Turn up the Volume on Voices from the Past

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When researchers are finished working with the archival boxes Special Collections pulls for them, I occasionally sneak a peek at the stash-- just to be nosy, or to share an item of interest for social media, or what have you.  

I’ve got to come clean about what initially drew me to examine the papers in one folder in particular, which came from the Planned Parenthood of Maryland collection. Three words jumped out from the page of a typewritten, mimeographed promotional flyer:  “WAY OUT SEX!!”.

Well, that's an attention-getter. 

Joan Y. Harris: Celebrating an Archival Legacy

Charles Dyer and Joan Harris, outside UB's Hilda and Michael Bogomolny Room 

Last Saturday, Langsdale Library honored the legacy of archival collection donor, Joan Y. Harris, ACSW. Ms. Harris devoted her career to Baltimore as a public school social worker, supervisor, and administrator. Her collection of archival records, known as the Baltimore City Public Schools Social Work Services Records (BCPS), is one of over 150 collections held in Langsdale’s Special Collections.

Want to know more about Ms. Harris’ contributions to school social work in Baltimore and the archival collection she donated to Langsdale Library? The BCPS collection guide in our archival database is the best place to start! Our donor herself has written an impressive narrative introduction to the project, with detail and precision that is characteristic of all Ms. Harris’ work!

The BCPS collection was scanned and put online in its entirety several years ago, through the determination and perseverance of Special Collections’ staff members, including Angela Koukoui. These digital files are accessible through the database, or this handy PDF document.

At last weekend’s ceremony, Joan's friends, family, and colleagues gathered with members of the UB community to recognize the importance of preserving the archives of school social work. Ms. Harris herself spoke to the enduring value of these records, which provide historical insight into the challenges of teachers, administrators, and youth in the City’s public school system through the significant changes of the 20th century. Langsdale thanks Ms. Harris and archival donors like her, whose careers and contributions become part of Baltimore history through preservation in the archives.

When Did You Learn to Code? How About Your Kids?

I read an interesting interview last night with Christopher Poole. He also goes by the name moot and is the guy that coded the disposable image-sharing site 4chan. Be careful with that last link, though. While hugely popular, and arguably the source for a lot of today's internet culture (from memes like rage comics and the Picard facepalm, to groups like  bronies and Anonymous) it's, pretty wild west and can be very N.S.F.W.

image credit: Sparky123445

Besides giving us a place for cat jokes and involved discussions on manga, one thing that makes Christopher Poole interesting is that he coded the site when he was just 15. He worked on it in secret, sacrificing sleep and grades, and launched without telling family or friends until years later. Perhaps not the best of strategies for everyone, but it worked well for him.

Then this morning I saw this article, about an initiative in the UK to formally integrate programming into primary school education. It's part of a broader set of reforms that have some claiming it will bring a revolution to education, and others only ruin. Like the education debate here in the US, there are clearly passionate opinions on either side.

What do you think? If we, in the US, really want to push STEM education, and maybe encourage the next Christopher Poole, how early should we introduce formal programming? If you know how to code, when did you learn? When do you want our kids to learn?

Mindfulness in Education

Ali Smith of Baltimore's Holistic Life Foundation. Photo by Noel Hidalgo.

Something in my news feed caught my eye this morning: A Classroom in the Now, a brief article about the rising popularity of mindfulness meditation and its potential to help students learn. It highlights the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Mindfulness is a hot topic right now. Drawing on meditation techniques from Buddhist spiritual traditions, secular forms of mindfulness are cropping up in corporate offices, college campuses, and public schools. Closer to home, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health teamed up with Penn State and Baltimore's Holistic Life Foundation to bring mindfulness to urban youth. (Brief article in PDF)

Want to know more? The web (and our library!) are brimming with information on mindfulness, but one place to start could be this handy research guide, put together by University of Kentucky Libraries.