Midterm Question

The most obvious thing that separates the Near North Library from other libraries is that it brings two completely opposite communities together. One way this is done is particularly interesting. Page 36 mentions that "Some of them [children from Cabrini Green] work with the volunteers in the Homework Help program, most of whom are Gold Coast residents, retirees looking for satisfying and interesting ways to stay connected with the world." I thought this was interesting because it's an idea of integrating communities that I haven't seen implemented in libraries so much as just in schools.

Week 05 Communities, Learning and Democracy in the Digital Age

Connectivity: As quoted directly from the text, the level of a communitys high-speed connectivity can be measured in different ways: "a) points of access availability at public sites such as schools, libraries or community centers, in the home, in businesses or institutions, b) the number of Internet Service Providers  that offer high-speed Internet service in a community, c)and/or, the type and speeds of service offerings available from high-speed Internet providers DSL, cable modem, wireless, t1.5, DS3, etc."

Basically, just having access to internet is sometimes not enough.  Some web pages are becoming increasingly more complex and are requiring high-speed Internet connections that some households and communities do not have the capability to obtain...such as a "broadband digital divide."  Again, this is another barrier for underserved communities to access vital information.

Capability: As we said in discussion, words such as "education, proficiency, and skills" are also adequate in defining this term.  Capability "gauges the ability to deliver or acquire the service."  Skill in this article, is defined as having a technological understanding and the willingness to adapt to new technologies and ways of thinking.  It can also include teaching effective use of info. tech. tools and "encouraging creativity, productivity, and innovations of local entrepreneurs"  So in this case, skill is not simply referring to computer skills, but the ability to adapt to changes in the technological world and develop new skills when required.

Race and Place

What social and community changes prompted Hall's visit to the white cathedral?

Tracie Hall was growing up during an era of segregation. In an effort to desegregate, schools at that time would bus children from all black or white schools, to schools of the opposite race. "It was on of those "let's pretend to be pro-integration" exercises that post-Brown v. Board of Education schools engaged in back then." Hall was brought to see the white cathedral to try and expose her and her African American peers to the "white" side of town. On the tail end of the segregation era in the South, the government was attempting to integrate by simply exposing people to the other way of life. In Hall's case, it ended up backfiring, when she returned to the library and was so turned off that she didn't even take out a book. 

Week 04: Koontz, Jue, and Lance Article

Question: Circulation statistics, an easy measure to take, come back up in this article. Why are these problematic? What kinds of materials do they miss? What kinds of use and users do they miss? What can the outcome be of low circulation statistics?

Answer: Circulation statistics may be one of the easier statistics to take from a library, but they miss many of the libraries current-day functions, such as Internet use, in-library use of materials, programs hosted by the library, questions asked of the librarians, and other activities related to these. Since many low-income or rural families go to the library to use the Internet or to attend activities, their participation in the system may be overlooked if the only statistic being used is the circulation data. The outcome of having poor circulation statistics could be a severe drop in funding, which could cause the library to close. If the library has poor circulation and poor attendance, etc., this could be warranted. If the library has poor circulation but is actually utilized by the community it serves, it could lose funding when it needs it most.

I think a better way of measuring library use would be to include many kinds of statistics, a good deal of which would be easier to compile with today's technology. If the researching party looked at circulation along with factors like number of visitors, time spent on the Internet, attendance of library activities, and inquiries made to the librarian, the data would be much more comprehensive, which is what the researchers in this article discovered.

What is Social Capital?

The concept of social capital is rather simple, but giving an basic all-encompasing definition of the term is not very simple. Most definitions given seem incomplete or a little off. Many thoughtful people have placed slightly different meanings to social capital. I chose to answer this simple question because it bugs me that I keep finding different answers whenever I look it up.

As an engineer, I will try to apply a universal meaning to the term. Know that "capital" is the means of production, and "social" is relating to human society and its members. A "society" is an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization.

Therefore, "social capital" must be the capability of a society and its members to engage in social interactions and activities within that society.

I am not fond of the term social captial anyway because usually capital is associated with money, so the term reminds me of the infamous socialist (communist) policy of treating human beings as capital such as machinery with finite value.

Midterm

Give an example of both bridging and bonding social capital.  Which one is inclusive and external, and which, exclusive and internal?  Which one is "glue" and which one is "WD-40?"

Bridging social capital is inclusive and external, while bonding social capital is exclusive and internal.  "Examples of bonding social capital include ethnic fraternal organizations, church-based women's reading groups, and fashionable country clubs.  Other networks are outward looking and encompass people across diverse social cleavages.  Examples of bridging social capital include the civil rights movement, many youth service groups, and ecumenical religious organizations.  (Putnam 22).  I would say that bridging social capital is glue because it tries to bring all different types of people together; on the other hand, bonding social capital is WD-40 because because it "repels" people that aren't similar to the people in the group.

Cenral-Place Theory

What is "central-place theory"?
(p448) It is a location theory in geography explaining the location of consumer services such as library service. Accounts for travel time of library users, distance between libraries, or size of the library market area in the studies of library accessibility.

How did the researchers define "neighborhoods"?
(p449) They define the neighborhoods based on the market areas of the libraries and they only study the attributes of neighborhoods that influence the use of the public library. The most important attributes they study are social and spatial interactions.
"A limited territory within a larger urban area, where people inhibit dwellings and interact socially" or a geographic unit "within which certain social relationships exist."

Pragmatic Technology

Define: pragmatic technology - "encompasses the common language notion of how to design tools to meet real human needs and accommodate users and their lived situations. It also sees ICTs as developed within a community of inquiry and embodying both means of action and forms of understanding; ICTs are an end result of as well as a means to accomplish, community work." Pg. 8

Midterm

Neighborhood-based in-library use performance measures for public libraries: A nationwide study of majority-minority and majority white/low income markets using personal digital data collectors 

Why are circulation statistics problematic?

(pg 29)- Circulation is the most universally collected statistic. Because of its widespread availability, circulation data are often used to measure the effectiveness and value of library service to a community... however, now that books are no longer the primary medium of information transfer and communities are no longer homogeneous, this approach is "no longer effective today as it ignores information that could be key in making critical decisions about today's public libraries." This is because there are new media formats (such as audio, videos, and other electronic resources) that constitute library use that are not included in circulation statistics. Also, circulation may be declining for some libraries "because of increased internet demand by local government and library administrators." (pg 31)

What can the outcome be of low circulation statistics?

(pg 30)- "it is critical that public library decision makers have data that enable them to measure performance and use, and assess needs, in vulnerable and diverse neighborhoods." So, without circulation statistics, this would not be possible.

What is the stated goal of this study?

(pg 32)- this study was designed to "research, demonstrate, and validate the critical need for 'neighborhood-level' library data to assist public librarians in assessing and addressing the needs of their particular library outlet's 'market-area.'"

What are some alternative measures of library use?

(pg 44-45)- reading/writing, browsing, using computers, checking out/using library card, library programs/tours, sitting alone/socializing, schoolwork, non-library programs, and other non-specified activities

midterm review- What is Content?

From the week 5 reading "Communities, Learning and Democracy in the Digital Age."

Question: "What if the build an Internet and no one came? In other words, once we have the first three Cs, what else is necessary to get the groups the authors identified into a participatory mode in an increasingly Internet-dependent society?"

As the author says: "Once individuals and communities become connected and have the capabilities and necessary skills to use the internet, they need a reason for use." In other words, once the three other Cs are taken care of, people need something to do on the internet in order to get them to actually use it. This content varies from person to person and from community to community a great deal. People that need to find jobs or homes will look on the internet if these services are provided, just like college kids will use the internet to study and to research for papers. Persons of ethnic minorities will not be able to use the internet if the websites they want to use are not in a language that they can speak or understand. Relevant content must be on the internet also, nobody will use the internet if all the information on it is out of date and useless. All these things must be present in the internet for people to get use out of it, content is the last but possibly the most important tool to bridge the digital divide we are currently facing.

What is the "problem of leisure"? Why is it a problem? When did it arise?

The problem of leisure is that "Americans have too much time on their hands (pg. 16)". This is seen as a problem because with too much extra time, Americans may lose sight of how to spend that free time wisely. This was first noted as a problem in the 1960s when various community groups were seeing a large increase in activity because citizens had more time to actively participate in these groups.

"Social Capital" - Midterm Question

Social Capital: What is this? Can you define it?

According to Putnam, social capital refers to connections among individuals - social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. It has both an individual and a collective aspect - a private face and a public face. Social capital calls attention to the fact that civic virtue is most powerful when embedded in a dense network of reciprocal social relations. It really means that our lives are made more productive by social ties, because social contacts affect the productivity of individuals and groups. The social capital theory suggests that social networks thus have great value and that well-connected communities are very important. Finally, it is important to note that social capital comes in all shapes and sizes. I think that it is basically just important to recognize that social capital has a major influence on everyone's lives and should therefore not be ignored.

- Posted by: Valerie Figlmiller
- Pages cited: pg. 18-20, Putnam - Bowling Alone

Putnam - Social Interactions

To what does Putnam attribute the change in the social interactions of groups since the mid-20th century to now? Provide a few examples, both before and after.

The arrival of individualism and evolving technologies are what sparked the degradation of social capitol. Before this, individuals were faced with leisure and took up community activities in order to combat this; however, as technologies (that could be enjoyed alone) emerged, schedules started filling up, and people no longer felt compelled to better their community, the average American decided to turn inward. Society now worried more about themselves than what they could do for or how they could interact with those around them. Social capitol blossomed in the 1960's due to the increases in group activities and participation (like bridge clubs, bowling leagues, and community outreach programs) but waned as the decades went on because people were discovering new ways to enjoy themselves on their own. (Pg 25, Bowling Alone)

"Race & Place" Midterm Question

Describe Hall's childhood local library, the "yellow palace." What where it's features/barriers? Where was it located within the community? (pp.30-2)

The "yellow palace" had limited features compared to the "white cathedral," with only two areas for reading, "each no larger than [her] grandparents' sitting room." Also, it had "'early closing hours'" compared to the "white cathedral". In the community, it was located in an area that "became synonymous with poverty and dysfunction," causing there to be "Anti-theft bars" that "covered every possible point of entry," and being in a bad neighborhood may be some of the reasons it did not have as many features as the "white cathedral" did.