Citation Puzzles

One of my orientation sessions with our 5th graders covers citations. To start, we talk about what citations are, why it’s important to cite your sources, and what sort of information citations include. While I mention that formatting is important, I tell them we won’t worry about that today since our NoodleTools software formats for us. Instead, we focus on finding the elements of citations for different types of sources, because different sources need different types of information. I want them to come away from the lesson knowing that: 1. You cite your sources to give credit to the creator, and so other people can find your sources; 2. Different types of sources require different types of information in citations.

I love to gamify my lessons, so I start by dividing the class into two teams. They then compete to assemble a twelve-piece puzzle featuring a blank country map, and correctly identify the country. I created the puzzles by printing out country maps blank except for capital cities. Then, I colored in the selected country to distinguish them from the surrounding countries, laminated them, and cut them into twelve symmetrical pieces. I’m sure there’s a more impressive, less craft-y way to do it, but my handmade puzzles work pretty well!

To earn puzzle pieces, each team must fill in twelve forms, guiding them to twelve different sources. They may work together, or individually. The source is listed at the top of the form (which, to exactly no-one’s surprise, they rarely read), and I provide blanks for the specific information needed for that source. After years of struggling with computers that wanted to update right in the middle of a lesson, wouldn’t log on, lost database access, etc., I threw my hands up and now use only printouts and print books.

I post or set the materials around the classroom, grouped by type: print books, website pages, eBook pages, database article pages, and online encyclopedia pages. On the printouts, I highlight the labels for information the students need, though they still struggle with it. Especially in the last couple of years, I found that students can’t identify a magazine or newspaper title on the database article printouts, even highlighted—I need to clarify that “source” = magazine/newspaper title for my chosen articles.

Once the students have completed a form, they bring it to me to check. If they have completed it well, I give them a puzzle piece for their team. If they have missing or incorrect information, I send them back to find it. They are welcome to help others on their team. Once they have completed the forms, they work on completing the puzzle, and looking up the capital city to identify the country. I always hand out the piece with the capital on it last!

This lesson has held up pretty well, though I do find myself making it easier/more obvious each year, mostly to streamline the game to ensure we finish on time. I did notice that this year, the students struggled more with the puzzle than in years past, and I noticed that they also struggled in a session that involved filling out a blank library map. I wonder, is students’ overall spatial awareness is declining? In any case, I don’t expect them to remember details from this lesson. If they come away knowing what a citation is, that they need to cite their sources, and that different sources require different information in citations, then they have completed their first step on the citation road. How has your teaching of citations changed in the last few years? Please write it in the comments!

Do you have that pink book about Rosa Parks? On “impossible” questions becoming “possible”

I was fully looking for something cheerful to post about today, and it turns out that “cheerful” in this instance means finding a use for something about which I have historically felt little enthusiasm: the new-ish top “result” in Google search.

When I worked at Google, one of the realizations I had revolved around questions that we librarians had a tendency to (among ourselves) view as “stupid.” First among those was asking for a book by the color of its cover. Essentially, we felt it was an unreasonable question, because it was one we could not answer. (Also because people remember green books as red and yellow books as blue, but I don’t yet have a solution for that problem.) Sometimes, technology allows us to solve a problem, as I discovered when I went to try to understand of what use color filtering in image searching could really be:



Well, this morning I was grappling with a question and I decided to try using Google AI to answer it, and look what happened:


Asking Google’s AI to tell me in which databases to find The Atlantic and JAMA in full-text

Are these responses complete? Completely correct? Did I burst into flame from typing a long-form question into a search box? The answer to each of these questions may well be “no.”

Nonetheless, I think about all the times that I wished I knew which databases to search to find x source, and I was pleasantly surprised to have this tool to try and help me.

So – hope this brings some joy or at least ease to your week. Take care, and search on!

Predictability, Personal Curation, and a Radio Station

I’ve continued to build on my “Christina’s Highlight’s 2024” playlist since my last post. Yet several times this fall when music was playing in the background while I worked, a seemingly unfamiliar song would disrupt my focus. I’d turn to my phone and scroll through Spotify looking for the title highlighted in green. But there was none. Like any librarian, that led me to the random wisdom of the Internet, where a targeted search showed that hundreds of Threads and Reddit users shared my frustration.

Vindication. Except, is it?

I know that I’m typically solidly in the “majority” camp for adopting new technology, so I try to step back and ask myself if I don’t like something because it’s new or if I don’t like something because I actually don’t like it. Or, perhaps, semantics.

To me, a playlist is a personal creation. Radio/Stations are where I want to be introduced to new music in keeping with a genre or theme. I’ve spent hundreds of hours on curation for my personal playlists; it’s not where I’m looking to meet new music. But so many words have changed over time. Technology makes it easier than ever for meanings to morph and spread and morph again.

The AI Overview, however, agrees with me that playlists are human-created and radio stations are driven by algorithms. Not that I exactly trust the Overviews for accuracy, but I do tend to note when responses match what I already believe.

This leads me to my bigger takeaway about how the information landscape has changed since I graduated from library school, back when people were already asking about the value of the degree when information had become so much more readily available.  

Theoretically, there is a world of music within arm’s reach most of my waking hours. In practice, I’ve just gone deeper into the same genres I’ve been listening to since Middle School. Ironically, most of the music that’s intrigued me outside of those genres in recent months has been discovered through the radio. The Radio radio. Shaboozey, anyone?

Even when the radio is on in the car, for most stations I can now see the artist and title as songs play. I can’t be the only one who remembers a childhood of waiting through commercial breaks for DJs to announce a new artist or title? Perhaps this is why I am so much better at music trivia or games like Podquiz now- with the visual representation of what I’m hearing constantly reflected on my screen. But there’s also still so much I don’t remember. That I don’t know. Or that I didn’t even realize I didn’t know. Simply having information available doesn’t mean we access it or that we can remember it elsewhere. I feel like there is a never-ending promise from technology companies that improved access to information will improve human quality of life. Frankly, sometimes that’s overwhelming. That’s why it can be easier to retreat to the playlists we know, the ones created by our labor, the ones that don’t distract us while humming away in the background. But there is something to the serendipity of the radio/station – the opportunity to discover something we didn’t know we’d like but that has been curated for us by an outside source, whether it’s a librarian or an algorithm. Just not through Smart Shuffle on my playlists.

AI Poem Comparison Lesson

At the start of the year, I have eight thirty-minute sessions with the fifth grade, to introduce them to the library and its resources. This year, I decided to swap out one of our sessions for an intro to AI. I started with a fifteen-minute lesson from Commonsense Media, but for the other half, I wanted to try something I read about in a Knowledge Quest article. The article’s author showed students a human-written poem and an AI-written poem, and discussed differences. As I could not locate the article, I decided it would be appropriate to have ChatGPT write the lesson plan as well as the poems, and I would adapt as necessary. Here is the lesson plan I ended up with:

Lesson Plan: Comparing AI-Written Poems to Human-Written Poems
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Duration: 15 minutes

Objective:
Students will compare and contrast a human-written poem and an AI-written poem that explore similar themes, examining the style, tone, and emotional depth of each.
Materials:

  1. Two short poems expressing similar themes (dreams)
    o One human-written (“The Dream Keeper” by Langston Hughes)
    o One AI-generated poem
  2. Printed copies of both poems for each student or displayed on the board/screen.
  3. Chart or Venn diagram for comparison.

Lesson Breakdown:

  1. Introduction (2 minutes)
    • Teacher: “Today, we’re going to look at two poems: one written by a person and one created by a computer program, called AI (Artificial Intelligence). We’ll compare them to see how similar and different they are.”
    • Briefly explain what AI is and how it can be used to write poetry.
    o This is generative AI
    o I gave it the prompt to write a poem in the style of the author of the human-written poem, of about the same length, and with the same theme
  2. Read the Poems (3 minutes)
    • Do not reveal which is the human-written poem
    • Read the first poem aloud, encouraging students to listen for emotions, imagery, and tone.
    • Read the second poem aloud. Ask students to listen carefully for similarities and differences compared to the first poem.
  3. Group Discussion (4 minutes)
    • Ask students to share their initial thoughts on both poems:
    o “Which poem do you like better? Why?”
    o “What feelings or pictures come to mind when you hear each poem?”
    o “Do they sound similar or different? How?”
  4. Comparison Activity (4 minutes)
    • Teacher: Lead students in filling out a comparison chart or Venn diagram.
    o Similarities: Themes, structure, words, or phrases used.
    o Differences: Tone, emotional depth, word choice, or if one feels more “natural” than the other.
    • Prompt questions like:
    o “Do both poems talk about the same idea in the same way?”
    o “Does one poem feel more personal or emotional?”
    o “Which one uses more descriptive or creative words?”
  5. Vote (1 minute)
    Teacher: Have students close eyes and vote on which is the human-written poem
    Reveal how they did
  6. Closing (2 minutes)
    • Summarize the discussion by highlighting that AI can write poetry, but it may sound different from human writing because AI doesn’t experience emotions the way people do.
    • Encourage students to think about how both human creativity and technology can create interesting things.

Assessment:
• Participation in the discussion and completion of the comparison chart or Venn diagram.

For the poems, I chose a Langston Hughes poem, since the 5th grade teacher loves Langston Hughes and shares his poetry with the students. I directed ChatGPT to write a poem in the style of Langston Hughes with the theme of dreams, and no longer than ten lines. Here are the two poems:

A Dream on the Wind

By ChatGPT

I heard a dream whisper, soft and low,
Telling me where I ought to go.
“Climb,” it said, “the mountain high,
Touch the stars in the endless sky.”

But when the day brings shadows near,
Dreams fade, held back by fear.
Still, the dream calls, steady and strong—
A hope, a wish, a waiting song.
I rise, I run, I will not stay—
For dreams will lead me all the way.

The Dream Keeper

By Langston Hughes

Bring me all of your dreams,

You dreamers,

Bring me all of your

Heart melodies

That I may wrap them

In a blue cloud-cloth

Away from the too-rough fingers

Of the world.

When asked which poem they preferred, the students almost universally chose the AI poem, citing its flow and rhyme. We didn’t get to the Venn diagram as there wasn’t board space for it, and the teacher stepped in to help the kids see the differences between the two. The kids were quite perspicacious, once they really focused. However, about half did not identify the human-written poem when we voted.

For the next class, I decided to change out the poems so that the teacher wouldn’t be familiar with the human-written poem, either. I found a short poem called “Grandfather,” by Syrian-born poet Mohja Kahf, and directed ChatGPT to write a poem of similar length, with similar themes, in the style of a modern Middle-eastern poet. While I cannot reprint her poem, as it is still copyrighted, you can find it in The space between our footsteps : poems and paintings from the Middle East, selected by Naomi Shihab Nye (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, c1998). Here is the AI-written poem:

Whispers of Time

By ChatGPT

I hold time in my hands like sand,
slipping through each creased finger—
you see it in my eyes, the years,
the suns that rose and fell.

I was once like you,
running toward a horizon too far to catch,
but now, I sit with the dusk,
listening to the world slow.

I wish I could gift you the patience
to wait for the wind to tell its story—
but youth is fire, burning for tomorrow,
while I learn to love yesterday.

Again, most of the class preferred the AI-written poem to the human-written poem, and actually, the teacher did too—and said he felt very conflicted about that. After we discussed the poems, though, almost everyone identified the human-written poem. Specificity is one of the commonalities I noted with both of the human-written poems as opposed to the AI poems.

While it was a successful and interesting lesson, I find that I, too, am conflicted about the results! If any of you have tried a similar experiment, I would love to hear about it in the comments.

Unpacking AI and Wikipedia quality

With gratitude for the collaboration of Amy Pelman (Harker), Robin Gluck (Jewish Community High School of the Bay), Margi Putnam (Burr and Burton Academy), Hillel Gray (Ohio University), Sam Borbas, Cal Phillips, and a special librarian whose name we will not share due to their work.

Thank you so much to Alex for posting to our listserv about an article they read entitled “The Editors Protecting Wikipedia from AI Hoaxes.” Since our Wikipedia editing group meets Wednesday nights on Zoom, we decided to take a look and see if we could come up with a lesson plan for teaching students to understand when they see AI-generated content in Wikipedia. 

We read, experimented, and chatted for a few hours, trying to figure out what would be most helpful. Ultimately, we did not construct a lesson plan, but we have a set of burgeoning ideas and thoughts about approach. We look forward to collaborating with other members of this community to move forward, as needed.

Overall, while we see that some fallacious AI-generated content is making its way into Wikipedia, like it is in so many sources, we do not yet feel there is evidence that it is currently causing particular danger to information quality within Wikipedia.

 A very quick, vastly informal review of literature investigating the quality of Wikipedia content discovers other themes entirely. Overall content quality checking was common in the late 2000s/early 2010s. At that time, most researchers found that Wikipedia tended to be fairly high quality, often higher than the perception of quality by potential users. Over time, the understanding of “quality” and the research on Wikipedia has moved more into questioning the same issues we question in more traditional research sources: identity-related gatekeeping – who is included, who is excluded, how the identities of editors and the creators of source materials cited impacts the completeness of coverage on a given topic. As from early days, articles that get more traffic tend to measure up well if quality checked (e.g, anatomy), meaning that more obscure articles (and, I would argue, less used by students for schoolwork) have a greater chance of maintaining misinformation and errors. One study that looked closely at hoaxes reminded readers that, as of 2016, Wikipedia editors running “new article patrols” meant that 80% of new articles were checked within an hour of posting, and 95% within 24 hours. 

Thus, a significantly larger issue facing Wikipedia today is the substantial fall-off in the number of editors in recent years, which means that page patrolling and other quality-supporting behaviors are also suffering. This is a very real issue. 

On the bright site, there are many more tools that help editors doing quality-sustaining work to figure out where problems lie. I get notified whenever a page I (or my students) have worked on is edited, and when the changes are malicious the vandalism has usually been corrected in the few minutes it takes me to get to the page to check it. While one of the first lines of defense – the “recent changes” page and its sophisticated, bot-driven advanced search – does not yet have a set of choices for suspected AI-created content, I am guessing that we will see that option before too long. Here is how editors can currently filter the list of recent changes, and from the vandalism training I did I observed that the bigger problems tend to be dealt with extremely quickly:

Ultimately, given that genAI content is showing up in so many places, there is no reason to suspect Wikipedia any more than, say, content in many of our databases. In fact, depending on the type of database, articles may have fewer eyes on the lookout for problematic content than does Wikipedia. Certainly, the high-profile Elsivere case and the growing use of AI in our “trusted” news outlets suggested to our editing group that we do not so much need to warn students off of Wikipedia as we need to teach them about the overall changing information landscape and how to work within it.

Here is our brainstorm of potential topics that we might integrate into our teaching that address the increased use of genAI in all sources and in Wikipedia:

Teach about:

– Critical reading of all potential source materials, including – but not limited to – Wikipedia 

-Recognizing AI-reated content

– Identifying what on Wikipedia is “good information,” or learning when to use and not use Wikipedia

– Understanding that AI may be one of several factor that may add level of inaccuracy to Wikipedia, and is one of many factors editors watch out for with regularity

– Teaching about ethics of academic honesty

– Teaching about ethics of AI

– Teaching about AI and academic honesty

AI more generally:

– How do we recognize AI content?

– Google search has AI generate responses queries; does that make Wikipedia less relevant in our students’ information lives?

Wikipedia:

– Are there patterns on Wikipedia that are repeated with AI-generated content?

Wikipedia:WikiProject AI Cleanup/AI Catchphrases is a wonderful source that records a number of phrases that may appear in AI-generated content, as does the Wikipedia:WikiProject AI Cleanup main page

Category:Articles containing suspected AI-generated texts – Wikipedia

-There have been instances where text has appeared on Wikipedia pages that even our group members who have almost no knowledge of generative AI recognized immediately, such as the (long-ago fixed) page on IChing:

that even gives itself away quite explicitly:

– What are positive uses of AI on Wikipedia? (examples: helping with grammar, helping with sources, flagging possible vandalism)

– Look, as a class, at Wikipedia:WikiProject AI Cleanup and follow links to read and discuss the 

various impacts of AI on Wikipedia, and possibly extend that learning to other types of sources as well

– How do Wikipedia reviewers recognize vandalism?

– How quickly is Wikipedia “cleaned up” after an issue is flagged?

– How quickly is AI “cleaned up”?

– Look at recent changes page

– What are Wikipedia’s rules regarding AI-generated content?

– Does AI-created content violate the “No original research” rule? (based on Village Pump article)

So, we apologize that this is kind of a quick-and-dirty set of thoughts without many clear answers. Once more, however, we were all in agreement: Wikipedia appears no more riddled with AI-generated disinformation that other types of information, so learning to assess the quality of whatever you are reading is key.

Invisible Work

I recently posted a question to the listserv asking for ideas on how to track the invisible work I do in the library. Recent changes in the structure of library services at my school confirmed that the higher levels of administration do not fully understand all of the tasks that go into making the library run. Part of this is on me – I tend to let my work speak for itself and after a building level administration change several years ago, I did not advocate for myself or the library as much as I should have done.  My increased advocacy efforts were too little, too late and library staffing and services were cut. The positive side of these events is that my elementary colleague and I are working together to highlight the instructional and enrichment activities that we lead within the library program, and we have increased our communications with all of our constituents. Advocacy is our joint goal for the next few years.

Community building — elementary students book suggestions

Meanwhile…. about that invisible work. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but there is a lot of invisible work that happens in the day to day running of the library.  My breaking point, so to speak, happened a couple of weeks ago when I spent the better part of 3 days physically preparing books for the shelves.  There was a backlog of books, due to the loss of our library assistant position, and it took me longer than normal to complete this task.

Through conversation with one of the administrators on campus, I discovered that the perception of the libraries is that when students are not in the room, we are not really busy and have time to “sit on the computer”.  My computer time at work is filled with updating the library pages, curating book lists in Overdrive and our catalog, reading book reviews, searching for relevant databases and resources, preparing research guides, cataloging books, etc.  The conversation with the administrator again highlighted the lack of visibility for much of the work that fills my day.

As a first step I took time to make a shared spreadsheet for both librarians to track the work that must be done behind the scenes for the library to run. We are going to try this low-tech version of tracking for the rest of this calendar year while we investigate other options that we can share with administrators.  I am also adding this “invisible” work to my quarterly updates to administrators because it is important information they need to know.  I’m working on an infographic format that isn’t as text heavy but will still get the message to the right people.

I feel like I have the best job on campus, and I suspect that I have taken it for granted because of course everyone knows how important the library is to the school. This year, I am going to show my community all of the ways we impact student learning and school culture.  What are some of the ways that you highlight your work and library within your community?

Musings on Reading in Nature

Shortly before school started I sat on the outcropping of quartzite at Annapolis Rock along the Appalachian Trail and dove into the Wilderness Essays of John Muir. As reading and hiking are two of my favorite pastimes, the bliss I found perched on the peak was understandable. It might, however, have more universal benefits and appeal as well.

We are all aware of the benefits of reading, and of the benefits of spending time outdoors, but I’ve often mused to myself on what there may be to the particular benefits of reading outdoors

Provided that time outdoors is shown to improve memory and attention outside, it seems that compounding the benefits of nature and reading would lead to improved understanding and retention of what we are reading. LIkewise, other research shows how just 20-30 minutes spent outdoors leads to reduced stress. Our school has been surveying and assessing the mental health of our students over the last several years, and the kids are stressed. If your students are like ours, something like relocating to a natural environment that isn’t yet another activity to add to their long lists, might just help bring down those stress levels enough to boost the impact of the reading/school work they are doing. 

When it comes to the connections between the content of our reading and nature, there are so many possibilities for added depth, new connections, or a more creative approach. Some English teachers bring students outside to connect with their readings. Richard Novack describes the joy of reading in nature– ​”after the winter’s first snow, we might scurry outside to read Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening,” witnessing, touching, and inhaling the crisp excitement of new snow” (Novack, 62)

Think of the possibilities of bringing students to a park or arboretum to read Romantic literature. Would students have more meaningful discussions and understandings of the sublime, for example, if they could read about nature in nature? What about spending time outside while reading texts for biology or environmental science?

The Wilderness Essays open with an introduction by Gibbs Smith, who did bring his “Nature Writers in 19th Century America” class to Yosemite to see nature like Muir and others had. While such a trip may not be possible for most, there are smaller ways we can tap into the distinct benefits of reading and nature as well as the unique alchemy that may come from doing both together. 

Setting the orientation bar LOW

We’re on Week 3 of school in Ontario and have just hosted library orientation. It’s looked many different ways over the years (including years without it), but this year we kept it low-tech and simple.

With students coming from educational systems in almost 30 countries, we can’t assume any baseline when it comes to past library experience. As we’re placed in the schedule towards the end of our very busy opening weeks, we’re welcoming tired, pretty overwhelmed students. They come to us in 3 different groups:

  • New Gr 9 day students (50) during the afternoon flex period
  • All new boarding students (3 groups of 30 each) during evening study
  • New Gr 10 & 11 day students (10) during afternoon flex period

Considering all of this, we set the bar VERY low with 3 goals:

  1. Students learn that they have a library and where it’s located
  2. Students are exposed to key library-related basics
  3. Students leave orientation with a warm, fuzzy feeling (so that they want to return)

With no more than 2 library staff on at any time, we needed this to be student-directed so we devised a list of 12 things that we wanted kids to know and created a worksheet to guide them. The number of each item on the sheet corresponded with a tabloid-sized number posted somewhere in the library.

We put students into groups of 4 and set them to task. Once the worksheet was complete and fact-checked by us, they were free to go; corrections allowed for a lot of great conversation. It took most groups 15-20 minutes to wind their way through the stations. My supervisor and colleague kindly agreed to join the party, and it was nice to have them help with direction & support while witnessing the happy chaos.

Hilariously, a number of older students were working in the library during the chaos (I’m not sure how) and commented that they wished that they’d had this available to them when they were new (hindsight might be a bit rosy in this case LOL). Or it may have been that I’d promised homemade cookies to the winners…

Voice Changing, B.O. and Zits, Oh My!

Last month, I covered (no pun intended) books about female-identifying kids’ struggles with excess body hair. This month, I thought I should cover some male-identifying kids’ puberty struggles. Many books address the emotional struggles, with a side of the physical struggles, but I couldn’t find too many with a strong focus on the physical struggles. I suspect there are many more than I found, but the issues are embedded in the story as a whole and don’t merit their own subject heading. If you know of other titles that address these issues as part of the story, write them in the comments! Summaries from Worldcat or GoodReads.com.

Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy.

“The voice actor for a hit animated series, thirteen-year-old Nikhil must find the courage to speak out about what’s right when a group of conservative parents protest his openly gay status.” –Publisher. Note: Nikhil’s voice is changing, which means he can no longer play the character he loves so much, and he’s struggling to face that reality.

Pizza Face by Rex Ogle.

“Still struggling with a home life edging on the poverty line, Rex can’t afford to buy the acne medication or deodorant he needs, and bullies are noticing Rex’s awkward transformation.” –GoodReads.com.

The Amazing Life of Birds: The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech by Gary Paulsen.

“As twelve-year-old Duane endures the confusing and humiliating aspects of puberty, he watches a newborn bird in a nest on his windowsill begin to grow and become more independent, all of which he records in his journal.” –Publisher.

The Downside of Being Up by Curtis Sitomer.

“Thirteen-year-old Bobby Connor is a normal adolescent boy–at least he hopes he is–just trying to survive middle school. But it seems he’s being foiled at every turn, and even his own body is conspiring against him. And when his math teacher is seriously injured from the shock and fright of witnessing just how out of control Bobby’s changing adolescent body is getting, he starts to worry he’s anything but normal.” –Publisher.

Spurt by Chris Miles.

“Jack Sprigley isn’t just a late-bloomer. He’s a no-bloomer. It’s nearly the end of Year 8, and with puberty still a total no-show, Jack’s in serious danger of being left behind by his friends. But then he comes up with a plan to solve all his problems. It’s simple: all he has to do is fake puberty…” –GoodReads.com.

Shonen Note: Boy Soprano, Vol. 1 by Yuhki Kamatani.

“Inspired by the angelic sound of Yutaka’s voice, [his middle school] choir eagerly accepts him into their ranks. But when Yutaka’s voice begins to change as he enters puberty, the journey ahead will be one of self-discovery and reflection for not only himself, but also for those around him.” –GoodReads.com.

Then again, maybe I won’t by Judy Blume.

“Unable to accept or explain his family’s newly acquired wealth, his growing interest in sex, and a friend’s shoplifting habit, a thirteen-year-old finds the pains in his stomach getting worse and worse.” –Publisher.

A-Okay by Jaraed Greene.

“When Jay starts eighth grade with a few pimples he doesn’t think much of it at first…except to wonder if the embarrassing acne will disappear as quickly as it arrived. But when his acne goes from bad to worse, Jay’s prescribed a powerful medication that comes with some serious side effects.” –GoodReads.com.

Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds

Short story collection. Specific story: “How a Boy Can Become a Grease Fire.” A boy likes a girl, and his friends decide to help him with his BO, dry skin, and chapped lips, as well as accompanying him to her house so he can ask for her number. This one was just funny, and sweet/obnoxious of the friends. Those middle school crushes are aptly named.

A new way to record (and share) library statistics

Of course one can track stats on various elements of library life…but what kind of audience and attention do they actually receive?

In July, I wrote about embracing joy — tracking everyday joyful experiences with a simple quilting, paint, or paper craft project — as imagined and shared by Kitty (@nightquilter), the founder of the Quilt Your Life Crew aspirational data visualization project. In addition to tracking joy, members of the group pick something to track for a period of time (usually a year) and we support each other in designing an effective visualization. They can be simple patterns, or more complicated tangible or abstract designs, as well. A favorite of mine tracked what kinds of tacos a quilter ate over the course of a year.

I tend to track something from my work life. For the 2023-2024 school year, I chose to track the library’s instructional collaborations:

A brief legend of what each square represents. This pattern, “Renew” by @jitterywings, was perfect to convey a very complex data set. To see a lengthier legend, click here.

I worked hard to complete and compile the sixty-nine blocks of the quilt face and also the legend before returning for our new school year. (I have been told to communicate that construction lasted through 10 audiobooks + 7 seasons of the Great British Baking Show + a weekend-long quilting retreat + a live SF Giants game + the summer Olympics.)

In our opening days, before students officially returned to campus, I displayed the front and back of the quilt outside the library.

The work paid off! Many of my colleagues stopped to look it over, to try to identify their block(s), and — in at least two cases — note: “Oh, I did not have you in my class very much, did I?”

And now? I am in their classes on a regular basis this year. I believe that the collaborations here (across all departments and all grades) normalized the idea of having research skills instruction for some colleagues.

Another fun outcome is that the colleague from maintenance who helped me hang the quilt commented that it might be helpful for him to make a visualization of the work orders he undertakes for the school. I offered to help him (though not to make a quilt), and am looking forward to the rather unique collaboration that will spring from that conversation.

Of course, being a librarian, I felt it important to cite my sources, and I think I will try to do this for any quilt using new fabrics in the future! (Most fabrics have an edge, called a “selvedge,” that gives the title, creator, and manufacturer of the fabric.)

The bibliography for the quilt, showing what fabrics and pattern were used in its construction.

Not everyone can — or wants to — spend a gazillion hours making a quilt, but as the Quilt Your Life Summer Joyfest has proven, there are many ways to undertake such a visualization. Pick a medium that works for you! It is, however, helpful to find a nontraditional form of visualization that will engage your colleagues and make them want to stop, look, and engage.

What might you want to track for public consumption? How might you like to construct a data visualization?