National Information Literacy Awareness Month

In the world of libraries Information Literacy is something librarians are continuously explaining, defining, defending, and advocating.  In defining it for fellow faculty and administrators we often start with the Association of College and Research Libraries definition.  For students we try to make it relevant in terms that anyone can easily understand… hands-on workshops, LibGuides, and YouTube vignettes abound.

My first full-time librarian job was back in 1998 at a small private liberal arts college.  They had just been through an accreditation review and knew this mysterious IL thing was important.  While dear Sister Anne had provided excellent library service for 40-some-odd years, it was decided a new librarian was needed to keep the library current.  And just to be sure they covered that IL thing, they gave me the title Librarian & Information Literacy Specialist.  I was busy.

I’ve seen IL show up in many places and in many ways over the years since then.  With Bucks County Community College since 2001, I’ve seen many players involved in ensuring IL was made part and parcel to everything we do: it is in our core competencies, it is in library instruction, we even have an Information Literacy Librarian who runs an Information Literacy Institute for faculty.

But a Presidential Proclamation?  Now that is just hands down totally awesome!  On October 1, 2009, President Barack Obama declared October 2009 to be National Information Literacy Awareness Month.  More than just job security, acknowledgment, a pat on the back, this declaration brings to the forefront something so integral and necessary to making sense of this information age… and finally may end those casual comments from well meaning persons who, upon learning my vocation, say something along the lines of ‘you must read a lot.’   Uh.  Yeah.

This is a happy month for librarians and anyone involved in the world of information literacy.

There is a movement

I am presently steeped in the Omnivore’s Dilemma.  Part 1, Industrial Corn, is as compelling and enraging as all the information I already have on industrial food—the unjust, inhumane, and nearly absolute destruction of our planet through capricious, unscrupulous, calculated big fat American business, supported by our government, or, dare I say, military industrial complex to borrow from George Naylor.

And now, beginning Part 2 Pastoral Grass, I feel a deep sense of restoration—I’ve only begun the first chapter in this section.  I think I already know the problem well enough.  I think I know some of the solutions as well.  So it is very contenting to begin this section.

And so I get poking around online this morning and learn of two films on the subject, and I’m encouraged.  I must find some screenings.

Fresh (http://www.freshthemovie.com/)
and
Food, Inc (http://www.foodincmovie.com/)

Both of the above movies include Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface Farms—described by Pollan in Part 2 of Omnivore’s Dilemma, Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons, and more.

These films are part of the growing movement, the taking back of our food and our lives from the machine.

I plan to highlight this topic more this Fall semester in my INTG course.  I got one group turned on to it last semester.  For their Group Advocacy Project, they volunteered time at Silver Lake Nature Center (http://www.silverlakenaturecenter.org/) to restore the community garden plots.  They researched the issues of food, the food industry, and alternatives, and presented basic facts in a brochure for local residents.  Before the plots were ready for planting, all had been subscribed—REAL CHANGE through REAL ADVOCACY.

There is a movement.

Integrating Knowledge – The Art and Science of Nature

Bucks County Community College is home to a team-taught, writing intensive program called Integration of Knowledge (INTG).  Content for these courses varies by instructors.  We conduct a course called “Art of Science and Nature.”  It is the aim of this course to help students foster a sense of caring for the natural world around them (biophilia), to develop observation skills, to both draw and write about nature, and to advocate for the natural world in a meaningful way.  Together with my teaching partners, Caryn Babaian and Marian Colello, I have been teaching this course for several years.

Our course is taught as a “Hybrid” section, meaning we do not gather weekly in the classroom.  Rather, we gather a few times throughout the semester for orientation, lessons, progress reporting, and a final poster session where students share what they did in their group advocacy project.  The rest of the time is spent working on individual assignments or working on the group project.  We utilize the college’s learning management system to facilitate weekly discussions, collect written essays, and hold regular communication with one another.

The Lost Language of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner serves as our text for the course.  Discussion is utilized in this course to tie text material with student’s everyday understandings and beliefs about the environment and Biophilia.  This text was selected to encourage thought and open discussion.  Each chapter requires students to not only read opinions concerning the environment, but also to consider and respond, through thoughtful discussion, to serious environmental pollution challenges that our world is experiencing.

INTG classes require students to work in groups.  Our Group Advocacy Project has been designed to incorporate service learning while focusing on environmental challenges.  Students have the opportunity to determine what topic they would like to advocate for, and then strive during the semester to gather background information, consider the challenge and design an advocacy project that impacts issues of pollution, animal abuse, restoration and reconnection through education.

Through experience essays, students must write about observations from various ‘experiences’ as well as explore some analysis from varying points of view—cultural, social, and scientific in particular, as well as spiritual, emotional, and other viewpoints.  Sometimes our experiences may cause a “wound” within us when we visit polluted places, damaged places, or institutions such as overcrowded animal shelters.  Other experience may fill us with a sense of wonder about the natural world when we visit forests, preserves, or other natural places.  Some papers are based entirely on the exercises found in Buhner’s book; all papers are designed to focus student efforts on a particular experience.

A nature journal requires students to develop visual literacy.  Exercises help students both observe and draw what they see.  Students are not evaluated or critiqued for their artistic abilities.  Rather, it is the aim of the visual literacy sketchbook to open the mind of the student to a deeper level of observation of the world around them.  By putting pencil to paper it forces you to view what it is you are drawing in a new way.

I think our particular INTG course is very successful.  Students especially like the Group Advocacy Project because, unlike other group projects where the goal is to create a paper or presentation on some topic, this project has students out in the world doing something that they feel makes a difference.  This can pay huge dividends.  Students feel proud of their work and it’s something they can carry on if they desire.  Further, successful projects generate artifacts in the form of feedback from the community including letters from college administrators, members of congress, and the community at large.  These artifacts, along with the individual student work, are hallmarks of the success of this course.  I think it is very evident that by the end of the course the students have fostered a better sense of biophilia and an appreciation and respect for the world around them.

While it’s not possible to completely sum up student response to the course, I leave you with some student comments from the end of the Spring semester.

• At first, I thought this class was going to just be another ordinary class, but once I started reading the text and participating in the discussions…I knew it was much more. The experience essays and helped me see myself, as myself, flowing through time. It even helped me reach back to my inner child that has never died. That alone made this class worth the time.
• This class has really been eye-opening to both the outside world, and the ideas I have and have newly formed.  Working as a group has given great perspective into the thoughts and feelings others have about the relationship between humans and nature.
• I think this course was really interesting.  The weekly discussions really brought a lot of thoughts to mind that people don’t ordinarily think about.  The group advocacy project had the same effect.  We had to think of something to advocate for, and once researching, I really learned a lot of new things.  I didn’t quite understand the extent of the problem before the start of this project.  Being able to see what all the other groups did, and learn about their causes was great too.
• I liked this class very much:). I think it made me feel differently about nature and environment in which I’m living. I enjoyed doing group project, because gathering together outside of school, and meeting almost every week was amazing… Our group was the best!
• I would first like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this class.  The weekly discussions were rather interesting and insightful.  The experience essays and the sketchbook allowed us all to take a step outside of the box and look at things differently.  And this group advocacy project really taught us how to take charge of an issue.  I for one enjoyed working to make a change in the community; it was really interesting to see how people responded to our task.
• This class taught me a variety of lessons. The most important lesson I believe was the importance of nature and the environment. I no longer take those things for granted and have learned a greater appreciation for nature.

SNRG 2009

Last week I attended SNRG 2009 out at Penn State.  SNRG (which is supposed to be said “Synergy” but there is a rather growing number of folks who prefer “snerg”) is the SirsiDynix Northeast Regional Users Group–now that’s a special interest group.  Basically a bunch of librarians and library IT people attending sessions around a common Integrated Library System.

Penn State Library staff were excellent hosts.  My family came along which provided our nearly-2-year-old son an opportunity for an excursion.  He rather enjoyed the mountains of pillows in the hotel room, and most especially, the hotel pool.  He is such a good sport.  One of the primary highlights was Penn State’s own creamery and the fresh made ice cream.  In all it was a good trip.

At BCCC we are running Unicorn GL3.1 on a Sun Solaris box.  Our server is old and we just got a new one.  Trish, my partner in crime over in IT, will be installing the new server this month.  We hope to keep the old one limping along as a test server.  After the new server is up and running we will upgrade to GL3.2.  From there we hope to implement some cleaver scripting (as demonstrated by the Penn State folks at SNRG) to allow for user authentication via our BCCC network into the My Account features of the system.  Initially we thought we would see what the LDAP capabilities are on GL3.2 but the scripting option (which will pickup authentication credentials already in use) seems to be the better option.  We’ll see.

I always say, “what’s the worst we can do, break it?”

Of course I sort of ate those words this time last year what I crashed the server–it lost the entire OS–when attempting to reboot after adjusting settings… but still.

Flickr slide show of SNRG09.

Taking Back our World

In recent years I have been reading a lot books and viewing a number of documentaries that address critical issues affecting our world–the environment and the people living in it.  I’m struck first by Rachel Carson’s seminal environmental work Silent Spring (published in 1962) which exposed, for the first time, the true dangers posed by chemical pesticides and herbicides.  Poisons, like DDT, dieldrin, and lindane, all of which were being marketed and sold to farmers, communities and individuals to treat pests and unwanted weeds.  The trouble is that the powerful companies producing this stuff, while so quick to tell us of the supposed beneficial properties of these chemicals, never stopped to tell us of the potential risks.  No.  I doubt they wanted that known.  Carson’s book changed the world.  She, of course, was made the target of a campaign which aimed to dismiss the “theory” of the “balance of nature,” to discredit her research, and to keep the public safe from her toxic words.  In fact, the chemical companies’ response to her work backfired and the direct result of her work was the creation of legislation to protect the environment and ban or limit the use of certain toxic chemicals.  Carson challenged a very powerful sector of our society, one so routed in exploiting the capitalist system.  She challenged the hubris of the scientists who created the chemicals as well as the unscrupulous economy that sold it.  Her work is still important to us today.

And why?  Because the world is far more toxic and far more sucked up in exploitation than ever before.

OK.  Here’s a list of works I’ve recently read or watched that show we’ve still got a long way to go before we achieve an equitable, just, and sustainable world:

• Buhner, Stephen Harrod. The lost language of plants : the ecological importance of plant medicines to life on earth.  Chelsea Green Pub., 2002.  (exposes the dangers of pharmaceuticals to our health and the environment; advocates the benefits of herbal medicines)
• Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal, vegetable, miracle : a year of food life. HarperCollins Publishers, 2007. (exposes the true costs of our food system, of eating out-of-season, of transportation of food; advocates the benefits of eating locally and producing your own)
• Sicko. Directed, written by Michael Moore ; produced by Meghan O’Hara, Michael Moore. The Weinstein Company, 2007. – (exposes injustices of the US’s for-profit health system; presents social healthcare systems in place across the world)
• Super size me. Written and directed by Morgan Spurlock. New York : Hart Sharp Video, 2004. (exposes the health dangers of fast food and the advertising machine that keeps it running; discusses the benefits of purging fast food)
• Gore, Albert, An inconvenient truth : a global warning. Paramount Classics and Participant Productions, 2006. (exposes the true costs of our use of oil and details the adverse environmental changes that have resulted; advocates ways to reduce usage)
• A Sense Of Wonder two interviews with Rachel Carson. Written by Kaiulani Lee. Sense of Wonder Productions, 2008. (presents biography of Rachel Carson, exposes dangers of chemicals, advocates continued change)
• Consuming kids : the commercialization of childhood. Written & directed by Adriana Barbaro & Jeremy Earp. Northampton, Mass. : Media Education Foundation, 2008. (exposes exploitation of children as a consumer group, advertising targeted to children, changes in US laws stripping FCC and FTC of powers to regulate; advocates less consumerism, promotes childhood imagination)
• The story of stuff. Written by Annie Leonard. Free Range Studios, 2007. (exposes the unsustainability of consumerism; advocates reducing consumption and waste)
• Smoking teeth=poison gas. International Academy of Oral Medicine & Toxicology, 2005. (exposes the dangers of mercury—a neurotoxin—in amalgam tooth fillings; advocates banning them)
• Poisoned horses. Written by Cathy Justus; Wayne Justus; Lennart Krook; J William Hirzy. International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology, 2008. (exposes the lack of benefits to tooth health and the toxic properties of adding fluoride to water; advocates banning the practice).
• Plus a host of research into these and other topics, including childhood vaccines, as well as research into other ways of doing things and of ways to get better in touch with the environment and one another.

In conversation, indeed in this post, I sound to some like a nut.  But I ask you, why not challenge the system—the socially accepted norm?  Why follow the path of least resistance?  Why support the system?  The system needs consumers, sure, but it doesn’t need thinking people—you.  So why support it?

The system itself is supported by experts (people with PhDs, MDs, MBAs, etc.) who study everything from planned and perceived obsolescence to human psychology in order to suck you in, exploit you, and make a fat, if unethical, profit.  The system continuously and purposefully trashes the planet, passes the true costs on to others, and destroys lives.  It is a system of destruction overdrive.  While today there is much talk today of the “economic crisis” and I submit that we do not have an economic crisis.  What we have is an economic meltdown as a result of an ethical, moral, and spiritual crisis.

Why continue to suck down the products of a sick system and tell me I’m weird to suggest diet soda is poison, that I’m a fanatic because I avoid high fructose corn syrup, that I’m somehow abnormal because I don’t watch television, that I’m anti-social because I want to home-school my child, that I’m socialist because I think for-profit healthcare is inhumane, that I’m endangering society because I refuse vaccines for my child, that I’m conceited because I buy locally produced organic milk in reusable glass bottles, that I’m paranoid because I don’t buy processed food or food with artificial preservatives or eat at fast food restaurants, that I’m a beatnik because I raise chickens, that I’m the social radical or the ultraconservative, that I just don’t fit so shut up please.

And yet, there is a growing movement.  A burgeoning movement of people who reject the system, who want to change the way they live in order to live happier, healthier lives, and hope also to change others through advocacy.

Some of the above films in particular have been viewed among groups of likeminded individuals.  Discussions have been held among perfect strangers with whom an instant kindred spirit was felt.  Last night, for example, Jenn Reidy, hosted—via Brave New Theaters—a screening in her home of Consuming Kids.  It is so good to find networks of support.  So I thank you Jenn and those who attended last night.  Thanks for you conversation and fellowship.

There is much work to be done.  There are many conversations to have.  One way in which I will contribute is to create a bibliography/videography of resources here in this web log (under the Nature page) to be a growing resource.

Speak up for yourself, your fellow man, and your planet!