Edition 2022.03
Happy Friday! Today's links are a little meatier than the last few editions – block out some time in your calendar to check them out properly.
Eight case studies
The full title for this is Eight case studies show opportunities, challenges, and needs of low-capacity and non-Western cultural heritage institutions, and although that terminology feels slightly icky to me, it seems that the institutions in question self-described or at least self-identified that way.
Looking through these case studies, what struck me is that many of these challenges also affect a lot of “western” GLAMS, even in organisations that are perceived as high capacity and wealthy. Maintaining, sharing and growing cultural heritage takes a lot of resources. I guess that's why traditionally humans have expended most of their energy on it.
ALIA Professional Pathways Frameworks Project Presentation
I know, right – you did a double take there. It's fair to say that I probably have a bit of a reputation as a critic of ALIA. I am, however, quite impressed by the work that has been undertaken for the Professional Pathways project, and what looks to be a concerted and thoughtful effort to consult widely and genuinely. This is a hugely important piece of work, addressing head on the key existential question about librarianship as a profession in Australia. In some ways this is long overdue, but on the other hand the fact that it has been rolling out concurrently with half of Australia's LIS degrees being discontinued has really rammed home one of the reasons this is so crucial.
You can find the “presentation” (A PDF of a slide deck that is terrible as slides but excellent as a summary of the rather hefty technical and consultation reports) and a form to have your say on the special ALIA website set up for this work. Anyone with an interest in this work can contribute to the consultation – you don not have to be an ALIA member.
Course Materials for Educators (OER)
The BCcampus Open Collection is a directory of open educational resources in a wide range of disciplines. It has everything from Introduction to Oceanography to Barbering Techniques for Hairstylists.
The “BC” stands for British Columbia, so you're also going to find things like Digging in to Canadian Soils and Building a Competitive First Nation Business Environment that are obviously tailored to the BC context. But that's the point when it comes to OER. One of the things I find exciting about it is that a way to drive OER use and creation is to use the consolidation and Americanisation of global publishing in English as a weapon against itself – a kind of Jiu Jitsu move to say “well it's unprofitable for Gigantic Publishing Inc to publish this niche textbook, so why don't you publish it openly with us?” Anyway check out the directory because there is also plenty of stuff that's not particularly specific to Canada or BC.
Have a great weekend, and I'll be in your inbox next week!
Libraries and Learning Links of the Week is published every week by Hugh Rundle.
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