Crossing Boundaries with Reading

The National Year of Reading is still going strong in Australia, and today I had the opportunity to volunteer at an event. Crossing Boundaries with Reading is a literacy program at a Queensland high school. Know what's super-exciting about this school? It has a manga club!


The program is funded by QUT with an Engagement Innovation Grant, and Logan City Libraries are partners of the program. The official site features a student-drawn logo and news on the program. Here's a snippet from the project's About page:

Drawing on the popularity of digital technologies and Manga in youth culture, the project will enable Year 8 and 9 students to cross boundaries with reading in various ways designed to engage their interest and learning. Boundaries will be understood as spaces of opportunity rather than limitation.

Digital literacy isn't something that "born digital" teens automatically have. Some students don't have equal access to technology at home or school, and many haven't learned how to use digital tools to create content. The project aims to promote reading, equip youth with digital literacy skills, and explore manga and digital storytelling as a way of "crossing boundaries" with reading.

The students split into five groups and cycled through the activities scheduled for the morning. I was originally scheduled to play video games in the library. Yes, QUT Library has a games lounge with a Wii, PS3, and an Xbox 360! Due to numbers, though, I switched to the Blender - a room where students worked collaboratively on TV-sized PC screens.

The Blender room was staffed by QUT lecturer and information literacy researcher Mandy Lupton and Dr Anna Lundh, a researcher and teacher at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science at the University of Borås (SSLIS). I've read some of Mandy Lupton's papers, and attended a workshop by Anna Lundh, so it was nice to work with them.

The PC screens were connected to the Internet, with different word games at each station. Students rotated between tables every ten minutes. Magnetic Poetry and Free Rice were the favourites, and there was some definite competition going on!  I thought the students would think vocabulary games were lame, but they really got into it. At least 2500 grains of rice were donated to the World Food Programme today, and the school will consider using Free Rice in the classroom.

There was also the option to draw with coloured pencils. Some of the students are really gifted - they just sat there quietly, and all of a sudden, they'd show you a piece of art. I took a stab at drawing my name with the "manga head" typeface - check it out!

The event concluded with a combined session and two short presentations. Dr Hilary Hughes of QUT spoke about manga, and Mimi Tsai shared examples of digital stories. It was a great day, and I hope to apply concepts I learned today in future digital literacy programs. Thanks to all the volunteers, librarians, and educators who made the event possible.

Report Writing at the WA State Library

I prepared two reports during my fortnight as a practicum student at the State Library of WA (November-December 2011).

Report for the client services team
The client services team was considering ways to provide online tutorials and reach more patrons. I was able to make use of a document I'd written for one of my classes (INN333, Information Programs) to jump-start an evaluation of screencasting tools. My studies at QUT have noted the following applications for screencasting in libraries:

• Distance learning
• Information Literacy
• Concrete instructional tutorials
• Self-directed learning
• Introduction to library tools
• Marketing

I chose two popular screencast programs, Jing and Screenr, and evaluated them based on cost, accessibility and ease of use, features, and tech requirements. The evaluation included a table that compared the free and paid versions of Screenr and Jing. Though the resulting report was not exhaustive, it gave the client services team a starting point, should they decide to invest time and effort in creating screencasts.

Report for the participation and learning team

On 20 September 2011 the State Library of Western Australia presented Keeping Up: engaging clients and developing readers.  Panelists discussed cultural institutions as learning spaces and places, social media as a learning space and place, and how the two converged. SLWA conducted a survey through SurveyMonkey to learn what the attendees thought of the library seminar.

I was tasked with collating the survey responses and writing a report to show whether it would be worthwhile to plan similar events in 2012. In addition to providing graphs with quantitative data, I pulled quotes from the attendees as qualitative data. Overall, the seminar was a success. The majority of negative responses concerned the venue, while comments concerning the speakers were positive.

I analysed the responses and comments to determine common themes and suggestions, which would enable SLWA to tailor future seminars to suit their expected audience. Marketing and financial matters were also included in the analysis. To round out the report, I made recommendations for the format, venue, and technical issues encountered on the day.

The manager of the participation and learning team was very pleased with the report I prepared, and e-mailed the following:
Thanks so much for this – it’s a far more comprehensive piece of work than I ever expected, particularly considering the scant information I was able to provide you with in the first place. I recall it went something along the lines of “Here’s the link to the Surveymonkey results, now please could you get on with it”. You’ve written a great report which will really benefit the organisation and provide us with an evidence base as to why we should continue with a third Library Seminar in 2012.

Print vs Pixel at SLWA

I was invited to share my Kindle experience at a "lunch box" session for staff at the State Library of WA. As a practicum student and guest of the SLWA, I was honoured to be asked. Print vs Pixel: How will you read tomorrow? was a panel session, designed to introduce a variety of e-readers. Following our presentations, there was a technology petting zoo.

Approximately 30 staff members gathered for the lunch hour information session. I was seated at the front of the room, with five others on the panel. We each represented a device - Kobo, Sony Reader, Kindle, iPad, Android and...gasp! a real book. We were treated to a reading of It's A Book by Lane Smith. If you don't know it, enjoy this YouTube version!


I love the flexibility of reading on my Kindle. It's lightweight, it fits in my purse, and I can bring more than one book with me at all times. Mine has wifi, which has been a godsend; once I was on vacation and finished the first book in a series, and I was able to download the next book in no time! Browsing the Amazon website allows me to discover new authors based on my purchasing habits. I find the e-ink screen easy to read, and the device itself is a breeze to use. It was nice to contribute to the session, and share my love of the Kindle.