Libraries

Another Reason for IL Instruction and Why Open Source Rocks

/ dwakimoto

Happy Monday. Wow, it is back to work time again. But never fear, faithful reader, I have some news and tidbits that should make sliding back into work mode a little more palatable.

First up, check out this article about how more information leads to less knowledge. So the basic thrust of the argument is that now, with people literally swimming in information via the web, we still have people that remain willfully ignorant of various concepts and that we are devolving to argue facts instead of the meaning behind the facts. I love the term “agnotology,” coined by Robert Proctor, a historian of science at Stanford. Agnotology is “the study of culturally constructed ignorance.”

Now if anything cried out the need for information literacy instruction, the fact that agnotology has now been coined cries out loud and clear. Information literacy is the key to creating knowledge out of the morass of information that is omnipresent in our lives.

This could make you feel a little overwhelmed by the herculean task that faces those of us in the information sciences professions, especially those who teach information literacy. But I say, what an opportunity to teach and yes, another point to make the case for our relevancy in society. But if you are still feeling a little overwhelmed about all the work there is to be done, check out this article from WebWorker Daily about marking the end of your work day in order to accomplish more and actually stop working at a reasonable time. Though not all of us work at home each day, these are still great tips for any of us who are tempted to work 24/7. It’s not healthy to work that much and it is great to have some ritual that lets your mind and body know that it is really time to quit work. Besides which, most everything can wait until morning. As one of my friend’s boss says, “Failure to plan on your part, does not constitute an emergency on my part.” So back away from the computer and go for a walk.

Raise your hand if you are interested in design? Interested in art? Really, you’re not? Well, then skip this paragraph and move on. For those interested in how art, and more specifically colors, affect our emotions and productivity, check out this New York Times article, Reinvent Wheel? Blue Room. Defusing a Bomb? Red Room. It basically delves into the interesting and sometimes odd research area of how color affects emotions and reactions. So if red increases accuracy and blue increases creativity, maybe I should have a maroon office so I get the best of both worlds. Just kidding.

Luckily, the title of the above article leads into this next bit of information. Or mainly, leads to my rant about silos of information in libraries and everyone trying to reinvent the wheel. Why this small rant? I got this article in my RSS feed this morning on open source solutions for libraries. That didn’t make me annoyed; as everyone knows I fully support open source solutions for libraries, especially with the outrageous costs of some vendor products. I even think LibLime is wonderful, although it is not responsible for the invention of Koha, it is now a vendor and support provider for Koha and some it developers now work on Koha, though.

My big gripe is that, in this age of shrinking budgets and staffing levels, multiple libraries are trying to reinvent the wheel. Why? Why can’t librarians just all work together on the same platform and pool their collective intelligences? It frustrates me to no end that everyone is trying to work on the same problem in their little silos instead of looking around to see if anyone else has already invented the wheel.

Take Koha for example. It was developed in New Zealand and implemented in 1999-2000. It has been through multiple versions, and is a stable, open-source, fully-featured ILS system. It can be scaled to any sized library, can be used in consortia, and actually looks great. So why are other libraries insisting on homegrown systems when they could be helping to make Koha better? There is even support for this open source system, note the reference to LibLime above.

Let’s all stop re-inventing the same wheel. Or in other words, instead of everyone storming off to Mount Doom on their own, why doesn’t someone text Frodo and Sam first to see if the mission has been accomplished? Then we can all get back to improving and collaborating existing systems, have that all elusive goal of interoperability, and get back to helping our patrons make sense of the latest information that has blasted them on the web.

That’s all I’m really saying.

See you later in the week.

Value of College and other Fun Discussions

/ dwakimoto

So it’s a rainy Friday in the Bay Area. On the one hand, that is a very good thing because we need the rain, on the other hand, it’s not because I’m still battling a cold and it just makes me want to crawl back into bed and go to sleep. But faithful readers, it will take more than a cold to keep the Waki Librarian from sharing some goodies to make your Friday a little brighter.

First up, Photoshop tutorial. The 60 most wanted Photoshop tutorials to be exact. I’ve managed to keep Photoshop off the blog, but now must share my unending love affair with this program. I love Photoshop–it is fabulous and I know you can find free photo editing software too, which rocks, but my heart belongs to Photoshop. And now with these wonderful, free tutorials on Photoshop, I will never be able to put down my Wacom tablet and pen as I test out more interesting fire effects and painting effects.

What does this have to do with libraries? Well, I’m sure we all know of a few libraries, organizations and/or logos in need of an update or two. Now with Photoshop you can make fabulous graphics or just clean up some photos taken at your last library event. Yes, Photoshop is super-powerful and has a pretty steep learning curve, but if you like design (even a little bit) you will be so glad you learned it.

Moving on now to something that I think is right on point to our continuing discussions of libraries, education, technology and fun is this article called, “Rethink the Value of College”. It is a timely piece about how much a college education is worth in this time of economic uncertainty. It also asks the question: what is the best way to prepare young people for the changes ahead and the fact that most will have multiple careers and jobs. College is still valuable, but it must be re-evaluated and re-engineered to fit today’s paradigm. Coming to college without adequate preparedness hurts everyone and leaving college with staggering amounts of student loan debt hurts many students. We seriously need a holistic re-evaluation and re-alignment of how we educate and prepare people in our colleges and universities.

Now, of course, I can’t leave you on such a gloomy thought on a Friday. So here is one of my absolutely favorite photography blogs A Walk through Durham Township, Pennsylvania. While Kathleen Connally is somewhat uneven in her execution of her photographs, the majority are absolutely beautiful and make even this sun loving California girl think snow looks pretty. Two of my favorites are titled “My Dream Studio” and “Mr. Darcy (A Baby Pygmy Goat).” And did I mention you can RSS it?

Have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you next week.

Mobile Technologies and the Library

/ dwakimoto

Hello! Wow, it is the middle of the month, but doesn’t it feel like a new year?

In honor of President Obama, here is a short article about the President librarians can love. I think it is just wonderful that the article says that Obama gave a “shout-out” to librarians in one of his weekly addresses. I mean, we got a shout-out. That is pretty darn cool. And, hopefully having an intelligent, well-read president will encourage more people to pick up a book and just read!

Next up, a bit unrelated but not really, is this great research article on the Information Ecology of Social Media. It is from 2007, but still is pretty relevant. I love the graphs showing interconnectivity among blogs and discovering blog communities in the blogosphere. I think librarians have a thing or two to teach the rest of the world about the blogosphere! I need time to do a closer reading of this article, but have office hours ssoon so that will have to wait.

How cool is it that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) now have CDC Mobile? That’s right, they have optimized their website for mobile devices so you can now get credible health information right on your iPhone or other device. Rock on for taking on the mobile revolution CDC!

To end with, here is a great story about text messages saving languages. I think this is just wonderful, not only because I happen to be a huge fan of text messages, but because here is a use of text messages that I bet wasn’t on anyone’s radar when the first lowly text message was sent. However, if advocates succeed in getting more language options for predictive text on cellphones, think of what a boon that would be for the world’s languages, especially in the hands of teenagers (who, after all, are the ones who will be perpetuating the world’s languages). Not to mention, of course, the almost infinite crazy misunderstandings that will happen when people start creating text messaging lingo in their native languages. Now that is going to make for some interesting lost in translation moments! LOL

Mobile technologies are here to stay, a new day is dawning in the United States (sorry for the horrid use of a cliche, just couldn’t resist), and librarians can assist both with mobile technologies and with keeping our patrons informed and hopefully and really well-read. So rock on librarians! Have a great rest of your day, but now I’ve got to jet–I have office hours.

Tech Fun for Everyone

/ dwakimoto

One of the things I like most about the continuing advancement of technology, especially collaborative, online technologies, is that it is getting easier to use these technologies. It used to be if you wanted to create a professional looking website you needed to know a lot of HTML and preferably CSS, etc. Or you needed to have money to hire a professional web designer.

Now, if you want to have a website or a blog, you have many drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG options to choose from to build your own online presence. Now, this is not to say we no longer need skilled web designers, information architects and graphic artists–of course we do! But to have a functional, simple, website is now within the reach of way more of the Internet surfing public. And to me, that is a good thing.

This is basically just a very long-winded way of saying, “Yay! Look at some more cool online stuff I have been playing with and want to share with you.”

First up is LucidChart: an online, collaborative flowchart application. You can make beautiful flowcharts all via drag-and-drop! I think this is so cool. No more wasting time in Word or other programs that can’t make a decent flowchart. You can use LucidChart instead. I might just have to make a flowchart to use in class because of this application.

Of course, that still doesn’t solve the problem of getting people to read flowcharts as evidenced by xkcd comic, “Flow Charts”:

 

Flow Charts comic from xkcd

Flow Charts comic from xkcd

It just can’t be a Friday without sharing an awesome post by Lifehacker; this one is about Self-education. Yes, more self-improvement for the new year. And yes, it includes watching YouTube videos! Now there is no excuse for not learning something when you are staring at your computer screen day after day, for hours on end.

And, finally, here is Michael Stephens’ Ten Trends & Technologies for 2009. A very interesting read about technology and the library. I’m really interested in learning and applying more of the mobile technology applications to the library. I mean, if people are going to insist on being tied to a cellphone or BlackBerry all day, they might as well get optimized library websites and catalogs on there too. (Full disclosure: the one technology I personally am not thrilled with is the cellphone, except for texting, I really like text messages. I just don’t like people calling me all the time; that’s what texts and Twitter are for! I mean, who really needs to know that you are standing in line at the supermarket? Not me.)

But, back to the post, the most exciting bit, to me, is the emphasis on making the library a collaborative space, a learning commons space, The Commons for the campus or community. I think that is how it should be and how it needs to be for libraries to remain vital and vibrant.

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend!

Reading and Audience Development Officers

/ dwakimoto / 2 Comments

I really enjoy being a librarian. I like teaching and doing reference work, playing with new online tools to see how I could apply them in the library and working with my colleagues. But sometimes I just sit back and scratch my head, because I just don’t get some of the things people do thinking it will better the library. 

Take this example about Edinburgh rebranding the librarians as Audience Development Officers. Okay, I am so missing why this is a good move. Yes, I understand that librarians do a lot more than people think we do and are reaching out to the community, in person and online, in multiple new ways, but audience development officers? To me this either sounds like the librarians are going to now be liaisons with the branch of the police force that deals with teenagers or they will become the opening act, like at a rock concert, and try to get the crowd moshing before the real show starts.

Branding good; audience development officers bad. I just don’t get why everyone keeps apologizing for being a librarian all the time. Librarians rock. Period. We don’t need a name change, but we might need some better marketing. What do you think?

In much better news, (because you knew I couldn’t bear to have a post without good news), people are apparently reading more fiction. That is a good thing. At this point, I don’t care if it is just a statistical blip or not, it is good news! But the gains are small and there is much room for improvement. So let’s get more people reading even if this article says there is nothing we can do to get more people reading.

If nothing else, read the two above articles to see just how different two takes on the same data can be. Very interesting, definitely a talking about about statistics, reading and librarians. And, just an aside, 100 books read in a year is a good number of books; that’s almost two a week. I think now I’m going to have to try to keep track of every book I read for a year and see how many I read. All I know is, it’s not as many as I want to read.

Final thoughts for this Wednesday: if you are a librarian, be proud of being a librarian and keep working to keep libraries relevant to your community. For everyone, keep reading. Reading is not an antisocial activity (I mean, way to put a negative spin on reading, right?); reading is a thoughtful activity that can be shared via reading to each other or afterwards by sharing how a book expanded your mind.

Have a great rest of your day!

Reading, OCLC, and Gadgets

/ dwakimoto

Happy Monday! It is bright and sunny in the Bay Area and I am feeling very guilty about enjoying the day because it should be raining. Unlike other parts of the country, we really need it to rain here.

But enough about the weather, you are here for the techie and library related goodies! And I have some fun and some disturbing information to relay to you today.

I thought we better get the bad and disturbing information out of the way first: check out this analysis of the new OCLC policy. It sounds like member libraries could be negatively impacted by this new policy. I want to read the entire policy before adding to much to this discussion, but I think everyone should be aware of this coming change.

On to less disturbing news: online reading versus book reading–what is better? There is a lot of debate surrounding this question, especially as more and more of the information and services offered to students and patrons moves online. Check out a summary of research done on this very issue that says that there may be negatives to reading and learning online. I know this is a huge debate and there isn’t nearly enough research to say definitively whether online and print reading are equivalent in terms of cognition and comprehension levels. But I think it is a good idea to keep up on the research and discussion surrounding reading and learning as we spend resources and time on ebooks, online instruction and services.

Online reading works for me in small doses and for short periods of time, but I would never want to read the complete works of Foucault online. What do you think?

Now for the fun: you might have thought we were done with lists because, after all, it is January 12th, but no! Here is a list I just had to pass along: New Year’s Resolutions for Readers. I love this list; I find it inspiring and encouraging and will use it as a reason for my indulgence of reading more this year. So go forth and read; then let me know what books you liked–I’m always interested in what other people are reading.

Lastly, I couldn’t have another post without talking about some technology. Here is Wired’s list of 12 Good Gadgets for Hard Times. It is a thought-provoking list (as shown by the massive amounts of comments on the article, some of which are entertaining and others of which are not very nice). I think it is always interesting to see what someone else thinks are the go to gadgets. I have to say, after living in South America, I’ve got to agree with the hand-crank radio, multi-tool and some kind of water filtration unit. A solar powered or hand-crank laptop would be icing on the cake. Remember, don’t let technology rule your life or your work, make it be a tool that works for you.

Have a great rest of your Monday, see you again later this week!

Keeping Current and Living in the Library

/ dwakimoto

Happy Friday! I don’t know about your place of work, but at my library, it has been dead all week long (I mean, we still have people coming in but after the crush that was finals week, it feels like a ghost town). Granted I work at an academic library, and the term is over, and it is quickly nearing many holiday celebration days, and most of the faculty members have left on vacation, but I’m still here! Which means, faithful blog readers, that I’m still blogging.

This will be a much shorter post than usual because, as my colleagues know, I just finished about 7 hours of captioning a video to make with 508 standards. Want to see the labor of my hard work? I captioned the wonderful Fair(y) Use Tale Video from Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society. Thank goodness they made the video available under a Creative Commons License, and with this post I am trying to fulfill the Share Alike clause. And, yes, my eyes hurt from trying to sync captions that long.

Onward to other great things on a Friday.

How do you stay current about trends online? Are you interested in what people are tweeting about? Why should you care? Well, it is always a good idea to know what is happening out there in the Internet ether. You never know what might be super-important to you and your library. Plus, it is just fun to play with new stuff. Here is a great article about 21 sites to Find out What’s Hot Online by makeuseofit.com. Just don’t go overboard on the web surfing. Remember to back slowly away from the computer every once in awhile.

I love this article about students camping out in the library. Take that people who say libraries aren’t relevant! It also goes to show that furniture needs to be moveable so students can rearrange the spaces in ways that work for them. And, in my opinion, people designing library spaces or renovating spaces, could do well to talk with students about how they use the space and what they need before assuming they know best. In another library I was at, it was obvious someone had taken the time to figure out what the students did in the library. Why? Because there were tons of electrical plugs for laptops and wireless worked throughout the building. Not to mention, the chairs were fabulously comfortable. Think I’m joking about the importance of designing for laptops? Check out this post about laptop use from the Ubiquitous Librarian.

Best wishes for a happy weekend! Safe travels to everyone who is traveling this holiday season.

And, never fear, the Waki Librarian will be blogging until the 23rd and then be back again with techie, library goodness after the new year.

Quotes, Transfer Students and Marketing

/ dwakimoto

Again, no I don’t think I can tie these three ideas together. But who knows? Let’s try…

First up, this great list of the top 10 quotes of 2008 by The Yale Book of Quotations. Quick warning, if you are not into politics, or do not have a good sense of humor, you probably won’t find these funny or amusing. But I think they are hilarious, though scary. I mean, check out quote #4. And people at my work are worried about buying an extra toner cartridge. Oh, the irony.

Okay, moving on to something that is near and dear to all of our hearts in the academic world: trying to be inclusive of all the members of the student body. So why do I bring this up? I just read this great article on forgotten transfer students. I think that it is great that some universities and colleges are finally realizing that they need to help transfer students too and not ignore this part of the student body. I especially think of my own institution where “native” students must take an information literacy course but the course is not required for transfer students. I helped co-teach an instruction session on information literacy this summer and one of the students, who was a transfer student, came up after the session and said how helpful it was and how she thought it would be great to have a required course. We have an optional course that transfer students can take but not a course designed for them. Perhaps my school is too small to actually have a dedicated course as such, but surely the library could become more involved and proactive about making the transfer students feel at home. Just a thought.

So how would the library reach out to not just transfer students but the whole community? Take a look at this article on marketing by using Web 2.0 applications. Yes, I know the dreaded word “marketing.” Really, it isn’t a bad word and doesn’t mean you are selling your librarian soul to the big, bad capitalistic corporations of the world. Really, I’m serious, I am so sick of people in my field downplaying or being negative about marketing in the libraries. Marketing is a survival strategy, one that we need to perfect in order for people to perceive us as being relevant (we know we are relevant, but others need to perceive us as being relevant). Okay, off my soapbox now.

This article on marketing in a Web 2.0 world is great because it re-emphasizes that Web 2.0 is all about social connections and that by allowing customers, users and/or patrons (we can have a discussion about the choice of terms used in library discourse and their relationship to power later) to have control over a certain portion of your website and interact with each other, they actually become invested in your services and resources. Everyone wants their voice to matter and wants a way to interact with others. Humans, even librarians, are social creatures, to varying degrees. I think the library is an idea place to let people have a forum to discussion issues, ideas and *gasp* books together in an online world. Seize the positive in the messy, info-overloaded world and let’s market together!

And, the last fun bit of fluff for the day, check out The Best and Worst of Everything from BusinessWeek. Another end of the year list that is interesting and not all doom and gloom.

So tying everything together: Web 2.0 marketing is vital for companies, including libraries. Libraries could use Web 2.0 applications to reach out to transfer students in order to create a welcoming space that they could “own” at their new place of higher education. You could start a discussion around the Best and Worst of Everything from 2008 on a blog or wiki and of course link to the best quotes of 2008–because who doesn’t like a good quote? Okay, I think I’ve now tied everything together.

Enjoy your Tuesday!

End of the Year Lists, Fire Ants, and Other Stuff…

/ dwakimoto

Yes, we are actually closing in on the end of another year. So what can the waki librarian have for you to help with this year’s wrap-up? Well, a little bit of fun, a little bit of “ecological karma” and a little bit of information on college presidents.

Okay, so first for the end of the year lists. I absolutely love this The Top 10 Everything of 2008 from Time. It is great, definitely a sink-hole of time, but a good way to review what happened in 2008. I love the editorial cartoons. There has to be a use for this in my information literacy class next quarter.

So, for the ecological karma. From Wired Science comes this article on fire ant invasions. I love this short article, with links to the original research, because it just goes to show that Mother Nature bites back when there is unnatural ecological change to an environment. So are fire ants superior to other local species of ants? The answer apparently seems to be no, not in undisturbed habitats but with plowed fields-bring on the fire ants! Yeah, ecological karma, guess we should stop plowing under natural habitat for strip malls. Who’d of thought it?

I just love this article on Facebook and the National Archives. I love how people never stop to think where information they give out will ultimately end up. Now granted these papers won’t, most likely, go into the National Archives, but still it pays to think about what is happening to all the information generated when you send out your information into cyberspace. Digital trails, archives have got them. And, if you think you can’t hide anything from a librarian who is searching for information, try an archivist.

And, to end this post. Check out these figures about the inflation of college presidents’ salaries versus instructors and the general U.S. population. No wonder our students are paying a ton and we have institutions that are so top-heavy. I haven’t checked the statistical sources yet, but they look like valid sources to me.

So that ends today’s blog post on random stuff that you can use while teaching, or at least fascinate someone at a party with trivia.

Internet, Books and Graduation Rates

/ dwakimoto

No, I don’t think I’ll actually be able to link all the items in the post’s title together, but those are the topics to be discussed today. I saw a lot of random articles I had been saving and just had to add my 2 cents.

First, the article, Is the Internet the Start of History? This is a very interesting article and I give the author full-props for writing about how the Internet changes the very meaning of archives and archival appraisal (even if he doesn’t say it in this way). However, like so many that do not have a preservation background, he gets a few things wrong. Changing movies from analog to digital can help with access and can, sometimes, help with preservation. But preserving things on cds or dvds is really not a good idea as the media degrades quickly and formats change. Really, you don’t want to get a person who works in preservation or digital archives to get started on this topic. They could talk about it for days and days! It is a huge archival issue. But the concept of the Internet starting a new page in human history is a very cool one.

Here is another article on Google vs. the Libraries in the realm of the Google Books project. Interesting read and argument of private versus common good. That argument reminds me of the whole argument about the commons in England.

And, to end, an article about how the United States lags behind other nations in the graduation rate of students from universities. Interesting read.

And, so as to not end on a pessimistic note, it is a beautiful sunny day and we have the weekend to look forward to. Enjoy!