Fun with photographs

I’ve just had a thoroughly enjoyable time browsing the National Library of Ireland and the New York Public Library’s Flickr sites of public domain photographs.  Rudai 23’s Thing 3 introduced me to new photography sites that have  Creative Commons licensing permissions including one called Pixabay.  Typically, I go directly to the Creative Commons site and search there, but Thing 3 taught me how to go directly to Google Images and Flickr to search for CC images.

For this task, I decided to look for images in the Public Domain from my grandparents’ hometowns in Ireland and their newly adopted homes in New York City. After a bit of hunting and pecking at the National Library of Ireland’s Flickr site, I found images of both of my grandmothers’ hometowns. Glengarriff is a lovely village in County Cork where my maternal grandmother Mary Agnes  grew up.

photo of a stone tower on a rocky coast.
Garinish Island Tower, Glengarriff, Cty. Cork, Ireland. Public Domain, Nat’l Library of Ireland

Edgeworthstown, County Longford, is close to where my paternal grandmother Molly grew up.

looking down main street, black & white photo,
Main St., Edgeworthstown, Cty. Longford, Ireland. Circa 1920s. Public Domain, Nat’l Library of Ireland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both of them emigrated to New York City in the mid-1920’s to live with cousins who had already migrated several years earlier.  Here are a few photos of New York in the 1930s–by which time both of them were married with kids of their own. Thanks to the NYPL Flickr site for these photos.

street scene of brownstones with skyscrapers in background
Willow & Poplar Streets, Brooklyn, looking east to Manhattan circa 1936. Public Domain, New York Public Library

 

 

 

 

a street scene of billboards, decorative lights and old cars.
Oak & New Chamber Sts., Manhattan, circa 1935. Public Domain, New York Public Library

 

Getting started with the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy

Photo looking upward into buidling scaffolding
photo by Dayne Topkin, Unsplash

I’ve pretty much stayed on the sidelines for much of the discussion and debate surrounding the Association of College and Research Libraries’ (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education since it was first unveiled in 2016. Early on, there was some discussion on the merits of updating the old 2000 Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education, but now as I’ve had a chance to digest the Framework (or at least read about it), it’s time to embrace those pieces of it that can be integrated into my local IL curricula. I’m about to embark on revamping the student learning outcomes of my institution’s credit-bearing information literacy class. At the same time, I’m deciding on how to introduce the Framework to subject discipline faculty who come to the library for one-shot sessions. I’ve already found some very relevant examples online and in the literature. I know this is not an exhaustive list — it is top heavy in sources from the Northern Hemisphere.  I’d like to find additional international sources. If you can recommend some, please do.  I’m really trying to find resources that will help folks like me get started, not every article ever written.  I know I’m late to the party, but I’m hoping that I can contribute my experiences through this blog.

Tutorials:

  • 23 Framework Things allows you to work through self-paced modules on the 23 aspects of the Framework sponsored by the Minnesota Library logo for 23 framework thingsAssociation. The 23 Framework Things will stay active after the prize eligibility and progress tracking ends on February 1, 2018.

 

Framework quote: "The Framework Toolkit is intended as a freely available professional development resource that can be used and adapted by both individuals and groups in order to foster understanding and use of the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. "

Open Access Assignments:

  • ACRL Framework for Information Literacy Sandbox is full of assignments and activities that librarians and subject discipline faculty have submitted to help colleagues many of which are licensed to share.
  • Project CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments). A resource of Project Cora logo: CORA letters over a book graphicopen access assignments for librarians and subject discipline faculty developed by the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium.

Community College Lens:

International Perspectives:

Open Access Journal Articles:  Open Access logo: illustration of a padlock that is open.