8 Facebook Pages You Should Follow

I’m stealing this idea from the Ten Facebook Pages Every Techie Should Follow post over on AllFacebook.

If you’re interested in the issues and ideas we discus here at Libraries and Transliteracy you’ll find these Facebook pages useful too

1. Libraries and Transliteracy – Obviously 🙂 Official page of this site

2. Transliteracy – page of the Transliteracy Research Group

3. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation In conjunction with the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program has released several key reports and papers over the last year including Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age and A Sensible Approach to Universal Broadband

4. Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy Official page of the report mentioned in number 3, it “aims to maximize the availability and flow of credible local information; to enhance access and capacity to use new tools of knowledge and exchange; and to encourage people to engage with information and each other.”

5. ALA OITP – ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) works to ensure a library voice in information policy debates and to promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public.  You don’t have to be a member of ALA to be fan of their divisions or pages on Facebook. OITP regularly posts about broadband, mobile access and other issues related to technology.

6. The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project – produces reports exploring the impact of the internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life.

7. The New Media Consortium – The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international not-for-profit consortium of hundreds of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies.

8. Broadband for America – Brought to you by over 300 companies and organizations dedicated to expanding the discussion of BROADBAND for AMERICA.

What Is Transliteracy? An Introduction from Sue Thomas.

Listen to this 2:19 minute interview with Sue Thomas from last years Transliteracy conference (she mentions libraries at 1:13).

Some key points

• unifying literacy
• aggregation of knowledge and sharing of knowledge
• one is not better than the other they are simply different from each other

On Defining Transliteracy and Why Transliteracy Matters

I’d like to bring your attention to a post by Lane Wilkinson. Most of the post is about the definition of the word transliteracy and if we need to redefine it.  Lane takes an indepth look at the the why, how and need of defining or redefining including covering extensional and intensional definitions, concluding in part

… there is nothing yet to be gained by specifying the precise necessary and sufficient conditions for being an instance of transliteracy. Why? Well, transliteracy is in its infancy, and part of the fun in tracking its development is that there really is no consensus about what, exactly, ‘transliteracy’ means.

The whole post is worth a read if you are interested in the definition of transliteacy. Even if you are comfortable with the term, you may want to pay attention to his final paragraph where he raises the question: “One last thing…why should librarians be involved in transliteracy?”

It’s simple, really. Libraries are on the front lines of traditional literacy initiatives. But, libraries are also the vanguard for information literacy and digital literacy. In fact, if you can call it a type of literacy, you’ll probably find it in a library. This is important because it follows that libraries should be the natural proving grounds for exemplary instances of transliteracy. As a reference and instruction librarian, I see potential transliteracy every day. Whether it’s the cognitive code-switching when students effortlessly glide between touch-screens, keyboards, and pencils, or it’s the cognitive effects of 140-character constraints, or it’s the preference for digital access over print, or any other activity I see daily in the library, I can tell that that something is happening to our conception of literacy. Some sort of information related cognitive process is very well-developed in some patrons, and not so well developed in others. I can’t give a precise definition yet, but I can point to similarities, and, for the moment, that is how we should be approaching ‘transliteracy’. Librarians are perfectly situated to contribute to the extension of ‘transliteracy’ and, moreover, once a sufficient understanding of exemplary cases is reached, librarians are perfectly situated to explain why transliteracy matters.

I really like what Lane has to say, my only point of contention would be that since we are seeing transliteracy everyday, and “libraries should be the natural proving grounds for exemplary instances of transliteracy” we should not wait to explain why transliteracy matters.  Transliteracy matters because it reflects the demonstrated change in the needs of our communities whether that community is school, public, academic or special library.

The Role of Libraries in a Transliterate World: New York Metropolitan Library Council

Today I had the honor of presenting transliteracy to the New York Metropolitan Library Council. Below are my slides and resources links.

Resources:

• Older Adults and Social Media – Pew Internet and American Life Project
• How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords
• Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action
• LITERACY for the 21st Century An Overview & Orientation Guide To Media Literacy Education
• Transliteracy: Crossing Divides
• Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age
• Googling is good for the ageing brain
• Living in the future

Barrington Area Library Media Lab and Technology Classes

A couple of weeks ago I put a call out on Twitter and Facebook asking for examples of library policies, programs, events, services etc that support translitearcy. One of the people who emailed me was Ryann Uden from the Barrington Area Library in Illonios. Ryann said:

Here at the Barrington Area Library in Illinois, we are focusing more attention on the transliteracy needs of our patrons. We are days away from opening a digital media lab (similar to one in Skokie, IL) and one of the librarians in our youth services department has been active in creating unique technology programs for kids.

Here is a link to the current and past classes created and presented by Amanda and Mike.  http://balibrary.org/books/YSTech

You can see on the website all the classes they’ve done in the past including watching videos and listening to recordings they created in classes. Great examples! I’m impressed.

Then this week she emailed me to let me know there Media Lab is open. Check out the video they made to promote it and all the software they have

software

• Mac OS X
• iLife 11: iMovie, iPhoto, Garage Band, iDVD
• Final Cut Pro
• Aperture 3
• iWork 2009: Pages, Numbers, Keynote
• Logic Studio
• Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium: Photoshop CS5 Extended, Illustrator CS5,InDesign CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5, Flash Professional CS5, Dreamweaver CS5,Fireworks CS5, Acrobat 9 Pro, Adobe Bridge CS5, Adobe Device Central CS5
• Microsoft Office for Mac

hardware and peripherals

• MacPro with dual 24” LED flat panel monitors
• Wacom Bamboo Pen and Tablet
• Blue Yeti Professional Mic
• M-Audio Oxygen 61 USB Keyboard
• M-Audio Fast Track USB Audio Interface
• Canopus A/D Converter
• Canon Canoscan 8800 Film and Negative Scanner
• Bose Companion 2 Multimedia Speakers
• Sony Home Style Headphones
• Dynex Memory Card Reader

equipment available for one week check-out

• LaCie Rugged 500 GB Hard Drive
• Canon Powershot SD1300 IS
• Flip Video UltraHD Camcorder
• Sony Lightweight Full Size Tripod
• Flip Video Tripod

Supporting transliteracy? Tell us how!