There was an excellent article in C&RL News recently, entitled "A librarians journal club: A forum for sharing ideas and experiences."
Theodore Hickman and Lisa Allen. College & Research Libraries News, 66 (9), October 2005, pp. 642-644.
When I read it I immediately thought, "Yes, that is what I was talking about," when I wrote "Articles I’ve Been Reading."
The article discusses some of the issues that lead to "professional communication [often not being] as rigorous or robust as it might be, and should be, in the workplace" (642). It then goes on to discuss "a known, successful format for organizing individuals around a topic for discussion—the "journal club"" (642).
Maybe I’m just stupid, and this can’t work in the online environment, or maybe it could work better in a different format. Wiki? I do, though, think it can work at some level; certainly at a level above not doing it at all. Read the article for the proposed professional benefits, although I would hope you can come up with them on your own.
Here is what I’m envisioning, at least until I get input from others:
We "meet" once a month with one specific article as the theme. We all write as much as we want about the article and then post it to our blogs around the "meeting" date. For those without blogs, or perhaps some of my fellow students with sub-radar blogs, I would be happy to post what you write on mine, with full attribution, of course, if you email it to me. Then someone—could be rotating or I’d be happy to do it—creates a carnival-like posting that points to all of the participants for that month. That way we can all read what each other wrote and comment if we like, as can others.
Clearly, this would not be a discussion in the sense of a face-to-face discussion, yet it would still allow us to get different viewpoints on the article-of-the-month.
I would love to see librarians of all stripes, LIS students, and even interested folks outside the discipline participate. Many of the topics that you think are most removed from your daily practice will impact what you do, sooner rather than later.
My main concern is how to handle picking the articles. If we did a rotating hosting of the compilation post (carnival) then it might be fair for the person hosting for the next month to pick. Yet, that excludes those who can’t host from having an equal amount of input. And that disturbs me. Suggestions?
If you are interested in participating or have suggestions, please comment here or email me at mark dot lindner at insightbb dot com.
P.S. My off-the-cuff reasons for choosing a monthly "meeting":
- We are all busy, and this hopefully isn’t a major imposition once a month.
- It allows one time to get the article via ILL if need be.
- It allows time for reading, reflection, writing, more reflection, and posting.
I’d do it! I’m not really connected with a lot of the current literature, but I could definitely squeeze another article into my schedule.
Another thought on finding articles, is to publish for the year, a list of subjects … like they do for journal calls for papers. I guess the idea is for everyone to read the same paper each month? I guess you could publish this list w/ a call for suggested papers to read, then the editor could pick a paper from that, announce it a month out….
This sounds like a great idea. I would certainly participate. As library school recedes and I continue in pre-employment limbo, I could really use this kind of professional community connection. And it is a more realistic commitment for me than the book club at the moment.
Thanks Lindsey and Mock Turtle for your commitment! And thank you Christina for the suggestions; not sure if you were committing or not.
I think I’ll do what Christina suggested, as best as I interpret it. I will come up with a suggested list of topics, maybe make a suggestion or two for articles in those areas, and then ask for article suggestions within those.
Lindsey, if I might ask, is there an article you’ve read or not, that might be a good overview to archives today? Or to a major issue within the archives community that might be reasonably accessible to non-archivists? Of course, we do want to stretch ourselves a bit.
Mock Turtle, any suggestions for an area dear to your heart, or just one that you’d like to pursue that you haven’t had a chance to?
First off, thanks for your latest comment over at my blog.
I went ahead and read both the article and your previous post on articles you have been reading. I then read this one. It sounds like a plan. The idea of stretching a little sounds good. Part of the reason I try to read widely is because I know a lot of stuff will have an impact on my practice sooner or later. Reading all those posts got me thinking, and I may or not write a post about journal clubs and keeping up in the workplace (I have questions about doing it since it may put my MPOW on the spot, something I try to avoid).
Anyhow, do let me know if you need anything to get the virtual club rolling, you can certainly count me in.
Best.
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I’m sure I can find something on archives that will appeal to a lot of people. Let me look over my syllabi this weekend and I’ll send you a few suggestions!
Keep me in the loop? I think it sounds like a cool idea.
Archives is fine with me as a starter topic. With any luck, I’ll get some ideas of my own as we go along.
I’m in! This is a great idea; I definitely have been feeling the need to be more up to date on current literature. I’d also like to offer my forums. There’s currently absolutely nothing there but a book club that never got off the ground, but they’re already set up and it’d be friendly to non-bloggers.
I’d also like to suggest another potential format. One of my professors in library school had assignments that required us to find three articles on a particular topic that she’d assigned, and then read and summarize them. On the day those assignments were do, we’d get into small groups and discuss the articles we’d read. We found there was some overlap, but not too much – I think it made for a good discussion. And the added bonus to this form of discussion is that we walked away with mini-bibliographies on a variety of topics. That might be something interesting to do, but if you want to focus to be on current literature, it might not be the best idea.
I’d definitely be interested in participating.
I’d be very interested in this as well.
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