[Publib] Gen Y biggest adult users of libraries

[Conrad Rader]

On the liking of group projects and classic overachievers;
If you go into the group work thinking, "this is not about the grade, this
is about learning to work with a variety of people with different strengths
and points of view and will give me more insight about working in a library
with others in order to create a team driven environment" I suspect you
might get more out of the work.  I know I did.  I loved group projects
because a)I was always more about the people than about the grades and liked
teaming up, b) there was always new directions that other people came up
with or that I cam up with that no one had ever thought about and c) if
there was a presentation portion, I always got to do that, because I love
being in front of people and no one else ever seemed to want to.  Thus, I
also got to synthesize the work of others for the final report, which is
more valuable today to me as a manager.
My favorite classic overachiever story comes out of the first two weeks of
classes, where the CA was trolling for study partners.  I had a brief
questioning and was dismissed as not being 'dedicated' enough, or something
like that. I went on to be Student Society President (and now a department
manager), and she now runs a library.  We did end up working on a project
once, I forget exactly what but might have been a personnel case study.

Conrad Rader
Adult Services Librarian
Niles District Library
Niles, MI

-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of BookBitch
Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 4:35 PM
To: calire at att.net
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Gen Y biggest adult users of libraries

Camila,

I get the feeling that you like the idea of group
projects in school.  I'm a fairly new MLIS student who
actively avoids professors who assign group projects. 
I'm old enough to have lived and learned the 80/20
rule - 80% of the work is done by 20% of the
participants in any group situation, be it on the job
or in the classroom.  

I'm your classic overachiever, and it drives me batty
to do all the work so other people can collect my good
grades.  I'm curious at to if my understanding is
correct, and if so, why you think group projects are a
good thing.

Cheers,
Stacy Alesi
Library Name *Censored*
Boca Raton, Florida
& MLIS student at USF

--- Camila Alire <calire at att.net> wrote:
 they want both well-equipped "group study" space
because the teaching paradigm has been changing in
universities (finally!) where a lot of course work for
students is group project work.