Library Ethnography--Extension!

Hi all,

You've all been working hard on these projects, and I know some of you have been struggling to work out the kinks of this new technology. Because of this, I'm going to give you until the end of the week to tweak your Library Ethnographies--they are now due on Friday, August 31. If you already have yours done and in a state that you like, then you are good to go!

As you finish these projects up, remember:

• You need to have some kind of clear and thoughtful narration or annotation of your project--so if you did a powerpoint with pictures, make sure you have descriptions for each picture of what you did and why you did it. 
• You also need to have a self-evaluation posted on your blog with a description of what you specifically did in the project. This is to make sure that you get credit for the work you've done. If there is someone in your group who did not pull their own weight, let me know and I will handle it. Honestly, I can tell pretty easily if someone did not participate, so you may get contacted by me whether or not someone in your group said anything to me at all. 
• By next Wednesday you'll need to post a response to a classmate's project. That means make sure you post your project as soon as it is done so your classmates can review is and give you feedback. Do not wait until the last minute.  

If you are having issues uploading your project to your blog, here are some tips:

•  If you have a powerpoint, you should upload it to slideshare.net and then get the embed code (it is a little link on the top right of your presentation.) When you go to post the embed code in your blog, click the 'options' button on your right under 'post settings' and make sure it says "interpret typed HTML" 
• If you can't figure out the embed code, you can also just upload it to slideshare.net and post the link to your presentation in the body of a post. 
• If you posted a video, you can upload it to youtube, and then click the button that says "Insert a Video" at the top (It looks like the little board they snap in movies.) and upload it that way. You can also just link to it in your blog if the uploading doesn't work. 

I'll be in my office tomorrow (Thursday) if you have any follow up questions about how to upload your materials!

All best,
Jessica

Wednesday (8/29) Blog Prompt

Hi All,

Sorry this is up late, you might have noticed that we've had a few issues with internet on campus this morning.

Here's is your prompt for today:

 Brainstorm possible topics for your group project (This is an individual assignment). Find 3 news stories and post the links to your blog. For each story, identify the Who? What? When? Where? Why? Remember the evaluation criteria we came up with in the Evaluation Carousel in class. Also remember the list of forbidden topics below (this list is also posted in CourseDen).

--

LIBR 1101

Forbidden Topics

Good research requires scholars to think out of the box. Students should come up with topics that interest them and fall beyond the scope of the generic controversial topic. To that end, students may not choose any of the following subjects for their assignments.

Abortion
Animal Cruelty
Cloning/ stem cell research
Death penalty or capital punishment
Global warming, pollution, climate change, etc.
Gun control/ zero tolerance in schools
Homosexuals in the military
Piracy
Poverty/ homelessness
Product Placement
Same sex marriage
School prayer
Steroids and/or drug abuse
Underage drinking
War on terror, Invasion of Iraq, etc.

Your Group Evaluation Acronyms

Hi all,

Here are the evaluation acronyms you all came up with--fabulous job, all of you! Make sure you read through these, because we'll be voting on which one we want to be the class acronym in class on Wednesday (I know yours is the best, but no, you can't vote for your own!.) The winning group might get a treat! If I remember!

We have......drum roll please....

Relevance
Experience
Audience
Current
Trustworthy
--
Sponsor
Credentials
Author
Reliability
Factual
--
Trustworthiness
Reliability
Accurate
Point of View
--
Authority
Sponsor
Audience
Point of View
--
Credibility
Unbiased
Relevancy
References
Accuracy
--
Relevance
Authority
Trustworthy
--
Reliability
Authority
Date

Which one do you think is best?

Jessica

Class Evaluation Criteria

Hi all,

Here is the list of evaluation criteria we came up with in class today. Feel free to use this to inform your group Evaluation Acronym:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eXDBU-3LwLd7vt17cOE09A0DJQjUgT8HDUxt5FICu1c/edit

I know we didn't have a whole lot of time to talk about your library ethnography projects, so if you have any questions, let me know soon. If you run into a problem tomorrow night, there is probably not a whole lot I can do to help you.

I also didn't get a chance to remind you of your quiz on Wednesday, so make sure to read up on class policies, library basics, and evaluation before then!

Remember that you have until tomorrow night at 11:59 to redo (or do!) your blog posts from last week! 

All best,
Jessica

That's how I (blog)roll!

Hi all,

I hope that as the semester goes along, you'll start to explore different things you can do to customize your blog. You can see that I've added a blogroll--a list of all the blogs I follow (yours!). Feel free to use this to follow your other classmates if that is easier for you.

You should also notice that I've added tags to my blog posts. This will allow you to find other posts similar to the one you are currently reading. You can add tags to your blog post with the 'labels' function (you'll see it to your right when you are writing a post) This is especially useful for blog prompts!

Best,
Jessica

Monday (8/27) Blog Prompt

Hi all,

Here is the blog prompt for Monday, August 27th. This post does not need to be 200 words, just be mindful that you address all of the required parts of the prompt.

Post your group’s new evaluation acronym using some of the criteria we came up with in class. Make sure you discuss what you mean by each one of your words--you won’t get credit for just listing the words.

Looking Ahead to Week 2!

Hi all,

I hope you had a great weekend. I've been reading through your blogs, and I hope that you all with follow up with me about anything you continue to be confused about throughout the semester.


A few things:

--Unless I tell you otherwise, each of your blog posts need to be 200 words. You will get points off they are not. Your responses need to be at least 50 words. Many of you were under this mark for your Wednesday responses.  

--Please also be aware of due dates. Your blog responses are due by 11:59 on Monday and Wednesday, unless otherwise noted. You will get points off for missing these due dates as well. 

--Remember that your Library Ethnography Project is due on Wednesday. You will also have to respond to a classmate's project by the follow Wednesday (Sept 5). Please feel free to visit me during my office hours on Monday (11-1) if you have any questions about the library ethnography project.

--If you are keeping up with the syllabus, you will have noticed that our first quiz is Wednesday as well. This will mainly cover introductory things about the library, the syllabus, and what we'll introduce on Monday (Evaluation.) All quizzes are short answer and given in-class.

--I have updated the class schedule to reflect days that you will not have a blog post for homework, so make sure to review that.

Here is the link to the class schedule Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1skjT7ToBya25seL0Ju-yg2GMRWau1hH9YesCwSkIwms/edit

--One of your classmates has made a very helpful suggestion that you all might want to start titling your blog posts and labels (you can see it on the right under "Post Settings" when you write your posts) to make it easy to find and organize your posts. 

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Best,
Jessica