In the middle of a busy day, I noticed iPhoto was open and thought I’d better seize the opportunity to post some pictures from our screening on April 15.

We had filmmaker and media studies scholar Kembrew McLeod here for a sneak preview of his documentary “Copyright Criminals,” about sampling in the music industry.  Thanks to our fantastic program planner Matthew Stadler, we also got Portland designer and ex-Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen to do a Q&A with Kembrew after the film.

We had a great crowd of students, musicians, artists, and even some entertainment lawyers.  Very lively discussion, and at the end of the night we had to boot people out.  Thanks to Reedie Rachel Bridgewater for bringing information about CopyNight here in Portland, and to KBOO’s Digital Divide for airing the Q&A on the radio.

Audience for Copyright Criminals at UO Portland

Dave Allen & Kembrew McLeod talk it out after the screening

Next up:  another IP-themed event with lecture and performance, sometime this summer.  Watch this space!

An interesting op/ed piece in the NY Times calling for the dismantling of higher education as we know it.  I don’t disagree with all of the points made here, but it seems to me that the really big sticking point is the tenure piece.  Until tenure is reformed, universities seem powerless to effect this kind of serious, sweeping change.  It’s one thing to say we need more interdisciplinary work, more relevance, and less retreat into hyperspecialization.  I think we can all agree on that (or maybe not…)  The hard thing is making the change actually happen.  Right now, T&P keeps us locked into bad publishing strategies, bad hiring and retention policies, and inefficient use of our resources.  Higher ed does need an overhaul.  But someone’s going to need a really big block and tackle to get the engine out of the body…

And that said, I had a very nice Saturday evening with the Oregon Special Library Association, at their student reception.  I sat on a panel with Reece Dano of Ziba Design, Michael Braun Hamilton of Mercy Corps, Jeff Allen of Laika, Cindy Romaine of Romaniacs, and Meryl Cole, formerly of WSU Vancouver, and co-author of Instant Messaging Reference, a Practical Guide.  I had a great time talking with all these folks, as well as students and graduates from Emporia, Illinois, UW, FSU, and other places.

For once, I remember* to post about something before I do it…

I’ll be joining the rest of the ACRL Green Conference Component Committee and our ACRL staff liaison, Tory Ondrla, in an ACRL OnPoint Chat on Wednesday at 11 am PST.  This is a free, open chat on Meebo:  instructions for joining in are here.  And the event description, for good measure:

April 29, 2009: Seattle Green: Lessons learned from greening the ACRL 14th National Conference
(10:00 am. Pacific | 11:00 a.m. Mountain | 12:00 p.m. Central | 1:00 p.m. Eastern)
The 14th ACRL National Conference in Seattle WA was the greenest ACRL conference ever, thanks to the hard work, good ideas, and contributions of ACRL members and staff.  Charles Forrest and Karen Munro, co-chairs of the ACRL Green Conference Component Committee, will join Tory Ondrla, ACRL staff member and Green Conference liaison, to chat with you about how they “greened” the conference.  They’ll discuss specific sustainability event strategies, lessons learned along the way, and their hopes and dreams for our next conference in 2011.  Bring your interest in greening your own conference, meeting, or event—and your own green experiences and insights!

I hope to see lots of folks there!

*Thanks to Paula Walker for reminding me that people need to actually know about this…

We’ve been doing some events planning here in the UO Portland Library & Learning Commons, and I’m loving how public programming fits into our mission, both as instruction and publicity.  Last week we screened an independent documentary film about sampling in hip-hop and rap, and two weeks before that we co-sponsored a panel session on how creative workers can get through tight economic times.  Our students are mostly creative design and communication professionals, so this was a great fit for them.

We had a terrific turnout, a great panel discussion, and an open Q&A and meet-and-greet session that drew folks from the City of Portland, job placement agencies, creative firms, and professional associations–as well as lots of students and freelancers.

Audience at the White Stag Block

Audience at White Stag Block Talk

Holding events like these, in which the Library is a full and active participant, reminds me how important it is for us to get out of our offices, out of our libraries even.  It’s part of activating the collection, part of promoting who we are and what we stand for, and where we fit into the values and mission of the departments and the institution.  It’s important work, and the goodwill it generates is tremendous.  (And it’s fun…)

Photos of the screening coming soon…

Thanks to librarian superhero Claire Rivers for reminding me I needed to post this event!   (We’ve been so busy getting this into the local media I forgot I have a blog of my own…)

We’re hosting a free sneak preview screening of the indie music documentary Copyright Criminals tomorrow night, here in the White Stag Building.  If you’re in the Portland area, file your taxes and come down for some free culture!  Movie starts at 6 pm, and is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker (Kembrew McLeod) and musician and designer Dave Allen.

Thanks for the reminder, Claire–and yes, I’ll post some notes and pictures after the fact, for those who can’t make it here tomorrow night.  If I ask Kembrew nicely, maybe he’ll even donate a copy of the film for our collection…

Next up, some photos from our first event, a panel session on April 1st–wildly successful by all accounts!

Eric Frierson at UT Arlington (along with some colleagues) has put together this terrific short promotional video for librarians’ services there.  I love it!  (Annie, something for our list to show our students!)

In other news, Annie and I taught our first LIB 101 class last week.  I had the flu and had to use a microphone to be heard, but Annie persevered in getting Rock Band (The Most Complicated Video Game In the World To Set Up) running for the end of the class, and that was a pretty good success.  They sang along!  This week, we’re delving into search and wayfinding in new environments:  games, Google, and the library catalog.  Should be interesting.

It’s been a long time since my last post, though I’ve been thinking about this blog a lot.  Excuses aside, some stuff that’s been going on…

ACRL 2009 was a good time had by all.  It was a real pleasure to see the fruits of the Green Committee’s labors–recycled carpet in the exhibits hall, shower times in the tote bags, few-to-no paper handouts, and recyling everywhere.  Robin Chase’s Sunday morning talk was terrific and thought-provoking.  She also graciously did a podcast, which is freely available.  When I wasn’t staffing the Green Booth I got to a few good CyberZed Shed sessions on iMacros, texting at UC Irvine, and Sony Readers.  Does ALA do these kinds of sessions–short, technology-oriented, practical?  I’d love to see more like this.

My colleague Anne Zeidman-Karpinski and I have maximum enrollment for our Library 101 class focusing on video games, video production, and general visual culture.  25 students in Eugene, with Annie teaching there and me here in Portland.  Videoconferencing, yes.  It’s an all-video extravaganza!  We’re using spring break this week to get our final prep work done for the syllabus and assignment outlines.  Final assignment is a group “TV” program made up of short segments from each student, filmed in the media studies center.  And I just read an interesting interview about games and gaming that might ring bells for some folks who are interested in the strangeness of grown-ups and college students playing games to learn…

I’ve also been working to plan two events in early April:  a panel session about creative professionals working in the recession, and a film screening of “Copyright Criminals,” a documentary by Kembrew Mcleod.

And I’m very pleased to say that Michael Stephens’s awesome “Ray of Light” video for the St. Joseph County Public Library is back up on Youtube, albeit without Madonna’s soundtrack.  Thanks, Michael!

Thanks to Juanita for pointing me to Animoto as a quick video-creation tool.  And thanks to the folks who licensed these images on Flickr Creative Commons (and whom I can’t credit in the video itself b/c of technical issues):  brungrrl, Pop!Tech, RebeccaPollard, and Psycho Al.  If you share, please pass on the credit.

I’m currently co-designing a for-credit research methods class, using video games and gaming as a structure.  I’m looking for examples of more online video games that are freely available (without signup, preferably) for play through a web browser.  Here’s an example of what I’m thinking of:  Samorost, a beautifully-designed and complex point-and-click problem-solving game (it feels like I should say “experience.”)  I’m hoping to build game play into each class to reinforce what we’re teaching about search, discovery, pattern recognition, and so on.

Anyone got any good online game examples to share?

Happy New Year!  I’m in the office (note:  it snowed again, which is almost unbelievable for Portland) planning a spring-term class that I’m teaching with my friend and colleague Annie Zeidman-Karpinski.  It’s Library 101, and as you might imagine from the name it’s both a classic and a little bit dusty.  We’re shooting to blow some of the dust off by reorienting it in terms of visual content and videos.  Videoconferencing, video games, screencasts, you name it, we’re going to have it.  Obviously this begs some questions about the traditional syllabus for a class like this, which I like to call ‘WOTCA WETWODA,” or “Week One The Catalog, Week Two The Databases…”  In other words, a slow and ponderous introduction of research tools in the order we (the librarians) think is most important.

No WOTCA WETWODA for us!  We’re picking 3 ACRL research competencies and teaching to them, using whatever tools crop up.  We’re really interested in David Wiley’s online class in learning theory, which he’s teaching at Brigham Young University–and in which he’s encouraging his students to role-play as bards, artisans, merchants, or monks.