SRP Mea Culpa....NOT!

Today the SRP anonymous Suggestion Box included a note of disappointment that I did not complete my SRP.  I feel like I need to explain myself, not as an apology, but because I should have kept you posted throughout, and that was my fault.

I made it to the thesis statement and that was that.  I won't lie.  I dropped it when it came to the project phase.  My reasons probably include some of the same reasons you may have struggled to complete your project:

• lofty project ideas that proved unrealistic for the timeframe
• lofty project ideas that I had no business pursuing
• family obligations
• work obligations
• other

What I plan to do (yes, I still plan to do this) is to become involved in the Prison Library Project.  When I say involved, I mean really involved, which is why I didn't get this done according to the SRP deadlines.  I want to be part of this project on a permanent basis.  I want to make it part of my life's work.  This, I found, was harder to make happen in eight weeks than one might think.  So, when faced with whether to pursue this goal or to drop it based on the SRP timeline, I decided to free myself of the restraints of the SRP and give myself permission to do something big.  As coordinator of the project, I have that power.

As I read more and more about the Angola Prison, its history, criminal justice in America, prisons in general, and race politics in the contemporary south, I became...well...kind of depressed.  I read story after story of unjust prison sentences, solitary confinement, extended sentences, and mistreatment of prisoners.  Then it occurred to me that I was reading mostly first-person accounts, which meant I was reading published works by prisoners and ex-prisoners, which meant I was seamlessly entering into a discussion of literacy, education, and information flow in and out of prisons.  Suddenly, I was somewhere familiar.

So, the Prison Library Project.  Based in Claremont, this organization receives thousands of requests from prisoners asking for specific books our types of books.  They send them.  They run a used bookstore in order to raise funds to do so.  They are so close! And I want to be one of them.  I've made some feeble attempts to get involved (sent emails, made calls, filled out online forms) and their lack of response kept delaying the beginning of my project.  

So, again, I extended my own deadline. This is something I plan to do with or without the SRP.  I want to create a lasting relationship with this organization that involves more than a simple monetary donation or occasional book donation.  Ideally I could help respond to prisoner book requests directly. Maybe I could even help develop prison library collections that could be accessed on site.  I don't really know, since this idea is in its infancy.  Remember though, I've already done my graduate-level research, so I'm free to do this at a pace that will work for my life.  That's the benefit of being me and not, well, you.  

This probably won't satisfy most of you.  I know you wanted to see me produce exactly what you produced, and to a certain extent (the entire first semester) I did.  But I don't feel bad really, since I do think I've lived out the goals of the SRP to their fullest extent.  I read, I viewed, I examined, I thought, I learned, and I reached out.  I was challenged by it, and I was (to a certain extent) changed by it.  I learned about my own limitations and the constraints on my time.  I grappled with tough questions.  I practiced the skills that I taught you, over and over and over.  And over.

And over.

So there you have it.  Take it or leave it.  The one regret I have is that I didn't talk about it more. Perhaps you could have encouraged me to move things along more quickly. Perhaps one of you would have had an even better idea for me.  I think I was so wrapped up in what you were doing that I placed my idea on hold for a minute.  But don't be fooled.  I'm doing this.  When you're a teacher, that's what summers are for.

Calling all Gamer Girls (bonus: SRP topic idea)

Anyone out there like games?  Video games? Computer games?  Games on your phone?  C'mon, I know you've at least played some Candy Crush.  Oh wait, wasn't there some game that everyone was obsessed with last year?  What was is.....oh, right!  Octagon!  If you like games, you need to know about Jane McGonigal.  She is a super gamer girl, and one who has made a career out of designing games that will CHANGE THE WORLD.  That's right.  She's on a mission.  McGonigal is harnessing the power of games, and specifically the power of collective game-playing, to create games that solve complicated scientific and ecological problems that would take years to crack using traditional methods.  How cool is that?  She started in this direction after a brain injury caused her to design games to re-train her brain to do certain things that had become more difficult as result of a severe concussion.  Wow.

Here's the SRP topic idea - games as tools to advance social or environmental justice causes
This is a real thing. People are doing this.  Take a look at Games for Change, on organization that creates games to engage people in environmental and social issues.  Or Creo, a group that uses games to increase interest in science topics.

Here's McGonigal talking about some of her awesome ideas:

You can read Jane McGonigal's book, Reality is Broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world, in the Library. Here's a synopsis from goodreads.com:

More than 31 million people in the UK are gamers. The average young person in the UK will spend 10,000 hours gaming by the age of twenty-one. What's causing this mass exodus? According to world-renowned game designer Jane McGonigal the answer is simple: videogames are fulfilling genuine human needs. Drawing on positive psychology, cognitive science and sociology, Reality is Broken shows how game designers have hit on core truths about what makes us happy, and utilized these discoveries to astonishing effect in virtual environments. But why, McGonigal asks, should we use the power of games for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking exploration of the power and future of gaming, she reveals how gamers have become expert problem solvers and collaborators, and shows how we can use the lessons of game design to socially positive ends, be it in our own lives, our communities or our businesses. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality is Broken sends a clear and provocative message: the future will belong to those who can understand, design and play games.

Think about it!  You could choose an SRP topic that requires you to PLAY GAMES.  I'm a genius.

My SRP: considering a topic

Thanks to Carly and Siera, it looks like I'll be completing a Senior Research Project along with the class of 2015.  It's fitting I suppose, since I started working on our Research Curriculum with this class way, way back in Biology and Health classes their freshman year.  I'm excited to select my topic!

This is Avol's.  It's in a different space than when
I worked there, and now it's merged with a great
feminist bookstore called A Room of One's Own.

On Friday, Carly asked me why I enjoy this so much.  Why do I love research projects, teaching students to conduct research, locating information, etc.?  Then Siera asked if I dreamed of being a Librarian when I was a kid.  That got a laugh from the class, but it's really an excellent question.  In some ways my life has been heading in this direction for a long, long time.  My dad is an information hound.  He reads widely and deeply on a crazy range of subjects.  He seeks out obscure references and sources.  He remembers everything.  Some of that must have rubbed off on me.  Not to mention the fact that I spent countless hours at the public library doing homework and projects with friends when I was a kid.  I loved it there.  There were these purple chairs that would spin around and around, and we all knew the strange section of the library where there were books on subliminal messages in advertisements, and it was so cool to request some old archived magazine article and have the Librarian slip into the back and reappear with it in his hand.  The best job I ever had (until now!) was at Avol's Bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin.  It's a great, academic used bookstore in a college town, so the customers were professors, grad student, and sometimes famous musician s or writers.  I sold books to Shel Silverstein, Henry Rollins, and Rob Zombie more than once.  People would come in looking for a book or a topic, and I would lead them around the store to check various sections like mysticism, political history, books on books (one of my favorites), literature in translation, engineering.  You name it, we had a section on it.  I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to finally find that one, special book that someone had been looking for over months and years.  Or to lead someone to a section where they would browse for an hour and then emerge with a handful of worn, dog-eared, sweet smelling paperbacks to take home.  I mean, come on!  It's a great moment when that happens, and I guess I just like being there for all of those great moments.

So, I take pleasure in helping you find what you need, what you love, what you've been looking for without knowing it.  That's my story, and that's what I'm going to try to study during the SRP.

My first thought was that I'd study something about art and information, specifically that way art can be used to manipulate information, to spread mis- or disinformation.
Then I thought I'd go back to my old Foundations of Information course and dig up some Marshall McLuhan, the father of Information Studies.  Have you ever heard the phrase "the medium is the message"?  That's McLuhan, and I might want to ask some questions about his work, though I'm not there yet.
Then I thought I would consider libraries and access to information.  What is the nature of libraries? How are they essential to our civilization?  But that seems obvious.

There is something on the tip of my tongue.  Something about McLuhan and libraries and that feeling people get when they zero in on an answer.  I have to do some more thinking, but I will say I am SUPER happy that I was challenged to do this.  It's going to be great.

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Oh, and in case you were wondering, it looks like Mr. Buxman is going to be my research advisor, along with Siera as a secondary advisor.  God help me.