Recognizing the Power of Reading

Today at my internship two students came up to me to check out a book. They were talking to each other as I was scanning the barcodes and writing down the due dates, but then one of the girls turned to me and asked "Do you read a lot?"

Now, do I read a lot? I thought this was a strange question to ask a girl who volunteers her time to work in a library. But I turned to her and said "Oh, I read a ton." She proceeded to ask me "What kind of reading?" And I thought about it. I explained to her that I'm an English major at TCNJ and how much reading that requires of me, both of literature and of critical pieces. I told her about the reading I like to do on my own time, whether it be fiction, poetry, or even just reading on blogs.

Then her and her friend both asked me "Does reading improve your writing?" I thought this was rather impressive that they were thinking about reading on that level, and I was so glad they asked. I do not know if there is anything that improves your writing more than extensively reading. I truly believe that because I have always been an avid reader, my writing has improved greatly. When you read, you analyze how that writer writes and you familiarize yourself with techniques used in all sorts of writing. Because you become better acquainted with such techniques, you then can more easily implement them in your own writing. People often argue that this modeling discourages true innovation and creativity, but in order to write well, you have to know the tried and true basics of the craft.

These girls turned to their other friends after I told them how important reading is to improving your writing and said "See! And you have never picked up a book in your life." I don't know if I ever expected to see peer pressure in the positive direction. Seeing teens encouraging each other to read was definitely one of the bright spots of my day.

Out with the Old to Make Room for the New: Purging Old Technology

At Ewing last week the librarian gave me the task of going through a cabinet filled to the brim with bulbs for various projectors and other equipment. After double checking which bulbs were still used, I found that only maybe 8 varieties out of the 40 different kinds were still used. I then proceeded to fill 7 copy paper boxes with bulbs that dated back to the 1950's easily.

I could not believe how much outdated equipment was in that cabinet, and how long that it had been in there. There is an entire cage filled with old, unusable equipment, and I know that is way less than was there when the librarian now at Ewing first assumed her position.

The question then becomes, what can we part with, and what may we still need? I know that in most fields this is a struggle to determine what is still of use. We all like to say the old technique "if it has not been used in 2-3 years, chuck it," but its hard to justify that.

I think the librarian's job is to look at all of that equipment, and determine first of all what is still compatible with modern systems, and what still serves some sort of purpose. One of the pieces in the cage was an opaque projector. While it hasn't been used recently, the librarian made a good point that the art department may want it for projecting for a mural or project.

The next step, then, is to get the word out. Let the teachers and administrators know what you still have that could be used, and what they may want to use it for. This even goes back to the document camera that I discussed in a previous post. Half of the staff probably does not know that we have that technology in the school. The library and its materials will only be used if we in the library are proactive and advertise what we have.

There is a place for some older technology. But we also have to make way for the new. It is important to stay on top of the changes and keep organized so that you always know what you have and what is accessible. I am excited to continue helping purge the materials in the cage and organize what we have so that everything will get greater use.

How What We Read In Private Connects Us

While searching for some works to include in my final literature project, an anthology of contemporary writing that exemplifies the connection of a collective memory in environments outside of our norm, I came across a literary journal dedicated to travel writing: The Literary Bohemian.

While browsing through the archives of the journal, I came across a piece about a woman who rents a stranger's house and finds herself connected to him, based solely on his private library. Beautifully sentimental, I think all lovers of books would agree that we find companions based on what we enjoy reading and learning about. Follow this link to read the beautiful prose of Holly Case.

From the Great Plains to the Bosporus: How Two Private Libraries Converged

Jonathan Safran Foer on "Writing Life"

Last Thursday night I had the pleasure of taking a ride to Princeton with some friends to see a sort of literary interview between acclaimed author and Princeton professor Joyce Carol Oates and, one of my favorite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer.

They opened the lecture with a quote from one of his workshops earlier in the day: "One should write out of necessity." He proceeded to discuss how he feels we write what we feel we cannot say in person, in real time. We write these conversations that we never get to have, whether we refrain from having them out of politeness or self-consciousness or distance.

It suggests this unspoken sharing among and between readers and writers. In such a highly individualized and impersonal society, there is this mutual sharing of sincerity that transcends physical and electronic connection. And it has to transcend anything that can traced back to that sentimentality. He and Joyce Carol Oates launched into a discussion of the 20th century embarrassment of sentiment in favor of this cultural irony that consumes our relationships.

And how accurate! Despite my desire to modernize the image of the library, I would be lying if I said I didn't fall in love with the romanticism of shelves lined with volumes and volumes of literature, the classic printed tradition. And to me, the impersonality and disposable nature of electronic resources like ebooks suggests that we no longer make those connections. Not only that we don't make them, but that we don't want to.

His latest book, Tree of Codes, challenges modern electronic print culture with the physicality of the text: a die-cut book that needs to be held and read from a print copy in order to get the full effect of his method, where he deconstructs one text in order to build his own.

Yes, the library is all about the integration of new technologies and modern connections, but we cannot forget where the sharing of information began: the origin of print. Foer reminds us what it means to be innovative while still celebrating the roots of literature, and it doesn't get much more refreshing than that.

Late Night Artistic Escapades

Late last night I finally completed my watercolor logo for my website. Check it out! Hopefully it says something about me as a person and my goals in life (at least I think it does!).

Is All Technology Useful Technology: Determining Your Needs

Sorry for the lack of posting as of late. Mid-semester work really catching up to me. But I was sparked to post here by a really interesting conversation I had this week at Ewing:

Particularly in education, the argument arises that we are not implementing enough technology, or that we are not updating our technology. Yes, there are a lot of areas that are lacking, or that are completely non-existent. Some new innovations exist that we have yet to explore and take advantage of.

However, a corollary argument also arises, where we invest in and use technology just because it is available to us, not because it is useful for our purposes. Today, I had an interesting conversation with the librarian at Ewing High School. Her supervisor came in and asked if she had any other equipment that she needed to order. He then specifically asked if she wanted to order more document cameras. She said that she had yet to set up the one that they had ordered the previous year, so I offered to take a look.

Document cameras are incredibly easy to use, and can be very useful in some scenarios. The clarity of the image and the ability to zoom in and analyze objects from multiple angles while projecting for the whole room to see can find itself very useful. Some great uses include projecting real-time editing of a paper in an English classroom, projection of fragile documents in a History classroom, or close analysis of an object or experiment in a Science classroom.

However, those seem to be some of the only uses. Even so, in a high school, those opportunities are limited. The librarian brought up that most of the uses that the teachers in Ewing would have for the document camera could be accomplished with a projector, and that no teachers have inquired about using the document camera.

I think the question then becomes, what technologies benefit your specific users? It is all about how we implement technology. If we do not see a use for it, why invest in it? School budgets are tight enough, money should be spent on equipment that we can find a use for.  I am not saying that document cameras are useless, or that we should not explore potential use for newer technologies. Those are all important aspects of education, and it is up to the library to find its benefits. We need to think critically about what technology can do and how we can use it.