On March 9th from 10am-4pm, Gleeson will host its fourth annual Art+Feminism* Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon. All are welcome. Never edited Wikipedia before? No problem; we’ll help. Bring your laptop, if you have one (if you don’t, no worries, we’ll have some on hand for borrowing) and feel free to drop in, or stay for the entire time. We’ll be on the second floor common space of the library.
You can find more information about the edit-a-thon event here. Registration is not required to attend, but if you’re able to give us a head’s up that you’ll be joining us, that would be great!
* Art+Feminism is “a campaign improving coverage of cis and transgender women, feminism and the arts on Wikipedia. From coffee shops and community centers to the largest museums and universities in the world, Art+Feminism is a do-it-yourself and do-it-with-others campaign teaching people of all gender identities and expressions to edit Wikipedia.” 2018 marks the fifth year of this important, international campaign, and it will be Gleeson Library’s fourth year hosting a satellite event.
When do you most frequently encounter copyright law? Is it when you click on a YouTube video and you find — uh oh — that it’s been taken down at the request of the owner?
In fact, we use an important part of our copyright law every day: When we engage in “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research” without paying or asking permission from copyright owners.
U.S. Code Title 17, Chapter 1, § 107 is the part of copyright law that allows principals to parody whole songs from Disney’s Frozen and Teen Vogue to embed tweets in their article about ice skater Maé-Bérénice Méité’s costume change during the Olympics. It’s fair use that allows you to make a meme, quote a paragraph from a book in your paper, or use a clip from a movie in your classroom. In short, we use copyright law every day!
This year, the Association of Research Libraries has put out a handy infographic on the many ways our fair use right is crucial to innovation, creativity, and scholarship. You can see it at: fair-use-infographic-2018-accessible
At Gleeson Library, we’re screening a webinar featuring Harvard Copyright Advisor Kyle Courtney. He’ll talk about court cases related to fan fiction and fair use such as the recently settled Star Trek case, Paramount Pictures v. Axanar, and the , Warner Brothers v. RDR Books.
You can also contact Charlotte to request that Gleeson Library provide workshops to your class or department on how to use copyrighted work in teaching and scholarship.
The Reference Department computer lab by the entrance of the library now features brand new iMacs and Windows 10 computers, both of which are powered by super-fast solid state drives. If you’re looking to use Photoshop, head up to the iMac classroom on the 2nd floor — you can use it whenever there is not a class in there.
By Goiena.net [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia CommonsDuring library instruction sessions, Education Librarian Amy Gilgan employs a variety of methods to spark student curiosity, catapulting the research process from rote searching into active learning. Some of these methods involve discussion of the Wasco Clown and the Riot Grrrl punk movement and they usually focus on investigating the construction of authority, shining a light on the value of different types of expertise.
Amy teaches a lot of library instruction sessions and describes her teaching style as being largely informed by her past work as a speakers’ bureau member of Community United Against Violence (CUAV), a grassroots community organization committed to ending violence within and against the LGBTQQI community.
Karren Ablaze! [CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia CommonsIn a chapter in the Critical Library Pedagogy Handbook, Amy details her pioneering lesson plan called Teaching with Riot Grrrl: An Active Learning Session at the Intersections of Authenticity and Social Justice. The lesson plan describes a 60 minute workshop Amy developed in which first year USF college students used cultural artifacts and library resources to investigate the Riot Grrrl feminist movement in the punk rock music subculture. In the first half of the session, students worked in groups to explore personal, cultural and scholarly expertise while applying basic search concepts. In the latter half, the groups shared their findings and provided their peers with search tips. Inspired by hip hop pedagogy, Amy’s lesson plan was an attempt to model exploring subculture and identity through research.
The goal of this lesson plan is to allow students to “move beyond the popular/scholarly source binary to hold the complexity of multiple types of expertise” in addition to resulting in students learning new search techniques. Amy says, “I enjoy hearing about how students apply the skills from the session to research their own personal and academic interests.” Furthermore, by using active learning techniques, Amy finds it possible to “not only increase student engagement, but also foster an environment where the knowledge and curiosity of the students is valued.”
By Schorle (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia CommonsBorn from the #CritLib movement within the library field, active learning scenarios that use subculture and curiosity as jumping off points act to integrate critical pedagogy with librarianship. Amy has been involved with #CritLib conferences and conversations, and she was excited when she saw the call for proposals for the handbook in which her chapter on Riot Grrrl appears. She hopes her lesson plan inspires librarian and faculty colleagues to explore active learning techniques, while she personally commits to making space for students to name, probe, and develop their own interests during library instruction sessions.
