I really enjoyed working on the group project. Although our topic was very broad, “The Library is Everywhere,” our group cleverly decided to focus on one library and examine how that library was indeed ‘everywhere’ through 5 specific users point of view.
For my portion of the project, I reviewed the young-adult department of the Chicago Public Library. For teens, the YOUMedia project is definitely one of the most impressive of any YA program in the area. I enjoyed researching the project and learning more about the program. I was able to use the CPL website and even used the CPL Twitter site to find two interesting links about the YOUMedia project. One of our members created a Google site for us to post our research, links, and videos and we were able to collaborate and help each other with ideas and suggestions. We also used Twitter and email to send a quick note to our group members when we updated our portion of the Google site.
The toughest part of the project was working with a large group and trying to coordinate schedules. The time given us in class was very helpful, in addition to being able to communicate with each other over the social networking tools. The broad nature of the topic was also somewhat difficult to discuss because of its depth, despite our able to zero in on one library. If I were to do this project again, I could probably do one presentation on just one user group for the Chicago Public Library.
Overall, a rewarding experience, and I feel we all worked hard to provide our classmates with useful and interesting information.
