Today at ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago, I went to a panel called Women in Geekdom. It was excellent, about reaching out to women via libraries.<\/p>\n
Here are my notes:<\/p>\n
Women in Geekdom<\/p>\n
Moderator, Samantha Nelson, from the A. V. Club — talking about Gamers<\/p>\n
Tricia Bobeda — Nerdette Podcast – Nerd is not what you love but how much you love it. 50,000 people listen.
\nAll you need to podcast is a computer and a decent microphone.
\nInterested in librarians podcasting.<\/p>\n
Mo Fong – K-12 Education Outreach at Google
\nThe world is changing, and students need access and exposure to learn.
\nResearch: Why women choose computer science: Encouragement and exposure. That’s something librarians do.<\/p>\n
Emily Graslie: The Field Museum & The Brain Scoop
\nSimilarities between libraries and museums.<\/p>\n
Molly Jane Kremer: Challenger Comics & DoomRocket.com\u00a0
\nHave won the Eisner’s for best retailer. She reviews comics.
\nLibraries facilitate collaboration.<\/p>\n
Samantha Nelson, Moderator: “Gamers love to talk to other Gamers.” Libraries can be a space for that.<\/p>\n
Tricia: Kickstarter is a similar model to Public Radio.
\nMembership can also be about getting together and sharing ideas.<\/p>\n
Mo Fong – There is lots of collaboration in Computer Science, and that works well with libraries.<\/p>\n
Emily : Libraries and Museums have the advantage of an exciting physical space. The majority of their community building happens online.
\nYou can invite people to come into the physical space.<\/p>\n
Molly Jane: People assume comic fans are antisocial — but they connect with fellow enthusiasts. Libraries can foster that sort of community.<\/p>\n
Moderator: Geekdom can seem intimidating. A library can help people get that first exposure.<\/p>\n
Mo: Finding out what students already love within their communities and adding those: Arduino lights on shoes!
\nVideo: Made with Code campaign madewithcode.com
\nIt has projects kids can do right in the library
\nHost a Made with Code Party — comes in a box. You’re a facilitator. Minimal cost and equipment.
\nwww.cs-first.com
\nOnly 18% of Computer Science Graduates today are women.
\nCS First Clubs. Targeted toward middle schoolers. Tied to themes — music art, fashion, games, friends. Clubs we can run.<\/p>\n
Tricia: Podcasting is a safe space, like libraries. Not afraid to show themselves as beginners.
\nIf kids can become the teachers, it’s less scary, and it’s empowering.
\nGet the kids in your community face to face with scientists.<\/p>\n
Emily – She has a web series where she continues to ask the amateur questions. Learning together is a unifying thing.
\nNOT the empty vessel model.
\nAllowing kids to become an authority is so empowering for them.<\/p>\n
Molly Jane: Intimidating when starting out in comics. Libraries are great places to get around that. You just need a kind understanding person to help you figure out what you need to know. Making you feel like you can dive in.<\/p>\n
Samantha: A program is only successful if people show up. How do you combat the perceptions as a waste of time?
\nMore brain power used than the game of chess.
\nHow do we make it clear and remove the negative stigmas? How do we explain the social and mental benefits?<\/p>\n
Emily: Can go both ways. She hated everything as a teenager — you also need to appeal to the kid.
\nAssociated with the library gives it built-in credibility!
\nDepends on the age of the kids, too.<\/p>\n
Mo: Curious about how we get interest at different ages.
\nCan there be parallel programming for the parents?
\nTricia: Journalists and librarians are conduits for actual understanding.
\nStreet cred to what we do!
\nMake partnerships so kids can see actual scientists.<\/p>\n
Molly Jane: Get comic artists to do signings.<\/p>\n
Samantha: Co-programming is good.
\nWhy do you think women are less represented in your groups?
\nIt’s empowering to meet other women interested. Library can be a place where that happens.<\/p>\n
Tricia: The Safety to be As Weird As You Are
\nWhen they started Nerdette it was to give women a space.
\nLibraries can take up the community conversation being dropped by newspapers<\/p>\n
Mo: Perception is a problem. What books do you highlight? In history, women were not seen as any less capable with computer science.<\/p>\n
Emily: Lots of thoughts in my Mind Palace about women in geekdom
\nWe call the shots on what’s cool.
\nWe don’t have enough positive female role models in these fields.
\nTake a stance on issues! Highlight women scientists!
\nYou can expand people’s ideas of what games can do.
\nGames as narrative.
\nParents do bristle at things marketed for boys or for girls.
\nPublic librarians: Reach out to the community colleges.
\nSteer young people to the special programs.
\nFirst Robotics programs (free, online).<\/p>\n
Tricia: Don’t be apologetic to ask the community for help!<\/p>\n
Mo: You only need one person super passionate about things to make things work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today at ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago, I went to a panel called Women in Geekdom. It was excellent, about reaching out to women via libraries. Here are my notes: Women in Geekdom Moderator, Samantha Nelson, from the A. V. Club — talking about Gamers Tricia Bobeda — Nerdette Podcast – Nerd is not what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[176,347],"class_list":["post-26308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conference-corner","tag-alamw","tag-alamw15"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}