The Next Steps

Last Wednesday, April 20, I finished my first year of graduate school in Information at the University of Michigan.  The final assignment that I had to complete was a project working with the Chelsea District Library, helping them gather information so that they can start revolutionizing the way their library can work with youth in order to empower teens and the Chelsea community as a whole.  It was quite an interesting project that coincided quite a bit with my visit to Chicago's YouMedia Center, that I wrote about a few weeks ago, and one to which my prior knowledge contributed. 

I worked with the Chelsea District Library to find metrics of other successful youth organizations across the state, country and world.  Metrics included such information as what does the program look like/how is it organized?; board members, development, and responsibilities; sustainability; and partnerships.  I put this information into a report that also included recommendations for their own youth initiative, a framework for them to outline their specific goals, and policy information that they will need to consider as they move towards implementation.

It was a very exciting project and I felt very lucky to be a part of it.  It will be exciting to see the model that Chelsea creates as it changes the way it's community thinks about the possibilities of a public library.

Presentation - Chelsea District Library from alissa talley on Vimeo.

Screencasts and Last Week's Class - How to control your privacy settings and lists of friends on Facebook!

Update!  My screencast, embedded:

Since I added SI643 after the first class, last week's session was my first.  I enjoyed the energy of the class, as well as the interaction.  The mix of focus on the assignments, readings, blogs, and hands-on activities was invigorating and helpful for staying engaged over a three-hour period.  I really enjoyed the progression of the class - it displayed much of what we read about successful instruction for week 1.  As well, our discussion of experts and novices was a helpful supplement to the reading.

The screencasting activity was extremely helpful in guiding my work for the screencast assignment.  Not only was it *fun* to look at other's screencasts and evaluate them, but it was very educational.  In my screencast below you'll you'll see application of the many of the techniques we learned.

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