iPalimpsest

In Putnam's The Prosperous Community, Social Capital and Public Life he writes,

Stocks of social capital, such as trust, norms, and networks, tend to be self-reinforcing and cumulative. Successful collaboration in one endeavor builds connections and trust- social assets that facilitate future collaboration in other, unrelated tasks.

I wonder the results of comparing the performance of 2-person teams given identical, creative tasks. Half the teams would work on the task continuously for an hour. The other half would talk about the task for 10 minutes, chat about whatever they wanted for 20 minutes, and then work for 30 minutes. Who would finish first? Which is more productive for different types of tasks?

Something that is repetitive and just takes time, I'd suspect, would do better with continuous work, like filling test tubes. But, I think co-writing a proposal would do better with the capital-building break. But maybe even filling test tubes would do better with the chatting break because the workers would feel more morale?

Also, how long does it take to build enough capital for the effects to be obvious? Like, is a twenty minute break enough?

Posted by kate at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From the NY Times today, A bill to legalize same-sex marriage just passed the State Assembly’s judiciary committee on a 16-5 vote, with the only nay votes being those of the committee’s five Republicans. It now goes to the rules committee, and from there, possibly, to a first-ever floor vote in the Assembly..

And, it looks like MA will get to keep same-sex marriage. What a good week!

Posted by kate at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In "The Class-Consciousness Raiser" from the NY Time Magazine, June 10, 2007, there's an article by Paul Tough about Ruby Payne, who offers trainings on understanding class differences. The article explains how she was inspired to do this work... "'The book said, Make a list of what you want in your life and ask the universe to bring it to you,' she told me. 'So I did. I wrote: 'I want a life without financial constraints. I want a life without institutional constraints. And I want to make a difference with children.' And it happened!'".

A few years ago at a strategic planning meeting the facilitator talked about how libraries' budgets aren't getting any bigger. She said- "The pot is never going to get any bigger, so you have to figure out how to do more with less." And then she reminded us that more people search google in a minute than visit our branches in a month... or some sort of equally upsetting statistic... I can't remember the exact number, only my ensuing sadness. I felt like I'd been told we only have three years left to live, and not any longer so better make use of that short time.

In our conflict management & negotiation class last night we split into partners to negotiate over a crate of oranges. We thought we were in a bidding war, and trying to figure out whether we could make do with only half the oranges, but then, after sharing some info, it turned out one of us needed the rind, and the other needed the pulp, but we were so focused on the size of the pot, we didn't stop to share information (and I'd even heard this dilemna solution before, and still didn't think to apply it last night-- it's unusually difficult to remember to share when you're competing against someone).

So, what I learned is that the pot is an artifically imposed limit that need not exist. And yes-- of course we should streamline library procedures, and yes- maybe there isn't money to justify offering programs that don't draw a crowd (especially since not drawing a crowd in NYC probably indicates you're not meeting the needs/desires of the community), and of course we need to work within budgets.

But please, public libraries. I implore you. Think outside the pot. Decide how you want to be, without thinking about the limits, and then figure out how to do it.

Posted by kate at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Steven Ovadia's Socially Driven Authority sounds just right. It's a really good phrase. In Digg.com and Socially Driven Authority, from Library Philosophy and Practice 2007, he writes:

For years, librarians have been able to distill the notion of authority, in its purest form, to two simple questions: Who said it? and Under whose auspices? Now, as more content migrates online, understanding authority is a more complex process. Social news sites, like Digg.com allow these traditional authority structures to be bypassed, creating a new, socially-driven authority, based upon an author expertise that is not necessarily recognized by academia. In order for researchers, especially student researchers, to evaluate these sources, they must learn to construct their own authority.

Teaching information literacy is changing in so many ways, I think because technology isn't just changing how we access information (monitor vs. paper is so 1995), but also how we organize communities around information, and how the recommendations from our communities matter so much (more than traditional authority recommendations).

I think also, information literacy concentrated on teaching how to evaluate and cite resources. Now, we have to talk with students (high school or college?) about being part of the conversation. Not that I have any answers... I've certainly wanted to delete my own posts, and I have changed flickr pics from public to private, but I think information literacy classes are a good place for students to really begin having this conversation in a formal way.

Like, right after the sex talk there needs to be a myspace talk. Or maybe it should be before the sex talk?

Posted by kate at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a petition ALA members can sign to Create a Member Initiative Group within the American Library Association on “Virtual Communities and Libraries.”

This is cool, I think. I don't know almost anything about ALA, and I think it's my new goal this year, to join more library associations. Now that I won't have to spend so much on tuition (though huge thanks! to NYU, NYPL and DC37 for all the tuition reimbursement and scholarships through the years, for both of us-- it's made a tremendous difference), I figure I can attend more conferences & join associations.

Posted by kate at 1:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)