The Following is our group project link:
LIS 202-Group Project UW College Library: A Third Place?
People in Group:DJ Nogalski, Andrew Nordstrom, Emily Osborne, Lauren Sorenson,
Jesse Susa, Leila Walker, and Vijay Pai
Video Reflection
14 years ago
What we did for our project was to see if UW madison's College Library was indeed a Third Place. We used the information taught to us in the 2nd week of this course to compare whether college library met all the 8 criteria for a Third Place. We researched college libary by going there and exploring, examining the website and resources, and by talking to the patrons and users of the library. My role in the group project was to help film the interviews conducted, edit the footage and final draft using apple I-movie, and to do part of the voice-over in the movie. From doing this project, I learned how useful of a resource college library is for one thing. I did not realize that you could ship things from other libraries to certain libraries. I also did not even know there were plush beanbags and couches to study on! I also learned how although college library is a third place, it doesn't meet the "act as a leveler" definition for a third place. It often alienates people of different age groups....such as older and younger that aren't college age. This is visible by internet access only being available to people with net-ID's as well as the fact that since about 99% of people are between the ages of 18-26, people who don't fit in this range would also feel alienated.
ReplyDeleteAs a group, we set out to determine whether or not College Library was a third place based on the characteristics given in lecture. Through interviews, online research, and personal observations/experiences we were able to get a better feel for what exactly UW-Madison’s most used library offered. Through this exploration, we determined that College Library is indeed a third place because it encompasses 7 out of 8 criterions.
ReplyDeleteMy involvement included filming and scripting the video, as well as aiding Vijay in the editing process. I met with different group members at different times (and locations) to determine strategies for the video. We spent time discussing the video, obtaining footage, figuring out how to overcome technological barriers (editing and saving the video), and ultimately deciding what direction to head in for the project.
The hardest part of the project was getting everyone together at the same time. Also, everyone’s hectic schedules combined with the availability of technologies created a significant barrier we had to overcome.
As said above, our video outlines the 8 factors that define a Third Place and uses them to determine whether or not College Library is a Third Place. As a group we met several times to discuss the project and delegate roles among our group members; I think everyone definitely did their part to contribute. Outlining the video and ideas for our message were a group effort. Personally, I wrote most of the voice-over narration material for the introduction sequence and the Third Place criteria segments.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was difficult for everyone to meet at the same time, I feel it was relatively easy to organize the production and get everyone involved. Because there are so many steps to producing even a short video, each group member was able to fill some specific role when they had time. The final result reflects the efforts of every member of our group despite only meeting as a whole once on the first day.
i screwed up and wrote my post separate, plus it was too short so here's more.
ReplyDeleteSo my group filmed random scenes of college library that demonstrated its facility, as well as uw-madison students that use the library. I myself shot some of the random scenes. This footage we obtained helped to outline the characteristics of what a third place is, as well as which characteristics can be seen in college library. Most of the editing was done by Vijay, with a final group meeting to go over the project. Although not everyone could be present at the same time, each person contributed in some way to the project.
As outlined above, our group video was about whether or not college library was a third place. We looked at the criteria for a third place that we learned about in lecture and applied that to college library. We interviewed people we found in the library, looked at library resources offered, talked to staff that works at college and shot scenes of the library, inside and out. My contribution to the group project was mainly in the interviews. We all collaborated on the brainstorming session, and then vijay and I interviewed different random people we found about how they felt about college library. Then we got all the footage together and finished up editing and all that jazz together.
ReplyDeleteI hate to be repetitive, but as said above the point of our group video project was to find out if the Helen C. White College Library is a 3rd place. We established the 8 criteria that make a third place, and then interviewed people and gave information about the library to see whether or not the College Library fir the criteria.
ReplyDeleteDespite being relatively chaotic schedules over the past week, everyone was able to equally contribute to the project and I think we put together a really successful five minute movie. Personally, I researched information for the speaking part of the movie, including what a third place is and details about college library. I also helped write the conclusion and parts of the intro and provided my voice for the conclusion as well. But like I said, everyone really contributed to the whole project.
Our group did a wonderful job communicating and everyone put a lot of work and effort into this project, so I'd like to thank everyone for that. Along those lines, because communication within the group went so smoothly, it wasn't hard to come up with a great topic and run with it. We decided quickly that we wanted to look at the perspective of a third place in regards to college library. first we all got together and brainstormed. everyone had great ideas, and we wrote up a rough draft of questions we would ask patrons of the library. in particular, i suggested that we look at a counter argument. college library is obviously a third place, but where is it lacking? so in the movie, we mentioned that while college library was a comfortable place for most people, it largely catered to students. you don't see a lot of older people in the library who are not affiliated with the university. the same can be said for children. So other than contributing to brainstorming activities, i went to meet up at college library two times and offered any help i could through email. i can't itterate how great everyone was through the project, and it really couldn't have gone so well without the help and collaboration of everyone. thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteMaking this video definitely made the issues we talked about in class become more applicable in my own life. I was able to look at the functions of College Library critically by applying the criteria of a third place that I learned from this course. After looking at College Library, I realized that many criteria for a third place would be very difficult for most libraries to meet. College Library is a great example of a third place but it didn't even meet all eight criteria. The fact that most communities are lacking social bonds because of a decrease in third places makes much more sense. I think it would be very difficult for a location to be a perfect third place without being too commercial or underfunded and unwelcoming.
ReplyDeleteTo add on to my prior post, this project was a really benifitial experience when it comes to reenforcing 202 issues that we have learned. I don't know how much I now think differently about the criteria that make up a third place, but by using College Library as an example I think we were able to see that fitting all of the criteria for a third place is a truly hard feat. Going into this I think I just assumed that we would find that College Library was a third place that fit every criterion, but with our research we found that this was not true, and for that i think this project really enriched the learning experience for this class.
ReplyDeleteMaking this video reinforced a lot of themes from this class. We had to go back through our notes and our articles to explore the different aspects of Third Places, ultimately enhancing our knowledge of the required readings. It also forced us to use analytical thinking in our examination of all the aspects of College Library.
ReplyDeleteThe most important aspect in my opinion, however, is what we experienced along the way. Because the project required a lot of advanced technology and "literacy" when using the resources, the digital divide was further put into perspective. If a group of college kids had a hard time learning how to use editing software and a cameras (provided to us by the University), I can't imagine what underserved communities must go through just to try and use the internet or a word processing program. Experiencing what it feels like to be technologically illiterate in our technologically dependent society makes the issues that much more realistic. Dealing with these types of frustrations truly allows you to better understand how important it is that everyone is "connected."
to add on to my previous post...
ReplyDeleteour project helped me to analyze libraries in a different more hands on way. it was clear that there was only a certain demographic represented in college library, and it makes me wonder what the effects would be if the library was opened to everyone from the surrounding madison area. would college library then be less conducive to students because we are having to share our resources with others? or perhaps it would create a greater opportunity for learning - being immersed with other demographics in a communal learning environment.
this project not only reinforced the aspects of a third place, as well as how to identify these characteristics, but it also made me realize the value that these third places, more specifically libraries, have. college library has many resources for its students, and it's evident in the school's academic reputation that this abundant amount of resources has contributed to the growth of wisconsin-madison. however the greater madison area still deals with poverty and homelessness. if madison residents were given more access to the university's library system, perhaps growth of the greater madison area can also be witnessed.