Information curation is critical in collecting information and using it to create wisdom:

The following graphic provides one view of a framework of thinking about curation.

 

Source: Beth Kanter www.bethkanter.org 

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6212246958_71d5878927.jpg

Building thought leadership through content curation by Corinne Weisgerber

is a Slideshare of 79 slides presenting the issues that are attached to curating content. Here is my selection of the slides for investigating her opinion:

 

 

And I learned another new word from slide 57: Sharing as a lagniappe – Lagniappe – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagniappe A lagniappe (/ˈlænjæp/ LAN-yap) is a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase (such as a 13th doughnut when buying a dozen), or more broadly, “something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure.” Serendipitous learning – always a source of joy! 

You can see the full slideshare here:

Visser (2011) believes that being a curator is both being a strategist and a curator and then defines the roles of a curator. The curator (not the strategist) will have four main roles:

1. Searching, filtering and selecting content to become a taste-maker for the target audience.
2. Providing curatorial leadership to help other workers within an organization understand what makes valuable content for the brand — so they can be enlisted to create and maintain content based on these evolving criteria.
3. Spotting trends, and feeding these to the strategists who will use them to help define future direction.
4. Distributing — identifying channels and fine-tuning them.

Not everyone has the skills to be an effective curator for other people. Personal curation is quite different to curating for other people to retrieve. For personal access and use, any individual can collect and store according to their own processes. If others are to benefit, there need to be guidelines spelt out and common understandings agreed to by all involved parties; alternatively there needs to be a designated interpreter.

Visser, G. (2011, November 25). Gerrit Visser: Use smart knowledge networks to be a curator. Paper.li.

Good, R. (2014) Content curation tools: 21 criteria to select and evaluate your ideal one. Retrieved fromhttp://www.masternewmedia.org/content-curation-tools-selection-criteria-to-evaluate/

An amazing set of criteria backed up by a wonderful Pearltrees site using his own categories.

Valenza, J. (2012) Curation. School Library Monthly. XXIX(1) Retrieved fromhttp://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/valenza2012-v29n1p20.html

Human filters make a difference. Librarians can be filters in the best sense of the word. Librarians can synchronize communities because they are skilled at taming the information flow for the purpose of aiding discovery and knowledge building. They have access to a range of appropriate tools  with which to find, collect and curate; many have of these tools have the additional power of being able to be used collaboratively. Teacher-Librarians are not one interest curators – hence their strength.

Curating for different categories of people requires a different style:

parents – http://kawah.wikispaces.com/ 

teachers – http://esandbox.wikispaces.com/

and students –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“While many curators effectively serve to vet signal from noise, curators may also, intentionally or unintentionally, function as gatekeepers. Does individual curation serve to narrow the lens? Can we learn to assess not only the credibility of information creators, but the credibility of information curators? The following issues deserve consideration:

• Issue: How do we avoid the role of gatekeeper?
  Does individual curation serve to narrow the lens? Can we learn to assess not only the credibility of information creators, but the credibility of information curators?
• Issue: How do we avoid the “filter bubble” (Pariser 2012)?
  Is only the curator’s (or the searcher’s) point of view represented?
• Issue: How do we evaluate quality and relevance in emerging information landscapes and recognize exemplary curation practices?
  Do credibility scores (e.g., Scoop it) give data without identifying bias?
  Does a curation effort model passion about a topic, shared knowledge, and updates through knowledge-forming communities?
• Issue: How do we protect and promote ideals of intellectual property?
  What are the legal concerns when posting/using work of others? What are the ethical, moral, and professional concerns? “

From <http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles/valenza2012-v29n1p20.html>