March 2013 Articles

My copy of Harry C. Boyte's "The Citizen Solution:  How you can make a difference"  just arrived.  I requested it because Boyte is coming to my campus in April, and I plan to go hear him speak.  I'm only on page 15, but I've already found a passage that resonates very deeply for me. "Government can generate leadership, resources, tools, and rules.  But officials are not the center of the civic universe, nor is government the only location for democracy.  Democracy is a way of life rooted in living communities; it is a work in progress." How do we teach…

Purdue University has recently published a free online Service Learning Reflection Journal.  This could be a very useful tool, particularly for those new to service-learning.  It offers some reflection prompts and exercises to assign for students.  Reflection is an integral piece of the service-learning experience, as it often ties the service to the learning for students. The journal is available for download here. Sass, M. (2013) Service…

Every once in awhile, I'll check around to see if there are any new examples of libraries or librarians partnering with service-learning projects in higher education.  What I've noticed is that quite a few libraries provide a service-learning libguide (research guide, for you non-librarians...and even that may not make sense!).  This seems to be the most popular example of library support for service-learning.  In most cases, these are guides to support faculty for finding articles, books, etc. about service-learning.  Some librarians have created a guide that…

Of course I knew that I wasn't the first librarian to travel with a class, but I'm still excited when I find a new article that describes another librarian's adventures as they travel with students. Today, I discovered this article by John Eric Juricek:  Embedded in Shanghai:  A librarian accompanies students to China. And I thought going to Appalachian Ohio was "extreme."