Katie's Library Blog

Background: Defining Residency      When considering my relationship with technology or the internet, it's hard to consider myself a "digital visitor"--with how much of my life is spent or cataloged online, I would have firmly considered myself a digital resident if I'd been asked before engaging in this exercise. However, when considering the visitor and resident model, created by David White, our relationship with the internet and specific corners of it can be reconsidered. Image source:  pearlynwangblog.wordpress.com Digital visitors engage with a site or tool solely to complete a task or operation and then stop their use of it outside of that activity. They may return to do another activity or repeat the same task, but they do not have a recurring relationship or social presence with that technology. However, digital residents have a stronger presence with these tools, engaging with them outside of these specifics tasks and exploring all they have to offer. Resid...

Reader's advisory is a big part of any librarian's job, but as trends in information sharing change with the advent of social media, so do patron demands. I often have tweens and teens come to me as a youth library associate and ask for a book that they saw was trending on TikTok or Instagram. These sites have their own subcultures ("Booktok" and "Bookstagram", respectively) where recommendations are traded and fans can share their opinions on certain books with others. Social media is an unavoidable part of a modern child's life, and so creating a conversation around digital citizenship with respect to social media helps educators and caregivers empower their child's usage of it. Combining reader's advisory with social media is a great way to get kids connected with formative and impactful reads; this is where Goodreads comes in. Booktok screenshot. Image source: @jena.loves.books, tiktok.com Goodreads is primarily a social networking site; user...

 Considering that I'm not a teacher, it's not often that I get to integrate technology into a learning environment, or evaluate how technology is operating in a teaching situation that I'm involved in. When creating or running programs, my ultimate goal is to make sure the program is not only fun, but educational. If technology can aid in that, I try to prioritize its integration and make sure it can work seamlessly. However, if it doesn't, then I need to be able to analyze why and make corrections appropriately. This is where analyzing frameworks and rubrics for technology integration come into play.  Analyzing the Framework When looking at all of the possible frameworks I could potentially use, I wanted to find one that was the most flexible and that can be used for many different age groups and situations. As a Youth and Teen Services Associate, I work with a variety of age groups, from babies all the way up to high schoolers. A technology might work for babies but n...

About me: Welcome to my library blog! My name is Katie Steffensen and I am in my third(!) semester of the MLIS (Master of Library and Information Science) program at Dominican University. (This means I'm halfway to my degree!) I'm also pursuing a certificate in Youth Services. Outside of work and school, I love reading (duh), crocheting, playing video games, and napping with my cat Indy, who turns 15 this month! Me and Indy | Photo source: Katie Steffensen Where am I from? This always feels like a tough question to answer: I was born in Arizona, spent about 4 years of my childhood in Texas, and ultimately spent most of my growing-up years in Orlando, Florida. There, I earned my B.A. in Political Science from the University of Central Florida, and then took a hard right turn by working in circulation at my local library branch. I had a great boss there who recognized my passion for the library world, and encouraged me to pursue a master's degree in library science. However, ...