Why do you suppose Bishop says, on page 2, “… as we help students become critical thinkers and competent problem solvers who can contribute in a democracy?” Democracy is on our minds as we vote in our state primaries, and we will be talking about critical thinking (evaluating information) on Saturday, but can you put that logical train together? I think it is important that you be able to do that.

Other margin notes from my reading of Bishop Chapter 1:

• The questions raised on p. 1, para 2 are quite provocative, in regards to online resources.
• The bullets on p. 2 could almost double as criteria. They are certainly questions that should be asked from a practical point of view.
• This section on Physical Entity and Accessibility is important regarding the general theme of Information Access – something we emphasize in Cataloging.
• p.3: We must all wonder how the new learning standards will change discussions like this one.
• p.5: I really like Kay’s graphic on this page (pardon me, the cat is now lying over my open book…). It’s different how she’s separated them into user/collection-oriented and direct/indirect roles. I think we spend so much time talking about the Four Roles in SLM because things can get so chaotic – it helps to keep reminding ourselves what we’re supposed to be doing.
• In the section on “Relationships that Influence the Collection” (p.6) she gives a “who’s who” of agencies and how they’re organized. We all know about our own district level, and I wondered how private (independent) schools might write that paragraph differently. We have our RESAs at the Regional Level. At the State level, we have Judy Serritella (if you don’t know her name, you should stop and memorize it immediately! ) Kay mentions that “other state agencies are information resources” – and several names to remember along those lines are the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, the Digital Library of Georgia, and of course GALILEO.
• The section under National Level is a tidy list of laws (with acronyms) that you should recognize: ADA, DMCA, NCLB, LSTA.

I’ll provide more of my margin notes as we go along and they seem relevant. I’m proud to say that I’ve finally finished the book! Just in time to choose the Cataloging texts.

A couple of announcements:

• The dates for Cataloging will likely be May 17, June 14, July 12. A very small number of people can’t make those dates. We’ll figure out makeup plans for these folks later on.
• I installed Cohort7 Blog subscription feeds on the course home page. Take your pick: a reader of your choice, or email. I highly recommend one or the other!