Copyright Project Update

For my copyright project, I found a CD ROM that I had with a text book I used in an Educational Technology course as an undergrad at Lenoir-Rhyne that has all the information you would ever need to know about copyright law. The book is called Intel Teach to the Future. The CD ROM has all these different modules that will take you though how to use various software programs in the classroom. It's really a useful tool. One of the modules contained a PowerPoint presentation created by someone from the Institute of Technology who had researched the topic and created the presentation specifically for this program. She has all the information about fair use in there as well. I'm taking this information and condensing it into a brochure that I'm creating in Publisher. I'll be anxious to share what I learned tomorrow at dinner. I'm looking forward to class at Carrabbas. :)

Controversial Issues Project Finished

Our group finally finished our controversial issues project just in time for the online class meeting. I'll have to say, I really enjoyed working with my group members. They were all very responsible in getting their part of the project done. We all worked together nicely and I look forward to working with those girls again in the future. As you know, our project was on banned books due to sexual content. Noel did the historical research, I believe Leigh researched middle grades banned books, Veronica did elementary level, and I took high school. It was interesting to see how views and opinions had changed over the years. What was considered to be risque and obscene in the 1960s is only PG at worst today. It's kind of sad in a way, that the innocence of the country is lost. I learned though my research that people who fought for the freedom to read these banned books really went through a lot of shame and discrimination. Some teachers lost jobs, etc. I think there's a fine line that we need to walk when it comes to censoring and banning books. I'm middle of the road on most issues and this is no exceptions. We need to keep in mind what is age appropriate for our youth, especially when it comes to controversial issues like drugs, sex, gangs, violence, etc. However, we also need to give them the freedoms that we all share in this country. We cannot shelter our children forever, but we can protect them from reading things that are going to lead them down the wrong paths. I also believe that public libraries should have less censoring, of course, but enough so that I'm not afraid to bring my son inside. If they are going to have materials that are not suitable for children, they should have restrictions on who is allowed to check those materials out. Some may say that's the parents job, but I'm here to tell you that many parents today don't do their jobs. I just had a sixth grader tell me to day (11 years old) that he just recently saw the lastest horror movie, Saw 5. It's all blood and gore and murder and if you ask me it is not for children's eyes. He told me that his parents don't care and take him to all the new horror flicks. This proves my point: If their parents aren't going to look out for them, we have to. I can't have that on my conscience. I know that we have freedoms in this country and that's what makes this country great, but we need to protect our children at the same time. (Not to mention, it's not doing us any good to look at things that are obscene or violent or sexual in nature either. My preacher always says: "If you don't want your kids to see it, what business do you have watching it?")

Controversial Issues Project Class Meeting

Our class met 2 weeks ago to present our controversial issues projects. It was pretty interesting meeting online for the first time. We certainly had our share of glitches. It seemed like we spent the first hour saying, "can you hear me? I can't hear you. Can you hear me now?" I felt like I was in a verizon commercial. We did get to see one project on gang violence and the group really did a great job. I enjoyed their presentation very much. I was just a little disappointed because they were the only ones to present. The other class members were finished, but at least one person from every group couldn't get their sound or mics to work. It was frustrating to say the least. Even so, I do hope we can have more online classes in the future. I really enjoyed going to class from my home. It was a learning experience I enjoyed, even with all the problems we encountered. It's really amazing how technology can bring people together.

Weeding Project

I recently completed my weeding / replacement project and it took much more work than I thought it would. Librarians really have their work cut out for them. The weeding part is not really the difficult part, it's really just tedious and time consuming. However, the challenge lies in finding materials to replace the old ones with. It seems as though everyone has a different opinion on these new books sometimes. You kind of have to make the call based on the reviews, or at least that's what I relied heavily on. It was also a little disheartening; I felt like I made the wrong choices, because I had a difficult time finding the books that I chose as replacements in local public libraries. I tried, though, to pick books on similar topics (I chose the biography section so it wasn't that difficult). However, the question that was always lurking in the back of my mind was, "if this book wasn't circulated enough to be kept, is it really worth it to purchase another one on the same topic?" Also I wondered if that person who was the topic of the discarded book was historically significant enough to be kept in the library. It seems to me that librarians really need to be a jack of all trades because their job requires that they know a little about a lot of topics and subjects (or a lot about a lot). It is really a huge responsibility to keep the library up to date and to purchase the best materials to keep the patrons interested in coming back.