Whither Institutions of Learning?

We have discsussed literacies from many angles: what do these changes mean for institutions—libraries, museums, schools—especially given that historically, these institutions have understood themselves as places knowledge is made, archived, and/or transmitted? You can focus on one institution or read across all three. Unless you are the first poster, please connect what you say to earlier posts.

Literacy Papers

Literacy Papers

The focus of the Digital Revolution and Convergence Culture course is, in part, on literacy: on how it changes over time (or not), and on how it is fostered by or is manifested in materiality; textuality; and technologies. At another level or from another vantage point, this course also focuses on culture and literacy—or is it literacies?—as they dialogue with, shape, and influence each other.

Given this context, one might wonder why this assignment is titled “Literacy Papers.”

Here are some ways of thinking about paper/s:

http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/19/40/frameset.html (Pickwick Papers, qua Dickens)

http://mekentosj.com/papers/ (adding science papers to a library)

http://edison.rutgers.edu/ (Thomas Edison papers, over 5M pages!)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html (George Washington papers)

http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/ (Martin Luther King papers)

http://ecssba.rutgers.edu/ (Susan B Anthony, with comments on editing them)

http://www.oppapers.com/ (term papers for purchase)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper (history of paper)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperless_office (paperless office, but with reference to the role of paper in knowledge-making: see http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/03/25/020325crbo_books?currentPage=all

In titling the assignment literacy papers, I was invoking several issues:

Your role as the creator of “Papers”
The role of materiality in literacy—literally, historically, ironically
Your opportunity to create an authoritative text on literacy

No more than 600 words, please. In email and in print.