The second example came to me as a result of the recent service trip I took with the UH2020 course.  One of our students shared an anecdote, a conversation, she experienced while on the trip.  She was speaking with a volunteer who works with individuals without homes.  The volunteer shared an analogy with her that compared service to a dam.  If one gives too much, the water source may run dry.  If one takes too much, the dam may break.  If one finds the right balance of give and take, the surrounding area will flourish.

I can only wonder:  is someone trying to tell me something?  I think so!  Thanks for the reminders, Universe.  I needed it.

Both of these reminders come to me during a period where I’m not striking the right balance.  I’m involved in a huge project in my neighborhood.  The result:  I’m in survival mode.  I work every night from the time I leave the library until 11:30).  The dirty dishes stay in the sink far too long.  Bills get skipped (not for lack of money, but for lack of time).  My poor pooch doesn’t get long enough walks.  While the project is rewarding and worthwhile and has already brought tremendous benefits to my neighborhood and the surrounding community, my sanity might be at stake.  Chaos rules.

The worst part is – there are folks I could ask for help, and who have offered help.  And I rarely take them up on it.  Why?  Because it’s quicker to do it myself.  It takes more time to teach someone the job.

Flash back to my service trip.  The agency that hosts us, Good Works, operates daily under the “ethic of inefficiency.”  They value building relationships more than getting the job done.  When serving, it’s important to get to know people you’re helping.  It provides a sense of self-worth and dignity.  I’ve written about this before (see:  The Ethic of Inefficiency).

It’s about time I put this in to practice for myself.  In the past two days, I have sent lists of what I need help with to a few volunteers who have agreed to help so they can choose a couple of tasks to do.  I will learn to delegate more if it kills me!  This burnout may have been prevented, had I learned long ago.

While I will try to blog while I’m away, computer access will be limited.  So, another way to keep us with us is to follow our twitter hashtag:  #WSUinApp2013

It’s been a great group of students this semester, so we’re looking forward to serving with them and with our community partners:

Good Works, Green Edge Gardens, Rural Action, Athens County Public Library, Monday Creek Restoration Project, and ReUse Industries

Boyte recommended that we learn more about the Citizen Professional Center at University of Minnesota as a example of how higher education can play a role in this movement to renew citizenship.  The Citizen Professional Idea encourages professionals to support the rebuilding of civic life in addition to their roles providing their expertise and/or services to individuals.

A few other takeaways:

• Each community has tremendous untapped talent.  Every citizen must participate to make our democracy more healthy and vibrant and to revitalize citizenship.
• Educators need to teach their students to become powerful agents of change.
• Although Boyte didn’t address service-learning specifically, of course this pedagogy helps students and faculty be engaged in citizenship every day.

As librarians, of course, our own daily public work supports and demonstrates citizenship.  How can we play a role to help teach our students and/or patrons to be active, engaged citizens?  Can we assist faculty in creating assignments?  Can we promote and/or market our collections and materials to be used in support of citizenship?  Could we offer programs (guest speakers, etc.) that teach and remind our users to be citizens?  What else could or should we do?

Dr. Stevens provided an overview of Campus Compact, defined service-learning and described its importance in higher education.  We then described four case studies in which Jennifer and I have worked with faculty to pair information literacy and service-learning.  (You can see the handout linked below) to read more about 3 of the 4 case studies.  Finally, we invited the audience to participate in a think-pair-share activity.  The following questions were included as possible topics of discussion amongst attendees:

1.  John Riddle wrote an article in 2003 “Where’s the library in service-learning?”  He explores how information literacy and service-learning have gone along parallel to one another with similar goals (educated citizenry, for example) seemingly unknowingly of one another.  What similarities and differences do you see between IL & SL?  Is there an opportunity to make a more formal connection between the two?

2.  What institutional barriers exist that could make it difficult to pair IL & SL?  How might you creatively negotiate those differences?

3.  What faculty members do you think you could approach when you return to your campus?  Why do their classes seem like a good fit?

4.  What are the “selling points” for your involvement in service-learning?

A copy of our handout can be found at this link.

A copy of our presentation (Prezi) can be found at this link.

The twitter hashtag for our presentation was:  #acrls-l

Please let me know if you have further questions or you’d like to talk through some ideas regarding service-learning and how libraries, librarians and/or information can play a role.  I’m happy to help!  Of course, you could also explore this blog for examples, as well.

“Government can generate leadership, resources, tools, and rules.  But officials are not the center of the civic universe, nor is government the only location for democracy.  Democracy is a way of life rooted in living communities; it is a work in progress.”

How do we teach our students about being active citizens?  How can we as librarians contribute to this mission, especially if we don’t teach our own classes and we’re invited into the classroom only once?  Of course information literacy plays a role in being an active, engaged citizen in terms of informing oneself before voting.

Another quote I’ve been seeing a lot lately on Facebook and other social media sites is really resonating, as well:  “Every time you spend your money, you’re casting a vote for what kind of world you want.”  (author Anna Lappe). Being mindful spenders and critically thinking about how your actions affect others is also part of being a good citizen locally and also globally.  But again, if we’re only with students for 50 minutes to help them with their research for a specific paper, how do we get this message across?  Should we try to?  This is what I try to accomplish in my service-learning classes, but I’m certain there are other ways…Ideas?  Please share!

The journal is available for download here.

Sass, M. (2013) Service Learning Reflection Journal. Purdue University Learning and Service Engagement series. Center for Instructional Excellence: West Lafayette, IN.

Here are several examples:

Purdue:  http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/ace

University of Cincinnati, Clermont:  http://guides.libraries.uc.edu/content.php?pid=275810&sid=2272995

Michigan State University:  http://libguides.lib.msu.edu/content.php?pid=56378&sid=412895

Texas A & M: http://guides.library.tamu.edu/content.php?pid=182671&sid=1536140

Duke University:  http://guides.library.duke.edu/durham_service_learning

Does your institution have a service-learning libguide?  Please share if you do!

Today, I discovered this article by John Eric Juricek:  Embedded in Shanghai:  A librarian accompanies students to China.

And I thought going to Appalachian Ohio was “extreme.”

We invited a faculty member and a service-learning/civic engagement expert in order to offer some perspectives from outside of librarianship about how information literacy and service-learning pair together and take students “from research to action.”

Our presentation will take place Friday, April 12 from 8:30 – 9:30, location TBD.  We hope you’ll add this session to your conference plans!