Author: Maryanne Mills

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Reflection 2: Transparency wake-up call

photo of busy circulation desk.
Frontline staff at Exeter Library, UK

I came away from the transparency lecture and readings with a new sense of urgency.  I first wanted to forward the readings pertaining to leadership to my dean (a great administrator, but not a librarian) to emphasize the importance of seeing how the front line deals with the day to day issues of an academic library.

I then veered off into thinking which of the articles I wanted to share with my library colleagues, but decided to hold off because they might take some of the articles like Turning “No” into “Yes” as me being on some high horse expounding new dictates to my peers. As the library’s department chair, I can see this move as being very preachy and overbearing.

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Context Book Report: Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom

I first approached the book Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom by Rebecca MacKinnon,  as a librarian who teaches an information competency course to community college students. I’ve always discussed our First Amendment rights as U.S. citizens to my students and this looked like a title that would help broaden my set of free speech examples. That was the idea when I chose this book. Once I completed Module 4: Participatory Service, however, I had to return to the book with a different mission: how could I use what I learned from the book and make it into a participatory model assignment for my students?

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