More Disjointed Thoughts

Off and on for months I have been slowly going through Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. I had the book, read parts and it had to go back. Now have the CD overdue. It's obviously not that compelling or I would have finished it easily, but I kept moving on to other things. But there was enough there that I thought I wanted to finish it.

He has some interesting things to say about what TV has done to democracy and reason. It has to do with the different way people process words and visual information. It has to do with the relationship between the printed word and reason and democracy. Reading involves active participation, thinking and creating mental images for the words. TV doesn't require participation, it is passive. We take in what is shown and said to us and accept it. And as TV becomes more income and advertiser driven, what we are fed is more and more controlled by those with power and money. He makes some interesting connections with TV and our increasing state of fear, detachment, frustration and anger. He has thoughts on the rise of fundamentalism (of all types), the politics of wealth, and of course, lots of negative comments about the current administration.

He believes the Internet is one way for the people to return the country to a democracy. The Internet is based on text and anyone can easily publish their ideas. It's a way for those with similar interests to connect. Blogging is an example and has become a way to get information out that has not been controlled by political or business powers. He also mentions wikis and the 2.0 social stuff. The cost of making videos has fallen and now just about anyone can post a video. The Internet has low entry barriers, it is interactive and is it not just a way of disseminating information, but a way to pursue the truth. He talks about the difference between being well-educated and well-informed.

At some point when I hear words like 'information' and 'dissemination' and 'access' I remember I have a piece of paper which says I am an information professional and I should think about this stuff. The workplace is in the process of making some long term plans and it has been interesting to see what the various groups within the organization believe is important and where they want to go. A majority of the staff believe our main service is, or should be, something along the lines of having materials for pleasure reading and entertainment. It can be a struggle to reconcile this with historical views that the mission of public libraries is to ensure an educated citizenry essential to a democracy. (Hmmmm - educated or informed citizenry?) He doesn't mention libraries at all. Not as another place to have interactions with information. Not as a place to have discussions. Have we become unnecessary to the future of a democracy and just another entertainment venue? But, let's get real - he is also promoting his Current TV and interactive Internet site.

So what do we do now? Does, or should, our role to "inform' go further than just having books and materials on varied viewpoints available to people to come in and check out? Do people come in to find and explore viewpoints other than their current ones or just to reinforce them? Should we facilitate discussions and if so how and will people come? Our previous long term plan had to do with making connections in a growing disconnected society. Should our current plan include something about increasing participation in our less participatory society? Did we reach any of the goals of our previous plan?

As a library and a source of information, we have a love-hate relationship with the Internet. We deliver services over it and use it to make connections with patrons. We also have to compete with it. One of our reasons for having lots of computers for Internet access was originally to help minimize the digital divide. We know that not everything on the Internet is true. The ease of publication also leads to inaccurate information. He does say that there are problems and something along the line of every human evil is also there. In the past libraries had done some work in finding good informational web sites for their patrons to use and taught them how to evaluate web sites. As people became better able to navigate (we hope) on their own we stopped doing this. And we probably stopped due to the amount of time it took also. But now that we have a new breed of web applications, what is our role in informing the public about their use? Do we go as far as having production studios?

But even as I try to think through these questions, I also have to remember what I use the library for - pleasure reading and DVDs. What does that say?

By the way, I can't actually recommend this book. The introduction and first chapter or so on TV are interesting and the summary chapter at the end may be OK, but mostly it just goes on and on about the same things.

You Get Three Guesses

What pop culture icon is being "slightly changed for a more rugged, cool look to appeal to men in their teens and early 20s."


That would be this one.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

For Some Reason, This Didn't Come Up When They Were On Oprah

The Dangerous Book For Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden

Page 250

Role-Playing Games

"This is not a page telling you how to do something...It's a short essay on role playing games: what they are and how to get started. There are few inventions of the twentieth century that can combine entertainment with imagination so well."

"In a very real sense, it is a training ground for the imagination and, in particular, a school for plot and character. It may even be a training ground for tactics. If you want to be a writer, try D&D. For that matter, if you want to be a mathematician, try D&D."

"For us, D&D meant hundreds of hours......."

So, maybe that explains why they felt the need for a chapter about Girls (page 109) which states girls are different for many reasons including "the fact that they remain unimpressed by your mastery of a game involving wizards....."

Wonder if they were scarred for life at some point by some girl who was more interested in a boy who could skin a rabbit?

Very Interesting

Scholastic Plans to Put Its Branding Iron on a Successor to Harry Potter

With the Harry Potter series now completed, Scholastic, the United States publisher of those wildly successful books by J. K. Rowling, is moving forward with what it hopes will be its follow-up blockbuster series.

Called “The 39 Clues,” this series will feature 10 books — the first of which is to go on sale next September — as well as related Web-based games, collectors’ cards and cash prizes. The project demonstrates Scholastic’s acknowledgment that as much as the publisher heralded the renewed interest in reading represented by the Harry Potter books, many children are now as transfixed by Internet and video games as they are by reading.

“We want to go where the kids are and really be part of their complete world, rather than going to one aspect of their world,” said David Levithan, an executive editorial director at Scholastic. He added, “We talk of it as being subversively educational.”


“There’s a lot of commonality between what makes a good game and a good book,” Mr. Riordan said. “Whether you’re a gamer or a reader, you want to feel immersed in the story and invested in the action and the characters, and you want to care about the outcome and you want to participate in solving the mystery.”

I like it when I can laugh first thing in the morning

Danger: Avoid Death

Random stuff while home on various days due to icky weather

Landed on a great PBS show - The Art of Quilting It's the second time recently that I've come across artists who have added fortune cookie fortunes to their projects. The other was our visiting artist. I enjoy the fortune cookie fortunes and have kept many of them. May need to come up with something to do with them.

The new Al Gore approved windows and garage door do seem to make a difference. It is much more comfortable in the family room.

Stress eating is a lot less fun with the kid at college and so less, or no, junk food in the house.

Restless stress and not wanting to go out combine to make a very clean house.

Why do I feel guilty staying home from work even though the opportunity was given to me?

And while I'm happy the storm wasn't as bad as forecast, it also makes me wonder if the powers-that-be will be less likely to close early when bad weather is forecast again.

One of my favorite books is Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff. The Hallmark people recently made a TV movie out of it. I had to tape it. The Hallmark people did a very nice job with it, but I like the book more.

The white Christmas lights in the ice-coated tree look amazing.

I am very thankful I have electricity.

Update

I just had a very interesting 30 minute discussion with the SRO at the Jr. High. The details may come later, or in other discussions. Anyway, I'm depressed. What have we done to our society? What happened to our sense of community? Does the word respect mean anything anymore? And what are we doing to our children?

It's Here......

If there is any connection between my recent library rants I believe it is that we have been talking about change in the library world for years and some of it is finally, actually, showing up. The use of online resources is measurably getting larger, although some may debate the depth and breadth of the use. The average person is getting more wired and is more comfortable with technological devices. We are becoming more of a community gathering place. Relaxed rules of behavior in all aspects of society are showing up in our building. All of these developments mean we are looking at our role differently in practice more than in theory and it hurts. We are also dealing with the consequences of these trends with staff and the public; some are rolling with it and others miss the world they knew.

If been reading various things in my spare time and found this. While I don't agree with parts of it there were some things that struck me.

Teen and Youth services will continue to be their own “silos” in the long run. The skill sets are too unique to lose in a more diffuse structure.

The first impression is that I have some job security. We have a different and unique role. We are the one department that does our own programming for example. This uniqueness also brings misunderstandings. Why do we have an all day inservice? Why do we all have monthly meetings in the afternoon so coverage is necessary? Why can't you control those teens? Because we are special! And to think, when I started, YS people actually had a lower pay scale than IS because working with kids wasn't seen as important as working with adults. Now some tell us we are the driving force in the organization.

The roving model will lead to more “team” oriented work on the floor, but specialized services for business, government access and more personalized information management services will require “junior” and “senior” information service roles, similar to those found in Policy shops and consultancies.

We have specialized reference services in our main library. If we are to make an impact in certain areas, we need specialists. It's too much for an individual IS person in the branch to know everything there is about business and genealogy and whatever. It's nice to have the service available. But what does this mean to the branch IS staff?

Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

A Rowdy Teen/Tween Problem Literally in My Own Backyard

My house is on a corner, with an elementary school parking lot next to my backyard. There is a Junior High within walking distance in the neighborhood, but not on a direct route. For years, there would be maybe 3 or 4 Jr. High kids hanging out in our yard. We have a very inviting large shady tree next to the sidewalk by the side yard and they would lounge under it on the warm weather days. They would hang out until the elementary kids were out of school and the crowd would grow with the brothers and sisters. They could be somewhat intimidating to the younger kids walking home. It seems one had a little sibling they were supposed to walk home. They didn't want to wait at the elementary school because they only allowed the older sibling to wait not his friends. They were loitering and told to move on. So since our house is just off school property, they landed there.

In the past few years, the "problem" has been escalating. There are now about 10-15 kids on some days in my yard, hanging out, sometimes playing football or whatever. They have also taken over the sidewalk the little kids use to walk home. I am rarely home when this happens, but on some occasions have gone out to ask them to pick up the trash I saw them throw or stop fighting. (They said they were just playing. To me, hitting other kids with a backpack isn't playing.) I have tried to talk to them nicely about them destroying the grass and some plants, making it hard for others to walk on the sidewalk and basically was told things such as that's my fault for choosing to buy a house next to a school, I should build a fence, and worse.

It seems things have escalated even further. The last time I was home, a month ago, a police officer parked her vehicle by the side yard and encouraged them to move on. I watched and listened from inside for a while. She knew them so I figured she was the SRO (School Resource Officer) at the Jr. High. They were talking back to her. She finally managed to get some of them to move on and I went out to talk to her. She said the school was very aware of the situation, the elementary parents walking kids down that sidewalk had complained, and both schools knew it had to stop. She said she was encouraging the hanging-out kids to stay out of my yard and to keep to the the strip of grass between the street and sidewalk. Fine by me.

Although I haven't been home to actually see it, things have not improved. One of my neighbors stopped by Saturday. She had been in some discussions with parents and principals. Because she knew me, she volunteered to pass on a request. They need me to call the Jr. High and complain. They will be able to take more stringent action if there is a formal complaint of loitering or whatever. She also said one reason they are pushing this is that both schools have a guiding principles type thing and this is most definitely going against the little one about respect. They aren't respecting private property. They aren't respecting adults and the other kids. I can buy into that.

I also said I would under two conditions. First, I would mention that except for limited amounts of trash and trampled lawn and occasional plant, they were not destructive. If not stopped, however, it could get worse. While they are very rude, no "bad words" were used. They were kids who had been in class all day, who wanted to hang out with their friends and probably had no one at home (i.e. parent) who was expecting them home after school.

The other condition was that she passes on something from me. These kids have learned these disrespectful habits from their parents. Many parents do not want to wait through the long line of traffic to pick up their kids in the school parking lot so they have told their kids to wait for them at that house on the corner. There have been times I could not turn into my driveway because their cars were blocking it as they waited for their kids. I have seen them yell and wave to their kids telling them to cut across the yard to come faster instead of walking around on the sidewalk. Once a parent yelled at a kid from across the street and the kid ran across between parked cars and was almost hit by a car. These parents are teaching their future Jr. High students that it is OK not to follow school rules and it is OK to disrespect the property of others. So what do we expect is going to happen? Would she please communicate that to the elementary school leadership?

So what does this have to do with anything you may be asking if you are still reading. These are most likely the kids we are encouraging to hang-out at the library. They are not really bad kids, they just don't have a clue about the rest of the world around them. If they will talk back to an officer in uniform, what chance do we have. Even if I was home everyday, I don't think I could build a relationship with these kids, gain any kind of respect and get them to respect others. Can we build that kind of relationship with the kids who will hang out at the library - maybe, but it is going to take some time.

I also worry about setting the kids up for failure. In most cases, we don't have buildings which will allow for kids to hang-out and be loud, normal kids. They will be up against adults who want a more traditional library atmosphere. The adults will complain expecting us to control them. It's possible that if we hold their behaviour up against the patron code of conduct, there is little, if anything, they are doing that violates it. If they are, we have to change ourselves from the welcoming librarian to the bad shushing librarian constantly reminding them to be mindful of the other patrons and watch the noise level and language. How welcoming is that? Why would they want to be there under those conditions? How can we teach the kids situational behavior. If they come for a video game program they are allowed to behave one way, but on other occasions they can't.

So we are going to have to decide who we are going to take the heat from. Do we tell the grouchy old people that libraries have changed, get used to it, and then deal with their letters or do we welcome kids to hang-out and then keep nagging them? We have been "trained" about teen behavior, how they have the right to be here, how we want them here and even how to talk to them. The problem is, what we are told to say doesn't often work. We have to draw lines and be mean and most of us don't like being mean. If we don't draw lines early, things can escalate. We want to please people. We know what normal teen behavior is and want them, but the library-using public doesn't. We never figured out or have been trained in what to say to them (adults) or how to answer their letters and complaints which will come. Instead, YS staff are just told to fix the teen problem; do programs, bring them in, but make them behave. I don't think planned programs or little activities for them to do when they drop in are the answer. From what I know of teens and have seen, they mostly just want to hang out and talk and don't really want something to do and if they are doing things, they are likely to get involved which means being noisy. But programs do give us something to point to when confronted by others, and we can at least say they are here doing something. We spend time learning how to handle the problem teens, but no time in how to handle the older patrons who verbally berate us for not controlling them. How do we respond so when the complaints go up the administrative ladder, which they will, we are covered.

I don't know. This whole thing is a very frustrating issue for me. I haven't figured it out.