Category: libraries

Categories
internet libraries

Transparecommuniparticipabiblioblogosphere … 2.0

One of the things that first drew me towards librarianship, and that draws me still, is that it is a profession that encourages a multi-faceted, eclectic range of interests. The more things that fascinate you, the better. This aspect of being a librarian is perfect for me because, honestly, there’s not anything that I’m not interested in. Perfect that I found a job that encourages that. Now if I could just put down my other interests enough to focus on it. On a daily basis, I do my actual job very well. I get things done, I go the extra mile, and I try to anticipate things that need done before they become an issue. That’s not a problem, and I enjoy it. The aspect of my job that I wish I could focus more on is this, this blog, these thoughts about librarianship (or even future librarianship, in my case), technology, information, and the internet. I’m focused in spurts, perhaps, but obviously I’d like to take this blog to hand and create a consistent, interesting webspace that people will seek out and enjoy. Consistent is the key word, there.

Wednesday I was lucky enough to go to a pre-conference for the Washington Library Association (WLA) up in Tacoma. The workshop I attended was called “Rev Up Your Online Services: Blogs, RSS, Wikis and Other Dynamic and Low-Cost Technologies”. Jenny Levine and Michael Stephens, of The Shifted Librarian and Tame The Web respectively, presented it, and they did a phenomenal job. I’ll post a full write-up soon. The reason I mention it here is that it really gave me a burst of inspiration to get back to this blog and write, and even moreso to participate in an online community of libraries and librarians that is growing and thriving, and even further to do my best to participate as a librarian with the non-library community and spread the library word. It inspired me to do all that and also, evidently, to write really long sentences.

It’s been a busy week, and not long since Wednesday, but one thing I’ve been working on is to keep up better with what other librarians out there are writing. I’ve got some catching up to do, so I’m taking things one step at a time. Since I attended their conference and found it inspiring and insightful, I figured it only right that I keep up with Jenny and Michael, at the least.

So, to prove that I’m paying attention, and because it is absolutely post-worthy in its own right, I join both of them in welcoming Mary Ghikas to the world of blogging (I’m on the fence about the word: biblioblogosphere). Mary is the Senior Associate Executive Director (or SAss E Director – a much better title) of the American Library Association. I agree with Jenny that the new generation of librarians don’t feel very connected with the ALA, and I think that including the sort of personal transparency that is a blog could do a lot to help with that. The blog is called The Green Kangaroo, which is a great name with an even better explanation, and I’m looking forward to (hopefully) keeping up with it.

It appears as though this may be part of a larger campaign to launch multiple ALA blogs (you’ll notice that The Green Kangaroo is, supposedly, blog #10). However, of the others listed, the YALSA Blog is the only one that seems to have been active (since Jan. 2006), but they do have some content worth checking out. I’ve just recently heard of the Alliance Library System and the Second Life Library project, and of course I find it totally fascinating. Between these two blogs, I think the ALA is off to a good start in becoming an association to which the next-gen librarian will be able to relate.

Categories
libraries news

‘Feral professionals’

Library Journal article about the tendancy of academic libraries to fill their positions with non-librarians.

Academic libraries now hire an increasing number of individuals to fill professional librarian positions who do not have the master’s degree in library science. Instead of appointing librarians with the traditional qualifying credential, they hire staff to fill librarian positions who hold a variety of qualifications, such as advanced degrees in subject disciplines, specialized language skills, teaching experience, or technology expertise.

As a future librarian aspiring to work in an academic library, I’m obviously a little worried about precious professional positions being taken by non-librarians. However, I agree with Mr. Neal in his summary that integrating ‘feral professionals’ into the academic library is bound to incite a certain amount of revolution in the way academic libraries, and librarians, view themselves and the services they offer. Read any article out there today on the modern librarian, and it becomes fairly obvious that it is a role that is constantly changing and re-evaluating itself. Libraries have to offer new services in new ways to new patrons, especially academic libraries who are consistently thrown against new, young, and tech-savvy patrons.

In comparisn, I’ve read lots of stories about librarians who go out and use their degree to find non-library positions. I’m curious how the ratio compares between non-librarians taking professional library positions vs librarians finding professional non-librarian employment. I imagine that, somewhere, it all evens out.

Categories
libraries news

Libraries: Service with a ‘boom’.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services issued a press release today concerning reshaping libraries for baby boomers. The forty-four page report, co-sponsored by the IMLS and the Americans for Libraries Council, details an extensive plan for understand and adapting to the needs of baby boomers as they retire and seek out new and creative enterprises in their lives.

Public libraries are uniquely placed to help mediate the great social transformation signaled by the growing proportion of healthy, active older Americans. Recent research documents the desire of older Americans to remain engaged in the broader world and to continue their learning opportunities. These adults are resources for our communities and our libraries – if librarians can transform their practices and their institutions to provide opportunities and connections to support lifelong learning and civic participation.

On September 26-27, 2005, Americans for Libraries Council (ALC) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) convened a Library Leaders Forum, Designs for Change: Libraries and Productive Aging, to examine key issues relating to the aging opportunity. The meeting was held as part of ALC’s Lifelong Access Libraries initiative, which seeks to foster fundamental changes in how librarians provide services and opportunities to active older adults.

Categories
internet libraries

Ever stumped a wombat?

I subscribed for a time to the Stumpers mailing list, hosted by the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Dominican University since 1992. I unsubscribed because the email provider I was using (Mailblocks) got bought by an evil company (AOL) who integrated its features into their email service and then threw it out. I’m happily using Gmail now, but that’s neither here nor there.

It took me awhile to resubscribe, and when I tried the other day I found out that Stumpers has become mysteriously defunct. There’s no explanation on their webpage as to what happened, which was frustrating, but eventually I found out from Phil Bradley that Stumpers still exists, if in a different incarnation.

Project Wombat is a much cooler name, in any case, and offers the same expertise for which Stumpers had long been known. Perhaps the best part, if you simply have a question that you need answered, is that you can post your question to the list without being a subscriber. But make sure you read their posting guidelines before you do. Think of it as helping them help you; and believe me, they are quite helpful.

Categories
humor libraries

‘Librarians wield unfathomable power.’

Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian.

Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you.

While we’re on the “librarians are cool” kick, you should check out Batgirl was a Librarian and Librarians are SEXY. I don’t know if all this stuff really applies to “guybrarians” or not, but my positive self-image would like me to assume that it does.

Categories
humor libraries webcomics

Humor, Unshelved.

Quote of the week, from Unshelved.

Return to your chosen profession – providing vital information to anonymous potential terrorists.

I really want to try and add that into my CV somewhere, now.

Categories
libraries news

The ‘Experience Library’

LJ Talks to Waynn Pearson and Don Buckley of the Cerritos Library. A model of the integration of flash and substance, molded to fit their users’ needs.

Lots of people come to visit. If they can’t match your budget, what can they take away?

DB: Creating a positive experience for the guest not just intellectually but also emotionally. Broadening the definition of what a library can be. “WOW” customer service: staff scanning the horizon, walking around, and finding a way to say “Yes.” What we like to hear is, “You have a beautiful building, but it’s the people who work here who make it really special.”

Categories
cinema libraries news

Google hosts National Archives

National Archive Films on Google Video.

Over 70 years ago, the National Archives was founded to preserve
American historical documents, as well as the moments and events that
could be saved in still photos, films, and audio recordings. Today the
Archives is home to everything from rare historical footage (newsreels
and government documentaries from the 1930s) to the 1969 moon landing.

Categories
libraries news

Homeless, and now libraryless.

The NYPL cracks down on internet use, and against the homeless.

“Homeless people depend on free access to internet in libraries to find out about job listings, keep themselves informed and email résumés to potential employers,” said Rogers, who regularly searches craigslist.com for weekend jobs or part-time work.

Categories
humor libraries music

You’ll feel fine at the library.

A library music video?

Indeed.

(warning: annoyingly catchy)

Categories
libraries school

Implications of changing names in changing times.

I came across an interesting paper written as a masters thesis
(around 2000, I think), that addresses this topic pretty well.

“The implications of name changes for library and information
science schools” – JULIA ANNE MURPHY

the link is: http://www.crowbold.com/homepage/topic4.htm

Of particular interest concerning this topic:

Positive and Negative Aspects of Name Changes
Most proponents of library school name changes agree that the changes are important in recruiting a new type of student. Changing librarianships’ negative stereotypical image is cited as an important reason. Maurita Holland of the University of Michigan says that the term “library” conjures up archaic images (Davis, 1998) and Jose-Marie Griffiths, Director of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Tennessee agrees. “We are striving to recruit students of a different type who wouldn’t think about entering a library and information science program because they have the traditional view of what it’s all about” (Dean’s list, 1994, p. 60).

Another important factor is psychological. Name changes show academe and potential students that the field of information science is not limited to librarianship, and that information science education can lead to non-traditional, higher paying jobs (once again, usually in the corporate world). Library schools today are adamant about divorcing librarianship from the physical institution of the library. “Information science” connotes that information is everywhere and that therefore graduates of a program can work just about anywhere, whether that is in a library, corporate setting, or as a freelance information broker. Nancy Van House, former Dean of the now-defunct School of Library and Information Science at the University of California at Berkeley agrees. “If we focus as ‘library schools’, on the library, then we are tied to an institution that is changing and that could disappear”(Dean’s list, 1994, p.62).

Naturally, others disagree heartily with the name changes, finding them superficial at best and an utter betrayal of the profession at worst. While proponents of the changes believe the name changes will improve relations with the rest of academe, critics feel that universities will see the new titles as simply another attempt by a
low-ranking discipline to manipulate words in order to raise its status (Crowley, 1998). And while name changes may appear to be a token effort to address the reality of the information paradigm shift, it takes time and strategic planning to develop a corresponding curriculum that is properly balanced between theoretical and practical education. In this sense, name changes, especially with the plethora of permutations of the word “information”, can be evidence again of the identity crisis within which library schools are involved (Bohannan, 1991). What are such schools, really? More library school than information science school? Or vice versa? These questions lead one directly back to the definitions described above — definitions that provide few answers except to show that as a profession, librarianship is still struggling to define itself and its schools.

I still don’t know how I feel about getting rid of the word “Library” from graduate programs. Perhaps I’m biased because I do want the degree to pursue work IN libraries, which I realize isn’t the case for everyone.

Here are some more links I’ve run across that seem relevant.
There’s a lot to read, just thought I’d throw it out there.

http://www.si.umich.edu/cristaled/postings/V52.html

http://walt.lishost.org/?p=231

http://www.slis.ualberta.ca/cap03/regan/unitedstates.htm

In addition, library schools are choosing to drop the word ‘library’ from their faculty names in order to disassociate themselves with the low status occupation of librarian. Farley suggests that librarians can improve their status and pay by: 1) standing firm on wage negotiations despite economic downturns, 2) disseminating information on fair pay, 3) embracing the title of librarian instead of information specialist. She generally recommends marketing the librarian as important to society and refute the common misconceptions of the librarian.

Categories
libraries school

The idea of “library” and the importance of a name.

McGill’s Graduate School of Library and Information Studies is evidently considering dropped the words “Graduate” and “Library”, which has some students up in arms. School of Information Studies? I don’t think it sounds as nice, or fits as well the role of the school, which just added three specializations this year: Knowledge Management, Archival Studies, and Librarianship. If you’re going to offer a specialization in “librarianship”, wouldn’t it make sense to keep “library” in the name? The crux is this, what does the word “library” mean in the 21st century, and how is it viewed outside of the library community? Removing the word would likely be based on the idea that “library science” has fallen far enough out of its specialization in libraries and into a more general idea of information management. Is there an viable instance where “library studies” are outside of and distinct from “information studies”?

If you do a wikipedia search for library science it automatically brings up the entry for LIS (Library and Information Science). For wikipedia, library science automatically incorporates information science, but the reverse does not seem to be true.

Library and information science (LIS) is the study of issues related to libraries and the information fields. This includes academic studies regarding how library resources are used and how people interact with library systems. These studies tend to be specific to certain libraries at certain times. The organization of knowledge for efficient retrieval of relevant information is also a major research goal of LIS. Basic topics in LIS include the acquisition, cataloging, classification, and preservation of library materials. In a more present-day view, a fervent outgrowth of LIS is information architecture. LIS should not be confused with information theory, the mathematical study of the concept of information or information science a field related to computer science and cognitive science.

Programs in LIS are interdisciplinary, overlapping with the fields of computer science, various social sciences, statistics, and systems analysis.

Doing a search for “information science” points you to informatics, where the language points much more into the realm of computer science and information management via databases and software engineering.

Informatics or information science is the study of information. It is often, though not exclusively, studied as a branch of computer science and information technology and is related to database, ontology and software engineering.

Informatics is primarily concerned with the structure, creation, management, storage, retrieval, dissemination and transfer of information. Informatics also includes studying the application of information in organizations, on its usage and the interaction between people, organizations and information systems. Within information science attention has been given in recent years to human computer interaction (HCI) and to the ways people generate, use and find information.

In the academic world, it’s easy to think that being a librarian is all about creating databases, utilizing new software, being technologically innovative, and so-on and so-forth, ad technologicum. However, many LIS graduates find work in small public libraries, where you still find a lot of patrons who don’t want to use computers or databases, and who want to ask the librarian anytime they have a question. For a lot of librarians, patron interaction and reference work are what make their jobs worthwhile, and while younger library users will likely jump on the technology bandwagon, utilizing the software and databases created by the librarian instead of the librarian directly, we have a more conventional generation, who having grown up with card catalogs and print indexes, aren’t keen on skipping the middleman and jumping straight into information overload.

Day by day the line is blurring between LIS and Informatics. We, as librarians and library students, are at a point where we need to try and straddle the gap between the two, and eventually build a bridge. I think that it is important to maintain the distinction between information study as a librarian to information study as a computer science student or software engineer. Yes, as “librarians” we want to be able to branch out. We are versatile, and can offer many skills outside of the library setting. But if that is our explicit goal, then the field of library science will decline, and the importance of the library as place will eventually be swallowed by technology, computer science, and the internet. The library can always expand its purview, and incorporate innovation and technology to its heart’s content. We can make the words “library science” mean “information expert”, rather than letting “information expert” destroy the word “librarian”.

Categories
book internet libraries

World 2.0

The president of the U. of Michigan gave an excellent speech yesterday on Google’s book digitization and its impact on libraries, information, and publishing. (full text)

New technologies and new ideas can generate some pretty scary reactions, and Google Book Search has not been immune. The project, for all that it promises, has been challenged: on the editorial page, across the airwaves, and, with your organization’s endorsement, in the court system.

It is this criticism of the project that prompted me to accept your invitation to speak — and explain why we believe this is a legal, ethical, and noble endeavor that will transform our society.

Legal because we believe copyright law allows us the fair use of millions of books that are being digitized. Ethical because the preservation and protection of knowledge is critically important to the betterment of humankind. And noble because this enterprise is right for the time, right for the future, right for the world of publishing, right for all of us.

Relatedly, a lot of discussion has been happening about “library 2.0”. ACRLog has a good post with lots of links here. Stephen Abram has a post here that covers the spectrum of web 2.0, library 2.0, and the 2.0 world. I guess it’s the 2.0 revolution, hope you brought your mittens.

Categories
book libraries poetic

When the rains came

When the rains came
the books were unprepared,
languishing in their regulated air,
they knew no more of wet
than a babe of fire
or an animal of greed.

The drops started slow,
cold dark moisture creeping
along the undersides of pipes,
melting through crevices,
plummeting in the manner of spring leaves,
patient for their fate.

When they reached the wall they balked,

hesitated.

The drops behind piled down upon them,
forced them to push through,
not hungry,
but desperate to obey gravity,
however slowly they would go.

Now, finding paper,
old trees,
the water soaked,
spread,
saturated those folds of wood and ink
and tried to remember
the call that nature gave
to water and to wood.

The water soaked,
and remembering by instinct,
told the books, “drink. grow.”

At first it was an onslaught
to paper that had never known
worse than cries of censorship,
which does not warp the page
nor smear the ink. Gradually,
listening,
they drank.
Page by page,
thoughts hazy as the ink ran,
as the pages twisted,
they tried to remember being trees.

Eventually the water stopped,
human error made right by human hand.
Some books were saved.
Some had gone mad, the lust to grow
turned their spines to sap
and their pagination
to rings of age beyond their memory.

Later, tossed out amidst debris,
the books, mad with life,
found sediment,
water,
sky.

And from each page,
a tiny sprig took hold,
following down into the earth,
the driving voice of gravity and life.

Categories
libraries news

The Future of the Academic Library

I’m on a librarian listserv, and these are a couple articles that were mentioned today, concerning the future of the academic library and the growing digitalization of information, entertainment, and education.

This article from EDUCAUSE Review eloquently discusses the problems, and ideas for solutions, for the modern academic librarian.

Over the next decade, colleges and universities will have to make critically important practical and policy decisions about the function of libraries, about the space devoted to libraries, and about the roles of librarians. If these decisions are made wisely, the academy may be able to maintain much of the ineffable, inspirational value associated with academic libraries while retaining their practical value through altogether transformed activities and functions built upon a new mission designed for a more digital world.

In turn, the ACRLblog talks about the validity of the arguments presented in the EDUCAUSE article, and it’s relation to a few other articles that have been published in the recent past.

And to follow up, another EDUCAUSE article that talks about Place as Library.

On a personal note, I find it exciting to be a part of a world that is growing and changing so rapidly. I also find it a little scary to jump into a profession that rests so soundly on changing principles and ideas. When I get too worried, I think about all those little libraries, in all those little towns, and in all those big, big states, who don’t care so much about these issues as they do about when the next Sue Grafton book is released.

In other words, if the Academic Library seems flummocticatedly mutable, the Public Library remains stalwart and honest, which is not to say unprogressive.

Categories
libraries news

“The Future of Libraries”

From the DaVinci Institute:

We have put together ten key trends that are affecting the development of the next generation library. Rest assured that these are not the only trends, but ones that have been selected to give clear insight into the rapidly changing technologies and equally fast changing mindset of library patrons.

Read the rest here.

Categories
humor libraries work

Thank you for interviewing with us, you’re fired.

I was going to move to Tacoma.

I was going to work at the Tacoma Library.

It was going to be full-time, and I could have afforded to buy a kitten, eat two meals a day, and walk in the park.

But NO! My band of pirate lizards will make you pay, Tacoma Library!

In related news, I’ve noticed a trend, more and more, towards impersonal and graded interview techniques. No longer does it matter if you have a winning personality, or, frankly, what your interviewer thinks of you. First, before anything, you take a test which will determine your eligability to even get an interview. If you score in the top 16, of about 80 people, you will be interviewed. I scored 7, good enough, considering I forgot a calculator and had to do about 30 long math problems on paper. During the interview, they write down, nearly verbatim, all your answers. Later, this is run through an algorithm that will pull out certain “buzzwords”: welcoming, relate, cornucopia, etc …. These words will help in determining how precisely you answered the question like they wanted you to answer it. Each answer will then be given a score, and the talley will be the final score for your interview. Personality and desire, as long as they are not clearly unacceptable, are not scored. The score for your interview, indifferent to what your interviewers thought of you or how much you’d really, really, really like the job, will solely determine your success.

Soon enough, a robot will interview you, and record your voice. It will run the algorithm, determine eligibility and based on employment and interview history, the likelihood of any of the following interviewees doing better than you, and will tell you if you got the job on the spot.

“Thank you for interviewing with HAL 9000, your friendly interview-bot. You’re fired.”

Categories
libraries news poetic

I’d rather it get me hired …

Yahoo! Blog News Story

It’s a strange, new little thing, the blogosphere. Michael Gorman, the president of the American Library Association, made some general and negative comments about blogs and “the blog people”. He pissed a lot of people off, to the point that some librarians have revoked their membership to the ALA for as long as he is president. Blogs can be a good way to share professional information, especially for a group as concerned with information sharing as libraries are. However, whenever I write on my blog I always keep in mind that it could be read by anyone. ANYONE. And I assume the worst, that if I write something that a certain person shouldn’t read, then I shouldn’t write it, because they probably will. If people don’t follow those guidelines, then to some extent I believe they deserve what they get. Though as far as legality goes, I don’t know how strong the cases of those companies can be, at least without a written policy in effect.

Some people I know think blogs, and bloggers, are crazy. I think as a technology, it’s interesting, and that it will change (and already is changing) the way the internet works and the way information is transferred. It’s not always to the good, i.e. who the hell cares about the angsty problems of every 14-year-old in the world, but it’s not going anywhere, so we might as well get used to it.

Categories
cinema libraries work

O Monkey of Love, where are you?

In an effort to mix things up a bit in my life, I recently applied for a job at the Tacoma Public Library. For those not familiar with Washington geography, Tacoma is about 30 miles north of Olympia on the I-5. It’s a city known for smelling bad, but it’s also got some damned cool stuff going on, a much better darts scene than Olympia, and is half the distance to Seattle. So hey, why not!? I interviewed for the position yesterday, after taking an hour-and-a-half written test the week before, and I have to say that I think it went very well. The commute can be pretty bad between Oly and Tacoma, as far as traffic goes (perhaps even as bad as this), which is why I’m thinking of moving up there when my lease runs out the end of July. Whether or not I get the job. There are certainly more jobs available up there, so even if I don’t get this job, it seems reasonable to assume I’d be able to find something in a relatively short period of time. Right? Right.

While I was waiting to interview (I got to the library a good 40 minutes early), I walked around a bit. The main branch of the library has an art gallery, called the Handforth Gallery. The current exhibition is by a group called Beautiful Angle. I liked one in particular.

Random bits:

Daniel Craig is going to be the next Bond. After seeing Layer Cake, I think he’ll do a superb job (though he needs to darken his hair). Check it out, and let me know what you think.

Existentialism is, for me, a simple guideline on how to live. “Be.” Or perhaps rather, “You are, so you’d better be enjoying it.” I appreciate it as a philosophy in which people have to take responsibility for themselves, something which seems to be less and less prevalent in our (American) society. I’m curious what other philosophically-minded folks think about society’s views on responsibility, and what role existentialism could play in the modern world. Granted, as a philosophy, it’s a bigger word than most people would like to deal with. Much longer a word than, say, “God”.

Steamboy is playing downtown at the Capitol Theater. I wanna go watch it.

In parting, remember: the monkey represents sharing.

Categories
libraries work

Like a snow day, flipped

So today was my first full day working at the Tumwater Library. I tried my best not to be nervous about it, but in the end the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure combined their powers, and I shook a bit in the car on the way to work (reminded me of the first day at a new school; or any day in Middle School, for that matter). I started off the day by training with my supervisor in the new Library software we’ll be using, come mid-January. It was a breeze, and killed a few hours. Then I went to lunch at the DQ (yeah, I know, but I’m not supersized yet), and came back with a renewed confidence. The rest of the day was spent shelving, for the most part, and wishing I could stop shelving and just read all the neat books that caught my eye (the torture of working in a library). We closed up at five, and I boogied home to relax. Later I get to go eat some home-made lasagna. MMmMMmmmm … lasagna.