Starting a Common Book Project

UW Madison is initiating a common book program, Go Big Read and we started a little late in the year so it’s a scramble to get this major initiative up and running. I would describe my role as “project manager,” since it’s an initiative of our new Chancellor, but the library is really getting things started. Here are some interesting things about the program:

• Since we made a campus announcement and put a web form up to initiate an abbrieviated selection process, we have 600 suggestions. The Chancellor will be choosing a book in early April.
• We’re very interested in curricular integration, so I’ve been going around to meetings with the directors of large-enrollment first-year courses with the Director of the Center for the First Year Experience and the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning. It’s been interesting to “get on the same page” with such a group.
• Everyone has lots of ideas that they’re very tied to and everyone is interested in participating or helping out in some way.
• Should be interesting.

I’m not tied to any one book selection, which makes this whole thing less stressful, so far. I’d be interested to talk to librarians who have had this role in a campus common read project, if that’s you please get in touch!

Reading Books

Quite a few times people have said to me, “I’ve always wanted to be a librarian.  It must be wonderful to be around books all day!”  And I try to remember the last time I touched a book,  particularly one that wasn’t about library science or higher ed.  All that may be changing a little, though.

After talking with the new Chancellor, our University Librarian has convened a campus group to initiate a common book program.  I’ve been asked to lead the project based on my experience with what I really do all day as a librarian, which is organizing projects.   We’re starting way behind schedule with a lot of questions to answer, but what else is new with projects?

My favorite site about common book programs is Barbara Fister’s site, “One Book, One College: Common Reading Programs.”   A new National Endowment for the Arts study just came out showing that reading is on the rise among young adults.   The New York Times article says, “the proportion of overall literary reading increased among virtually all age groups, ethnic and demographic categories since 2002. It increased most dramatically among 18-to-24-year-olds, who had previously shown the most significant declines.”

I also joined a few book clubs this year (never one for moderation) so perhaps I’ll turn this book reading thing around.

Keeping up with what’s going on at UW – RSS Clipsheets

Many of you probably already know about this one, but just in case…

At the leadership institute I attended last week, I learned that there was a tool for keeping up with news from UW-Madison and the UW System that I was totally unaware of — the daily clip sheet.   These are the old clipping files that are now maintained online and available as RSS feeds.

The UW System Clipsheet includes “Summaries of news stories of interest to the UW System.”  Some recent items included an article on Damon A. Williams, our new vice provost for diversity and climate, and financial aid.

The UW Madison’s University Communications Clipsheet, “Selected highlights of stories featuring UW-Madison which have appeared in the media.”  Recent clips included articles on John Wiley, research on girls’ math scores conducted here, and student’s use of food pantries.

If someone’s looking for a project, I wonder how (other than long instructions) we could help them link to the articles from some of our online databases?   I’ll ask around, but let me know if you have ideas.

Summer Reading for Teachers

I was intrigued by a post on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s brainstorm blog about Summer Reading that May Improve Your Fall Teaching.  The reading list was developed by members of the POD network, a group for faculty development professionals, and includes titles from the higher ed literature.  The list includes both classics and new titles.  Here are a few from the list that I’ve found particularly useful:

• Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  Our Learning Assessment working group is drawing on this book heavily in a project we are working on to help people implement assessment of student learning to improve their teaching… look for this in Fall 08.
  
• Bean, J. (1996). Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. This is what I’ll be reading, based on a recommendation from the Summer Faculty Institute
• Walvoord, B. E. F., & Anderson, V. J. (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  My favorite book on assessment of student learning.
• Weimer, M. (2002).Learner-centered teaching: Five key changes to practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  This is a very useful book in rethinking your instruction in a user-centered way.   I did some workshops based on this model with a colleague from Berkeley and Weimer was the Instruction Section speaker at ALA a few years ago.  The book club led by Lil Tong here at UW read this last year as well.
• Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2001). Understanding by design (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.  A useful instructional design manual grounded in constructivist learning theory.

So many titles on the list!  So much reading to do!  I’ve been thinking about the idea of learning communities, and I know I get more out of reading when I discuss what I learn.  Let me know if you’re interested in talking about a particular reading, perhaps this would be a fun framework for a forum or just coffee.