social media research assistantships (2)

Are you a USF student? Are you social media savvy? Do you want to use your social media skills to reach a wide audience?

We are looking for 2 paid summer undergraduate research assistants to broaden participation in The September Project, a grassroots effort to encourage events about freedom at all libraries in all countries throughout the month of September. Students will be expected to work about 5 hours a week from May 24 - August 24. Pay is based on USF student worker pay scale.


Responsibilities include:

* brainstorming and writing blog posts about participating libraries and librarians (blog);
* maintaining and extending our twitter stream (@septproject);
* maintaining and extending our google map of participants (map); and
* performing general research about local, national, and international libraries and librarians.

Successful candidates will not only have skills and experience with the kinds of social media the September Project currently uses, but also will have creative ideas for and curiosity about new ways to help the project grow and succeed.

To apply:

Submit a resume and cover letter outlining your skills and motivations for applying for this position. Please also include a URL that points to a blog post or other use of social media that you crafted and of which you are particularly proud. Send your application - no later than Monday, May 3rd - to Professor David Silver at the email found on this page. Decisions will be made by May 10.

These social media research assistantships are made possible by USF's Faculty Development Funds (FDF).

election exhibit in gleeson library: students teaching students

it's hard to believe that we're about to finish week six of fall semester. summer feels like yesterday.

this fall, i'm teaching two sections (about eighty students in all) of intro to media studies. for the first three weeks of class, i mostly gave lectures (about newspapers and magazines and the magic of wikipedia) and led discussions (about thinking and literacy and whether google is making us stupid). on week four, students wrote and turned in paper one - a mixed bag ranging from this-is-awesome to you-can-do-better. last week, professors susana kaiser and michael robertson gave excellent guest lectures.

this week, week six, all minds were focused on our group show and tell in gleeson library.


first, the assignment:

***

Assignment: Create an exhibit in Gleeson Library that encourages and educates people to vote in the upcoming US election.

Requirements:
o You must work in groups. Groups can be as small as 3 and as large as 8.
o Your exhibit should be interesting to your audience and make them smarter.
o Your exhibit must be supported by evidence from at least 3 legitimate sources, 2 of which must be print resources from the library. If you are not sure what I mean by legitimate, ask. If you would like ideas about what kinds of resources the library offers, ask a reference librarian at Gleeson.
o Select a spokesperson/s to present your exhibit to the rest of class.
o In addition to your exhibit, each group is required to turn in a brief essay addressing the following: a) Explain your topic and its importance; b) Explain why you designed your exhibit the way you did; and c) Explain why you used the sources you did. The essay can be between 1-2 single-spaced pages.

Suggestions:
o Meet as a group early and often.
o Meet with librarians early and often.
o Distribute the workload so that all group members are contributing.

Your exhibit is due in the library at the beginning of class on Thursday, October 9.

***

while my students were working hard on their projects, USF librarians were working hard preparing and enhancing gleeson library's first-floor reading room and exhibit space. debbie benrubi collected and displayed voter registration materials (last day to register to vote in the state of california: october 20). carol spector culled and displayed a few dozen excellent books about obama, mccain, and other relevant topics. and joe garity, who also serves as the library liaison for media studies, helped pave the way to make a library reading room into a student gallery space.



the students' work ranged from very good to outstanding. they designed posters and voting boxes and interactive maps and info graphics and animal kennels and a huge three by two feet issue of time magazine. they used paper and pens and paint and tape and glue and yarn and cardboard and photographs. at least two of the projects were made entirely from recycled materials.






their show and tells addressed the many topics that make this election so important and so dizzying - the economy, human rights, war, immigration, the environment, abortion, animal rights, same sex marriage. some projects juxtaposed the views and voting records of obama and mccain and of palin and biden. and two projects explored who the world thinks our next president should be.






by the time the afternoon class was over, there were nearly twenty student exhibits on the walls, upon the bookshelves, and in the windows of the reading room of gleeson. as the students filed out of the reading room, i stayed behind to appreciate their collective creativity and to learn a bit more about the issues. about ten minutes later, a student returned to the reading room with a friend in tow. a few minutes later, another student returned, also with a friend. as the students guided their friends through the exhibit, i tip-toed out of the room and thought to myself students teaching students.


election exhibit - students teaching students can be viewed in the first-floor reading room in gleeson library. it runs through the election.

the september project grows ... and a question about wordpress + google maps

the september project continues to grow. libraries in argentina, canada, greece, italy, lithuania, and the united states are organizing events about issues that matter for their communities.


View Larger Map

if you mouse-click the pins, you'll find the names of participating libraries, as well as their addresses and links to their web sites. also, when available, we're able to include a photograph of the library.

although we've been pretty happy with google maps there's a major problem. when we try to embed the map on our "Where is it?" page of the september project web site (built in wordpress, rather than, like this blog, in blogger), the map default is stuck on the US/north america. it must seem so uninviting for folks outside the US to visit our page and see a big map of the US. arg. if anyone has any advice about working with wordpress + google maps, please let me know. we need help!

in the last few weeks i've blogged a bit about various september project events going on around the world. here's some:

September Project events in Portland, Oregon

September Project events for children, teens, and adults at all eight branches of Arapahoe (CO) Library District

September Project events in Genova, Italy

A full slate of September Project events at Morton Grove Public Library

Waffle Brunch with Benjamin Franklin at Beaufort Branch Library!


what's your library doing in september?

the september project 2008

warning: this blog post contains homework. read at your own risk.

the september project is a grassroots effort to encourage events about freedom and democracy in all libraries in all countries during the month of september.

we began the september project in 2004 to break the silence following september 11, and to invite all people into libraries to consider topics of patriotism, democracy, and citizenship. initially, events focused on september 11 and largely took place on september 11. as the project evolved, events spread throughout the month of september and focused on issues of freedom and democracy.

libraries and librarians are the heart and soul of the september project. for the last five years, public, academic, school, and government libraries from around the world have organized september project book displays, one book one community programs, children's art projects, murals, film screenings, theatrical performances, civic deliberations, community-campus gardens, voter registrations, panel discussions, and so much more. september project events are free, open to the public, and organized locally.

starting last week, the september project listserv lit up with librarians sharing their september project events. as always, this year's september project events are creative, diverse, and engaging. here's a sample.


View Larger Map

Bell Library at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is organizing a semester-long display on "Electing a President." In conjunction with Constitution Day (September 17), the display will highlight the relevant portions of the Constitution and will encourage voter registration.

Sacramento Public Library (CA) has organized a One Book, One Community program featuring the book Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson, who will be in attendance for the community conversations.

Gottesman Library at Columbia University in New York City will host a Socratic conversation about patriotism on September 11. Ronald Gross, aka Socrates, will lead a community conversation around two questions: What does patriotism mean to you, today? and How does patriotism need to be re-interpreted for the challenges we confront now?

Biblioteca Berio, in Genova, Italy, has created two events that increase our understanding of different cultures around us and that strive for peace. The first is a week-long photograph exhibition of the postwar period in Bosnia featuring the work of photographer Laura Rossi. On September 11, the library will host a public meeting and reading about the Srebrenica genocide in 1995.

The Sugar Grove Public Library (IL) will be joining with other libraries
across the US in a day of remembrance and celebration called Libraries Remember. The library will open their doors at 12:01 am on Thursday, September 11, 2008 and remain open for 24 hours. During this time, the library will host flag ceremonies, encourage people to register to vote, and provide library business as usual. Also, the Sugar Grove Chamber of Commerce & Industry will hold their monthly meeting on the lawn of the library which will be followed by a community picnic.

Seattle Public Library is hosting an exciting and provocative suite of events taking place in Central Library, Capitol Hill Branch Library, and Green Lake Branch Library. Events include a three-part, three-neighborhood discussion with Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer and their book The True Patriot; a film screening and discussion of The Corporal's Diary; a public talk by veteran British war correspondent Robert Fisk; and, in collaboration with Intiman Theatre, a dramatic reading from Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men."

Ingram Library at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton will host the exhibit "Anne Frank: A History for Today" from September 7-30, with support from the library’s Penelope Melson Society and the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust. In conjunction with the exhibit opening, the "Jewish Literature-Identity and Imagination" book discussion group, sponsored by the Neva Lomason Library, part of the West Georgia Regional Library System, will open its 2008 program. (Public and academic libraries working together = awesome.) Ingram Library will also host a talk on the US Constitution by Bob Schaeffer University of West Georgia's Department of Political Science and Planning.

want to hear more? visit the september project blog and subscribe to our listserv.

here at september project headquarters, our publicity budget, as well as our general budget, is $0. so, instead of advertisements and commercials, our outreach strategy is word of mouth, peer-to-peer, person-to-person. our outreach mode is essentially anyone to everyone as long as the message eventually reaches a librarian.

which brings us to you and your homework.

1. read this blog post. read any comments, too!

2. ask yourself, "who are my two or three favorite librarians?"

(2a. if you do not have two or three favorite librarians, shame on you. instead, find the web site for the very first library you remember using and locate the name and email address of the library director and/or community services librarian.)

3. send this blog post or this "What is it?" page or this "Where is it?" map to your two or three favorite librarians. share with them, in a few sentences, what you find interesting about the september project. if your favorite librarians speak Spanish, consider sending this page translated by Proyecto CIBA.

4. once you have completed steps 1-3, describe what you did in a comment below.

homework due date: nowish and soonish.

the september project in salt lake city

the university of utah's september project took and takes place this week. i was thrilled to be part of it.

on monday afternoon, i gave a faculty lecture titled "campus conversations and community collaborations." i framed my talk around a story sarah and i heard two or three years ago about the salt lake city public library. in 1998, the citizens of salt lake city voted (by a 68% margin) for an $84 million bond to rebuild the salt lake city public library. before construction began, the much loved library director, nancy tessman, invited members of the community and library staff to reflect upon what they thought the library should be and to write those thoughts upon a stone. the stones were then collected and placed at the site of the new library. concrete was poured, the foundation was established, and the library began to be built - all upon the collective hopes and dreams of the residents and readers of salt lake city. apparently, nancy tessman saved one stone and kept it on her office desk until she retired this summer. the stone, here in the hand of andrew shaw, SLC public library's assistant manager of community affairs, says magic.


i used the story of the magic stone to explain three elements of good campus-community collaboration. first, listen to your communities. second, when collaboration is good, all parties benefit. and third, when collaboration is genuine, magic happens.

one of monday's highlights was an interview with the daily utah chronicle, or the chronny. clayton norlen interviewed and teresa getten took pics and together produced this: "blogger to kick off september project: effort aims to encourage discussion" (9/11/07, daily utah chronicle).


on the morning of september 11, i headed over to KCPW where lara jones, joyce ogburn (director of marriott library), and i converged. here's the podcast. (and here's last year's podcast.) lara jones totally rocks. KCPW is located in SLC's supremely cool, supremely functional library square where the public library mixes with the community radio station and the community writing center.



we raced back to campus to see how the september speak out was going. what's a september speak out? as the chronny's clayton norlen accurately describes it:

"In conjunction with the September Project, members of the OrangeBand Initiative will be giving out orange cards and bands throughout the day on the Marriott East Plaza on which students can write their opinions. The orange bands and cards are intended to spark conversations among students about issues of concern. Students are instructed to tie the bands to themselves or their belongings, and cards will be displayed in the library."

through my eyes, it looked like this:




near noon, i gave a campus lecture called "why i blog and why you should blog." the talk was held in the hinckley institute of politics. the audience included librarians, professors, staff, administration, and STUDENTS!



i talked about la biblioteca berio in genova, italy and i talked about terrebonne parish library system in louisiana, USA. i talked about these mostly white guys. and i talked about the demon dog, marriott library, and the so so cool and so so delicious one world everybody eats.

the best part was the burrito lunch that followed. around six or seven utah students joined professors, librarians, staff, and administration. these were the students who organized the september speak out. we talked about some of the issues raised by members of the u of u campus. we talked about strategies for gaining attention and action around such issues. we talked about how some issues are related and can be approached collectively. for me, that was a big time experience. i thoroughly enjoyed meeting and sharing ideas with u of u students.


a lot more happened.

university of utah september project events continue tomorrow, september 13, with a campus visit by alexander keyssar, professor of history and social policy at harvard university's kennedy school of government. professor keyssar will join lara jones on KCPW from 10:40 - 11:00 am (update: here's the podcast). at 11:50, he will give a campus lecture titled "democracy as an ongoing project: threats and challenges to democratic governance in the US." the lecture takes place in the hinckley institute of politics and is free and open to the public.

the september project comes alive

during september, the september project comes alive.

what: the september project is a grassroots effort to encourage free and public events in all libraries in all countries.
when: most events occur during the month of september. some events take place in october, november, and just about every month of the year.
where: september project events have occurred and continue to occur in over 900 libraries in 30 countries.
why: because we believe now's the time to gather publicly and share ideas about issues that matter. and because we love libraries.

as i shared with ACRLog, the september project has no political agenda. however, it is, of course, political. these days, to exercise any form of public discourse is political. to publicly assemble is political. to organize anything free is definitely political. to talk about issues that matter - to talk about the war, to talk about human rights, to talk about the Earth - that's political. in our times, any idea that encourages us to be citizens rather than consumers, any activity that encourages peace rather than war, is highly political.

on sunday, i fly to salt lake city to be part of the university of utah's september project. the events are being organized by marriott library in collaboration with the tanner humanities center, the hinckley institute of politics, and the associated students of the university of utah (students as co-sponsors! yes!). events include a "september speak out" in front of marriott library, a talk titled "why i blog and why you should blog" by myself, and a talk titled "democracy as an ongoing project: threats and challenges to democratic governance in the US" by alexander keyssar, professor of history and social policy at harvard university’s kennedy school of government. if you live nearby, please join us!

the september project began in 2004 which means this is the fourth september project. judging from images we've already received, this year's events are powerful, important, and quite beautiful.

the images below are clickable. click them if you're curious.

the september project on ACRLog

ACRLog, a blog for academic and research librarians, is one of my favorite blogs. so when one of the ACRLog bloggers, barbara fister, asked me for an interview about the september project i jumped at the opportunity. today, the brief interview is featured on ACRLog.

the september project 2007

the web site for the september project has been launched!

what is the september project?

The September Project is a grassroots effort to foster public events in all libraries in all countries in September. September Project events can include book displays, panel discussions, civic deliberations, film screenings, theatrical performances, community book readings, and kids’ art projects. September Project events are free and organized locally.

The September Project encourages libraries and communities to come together in meaningful ways throughout the month of September.

if you know a librarian, please let her or him know about the september project. if you are not a librarian, please consider organizing an event in your library.