Hi Michael,

I’ve read your beautiful and very inspiring series about the Transparent Library with Michael Casey in Library Journal. In the series’ first article you wrote: “What prevents a library from being transparent? Barriers. Roadblocks. Inability to change. The culture of perfect. The transparent library contains three key elements: open communication, adapting to change, and scanning the horizon. We’ll explore these ideas and offer solutions for those struggling with new models of service, technology, and a decidedly opaque climate. The web has changed the old landscape of top-down decisions.”

“As the web becomes the greatest word-of-mouth amplifier in history, consumers learn to trust peers more and companies less,” said Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail. “And as the same trends play out within the firm, businesses are shifting from command and control to ‘out of control,’ distributing more and more power to the rank and file.”

I fully agree with what you write in this article. We librarians sometimes have problems with adapting to this rapidly changing world. Things we used to be good at – like for example, servicing reliable information, being the portal to all the information of the world, advising people on good literature – have either been taken over by Google or have become issues, which can be easily solved in our digital social network environment. I think there is some awareness in Dutch public libraries of the urgency to change but there is much more discussion about change than there is real change. Furthermore, ‘library innovation’ as we call it here is foremost a strongly centralised and top-down organised process. In the Netherlands we are still far away from the transparent, bottom-up organised participatory ideal you described so eloquently in your transparency series. Because we librarians in the Netherlands are new to the subject I think we need some introduction on this urge for transparency. Can you tell something more about your motivation to write so extensively about transparency. And where should we begin in creating more transparent libraries?

Jan

Hi Jan,

I’m glad to be having this conversation with you in Digitale Bibliotheek. The motivation that I believe both Michael and I felt was two fold: discussions of what Library 2.0 could be were spinning in all directions, mainly focused on using blogs or other tools in libraries, and some great thinkers were creating a strong dialogue about change and society. Library 2.0 is much more than adding a blog to the library website, it’s a philosophy of service built on three components: constant change, participatory service and mindful evaluation. Involving users in planning new and improved library services, breaking down barriers to participation and recognizing the need to assess process and ‘what we’ve always done’ are important factors as well. I am not saying we throw out all of the old for the new, but that we look closely at what we do to see if new technologies and new mindsets can make things more seamless, open and honest.

The great thinkers are many in my book. I rely on them to influence my thinking, teaching and research focus. The Cluetrain Manifesto (Weinberger, Searles, Levine and Locke) is a seminal work – way ahead of its time. It forecasted where we would be in 2009 with this great, global conversation. I love that fact that librarians in the Netherlands and in the United States can share at such a level. Just exploring the Flickr stream of DOK is one example of how easily these data can flow.

Most recently, I’m entranced by Seth Godin’s Tribes. Godin encourages everyone to lead a tribe. What tribe could libra- ries and librarians lead? It seems like it might be a useful path to follow: leading a tribe in the library or online. More so, Godin stresses innovation, the power of the ‘everyperson’ to contribute and the pitfalls of not looking forward. All of these things should be part of a transparent library’s mission!

Michael

http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2009/11/7/signs-signs-everywhere-theres-signs.html

I walk into too many libraries with signs like this:

What might happen if we replaced our welcome signs with ones like these?

Where would kids learn best?

OK, let me have it.

Seriously, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

Sent in by a TTW reader.

Synergy Vision 2009 from Mick Jacobsen on Vimeo.

A huge thank you to all the wonderful folks who attended my plenary session this morning at the Charleston Conference 2009. I was a tad sleep-deprived, but the excitement and interest of the crowd made the talk and our discussion – which continued to the coffee break – very engaging.

The slides are here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/HyperlinkedServiceCharleston.pdf

Checkout the Twitter hashtag here: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23chsconf09

end of times beginning of i heart librarians 081, originally uploaded by i heart librarians.

Aaron Schmidt writes:

http://www.walkingpaper.org/2311

LIS Students from the University of Toronto are drumming up support for their participation in the A Dare to Remember AIDS awareness campaign by walking around Toronto and photographing people with a giant I ? librarians sign.

I ? this project!

I do too! What a wonderful way to take their message out to the users. Click through and checkout the whole set.

Great video! The patron comments speak VOLUMES about the services of this library. What would your users say?

Setting the Table: Danny Meyer

http://classes.tametheweb.com/mcphillips/2009/10/29/context-book-setting-the-table/

Born Digital: John Palfrey & Urs Gasser

http://classes.tametheweb.com/schu/2009/10/28/context-book-assignment-born-digital/

http://classes.tametheweb.com/meganmulherin/2009/10/30/context-book-report-born-digital-6/

Blink: Malcolm Gladwell

http://classes.tametheweb.com/kasia/2009/10/31/context-book-blink/

A Whole New Mind: Daniel Pink

http://classes.tametheweb.com/dansblog/2009/10/29/context-book-report/

The Librarian in Black interview from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Fall 2009 Newsletter Cover, originally uploaded by Alachua County Library.

Great!

Video by Sean Robinson & Kay Gregg, Allen County Public Library.

Sleep / Snore, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

]]> http://tametheweb.com/2009/10/30/sleep-snore/feed/ 1 http://tametheweb.com/2009/10/30/sleep-snore/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TameTheWeb/~3/Z9Lwcdy5Bpg/ http://tametheweb.com/2009/10/30/see-you-at-rutgers/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:58:42 +0000 Michael http://tametheweb.com/?p=5666 I am very happy to be speaking at Rutgers in a couple of weeks. If you attend, please say hello!

Beta Phi Mu, International Library and Information Studies Honor Society, Omicron Chapter

Presents its 2009 Fall Lecture

“Building the Hyperlinked Library”

By Michael Stephens, Ph.D.

Thursday, November 19, 2009 Alexander Library, Pane Room, 1st Floor 7:00 PM Reception, followed by Lecture at 7:30

Contacts: Melissa Hofmann: mhofmann@rider.edu

Marie Radford: mradford@rutgers.edu

I’m still collecting myself after five incredible weeks in Australia – learning from librarians and educators, researching Learning 2.0 programs and immersing myself as best I could in each unique place we visited. More soon.

Here’s what Lyn provided, headed up by a shot of one of her adapted slides.

Information about Lyn Walsh’s “21^st Century learning, Anangu tjutaku” : an adaptation of the recent conference presentation by Michael Stephens: “The Hyperlinked Library”

Blog entry by Lyn Walsh, 17.10.09.

“21^st Century learning, Anangu tjutaku” is an adaptation of “The Hyperlinked Library” for the context I work in, Amata Anangu School, a remote Indigenous school on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the NW of South Australia. The APY Lands are approximately 1500kms from South Australia’s capital city of Adelaide, require a permit for entry and are accessible only by dirt road.

Amata from the top of surrounding hills, Retrieved from school website http://www.amata.sa.edu.au/

I work as a tutor in the Anangu Tertiary Education Program (AnTEP). AnTEP is basically a teacher training program run from UniSA in Adelaide, but delivered locally for Anangu people who work in the schools on the APY Lands or who wish to take up tertiary study without moving to the city.

Pitjantjatjara and/or Yankunytjatjara is the first language for adults and children alike in these communities, and most people have limited literacy skills in English – hence the adaptation. English is actually a foreign language for Anangu [Anangu is the word Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people use when talking about themselves], which is usually only spoken in the school and even then not that often. Michael’s powerpoint was already great for my ESL/EFL students, with the use of images and concise, short English sentences, but I’ve personalised it further for the school where I work with local photos and added first language. I haven’t had a chance to have the Pitjantjatjara checked by Anangu as yet, as I’m presently away from the community, but will do so upon my return.

Teacher librarians are a scarce commodity in these small community schools, with libraries being operated by ‘Library Managers’ with limited time allocation disallowing comprehensive Resource Based Learning (RBL) programs. My powerpoint is therefore also aimed at non-Indigenous classroom teaching staff and principals, in order to garner their support, but my primary concern is for the education of the Indigenous staff. Non-Indigenous staff come and go to these schools (on average staying for less than 2 years), but the Indigenous staff in the schools are the ones who need the knowledge about building Information Literate School Communities, as encapsulated in the AnTEP vision statement above.

I am hoping “21^st Century learning, Anangu tjutaku” will become a useful tool to facilitate thinking and learning amongst my AnTEP students about how to best support the needs of Anangu, so that, although they “got left behind in the old literacy, [they] are not going to get left behind in this one.” I will also share this resource with AnTEP tutors in the other 8 Anangu schools across the APY Lands as an idea for the manner in which the AnTEP program can be digitalised and become available online for students to complete their study in a more independent fashion than currently occurs.

Web 2.0 provides exciting possibilities for a global learning community, but I believe it is diminished if remote Indigenous peoples don’t also have the opportunity to join in with the conversation.

I have uploaded my powerpoint to a moodle which the Lands schools are beginning to use:

http://dlb.sa.edu.au/easmoodle/mod/glossary/view.php?id=91

and it is currently listed as “Learning for the 21^st Century”. You may need to go to

http://dlb.sa.edu.au/easmoodle/user/view.php?id=54&course=4

and register to get in. It’s in Resources, AnTEP resources.

Anangu Tertiary Education Program (AnTEP) VISION

AnTEP exists for the benefit of Anangu through its training of Anangu Education Workers (AEWs) and future Anangu teachers.

It seeks to produce graduates who will provide a stable and effective AEW and teaching force in Anangu schools, and who are also able to contribute (in a creative and constructively critical way) to the educational debates and decision making processes that occur in Anangu schools and Anangu communities as they seek to participate in the wider Australian society.