Reflective Journal (801)

Running Head: REFLECTIVE JOURNAL 1

Reflective Journal

Amy Taylor

Emporia State University


August 28, 2009: What kind of learner am I prepared to be?

I am prepared to be an engaged and involved learner. Someone who commits to

producing the best possible, reflects on her work and corrects or enhances the final outcome. I

am prepared to participate in discussions, offering my honest point of view in a professional

manner. Also, I would like to help my classmates when I can. When reflecting on my past

educational experiences, including my work as a teacher and librarian, I would have to say that I

enjoy the process of learning. One of my passions has been professional development. In fact,

I am fairly certain that that passion has brought me to this career. Earning my graduate degree

in Instructional Technology made me aware of the impact I can have in my school and

community thru providing professional development for my fellow teachers. I took my training

from that program and put it to use in a new job as a Instructional Technology Specialist for my

district. In that position I worked quite a bit with librarians and began missing my work with

students. I noticed that librarians had the best of both worlds, they provided professional

development for staff and worked with students. I made the switch to librarian five years ago

and do not regret it. When people ask about my job, I say it's the best job in a school.

One of my favorite things about being a librarian is the constant learning that takes

place. Every day I feel as though I am learning new ideas, technology, skills, etc. I subscribe to

three listservs and go through the posts at some point each day. While reading them I tend to

look more at the practical applications of things and get very excited when I find something that

I can use in our library.

This is the type of learner I am prepared to be. Someone who is hungry for more.


August 29, 2009: Consider Mason’s “coherent picture of an information professional.”

How does this picture compare with how you see the profession?:

“A coherent picture of information professional emerges. Judgment is among his

[sic] strongest hallmarks. He also possesses scientific and scholarly knowledge about

a subject domain of interest to his clients, and he knows about the sources and

characteristics of that knowledge. He must empathize with his clients by

understanding their needs and psychological states. He is a master of the technology

and methods necessary to satisfy information needs. This knowledge is essentially

rational, technical knowledge. It alone, however, is not enough. Because the

situations he must cope with are unique, uncertain, equivocal, and conflictual, an

information professional must reach beyond his base of technical knowledge and

draw upon his experience and wisdom in order to make judgments of application.

This includes critical ethical judgments as well. All of this he does in the service of

his clients and of the society in which he lives” (pp. 136-7).

I would agree with the author’s note regarding the picture of information professionals.

However, I think part of the picture is missing or glossed over. Mason (1990) speaks to the

breadth and depth of knowledge an information professional should possess but not to the use

of that knowledge beyond the very broad “does in the service of his clients and society”(p. 137)

I believe there are certain duties an informational professional must complete to be considered

a professional. These duties relate back to the second characteristic of a professional, “must

use knowledge in the service of others” (122), as noted by Mason (1990). An information


professional’s obligation to serve others lies in their duty to (if necessary) help their client

determine what information they need, provide them access to that information, teach them

how to judge the information and train them to do those things for themselves in the future.

Obviously, not all clients will need all the services discussed above; the types of services

provided will certainly depend on the type of client and their specific needs.

The amount of information available to people is growing substantially every day. It is

our job as information professionals to help people navigate this information beyond simply

providing it for them. This is our service to others. In thinking about your analogy earlier today

about not giving people food but teaching them to fish, I see information professional as

providing both the food and the skill of fishing. We provide the information but along the way

teach our client “how to” for themselves.

I realize that my reaction to Mason’s “coherent picture of an information professional”

focuses on the role of librarians but I think it is also applicable to other information

professionals. I also realize that some in our profession see our role as simply providing the

information. I would argue that we live in a very information complex world today and if we

allow people to become complacent in terms of finding, judging, and understanding

information we are doing our communities a huge disservice. Our clients have to be able to

“do” some of this on their own or we become the controllers of the information they get.

August 31, 2009: Learning Styles

Lately I have read a lot about learning styles and what determines ones learning style. Is

it culture as suggested by James Anderson (1998) in Cognitive Styles and Multicultural


Populations? Or is it personality as described by Jannica Heinstrom (2000) in The Impact of

Personality and Approaches to Learning on Information Behavior? Although I found interesting

points in both articles, I would argue that it's so much more complex than a single indicator. A

persons DNA, culture, parenting, socioeconomic status, personality, friendships and a multitude

of other things influence the type of learner they are. I would also argue that a person's

learning style changes over time, as all aspects of their lives change over time.

That being said, I still think learning styles are important. As educators we need to be

open to all learning styles and attempt to meet all student's needs though a diversity of

instruction. A very long time ago I got an email comparing dentistry to teaching. It said

something like "give a dentist a room with 30 patients, all with varying degrees of dental needs,

and a hour to meet them all" this is how I see a classroom full of students. Each day they come

to class and we try to meet their needs for that day. However, all their needs are different

therefore the same approach will not work for every student. As a practical matter, I

understand that we cannot determine every student’s learning style every year and then

provide a different type of instruction for each; there are too many students and not enough

time. However, I do think we can differentiate as much as possible and provide interventions

when necessary. It is for this reason that I strongly believe in frequent checks for

understanding and keeping an open mind about what kind of learner each student could be.

I think trying to link learning styles to specific cultures or personality types is somewhat

dangerous. What exactly is the point? Are we trying to find a way to label students with a

quick glance? We have to open to the concept that not all students learn the same way and

that there isn't a magic formula for labeling them.


September 5, 2009: Myers-Briggs

We've been doing a lot with Myers-Briggs in both classes. Although I know there are

better more comprehensive tests for Myers-Briggs I felt the three I took online were pretty

much on target. I do believe that a person's personality can change over time but I also believe

that some parts of personality are innate and stick with us. For each person I am sure the

pieces that stick and the pieces that change are different. For example, I am an I, I have always

been an I and that is never really going to change. However, I have grown to acknowledge and

accept this part of my personality and even fight against it when necessary. I would imagine

there are people who were an I or an E and at some point in their lives, through some set of

circumstances, evolved into the other.

There were two things I kept thinking about while reading the articles on MBTI and

taking the tests. First, how would other people score me? Our perceptions are our reality. So

for me the INTJ or INFJ score makes sense. But for some people who know me they do not.

Their perceptions of me are different than the MBTI score suggests. So, which is correct? Am I

really INT (sometime F) J or I am as other people perceive me? Second, is there a connection

between someone's MBTI score and the type of facebook user they are? While studying the

Myers-Briggs information I also read an article from CNN.com

(http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/20/annoying.facebook.updaters/index.html) by

Brandon Griggs (2009) called The 12 most annoying types of Facebookers. I found myself

wondering, does our MBTI carry over to online interactions? I'm going to guess - yes. But I'm

really not sure. By the way I'm a lurker, the introvert in me - I guess.


The Lurker. The Peeping Toms of Facebook, these voyeurs are too cautious, or maybe

too lazy, to update their status or write on your wall. But once in a while, you'll be

talking to them and they'll mention something you posted, so you know they're on your

page, hiding in the shadows. It's just a little creepy. (Griggs, 2009, p. 14)

And just to clarify, I’m too cautious and I do update my wall occasionally.

September 10, 2009: Information Seeking

Last night I read Chapter 6 of Cases book Looking for information: A Survey of research

on information seeking, needs and behavior for li802. Today I find myself watching our

students as they come in looking for information. Some are just trying to figure out how to

format their papers correctly while others are looking for information to help them with a

project. It all seems very cyclical. As they find the necessary information they develop new

questions which lead to looking for more information. This is why I liked Wilson's second

model. As I said in our blackboard discussion, I believe information seeking is never

ending. Not only for the reason I mentioned previously but also because you

may begin your information search with a specific outcome in mind and you

may come to successful conclusion, believing to be done with the

information you have found. However, that information is never really gone

from you and may become needed again in the future. Therefore, I see

information seeking as a cycle which doesn’t end.

I also liked the explanation of “activating mechanisms” as motivators in

regard to “what extent” one seeks information. In the school library we

frequently see this with students. The extent or effort a student gives is


determined not only do their own personalities and values but also by what

the instructor asks of them. This is why I feel writing good assignments is so

critical. A teacher is more likely to get to what they want from a student in

terms of effort and final product if they have written a good assignment.

The other thing I thought about as I reflected on information seeking

were my own methods for finding new information. I have found that I use

both informal and formal sources of information regularly. I rely heavily on

listservs for finding new information in the field of school libraries, I also

spend a great deal of time thumbing thru Booklist and browsing Titlewave

and Amazon for new young adult books. I also found that I spend a

considerable amount of time investigating potential lessons, books,

technologies, etc. after reading about them initially. Whenever I find

something that has potential I put it in a file or bookmark it in my delicious

account. Often times this information doesn't get used right away but I

almost always come back to it. For example, I bookmarked a website last

year that could change the look and feel of websites based on the users

preferences. I saw it as a potential site to share with our students and to

possibly demonstrate during a presentation at our state convention. I spent

some time looking into the site and determined that it just wasn't a good fit

for our students or our presentation. As soon as I picked up the Severson

book and saw the pages I thought of this site. Because the look and feel of

the Severson book made me feel comfortable and relaxed and I began

thinking that part of the information process must lie in the way the


information is presented. That made me think of this website. Therefore my

information seeking never really ended when I decided not to use the site

last year because now I see new prospects for this information.

September 10, 2009: Ethics

I find this topic very interesting. First, while reading the information regarding ALA's

core value statements I really began thinking about the selection of material and the ethics

behind our choices. I work in a pretty conservative community and could easily censor

controversial books by not selecting them in the first place. Fortunately, I work with another

librarian and we are able to keep each other in check. For example, last year I read the book

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott. It was a very compelling read but also a very difficult one

about a girl who was abducted and held captive by a molester for several years. Having three

daughters of my own, one of which is only one year younger than the girl in the story when she

was abducted, made this an extremely hard book for me to finish. I put it down more than

once. When I finished, I had some concerns about putting it on our shelves. I just didn't see the

purpose in reading something so horrible and was concerned about a student picking this up

without any prior knowledge of what was in the book (the jacket doesn't really lay it all out

there.) So I took it to my co-hort and asked her to read it. We had a long discussion and

resolved that although grotesque it was something that happens all too often in our society and

our students may want some understanding of these situations. We decided to leave it in the

collection but to talk to students about its mature nature when they checked it out. I question

whether or not this is even ethical but keeping mind that in schools we act in loco parentis we


felt it necessary to discuss the grave circumstances in the novel. Now that the Jaycee Dugard

case has hit the news I'm so glad we decided to leave it in our collection. Ironically enough,

recently this book has been the topic of some debate on state listserv.

September 19, 2009: WHAT’S BEING SAID ABOUT IT?

Many librarians on the listserv were questioning whether it is appropriate for

their collections. There was a lot of discussion with librarians weighing in on

both sides. Some people felt the book was too graphic and depressing for teens

and others felt students deserved the opportunity to decide for themselves. I

would say the numbers of pro and con responses were split right down the

middle.

Another area where I have been pondering the ethics of my book choices and opinions

is in my role on the Gateway Committee, the selection committee for the young adult book

award for Missouri. It is my first year serving on the committee and I'm currently reading the

twenty-six finalist to help narrow the list to fifteen. I have recently read two books that have

made me pause before rating them. One was a book in which one of the main characters was

homosexual. Although, I do not have issues with this I know a lot of our students do. Also, I

was concerned because I didn't feel the portrayal of this character's life was truly

representative of what a gay teen goes through. However, I really liked the book. It was laugh

out loud funny and had a nice message. The other book was also very good but it had a lot of

sex (off page) and underage drinking. Much YA literature deals with sex and drinking, the issue

with this book was that those things were not addressed. There were no consequences for


having done either. Not even hangovers. On the other hand the book did deal with other

issues very nicely. In the end I rated the each book like I had rated any other book and figured

I'd let the chips fall where they may. Who I am to say what is truly representative of a gay

teen's life or that there are always consequences for underage drinking? Would I have broken

a core value for librarians had I rated these books lower because of concerns about controversy

or in an attempt to protect children?

Also, I must say I am really enjoying the Severson book. The look and feel of the book is

very inviting. However, I am also extremely interested in the topic. Two years ago we had

several instances of students cheating and plagiarizing. The most alarming thing about this was

the lack of parental support we were getting when attempting to discipline the students

involved. We heard many statements like "He/She didn't know copying from a website was

plagiarism." So last year our library began a campaign to improve the academic honesty of our

students. Remarkably the students were fairly open in our discussions and often times would

say that it didn't really hurt anybody and was okay as long as you didn't get caught. When we

talked about feelings of guilt and self-respect we even got some eye rolling. I felt like

Severson's first chapter spoke to the problems we seem to have with some of our students and

unfortunately their parents.

September 12, 2009: The Name of the Rose

I chose The Name of the Rose because I had seen bits and pieces of it on television but

never sat down to watch the whole thing. I was intrigued by the monks copying the

manuscripts and love a good murder mystery. However, the timing never worked out. But last


night the kids were at grandmas, so I made my husband sit with me to watch the whole thing,

beginning to end. I'm a little ashamed to admit that the murderer eluded me until he was

revealed. I kept thinking "Why does that book keep turning up? If the murderer wants to keep

it hidden, he should just bury it or burn it." Usually, I am much more on top of these things.

Nonetheless, I found the movie very interesting regarding libraries. It seems to me that

the Franciscans should have been put in charge of running the libraries. I found myself thinking

of the ALA core values discussions. The librarian in this film focused on only one of the ten

value domains, preservation. Below I have listed some of the core value domains and a

description of how the movie relates to them.

Access: In the movie the only two people granted access to the library was the librarian

and the head of the abbey.

Collaboration: There was no collaboration between the various dominations of monks

regarding the library. It was run by the librarian and the head of the abbey. They made

all decisions and wanted no other input.

Education: Absolutely not, the monks felt that education would lead sinful acts. That

knowledge was evil and that they should simply follow god's law as instructed by the

leaders of the abbey.

Preservation: The library was preserving books but for what purpose? I don't think they

even knew.

Privacy: When thinking about privacy in this movie I reminded of our discussion in class

regarding Foucault and the idea that social norms like a prison, providing little privacy.

Although the monastery wasn't built like a Panopticon, it certainly seemed like one.


People were constantly popping out from behind walls or in windows. Nothing they did

was private. Even when it appeared two characters were having a private conversation

the scene would open up to show someone lurking and listening in.

Public Gook: I do believe the monks were acting in a way they believed would serve the

public good. Even the monk who was killing those who were reading the lost

manuscript. He felt he was protecting the rest of the monks from their evil desires. I

obviously don't agree, but I think he felt that way.

September 16, 2009: Thinking about My Thinking

I’ve been thinking about my approach to my courses and wondering whether or not I

am being effective. I tend to focus on one class for about a week and then jump to the other.

Although I seem to be jumping back and forth I am finding that the readings from 801 and 802

compliment each other well and I am able to make connections between them. On the other

hand I sometimes feel as though I am behind. For example, I visit the discussion board for one

of the classes and find 50 new threads. Would I be better served to focus on one reading from

801 and one reading from 802 each week?

Regarding the online portion of my classes, I think I'm spending too much time worrying about

what I write for the discussion board before posting. For this reason my responses are not very

spontaneous and I am not entirely sure this creates good discussion. Although I know my

responses should possess good grammar and be on topic I don’t think I should spend as much

time as I do worrying about what I am going to write.

October 18, 2009: Information wants to be free


When Dr. Achleitner said “information wants to be free.”, I immediately envisioned a

scene from one of my favorite books, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. The Book Thief is about

a foster girl, Liesel, who lives just outside Munich during World War II. Although Liesel could

not read she developed a strange habit of stealing books. The first was The Gravediggers

Guide, which she stole from the cemetery after her brother’s burial. She did not understand

the compulsion and tried to stop, but couldn’t. Then she meets her foster father who teaches

her to read. While learning she becomes more daring in her thefts. The specific scene I flashed

to during class was the scene of a book burning. Liesel had witnessed a book burning at the

center of her town and was loitering around the remnants of the fire when she saw one book

that was still intact under what was left of the fire. She did a quick scan of the remaining crowd

and when she was confident no one was watching she snatched the book. Unfortunately,

someone was watching. To me this is a perfect example of information wanting to be free. It

is an example of one of the biggest government sponsored destructions of information and

knowledge and yet information found its way into the hands of young illiterate girl.

Throughout history there are many examples of totalitarian governments taking control

of information transfer and being quite successful spreading their ideology. Although their

intentions were evil, we could learn a lot by studying how they were able accomplish this feat.

We could possibly find new marketing techniques and especially learn how to protect ourselves

from it happening in our future.

October 22, 2009: ALA


I have been a member of ALA, AASL, MASL, GKCASL, and NEA for several years and yet I

have always felt as though we are on an island. That ALA and the other groups are trying their

best and not being heard. I believed to be true because I felt the decision and policy makers

were not listening. Although I still believe this is the case I can also see that the structures of

these organizations may be a part of the problem. While having this discussion I was thinking

of the Spokane moms (3 of them) who went to battle with the state of Washington over library

funding. So far they secured $4 million dollars in state funding for the 2008-2009 school year

and in March of this year they helped make media specialists and library materials an official

part of the state’s definition of a basic education. (Whelan, para. 1) A small grassroots

movement made a huge impact in Washington. Maybe this should be a model for future

movements.

The issue here is in how to organize such a movement. The Spokane moms are very

open about the impact this movement had on their lives. Essentially it took over their lives and

not many people are willing to allow that kind of intrusion in their lives. Also, I think it takes

people outside the profession to speak up on our behalf. Not that we should bow out of the

fight, but having people outside the profession speak out about the importance of libraries in

their lives it helps give credence to our cause. That being said, I think what they accomplished

is wonderful and should happen in every state. We just need a few hundred moms to take up

the cause.

Whelan, D. (2009, April 20). Washington Makes School Library History - 4/20/2009 - School

Library Journal. Retrieved October 22, 2009, from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com


October 5, 2009: Group Project

I have just begun working on my first group project. We have been asked to study

various information transfer models and apply them to a practical situation. My group has

chosen to apply Dervin’s Sense-Making Theory to student research and create a new research

model. So far we have looked at the Sense-Making theory and compared it to the types of

products students are asked to create when completing a research project. Using this information

we designed our own research model using a question/answer type of approach. A table showing

our approach is below.

Info Transfer Model Steps in Workflow Research Model

Work Product

From Dervin’s Sensemaking Metaphor (1992)

Topic (Situation / Gap) Title

Look for Question (Sense Making / Bridge / Outcome)

Note taking & Organizing/Outlining/Etc.

Ask Question( Situation - Gap)

Research Question

Look for Answer (Sense Making / Bridge / Outcome)


Answer Question (Situation - Gap)

Thesis

Look for Proof (Sense Making / Bridge / Outcome)


Write Detailed Answer w/ Proof (Final Outcome)

Final Product Draft & Begin Proofreading & Evaluations

Evaluation Evaluate Final Product and Process

So far I am finding communicating for the group project rather difficult. We were given

the assignment and about one hour to work as a group at our first weekend intensive. We used

this time to decide how we would apply the information seeking model and divided up the


tasks. I felt that this was a good use of our time but much of the brainstorming on our own or

via online chat and skype which was difficult. Due to the lack of fluid discussion our project is a

little disjointed. Hopefully we will have some time at our next face-to-face to iron out any

rough patches before presenting to the class.

November 22: Update -- We had two hours in our face-to-face to work on our project,

which helped immensely. I still felt a little unprepared for the presentation piece

because we did not get an opportunity to really talk about what each of us was going

say during our section. I almost think it would have been better to have only one of us

give the presentation but I am not sure how that would have impacted our grades. I am

happy with our final product and felt we worked well together as a group. See our final

research model below.

October 7, 2009: Look and Feel

I started to write about this earlier and tabled it due to writers block, but last night I was

reading Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles and saw yet another reference to “look

and feel.” I truly believe that the “look and feel” of a book, website, newspaper, etc greatly

impacts our opinions regarding it. For example, I immediately liked the Severson book, the font

and chapter length was very appealing to me. I didn’t feel overwhelmed and was relaxed while

reading it. Was I drawn to the Severson book not because of its content but because of its look

and feel? Interestingly this concept was brought up in the book later while referencing the

Microsoft/Apple case. Battle’s also brought up the concept when discussing eastern influence

on books during the middle ages. “The calligraphers and illustrators of Islam, by contrast, made

the book itself a thing of beauty, and collectors came to value the sumptuous look and feel of


books as much as the writing they conveyed.” (Battles, 2003 p.64) Battle’s goes on to tell the

story of a collector buying a book simply because of its appearance. Before a book can be read

it must be picked up by a reader and readers base much of their book choices on the

appearance of the book. This is also true of webpages. Browsing has become the preferred

method of most when reading on the web. If a webpage is difficult to read due to “look and

feel” a user will simply click out of the website regardless of the content quality. There is even

a website designed to help users adjust other websites to a particular users “look and feel”

wishes < http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability.> Therefore, “look and feel” is crucial to

the successful dissemination of information.

As librarians we should really consider “look and feel.” Especially when designing our

marketing material. We need our target audience in mind and make sure designing

promotional material they feel drawn to. I sometimes find this difficult in my job as a high

school librarian because I am not a teenager and am far enough removed not know what is

“cool” anymore. I think I will begin “screening” any promotional materials with our student

workers before going to press.

October 13, 2009: Meeting the Needs of our Customers

October 27, 2009: Cost Analysis

I think Machlup’s comments regarding benefit cost analysis is significant to libraries in

two ways. The first is in securing government funding. If what Machlup says about government

subsidies is true then libraries must present a very convincing benefit cost analysis. With the

proliferation of the internet I imagine this task has become even harder. For example, I

http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability


recently read about a public library system in Georgia that decided to change three branches to

computer labs. Due to budget shortfalls the library had to make some tough decisions

regarding what services they could offer. When weighing benefits and costs – is this the best

solution? The second is in regard to libraries making wise budgeting decisions. Some type of

benefit cost analysis should be done when making purchasing decision and should be reflected

in the selection policy. When faced with slim budgets we have to ask ourselves what

information/services can we provide that will give the most benefits at a reasonable cost.

Another part I especially liked in the article dealt with the “would be knower.” Machlup

(1979) said “They cannot know how important it might be for them because if they knew it they

would possess it. We cannot know what a piece of knowledge may be worth to us before we

know what it is.” (pg. 452) I think this is crucial concept for librarians to embrace. Many of our

patrons are the “would be knower.” Not knowing what services we can provide for them. Due

to the internet there is so much information available and not all of it is well researched and

non-biased. This is why librarians are so critical. We are akin to an information broker for the

average citizen. If our patrons do not know this about librarians they don’t utilize our services

to there fullest potential.

November 4, 2009: Evolving Librarian

I just received the September/October issue of the Journal of the American Association

of School Librarians. This particular issue is all about questions. As I thumbed through it I

began thinking about the various articles and chapters we’ve been asked to read recently.

Especially in regards to our evolving identity as librarians and to this question posed by Dr.


Perley, “In which direction does LIS education appear to be moving?” Based on this particular

issue I would say LIS education is definitely becoming more information-centered.

Although the entire issue focused on what we should be teaching our students and how

to better instruct students in developing information skills, one article really stood out. It was

written by Karen Brown of Dominican University and titled “Questions for the 21st-Century

Learner.” Brown opened the article by stating “The transformative potential of a new

technology is rarely detected when it first appears on the scene” (2009, pg. 25). I totally agree

with her statement and see this as a major hurdle when considering what the future of our

profession will be. How can we prepare for a future when we don’t fully understand the

potential of current technology and don’t even know what new technologies are around the

bend? This is why I believe it is crucial to be a visionary librarian, as discussed in the Holcomb

article. If we are to stay current and relevant we have to be looking ahead. However, we also

have to give our clients the skills needed to function is this new rapidly changing information

rich society. AASL developed a set of standards for the 21st-Century learner and tried to

address this by focusing on the critical thinking skills needed in the 21st Century rather than

specific technologies. I see this as a necessary focus not only in educating our youth but in

education our profession as well.

Google Wave

November 25, 2009: Update --

November 24, 2009: Library: An Unquiet History

November 29, 2009: Wrap Up
