community informatics in lis: research, learning and action partnerships ann peterson bishop...
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Community Informatics in LIS:
Research, Learning and Action Partnerships
Ann Peterson Bishop ([email protected])
GSLIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Community Connections: Advancing LIS Education and Practice through Partnership
ALISE, January 12, 2005
Acknowledgements: NSF, IMLS
Presentation Overview
Community Informatics Initiative at GSLIS: Research, service-learning, public engagement In the creation of community information systems Through creating and nurturing collaborative
inquiry/learning communities
Community consortia (Prairienet)
Paseo Boricua Street Academy in Community Librarianship (iLabs)
Community Informatics
Community Informatics (CI): Study and practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies (ICTs)
CIRN (Community Informatics Research Network)
http://www.ciresearch.net/index.htm
Journal of Community Informatics
http://ci-journal.net/index.php
Assn for Community Networking http://www.afcn.org
Community Inquiry
Collaborative activity around creating knowledge that is connected to people's values, history, and lived experiences
Open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement
Bringing theory and action together in an experimental and critical manner
How should we live together?
“…the desire to make the entire social organism democratic, to extend democracy beyond its political expression.” --Jane Addams
How do we learn together?
”It is the democratic faith that [intelligence] is sufficiently general so that each individual has something to contribute, and the value of each contribution can be assessed only as it entered into the final pooled intelligence constituted by the contributions
of all."
--John Dewey
The CII Challenge
How do communities work to address their problems in actual practice?
What theory adequately accounts for the complexity and diversity of (distributed) collective practice?
What tools are needed to mediate work on concrete tasks within communities?
What is the most effective process for developing shared capacity in the form of knowledge, skills, & tools?
Public Engagement
Uniting people from all walks of life in identifying, investigating, and taking action on conditions that affect the well-being of local residents.
http://www.servicelearning.org/
“Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.”
Service-Learning
Participatory Action Research
Incorporate local knowledge held by marginalized groups
Gain the participation of marginalized groups in all stages
Build capacity and achieve constructive social outcomes
CI System Design
Design through use aims to respond to human needs by democratic processes. Through creation of content, contributions to interactive elements, and incorporation into practice, users are notmerely recipients of technology, but participate actively in its ongoing development.
“Every individual must be consulted in such a way, actively not passively, that he himself becomes a part of the process of authority.” --John Dewey, Democracy & Education
CII at GSLIS: Community Partnerships
Prairienet
http://www.prairienet.org
Community Inquiry Labs (iLabs)
v.2 http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilabs
v.3 http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu
Access ISP, email, mailing lists Computer labs set up in daycares, churches, community centers, through GSLIS class
Content Community web collection, calendar, special digital resources and applications
Consulting, Guiding, Coaching, Directing, Supporting, and Investigating Use of ICTs to achieve community goals!
Collaborative, community-wide “systems analysis”
Help Book OnlineA comprehensive searchable directory of over 1000 human services in Champaign county. Maintained by First Call for Help, Family Service of Champaign County
Parent Resource Guide 2004A collaborative project of the United Way of Champaign County Success By 6 Community and Family Support Work Group, The Urbana Free Library, Champaign Public Library and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. This quick reference guide lists support and educational programs. Available as printable PDF file.
Collaborating to provide East Central Illinois with the area's most comprehensive online human services guide
Welcome to CUVolunteer.org!
CUVolunteer.org is a partnership among the Community Volunteer Center at the United Way of Champaign County, the Office of Volunteer Programs at the University of Illinois, and Prairienet.
Get Started Now! Volunteer Login & Registration Find an Opportunity Agency Login & Information
Why parents need Back-Up SolutionsParents know that even the best planned child care arrangementscan be disrupted from time to time.
Back-Up Solutions offers: * Daily vacancy information * Online universal forms for enrollment in childcare programs * Web access to a participating provider directory
Suite of open source software applications freely available (BB, blog, document center, syllabus, etc.) for people to create own interactive websites
350 site visits a day; 50 iLab sessions a day
6 GB of data transfer a month
302 iLabs created since Nov. 2003
Serving groups ranging in size from an individual to 68 members
Paseo BoricuaCommunity Library Project
Connecting…
Community Informatics
with the
Goals, values, and work of the Paseo Boricua neighborhood
Puerto Rican Cultural Center http://www.prcc-chgo.org
30 years in Chicago’s Paseo Boricua neighborhood
Philosophy of self-actualization and critical thought, self-determination, self-reliance
Galvanizes residents around local issues: cultural preservation, economic development, gang violence
Includes many affiliated organizations that help people “learn how to learn” about/in the community
La Casita de Don Pedro Museum: Simple house
from Puerto Rico Built by HS students Cultural space: Bomba
dancing, artist fairs
Café Teatro Batey Urbano Organized by college
students
Safe place for teens to meet and express themselves
Without fear of discrimination or violence
Poetry with a Purpose, neighborhood projects, homework help
Family Learning Center
For young mothers to earn HS diplomas
Provide daycare
Supported by federal funds
We learn about our culture, parenting skills
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos HS
Alternative HS:
More comfortable
Safer
Small classroom settings and local projects
Teachers care!
Vida/SIDA Puerto Ricans in
Chicago affected disproportionately by AIDS
Local artist Luis Rosa painted mural
Education and prevention regarding AIDS
AIDS clinic also started
Andrés Figueroa CorderoCommunity Library & Information Center
3d World book collection (4000 vols.)
Community tech center
Posters, sculpture and art, children’s books
Archives: Newsletters, fliers, letters, pamphlets
Never been cataloged
What Brought Us Together:Project Goals (1/2003)
Create a community of learners University and community collaboration Each has something to learn and contribute
Learn how to mobilize neighborhood info and cultural resources and connect to civic engagement activities
Address digital divide
Enrich library and information science with experiences and knowledge of Paseo Boricua residents
What Brought Us Together:Who’s Involved
Students from FLC and PRCC high school
Neighborhood activists
Faculty and students from UI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Faculty and students from University of Illinois at Chicago, other universities
Chicago Public Library
What Brought Us Together:Street Academy
Spring/Summer 2003: Weekend workshops
Fall 2003: Began Street Academy Independent study credit for HS students 2 courses: PB Community Librarianship; Computing
Met 9:30-4:30 on Saturdays in 2004
What Brought Us Together:HS Student Goals Earn high school diploma!
Gain marketable skills within workforce People skills: collaboration and presentation Technology skills Cataloging and other library skills
Create comfortable learning place in PRCC for everyone
Learn tolerance, openness to new cultural experiences, and community engagement
Planning for Grand Opening Students and volunteers will
be library staff
Developing policies Mission statement Collection policies Job descriptions
Planning services and programs
Learning management: Grant-writing Publicity
Cataloging Chose Dublin Core
metadata/fields (Creator, Title, etc.)
Flexible-can use for all collections
Meets current standards
Not all that hard!
Creating own online catalog for iLab
Web Gallery Digitize PRCC political
posters, murals, sculptures
Creating online gallery for PRCC website
Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (1891-1965): President of PR National Party; 1st Latino Harvard grad; led Oct. 1, 1950 insurrection against US occupation
Family Reading Night
Started learning about and planning
Parents and kids come to PRCC and read children’s books with others
Kids get used to reading, get closer to parents, enjoy reading
Books to Prisoners Many families have loved
ones in prison
Learning about prison system and libraries
And ways to send books to prisoners
Lolita Lebrón:PR political prisoner (served 25 yrs. For attacking US House of Reps in 1954. Just served 6 months for civil disobedience in Vieques)
Summary
Community Informatics Initiative employs community partnerships to develop useful information systems
Prairienet and Community iLabs Open source and freely available Community outcomes emphasized
Barriers and issues for discussion Explaining what you do Negotiating goals, resources, practices, outcomes across
different organizations (think “events”) Teaching/Learning/Research Community action and development Local/Global use and impact
Resources
Bishop, et al. (2004). Supporting community inquiry with digital resources. Journal of Digital Information, 5(3). http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v05/i03/Bishop/Bishop, A. P., & Molina, A. (2004). Felicitaciones, Paseo Boricua! (cover story in the magazine Voice of Youth Activists) http://www.voya.comDay, Peter, & Schuler, D. (eds.) (2004). Community practice in the network society. NY: Routledge.Greenwood, Davydd J., & Levin, Morten. (1998). Introduction to action research: Social research for social change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Reardon, K. M. (1998). Participatory action research as service learning. In R. A. Rhoads and J. P. F. Howard, eds., Academic service learning: A pedagogy of action and reflection (pp. 57-64). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Whitmore, E. (ed.). (1998). Understanding and practicing participatory evaluation. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.