A Reflection of the Past Five Weeks

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

…it’s easier for me to reflect by following a timeline. The past five weeks have been a fun introduction into the wonderful world of Young Adult and the mission of the Providence Children Film Festival. Having taken LSC 530 last semester, I had the (somewhat unfair)advantage of knowing that this was going to happen.   It was a pleasant surprise to revisit the idea in week one and get a better sense of what was truly going to happen in the coming weeks. On top of which, it was fun reflecting on my past and where I am with that today. (In case you missed it, here is a link to my LEAP 1 post! It’s about the slow progression of becoming the amateur professional photographer I am today.)

I was reunited with the fun of Flipgrid, and the reminder of how useful Twitter can be. YALSA’s: The Future of Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action came back for a visit. I say this because it was the basis and muse for my final project last semester (you can take a look at that here.) I’ll touch back on the topic of final projects towards the end of this reflection piece, so be on the lookout. Barnett’s short article about the “memoir boom” and Tripp’s article about youth and digital media set the tone for the upcoming weeks. For example this past week we covered digital citizenship, which ties in neatly with youth and digital media.   At any rate, I’m getting ahead of myself.

In week two, I was faced with another old friend: Padlet. Our first assignment working with a partner, and mine was Donald (he proved to be a worthy partner too!) I loved Kolderup’s blog post What I Wish I Knew About Building Teen Services from Scratch. It has helped so much in my life situation right now. I’m currently attempting to do just what the post speaks of: building something from scratch. Learning from other’s experiences is something I have grown to trust. Plus, the title of her blog In the Library With A Lead Pipe makes me think of Tim Curry and this scene:

“I know because I was there.”

…and who could go wrong with that? It’s an excellent mnemonic device to keep me on my toes while I am discovering my own programming talents. Data, having a vision, and relationships, and a professional community is the bulk of her reflection; which is something handy to keep in mind (thank you Butler-Tim-Curry!)

In week three we finally dived in to the textbooks ( I had been looking forward to reading Hayn and Kaplan since I ordered the book.) Both of these books are extremely helpful for my life situation as well: my director is letting me order ebooks and audiobooks for the Teen department to help build the collection. So much of this has just had such a timely affect, and has already been a through process for me. Thanks to Pattee’s writing, and the following weeks readings, I believe I choose some good young adult literature that could help expand the YA collection. I had a load of fun doing the LEAP 2 project. It helps that I the author I choose, Maggie Stiefvater, is one of my favorite young adult authors (I have read her books more than once…) I knew that she writes her own music for her book trailers, and does her own animation as well. Once I saw the trailer for Song of the Sea, I was instantly reminded of The Scorpio Races and blasted through the book once more. Although, It was slightly difficult to time the music just right too.

Week four rolled through extremely fast, and like the week before, Pattee’s Hayn and Kaplan’s articles have been a huge influence. I recently read Holly Black’s new book The Darkest Part of the Forest, which I realized, can fit under the “open/accepting” category of LGBTQ literature for the two reason’s listed:

                “1) because this is where a character’s sexuality no longer defines, the person, identity is seen as individual, and characters and readers are ready to address other issues and questions other than a character’s sexuality; or 2) the text deals with issues that are still not accepted by a majority of society…”(Hayn & Kaplan, pg. 130, 2012).

Incidentally, I did order the book for the library merely because I know it’s a good book. This just comforts my decision. I only hope I can continue to do so. Cathy and I are partners for LEAP 3, and have begun working on our project which involves the movie Belle et Sebastien showing at the Providence Children’s Film Festival. I believe things are progressing well.

Finally, week five brings me to discuss the Popplet: a new outlining/ brainstorming tool (to me) that I enjoyed immensely. I unfortunately did not get the chance to try loading a photo of some sort to add some texture to my outline, but there is always another time. Plus, reading Rheingold’s Attention and other 21^st Century Social Media Literacies was a real treat. The realization of how much multitasking I ultimately commit during class, or work speaks to the generation that I’ve been born to. Now we’ve come full circle of digital citizenship to digital media.

I’m feeling comfortable in my skin, and a lot less stressed out that I was last semester. However, to be completely honest I’m extremely worried about my final project this semester. I large portion of myself believes I’ve outdone myself with the project that I came up with last semester, and I am worried that I won’t be able to come up with something this time around. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure I will. Perhaps I’ll focus on the ideas we have discussed so far, or maybe life will continue to imitate art and I can work some of these topics into the actual programs I am developing. I’m worried, but thankfully, not stressed…yet.

Quick References:

Barnett, T. (2013). “Reading saved me”: Writing autobiographically about transformative reading experiences in childhood. Prose Studies, 35(1), 84–96. doi:10.1080/01440357.2013.781413

YALSA (2014). The future of library services for and with teens: A call to action. Chicago: American Library Association.

Tripp, L. (2011).  Digital youth, libraries and new media literacy. Reference Librarian 52(4), 329 – 341.

Kolderup, G. (2013, May 22). What I wish I knew about building teen services from scratch. In the Library With the Lead Pipe.