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Prepare for a Career in Data Analytics

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Prepare for a Career in Data Analytics

Earn your master’s from Russia’s #1 university and learn to make better decisions driven by data.

At this time of intensive economic digitalization, robust data analysis capabilities are essential for any business’ success in the digital economy. Demand for qualified data specialists continues to soar. The new online Master of Data and Network Analytics (MDNA) program on Coursera represents a unique opportunity to master the vital skills necessary to analyze data on a massive scale and to develop the fundamental skills needed to solve key business problems with data. Whether you are just starting your career or looking for a mid-career leap, you can enter the lucrative field of data analytics by earning your master’s from the Russian university ranked #1 by Forbes – 2020.

To learn more about this new program, we spoke with Professor Valentina Kuskova, the Academic Supervisor of the online Data and Network Analytics master’s programs at HSE and Head of the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research. Among the many topics we covered over the course of our conversation, Professor Kuskova talked about the program’s founders and faculty, its structure and focus on innovation, and the parallels between this program and HSE’s Master of Applied Statistics with Network Analysis (MASNA) program. MASNA is a unique offering on the educational market in the broader field of data science as an offline mirror of the MDNA program. To further understand these parallels, we also heard from three MASNA graduates who shared insights about their learning journeys and the role their degrees continue to play in their careers.

Professor Kuskova, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, and congratulations on the program launch! Let’s get started with some context. Can you tell us a bit about the creators of the program?

Thank you, and yes, of course. The program was created by leading researchers, experts in applied data analysis, at the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research (ANR-Lab). The Lab is a semi-independent unit within the Faculty of Social Sciences at HSE University. The laboratory develops and tests new methods of data analysis and their wide-ranging applications in empirical research. Affiliated laboratory faculty include researchers in such fields as sociology, political science, economics, management, mathematics, statistics, computational linguistics, and computer science.

The breadth of focus is really impressive, and the program sounds like an excellent opportunity for learners to engage with world-class faculty.

Yes, just as with the on-campus master’s program, students have access not only to high-quality educational content, but the ability to participate in hands-on research and business analytics projects of the Lab. They also benefit from direct contact with expert lecturers in both classes and workshops.

As you think about the curriculum and the structure, what types of learners do you see as benefiting from this program?

Our program offers comprehensive theoretical and empirical training in analytics. It is ideal for those learners who want to use state-of-the-art approaches to working with any data, but especially with unstructured (texts and images) and relational (network) data. Everyone, from students and aspiring researchers to industry experts and managers in the public sector, can benefit from knowing how to use data to make the right decisions in research, practice, and everyday life. 

So is it correct to say that the focus is on fundamental concepts as they apply to the current state of data in the world?

Our program provides competencies that meet the challenges of the modern world. We give students the analytical grounding to solve problems, draw important conclusions, and apply an integrated approach to problem-solving. The program prepares beginners and experts alike to better understand and study complex data and phenomena.

Now that we’re talking about your approach to teaching, we’d love to hear more about the experts who are teaching in the program. Can you share some insights about the faculty?

The program faculty come from the best international universities. We’re proud to have, as our faculty, world-renowned professors who are not only very knowledgeable in modern analytical trends, but who advance these trends by creating new methods. Nearly 80% of the program’s courses are taught by teachers with PhD degrees from the world’s best universities. 

Faculty involved in the program include Anuŝka Ferligoj, a leading expert in cluster analysis and blockmodeling and Nada Lavraĉ, a world-renowned expert in artificial intelligence. We also have Janez Demšar, one of the creators of Orange data-mining software, and Ljupco Todorovski, the co-creator of several machine learning systems. Erik Štrumbelj is a leading expert in Bayesian methods and a co-author of several R libraries for Bayesian analysis. The list goes on.

Given their wide scope of expertise and experience, would you say there is a core set of principles or characteristics that unites the group?

I think it’s the problem-oriented approach that is the core competency of our master’s program. Unlike other educational programs that teach methods, our professors emphasize formulating the problem first, considering both the issues at hand and the data. Once it is clear what types of data are available for solving the problem, only then can we move to selecting a method of analysis. We believe such an approach allows for better, unique solutions that stand out.

What can you tell us about the actual learning experience?

This is an applied program that fully incorporates project-based training using live data and real cases, including cases brought to the program by students themselves. Projects are implemented at three levels (course, specialization, thesis), and by the end of the program students’ portfolios can contain dozens of projects.

And how about the curriculum? Are there different tracks?

Students can choose one of the tracks for their individual study plan: Network Analytics, which emphasizes working with relational data (such as social networks); Business Analytics, which focuses on generating non-trivial, data-driven decisions for modern businesses; and Computational Social Sciences, which is designed for those who want careers in science.

To what extent can the program accommodate learners with different levels of knowledge and experience?

Almost all courses are available at both basic and advanced levels. This allows students with different knowledge backgrounds to study the same topics. The program offers a wide range of subjects to choose from—many more than the required number to earn a degree—which enables students to broaden their analytical horizons as much as possible.

Professor Kuskova, thank you so much for sharing your insights and expertise with us! We’re thrilled that the new program is now live on Coursera, and we look very forward to seeing how learners grow their careers through the knowledge they gain in this master’s program.

~

On the topic of learners and career success, we mentioned in the introduction of this post that we also spoke with some on-campus graduates of the Master of Applied Statistics with Network Analysis program at HSE University to learn about their career advancement. Let’s hear from them now!

Dina Yakovleva, as a MASNA graduate, can you tell us about some of the most important skills you learned during your studies?

I would say I acquired three key skills in the program. The first is that I can do data analysis on anything you provide me, no matter what field it is. This means that I can find a job that I like in any location, which I really appreciate! Second, I can learn any software I’m given. I know how to go through programs and understand their language and structure. And third, I am a part of a young, dynamic, scientific community where I can always find help and support. 

Brennan Lewis Larson, we’d love to hear your perspective as a student from the U.S. What led you to HSE, and how do you feel about the learning experience?

I was looking for a master’s degree in statistics, and what attracted me to the HSE program is that the professors are from European universities. I am really enjoying the experience and the support I’m receiving from the faculty. Whenever you want to talk to professors about research ideas or projects, they gladly help you out.

Elizaveta Chernenko, can you tell us about your current role, and how you saw HSE fitting into your career plans?

I am a teacher of Probability Theory and Statistics at the International College of Economics and Finance of HSE University. I am also working as a business consultant, which is an opportunity to apply organizational working analysis. I chose MASNA because I wanted to build a career in social network analysis—especially as it applies to business consulting. I tried several projects that were only half successful. I felt I had a lack of contacts, skills, and knowledge in this sphere. I didn’t know the right people to help me make the right decisions. When I learned about the new MASNA program, I was impressed. The list of professors really inspired me. 

Looking back now, how would you describe the impact earning your degree had on your career?

I would say the most important outcomes are that I made connections with the right people, gained access to the knowledge I needed, and was able to apply that knowledge. Also, I really loved my classmates. The kinds of students that are attracted to this program are really admirable.  I made many friends, and we really worked as a team on our projects. Those two years were some of the best in my life.

That’s wonderful!

~We’d like to thank everyone for their generosity in sharing their perspectives about the learning experience at HSE. We encourage anyone who is interested in developing in-demand data analytics skills, gaining hands-on project experience, and earning a master’s degree from the #1 ranked Russian university, to explore the new Master of Data and Network Analytics program from HSE on Coursera today!

Twenty Years into His Hospitality Career, Alberto White Found the Right Bachelor’s Program to Help Him Pursue an Exciting New Job Opportunity

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Twenty Years into His Hospitality Career, Alberto White Found the Right Bachelor’s Program to Help Him Pursue an Exciting New Job Opportunity

Alberto started working in the hospitality industry twenty years ago. During that time, a great many things changed in his life. For one thing, he met his husband, and they’re now raising twin daughters together. Inspired by his family, Alberto realized he wanted to make changes in his career as well. He’d tried before, but previous attempts at pursuing an education hadn’t worked out. Alberto felt frustrated by a lack of opportunities and believed that his lack of a bachelor’s degree was holding him back. But he couldn’t afford to stop working, and he had concerns about becoming a college student in his forties.

Things changed dramatically for Alberto when he discovered the Bachelor of Applied Arts Sciences (B.A.A.S.) program from the University of North Texas on Coursera and started talking to their counselors. He felt comfortable sharing his goals and challenges, and they helped him map his career plans to a learning path that made sense for his objectives.

The program offered several things that were especially important to Alberto. Despite being older and having life and work experience, he still wanted to be seen and treated as a student. He wanted to collaborate with peers, build a network, and interact with a community. He also wanted a program where communication with professors was open and where he could build beneficial relationships, receive valuable mentoring, and discuss the challenges of translating classroom learning to his actual career.

One professor, in particular, became an especially valuable part of his experience:

“Dr. Dennis Nasco has been my rock. I’ve been able to talk to him about my professional experiences and ask how they apply to my courses. I could describe to him how teams were being led at my job, and he would show me how I could use what I had just learned in class to optimize our team. I never thought I would be like, ‘Oh, that’s Kotter’s model of business management.’ And then I could take that knowledge back to my work the next day. I felt like I had a personal tour guide for my future.”

After enrolling in the program, Alberto immediately started building on his existing hospitality skills. He also started learning new skills in marketing and business. This led to an unexpected turn of events. “While still earning my degree, I actually left my hospitality job and joined a retail startup that was just bought by a venture capitalist group and switched over to administration and supervision.” It wasn’t part of his original plans, but it was an exciting opportunity he was excited to pursue. And, he knew that he could always go back to hospitality if he wanted to.

In his new role, Alberto has continued his practice of applying what he’s learning in his degree program to the work he’s doing on the job, and he’s happy that his colleagues are taking notice.

“I am now an area manager for the company. I am in a super-competitive market where my peers have so much more experience than I do, and yet they’re telling me, ‘you really know the business market, you really understand analytics and how to do forecasting.’ They’re asking me for help, and I feel like I’ve gone from someone who knew nothing to feeling like I’m an expert in my field. To be confident in my responses is something that I never really imagined.”

Building that confidence has made a difference in Alberto’s personal life as well, not just his professional one. Today, he’s proud to share his successes and accomplishments with his daughters. “It’s super exciting to know that they are my #1 cheerleaders and that they’re so proud of me. They talk to their friends about me. It is the most fantastic gift.”

Alberto is nearing his graduation date, and as he reflects on his journey, he has some hard-won advice to share: “Take advantage of opportunities that present themselves and don’t over analyze what is in front of you. People start to second guess themselves, but not holding back is the biggest thing.”

The University of North Texas’ online Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (B.A.A.S.) program is designed to streamline student’s path to a fully accredited bachelor’s degree by making it easy to transfer course work they’ve previously completed for technical, applied, or military credit. Providing student support is a central part of the B.A.A.S. experience.

How Alison is helping to educate the children of migrants in the UAE

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How Alison is helping to educate the children of migrants in the UAE

As part of his role as Alison CEO, Mike Feerick travels around the world promoting Alison’s goal of free universal education and encouraging projects, big and small, that share Alison’s ethos.

While the majority of our 21 million Learners engage with Alison independently as they empower themselves through self-learning, many organisations around the world use Alison as part of their own initiatives to promote accessible education.

While in the UAE last month, Mike came across another fantastic example of how Alison is helping organisations around the world make a real difference through free learning.

 

“One of the fun things I get to do as CEO of Alison is to travel the world meeting our learners wherever I go. Last month, I spoke at RewirEd 2021, an education conference in Dubai. After my talk, I was approached by Shadia Abdullah, the founder and Director of Rawafed Development & Learning Centre in Sharjah in the UAE.

Shadia told me that the Rawafed Centre has been using Alison for many years. The centre educates the children of migrant workers who come to the UAE who fall out of the education system. She and her team focus on teaching these young people basic literacy skills in Arabic and English, as well as basic mathematics. This gives them a chance of to rejoin the public schooling system or enter the workforce. Shadia said that Alison was useful in training the many teachers that she has working in the school – allowing them in turn teach English and Mathematics to their students.

Shadia said her teachers were delighted to hear that she had met me and so I asked her how far her school was from the conference. Long story short, Shadia and I visited the school the following morning at 8am before we returned to the conference. Visiting the centre was a real eye-opener. We often hear stories of migrant workers being exploited in the Middle East but we rarely hear about how local Arab people – equally dissatisfied with the situation – are trying in their own way to make things better through education.”

Teaching Teachers how to Teach

The Rawafed Centre in Sharjah is a fantastic example of how Alison is used by organisations not just to educate students, but to train teachers. Over the last year, Alison has greatly increased the resources available for the training of educators, through the creation of our Teaching Hub and the launch of the Alison Career Guide, which features career paths for a wide range of educational jobs, including:

What Does a Site Reliability Engineer Do?

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What Does a Site Reliability Engineer Do?
What Does a Site Reliability Engineer Do?

When something goes wrong with a business’ website, how does it get fixed? You may imagine IT staff scrambling into a server room, fumbling through wires, sparks flying and choice vocabulary filling the air. Today, this kind of chaos can be avoided with site reliability engineering (SRE).

SRE is all about using technology to ensure organizations’ websites work 24/7. While that doesn’t rule out the occasional server room rush, Site Reliability Engineers work to minimize the time, effort, and resources needed to keep a company’s site up and running.

Read on to learn what a Site Reliability Engineer does, the techniques they use, what they’re paid, and how our courses can help you launch your career as an SRE.

How does site reliability solve problems?

A Site Reliability Engineer uses software solutions to ensure users have a good experience with a company’s website. Along with using software, Site Reliability Engineers may also manually perform reactive fixes to problems.

These differ from proactive fixes, which are typically engineered using software. Let’s dig a little deeper into these two kinds of solutions.

The differences between reactive and proactive site engineering

Reactive site engineering addresses issues that pop up with internal or external users of a company’s site. In other words, someone has a problem, and the Site Engineer has to figure out a way to fix it. Problems could involve:

  • Access to the site.
  • The functionality of a specific aspect of the site, such as an online shopping cart.
  • Issues with the site’s functionality, such as when someone clicks on a link, and it leads them to the wrong place or a 404 error.

Reactive site engineering is all about fixing these and other kinds of problems that can pop up at any given time.

Ideally, proactive site engineering forms the bulk of a Site Engineer’s job. And, when done right, proactive measures can significantly reduce the amount of reactive work that has to be done. Proactive site engineering may involve technologies such as:

  • Observability platforms.
  • Visibility technologies.
  • Self-healing network technologies, like those that address network problems by automatically shifting traffic or resources.
  • Root cause analysis (RCA) technologies and techniques, which are used to identify the source of a problem.

A Site Engineer identifies, deploys, and manages technologies that do much or all of this kind of work automatically.

For example, suppose a business has an e-commerce site to sell sneakers. The front end of the site relies on several dependencies to function. For example, the checkout process needs to pull information from a database regarding a repeat customer’s name, address, email address, shipping address, and credit card number.

A Site Reliability Engineer can use a root cause analysis (RCA) solution that identifies when a malfunction inside one of these databases causes a problem in the checkout process. The RCA system will send out an alert so admins can quickly address the problem and get the checkout process working again. An SRE can save the company many thousands of dollars this way — even over the course of a few hours.

Site reliability engineering skills

To become a Site Reliability Engineer, you need to have a background in coding and the languages used by System Administrators to manage network components and design effective solutions. We offer courses that focus on several of the languages used by SREs, including:

Plus, as a site reliability engineer, you need to be:

  • An effective problem-solver and critical thinker, able to identify the root causes of issues quickly and accurately.
  • Able to perform well under pressure. Often, time is not on your side as an SRE.
  • Able to understand networks, how they work, and how to protect them.

A Site Reliability Engineer needs to understand how software solutions work, what causes them to fail, and how to balance the implementation of new features and maintain the stability of a web app.

For instance, the dev team may want to launch an awesome new feature that can take the company’s site to another level. But if, as the Site Reliability Engineer, you think the new features may make the site less stable, you need to be able to explain and demonstrate why.

SRE salaries

Site Reliability Engineers make around $127,718 a year in the U.S., keeping a business’ digital assets available and advising dev teams on how to enhance stability. The amount you make as an SRE will vary significantly based on the company you work for. For instance, an SRE at Google makes an average of $151,470 a year, while at IBM, the average pay range is around $119,767.

If you’re just getting started as an SRE, your salary may be closer to $90,000 a year or slightly less. Either way, considering your earning potential, it’s a good idea to dive in because your pay can skyrocket as you get more experience.

How to become a Site Reliability Engineer

To become a Site Reliability Engineer, you’ll want to educate yourself on how networks and web applications work, as well as the programming languages used to design solutions for them. Along with the courses listed above, aspiring Site Reliability Engineers should consider taking our Back-End Engineer Career Path. This will give you a foundational understanding of the back-end technologies that power software solutions.

Once you have the knowledge you need to ensure the reliability of sites, you’ll need to gain some experience. No two apps are quite alike, especially when it comes to the dependencies that power them. So, it’s important to gain exposure to as many different kinds of web apps and network configurations as you can.

Our courses, Skill Paths, and Career Paths are a great place to start your SRE journey. You’ll gain the knowledge required to keep businesses up and running and build an impressive portfolio of your work. Sign up now to get started.

Web Development Courses & Tutorials | Codecademy

Web Development is the practice of developing websites and web apps that live on the internet. Whether you’re interested in front-end, back-end, or going full-stack, the content in our Web Development domain will help you get there.

Winter TV Shows

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Winter TV Shows

The latest seasons of many television shows are returning this winter.

What new or returning shows are you most excited for? What was the last great show you binged? Have you ever been surprised by how much you enjoyed a certain TV show? Why?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.

Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: winnow

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Word of the Day: winnow

noun: the act of separating grain from chaff

verb: separate the chaff from by using air currents

verb: blow on

verb: blow away or off with a current of air

verb: select desirable parts from a group or list

_________

The word winnow has appeared in 19 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on June 30 in “Westminster Dog Show Photos: Judgment Day” by Andrew Das:

A French bulldog named Mathew — wait, shouldn’t that be Mathieu? — won the nonsporting group, and an Old English Sheepdog called Connor was judged the best of the herding entries. (He also looked big enough to eat a couple of them if the result had not gone his way.)

On Saturday night, the judges at the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show whittled hundreds of entries down to four group winners. On Sunday — with judging in three more groups — the field will winnow to the final seven dogs who will compete for Best in Show.

Can you correctly use the word winnow in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how winnow can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

How Much Do You Know About Uganda?

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How Much Do You Know About Uganda?

Can you find Uganda on a map? What else do you know about this African country with about 45 million people?

Are You a Fan of ‘School Accounts’ on Social Media?

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Are You a Fan of ‘School Accounts’ on Social Media?

Have you heard of “sleep accounts” on social media that catch students dozing off in class? Why do you think they are popular right now?

Have you ever appeared on a sleep account or other account related to school culture? If so, what were you doing in the photo? How did you feel about it? Have you ever posted a photo of another student doing something unintentionally funny?

In “The Latest High School Prank? It’s a Snooze,” Katherine Rosman writes about the rise of “school accounts,” which catch students dozing off in class, slouching, parking their cars poorly or otherwise being at less than their best for social media fodder. The article begins:

Zach Lewis swears he was just resting his eyes.

But when a fellow student at Stowe Middle High School in Vermont surreptitiously snapped his picture during English class and shared it with the school’s “sleep account,” it was hard to dispute the evidence. There he was, book open, lids shut.

After Zach was tagged in the photo on Instagram, he sent a message to the people who manage the account to remove it. They quickly deleted it. “I wasn’t worried about a teacher seeing it,” Zach, 16, said. “It’s just embarrassing to have it up there.”

But that didn’t stop him from secretly photographing another student who fell asleep in English, then submitting it to the account for publication.

“Everyone,” Zach said, “has been trying to catch each other.”

Part prank, part extracurricular documentary project, sleep accounts are among several types of so-called school accounts that have proliferated on Instagram in recent months, as students have returned to classrooms following two disrupted academic years. After many months of pandemic-mandated remote instruction, teenagers have come to regard such banalities as their classmates eating, slouching and parking badly as fodder for amusement — and, of course, content.

The article — which also quoted Ash Saple, a 17-year-old junior at Hamilton Southeastern High School, in Fishers, Ind. — offers some explanation for the popularity of school accounts, and the intention behind them:

The students behind these accounts say they are mostly a harmless trend, predicated on the novelty of being in the same physical space as their classmates again. There is also a poignancy to the accounts; as many students head out for winter break amid a national surge in Covid-19 cases, there is some uncertainty about whether in-person instruction will resume in January.

“On your computer in your bedroom, you can’t see people napping and you don’t see how badly people park their cars because no one left their house,” Ash said. “There are so many things that you forget about that are just normal things that we’re now able to notice.”

The account that posted the photo of Zach appearing to doze off in class in Vermont is run by two sophomores, Teague Barnett and Andrew Weber, both 15. They had seen on Instagram and TikTok that other students at schools had started slouching and “bathroom feet” accounts.

They decided to create one themselves: a sleep account in which anyone who wished to have their photo removed would be respected. “There is a high school cliché that everyone is falling asleep in class and this account is here to poke fun at that,” Andrew said.

The boys see it as a lark. “A lot of the things that are fun to high schoolers are risqué and things parents wouldn’t be OK with,” Teague said. “But this is a good way to escape and play a little prank and no one is getting hurt.”

Parents seem to agree. “It’s great to have the kids back in school and able to poke fun and have a good chuckle,” said Andrew’s father, Chris Weber. He sees it as a reflection of a generation that has grown up with smartphones and social media, observing and being observed.

“They document their entire lives,” Mr. Weber said. “And they’re very comfortable being seen by their peers at almost any moment.”

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Are school accounts popular at your school? Why do you think they have suddenly become so ubiquitous?

  • Are you a fan of these kinds of accounts? Do they “keep everyone on edge” as one student said, or are they all in good fun? What is one quote from the article that best captures your thoughts about school accounts?

  • Do you think there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed when it comes to capturing and sharing images of things that students do? If so, what should be off limits? Why?

  • If a person who had no affiliation with your school saw social media accounts devoted to showing everyday life there, what impressions would they get? What doesn’t get reflected? What gets overemphasized?

  • You read about a school account that captures “good parkers, bad parkers, cute outfits, shoes, fast walkers, slow walkers and red-haired students.” What is missing from this list that might be of interest to students at your school?

  • Could school accounts build a greater sense of belonging or increase school spirit? Why or why not?

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Lesson of the Day: ‘After 110 Years, an Overdue Book Is Returned to a Library in Idaho’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘After 110 Years, an Overdue Book Is Returned to a Library in Idaho’

Featured Article: “After 110 Years, an Overdue Book Is Returned to a Library in Idaho” by Alyssa Lukpat

In 1911, someone checked out a copy of the book “New Chronicles of Rebecca” by Kate Douglas Wiggin from a library in Boise, Idaho. It was not returned until 110 years later in November 2021 — in immaculate condition.

In this lesson, you will learn about the journey of this book and librarians’ response to its mysterious return. Then, you will discuss the importance of public libraries and practice tagging archival materials as part of a citizen archivist project to learn more about the way libraries are cataloged.

In your journal, reflect on a time that you found something you had thought was lost forever.

How did it feel when the item first went missing? What circumstances allowed you to recover the item? How did you feel when you finally found it again?

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. What is so special about the journey of the book “New Chronicles of Rebecca”?

2. What do librarians know about the book’s return? What remains unclear?

3. What questions do you have about the book and its time away from the library?

4. What is one theory that librarians have about the book and its return? What do you think? How might the book have remained in such good condition while being checked out for so long?

5. What makes this copy of “New Chronicles of Rebecca” unique? What also makes it ordinary?

Option 1: Tell us about your experiences with libraries.

Respond to one or more of the following questions in writing or in a discussion with a partner:

  • Do you use your public library or your school library? What do you use it for? If you use neither, why is that?

  • Has your local library ever encountered a mystery like the return of “New Chronicles of Rebecca”? If so, what was it? Was it ever solved? What questions do you have about it?

  • The article mentioned that many libraries are now getting rid of overdue fines. Do you think this is a good policy? Or should libraries charge patrons when books are returned late? Why?

  • How important do you think public libraries are? Do you think it is important for communities to have free physical spaces where all types of people can congregate? Is it necessary for all people to have free access to books and other resources that libraries offer? Or, with so many things moving online these days, are libraries less important than they once were?

Option 2: Try a citizen archivist project.

To ensure that books and historical artifacts are easily accessible to the public, libraries use metadata — language that describes what is included in a collection — to catalog items and help people find them. Learning about it can help you better understand library science.

Try your hand at using metadata by participating in a citizen archivist project for the Adler Planetarium. The project asks you to tag digitized items to help the planetarium organize their resources and help people find them.

Tag at least five items. Then, reflect on your experience with these prompts:

  • What was your experience tagging the images and artifacts? How often did you have to create your own tags?

  • How important do you think tagging is for members of the public who need to find books or archival materials?

  • What biases might individual taggers have when doing this work? How might that affect users of the catalog trying to find different historical artifacts?

Want more Lessons of the Day? You can find them all here.

Alison & Catalyst 2030 launch the Disaster Management Hub

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Alison & Catalyst 2030 launch the Disaster Management Hub

Alison is proud to announce the launch of the Disaster Management Hub in association with Catalyst 2030. The hub brings together crucial and potentially life-saving information both on how individuals can survive disasters and how organisations can better respond to and resource disaster situations.

Catalyst 2030 is an organisation of social entrepreneurs united in their commitment to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Catalyst 2030 is composed of various dedicated groups specialising in particular areas. The Disaster Management Group, chaired by Alan Braithwaite, has worked closely with Alison in creating this unique and free resource that aims to radically alter how we respond to disasters.

 

The Alison Blog spoke to Alan about the fundamental roles that both social enterprise and education have to play in reshaping disaster relief.

Hi Alan, can you tell us a bit about the aims of Catalyst 2030 and your role in the organisation?

Catalyst 2030 is a movement of social entrepreneurs across the world who are coming together to try and have a significant impact on the achievement of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The proposition is that, compared to top-down government actions, social entrepreneurs on the ground can make a disproportionate difference in promoting and implementing change.

Catalyst 2030 came together just two years ago and already we’ve attracted over a thousand members. We’re sponsored and funded by some of the most significant charitable foundations in the world – Ashoka, the Schwab Foundation, the Scholl Foundation, Echoing Green and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as well.

Catalyst 2030 is built around both geographical groups and groups who come together around various conceptual or operational  issues. I’m chairing the group on Disaster Management, organised around what we’ve called the three R’s of disaster: readiness, response and recovery.

We’re trying to craft and define a role for social entrepreneurs in the global system of how the world deals with disasters. There’s no question from the research that we’ve done that the way in which the world copes with disasters is broken. It’s characterised by not being as prepared for the obvious scenarios as one could be, arriving late, bringing the wrong things, leaving before people have had a chance to recover and all of the associated and well-documented questions of white colonial judgements as to what is good for people on the ground.

How did this collaboration between Catalyst 2030 and Alison come about? 

Mike Feerick, Alison’s CEO, is a member of Catalyst and we identified very early on that there was a lack of both knowledge and access to knowledge for social entrepreneurs, agencies and authorities in terms of what needed to be done in disaster and potential disaster situations. So Mike stuck his hand up and said Alison is one of the largest online providers of educational resources and knowledge. Also, while Alison is a for-profit social enterprise, they don’t charge the ultimate user so it’s free at the point of use. And so Mike offered this amazing organisation’s capability up to the group. So Alison has created, discovered and consolidated a relevant body of knowledge into a Disaster Management Hub that is easy to access.

Why is education so vital for disaster management?

If you’re in a disaster, it’s likely that you’ll never have encountered one before so having the ability to access basic information on what’s happening, and what would be good or not good to do, is really important. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is that we’re trying to create an organisational framework so that social entrepreneurs can be a credible resource in the disaster relief chain. We need resources and information to be made available so that social entrepreneurs, who haven’t necessarily dealt with disasters before, can pivot to help and leverage their resources. They need access to knowledge and understanding in the easiest possible way and so that’s the value in the Disaster Management Hub.

 

How do you hope to see the Disaster Management Hub on Alison work?

The Disaster Management Hub carves out a specific space for information that we can then promote easily. It will also help us to invite contributions and attract partners to the project. We’ve found that was there’s actually a lot of courses already on Alison that are extremely relevant. The hub allows us to centralise those resources and then expand them.

What role do you think social enterprises can play on the ground in disaster situations?

Social enterprises are generally speaking local. They’re on the ground, they’re trusted and they exist with the consent of their community. If and when disaster strikes, they’re already there. They very often have relationships with local government and therefore they’re in a position to pivot and offer support with logistics, resources and organisation much more quickly than external organisations.

We know from all of the anecdotes that when disaster strikes it often takes three or four days for the big agencies to start to appear because they often spend time competing with each other for resources, rather than worrying about the people that are affected.

If the people on the ground can be better organised through the capabilities of social entrepreneurs, then the international resources can be better informed and the relief will be more relevant, targeted and effective.

What are the next necessary steps in setting up Catalyst 2030’S Disaster Management Group?

We’ve got a clear strategic plan now and we’re in the process of creating a full-blown programme. Having formalised the training and education, we now have to devise an operating protocol so everybody knows what their role is in the future system.

Alongside education we’ve obviously also got to build partnerships. We need to create an understanding as to what the information and communications technology infrastructure will be to support information flow in a disaster situation and how that can be managed.

We also need to explore how we make funding available. For example, if an area is particularly prone to disasters then maybe there are things they can invest in that will both mitigate that and also produce a return. There’s a lot of experience now in impact investments and that’s something we’ve got to integrate into our operating system.

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