Happy New Year!

Another President from Illinois, 1809-2009

Thanks to SAMMIE!

I appreciated the opportunity to attend the 2008 Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference at the Bloomington Sheraton. The view from my room on the 19th floor was great!

Thank you to the Minnesota West Faculty Development funds and SAMMIE for approving my requests for mileage, registration and lodging. This is the first year that I have applied for a SAMMIE scholarship. I really enjoyed the conference and learned much at the sessions that I attended.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar

After attending the Politics in Minnesota session at MLA on Friday, it was good to move to the next convention at the Northland Inn and hear Minnesota Amy Klobuchar speak on Friday night. I was happy for a few hours of shopping at Rosedale between conventions.

Thanks to Nancy B.Olsen for sharing the photo from Michelle Obama's campaign 2008 appearance at Macalester College in St. Paul. (FLICKR)

Last Friday MLA Session - Politics in Minnesota

After seeing slick PowerPoint presentations at all the other sessions that I attended, it was a refreshing change to see political operative Sarah Janecek walk in at 9:30 when her session was scheduled to begin, ask for coffee, and apply lipstick before beginning her presentation. I had watched her on ALMANAC on Friday nights on KTCA for years and seen her in a Minneapolis restaurant one Sunday, so was happy to have another opportunity to hear her even though we do not share the same political philosophy. While not focusing on libraries specifically, her presentation could be considered to continue the literacy theme with news or journalism literacy.

Sarah began by saying that she walked past the Bloomington room of the Sheraton where she was "camped out" with the Coleman campain on the recent November fourth election night. She gave her impressions of the current Coleman-Franken recount, and said that Dean Barkely, the Independence Party candidate, is the most influential Minnesota political figure in recent years who is not given the credit for what he has done to change the Minnesota political scene. Sarah Janeck sees Minnesota becoming "the next Florida" with a recount that is "absolutely wild".

The presenter considers herself a "tiny red speck" in a big blue area in Minneapolis. She has law and journalism degrees from the University of Minnesota. In 1993, she began Politics in Minnesota, with the new edition scheduled to appear in February. She spoke of the importance of blogs in journalism and politics today. Minnesota is on the "high end" of political blogs. To know who moves and who shakes, blogs are updated daily. With the decline of political coverage in Minneapolis and St. Paul newspapers, blogs play a more critical role.

After commenting briefly on the Minnesota political scene, Sarah had plenty of time for discussion with those attending. When someone asked about the ignored role of county commissioners in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties, Sarah said that the mainstream media ignores what is going on in counties. I mentioned the recent Jackson County commissioner race in my district where the incumbent lost over a current "hot issue". She asked how that was covered by the media.

Another interesting discussion was on the Minnesota climate of extremism that can elect Paul Wellstone as well as Michele Bachmann. Sarah also discussed the brilliance of Karl Rove in the Bush elections. She believes that the quality of the people serving is not as high as in the past, and that the salary should be tripled and the size of the Minnesota Legislature split. Sarah sees the current mainstream media as lazy.

Because of "selective reading", people do not see the big picture of what is happening in the world. When asked about the online MinnPost, Sarah Janecek responded that she does not see it lasting longer than six months, due to the problem with getting ads. She also does not see a good future for the StarTribune after the Senate recount.

While Sarah mentioned several times her appreciation of what librarians do, she did not seem to realize the vital role of public libraries in the current economic climate. I was glad that Bill DeJohn of MINITEX spoke several times to remind her how busy public libraries are - especially the computer use by those who do not own them at home. Sarah talked about funding for libraries and suggested that those in our group write OP-ED pieces to inform of our situation. When I watch Sarah Janecek on ALMANAC again, I will have a better understanding of her background and viewpoints.

Minnesota county map
Originally uploaded by mountainpath2001

First Friday Session at MLA 2008 at the Sheraton

100_2433
Originally uploaded by Daardi

Thanks to Daardi for the Flickr photo that I found from my alma mater.

4. WHAT DO COLLEGE STUDENTS LEARN IN HIGH SCHOOL ABOUT RESEARCH? - Kellian Clark, Minnesota State University - Mankato, Librarian.

Attending this session was appropriate as the Minnesota West librarians work at cooperation with area high schools. Pam Sukalski has been instrumental in this area while I am still working at continuing the earlier contacts established and carrying forward with more intense efforts.

SUMMARY

The presenter was dynamic in conveying her message to her audience with such a vital topic. At age 50, she realized that she had not visited high school libraries for many years. She appreciates Minnesota's education system after growing up in Wyoming, but had wanted to establish contact with current feeder schools for MSU - Mankato. Of the 12 schools she contacted, she only had responses from six. My question for her was concern with the other six as I wondered if they had qualified library media staff, or were just too busy to respond. In our area some schools have cut professional library media staff positions, but the ones that I am in contact with are from small, active libraries.

With so much data available on incoming college students, our presenter realized that in profiling the college student body, it is more important for librarians to know about the high school experiences of college freshmen than their ACT scores or nationalities. The literature standards state that students must be able to locate, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and use information collaboratively.

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

From a 2003 Minnesota study cited in an article by Ross Todd in the Winter 2007 issue (Learn Media), we learned that 63% of Minnesota schools with higher reading scores had full-time media specialists. In a 2003 School Library Journal article, we learned that 1/3 of book budgets for Minnesota library book budgets are from fundraising, and in some cases 100%! Since 2002, Minnesota schools lost an average of 29% per pupil on the amount spent for books. Other articles referred to in the presentation that I want to read are by Chris Lehmann in the July 2007 issue of School Library Journal and by Michael Gorman in American Libraries in October of 2005. In a Minnesota English Journal article available online, "Wait Until You Get to College", Cindy Olson and Anne O'Meara reported that high school students do more PowerPoint projects than research papers. Many students have limited English skills. There are "huge issues" with students being able to critically evaluate sources.

The presenter evaluated library websites of the 6 schools she visited, and found much library information available. Common on them were: LII, Refdesk, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, CIA World Factbook, and Citation Maker.

IMPRESSIONS FROM SCHOOL MEDIA CENTER VISITS

• Security is treated seriously (cannot just walk in a school)
• Busy places!
• Good (if dated!) reference collections (Encyclopedia of Bioethics)
• Fiction is actively sought and frequently circulates
• Similar concerns as college librarians
• Classroom use of technology is good
• Very service oriented - all about the students
• Budget cuts ("The book budget is the same as in 1982")
• Multitasking of staff - cataloging, reference, instuction, technology, EVERYTHING!
• Responsive - most media staff active in soliciting book requests from students
• Students producting movies and PowerPoint presentations more than writing papers
• Students have used databases
• Students have been required to cite
• Students have had access to reference books
• Students are familiar with Dewey system (not Library of Congress)
• Research problems are closely related to reading problems
• Students had problems finding, evaluating and using their sources WELL

CONCLUSIONS

1. Articulate familiar concepts (Databases, citing citations)
2. Introduce new concepts (Evaluation of all resources, controlled vocabulary)
3. Support high school libraries

APPLICATIONS FOR ME

1. Read the articles mentioned as well as the recent Chronicle of Higher Education one on the percentage of high school students being ready for college
2. Call more area media specialists rather than send email messages. In my experience from last spring, I had more responses from the area librarians that I already knew than those that I did not
3. Work with the other Minnesota West librarians to establish a plan to carry out goal of more contact with Minnesota West librarians (Use staff wiki)

OBSTACLES

The presenter has a great appreciation for school media personnel after realizing how much that they are expected to do. She admits that in her position she has one role - instruction, and does not need to do any cataloging or technology work. She contacts other MSU professional librarians for expertise in those areas. Attending the presention, helped to "fire up" the desire to work with high schools, but the time to do it and balance other roles is tricky.

New Guthrie Theater

New Guthrie Theater
Originally uploaded by alt text

Thanks to alt text for this great photo of the Guthrie. We only saw two plays at the first Guthrie Theater, but enjoyed our fourth one at the new one. After three sessions at the MLA conference on Thursday, I was ready to head downtown. This time we ate at the Guthrie rather than The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was a good time to celebrate the completion of the harvest with a special meal. I had the duck special which was very good. It had been a long time since I ate duck!

We enjoyed the movie, Shadowlands, (Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger) based on the life of C. S. Lewis, at an arts theatre next to the Arizona State University campus in Tempe years ago on the Saturday night before Easter when we spent spring break visiting Van 's family. Although the sheep and lovely English countryside scenes were not at the Guthrie, I think that I liked the play about as much as the movie. It was fun to be in the third row for a different perspective of the stage and actors. The movement of sets at the Guthrie is amazing. After seeing the Shadowlands movie, I read the C. S. Lewis book, A Grief Observed. Seeing the play after our one year of grief following the 2007 deaths of our mothers, was good timing. We looked at each other when Jack, (the C. S. Lewis character) talked about his mother dying when Jack was only eight years old. After Joy (wife of Jack), dies when her son Douglas was so young, I thought of how fortunate we were to have our mothers until they were 83 and 93 years old.

When Shadowlands ended, I thought about 1776, Third, and Little House on the Prairie, the other three productions we saw at the new Guthrie. I liked them all very much, but now would like to see another play on the thrust state where we saw 1776 after seeing the last three on the proscenium stage.

We enjoyed the twilight view of the new bridge from the Guthrie windows after seeing the collapsed mess of the old one when we saw 1776 in August of 2007 after Mom's death. Being the bridge collapse will always be associated with Mom's death in our memories, the new bridge is a great symbol of renewal and "Life Goes On."