 All right so let me kick off. Welcome everyone. We have with us today two people. I want to at least introduce and share just a bit about this project and the kickoff for today and kind of the history. So first welcoming Kara Price who has been very instrumental in creating the Year Voices initiative or project which this webinar is the first part of. So the year voices I'll just give a brief little tidbit about it and Kara if you can put in the chat the link to our blog. So your voices learning listening sharing is a initiative that is for academic year 2022-2023. So this fall and spring with the emphasis of focusing on student voices. So for all of you that are students we want to hear from you. We are including four EDI focused webinars. We also will be setting up community learning spaces in which you can join sessions just for students to discuss whatever you'd like in those sessions. And then we will be creating four quarterly E newsletters. So the link is in the chat you can look at that further at your leisure. But this webinar is the first of our kickoff of the year voices project. And so I'm going to introduce Dr. Leslie Farmer. She is with Cal State University Long Beach so one of our sister schools and so she's going to speak with us today about visual literacy in terms of cultural connotations. I'll turn it over to you Leslie. Thank you so much it's such an honor to be able to be part of this project in terms of presenting. So I'm glad that you folks are here. Know that if you have you know questions you can put them in chat. I will probably be asking about your voices as well while we're kind of sharing this information. So specifically I'm going to be talking about visual literacy in terms of cultural connotations. And just a little bit about myself. I coordinate the teacher librarian services credential program at California State University Long Beach. I also manage the information and communications technology literacy community within Merlot which is an international repository database of learning materials. And I've been interested in visual literacy for a really long time. My minor is art. My husband was in art marketing and you know I continue to really push on this particularly now with so much international access to information that is visual. You know the internet used to be mainly textual and so we're kind of broadening that particularly with social media we're seeing a lot more visuals. So there are some real consequences of that. So what I want to do today is just share with you then what are some of the visual literacy components and how they manifest themselves in different cultures so that you'll be more comfortable in cross-cultural competencies. And also I'll be talking about the library's role in these endeavors as well. So again we're going to be talking about a little bit of cultural issues, talking about visual literacy, explaining the library's role, and then I'll be you know sharing with you some resources and strategies. So let's face what we're talking about culture. We're talking about you know group beliefs, social norms, and traits. So things that we have in common that are ongoing cultures can be of all sorts. We tend to think in terms of like ethnicities or nationalities but yeah let's face it. Librarians have their own culture within that and even school librarians have their own culture let alone you know Boy Scouts or Goths etc. So you know a lot of these norms are you know at the subconscious level just because you know these are things that we've just practiced so much that they are you know integrated. And again how we respond you know to culture you know depends a lot on our context. It depends on our own backgrounds you know what we bring to the table both cognitively and emotionally. And what happens sometimes is particularly in cultural arts so you know images, visuals, is that it gets to be it can be really shallow. So we're going to do a little drilling today in our brief time together okay. So again I'm talking about cultural arts that is sort of again where it really where the culture is central in that piece but we're also going to be talking more generally but in cultural arts in particular. We're looking at what are sort of like visual patterns that you would see within you know a particular you know culture. So you might think of like Indian saris you know you might see that even in the appearance of food quite frankly. But each of those that express kind of their own norms their cultures what's important to them. It could be you know by a single artist it could be a group you know the idea just like you know folklore you know has kind of like a whole group thing so that can be the case as well with cultural arts you'll see that particularly you know with those materials that are kind of like before they've been you know historically written down. So again you know you would see this maybe in patterns of woven baskets would be an example and the contemporary artists may be doing it as a group they may you know be pulling on their own cultures they may be adding you know to that because we know that cultures are dynamic. But you know all these cultural arts all these cultural visual images then are ways to communicate within and across different cultures. So we kind of have that as a as a mainstay in there. So now then let's look at visual literacy and these elements are from the International Visual Literacy Association. They still hold and that is that you're able to take a visual image you know be able to access it understand it appreciate it that you yourself can generate visual images and be able to communicate you know effectively and that also includes using technology these days. And also to be able to take visual thinking as a way to solve problems. So you know you know whether you have like a concept map or you know you're kind of drawing a model you know all of those kinds of things are ways then to approach knowledge and representation of that knowledge. So visual elements themselves and the principles of of visuals and visual literacy are international. Basically we're just codifying what people have experienced and generated you know throughout history. So it's sort of the you know the obvious things that that we deal with you know dots and lines and value and the size of things and motion is also part of the of the visual scope. And then in terms of actually creating an image of composition so to speak there are again these universal principles again codified just by you know observation over time across cultures you know the idea of balance of contrast whether it's in line or color you know the idea of different patterns repeating and sometimes in a arithmetic way and the idea of both unity and variety. And a lot of this is you know our elements that you might not even know on a conscious level or name them but they are you know part of our you know human way of of visually representing ideas. So then the additives you know the cultural visual additives then is like your the choice of your medium and again that usually starts talking about you historically what are the materials that are available that are around you you know if there are reeds around you you're going to use that if you've got clay kind of soil you're going to use that right so you know that's going to be part of you know your endemic you know culture your subject and again what's around you that's going to be the first kind of choice and then get a little more you know sophisticated in terms of like how we use you know space and perspective. And for example in in this image you know right here you can appreciate it without knowing any of the culture but again here we're talking about iconic versus realistic this is more you know iconic you know in terms of kind of a you know Hindu you know religion and its use again is in terms of you know representing you know gods and you know our behavior that is impacted you know by gods and by you know engaging in this and perspective here so the higher something is in you know these kinds of artwork that means the farther away it is and it could be exactly the same size but the higher it is then the farther away it is and the lower down it is then the closer it is and also here you're talking about earth and then you know heaven so here you know the the elevation you know where it is in the composition shows both distance as well as particular you know values. So the more that you know about the culture and the more that you know how those visual principles are manifested in a particular culture then the richer your experience is going to be and also the less misunderstanding you're going to have in terms of engaging with those visuals. So again when we're talking about visual processing we're talking about parts that are universal so dots and lines you know that kind of a thing our brain is you know going to process that is is pretty universal there might be some shadings on that for instance if you're colorblind there's going to be you know it's like differences but the mental process right so the connotations the context on that is going to be subjective now here this is kind of a simplistic you know example but let's face it you know some people would see this as a base and some people would see this as two faces you know interacting again the process is the same but how then we interpret that image is subjective and in some cases culture enters you know into that process. So one of the pieces that's really important when we're discussing about you know visual literacy is semiotics and the definition there is kind of both the science as well as the arts the craft of interpreting culture it's you know knowledge manifestations by its expressions behaviors and artifacts and meaning that you know the same image may have a different interpretation depending on the culture. So we're going to start with this image right here not my face but you know this image so when you're looking at it what what meaning do you take out about what you know as you're as you're looking at this image what do you see what what do you think it represents so you can just put that in the chat okay so a car or a gospel choir right so what makes you think that it's a gospel choir what parts of that image make you think that okay so stained glass all right so probably could be a church does a blue and white robe so you could be a choir and have blue and white robes and not be gospel so you're guessing that there's there's singing so what images so the robe's kind of in there it's so you see church okay so when you see motifs so are you talking about kind of the designs in the borders okay so community because here's a group of people okay so realize that you had to have experience of church or seeing you know stained glass in a window that you had to experience or see it you know in a prior part you know robes you're seeing you know the color of faces it looks like they're people right you have had okay so then arms raised as in doing a choir so again you're bringing your background you know to this if you had never you know seen insides of a church if you hadn't experienced kind of those motifs that you're seeing in the background on and on the sides you might not you could appreciate this it's got you know balance it's got good contrast so you know the principles you know are all there so kind of pleasant bright kind of colors so some connotations there but the more that you understand culturally you know some of this then you have a greater appreciation you know of that image all right so then let's take a look at so these cultural connotations of visuals because that's where you know you can sometimes get into trouble so depending on the culture it for you know owls and I have a couple of little you know stuffed owls in my office you know so we kind of think of owls and wisdom in you know a lot of us culture but in other kind in other cultures means they're stupid or it's brutal right uh rabbits so you know you think a little bunny rabbits maybe you're thinking of you know some cartoon type rabbits so we've got the idea of reproduction but also it could go into like promiscuity it can also be food right and in some places it's kind of like their pests uh thumbs up you know this circled them in some cultures that's an obscene sign and then um even things about you know um you know two intersecting lines can be mathematical it could also be a value of showing like get away or something that's evil so again we need to know you know where we're like for instance we are creating webpages you know we need to be cognizant of that or when we're seeing you know other webpages as well one that I have a problem with is a librarian is a book room because you know they basically are eating books that destroy property so uh you know there's got to be some better images that go along with that uh in my that's my own experience it's good if I give you a little bias there okay yes so good well I'm glad that you spotted that someone notice about this this is not an owl this is a cat and yes this is a fat cat and so get at the idea of money that's so she was able to read that good you know the cigar again this is very you know uh us oriented because if nothing else the dollar sign um and usually when we think of fat cat so that's usually a negative connotation that certainly makes a difference from just a you know kitty cat or hello kitty right so um you know there are you know nuanced ones of within each of these figures so like Bugs Bunny is a lot different maybe than the Easter Bunny right so thank you for catching that all right color is a huge thing in terms of cultures and and connotations um so again you know white has a different you know meaning in european cultures as opposed to you know eastern um asian ones um so same thing with you know red i'm sure you're in danger in european and japanese cultures in china's joint festivities vietnamese wedding dresses are often red um you would be fairly um rash I think uh or very confident to wear a red wedding dress in in the united states you know for example and then game of thrones has this whole connotation with red in their wedding right um and then yellow for example cowardice of western cultures in china it was you know restricted just to the emperor and it's used as a color of mourning in Mexico that so this is just the tip of the iceberg and I have on the bottom some URL to a really good site that goes you know by different cultures and what those different colors mean so again you know just as an example even something like the color blue you know you can get more nuanced um for example there is a color blue that the united states um dentists often use and it's just show you know very professional looking but in britain that hue of blue is kind of you know considered not very professional at all and they use a different color blue to show that you're really classy and professional so just little things like that a really interesting activity to do is to look at websites from different cultures different you know countries and you're going to see different color themes some of them tend to be you know have really bright colors uh some of them tend to have really um dark ones the images uh it's another example in terms of representation so um I've seen a number of um images of websites from um Islamic you know really uh cultures where the women are never shown like a as an individual but they might be as a group or that there won't be very many women that are pictured but rather it's men that are pictured both individually as in a group so that's another thing that you can look at is to see what uh kinds of images you know are used so again um when we're looking at visuals we really should be thinking about you know the the cultural context of it so are are those images then basically supporting reinforcing promoting a particular you know culture how do those images reflect certain beliefs and norms you know what what is their you know worldview you know um what kinds of stereotypes and stereotypes isn't necessarily about we're really talking about again codification of trends that are sometimes you know uh fairly representative they certainly don't get at everybody and I think that's where we kind of like over generalize that's sort of what stereotypes do and again they're based on perceptions which may be accurate or really inaccurate um you know reading you know the the worldview in terms of you know who's in control hierarchy of values etc so when we're looking at um this image you know here uh what kinds of of um you know values do you think are proponent do you see this as a uh image that tends to be do you read this as a positive image as a um you know um is it promoting you know something is it you know respectful um what do you see is their worldview so if you put that in the chat or think about it individually okay so positive from a Mexican perspective good good so yeah so they're right respect and love for family okay and what about that do you know day of the dead okay which is celebratory holiday right and so again you know um folks that have put on the you know their ideas and chat you know are aware of those cultural things right so joy and how why does this seem to be joyful for you what about the image seems joyful what elements right honoring okay good so smiles now some people might think that that's like uh so you're interpreting that the showing of the teeth is as a smile all right um good so the colorful right the color the you know the use of color absolutely all right and I think it's real interesting to see that that they tend to be like you know pink there might be some you know feelings of uh being more feminine so again you know different colors have different gendered connotations as well and I'm seeing that you folks are also being able to make those personal connections you know if it's your family or friends or again experiences you may have seen the movie coca you know so that again informs you in terms of looking you know at at these images and even the fact that you've got roses in there so usually roses I have a positive um you know perspective it would be interesting to know if in some other cultures roses have a negative you know perspective as well or that they're not as as valued United States and Mexico roses are quite highly valued all right so that kind of gives you some ideas in terms of of how we then need to think about you know visual literacy not only because of kind of those components but also because of the cultural contexts so again um and librarians what is our role in terms of visual literacy and UNESCO really pushes on libraries and cultural arts as does IFLA international federation of library associations and institutions and IFLA would agree with this and that you know UNESCO says quote we may adopt the existing cultural heritage cultivate it and create something new out of it then we share artifacts with others and contribute our artifacts to the pool of cultural heritage so they're very much into the idea of cultural heritage where we come from using those elements as then part of our continued you know lives and onwards to make new traditions to sustain our our heritage to share it with others so that we have a better appreciation of what makes this unique and what makes us you know all part of humanity so again when we are looking at these images and then as you work you know with your you know clientele your students then here's some questions that are really basic for not only visual literacy but also media literacy in general media literacy basically saying how does the format impact the message in terms of its creation it's the it's message and how it's disseminated what's the agenda so with that you know here are just you know very straightforward questions to think about it's like so who created the message right so from that culture I have to understand also that the images that I've shown you have been created by folks that were of that particular you know culture but it could be that you know people will create images about a culture of which they are not a part of so for example my slides backgrounds you know I have sort of a East Asian field to them and I'm not of that culture but I'm using that to represent concept of culture so we do need to think about you know on who's creating the image you know is it a person of that culture is another is it a person of another culture and their understanding of that culture or how they might be you know their attitude towards that culture so again what tech techniques then are used to track your attention so again you're using those visual images we saw in both of the examples that I've given you know bright colors you know lots of information kind of interesting compositions all of those then you know things that you could relate to so those are some of the techniques that they used and quite frankly both of them are kind of they use the compositions of a balance of symmetry a variety of unity all of those principles so how might different people experience that message differently from you so it's good for you to self-reflect about how that impacts you but also think about you know how might someone else you know from a different culture you know a different set of values you know perceive this or that they might not understand or they could be confused by an image so again you know what values what points of view are represented or omitted are not shown right that you know the the ideas between the lines so to speak and then what was the purpose you know of that image or was it to influence someone was it to celebrate was it to be you know derogatory about a particular value or or group a belief you know a concept so these are then are questions that you can ask your own you know library users as well to help them to be more conscious aware and conscious then of images and their cultural connotations and again just focusing specifically on culture you know think about what kinds of cultural patterns cross-format so you talking about photograph you know from day at the dead so are those same things you see though that that same stuff in videos we can see those in 3d objects we'll see those on websites we'll see those in books we'll see those in magazines and newspapers and yet you know the those main figures especially you know of the skull the use of the color do cross those different mediums within that culture right different cultures may well be known for different kinds of cultural visual skills I'm pushing this not only to you know visual but also like you know singing performance as well but again I originally from Spokane Washington and the indigenous folks that area were known for their their basketry for example and when you think of the hope is you'll see a oftentimes of you know ceramics again you know so in Ghana there's you know wonderful weaving so you know what skill you know so different cultures are kind of known for being really expert in certain things you think of Belgian lace is is another you know example and then you know how how then do they those folks express their their values you know visually and then you know again how those cultural arcs reflect also events that happen so again here's the day of the dead we saw the image of the choir so they are social event is a religious event for example and then you know what cultural messages are conveyed in those art so those are questions that you know can kind of like look at a body of different types of of artistic expressions visual expressions and then what that says about that culture now some cultures are more you know homogeneous you know than others some are very diffuse if you're to say like you know the people who live in United States there's kind of a United States culture that's really you know can be very diverse right and so you know it's very porous and part of that is because you know our country you know US country comes you know involves a lot of different people of different kinds of cultures and so you know your your visuals can be really widely widely different and the norms could be very diverse where you know you think of Iceland and it's pretty much the same kind of ethnic group and you're going to you know even current day you know visuals will have you know weavings will have sort of a continuing look you know to them and some of the you know visual icon a country is you know traditional that has kept up to you know the current you know life again getting a little bit beyond visuals even their their music even their pop music will oftentimes build on some of the traditional tonalities so again you know a particular image number one and how that plays out and then you know the visual arts in general in terms of different cultures so how do we that think not only about interpreting existing visual messages but also in their production kind of hinted at that at the last slide how how do different cultures then approach you know visual arts but also you know how then we can support that idea of production and different strategies how can we as librarians then kind of be into you know that picture so starting out by kind of like curating visual collections of different cultures and you can do it you know a couple ways both in terms of a particular you know culture but also it could be you know concepts or even things you know thematically and how different cultures then express you know what horses are you know how they're depicted in different cultures for example really simple one to have you know your own users explore their own cultural you know arts and then also for then then to take those elements that they may have researched and then they could then use those motifs those different kinds of you know ways of looking at perspective for example and to then generate art that is very culturally rich right very culturally specific for example and then you could also do a called a cultural mash-up art that is different kinds of cultures and a really good example you know of that that makes a lot of money quite frankly is fashion so we know that you know fashion designers you know do reference different cultures and then that's how they will you know reinterpret them to to fashion so again whether it's a kind of the the a sorry look or you know different kinds of accessories and different uses of of different combinations of colors um boleros would be you know an example hats will oftentimes we basically have references or connotations from from different cultures so that can be an interesting thing and again plays very well in the United States where where you could also look and see what kinds of cultural mash-up art exists and then how you know your own users then could also look at combinations of different cultures and here we have kind of the whole Star Wars you know cultures and Comic Con I mean that's a whole you know culture in itself and how they are creating you know costumes right that are reflective of their own kind of pop culture so it does cultures don't necessarily have to have been started you know pre-history you know new cultures are also developing and emerging so I want to just share with you some resources that could be useful for you so UNESCO has a site called Memory of the World and this was started in 2000 you know this is images from 2013 but it continues this is when they were kind of like starting it so there you'll see they have you know cultural you know sites but these are also different artifacts from from different cultures and they are well tagged you with a you know subject headings etc again from all around the world this is the International Children's Digital Library and this is run out of the University of Maryland and this has I'd say it's strongest in terms of picture books again from around the world from from different countries and they're pretty good about having a lot of traditional stories oftentimes because you everybody you know people can look at these and access them that they tend to look at public domain works and a lot of those are traditional stories so you can really get some good you know cultural references you know on there thank you Dr. Villagram for putting these URLs on in the chat I appreciate that so and they're also in different languages as well so again visually you can you know look at these to see you know what kinds of patterns you're seeing in a number of different books from the same culture or they have one collections like Mother Goose ones so you can see how Mother Goose stories might look different when they are told from different countries. ISL the International Association of School Librarians is a unique organization and it does have folks from around the world and to kind of help their own students again these are school librarians to to look at different cultures to appreciate different cultures to cross cultures they have a project called Gigalit and you know they're stating this is one example again from earlier one of their first years they have doing this I say that each culture has their own kind of proverbs and traditions so children then get to share that there's also an international bookmark project so children create bookmarks and then share them you know across different cultures you know drawings from you know different you know cultures and again a way to look at you know how different kids are depicting you know their family life for example as well as you know sharing those different ideas and just looking at them from a visual literacy perspective. So the Smithsonian has some great sites especially under their you know education piece in terms of visuals and looking at different cultures so you're going to see some great lessons and great culture some great educational you know pieces on that great artifacts and again because the Smithsonian has like a museum of African Americans of Native Americans and they're going to be having one for the Latinx experience so again as well as you know historical things from other parts of the world so this is a really rich you know site. This is from MIT the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and so they have a project that's been going on now for you know a generation called visual visualizing cultures so again they will they have a whole curriculum that's involved you know with that they talk about how you know in exploration and colonization how that has impacted folks and how that is represented you know by different cultures both those that are kind of the colonizers or oppressors and those folks who you know have been colonized by others so you can get some really interesting interactions that way looking at the same event from you know the different sides of folks that are involved you know in those particular activities. ECAI electronics cultural atlas initiative is really fun you can look at you know different artifacts based on you know the culture or part of the world can also there's so you're going to see by you know atlases can do it by time and so there's lots of different ways that you can parse out this database. Global memory net is another of really good site for you know looking at different collections of artifacts and you can see there so it's almost like a collection of collections so you're seeing that you know you've got ones from like of all natures so sometimes they're specific for instance like human opium ore and then you know have like museums or sometimes it's basically by you know the country you've got like Chinese 56 ethnic groups here you've got you know antique maps so it crosses a lot of different ways you could see you can do it by collections by countries by timelines so you can have great great fun with that. This is from Taiwan and fairly recent and what they were trying to do was to digitize their historical artifacts you can get a little bit of translations you can use google translate but this is basically for their own you know country but it is a photo museum so even if you can't read this stuff you can at least get some idea of the visuals what did they choose to show what do what patterns do you see what values are you seeing in there because this is a really good example of how you know a country then decides what's important to share within their community and make you know public to folks so that's that's another way then to to drill down into you know visual literacy. The Library of Congress has a number of different collections that they've digitized so the Library of Congress collects not only books and many you know print kinds of things but they also collect you know videos baseball cards realia etc so again you know they are capturing you know experience of folks that are you know within you know this geographic you know space and you can see that you can browse them by topic you can also you know browse it by you know timeline by by geographic etc so this is another really you know rich way to look at difficulties within the United States and to see if you do happen to see some patterns that cross different you groups in in the US and again understand that these are items that the Library of Congress collected so while they try to be as inclusive as possible you know they could well be missing some things as well. The Taiwan one would be trickier I think if you just go if you type in Taiwan photo museum you'd probably be able to to get to that. So this is a really fun thing from the Asian art museum how to read a woodblock print and the reason I wanted to share this is it points out the importance of the actual resource the materials and how they are handled artistically visually and then and so they talk about you know the printmaking thing so you're going to see a lot about process in terms of visuals and culture and why they chose you know wood prints and part of that has to do with dissemination of information as opposed to a painting which is unique and only you know could be owned by one person and they're the only ones that see it or painting might be in a public place that other people can see it but only if they are there now we're digitizing this it's broader but you know historically you know how do you share information visually with a lot of people so wood blocks then were one way to do that so looking at the techniques how they approach that medium is very culturally defined and so this is a really good site for that and then it will also then talk about then how do you interpret those images in other words you know some of this is pretty realistic some of of wood blocks are more kind of iconic you know so a collective understanding of what different images means and different elements with an image mean and even colors etc so this goes into both the process as well as content and again within a cultural understanding so this is again another really rich site for visual literacy so that's your turn so here's kind of a a current image so what what do you see that that could harken to different cultures or have a certain worldview this is current so french and you know that because okay okay what else what other kind of maybe some cultural things that you see could be french canadian okay and why okay red and green colors you my miff christmas right and then you've got noel okay the french and more snow all right so france does have snow i've been in france and snow but yeah uh we think more canada more snowy than than france don't we yeah any other elements could there be a different any other cultures that might be represented here gnomes okay so you know what culture are those right gnomes and it's usually gno and yes right so um but you say this is more kind of iconic more than realistic or a little bit of stereotypes there get the snow going iconic okay so those little white things are probably snow huh right so um star okay and and so it's sort of like a gnome but it could be it could obviously also be interpreted as a tree very good okay it could be the north star all right all right or it could be a christmas star all right good all right so um so a little bit of reveal um this is my christmas card from last year and uh so some history behind it so those little characters are uh what we call uh tompton t o m t e n which and the that's the plural for tompton and those are swedish uh little kind of like gnomes and they're very traditional and my background um all my relative my you know past relatives are from sweden and i visit sweden ever so often uh most recently in 2018 just before covid and um so these are little tompton which are are like little teeny figures and they're like house elves all right and they can be somewhat mischievous but they can also be trying you know give you good luck in the house and so they are associated oftentimes with snow and they usually have like a beard kind of a thing and um again they're having fun i don't know if you if you felt that sense of like yeah this looks sad it looks like happy and so um fishing is a big thing in sweden and also they have san luchia day and they'll have like you know um you know stars and so very good about the christmas tree so yeah that little gnome in the in the middle can be translated also as like a kind of christmas tree kind of a thing um so the gnome on the left is on candy canes candy canes are actually originated in southern sweden so i thought that would be kind of fun and so where is the joyo noel because in sweden it would be god yule and basically it was my son who you know we've also spent some time in france um and he says like i like i prefer joyo noel to good yule and i think more people would understand that you know and i said like sure so um the composition in terms of it uses balance there's some variety there's a unity again you know kind of the stereotypes of the pine trees so that could be another reason why you thought canadian is like so those look like evergreen trees that's what they're supposed to do and again this is something that i drew and again the colors absolutely you know the classic you know christmas color chart colors in sweden for that you know as well and then kind of the the rhythm of the using of the blue then is is repeated in in the words as well so you don't have to know anything about sweden obviously uh you don't have to know anything about france because you can kind of figure out the noel and joy joys if you you know the english are going to be a good shape but this is kind of the but i was kind of co-opting some um you know cultural references you know for for the card yes sarin that's exactly how you spell that um for good yule so um with that i also want you to know that uh got lots of references you know here and um so some of you can uh you know take notes by clicking on your camera again this will be recorded it's uh i really think that uh visual literacy is kind of underrepresented in under value because people say well everybody can see well not everybody but a lot of people can see so why do we need to teach this but once you kind of understand some of the principles you know behind the visuals different aspects to look at and then layer that with the importance of cultural understanding and again cross cultural understanding then it's more important than ever and again being culturally sensitive when you send a message to other folks that you know um they may have a different connotation for your use of colors or uses of images so being aware of that um it helps to um you know as you front load how you generate images is is really important and again the more that librarians can you know share um you know visual images from different cultures have people looking at it then i think the more appreciative we can be so with that we've got a couple minutes for questions or thoughts or comments that was amazing um dr farmer i loved all of your sources and resources for everyone that's attending or listens to this i think there's a lot of rich um well content you provided but opportunity here for all of us moving forward um so i really appreciate it i don't have any questions i just want to say special thank you um and for helping us kick off your voices absolutely if there's questions please place them in the chat um i'm going to put in again our blog if you want to check out your voices and we do have our next webinar will be november 15th um so please register for that if you're interested and i'll give you that direct link as well super thank you so much folks for being here for participating you know this is a great program and um i encourage you when i tell my students at the end of each class is go forth and do good work it's uh librarians really are you know facilitators for sharing knowledge sharing information and we empower people yes thank you again i'm not seeing any questions you're getting a lot of thank yous in the chat yeah i appreciate that so again i'm a librarian that's why you got lots of references and and sources so that you can make it your own and share with others thank you again