Community Informatics in LIS: Research, Learning and Action Partnerships

1. Community Informatics in LIS:Research, Learning and Action Partnerships Ann Peterson Bishop (abishop@uiuc.edu) GSLIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Community Connections: Advancing LIS Education and Practice through Partnership ALISE, January 12, 2005 Acknowledgements: NSF, IMLS

2. Presentation Overview • Community Informatics Initiative at GSLIS: • Research, service-learning, public engagement • In the creation of community information systems • Through creating and nurturing collaborative inquiry/learning communities • Community consortia (Prairienet) • Paseo Boricua Street Academy in Community Librarianship (iLabs)

3. Community Informatics Community Informatics (CI): Study and practice of enabling communities with information and communications technologies (ICTs) CIRN (Community Informatics Research Network) http://www.ciresearch.net/index.htm Journal of Community Informatics http://ci-journal.net/index.php Assn for Community Networking http://www.afcn.org

4. Community Inquiry • Collaborative activity around creating knowledge that is connected to people's values, history, and lived experiences • Open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement • Bringing theory and action together in an experimental and critical manner

5. How should we live together? “…the desire to make the entire social organism democratic, to extend democracy beyond its political expression.” --Jane Addams

6. How do we learn together? ”It is the democratic faith that [intelligence] is sufficiently general so that each individual has something to contribute, and the value of each contribution can be assessed only as it entered into the final pooled intelligence constituted by the contributions of all." --John Dewey

7. The CII Challenge • How do communities work to address their problems in actual practice? • What theory adequately accounts for the complexity and diversity of (distributed) collective practice? • What tools are needed to mediate work on concrete tasks within communities? • What is the most effective process for developing shared capacity in the form of knowledge, skills, & tools?

8. Public Engagement Uniting people from all walks of life in identifying, investigating, and taking action on conditions that affect the well-being of local residents.

9. Service-Learning http://www.servicelearning.org/ “Service-learning combines service objectives with learning objectives with the intent that the activity change both the recipient and the provider of the service. This is accomplished by combining service tasks with structured opportunities that link the task to self-reflection, self-discovery, and the acquisition and comprehension of values, skills, and knowledge content.”

10. Participatory Action Research • Incorporate local knowledge held by marginalized groups • Gain the participation of marginalized groups in all stages • Build capacity and achieve constructive social outcomes

11. CI System Design Design through use aims to respond to human needs by democratic processes. Through creation of content, contributions to interactive elements, and incorporation into practice, users are not merely recipients of technology, but participate actively in its ongoing development. “Every individual must be consulted in such a way, actively not passively, that he himself becomes a part of the process of authority.” --John Dewey, Democracy & Education

12. CII at GSLIS: Community Partnerships • Prairienet http://www.prairienet.org • Community Inquiry Labs (iLabs) v.2 http://inquiry.uiuc.edu/ilabs v.3 http://ilabs.inquiry.uiuc.edu

13. Access • ISP, email, mailing lists • Computer labs set up in daycares, churches, community centers, through GSLIS class • Content • Community web collection, calendar, special digital resources and applications • Consulting, Guiding, Coaching, Directing, Supporting, and Investigating Use of ICTs to achieve community goals! • Collaborative, community-wide “systems analysis”

14. Help Book Online A comprehensive searchable directory of over 1000 human services in Champaign county. Maintained by First Call for Help, Family Service of Champaign County • Parent Resource Guide 2004 A collaborative project of the United Way of Champaign County Success By 6 Community and Family Support Work Group, The Urbana Free Library, Champaign Public Library and Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. This quick reference guide lists support and educational programs. Available as printable PDF file. Collaborating to provide East Central Illinois with the area's most comprehensive online human services guide

15. Welcome to CUVolunteer.org! CUVolunteer.org is a partnership among the Community Volunteer Center at the United Way of Champaign County, the Office of Volunteer Programs at the University of Illinois, and Prairienet. Get Started Now! • Volunteer Login & Registration • Find an Opportunity • Agency Login & Information

16. Why parents need Back-Up Solutions Parents know that even the best planned child care arrangements can be disrupted from time to time. Back-Up Solutions offers: * Daily vacancy information * Online universal forms for enrollment in childcare programs * Web access to a participating provider directory

17. Suite of open source software applications freely available (BB, blog, document center, syllabus, etc.) for people to create own interactive websites • 350 site visits a day; 50 iLab sessions a day • 6 GB of data transfer a month • 302 iLabs created since Nov. 2003 • Serving groups ranging in size from an individual to 68 members

18. Paseo BoricuaCommunity Library Project Connecting… Community Informatics with the Goals, values, and work of the Paseo Boricua neighborhood

19. Puerto Rican Cultural Centerhttp://www.prcc-chgo.org • 30 years in Chicago’s Paseo Boricua neighborhood • Philosophy of self-actualization and critical thought, self-determination, self-reliance • Galvanizes residents around local issues: cultural preservation, economic development, gang violence • Includes many affiliated organizations that help people “learn how to learn” about/in the community

20. La Casita de Don Pedro • Museum: Simple house from Puerto Rico • Built by HS students • Cultural space: Bomba dancing, artist fairs

21. Café Teatro Batey Urbano • Organized by college students • Safe place for teens to meet and express themselves • Without fear of discrimination or violence • Poetry with a Purpose, neighborhood projects, homework help

22. Family Learning Center • For young mothers to earn HS diplomas • Provide daycare • Supported by federal funds • We learn about our culture, parenting skills

23. Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos HS • Alternative HS: • More comfortable • Safer • Small classroom settings and local projects • Teachers care!

24. Vida/SIDA • Puerto Ricans in Chicago affected disproportionately by AIDS • Local artist Luis Rosa painted mural • Education and prevention regarding AIDS • AIDS clinic also started

25. Andrés Figueroa CorderoCommunity Library & Information Center • 3d World book collection (4000 vols.) • Community tech center • Posters, sculpture and art, children’s books • Archives: Newsletters, fliers, letters, pamphlets • Never been cataloged

26. What Brought Us Together:Project Goals (1/2003) • Create a community of learners • University and community collaboration • Each has something to learn and contribute • Learn how to mobilize neighborhood info and cultural resources and connect to civic engagement activities • Address digital divide • Enrich library and information science with experiences and knowledge of Paseo Boricua residents

27. What Brought Us Together:Who’s Involved • Students from FLC and PRCC high school • Neighborhood activists • Faculty and students from UI’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science • Faculty and students from University of Illinois at Chicago, other universities • Chicago Public Library

28. What Brought Us Together:Street Academy • Spring/Summer 2003: Weekend workshops • Fall 2003: Began Street Academy • Independent study credit for HS students • 2 courses: PB Community Librarianship; Computing • Met 9:30-4:30 on Saturdays in 2004

29. What Brought Us Together:HS Student Goals • Earn high school diploma! • Gain marketable skills within workforce • People skills: collaboration and presentation • Technology skills • Cataloging and other library skills • Create comfortable learning place in PRCC for everyone • Learn tolerance, openness to new cultural experiences, and community engagement

30. Planning for Grand Opening • Students and volunteers will be library staff • Developing policies • Mission statement • Collection policies • Job descriptions • Planning services and programs • Learning management: • Grant-writing • Publicity

31. Cataloging • Chose Dublin Core metadata/fields (Creator, Title, etc.) • Flexible-can use for all collections • Meets current standards • Not all that hard! • Creating own online catalog for iLab

32. Web Gallery • Digitize PRCC political posters, murals, sculptures • Creating online gallery for PRCC website • Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (1891-1965): President of PR National Party; 1st Latino Harvard grad; led Oct. 1, 1950 insurrection against US occupation

33. Family Reading Night • Started learning about and planning • Parents and kids come to PRCC and read children’s books with others • Kids get used to reading, get closer to parents, enjoy reading

34. Books to Prisoners • Many families have loved ones in prison • Learning about prison system and libraries • And ways to send books to prisoners • Lolita Lebrón: PR political prisoner (served 25 yrs. For attacking US House of Reps in 1954. Just served 6 months for civil disobedience in Vieques)

35. Summary • Community Informatics Initiative employs community partnerships to develop useful information systems • Prairienet and Community iLabs • Open source and freely available • Community outcomes emphasized • Barriers and issues for discussion • Explaining what you do • Negotiating goals, resources, practices, outcomes across different organizations (think “events”) • Teaching/Learning/Research • Community action and development • Local/Global use and impact

36. Resources • Bishop, et al. (2004). Supporting community inquiry with digital resources. Journal of Digital Information, 5(3). http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v05/i03/Bishop/ • Bishop, A. P., & Molina, A. (2004). Felicitaciones, Paseo Boricua! (cover story in the magazine Voice of Youth Activists) http://www.voya.com • Day, Peter, & Schuler, D. (eds.) (2004). Community practice in the network society. NY: Routledge. • Greenwood, Davydd J., & Levin, Morten. (1998). Introduction to action research: Social research for social change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. • Reardon, K. M. (1998). Participatory action research as service learning. In R. A. Rhoads and J. P. F. Howard, eds., Academic service learning: A pedagogy of action and reflection (pp. 57-64). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. • Whitmore, E. (ed.). (1998). Understanding and practicing participatory evaluation. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.