A plea to the ACRL 2011 planners

It’s time to dust off this blog again. I have lots to share, but no time to write--- so this will be a quick one. I’ll hopefully have some interesting (or at least new) content in the upcoming weeks—deep into the planning process right now.

I have to say that I would be extremely displeased with ACRL if they brought in Mark Bauerlein. If you are going that direction why not go all the way and bring in Glen Beck, Limbaugh, or someone else from that “hate economy”? Actually, what would be really cool is having Colbert debate Bauerlein. Seriously though, negativity is not the way to go, especially in a horrendous economy. I suggest someone with a positive upbeat message that is actually practical. A person who can talk about heading into the future instead of someone stuck in the past.

Van Jones perhaps? I’m totally digging his Green Collar book. 

Or Wired columnist Clive Thompson who frequently writes about web culture. His current piece The New Literacy is very intriguing and flips Bauerlein on his head. Clive talks about a study done by Dr. Andrea Lunsford (Stanford) who says, "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization.” And Clive adds, “The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them. That's because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, a stunning 38 percent of it took place out of the classroom—life writing, as Lunsford calls it.”

This is more of what I would expect from an ACRL speaker. I am not sure what the conference theme is yet, but unless it is nostalgia related I say skip Bauerlein.

Comments

[Wayne Bivens-Tatum]

If you want reactionary musings and flawed arguments, Bauerlein's the man, but why would ACRL want that? Has anyone at ACRL actually read his book The Dumbest Generation? I have, and found it wanting. For the planning group, here's one ACRL member's view of Bauerlein: http://blogs.princeton.edu/librarian/2008/09/the_dumbest_generation.html

[Alyssa Mandel]

While we're at it, could we also plead for people to stop giving so much credence to Marc Prensky? His ridiculous, thinly-supported and clearly agenda'd ideas are gaining way too much appeal among people who really should know better.

[Ameet Doshi]

I've never seen him present, but Edward Tufte might be an interesting choice..

[brian]

I've seen Tufte-- he's mack