Starting around 6:30 pm on the 10th floor of One Memorial Drive at the Microsoft Research portion of that building, Mary will be giving another presentation danah boyd is hosting (RSVP required).

What follows are my live notes from Mary’s lunch presentation. Berkman webcasts these talks live and puts the audio online for later consumption.

Policy making often attempts to contain adolescent sexuality. Queer studies could be central to policy work. Rural youth rely “on the blurring of offline/online performance of social visibility to combat:
-’digital inequalities’ that structure their access to media and information
-broader politics of visibility that frame [the youth as being] out-of-place”

(Harvard kicked me off their network and made me re-register for access, so I missed a bit of notetaking.)

Mary worked with a group of about 34 youths in Appalachia for her research.

Linchpins for visibility: critical mass of people, capital (donor/support base for political action), and accessible “safe” places. None of these items exist in rural communities. Issues are not just about conservatism, but lacking these items. With unemployment around 40% in Appalachia, the area is very impoverished. People do not have financial resources to pay membership dues for organizations, financially support various kinds of work, etc. Small communities are often close knit and have people who think they know everyone else. People often have known each other all their lives. LGBTQ youth who do not leave must often rely on “allies and legibility as ‘locals.’” Some people see LGBTQ people as outsiders or others. People might lose some of their local identity or clout. LGBTQ folks also rely on pooled resources, which might be limited. LGBTQ youth occupy shared public spaces, sometimes temporarily because the spaces are used by others for other purposes (boundary publics). Mary said she’d talk more tomorrow (Wednesday, 2/10) about how these youth drag at a local Wal-Mart occasionally.

Queer identity is crafted locally, but identity formation can be a fundamentally social process. Boundary publics: “iterative, ephemeral experiences on the outskirts and in the center(s); blur offline/online performances of queer visibility; responses to ‘digital inequality.’”

Some of these youth use the Web to document their presence, come out online when they might not be able to feel like they can come out in their real-world, in-person communities.

What is digital inequality and how does it impact access to information for these youth? “not just … differences in access, but also to inequality among persons with formal access to the Internet” (DiMaggio and Hargattai, 2001: 2)

5 dimensions of inequality:
1. Equipment access
2. Autonomy of use
3. Skill
4. Social support
5. Purposes for which the technology is employed

1. Equipment access: many people in the region have no access to broadband or a home computer; dial-up is still used, but also not completely common.

2. Autonomy: Many home computers are shared computers. School computers are heavily monitored and filtered. Rather than policymakers spending time supporting the creation of good content for youth about sexuality, they’re focusing on blocking access to that content completely.

3. Skill: Basic literacy is an issue as well as the ability to use a computer, its software, and the Internet

4. Social support: “limited and varied by ‘power proximities’” A county librarian did what she could to support youth access to these materials. One librarian repositioned computer monitors so no one else could easily see what was on some computer screens. The youth describe that decision as a pivotal (no pun intended) moment in their decision to use that library and its computers. They felt like that action supported their learning efforts.

5. Technology’s purpose is not for queer exploration.

Queercore celebrated at a Methodist Church Skate Park, which gave youth a great cover. It was fairly easy for the youth to convince their parents to drop them off at a church for an evening activity.

Mary showed a screenshot of the website of a 19-year-old transman named AJ, who chronicled his transition online during the early 2000s. He shared photographs of how testosterone therapy changed his body and his surgery pictures. Audio files allow visitors to hear vocal changes. This Tripod site was not easy to find in a world without Google. A guestbook includes positive posts from his family—even his mom.

“Youth use new medial not to escape but create local belonging.” Many wanted to know how to be LBGTQ and happy in their own communities. Boundary publics mix digital media, inequality, and politics of visibility. How does all of that mix with the bigger picture of being LGBTQ in a small community with few other open LGBTQ folks? These youth “offer policy analysts a site for considering the value of studying the nexus of … ” digital media, minority groups, and access to information.

Mary’s book is Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America.

Q&As:

Q: Why Wal-Mart?
A: All the drag supplies are there: clothes, make-up, etc. Wal-Mart is 24-hour. The counties are dry, so no bars or other places to go. Antagonists are not in the space then. Some youth had friends who worked there and felt protected or safe. A lot of teens hang out at Wal-Mart because there’s no other place to go.

Q: ?
A: We’ve overestimated the violence and lack of support for LGBTQ people in rural spaces, but the youth recognize that what they’re doing is risky. Lots of class stratification among the youth. Middle class youth were in much better positions. Lower class youth often had more violence and anger directed at them. Most youth would say high school is a rough place regardless of their stratus. To outsiders, the view looks worse than it is because we don’t see a lot of the safe spaces locals know.

Q: How does this compare to what youth in cities experience, especially those of lower incomes?
A: Mary knows a few people who left smaller communities for big cities because of LGBTQ issues and not feeling like they could fully express their sexuality. She’s found a lot of these issues map onto bigger communities and youth in big cities. Youth have learned to prioritize which identity will give them the best … results? opportunities? … LGBTQ youth of color might choose an identity from their heritage or religion or geography rather than their sexual identity if the benefits of being a particular heritage or religion or of a palce is greater than being LGBTQ.

Q: Is there an online boundary or community for these folks?
A: Mary’s approach is one that there is no difference between online and offline experiences these days.

Q:?
A:Working online gives people a way to produce their narratives and establish some kind of belonging.

Q: Production is different in online versus offline. The fellow posting surgery pictures and audio on his site is probably not doing that from a public computer (like a library machine). Say more about production efforts and such, please.
A: Production is often collaborative and centralized for some sites. One person shepherds the group’s online efforts. (”Send your photos to Jim and he’ll put them online.”) AJ is an exception to most folks in this area.
danah: There’s a shift now to better control who’s putting what online. Urban kids know about proxies and how to circumvent certain controls, but rural kids often don’t.

“This talk will cover the basics of Universal Design for Learning and show how applying principles of UDL to the design of electronic books can transform plain text documents into learning tools. We will show … examples from CAST’s digital learning environments and compare to current trends in eBook interface design.”

Dr. Boris Goldowsky & Lisa Spitz will present. The meeting is 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM at Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA. An RSVP to nancy at nanmann dot com is required.

Our buddy Amy Disch, chief librarian at the Columbus Dispatch library, was part of a panel discussing the importance of librarians on the WOSU radio show All Sides. The book This Book is Overdue* by Marilyn Johnson inspired the discussion. Upper Arlington (Ohio) Public Library Media Services Manager Shahin Shoar and Marilyn were on the panel with Amy. Host Ann Fisher wove numerous comments from listeners into the show. Topics include what libraries and librarians offer; why librarians should be paid professionals and not volunteers or retrained retirees (though they didn’t discuss how many librarians are folks past their first career); the current role of librarians in different institutions; budget cuts; tips for preparing for library school (including a terrific event in March in Columbus, Ohio, to meet different kinds of librarians); the Conneticut Four and the USA PATRIOT Act; bookmobiles; and book cart drill teams. You might think I’m joking, but they also discussed senses of humor librarians have. One quote that made me laugh was something like “If you think the stereotypical librarian is awful, you should see the library patrons.” Mind you, I visit my local library about once a week (or more–I think I’m up to three times this week).

I encourage each librarian to encourage their constituents, clients, library stakeholders, etc., to listen to this show.

*Great title for a book praising librarians, libraries, and librarianship, no?

“When it comes to the layoffs and buyouts that have hit newspapers over the last couple of years, copy editors seem to be the most at risk of losing their jobs. So it wasn’t too much of a shock when Leslie Norman’s husband was laid off from his copy editing position at The Wall Street Journal.”

“But then last year she was let go from her job as a news librarian at the Journal, and suddenly it seemed as though they were both working in at-risk, or perhaps even endangered, roles. (Her husband has since been brought back to work on contract for the paper.)”

“We didn’t [think that way] until we were laid off,” she said. “I never saw my layoff coming—it was a total surprise.”

“The loss of copy editors has been the subject of much lament and debate in this corner, as in other places. But the plight of librarians seems to attract less fanfare and hand wringing, as if we’ve all been shushed from saying something.”

According to data collected by Michelle Quigley, a researcher at the Palm Beach Post, over 250 news librarians (sometimes called news researchers) lost their jobs in the U.S. since 2007. Membership in the Special Libraries Association News Division, an organization for news librarians, has fallen to below 400 from over 1,000 in the 1990s. Entire news libraries have been shuttered and replaced by consultants or outside vendors.

Last year, the Detroit Free Press got rid of its last three librarians, eliminating the department entirely. Also in 2009, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution let go of fifteen librarians, which also resulted in the closure of its research department.

It’s not hard to see why newsroom budgeters cast an eye towards the library when cuts have to be made. Most news librarians are never given a byline, though some receive research credit at the bottom of articles. The perception is that they mostly help archive a paper, a task that can, to a certain degree, be automated. Just as copy editors get the hook because they don’t generate content and therefore can’t fill space or generate pageviews, news librarians are shown the door because they’re seen as a holdover from a time when newspapers kept detailed clipping files on major topics and personalities, and when the “morgue” was a critical part of a paper’s operations.

Now that every reporter and editor has access to Google and a wide range of search technologies and online databases, the thinking is that they don’t need to call upon the Boolean expertise of librarians. You can see how it makes sense—except then the facts start to get in the way. In fact, the modern news librarian seems in many ways more important than ever. Even those old clipping files still come in handy.

When I spoke with Amy Disch, chair of the Special Libraries Association News Division and library director of the Columbus Dispatch, she said her team had accessed clipping files and hard copy photo archives more than ten times that day alone. But that’s the least of what they do at the paper. In addition to providing research services to support reporters, the library runs a newsroom intranet and wiki, provides data analysis for investigations, and offers a range of other useful services.

Then there’s the reality that just because reporters can access Google or search Nexis and other databases, it doesn’t mean they know how to use them properly.

For the whole CJR article:

http:tinyurl.comydgta84

h/t to Resourceshelf

http:/www.resourceshelf.com/

Posted by Rich

“Want to come free? DigiComm offers free registrations to three people who will blog the conference. Each blogger will cover the keynotes and one of three breakout tracks:”

1. Getting Started with Digital Commonwealth; Metadata 1; and the Role of Print Permanence
2. Bringing the Past to the Future; Get your Grant Here: and Reaching Your Patrons: Online Outreach
3. From Artifact to Digital; Fix It or Sleeve It?/ Metadata II

“Interested? Email  cnoah at cmrls.org. Please use DigiComm blogger as the subject line. Include your name, position, institution and your blog’s URL. Indicate whether you’d prefer track 1, 2, or 3.”

For more info on the conference:

http://www.nmrls.org/digitalcommonwealth/2010conference/

Posted by Rich

How does ITIG’s DigiCamp work? If you are interested in hearing about other
library’s use of technology, or if you wish to share innovative or interesting
things that are happening at YOUR library, just show up and share! DigiCamp will
feature a community-driven format where each session is designed and delivered by
you! This format fosters spontaneous sharing, therefore, no PowerPoints allowed!
Even the topics chosen for each session will be chosen by you!

Is DigiCamp right for me? DigiCamp is designed for all technology levels, so come
one, come all!

Bookmark this page and check back to see who is coming and topics under discussion!

https://sites.google.com/site/itigdigicamp/

Where: Wheaton College Library. Norton, Massachusetts
When: Friday, March 19th. Registration starts @ 9am. Lightning round sessions begin
@ 9:30am till 12:30pm
How much? Absolutely free! That’s right, zip, zero, nada!
How do I register?

https://sites.google.com/site/itigdigicamp/home/registration

Registration Deadline: Registration ends on Friday, Feb 19th so register early!

Posted by Rich

“When I graduated and moved off campus, I quickly realized I’d have to give up the school library, too. So I got a library card from our local library. That’s when I discovered benefits like free WiFi and computer access, free DVD rentals, and (of course) the world’s greatest supply of free books and magazine subscriptions. And all I had to do was bring them back on time — or call to renew them. Pretty marvelous, I thought.”

Savings Advocate Christy B. goes further to explain how to help bookworms save money in this economy: let them browse bookstores, but buy only 1 or 2 items at a time, borrowing the rest they’d like from the local library. In the comments, people remind us of the value of toddler story time, express surprise at the amount and type of library holdings, and discuss how the library can be a lifelong benefit.

The savers don’t mention how the library most likely has a variety of resources about saving money, investing, managing money, budgeting, and doing things on the cheap (like inexpensive vacations, cooking {gourmet meals for less}, sewing clothes, passes to local cultural institutions {aquarium, museums, and historical sites}, and free or inexpensive activities in your community). Your tax dollars probably support your local library, so you’ve already invested in it. You may as well use it.

Go to your local library. Just go.

“Reports of destroyed and damaged libraries and archives are beginning to filter in, and in an effort to help our Haitian colleagues, ALA has created the ‘Haiti Library Relief Fund’ to collect monetary tax deductible donations.

Libraries and other cultural institutions are critical resources for the recovery of people around the world in the aftermath of a humanitarian crisis.”

LYRASIS invites members to attend this year’s Computers in Libraries Conference in Arlington, VA at a major discount. This year’s conference theme is “Information Fluency: Literacy for Life”.

Register through LYRASIS and receive the special discount rate of $244 for the 3-day event (April 12 – 14, 2010). That’s a 50% discount! (No discount is available for the pre- or post-conference seminars or other workshops.)

In addition, discount prices of $109 on the Internet@Schools East 2010 Conference and $244 for the combo of Internet@Schools East and Computers in Libraries general conference are also available.

Registrations will be sent to Information Today on March 9th, so please have them to us prior to that date. Registrations received after March 8, 2010, will not qualify for the LYRASIS group discount.

Please complete this registration form and fax it back to Kenna Juliani with your credit card information 508.597.1993. If writing a check, mail the form to Kenna Juliani with a check made out to INFORMATION TODAY, not LYRASIS. All checks written to LYRASIS will be returned upon receipt to sender. Payment from your subscription accounts is not possible for this event.

LYRASIS

ATTN: Kenna Juliani

153 Cordaville Road

Suite 200

Southborough, MA 01772

Fax: 508.597.1993

For more info on the Lyrasis discount:

 http://www.lyrasis.org/Classes-and-Event…

http://www.infotoday.com/cil2010/default.asp

Posted by Rich