This is a work in progress. Last year I created a blog on Blogger called Survivor Library. I tried to get permission from CBS to use the title, which is too close to their popular TV show title for me to feel comfortable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get anyone to acknowledge my request, and quite frankly, soon realized that I wanted this project to go in a different direction.
The show is certainly not as popular as it was when I used it in my 7th grade English classroom to trick kids into learning grammar by teaching one another. Also, in a 50 minute one-shot, it’s really hard to carry through with the whole “team up and complete these challenges together” thing. Plus, what on earth do I use for prizes? Finally, I had to ask myself: What kind of connotation do I bring up when I talk about SURVIVING the library? Like it’s some big scary jungle that one must figure out how to…well, survive in.
Ok, so maybe it is kind of like a big scary jungle, full of mind-boggling jargon, scary shelves stacked high with books organized HOW?, and databases screaming NO RESULTS FOUND when one types a perfectly logical phrase into their search boxes. To some, libraries can seem overwhelming, confusing and scary. To many, using the library for research seems impossible, sort of like surviving 30 days on an unfriendly island where all are out to get you.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Hopefully, this blog, its associated wiki, “Surviving the Library,” and other information literacy initiatives being developed by NSU Librarians and teaching faculty will help to make library research not only ‘mission possible,’ but ‘mission enjoyable!’
