C areer Blog as a D istance G uidance Tool by Libraries: A C ase Study of A sm ita C ollege Library M s. N idihi N . R akshikar
Librarian, A sm ita College of A rts and Com m erce,V ikhroli (E), M um bai - 400 083.
nidhi25librarian@ gm ail.com
... A BSTR A C T :
The right career advice can help a person to choose a career to suit individual personality as well as his aspirations. College libraries can contribute m uch towards providing career inform ation services. W eb 2.0 is the best m edium to interact with youth and to know their changing expectations from academ ic libraries. The present case study of Asm ita college library highlights the role played by the library in career guidance activities through the use of a blog to provide innovative career inform ation services.
... Keywords:Career Blog, W eb 2.0, College Libraries, Innovative Practices, Career Inform ation Services
... Introduction :
Libraries serve an im portant role in society – to help people orientate in our m odern inform ation society. If people read and seek inform ation, the culture w ill live on. The purpose of libraries is to help people be inform ed and thereby better able to m anage in their lives. College libraries m ainly serve youth. Such youth com m unity needs skills like the ability to com m unicate and get along w ith people and the ability to think ahead besides acquiring academ ic qualifications. The tw enty firsts century daw ned w ith m ajor transform ations in the structure of w ork and careers and the job m arket. In an academ ic institution, the library is the focal point w here staff and students are energized and em pow ered w ith know ledge. Libraries ought to extend their support in all spheres of know ledge and by providing career inform ation in the library it w ill be helping the users to have an aim in their lives. It is necessary to provide career inform ation literacy to the graduates so that they w ill be equipped w ith the know ledge about how to seek, evaluate and select career inform ation and this m ay lead to better decision m aking for the quality of their future life.
The right career advice can help a person to choose a career to suit individual personality as w ell as his aspirations. W hile doing career search it is im perative to have the correct career inform ation. A ccording to Sinz “It is extrem ely im portant for colleges to offer career guidance aim ed to help students m ake m ore inform ed and consequently better educational and career choices.” College libraries can contribute m uch tow ards the career guidance program s as the library is in a unique position to collect, organize, retrieve and dissem inate career inform ation m aterial to users.
The advent of the internet has not only revolutionized the w ay academ ic libraries collect and dissem inate inform ation but also redeûne U sers expectations from the libraries to change the w ay of providing library services. W eb 2.0 is the best m edium to interact w ith youth and to know their changing expectations from academ ic libraries. The present case study of A sm ita college library highlights the role played by the library in career guidance activities using w eb 2.0 tool. A sm ita College is a w om en’s college of arts and com m erce faculty till graduation. A sm ita college library started providing career inform ation services from the year 2010.
R eview of Literature :
The blog has already enjoyed a short but successful history in education. It has been heralded as a transform ational tool for teaching and learning (A nderson & K anuka; W illiam s & Jacobs, 2004) and as a disruptive technology (K op, 2007).
Blogs have been used for a variety of purposes in teacher education, as a m eans of generating elem ents of w ork-based electronic portfolios (Chuang, 2008), and as a w ay of prom oting peer support and peer learning (H all & D avison, 2007). Their use has been evaluated favourably across a diverse range of educational settings, including clinical education (K am el Boulos, M aram ba, & W heeler, 2006), postsecondary education (Leslie & M urphy, 2008), higher education in general (Lankshear & K nobel, 2006) and in m ore inform al learning settings (Stefanone & Jang, 2008). A s an evolving form of social softw are, the functionality of the blog has gradually extended beyond sim ple online reflective diaries, offering readers the opportunity to interact w ith the w riter through the posting of com m ents directly to the blog w ithin a likem inded com m unity (Luehm ann & Tinelli, 2008). Blogs also have an archive feature w here a history of posts is presented in reverse chronology, providing users access to a com plete record of w hat has gone before. The hypertextual dim ension of the blog should not go unm entioned. The ability to em bed hyperlinks, hyperm edia (such as video and audio), and im ages into the blog also serves to enrich the content generation options of the w riter. A lthough blogs are generally used to reflect personal opinions, they have com m unication w ith others at the centre of their purpose (K op, 2007) and are therefore potentially pow erful dialogic tools. They prom ote learning through collaboration, and the sharing of know ledge and best practice (H ram iak, Boulton, & Irw in, 2009; O jala, 2005). Finally, blogs encourage deep and continuous learning through regular reflection and through know ledge m anagem ent (O ’D onnell, 2006). Reflective journal w riting and peer feedback, both of w hich are achievable through blogging, m ay also enable teachers to detect barriers to good practice. Reflective w riting helps them to change their teaching beliefs and so im plem ent strategies that prom ote transform ative teaching (Sockm an & Sharm a, 2008). Thus, reflection on practice can m ake change possible, and provides practitioners w ith the inform ation required to “develop guidelines for setting new needs, goals, and plans” (Y ang, 2009, p. 11). Several criticism s have been levelled against blogging as a learning tool, but in com parison to the benefits that are cited these could be considered significantly low er in m agnitude. K err (2006), for exam ple, suggests that reverse chronological ordering of entries can run counter to good scholarship. Berm an (2006) w arns that blogging can becom e obsessive and addictive for som e students, distracting them from the real business of study, w hile Sm ith (2006) argues that the brevity of m ost blog posts precludes any real academ ic value from being found in their content. From an exam ination of the preceding review , such objections m ay appear trivial, and it appears that the benefits of blogging for student teachers outw eigh any disadvantages that m ay be perceived. By far the m ost serious problem w ould seem to be the loss of interest and im petus experienced by m any bloggers w ho start off w ith good intentions of posting regular entries, but w hose enthusiasm tails off after a short w hile (K am el Boulos et al., 2006). W olf (2010) review s the effectiveness of blogs w ithin the context of a com pulsory final year placem ent unit for public relations students. The results of the study the results indicated that the introduction of the Reflective Blog w as a successful, particularly in the context of an individual tuition unit, by effectively shifting the focus aw ay from textbook and teacher centric education, to interactive peer to peer learning opportunities.
M ethodology:
D esign thinking is an approach or a m indset w hich can help us to solve everyday challenges at the library. In case of A sm ita College library, w e thought about the innovative practices w hich can be evolved and adopted by the library to provide ground-breaking career inform ation services. The steps w e had taken to solve our problem and to provide innovative services unexpectedly fall under design thinking approach.
W hile planning w e thought m ore about the blog design and how w e can m ake it better on the next iteration. The problem w as m ostly w ith executing an im age design that w ill w ork on all devices and screen resolutions. A fter several tim es experim entation, w e solved the issue w ith im agery by fixing a 4:2 ratio and keep the ratio consistent as it scales from the sm allest m obile @ m edia w idth up to the largest. A t the largest resolution sizes, the im age height could possibly push the title below the fold but that w ill be only 1% of the population. It’s best to provide the best view ing experience for 99% of the population than to appease the 1% . This w ould allow us to m ove the im age back above the title and provide a m uch
better and m ore visually appealing experience for the reader.
In case of layout of the blog m agazine form ats give m ore em phasis to im ages, separating individual posts or categories and highlighting interactions, but risk turning a blog into, w ell, a m agazine. In contrast, journal layouts highlight the m ost recent content and present a m ore m om entous m ood. W hile designing layout of the blog w e decided to use the journal layout form at.
The quality of the content m atters, how frequently you post and update that content is vitally im portant, too. Balancing the relationship betw een quality and frequency is critical. A fter a brainstorm ing session, w e decided to up-date our blog at least m onthly to keep it live and active.
D esign Thinking is an innovation m ethodology –a set of principles, tools and a process for innovating. W hat’s really cool about design, am ong so m any things, are the principles that underpin it – Custom er Centricity, Em pathy, Curiosity. D esign Thinking unleashes creativity in us – it calls upon us to connect deeply w ith others- our custom ers- so that w e are com pelled to create som ething that w ill am aze our view ers of blog.
D esign Thinking approach m ainly focuses on Inspiration, Ideation, and Iteration.
Inspiration :
M any students w ere used to visiting the library to acquire career inform ation. Librarian used to provide personal guidance to them about different career alternatives available for them and used to inform them about different com petitive exam inations and cam pus placem ent events organized on the college cam pus. But it w as very difficult to be in touch w ith students regularly on a personal level to inform them about all the events and schedules of com petitive exam inations and cam pus placem ent events. To com m unicate w ith a pass out students w as m uch m ore difficult until the year 2014.
Till 2014 w e w ere providing the career associated inform ation only through the library notice board. Students w ere used to visiting the library to know about the upcom ing career events and schedules of upcom ing com petitive exam inations. It w as very difficult for the pass out students to visit the library frequently. W e, as a library staff m em bers w ere thinking about how to approach all the students to provide career-related inform ation.
Follow ing w ere several questions w hich described our challenge or objectives:
H ow m ight w e can approach students im m ediately to inform them about current activities and notifications regarding career events?
H ow m ight w e can inform students about schedules of upcom ing com petitive exam inations and career events in the college?
H ow m ight w e can provide career inform ation service cost effectively?
H ow m ight w e can approach pass out students to facilitate career inform ation service?
Ideation :
Three m em bers w ere selected as a group to have a brainstorm ing session to think about innovative practices to provide career inform ation services. SW O T analysis revealed the follow ing points;
Strengths:
a) Students eagerness to know different career alternatives.
O pportunities:
a) Y outh’s preference for social m edia.
b) O ne of the best things about blogs is that m any blogging program s are either free or inexpensive to use.
W eaknesses:
a) D ifficult to organize groom ing sessions frequently regarding career aw areness during regular lecture schedules.
b) D ifficult to organize groom ing sessions for entire student’s population together.
c) D ifficult to approach pass out students.
Threats:
a) Lim ited budget allocation.
b) Every notification can’t be published on college w ebsite as the institutional w ebsite is static.
D ifferent ideas w ere generated through the brainstorm ing session. A ll the ideas w ere jotted dow n on paper. Through this brainstorm ing session, an idea of creating a career blog w as put forth w hich w as finally accepted by all the three m em bers of the group. Follow ing are the reasons behind accepting an idea of creating a career blog:
1) Social m edia m ore preferred by the young generation.
2) Preparing a blog as a social m edia tool w ill be cost effective.
3) U sers can access this blog anytim e from rem ote places.
4) W e w ere able to approach and com m unicate w ith all our students including pass out students through this blog.
5) U pdating of the blog is quite sim ple.
Iteration :
A sm ita College career blog provides follow ing services.
A ) U pdating of m onthly Job recruitm ents: W e provide updates of Job recruitm ents m onthly through the career blog.
The inform ation for this is collected from other sites including governm ent w ebsites and organized together on m onthly basis.
B) A lerts and Schedules for different com petitive exam inations: W e publish alerts and schedules of different com petitive exam inations to update our students about
the schedules of upcom ing com petitive exam inations on the hom e page of our blog.
C ) D escriptive inform ation about com petitive exam inations: W e publish detail inform ation about different com petitiveexam inations such as TO FEL, N ET/SET, CA T, G RE, etc. These pages inform about nature of exam inations, paper pattern, eligibility criteria, etc. D ) U seful links: Career-related w ebsite links are availableon the blog for a quick visit.
E) Inform ative PPT’s: W e are adding inform ative PPT’s on our blog to increase aw areness the students about different em erging career alternatives available for them . F) Intim ation about career events organized at
C ollege cam pus: W e provide inform ation about differentupcom ing career events organized at College cam pus and publish the reports after such events.
G ) Page view s statistics: A s librarians, w e need the statistics
of the visitors. Blogs provide the facility to highlight the total pageview s w hich is useful for librarians for m aintenance of
statistics as w ell as useful for users to rely on the blog regarding the authenticity of inform ation.
C om m ents: W e can receive com m ents and feedback from our users through the blog. These com m ents w ork as feedback to continuously evolve and im prove for future innovations.
C onclusion :
Librarians have long used a variety of m eans for getting inform ation about the library out to our com m unities – new sletters, alerts, em ails, posters and flyers and m ore.
U sing a blog offers the opportunity to innovate your com m unications. Blogging not only gives you a w ay to push inform ation out but also to gather feedback and build a com m unity w ithout having the very m uch technical know -how . Librarians have had to learn -how to do a lot w ith just a little in order to prom ote aw areness of their program s and services. They have seized the opportunities to m arket libraries in the real w orld via traditional m edia: new spapers, corporate new sletters, radio, and TV . M any libraries produce brochures, pathfinders, and their ow n new sletters. So, it is no surprise to see librarians stepping up to the plate and spreading the w ord online w ith blogs. Savvy librarians have identified blogs as another m eans to m arket libraries and their services. Prom oting your library’s services, resources, and program s online can be a lot easier w ith the help of a blog. A great library blog requires three ingredients: inspiration, m otivation, and dedication. Inspiration is that m om ent w hen your new m arketing idea m eshes perfectly w ith a blog as the delivery vehicle. M otivation is the energy to put good ideas into practice and helps launch the new blog. D edication is w hat com es next. It’s the hard w ork that keeps the blog updated w ith pithy, lively posts on a constant basis. Thus, blogs can be very effective tools for reaching online audiences.
R eferences :
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Berm an, D . A . (2006). Scholarship in action: The pow er, possibilities, and pitfalls for law professor blogs. O hio State Publication, Legal W orking Paper N o. 65, 21. Retrieved from http:// papers.ssrn.com /sol3/
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Chuang, H . (2008). Perspectives and issues of the creation for w eblog-based electronic portfolios in teacher education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(1), 170-174.
Fichter, D arlene. (n.d.). W hy and H ow to U se Blogs to Prom ote Y our Library’s Services. Retrieved N ovem ber 20, 2017, from http://w w w .infotoday.com /m ls/nov03/fichter.shtm l
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H ram iak, A ., Boulton, H ., & Irw in, B. (2009). Trainee teachers’ use of blogs as private reflections for professional developm ent. Learning, M edia and Technology, 34(3), 259-269.
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K op, R. (2007). Blogs and w ikis as disruptive technologies: Is it tim e for a new pedagogy? In M . O sborne, M . H ouston, & N . Tom an (Eds.), The pedagogy of lifelong learning. A bingdon, U nited K ingdom : Routledge.
Lankshear, C., & K nobel, M . (2006, A pril). Blogging as participation: The active sociality of a new literacy. In Proceedings of the A m erican Educational Research A ssociation Conference (pp. 1-4), San Francisco.
Luehm ann, A . L., & Tinelli, L. (2008). Teacher professional identity developm ent w ith social netw orking technologies: Learning reform through blogging. Educational M edia International 45(4), 323-333.
GNIMS - International e-Journal of Library Science • Vol. 5 • No. 2 • July - December 2017 • ISSN No. 2319992X • Impact Factor IIJIF (2017) 4.101 & Impact Factor PIF (2017) 3.351 121
