activities... I'm working on a number of them and I will present them here once they've been tested on my students.</div>
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- <b>Take your time.</b> According to my feedback surveys, even when I put a lot of simple activities in a session, the students tend to think that the lesson was at the right pace. So it's best to go as slowly as possible and let them play with the concepts during pedagogical activities rather than going as fast as possible to try and see as many things as possible in a record time: taking your time is never a bad thing.</div>
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- <b>Finally going back to the computer.</b> At one moment or another, you do need to let go of your little papers and go back to the computer screen.<br />
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If the group has a weak level and is fairly homogeneous, I'm going to go as slowly as possible and see very little things. The idea is not to overwhelm them, but to make sure that they get confident enough to be able to reproduce the simple steps that I'm going to show them.<br />
I show each step one by one on the main screen and wait until everyone has been able to do the same on their computer before going to the next step, even for the most elementary things such as clicking a button...<br />
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If I wasn't able to divide the class in level groups, I ask a colleague to come and help me. She's going to check on the weakest ones and help them while I present more advanced functions to the others.</div>
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- <b>Photocopies, photocopies everywhere.</b> What's the use of having course materials online if the students have a hard time accessing them? For the computer literate students, the question is moot. But for the others I'm now systematically going for printed copies.<br />
I always have better feedback when I give out old-fashioned paper handouts. Of course, I put everything online as well and send them an email with the links just after the session.<br />
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Other example: when my feedback survey was online, only 25% of the students answered it. Now that I give out printed copies for them to fill in before leaving the class, I have 100% responses!<br />
Okay, it's bad for the trees... But I have yet to find a better alternative.<br />
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A last point:<br />
- <b>Training the teachers.</b> I systematically ask the teachers to come to the training session with their students: more often than not, they need it more than them! It's particularly true of those who don't want to give me too much time with their classes: they often don't even know of all the knowledge and tools we can give them. And sometimes, their computer literacy is not very good either...<br />
For those who can't come, I propose to go directly to their office to train them. I will get them all!<br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/2.0/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0px;" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;">The above picture is of </span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/philgyford/50838418" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;" target="_blank">Phil Gyford</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; line-height: 18px; text-align: center;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">It is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span>Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-38581976443990058852014-09-16T10:00:00.000+02:002014-09-16T10:00:00.345+02:00The London LibraryThis year, I've been visiting many libraries in London, partly to be able to add those visits to my Chartership portfolio, but mostly because some Cilip branches organise regular visits of very different libraries, allowing me to quench my library-curiosity very easily!<br />
But among all of those that I have visited, the one that made the deepest impression on me has been <a href="http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/">the London Library</a>. If you've got the occasion, try and go to one of the <a href="http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/index.php?/tours.html">free tours they organise every Monday</a>, it's really a sight to see!<br />
But let's begin with the beginning...<br />
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<h2>
Creation</h2>
<a href="http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/">The London Library</a> was founded by Thomas Carlyle in 1841. He didn’t like the British Library, thinking it was too noisy and unliking having to ask librarians to access books. He decided to create a library that would feel more like a home library, or maybe like a club.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="145" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/FV0NngI-HVGnqSepc6adqsON5J-qCfeIxW-1aQKwYEPPvebv4bitozvKAUpjVkFZfcqLfUxkYPB_lzXAb8-Oj8IaBsdPAQRPk4V8RWYAZm48bbylouSwXq_Grx70SZNd-Q" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The issue desk in 1935. Photo Credit: Sylvia Lewes</td></tr>
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<h2>
Collections</h2>
The London Library’s collections count over a million books. None of them are weeded except for duplicates of non popular books. Around 70% of the collections have been entered <a href="http://lms3.londonlibrary.co.uk/F?RN=602714161" target="_blank">in the OPAC</a> but the rest still waits to be retrospectively catalogued and (hand-written or typewritten) paper cards still need to be used to search it.<br />
The first librarian devised a classification system specific to the library. It is alphabetically classified by subject titles, which shall be easier for non-librarians to use and encourages serendipity by putting next to each other very different kinds of subjects.<br />
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The collections focus on humanities, especially literature, history and art. Collections in French, German, Italian, Spanish and Russian are particularly important.<br />
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The book collection includes books dating from the 16th to the 21st century. Approximately 8,000 new titles are added to the collections every year, requiring the Library to find a further half-a-mile of shelving every three years. This, combined to the lack of weeding, explains why the Library has had to expand a lot since its first days, to the point of occupying a whole block of buildings in central London. With the recent addition of the T.S. Eliot house, they estimate to have enough space for the next 25 years. After that, they might have to build extensions above their present buildings.<br />
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In its “Times room”, the London Library has collected all editions of The Times since its opening. Its current collection of periodicals exceeds 750 titles and back runs for over 2500 further titles many of which began in the 18th century. The Library also subscribes to over 200 online versions of its journals, augmented with access to JSTOR.<br />
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Acquisitions (for periodicals as well as for books) are made upon demand of the Library’s members and to complete gaps in the collections. The Library also receives numerous donations from living or deceased members.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFKoG5hGtjZVpP3tobeWtzyNadyNWayta-D0tAD5Xnad-hw9WqRtNusRS2W3EEJNG1PnhU-SIbiNgGLfVlOMfxVSvLyj4s8vG-PYkdTVcqccOTKaf_bZi6LTV3RzJgqMRS1VBLmUsI4eA/s1600/londonlibrary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFKoG5hGtjZVpP3tobeWtzyNadyNWayta-D0tAD5Xnad-hw9WqRtNusRS2W3EEJNG1PnhU-SIbiNgGLfVlOMfxVSvLyj4s8vG-PYkdTVcqccOTKaf_bZi6LTV3RzJgqMRS1VBLmUsI4eA/s1600/londonlibrary.jpg" height="295" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bookshelves in the oldest building.<br />
Photo Credit: Christopher Simon Sykes</td></tr>
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<h2>
Services</h2>
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97% of the collections are in open access, which means that the innumerable floors and rooms of archives are freely accessible to members. All shelves are low enough to be accessed without help by most. An interesting particularity comes with the aeration system devised during the construction of the oldest Victorian building: to let the air flow freely, the archives floors are made of wrought iron with big gaps (you can see them on the picture above) which allows to see through the many floors of the building. <br />
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Desks and chairs are intersped around the library, but there are also specific study rooms, including a silent one where laptops are not allowed and strict silence must be respected at all times. Free Wi-Fi is provided throughout the library.<br />
Many members use the library as their office, coming in everyday at fixed times and using always the same desk. Apparently, writers particularly enjoy to thus feel less alone in their solitary work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="142" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/HLJjyTxQCIhr3MTxkdpqFlyvX5u-9ogYGqmjo0agm-bMWBzGzwS04bteW8iBCcxN1MyiX55PtmeST2hpf5MkD3BVbWyJeskj1dFw6ekEdiFQpDpgIDlRIMybcVBPAAWcFA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the reading rooms. Photo Credit : Philip Vile</td></tr>
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Members living within 20 miles can have on loan up to 10 volumes. If you live further away, you can have 15 volumes. It is possible to borrow a maximum of 40 volumes upon extra payment.<br />
The normal load period is two months. Renewals are possible if the volumes are not requested by another member.<br />
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Bags measuring more than an A4 sheet of paper and the depth of a hardback book must be left in lockers provided in the Issue Hall. Clear plastic bags to carry your items are freely available at Reception.</div>
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<h2>
Membership</h2>
Being completely independent, the London Library relies solely on membership, donations, fundraising and the prudent management of its capital resources. It receives no government or statutory funding.<br />
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The library has had a large number of famous members who have played a central role in the intellectual life of the nation (Agatha Christie, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Arthur Conan Doyle, T.S. Eliot, Winston Churchill, …). For a long time, membership was only accessible to men but it now boasts that membership is open to everyone. <br />
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Individual annual membership is £475 pa. It is payable monthly and a 50% rate is accessible to 16 to 24 year-old. Prospective members unable to meet the full annual fee may be eligible for Carlyle Membership, where assistance can cover 30 to 60% of the annual fee.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfh7XiHYtq0iB1H3__-_kQGcrUUzaTV8-fUVkv8p8X8N1vx87nvDfwT9_gbEHrAEhfxy7_J15w20bIz8oPMtIWdSfOatrhM2C00JCVMVJncWXl5NHY3VB-biX9g68EzJpcRRRRfVWJgs/s1600/lecteur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfh7XiHYtq0iB1H3__-_kQGcrUUzaTV8-fUVkv8p8X8N1vx87nvDfwT9_gbEHrAEhfxy7_J15w20bIz8oPMtIWdSfOatrhM2C00JCVMVJncWXl5NHY3VB-biX9g68EzJpcRRRRfVWJgs/s1600/lecteur.jpg" height="202" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A reader, in 1935. Photo Credit: Sylvia Lewes</td></tr>
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<h2>
My Opinion</h2>
The London Library presents itself like a wonderful study library, focused on its members' comfort (with its silent room, open access, extended loans). Its list of members and presidents is very impressive and the buildings do give off an historical and literary feel.<br />
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But as much as I would like to use it as a reader, some of its professional aspects do seem quite unappealing: I’m thinking in particular to the daunting prospect of the extensive retrospective cataloguing that has to be achieved, and to the policy of not weeding anything. If it pursues along this way, the London Library is bound to be confronted to structural issues due to sheer lack of space to welcome its ever growing collections.</div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">All of the pictures in this blogpost come from the London Library website and are protected by copyright. You can find</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><a href="http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/imagefiles/historicimages.html" style="font-size: x-small;" target="_blank">here the historical pictures</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> and </span><a href="http://www.londonlibrary.co.uk/imagefiles/generallibraryimages.html" style="font-size: x-small;" target="_blank">here the recent pictures</a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">.</span></div>
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Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-1583632746831388952014-09-11T10:00:00.000+02:002014-09-11T10:00:01.413+02:00Start-of-Term and Library InductionIt's back to school time! I don't know about you but I spent most of the summer preparing how we're going to welcome our new students when they will arrive mid-September. So it's the perfect time to go over the different methods we can use to pass on to our new readers the necessary information for them to use our services at the best of their abilities.<br />
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<h2>
The guided tour still reigns</h2>
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If you've got the human resources to do so, giving guided tours of the library on enrolment day is really ideal. It combines direct human contact (you talk with them, they can ask questions), and a context less favourable to mid-day naps than the conference in a lecture hall...<br />
In my library, it's unfortunately impossible. First, our space is so small that giving tours wouldn't make much sense. Second, we just don't have enough woman power to deal both with registration and potential tours.<br />
The problem is that tours are extremely time consuming and repetitive (the groups need to be small enough to be able to go around quickly and without too much noise, so you have to do it ten times a day). So it's not always possible to set up for librarians, nor to insert in the students' busy schedules.</div>
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The self-guided tour</h2>
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It's been on my list for years, but I still haven't had the occasion to pull that up. It's great for quite big libraries and allows you to be really creative!<br />
The idea is to give students some material (paper instructions, podcast, tablet app...) that will entice them to go around the library (you can use baits such as hidden chocolates in the stacks... and the visit becomes a treasure hunt!) and teaching them at the same time what they need to know about the premises (using panels, QR codes linking to short videos or audio files...).<br />
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I went to one of <a href="http://www.philb.com/" target="_blank">Phil Bradley</a>'s workshops this year and saw him demonstrate the augmented reality app <a href="http://www.aurasma.com/" target="_blank">Aurasma</a>. When you capture a trigger image (for example an image set up in a strategic point of your library), it automatically opens a link or a file (a video for example). This would be ideal for this kind of self-guided tour, using tablets loaned by the library or the students' own smartphones (they would just have to download the app).</div>
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<h2>
Class intervention</h2>
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Another classic of the library induction is for a librarian to come to the lecture hall during enrolment day and give a short talk. The problem is that you usually only have a few minutes and that the students are so overwhelmed with information on that day that you can expect... that they won't remember anything.</div>
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Which is why we should try and make something a bit memorable so that, even if they don't remember our opening times or how many volumes they can borrow, they will have a positive vision of the library and its librarians, which will make them more susceptible to come to see us and ask us questions.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/infolit/cephalonianmethod/index.html" target="_blank">cephalonian induction</a> doesn't need to be presented anymore but I saw <a href="http://zazani.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/a-fun-new-start/" target="_blank">a presentation of a colleague</a> who created a twist: instead of handing cards to students with questions on it, she created a big cardboard die for them to roll. They then have to read the question written on the top side. It's really playful and well received, even with adults. The only problem is that you can get the same side several times, so you have to roll the die again. And, if you don't want to spend hours on a geometry problem, you're going to have to limit yourself to six questions.</div>
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I personnally would like to play Library Bingo with my students. Two possibilities: you either give them bingo cards with, instead of numbers, logos related to the library. Then you get your presentation going (<a href="http://prezi.com/xlw1tnjrtr0i/bingo/" target="_blank">like this Prezi from Zoe Thomas</a>) and the first one to get all the logos on her card wins.<br />
Or you can ask students to create their own bingo card by writing down, for example, six resources they think they can find in the library. Then you show them your list of resources (starting with the hardest ones...) and the first one to get all of their resources mentioned wins.<br />
In both cases, you explain as you go the significance of the logos / how to access the different resources. The material investment is minimal: you can print bingo cards yourself and you just need a PowerPoint presentation. And the public stays attentive as they want to see if the next item will be on their card. Apparently, it works even better if there's a little prize for the winner...</div>
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<h2>
Online induction</h2>
<div>
A last possibility would be an online induction. It's a good way to reduce the anxiety of those intimidated at the idea of going to a library (yes, I hear they exist) and especially to reach out to those we wouldn't have the occasion to meet live, because of time constraints, of multiple campus complexities, long-distance learners or students with a disability.<br />
It can be a virtual tour, using <a href="http://www.port.ac.uk/library/home/location/virtual/">pictures</a> or videos associated to different rooms a bit like this <a href="http://www.glos.ac.uk/living/virtualtours/Pages/default.aspx">virtual visit of Gloucestershire university</a>.<br />
But more than places, we also need to present services. Here again, possibilities are infinite, from a <a href="http://prezi.com/hijn498gx75t/newcastle-college-library-virtual-induction/" target="_blank">nice prezi</a> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqyID7DIGdE" target="_blank">induction</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90vdNEgTdcU" target="_blank">videos</a>. It would be great to be able to use different medias so that future readers could get the induction they would be the most comfortable with.<br />
I'm personally working on some induction videos for the students I won't be able to see directly (some groups have a very tight schedule) while creating specific sections on our Moodle especially for them.<br />
<br />
And you, how are you going to welcome new students this year?</div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-29761163883055205532014-09-04T09:00:00.000+02:002014-09-04T09:00:00.061+02:00Active Learning in Libraries<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKAQJHWfNVRnd9qOJudeyMCndqb_oxuaTR4CJdN7i__9oJQpOUdGIRkkpHJsKrJwNpLIy6k8LcxGUWn_ava2T5X8X_27D8xuv2dSF1GDVwkkUttAZ183ul9SKf7T3q4vLkIToJjvbQgE/s1600/classroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisKAQJHWfNVRnd9qOJudeyMCndqb_oxuaTR4CJdN7i__9oJQpOUdGIRkkpHJsKrJwNpLIy6k8LcxGUWn_ava2T5X8X_27D8xuv2dSF1GDVwkkUttAZ183ul9SKf7T3q4vLkIToJjvbQgE/s1600/classroom.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Just as most librarians, I haven't received any initial training on teaching techniques. Nonetheless, particularly in Higher Education, many of us have to regularly give training sessions to students of various levels. In my case, this is my principal mission within my institution.<br />
I see post-graduate students and people doing CPD, most of them for a one-shot session (though, I'm working to make that change...) during which I have to make sure that, from now on, they will be perfectly autonomous for their literature searches. It's ambitious. And there is really a lot to teach them in a few hours gleaned from the course of a kind tutor.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Self-train thyself on training others</h2>
So I'm trying to train myself as much as possible, through "train the trainer" courses or well-chosen readings. In particular, I went to an exciting workshop by Andrew Walsh on <a href="http://gamesforlibraries.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">creating games to use in libraries</a>. On this occasion, I discovered his book,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <i><a href="http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/5704/" target="_blank">Active Learning Techniques for Librarians</a></i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"> (1), an incredible resource full of activities ideas to use when giving training sessions to students.</span></span><br />
<br />
Active learning means involving the learner in her learning, giving her a more active role than the one she's usually given in conference-type courses. Now, that active dimension should allow the learner to retain information and skills better.<br />
Since librarians usually give one-shot sessions and that we probably won't see those students ever again in training, it's all the more crucial to make sure that they actually remember what we're trying to teach them!<br />
<br />
Moreover, active training allows us to assess the students' understanding during class, giving us the possibility to give them live feedback on their performance. For example, it's going to be much easier to identify people who haven't really understood a point, and to explain it again, differently, so that they can correct their mistakes.<br />
Finally, a normal person being only able to really focus for a very short periods (usually, a few minutes), scattering a session with active learning activities allows for a change of rhythm, a sort of break, to get back afterwards with more focus.<br />
<br />
<h2>
But what does it look like?</h2>
<div>
Andrew Walsh and Padma Inala recommend to use their activities all along a session. For example, we'll begin by breaking the ice with something a bit funny, allowing us in a same shot to send a message about what we expect from the group: don't get asleep, don't get scared, you're going to have to talk and draw and other stuff, but it all should be okay... During the session, we carry on with a few activities going over each point of the program. And we finish with a last activity allowing us to check on the knowledge of the students or to make them reflect about their new skills.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, all of this is all very nice, but in reality, are we just reinventing the wheel, trying to give exercises and assessing learning? For sure, a little. But that can't be too bad, can it?<br />
Above all, aren't we going to play the role of the annoying teacher wanting students to participate at all costs when they'd just like to sleep quietly? Danger is real. Personally, I was mainly scared of looking ridiculous with my kindergarten games.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But I tested for you active learning techniques on a class of eight PhD students last month. And they loved it. I made them laugh with my spoof activity and the feedback forms they filled in were full with positive comments. So, there is hope.</div>
<div>
I'm going to keep testing those techniques with other classes and I'll keep you posted.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h2>
A few examples</h2>
<div>
Meanwhile, here are a few examples of activities I liked, from Walsh and Inala's book. I tested some of them and I will try out the others very soon.</div>
<br />
<b>"What's your favourite?" </b><br />
Choose a question (for example, "what's your favourite database?") and put it up on a wall. Beneath, put up several papers corresponding to the different possible answers (one for each database your students can access for example). When the students enter the classroom, before they sit down, ask them to cast their vote by putting a sticky note beneath their answer. It's very visual and it's a good conversation starter.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>"Make a Spoof"</b><br />
Ask students to work on a spoof subject in groups. For example, I asked my PhD students to write down five things that would allow them to do the worst literature search ever...<br />
Quite good as an introduction, so as to get them to start thinking about the topic of the course.<br />
<br />
<b>"Good Search, Bad Search"</b><br />
After having shown students how to do a perfect literature search, give them an example of a "bad search" and have them discuss in pairs:<br />
- How come this is a "bad search"?<br />
- How could they make it better?<br />
<br />
<b>"I will do it"</b><br />
At the end of the session, ask the students to write down what they're going to do in the coming weeks to put into practice what they learned. Have them write down their names and email addresses. Send them a scan of their form the next month, asking them if they actually did what they said they would and if you can help them achieving their goals.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;" />
<br />
<span class="person_name" style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">(1) Walsh, Andrew</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"> and <span class="person_name">Inala, Padma</span> (2010) <i>Active Learning Techniques for Librarians: Practical Examples.</i> Chandos, Cambridge. ISBN 9781843345923</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo : <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brookward/8667135044" target="_blank">Brook Ward</a></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This picture is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License</a>.</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #323232; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>I translated this article from my French blog: <a href="http://quandleslivres.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/pedagogie-active-en-bibliotheque.html" target="_blank">Pédagogie active en bibliothèque</a>. </i></span></span>Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-25217783278290262722014-08-29T09:00:00.000+02:002014-08-29T09:10:09.278+02:00New Beginnings<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoK-tvohHIZeL6GEq26o4_Qvwft_ZnWa6SXjgLTPU_jh0PH1iSCmpAJgZQKI2jl7AYZuCrG8xD8RYve_-cCo8SUa3bqyBOaERoYtkBnz57Z8jUFbHVr2XjXoXTbepf3GjJfBXRui4n6w/s1600/IMG_7900+(copie).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNoK-tvohHIZeL6GEq26o4_Qvwft_ZnWa6SXjgLTPU_jh0PH1iSCmpAJgZQKI2jl7AYZuCrG8xD8RYve_-cCo8SUa3bqyBOaERoYtkBnz57Z8jUFbHVr2XjXoXTbepf3GjJfBXRui4n6w/s1600/IMG_7900+(copie).JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asphalt on a rainy day. Because that's my favourite cliché about London.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I can't believe I haven't written here for so long. But I think I know why: when I created this blog, my main goal was to recount my journey as I was trying to emigrate. And I thought I would have lots to say about having actually succeeded in emigrating, about the difference in the countries, in the libraries, in the way of life. But actually... I don't.<br />
<br />
If there is one thing I have learnt in those past few months of living in London, it's that life isn't that different between London and Paris. One is a busy European capital. The other is a busy European capital. The only differences are only anecdotal.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>What I don't miss from Paris: le métro, its smell of piss and that feeling of oppression when riding the busiest line, pressed against strangers.</li>
<li>What I do miss from Paris: my family, friends and colleagues. Obviously.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What I enjoy most about London: meeting other friendly librarians (yes, I'm looking at you, Twitter folks); watching Doctor Who live without having to deploy treasures of technological imagination; walking around the city.</li>
<li>What I don't enjoy about London: giving so much money to the TFL.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What has changed for me since January: I've stopped getting almost hit by cars because I was looking at the wrong side of the road; my knowledge of London's airports has drastically increased (Heathrow, I love you); I'm now really settled down at work.</li>
<li>What hasn't really changed since January: all the rest. I'm still me!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Overall, I do think that my quality of life has drastically improved since I live in London. Thanks to its numerous parks and the kindness of its inhabitants. (Yes, I confirm, Londoners, even if they are far from perfect, are much much much nicer than Parisians. Believe me.)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So now that that's settled, let's close the chapter of changing countries and changing life. And let's go back to library stuff. This blog will now officially become "just another library blog". :)</div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-59873329651577032012014-01-24T09:00:00.000+01:002014-01-24T09:08:14.919+01:00"Are you settled down yet?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSqOSgitDC2SODH4FB72I2RixQNBpe6oBH7WUo9yUsltjSq75-00f8p_gu7OpB4hvpTImh8s2vYaPuCHsjSARqRbnwJZRH72SNFZiXD-uCBu5fSkKE7DreDo-kC0RHe4rhzcs4m5mQ6A/s1600/IMG_7251+(copie)ptt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoSqOSgitDC2SODH4FB72I2RixQNBpe6oBH7WUo9yUsltjSq75-00f8p_gu7OpB4hvpTImh8s2vYaPuCHsjSARqRbnwJZRH72SNFZiXD-uCBu5fSkKE7DreDo-kC0RHe4rhzcs4m5mQ6A/s1600/IMG_7251+(copie)ptt.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Since I've arrived in London, the one thing people have been asking me constantly, almost everyday still, is "have you settled down?".<br />
Since day 1, my answer has been a resounding and unwavering "yes". Though its meaning has evolved for me everyday.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 1: "Yes, I only had one suitcase so it was quite quick really, I don't have that much stuff."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 3: "Yes, I've just bought myself fluffy pillows, I'm going to sleep so much better! All is well in the world!"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 5: "Yes, I now have a bank account AND a working mobile phone, I'm ready for whatever comes next!"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 11: "Yes, I'm planning for my first training session with some students, I really love this job!"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 15: "Yes, I've met new faces through my rowing class, I now know more people in London than I can count on my fingers!"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Day 19 (today): "Yes, I've begun working again on my Chartership, it feels so good to advance again on that project!"</blockquote>
You can keep asking me that question, I think I'll keep finding new explanations to the heartfelt "yes" that comes out of my lips before I'm even able to think about it. Yes, I'm settled down, London is my new home and I love it.<br />
<br />
Although, I'm still not really sure what "settling down" actually means. Is there a finish line somewhere, shall I be counting how many new friends I've made or how many times I've taken the tube? Shall I look forward to the day when I'll know where every single item is in Sainsbury, when I won't have to check a map before heading outside in London?<br />
<br />
Really, I think I'll keep settling down till the day I leave. I would need many lifetimes to exhaust all of London's quirks and possibilities. And I hope there always will be one more thing to do to feel even more comfortable and at home in this changing city. Forever ascending on the asymptote, ever so slightly.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken by myself in London, in January 2014.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span></div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-5778170519264747502013-12-05T16:00:00.000+01:002013-12-05T16:04:06.176+01:00Boarding call for London<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg327mrT3u6p-pjCN9jxi-wcF9z0cgwfUlbZVHDhPbZFLfkd_u1UFIGMDZXvyLwFd1O1Ha9ZtNkUDBrHPqm9sEW4vNgcgtKw-hDQfAZOOebIxzCT03jLZjNyaEDskGc_r4Aicl9CzJGEvs/s1600/IMG_6028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg327mrT3u6p-pjCN9jxi-wcF9z0cgwfUlbZVHDhPbZFLfkd_u1UFIGMDZXvyLwFd1O1Ha9ZtNkUDBrHPqm9sEW4vNgcgtKw-hDQfAZOOebIxzCT03jLZjNyaEDskGc_r4Aicl9CzJGEvs/s1600/IMG_6028.JPG" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
<br />
So, this is it.<br />
<br />
It took me quite a while to process that it's really happening but, yes, I'm coming to London very soon! On January 5th precisely. I've found a job, I've found a room and I'm still figuring out the details, but this is for real and I'm coming.<br />
<br />
I never thought I would experience so much anguish at hearing such happy news but, the thing is, when hearing that I'd got the job, I wasn't as excited / jumping up and down / singing out loud as I thought I would. Reality is more daunting than dreams.<br />
<br />
It was for real. I was leaving. I felt like on the edge of a cliff, trying to muster the courage to jump and searching for the confidence that I would spread my wings and fly. And not crash lamentably on the sharp rocks washed by the angry sea. <br />
<br />
So, for the first few weeks, when people asked me how my UK job search was going, I would reluctantly tell "yeah, actually, I think I've found something..." and then abruptly change the subject. The job I've found will actually be enthralling and I'm really excited about it, but, at first, it was really hard to project myself into this new life. And I was paralyzed at the idea of all the things, administrative and such, that I would have to take care of to make sure that it would all work out smoothly. The rocks at the bottom of my cliff were made of unfathomable paperwork, being utterly and depressingly lonely and having nowhere to live.<br />
But since my flat hunt trip there, a few weeks ago, I can now smile when answering that, yes, in 2014, I'll be in London.<br />
<br />
This trip gave me two important reassurances. Firstly, it is a huge relief to know that I will have a home to arrive to, to rest a bit in and to fly away from. Secondly, it is also so important to know that I won't be there alone: I will live with wonderful housemates, I will work with some very nice colleagues, and I've also had the chance to meet some other London librarians, especially through the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23libdimsum" target="_blank">#libdimsum</a> (yummy and chatty!). I am so relieved to already know a few people in this so very large city.<br />
<br />
By the time I came back to Paris, my biggest, sharpest rocks had vanished. At the bottom of the cliff now only lies the sea. A sea composed of social security papers and oyster cards and bank accounts. But it's okay. If I was to fall, at least, I wouldn't shatter my skull on geological remains. And I know how to swim. And even scuba dive.<br />
<br />
Overall, change is never easy. I've been grieving quite a bit over all the things and people and the job I'm leaving behind. It's just as if I hadn't really understood what I was leaving before. But now the process is almost complete and I'm feeling quite ready to go out of the chrysalis and barge along the Thames, tackling whatever may come next. I'm ready to jump.<br />
<br />
So I'm wrapping up all my projects at work, trying to catalogue like a mad woman all the stacks of books that have piled up on (and around...) my desk and leaving meticulous instructions to whoever will come next for the acquisitions I have carefully planned.<br />
<br />
I'm very much looking forward to begin this new page of my life, even if it's still a bit scary. But, most of all, I can't wait to meet new librarians (and non-librarians) of Great-Britain. So, come January, if you'd like to have a pint or a cup of coffee with me... <a href="https://twitter.com/Aurelie_Sol/" target="_blank">You know where to ask!</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken by myself in La Réunion, in October 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span></div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-32432595280072289592013-08-23T14:00:00.000+02:002013-08-23T14:39:28.525+02:00@VoicesLibrary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif8CWYkZCTlOP_RShJw4aNB5z710ngipS6BMEQrKkqe6flVw0uYkcEtQZDV7cFrVaguzOH4Q3kzD0XtbO8H8A8epZWrDxUivgmoXQ1q8GoZei6PITD0uJtfx0lNq4xVO8CFbDSvJRD2lY/s1600/voiceslibrary.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif8CWYkZCTlOP_RShJw4aNB5z710ngipS6BMEQrKkqe6flVw0uYkcEtQZDV7cFrVaguzOH4Q3kzD0XtbO8H8A8epZWrDxUivgmoXQ1q8GoZei6PITD0uJtfx0lNq4xVO8CFbDSvJRD2lY/s1600/voiceslibrary.jpg" height="103" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Next week (starting on Monday 26th August), I'll be tweeting on <a href="https://twitter.com/VoicesLibrary" target="_blank">@VoicesLibrary</a>.<br />
If you don't know about it, <a href="http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/voiceslibrary-project/" target="_blank">this is a really cool project</a> that proposes a new curator every week, who talks about her or his library and experience as a librarian.<br />
I'll be live-tweeting our "back-to-school" week and I'll talk about French libraries and Higher Education. Feel free to send me questions and comments! :)Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-57587516834514057102013-07-30T11:00:00.000+02:002013-07-30T11:09:20.017+02:00What I learned from my first Skype interview<br />
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Two weeks ago, I experienced my first Skype job interview as well as my first interview with an English-speaking board, all in one go! Though it went quite well, I didn't get the job... But it was a very useful experience to me so I wanted to share a bit of what I learned.<br />
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<h3>
1. A Skype interview can actually go quite well!</h3>
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I was very very stressed about the whole concept of talking to people I didn't know and speaking another language through such an unreliable mean as Skype. But, thanks to their very nice IT service, I was able to make two tests before the actual interview to try out the sound and video so that it went really smoothly on the d-day.<br />
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Here are a few tips I gathered on the Web and put into practice on that occasion:<br />
<ul>
<li>I used a headset because the built-in microphone of laptops is rarely great and you definitely want to be heard distinctly;</li>
<li>I moved the furniture around so as to have a blank wall behind me and better natural lighting on my face;</li>
<li>I propped up my laptop with some dictionaries for a better framing;</li>
<li>I actually tested the whole disposition with their IT service and I filmed myself several times to make small adjustment and feel safe enough IT-wise;</li>
<li>I had a plan B (my phone nearby and the phone number from their HR service ready to be dialed)!</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
2. I got a better idea of what kind of positions I can apply for</h3>
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This was the first time I was proposed to interview for a job after sending more than 25 applications for various positions all over Great-Britain. And it is no surprise that the only institution that asked to interview me had offered a position that was the closest to my skills and experience. So I'm planning to be more picky when answering job announcements so as not to spread myself too much between numerous applications and focus more on a few fitter positions.<br />
But also, here from France, I'll keep working on building better skills and experience for myself to be as qualified as possible on my particular strong points. Go, go, go!<br />
<br />Also, I'm going to keep rewriting my CV again (and again and again...). You wouldn't believe the number of versions of my CV I have on my computer right now. Of course, I change it a bit for every position I apply to but I've also made profound changes many times as I understand more and more how the library job market works overseas. And now is time to change some things again.<br />
A particular detail that struck me, stems from a vocabulary point. When the board told me that they were searching for a liaison librarian and what kind of things that exactly entailed, it made me realise that I actually am a liaison librarian! I had seen the expression many times in various announcements but it hadn't really hit me until then. I'm definitely using that word from now on on my CV. Well, until I find a better way to describe what I do in this tricky English language!<br />
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<h3>
3. I want to practise more my spoken English!</h3>
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It was such a relief to realise that I could actually understand what the board said. I've been watching a lot of British films and series but I have to admit that if the speech goes a bit too literary or over the board within slang and strong accents, I still have to put up the subtitles to actually understand the plot. And I was quite suspecting that real life people don't articulate as much as actors do... But I was wrong. I had absolutely no problem understanding what the people who interviewed me said, but for a few technical glitches.<br />
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An even bigger relief was that they also seemed to understand me! Which I clearly doubted up til then. I do hear in my mind what a good English accent is supposed to sound like but my mouth seems to still have trouble uttering the actual words. I had practised insanely my presentation and potential interview questions so I didn't have too many problems when talking with the board, but as soon as I deviated from my scripts... Stuttering and bizarrely constructed sentences ensued! So I definitely need to keep working on that and I'm a bit at loss how to.<br />
By any chance, would there be some nice British librarians wanting to Skype me for five minutes once in a while so that I can practise *not* answering with a big "Bonjour !" (as I did the first time I Skyped the IT technician... and then died in a puddle of shame and confusion as only French words of apology came into my head)?<br />
In the mean time, I'm planning to listen to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lmcxj" target="_blank">some radio shows</a> and repeat after the actors...<br />
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken in Kyoto, in April 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span></div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-52731405241761884622013-06-25T17:00:00.000+02:002013-06-25T17:00:00.436+02:00A Question of Vocabulary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When I tried to translate my Curriculum Vitae for the first time I got stumped. I think I'm not that bad at writing in English, but I then took the measure of a whole panel of professional vocabulary that I deeply missed. Though I read in English a lot, I had never had the occasion to really encounter specific librarianship vocabulary. I was at loss. So I scoured the Internet for help and here are the resources I found.<br />
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* The most interesting resource I found is this <a href="http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s30/pub/mg1.htm" target="_blank">Multilingual Glossary for Art Librarians</a> in the archives of IFLA. Even though it contains a lot of art-related vocabulary, it also gives good definitions and translates many useful librarianship words from English to French but also Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish! It's really an invaluable resources and I can't recommend it enough.<br />
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* This one is <a href="http://www.unige.ch/biblio/ses/pop_ressources_itineraire_glossaire.html" target="_blank">a glossary in French with translated terms in English</a> proposed by Geneva's university. It focuses more on reference research and it's less complete than IFLA' glossary, but it's more easily readable to French-speaking professionals and the definitions are clear.<br />
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* This <a href="http://www.bpi.fr/modules/resources/download/default/Professionnels/Documents/lexique/index.html" target="_blank">librarianship lexicon</a> is proposed by the French Bibliothèque Publique d'Information and proposes the translation of 1 500 words from French to English, Spanish, Catalan and Czech. The file is a bit heavy, resulting in some lagging, and I would emit some doubts on the translation of a few words. But it's easily searchable and it still is a useful resource.<br />
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* Finally, when in doubt for more general expressions, I've been using <a href="http://www.linguee.fr/" target="_blank">Linguee</a>. Its search engine compares millions of bilingual texts like EU official documents or patents. I like that it enables us to see the translated words in context in both languages.<br />
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Finally, what is really helping me putting all this new vocabulary into practise is reading and interacting with British professionals. I've been reading Cilip Update with great wonder (and have been passing it around to my colleagues!) and have picked up many words while reading it (the "digital divide" will be forever stuck in my mind now! In French we call it "fracture numérique"). I've also now an enormous folder of RSS feeds pointing to British librarian bloggers that I began to find here and there. I've been systematically following all of them on Twitter and it's a pleasure to hear fresh library news from the other side of the Channel. I'm really grateful for being able to communicate with all of them, it's really a great pleasure and honour to witness from afar their interesting discussions.<br />
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Thanks to all of these resources, I certainly have become better at expressing myself professionally in English. But there are still many words on which I'm not certain. Maybe you could help me?<br />
I'm in particular thinking about the word "veille" which we use to describe the action of watching closely certain resources so as to stay on top of information in a particular domain (as in following RSS feeds or using software as Website Watcher)?<br />
What do you call it when library assistants put bar codes and anti-theft devices on documents (to us it's "équipement")?<br />
And what about the process of "exemplarisation", when you signal different copies of a same document under its bibliographical entry?<br />
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If you have some answers to these questions or if you want to share your own favourite resources for librarianship vocabulary, please do post them in the comments!<br />
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<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken by me in Paris, in April 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span></div>
Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-81803695507157213212013-06-07T16:00:00.000+02:002013-06-25T13:10:35.909+02:00Re-Branding Gate vs Reindeer Gate: of CILIP, ABF and ADBSWhen beginning to search for ways to find a job in the UK, I stumbled upon <a href="http://www.lisjobnet.com/" target="_blank">LIS Job Net</a> early on but found out about CILIP and its relation to it much later. Finally arriving on the threshold of the <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">CILIP website</a>, I was amazed: everything seemed big and new and shiny. It made the previous professional associations I had met appear quite pale in comparison.<br />
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In France, information professionals divide up between two associations: <a href="http://www.abf.asso.fr/" target="_blank">ABF</a> ("Association des Bibliothécaires de France" - literally: association of French librarians) and <a href="http://www.adbs.fr/" target="_blank">ADBS</a> (which acronym, after many changes made, can't be developed anymore but is "L'Association des Professionnels de l'Information et de la Documentation" - association of information and documentation professionals). There is a real gap between those identifying as librarians and those that we call "documentalistes" (school librarians, some academic librarians, other information professionals). We don't mix. We're not even in the same category of public servants. So each keeps to its own association.<br />
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That's why I was very impressed to see that all of Great-Britain's information professionals seemed to be standing side by side under a single banner. I was impressed by what looked like a gigantic, sprawling association, doing so many things that the French associations, between the two of them, didn't seem to be able to pull out: awarding qualifications, providing career advice, supporting a parliamentary group, providing the mean of international exchanges... It's huge! It's so dynamic! I wanted so badly to get in!<br />
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Now that I've had the time to prowl over almost every pages of their website, to read a couple of CILIP Updates and to contact some of its members, my vision of CILIP is more nuanced of course. But it doesn't take away the awe of discovering such a powerful entity, thoughtful of its members and protective of their interests (I mean... a parliamentary group! Who does that?!).<br />
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Then the re-branding gate happened and I was floored. Sitting on the bench of <a href="https://twitter.com/Aurelie_Sol" target="_blank">my brand new Twitter account</a>, I saw <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=ciliprebrand&src=typd" target="_blank">an army of librarians</a> rising as one to take back into their hands the choice of their new identity, of which they seemed to fear they would be spoiled. <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/about-us/brand/pages/rebranding-cilip.aspx" target="_blank">The first survey</a> and the names proposed were obviously an awkward move from CILIP (though I did like "The Knowledge People", but that's my bad sense of humour showing...). The event stirred the members minds: <a href="http://dumplinginahanky.blogspot.fr/2013/05/losing-professionalism.html" target="_blank">heated</a> <a href="http://www.wordshore.com/?p=3139" target="_blank">and</a> <a href="http://smilylibrarian.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/its-not-the-name-that-matters/" target="_blank">salutary</a> discussions arose. Even within <a href="http://www.roper.org.uk/tr/2013/05/cilip-is-this-not-a-brand-snatched-from-the-burning.html" target="_blank">the more aggressive campaigns</a>, the unity, <a href="http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=2275" target="_blank">the care</a>, <a href="http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/presidentphil/archive/2013/05/29/rebranding-cilip.aspx" target="_blank">the support</a> of librarians and information professionals were laid before my eyes, and once again, I was in awe. CILIP is so important to all of you, it's such a part of your professional identity, that you were happily going to war to defend what it meant to you.<br />
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I've never witnessed such an uproar within the aforementioned French associations. Well, on a lesser scale, we could talk of ABF's really bad move on their 2011 Christmas card. Let's name it the Reindeer Gate. And here is why:<br />
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This is the image that greeted us on the ABF's website during all of December 2011. We didn't know whether to laugh or cry. We decided to laugh and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=pointrenne&src=typd" target="_blank">Twitter librarians exchanged reindeer photos</a> during all of 2012. There's even <a href="http://pointrenne.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">a Tumblr</a>. About reindeers. And librarians. Yep, that's what we do for fun.<br />
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But what? Did I just compare the CILIP re-branding issues to our silly holiday card conundrum? Well, if I did, it's because I hope that CILIP can get by as well as ABF finally did. And I do think that they will, <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CILIPNameSurvey" target="_blank">one step at a time</a>.<br />
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In the end, here was ABF's Christmas card for 2012:<br />
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(Yep. If you click on the image, you can see that there's a tiny reindeer at the bottom. And it was made by <a href="http://salt-in-my-coffee.blogspot.fr/" target="_blank">a nice librarian blogger</a>. Everyone loved it and the reindeer-gate ended in champagne.)Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-39460576041055094012013-06-05T08:00:00.000+02:002013-06-07T16:00:44.981+02:00Learning with MOOCs: what is it like?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few months ago, while still waging my personal war for general knowledge, I stumbled upon the MOOCs. I had been following video courses on YouTube and lurking over other potential e-learning options when I discovered them - and it was love at first sight.<br />
Friends on quest for knowledge, don't go any further: the greatest universities worldwide are opening their doors for us to trample through. They're the new cool kid on the educational Web and it seems like everyone's babbling about them... So I thought I would add my two pence and tell you what it's like from the inside, to learn with a MOOC.<br />
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If you haven't met them yet, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course" target="_blank">MOOCs</a> are Massive Open Online Courses, proposed by universities from everywhere (but mostly American). More than simple online videos, they want to get closer to a "campus" atmosphere, with a beginning and an end date, homework deadlines and a strong will to be as interactive as possible. <br />
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To get in, it's really quite simple: you just need an e-mail to subscribe to the course and access the lectures.<br />
On a fixed day, the videos of the week's lecture - cut into little sessions of 10 or 15 minutes - are put online (and in HTML5, no less). Some little and fairly easy intra-video quizzes are there to check that you have understood the important concepts.<br />
Some courses also require some reading, sometimes optional, sometimes compulsory (of course, if you're taking <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/relationship" target="_blank">a literature course</a>, you can expect to have to read a few books!). But often, the access to resources is made easy. For example, <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/lead-ei" target="_blank">this leadership course</a> enables students to access scientific articles which aren't in Open Access, either directly on the publisher's website, or through downloadable PDFs (and suspiciously, the teacher is often among the authors...).<br />
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Students can exchange notes and advice on the forums (but when you know that, at the beginning of a course, the number of subscribed students can reach 50 or 60 000... it's sometimes a bit hard to be heard!).<br />
Apparently, teachers, their assistants, and Coursera's technical staff follow more or less what is said. Some teachers step in directly on the forum. Other multiply e-mail announcements to answer the most popular comments and questions. <a href="https://www.coursera.org/instructor/%7E477" target="_blank">This psychology teacher</a> seems very invested in this project and often creates new videos to address the debates roaring among students.<br />
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We also have some good old-fashioned exams, either in the form of quizzes or essays (or something less traditional as in the <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting" target="_blank">Songwriting</a> course I took, where lyrics or music excerpts were asked each week).<br />
Grading methods vary from course to course. For example, <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/lead-ei" target="_blank">this management course</a> values participation and asks to write a minimum of 20 posts on the courses' forum (with the excess you can expect: myriads of uninteresting subjects and the same themes repeated over and over, especially in the first weeks). Some essays only require a minimum of 100 words to obtain automatically the maximum grade. Other go through peer review: each week, the student evaluates at least 5 of her peers so as to be able for everyone to get some interesting feedback. I must confess that this is my favourite method: I really get the impression that it's while trying to assess the work of someone else that we really get the whole dimension of the notions we're supposed to have acquired. And I have received some really interesting reviews, full to the brim with wise advice.<br />
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In the end, we get a nice little virtual diploma vouching for our participation and success in class. Some courses even propose (for some sum of money) to <a href="https://www.coursera.org/signature/guidebook/" target="_blank">validate more officially</a> your participation so as to be able to bring it out in a professional context. But, in my humble opinion, the interesting part is really in the pleasure of learning new things, in a well delimited, interactive and motivating environment.<br />
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You've guessed right: I'm in love with MOOCs. If you've got a somewhat school-loving soul, or if you're just hungry for knowledge, you're in for a treat. So let me tell you that I immediately signed in for three new courses and that my schedule is full until next year...<br />
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In conclusion, here is a little collection of courses that you might like. Have fun!<br />
<ul>
<li>Learning more about metadata: <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/metadata" target="_blank">over here</a>. </li>
<li>Working on your general knowledge? Here is a course on <a href="https://www.edx.org/courses/UTAustinX/UT.2.01x/2013_Sept/about">ideas of the twentieth century</a>.</li>
<li>If you have the occasion to do some users' training or any other form of teaching, Coursera planned a series of courses called "<a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/teach1" target="_blank">Foundations of Teaching for Learning</a>".</li>
<li><a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/globalhighered">Globalizing Higher Education and Research for the 'Knowledge Economy'</a>... I'm definitely taking this one!</li>
<li>An <a href="https://www.udacity.com/course/cs253">initiation to Web developing</a> proposing to build your own blog.</li>
<li>If anybody's as much a fan as I am of paleo-anthropology, here is a course about <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/humanevolution">human evolution</a>.</li>
<li>And finally, especially for foodies, an approach to <a href="https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/SPU27x/2013_Oct/about">kitchen science</a></li>
</ul>
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken by me in Paris, in February 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span></div>
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Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-14260199584930515242013-05-28T12:00:00.000+02:002013-05-28T12:00:07.106+02:00The Elusive Figure of General Knowledge<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've always been attracted by the elusive figure of general knowledge. By the promise of well-roundedness, by the mirage of a better understanding of our world. And, because of the French wording of this particular concept ("Culture Générale"), by all of the meanings enclosed in the word "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture" target="_blank">Culture</a>". But, more importantly, I wanted to find meaning and order in all of this knowledge, all of this culture.<br />
In high school already, I was avidly searching through encyclopaedias for neat time lines, pouring over the great trends of music through history, taking notes about the succession of ideas through the course of the world. When I began the game of competitive exams, general knowledge mutated into a requirement, and my original attraction became a real obsession. I needed to jump through the hoop of general knowledge dissertation to enter the top ranks of public service and its libraries.<br />
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I took the tests for years, always hopeful and enthusiast: the exercise was quite amusing and I was flirting with results almost good enough to pass. Meanwhile, I also worked my way through library school, a first job in an academic library and eventually passed a mid-level competitive exam to become a civil servant. What I've discovered through this process, is that my love for organising general knowledge in my head is what makes me an honourable librarian (or so I hope). It makes me thrive for coherent collections, for well-thought development policies and rigorous classification. But it doesn't make me any better at general knowledge dissertation, and, on that level, I'm certainly not able to compete against youngsters just out of literature or history preparatory classes.<br />
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So, I decided to stop fretting about exams for a while, and just rejoice in practising a job I love while enjoying my day-to-day stroll through cultural regions. I didn't give away general knowledge, I just keep the overall point of view for my library work, and dip timidly through its deep waters in my down time, not searching to get everything into my head, just enjoying the ride.<br />
It materialised through different ways. In my intensified readings, in my discovery of MOOCs, in the curation feature I instituted on <a href="http://http//quandleslivres.blogspot.com" target="_blank">my original blog</a>. I hope to tell you about all of this in the near future.<br />
It also showed through a broader desire for more adventures, for exploring unknown territories. Since the beginning of this year 2013, I began running, I visited Japan, I tasted tons of new dishes and pushed myself to meet knew people. And now I want to push the adventure further and live somewhere else, discover a new way to work and to live. Taking the German definition of the word and burning to experience another culture, another country, another civilisation. And keeping to pick up bits of general knowledge along the way.<br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The above photo was taken by me in Kyoto, Japan, in April 2013.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span>Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061356988387850797.post-8057231218424063842013-05-22T13:00:00.000+02:002013-05-22T13:00:11.149+02:00Working in libraries: the job announcements<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The deal I made with myself being that I wouldn't <a href="http://andbookswillfly.blogspot.fr/2013/05/hello-world-hello-britain.html" target="_blank">leave</a> without a formal employment proposition, I've begun investigating library jobs all over Great-Britain. And, at first, I was shocked by a simple fact: there are actual job announcements for academic permanent positions (well, for all kinds of positions really). And quite a lot actually.<br />
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So why was it so shocking to me? Because academic libraries in France don't work like that at all. To have a permanent position in a library, you have to be a civil servant. And to become a civil servant, you have to pass a competitive exam. There are three main branches in French public service: state, territorial and hospitals, and, even though you can move from one to the other afterwards, the initial competitive tests you need to pass to integrate one branch or the other are different.<br />
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Territorial communities (and the ministry for culture) manage <b>public libraries</b>. The territorial competitive tests allow you to submit your application to these libraries and you're in charge of finding yourself a job within two years after passing the test (which isn't always easy... but that's another story).<br />
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The State (in particular the ministry for research and higher education) is in charge for <b>academic libraries</b>. I personally am an academic librarian, so their working is more familiar to me. After passing the competitive test of your choice, you are assigned to a position. You get to emit vows based on a list of vacancies, but you are not the one making the final decision. After three years of service in a library, you can ask for a transfer: once a year (twice for head librarians), a list of vacancies is issued and you can apply for positions. A commission decides, based on a variety of criteria, from marital status to length of service, who gets to go where.<br />
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This intricate system is the price we pay for our outstanding job security. But I personally resent it a bit. It was not my choice to come working in Paris. But 80% of the jobs in academic libraries are in or around the capital, so it's really hard to avoid coming there at one point or the other. I actually got very lucky and, even though I didn't get to stay in my region of origin, I integrated a very interesting position within an amazing team. But now, part of my motivation for leaving is to be able to actually make a choice: choosing where and what kind of position I want to apply for. Choosing of having a new experience in a nearby country. This new horizon of possibilities is a great motivation.<br />
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So, is the French libraries market really closed to foreign librarians who would like to get an experience here? Not really. Actually, French libraries employ quite a number of people on temporary contracts, and you can find announcements for this kind of jobs quite easily.<br />
Here are two of our main resources:<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.enssib.fr/offres-d-emploi" target="_blank">Emploi Enssib</a> will tip you off on vacancies in academic libraries;</li>
<li>While on <a href="http://biblioemplois.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Biblioemplois</a> you're more likely to find job announcements for public libraries.</li>
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And of course, <a href="http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/F12219.xhtml" target="_blank">if you are a European Union citizen</a>, you can take the competitive exams to become a civil servant, but that's another subject entirely...<br />
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Licence Creative Commons" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-sa/2.0/uk/88x31.png" style="border-width: 0pt;" /></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">The above photo was taken by me at Seyssel, France, in December 2012.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">This photo and text are licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.fr" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License</a>.</span>Auréliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09783924581190748513noreply@blogger.com0