Developing and Managing Collection Development and Management

Posted March 11, 2019 by Katie Carlson

I, Katie Carlson, am a ‘microwave thinker.’ This idea was introduced to me by a professor at Mount Holyoke, and indicates that given a moment, I can always supply an idea. Put simply, my brain moves fast. (Sometimes too fast – especially when the goal is quality over quantity.) Microwave thinkers are placed in opposition to ‘slow cooker thinkers.’ These are people who need time to let their ideas marinate, especially before they feel comfortable sharing them with a group. A round table discussion can be torture for these ‘slow cookers,’ especially when the room is populated with ‘microwaves.’ While I originally responded negatively to being a ‘microwave’ — thinking of unevenly heated food with weird textures — my professor stressed that one brand of thinking is not better or worse than the other! We landed on the idea that in any educational setting, it’s important to plan activities and allow for opportunities that work well for both ‘slow cookers’ and ‘microwaves.’  

 

 

The reason I bring up this ‘thinker’ dichotomy is that my online class in Collection Development and Management (LIS 453) is forcing me to step away from the ‘microwave’ and make my way to the ‘slow cooker.’ Class being taught asynchronously means that I am presented with a few hours of content and have the whole week to consume it. While Wednesdays are my hunker-down and get it done day, the work almost always spills into other days of the week. I never would have guessed it, but I’m slow cooking! I jot down notes during lectures, and highlight my readings, but I’m thinking about patron demographics while I cook dinner, and list checking while I wash my hair! Of course I’ve always been a ponderer, but putting all of my comments into forums (with an end of week due date) has meant the content I’m sharing is more fleshed out!

Another welcome addition to my online learning experiment is hearing from everyone! In an online class, nobody takes a seat in the last row and avoids sharing their opinions. My favorite thing about education is the collaborative thinking aspect, so I’m grateful to be able to hear from my ‘slow cooker’ classmates, and learn a thing or twenty from them, too!