I hate so much what’s happened to twitter these past couple of years. It used to be such a big source of happiness (fandom) and information for me. I hate that so many of us have felt the need to leave. : (

And I’m really struggling this semester, which makes me sad because this class and the other I’m taking were ones that I was very much looking forward to. It’s just really hard to focus. Thank you for the empathy, @michael .

Professor,

Thanks so much for the grace and understanding, as well as willingness to be so flexible. It is amazing and very appreciated.

Love the kilt! My family is of the Stewart lineage, with a couple of my great aunts lived in Orkney.

Take care,
Sara

These last few weeks have been a challenge for sure. I love the kilt it looks great. Thank you for your flexibility – it is appreciated.
Carlee

@michael Thank you for your kind words and for being such an amazing professor. This is my second class with you, and I just love the way you teach and how you care about all of your students. You embody the “librarian spirit” and inspire me to be a great librarian. Also, what an awesome picture – you look so majestic!!

@michael I second what Millicent said! Thank you Professor Stephens for being a light for us!

@michael thank you for sharing! I won’t have to tackle my e-Portfolio until next fall, but I’ve already thought about it with a little trepidation. It’s reassuring to read this in advance!

Thanks for this very measured take on a topic that provokes a lot of kneejerk reactions, in both directions. I tend to fall on the side of it being largely a negative tool for the humanities. Something that will reorient the ways we discuss and teach critical thinking.

Right now, there is a huge, overwhelming push away from the humanities as being an entirely impractical field. STEM rules the land. This is reflected in the quote above, where ChatGPT is framed a kind of calculator and the process of thinking through an idea as being tedious, already mastered steps. This is, of course, true in math, where equations must follow specific set patterns and rules. But if you’re writing an essay or working out a research question, it’s the personal struggle that gives the work its real value. The human element is what gives it its value. If you teach people to skip this difficult work, and to rely on what are essentially borrowed ideas coldly cobbled together from variety of unknown sources, you run the risk of seriously stunting their ability to develop any genuinely new or exciting ideas.

Hi @louis, thanks for your comment. I am right there with you. I have seen that same argument comparing ChatGPT to calculators, and the problem for me is that it’s not being used that way. I like the general idea behind Moriarty telling students “writing makes you smarter. ChatGPT makes you sound like everybody else.” That’s a great argument… but it’s falling on deaf ears. My students did not care about developing skills. They care about getting the assignment over with. And that’s not a dig at the students. In my personal experience, young students often must be taught to care, and the process of writing is one way to teach them that. In cases like that, ChatGPT builds a bridge from the start of the learning process to the end of it, allowing students to completely skip the actual learning.

Going back to the calculator example, we as educators allow students to use calculators in upper level coursework only, such as calculus and trig. I don’t know what constitutes that upper level coursework within the humanities– I don’t know who those students might be. But I know who they aren’t: highschoolers who are just getting the hang of writing.

@bklint I was actually wondering about this recently – how professors actually detect if a student used an AI tool or not. There are several students at the university I work at who have openly admitted to me that they use ChatGPT to write papers or to summarize projects all the time, and they never get caught. Regardless, when students do this they are only cheating themselves and will have a hard time in their careers trying to come up with original thoughts or ideas.

@Michael Great Article! I love how it talks about how space itself is a service for users. It really is! Honestly, when I was in high school, I mainly went to my local library to cool down from the 100-degree weather. I didn’t go for the books or the computers (although checking my Myspace was a bonus); I just wanted to sit in a cool and safe place for a while. Space is a luxury and I’m glad libraries can provide that

I’m from Boston and the BPL was a huge part of my teen years.
I’m thankful for the librarians there and how they just let me and my weird friends exist.

A great article! And it plays nicely into my final paper for Collection Development!

Living / learning roof looks awesome! Do they allow dogs up there?

@michael Thank you for sharing – what an amazing library story! I’m so that they were able to rebuild, and make the space even better. I really like the auditorium, it’s so big – would be perfect for some movie or documentary screenings! Like @arthurkolat , I also think that the learning roof is so inventive and fun, and probably gets more folks out into the fresh air.

Congrats to those finishing up! To other fellow students who are, like me, still working on their degree, hang in there and enjoy the journey! I’m not graduating until Fall ’25, but I can’t wait!

I enrolled for the Spring 2025 e-portfolio class earlier this week! It’s the last class I will be taking and then I am done with my MLIS!

Congrats to everyone finishing up!! I’m in the same boat as those who said Fall 2025–see you all then. 😀

Just getting to this recording. What a great chat! Casey had a lot of great insights to offer. I have seen first hand how signing up k-12 students for cards increases patronage. I appreciate that he shared his honest opinion of social media marketing, he made a fair point when he mentioned that followers have already made the effort to seek out a library’s page.

@michael Thank you so much for your empathy. It’s been such a hard week….I’m still mourning but I’m slowly starting to feel better. I appreciate your kindness and patience so much!

@michael Happy Halloween!!

Here is another witchy song lol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU35oCHGhJ0

Happy Halloween! 🎃🍬🍭🍫

@michael Thank you for sharing this – what a gorgeous, engaging space! My parents recently moved to an Austin suburb and are still trying to settle in to feel at home. I’m going to Austin in December and will definitely check this place out. I think my parents (and my kids) will love it.