Quote of the day

[gwynhefar]

"Technology should be a familiar subject to us, after all; it lies at the heart of printing and book history. The most recent revolution, dazzling as it may appear in its purported transformation of how we pursue knowledge and communicate with each other, is only the third of three. The first technological revolution, the invention of writing, continues to dwarf in importance both the development of moveable type in the mid-fifteenth century and the reconstruction of the world in bits and bytes near the close of the twentieth. A digitized image of a medieval manuscript or early modern book may both widen and sharpen the educational process, but it cannot wholly substitute for the experience of learning from those whose job it is to pass on their hard-earned knowledge of how and why these cultural artifacts were made. Similarly, the growth of "content" on the web, extraordinary as it is, makes the interpretation of so much information all the more crucial. In the long run, there is still much to be said for the primal encounter between critical judgment, on the one hand, and the full spectrum of cultural production in all of its formats, on the other."

-- Richard Wendorf, The Scholar-Librarian: Books, Libraries, and the Visual Arts

Comments

[myng-rabbyt.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. And I really like the icon, too.

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

I wish there had been more emphasis on this when we were in library school. The Reference class seemed more like arbitrary treasure hunts and reliance on a handful of commercial databases. I'd be more interested in something akin to an ethics or critical thinking or media analysis course (not just one lecture one week out of a semester in the Intro to Tech Services class), something to teach prospective librarians how to separate the wheat from the crap, and how to instruct others to do so.

[myng-rabbyt.livejournal.com]

I agree. We seem to spend much of our time teaching students how to use the resources and how to distinguish "scholarly" from "popular." But how do we teach them to be responsible consumers and producers of information?

We're taught how to convey certain info lit concepts, yeah. But not how to teach our students how to ascertain the wheat from the crap, as you say. Students often ask, "How can I tell something's good from just looking at it?" Sometimes I'm honest: you keep doing research for a long time, you figure it out.

But I want to say: because I have developed analytical skills and the patience to examine the resources. How do you teach students analysis and patience?

Before you think I sound defeatist: I'm an instructional librarian, and I love instruction, and I don't think it's pointless in the least. Just gotta keep trying to teach them what they need. :)

[gwynraven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a struggle. Especially with most of the students I get, who aren't really interested in learning new skills, they just want to know what's on the test so they can memorize it.

[harkalark.livejournal.com]

...or for you to do their research for them. Or their report.