Return Your Library Books or Go Directly To Jail, Do Not Pass Go

From BoingBoing:

A judge has ordered JoAn Karkos of Lewiston, Maine to return two copies of It’s Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex and Sexual Health, which she checked out the Lewiston and Auburn public libraries last year.

In September, Karkos sent letters to the libraries, including checks to pay for the cost of the books. The letters said, in part, “I have been sufficiently horrified of the illustrations and sexually graphic, amoral, abnormal contents. I will not be returning the books.”

The judge has ordered Karkos, who is being held in contempt of court, to return the books and pay a $100 fine by Friday at 4pm. If she doesn’t comply, she’ll be arrested.

In 2007, NPR reported on the incident, providing several links, including a link to a letter Karkos wrote to the Sun Journal.

What makes a good online class?

The faculty wants our input on the very important issue: What makes a good online class? The more specific you are, the better your impact can be.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

* What are the do’s and don’ts for instructors from a student’s point of view?

* What are specific instances of  instruction, group work, assignments, or other “things” that worked well?

Your comments will help in the creation of a “best practices” document for on-line teaching.

Thank you for adding your input!

Rachel Cannady
LSO: Faculty/Student Liaison

New Semester, New Leadership, New Plans

As LSO president, I’d like to say hello to everyone and wish all SIRLS students, staff and faculty a great fall semester.  LSO has a lot planned for this term, and we look forward to making the organization a better representative of student interests and more active in faculty/student relations.  We are gearing up to make the blog into a forum for discussing faculty/student issues and we are also creating a SIRLS student online survey.  We are beginning to organize the fourth annual SIRLS Graduate Student Symposium and hope to see many student participants come November.  LSO also plans on hosting several other events in the fall including social and professional networking activities.

Please join us for our first meeting of the fall semester on Friday, September 5th at 6 pm in the SIRLS multipurpose room.  If you are a distance student and would like attend a meeting virtually, please e-mail me at ikeda [at] email.arizona.edu.  We’d love to see all students participate in our organization.

Sho Ikeda
LSO President