Trials of the Midwest Librarian

Well that was a good nap.....

2014-03-05T09:49:00.000-06:00

Hello all,

Been ~~lazy~~ busy since my last post. I didn't finish the 23 things in 2011. I learned little in 2012. Same for 2013.

But 2014 is going to be AWESOME!

Librarianship is not dead. And i'm maybe going to write about it every once in a while.

No promises.

We've turned over a new leaf, people!

2011-06-20T16:34:00.000-05:00

Since we last saw each other, a lot has happened. First, I've moved a few times. Second, I had an internship. Third, I graduated with a masters degree and finished library school. Fourth, I got a job at the Hastings Public Library.

I was busy living life.......sorry.

But now i've participating in the Nebraska Library Commission's "Nebraska Learns 2.0" and I figure it's time to revise this blog and start it up again. There is much to learn and much to keep track of in in my new job. There are complex relationships to navigate and a lot of details that are pretty crucial to my job. This will be the place where I dump all of my new learning. and where I talk about all the good stuff that's happening in my library.

The other goal of the cdp23 is to get a solid foundation on all of the 2.0 stuff that I don't understand. I'm pretty tech savvy, but my problem is knowing what's going on. I'm not one to seek out information about emerging technology until The Daily Beast or NPR write a story on it. Hopefully, I'll be in front of what's happening in 2.0 tech and this will be a nice way to get a bit of practice too.

Cheers!

Jake

The End of the ebook REVOLUTION!

2011-02-26T12:56:00.001-06:00

If you haven't been keeping track of what's big in libraryland this week, I am right there with you. It wasn't until today that I found out about the changes coming to Overdrive in the coming months regarding ebook uses and the power of the publisher to exact dirty capitalist revenge on libraries.The situation: HarperCollins has decided it is going to renegotiate the terms of its agreement with all ebook lenders (Overdrive and others) so that after so many checkout by patrons, an ebook may no longer be lent out. It will have to be repurchased. Essentially, libraries won't be in control of the conten they purchase.

[Insert angry tirade of your choice]

Now, while this is something is happening in the upcoming, I dont' think anyone can really be sure if it will last. With the ebook market getting bigger every day, it might be smart for some publishers to keep the old agreement, and thus get some business from libraries and econtent lenders.

Updates and such

2011-02-03T12:45:00.002-06:00

Well,

It's been a long time and that's terrible of me. I have many things to put up as far as papers and thoughts go from my final semester of library school. Oh yeah...did I mention I graduated from library school? AND got a job? You didn't expect that did ya? Yeah....neither did I.

As far as this blog goes, I have some updating to do. Then I'll have to think about whether to keep it going as something else, let it go because all good things must go, or a third option I haven't thought of yet.

Input? Would you still read this if it were a blog about being a librarian? Or perhaps about the trials of a public service librarian doing technical services? It would be like a computer programmer doing computer sales. Fish. Out. Of. Water.

Think about it. I will too.

Jake

Practicum woots!

2010-09-10T10:31:00.002-05:00

Hey all,

I know that between school and life, my blogging is pretty much a fail, but I will kindly update you on the progress of my practicum experience thus far.

I'm doing my practicum at Hastings Public Library and at Hastings College. I don't start at HC until the middle of September. I'm excited for that because my first order of business is to plan a mock book burning for banned book week. GET EXCITED!!! I love banned book week and I certainly love the idea of mock book burnings. Never the real thing though. That would be bad.

My current work has me at the Hastings Public Library. I'm doing some awesome fun stuff with programming and collection development. By programming and collection development, I mean doing weeding and planning programs. I LOVE weeding though, so this is a brilliant use of my time. I'm currently weeding the YA collection. We have to move the whole collection from the 2nd floor to the 1st floor. That means about 500 to 700 books have to go. Easy peasy.

The program that I'm developing is a pub quiz at the local watering hole. It's going to be awesome because I get to run it and I have friends that are going to fill the seats for me, giving me the numbers I need to have a successful program. Nothing says love like filling your seats for you. That's what real friendship means.

I'll probably throw up all the papers and other things i've written up in the last two semesters just so that you can see what I have to say about stuff. Also, I'll put up all my fliers that I'm making for my practicum.

2010-08-29T13:13:00.000-05:00

More often than not, when I go into the Library, I have no clue what I want to read. Most times I'll set out at least an hour of time so that I can thoroughly browse every nook and cranny of the building. Recently though, I've discovered two really great online book blogs that have given me some really awesome ideas for books.

The first one is NPR's book blog [www.npr.org/books]. I found out about it on a drive home from work. Let me just point out that the people of NPR are really good at making some awesome reading lists. This summer, they've been doing a blog series of summer reads, ranging from the 100 best thrillers to great "laugh out loud" books for the beach. This last weeks was particularly interesting, because it featured nonfiction books to drag us "back to reality" for the end of summer. Another great piece that the NPR blog features are interviews with authors where we the listener find out what these popular authors have recently been reading. They also have all the reviews and commentary you'd expect from National public radio. One title I’ve recently discovered is Justin Cronin’s The Passage, a vampire book that makes Edward and Bella look like cute little kittens.

The second blog that I frequent that has been really helpful is the Shelf Life blog at Entertainment Weekly’s website [http://shelf-life.ew.com]. Not only do they give me all the great reviews that I like to help me pick a book, they also gave great pop culture tie-ins too. For instance, the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy was recently released, and Shelf Life is asking readers who should play the hero, Katniss, on the big screen. The blog doesn’t do just books either. It also features audio books, new releases in digital books, and graphic novels and comics. Two books I recently found on the Shelf Life blog were The Disappearing Spoon: and other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean and Hot X: Algebra Exposed by Danika McKellar. The Disappearing Spoon makes science and the periodic table both funny and cool, and McKellar’s Hot X makes math sexy again (if it ever was in the first place).

There are certainly many more books to browse through on both blogs, and there are absolutely other blogs out there, but these two give you a little bit of information about nearly everything. So keep an eye out for titles that pique your interest, and be sure to let us know what you want to read. We’ll be happy to oblige if we can.
--

Awkward library story

2010-03-11T18:07:00.002-06:00

Today I was interviewed at the library for a news organization. The broad overview of the story had something to do with the immigration issue in Fremont. For those of you who don't know, Fremont is pretty much the shit storm of immigration issues because most of the people who live here are rubes and bigots and assholes who see any dark skinned individual as a fence hopping, job stealing, ILLEGAL!

Now, my job here at the library is to sign kids up for library cards. I've been doing a pretty good job of it. I also admit that part of my job has been to get more individuals of Hispanic descent into the library, mostly because the Hispanic community in Fremont is an underserved population in terms of services we offer (as an aside, we don't have a single Spanish speaking individual on staff, nor do we have any people of color so I can't imagine why we wouldn't have more people of color in the doors).

Anyway. I just want to vent some frustration about how the interview went down because the library director was like an obtrusive school teacher because she was worried I would get "baited" by the interviewer and give a shitty soundbite.

Grr!

US vs Japan in a battle for cultural dominance

2010-03-06T18:47:00.001-06:00

Newcomb, A. (2008, December 15). Japan cracking us pop culture hegemony. The Christian Science Monitor.
This article talks about the new trend of popular culture being shaped by counties other than the United States. It talks about the transformation of Japan from economic Juggernaut, challenging the US and other countries for superiority in diverse markets like automobiles, supercomputers and microchips, to the county now setting the trend for what is "cool." According to the article, Japan has the most Michelin-starred restaurants in the world, with eight of those restaurants earning the top award of 3-stars (there are only 81 3-star restaurants in the whole world). The article also looks at Japans involvement in literary popular culture, including the increase of mangas popularity as an art form and literary style all over the world.
The article is important for the class because it shows us something we haven't really talked about yet and that's the power of other cultures to exert a cultural hegemony on America. We have had a lot of discussion about the cultural power exerted by American LIS and how that affects the world as a whole, but we haven't taken into account the influence that other countries have on us.
Another thing it shows us is that America is not the only hegemony on the block looking to broker influence in the foreign field. This is just an example of popular culture, but imagine what China and the EU are doing to exert their world view on countries in Europe and Asia. And look at the power that the USSR used to have in exerting it's cultural hegemony in the region before it's fall. I feel that we keep forgetting that we are not the only show in town, and this article does us a service to examine the plurality of the hegemony market.
Lastly, I would like to leave it with a quote from the article. It's an observation by Bruce Rutledge about the difference between American and Japanese culture. "I always feel like US culture bashes down doors, while Japanese culture seeps in under the door." I don't think it could have been said any better than that.

An awesome thing that I'm doing

2010-03-03T23:05:00.001-06:00

Really quick:

I'm automating a library with Tim. Trinity's school library still runs on cards. We are working on an open source ILS that will allow us to catalog the library on a computer and allow them to circulate books using scanners and the like. It's going to be sweet!

Jake

Funding the Library

2010-03-03T22:59:00.000-06:00

Jake Rundle
Public Library
Assignment #2
The topic for the last couple of weeks in class has been centered on the biggest issue I can think of in Public libraries to date: funding. Not only is the economy down, but even when the nation was not in a tanked economy, the library was suffering. Budget cuts and belt tightening are becoming a yearly way of life for librarian professionals. What makes this all the harder is that some libraries are paid for with city property taxes. That means that a weak housing market and foreclosures a new reality in many people’s lives, the library is losing money everywhere it turns. The five articles I have reviewed are all taking a look at how the library pays for itself, and how it pays for itself in this tough economic climate. Some articles, like in Davis, look specifically at library technology and what it costs to sustain this integral service to library patrons. Meanwhile, in one of the Pearson articles, he talks about the community involvement and the creation of Friends groups as a means of helping a library that is losing its public funding more and more often in the yearly budget.
What ties all the articles together, even more than the big theme of “we’ve all got less money and more patrons” is the simple ways these libraries are trying to combat this increasingly alarming issue. Whether it is the creation of a Friends of the Library group or perhaps something as simple as reducing the weekly hours and prioritizing services in the library, the methods approached by the articles were not mind bending mathematics and graduate level accounting tips. These were simple ideas that libraries across the nation have already taken to plug holes in a sinking budget and still offer the highest quality of service that patrons expect to have at their public library. The Smith and Langenkamp article is one exception to the “simple” rule. That article outlines a series of step that can be taken to better use the funds available for purchasing titles for the library. The Davis article is the other exception. It doesn’t give suggestions, but instead gives librarians and other interested parties the hard facts on what it costs to sustain technology in the library. It also gives great information about planning for future technology and what steps the library should take in order to make it happen smoothly.
I think what I find most comforting about all of the articles is that they are relevant to so many libraries at this current point in history. With everyone in the same boat, it’s nice to see that there are still smart people in the library community who are brainstorming for us and giving us the best possible information.

Davis, D. (2009). Challenges to sustaining library technology in a tough economy. Public Library, 48(4), 12-17.

This article is a detailed look at a study done by various library bodies to determine the amount of technology being used in libraries and if there is an increase in library use of technology relative to how far into a recession the country currently is. The ALA Office of Research & Statistics and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded one study, called the Public Library Funding and Technology Access Study. It was a three-year study assesses the public access to computers, the Internet and Internet related services (p. 13). The findings showed that demand for the public access to these services was up but the Internet connections the library was hosting were not as fast as they would have liked to be and skilled librarians needed to help give better service to patrons accessing the computers and the internet are not being hired fast enough.
Another finding of the study was that libraries are seeing a shift in where their money comes from and how it applies to the budget as a whole. On of the more startling facts that I read was that libraries are now relying more on “soft money (fees, fines, donations and grants)” to pay for staff salary. That’s startling because that seems like the kind of money that might not be reliable from a year to year basis. Donations might not be as available or people might not be paying their fines in a certain fiscal year, so how does a library continue to operate and pay its staff with a big “what if” for a budget line?

Pearson, P. (2009). Fundraising and advocacy in tough times. Public Libraries, 48(4), 21-23.

In an economic downturn, when everyone in the nonprofit circle is looking for donors and money, it’s hard to think that the library can really complete with big deal charities like the MDA or Breast Cancer research, however, Pearson gives a remarkably thorough outline of the exact steps a library needs to take in an down year to turn lemons into lemonade.
His first point was to show statistics to reassure those reading the article that most donors to the library will probably not disappear into the ether just because the economy is down. He notes that many donors give out of their paychecks and not their stock portfolios, so there is a reasonable assumption that as long as donors still have jobs they will continue to give in some respect. Another interesting fact he noted was that the creation of new non-profit groups in many states has come to a standstill in recent years. This means that there is not a new source to hemorrhage fundraising dollars because it doesn’t exist.
What Pearson does do very well in this article is showcase a library that takes an economic downturn and makes it into a boon year for the library. He mentions the little acts that a library can do to make the current donors feel appreciated and perhaps increase donations as well. One suggestion is to recognize those donors who have been giving more ten years or more. Another is to give recognition to those donors who give more than a certain dollar amount every year. The Library where Pearson works does this by a luncheon or special program for those donors and thanks them in an annual donor edition of the library newsletter.
His final advice is to not suspend capital campaigns just because the economy is down. He points out that new buildings and renovation needs do not go away just because people are losing money in the stock market.

Smith, A, & Langenkamp, S. (2007). Indexed collection budget allocations. Public Library, 46(5), 50-54.

In tough economic times, it’s generally best to know exactly where the money is coming from and where it is going. This is especially true with the book budget, as it is one of the most important expenses the library has in a given fiscal year. Smith and Langenkamp are Texas librarians who speak to how the library they work with manages the collection as efficiently as possible with the funds they have available and how using a budget index with circulation numbers gives a good foundation for developing the collection from year to year.
The article gave a detailed look at how this Texas library took the budget numbers from each of its collection areas and used that with the circulation numbers to find a dollar amount to spend in the next year’s budget. The library does this by applying an algebra equation that plugs in the various numbers from across the library and puts out a number that can be tracked and utilized by the library in the next fiscal year. The Budget index is the other part of the operation. This particular budget index looks at price per unit numbers and circulation numbers as well as what the current budget says needs to still be purchased in a given area of the library to create a number that more accurately shows how much money should be spent within the areas of collection development.
The conclusion of the article informs readers that the tables and numbers given were only one way of using the budget index to creat a more meaningful output of funds. Another plan is to use numbers based on desired acquisition without looking at circulation. The authors did this last work up to show just how flexible and awesome the budget index could be for the library.

Pearson, D. (2009). It takes a village to support a library. Georgia Library Quarterly, 46(4), 6-7.

This article is a short look at some simple ideas to keep a library afloat in the downed economy.
The first suggestion that Pearson gives is to look at the work the Friends of the Library association can do to help. He notes that the Saint Paul public library’s (where Pearson is associated) Friends association utilizes its own advocacy committee to meet and develop proposals to be given to the mayor and the city council for considerations to the library budget. The Friends groups uses that communication with the city planners to make sure that the library and the city are on the same page with regard to where monies need to go and what is being expended.
Pearson says another important role the Friends group needs to play is the role of fund raiser. Particularly important to this endeavor is having a serious group of individuals be appointed to the Friends of the Library board. These people must see the job they are doing as a valued service to the library. If board members and others in charge don’t see their work at needed, then the library could suffer as a result.
A final note from Pearson tells libraries to keep a stiff upper lip. While it is an “unprecedented time for libraries” it is not the end of the world. He notes that a little planning and a little effort on the part of the library and the library’s Friends organization will go a long way toward the support of the library.

Holland, S, & Verploeg, A. (2009). No easy targets. Public Library, 48(4), 27-38.

This article is a compilation of interviews on a grand scale, encompassing libraries of all sizes and the library directors who run and support them. Some of the issues discussed in the interviews cover coping strategies for the tough economy and prioritizing services to become a sustainable resource during what the authors of the article calls a “changing perception” that has patrons seeing the library as an expendable resource instead of a pillar of the community.
The six libraries surveyed for this article come from all over the nation. Iowa, Nevada, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Connecticut are the six states where the libraries are surveyed. The libraries range in size from the Connecticut library servicing a population of less than 10,000 patrons to the Brooklyn library in New York servicing 2.5 million patrons in the borough. The libraries are all different, but as is becoming a trend, many are facing the same problems. The authors of the survey note some of the trends and some of the reactions to these new trends that these and libraries like them are making in this current economic freefall.
The first trend noted is an increase in use. Book sales were down 7% nationwide, with many of those purchasers turning to the local library to be their resource for reading materials. The same is true for the circulation of music and other materials at the library. There are more people utilizing more and more of the services when the individuals cannot afford it on their own.
Another trend is the dialing down of library hours. The Brooklyn Public Library eliminated all of its Sunday services across all of the Brooklyn branches. It is an effort to save money for the coming fiscal year, but it’s a hard decision to make. Hiring freezes and the elimination of programs with large sustainability costs are other efforts libraries are trying to make to stay ahead of the falling market.
Other decisions being made by the libraries are a focus on prioritized service, putting effort into studying what services are utilized at which branches in an effort to make the cost cutting as painless as possible. In some instances, this has been a successful endeavor. The authors noted that all the libraries tried to make as informed a decision as possible in terms of cost cutting while still offering the best service that could be achieved.

Public Libraries around the world

2010-03-03T22:58:00.000-06:00

When we think of libraries of the world, we should probably think about shapes. We all know that there are many different shapes, some with five edges, some with six edges, and some with no edges at all. The same is true for public libraries across the world. While many of them are very similar, most of them all have something a little different about them that makes them unique to the country they reside in and the people they serve.
What I found to be most interesting about all of my articles was the notice given to service. In China, it was noted that though libraries increased in number, they decreased in service. At the same time, libraries in Africa of one type served a completely different role in the community than another type did; and that one type of library a better job than another. One study noted that service to Young adults was available, but lacking. Another looked at the vast presence of public libraries in England and the services provided to its citizens. All were looking at different points of the world, and yet all were focused keenly on the area of service. What is interesting about that is how it pertains to our discussions the last few weeks. We have been looking at mission and location and service to community. It shouldn’t surprise me that other libraries around the world are similarly focused on serving the patron, but it never crossed my mind to think that Africa had the same problems with young adult readers as American librarians have, or that in some places in America, the role of the library is being marginalized to a storage facility just as in China it is being marginalized into a business. The parallels from library to library are the same, even though the countries are in some instances completely dissimilar (i.e. America and China).
Another common thread I found throughout was the dedication of the researcher to find out answers to some tough questions. I have never done a study before, so the idea of surveying 8 different villages in Africa or Library directors and community leaders in China seems daunting to me. That being said, it’s interesting to note the kinds of focus each author brings to the question. I often wonder as I read these journal articles what kind of investment these scholars have in the answers. I wonder about their agenda, or maybe more appropriately, their mission. Scholars do not come with mission statements, just with a desire to find new knowledge in the field they find interesting. I’m curious to see what a study on librarian scholars would find.
To conclude, I think there is something to be said about the similarities shared by public libraries and the people who write about them. Even though each comes from a different place, the institutions and the people tend to share common threads. They are shapes. Sometimes libraries have six sides and sometimes scholars have ten sides, but each aligns to the others in its similarities, even as it celebrates the difference.

Usherwood, B. (2002). The Inspiration and the facts: library and information services in the United Kingdom. IFLA journal, 28(136), 136-152.
Usherwood’s article is about the services and organization of the United Kingdom’s libraries. Since IFLA was to be held in Scotland in 2002, this article was meant to show attendees the types of library services in and around the country. While Scotland is not a part of the UK, it is a close neighbor and is shares some similarities with UK libraries.
The article describes services the UK libraries have offered in recent history, including an expansion of refugee resources; the ties to the “National Grid of Learning” as described in the paper “The learning age” which focused on the socio-political advantages of lifelong learning; the process of digitizing rare collections all over the world so that access can be increased; and the focus on books and reading.
The article also described the means by which the UK library held itself accountable to the country. The library, like many other entities in a country, has to be both sustainable and offer good service. The article notes that government at the time (PM Tony Blair) looked for the library to provide the “best value” to patrons, which tries to be both sustainable and serviceable.

Hart, G. (2006). The Information literacy education readiness of public libraries in Mpumalanga province (South Africa). Libri, 56, 48-62.
Hart’s article investigates one phase of a study about the readiness of public libraries in South Africa to take on a greater role in information literacy education, especially with regard to school-aged children. The study has two phases, and this article is a report on the first part: the interview surveys that will inform the follow up survey, or phase two.
The methodology of the study took careful focus on the design of the first phase because it was the broad survey that would later be used to bring in tighter focus on areas of interest to the researchers. The sampling of the designated area was also a factor taken into consideration. Mpumalanga province has six geographical regions that include both “big” (45,000 books or more) and “small” (having only one staff member).
The study concludes that respondents’ descriptions show a lack in knowledge of information literacy. This can partly be contributed to librarians seeing their job as the brokers of information, thereby not taking the time to educate the patrons on how to access their own information. Another factor to the lack of knowledge can be the limited number of staff or space in a given library where the service of information literacy just won’t do.

Yu, L. and Xu, J. (2006). The Political economy of public library development in post-1978 People's Republic of China. Libri, 56, 117-132.
Yu’s article is an examination of the public libraries in China following the 1978 economic reforms and onward. He notes that an extensive amount of study has been dedicated to the health care and education sectors of China, but not many have taken a deep look at the public library system and how it has been impacted by the rise of economic development of China.
The article looked at two data sources: the first is published statistics from the mid 1980’s to the present, professional literature and published speeches of government officials relating to public libraries. The second is empirical data collected through site visits to twelve local and four province libraries where interviews were taken from local officials and library directors. The four province libraries represent the varied development levels across the whole of China.
The study looked at several different areas of interest to develop some answers. For example, the growth of new libraries across the country is noted as increasing significantly from 1980 to 1999, jumping from 1732 libraries to 2769 libraries. Libraries, it turned out, while being neglected during the Cultural Revolution, were held as a major cultural edifice of urban life and so local governments clamored to construct new buildings or more buildings for libraries. Another focus of libraries that shifted after 1978 was the mission to the public. Prior to 1978, the library was held as an important organization to spread socialist ideology, but following 1978; the library was turned into a means of increasing economic construction.
The problem with this rapid growth of libraries was the methods local governments were turning toward in order to make the library efficient. They put quotas on library labor that could be measured (catalogers, shelvers, etc.) and introduced a management style that was more suited for a business than a library. While more libraries were opening, the level of access and assistance toward the community diminished.
The article concludes that while the economic reforms of China brought libraries into the forefront of economic growth, it has been increasingly marginalized in terms of public service because of its focus on economic growth. Market forces have lowered the level of service given by public libraries in China and the public service ethos of the library is minimal zed.

Kevane, M. (2008). How much do village libraries increase reading? Results of a survey of 10th graders in Burkina Faso. Libri, 58, 202-210.
The article by Kevane is a survey of reading habits in a country in Africa. The author first gives some background knowledge on the impact of reading and the availability of reading materials at a young age. Extensive research has been put forth to show that having access to books will greatly increase learning at the younger age groups. While there are some studies available to look at how many African children are reading for pleasure as opposed to reading for school, they are mostly only looking at a small population or village so no greater insight can really be determined. The introduction also notes the effect libraries have reading for pleasure in Africa. This survey hopes to shed some light on the reading habits of young adults.
The survey was conducted in secondary schools in eight villages in the country of Burkina Faso. The study looked at four villages with secondary schools and a public library and four villages that had a secondary school and no public library. In each village, the participants filled out a questionnaire that asked about socioeconomic background, accessibility of books and reading habits. The questionnaire took approximately one hour to complete.
The results (data sets shown in graphs and tables) were a little complicated. In towns that had nonprofit funded libraries, reading was up compared to towns that did not have nonprofit funded libraries. However, in towns that had government funded libraries, reading was less prevalent compared to the nonprofit libraries. One reason stated for this was the accessibility and depth of the collection between the two libraries. The nonprofit funded libraries are more open to community use, while the government funded libraries are more for the aide of teachers and community leaders.
The conclusions, according to the author, are that reading is quite low in Burkina Faso but villages with nonprofit funded libraries are able to double the reading level as opposed to villages without libraries and villages with government libraries.

Kargbo, J. (2007). Public library programming for the young adult reader: the Sierra Leone experience. Libri, 57, 65-68.
Kargbo’s article is about the issues and attempts to give good service to one of the hardest reading groups in Sierra Leone. He begins by describing the political, ethnic, and monetary standing of the country as well as a brief description of the term “young adult.”
Kargbo’s next point is to describe the agreements made in the white paper on educational development, which was developed by the Sierra Leone government. It called for the establishment of a library board as well as “support [….] programs of adult and fundamental education; provide effective services to children and young adult peoples [….]; provide much needed information and reference services; promote and stimulate reading […and] provide where needed, adequate services for special groups, that is women and girls, language groups […]” The white paper also called for nationwide support and supply of books to primary schools as well as advisory assistance to the teacher college.
The Sierra Leone public library has traditionally been looked at as the “peoples university” and has long been a home for those who are doing independent studies. While this can include the young adults of Sierra Leone, other steps made by librarians to engage young adult readers is to start book clubs and book discussions as well as creating book lists, book displays, and book exhibits for young adults to peruse at school and in the library. Other steps are to bring in live music, poetry, and drama performances into the public library space.
The article concludes that programming with the young adult in mind can be challenging, but the Sierra Leone library board has found a way to provide an acceptable level of service. While it could be much, much better, the country is doing a fine job.

Library of Congress Subject headings

2010-03-03T22:56:00.001-06:00

Library of Congress Subject Headings

For over 100 years, the Library of Congress has been supplying subject headings to the collection. At first, it was in order to create a form of order for just the Library of Congress. However, as more and more libraries began to adopt the subject headings the LOC developed, the LOC began to expand the distribution of subject headings, first in volumes and supplements produced in book form, and more recently in Microfiche, CD, and online at Cataloger’s Desktop. The LOC subject headings are one of the most influential descriptors in the library, giving librarians a guide and controlled vocabulary for describing materials uniformly across all levels of library. Some, like Thomas Mann, are passionate about maintaining the Library of Congress’s work with subject headings and their continued use in libraries. Others, like Tom Steele, are advocates for other means of organization, like tagging and keyword search.

Recently, we have been looking at the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) as either the white hat cowboy or the black hat cowboy in everybody’s favorite Western movie. The group discussion has been centered on whether or not the controlled vocabulary of a given system puts one group at a disadvantage over another or in some way imposes a cultural attitude or worldview onto that group. I for one know that the answer to that question is decidedly murky. But there are some opinions that can be gleaned from librarians who are much more “in the know” as well as some answers to just how culturally demanding the LCSHs are.

To begin, it’s best to understand some definitions and then move onto the meat and potatoes of this argument by looking at the literature and seeing just what kind of impact these forms of description are having on society. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (2010) defines hegemony as “the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/). What this means for the purpose of this discussion is that some scholars and librarians argue that the very nature of a system that describes materials or classifies them into a given order ultimately pushes that system’s worldview onto the users of that system, whether they agree or not. I personally don’t agree with this notion, so I look forward to asking these two questions regarding LCSHs and cultural hegemony: 1. What prejudices do LCSHs exhibit? 2. What assumptions do LCSHs make about their users?

So, what do we see when we look for bias in the LCSHs? The first would be the idea that all subject headings fit neatly into a hierarchy. The way the subject headings work is that all subject terms can be found by following the branch from whence it started. Think of it like a really big “Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral” chart. This assumption submits that all subjects can be traced back up the tree. Olson (2004) states, “all headings are required to have a BT unless they fall into one of the five categories of ‘orphans’” (p. 613). This means that unless you are one of five very special categories, there ought to be a broader term as to what you are described. Another assumption Olson points to is that LCSH “presumes that all catalogers will think of the same hierarchies” (p. 613). While it is important to have rules governing a classification system, it is difficult to expect all librarians using the system to come to the same conclusion for any subject heading. The rules for subject headings is asking quite a lot of the library community go ahead and make the same assumptions about a where a book belongs in the branch. Now, while this is certainly asking a lot of librarians, is it hegemonic? Our definition for hegemony refers to influence being exerted over a dominant group. I would suppose that in this instance there is a little hegemony taking place in the LCSHs. I say that, because the rules are dictating that all headings be put on the tree with a line to follow them up. There is a hierarchy in place, and as soon as a hierarchy becomes apparent then there is chain of command to follow. This ultimately puts those outside the chain of command at a disadvantage. This might be imposing because sometimes there are no good ways to get a hierarchy in place. In those instances, the rules of subject headings ask us to find “intermediate headings” to go in place of missing links. It serves the subject heading by creating fewer orphans in the subject pool, but it also requires libraries to make judgment calls about topics that they might not understand or go along with past decisions about a topic’s home on the tree, even if new information or a new interpretation of the hierarchy can be found or argued.

A second bias of the LCSHs is that everything can be classified into a single heading. While it is true that a bibliographic record can contain many subject headings, it remains that there is an assumption that some book or DVD will contain at least one heading. Since the rules of LCSHs don’t allow for the creating of new subject terms outside of the LoC, this can be an imposition to librarian that wants to assign a subject term for an item that cannot be found in the big red books. What makes this assumption about subject headings a weak argument for cultural hegemony in the system itself is the fact that while the librarian is working with a designated, controlled vocabulary, it does not by any stretch require him to always and forever use it. The great joy of classification and cataloging in a library is that there is always the option to break away from the absolute hierarchical structure of LCSHs and instead add a subject heading that follows the librarian’s line of thinking in terms of placement and access. While the LoC probably frowns on not using the controlled vocabulary (as well as some proponents of LCSHs, like Mann) it also can’t be the subject heading police all the time.

The solution to these issues with LCSHs has been mixed. On the message board for class, some students feel that moving to a keyword search would be far less hegemonic because it would not be controlling the terms of the classification. Others have the notion that regardless of the use of keyword or subject heading, the whole system is a form of hegemony because it is a group of librarians and information specialists deciding where content belongs using a classification scheme. I’m on the fence. I think that there are definitely some problems that could be associated with using a given fixed vocabulary when trying to define something as organic as information, but at the same time, I feel that while any system has the potential to create a cultural hegemony, having no system at all would be a far worse fate. In that instance, while I can feel good that my subject terms are not dictating how my users should think or how they should access their information needs, I can’t find any of the materials my patrons need because there isn’t a clear means of access. It’s a catch-22 for librarians because there is no clear way to win. I personally advocate for the continued use of LCSHs only because to abandon the system now might mean chaos for the library yet to come.

The second question we must ask ourselves about the LCSHs is what kind of assumption do these headings make about the user, and in making those assumptions, how does it exclude members of a community? Thomas Mann (2000) notes that most users would be able find exactly what they were looking for if only they knew there was an encyclopedia (good naturedly called ‘the red books’) for exactly these types of searches. What I mean to say is that the Library of Congress Subject headings assume we know how to use them without any training. Or most specifically, the system was set up with few training wheels unless you know where to go for your information. If you don’t know about the red books then you don’t know how to navigate the subject headings and thereby are swimming in a sea of information with no guide to follow. Mann is not advocating for a removal of the Headings though. In fact, the article I reference is Mann’s attempt to teach others how to best use the LCSHs and the red books to find exactly the information that they need. For the most part, the assumptions made between the LCSHs and users come from the user perspective. Mann references an incident where a journalist was looking for information on Game Shows. The journalist was looking under the subject heading “Television” however, the correct subject heading was “Game Shows” and the titles and information found under the latter were not duplicated in the former (p 119-120). Users cannot assume that looking under the broad topic will result in finding materials under the narrower topic. While this might appear to answer the final question about how these assumptions affect users, it actually relates more to this topic because in making assumptions about the subject headings we are recognizing the assumptions the subject headings make about users.

Another assumption made by the subject headings toward users is that they cover everything we could possibly think of. This is in fact a pretty accurate statement, as far as the expansive collective knowledge of the Library of Congress, but since we’re only human, we usually don’t think in those terms. Tom Steele (2009) talks about how tagging and folksonomies could be used as a means to improve the searching capabilities of users with regard to LCSHs. Another point he brings up is that the problem with controlled vocabularies is their lack of consideration for the “human element” (p. 72). He notes a humorous quote by Cory Doctorow that says, “Metadata creators (even the expert catalogers) are lazy, stupid, dishonest, and self-ignorant.” Steele goes on to quote Doctorow about a particularly interesting passage that shapes the discussion we’ve been having in class the last week. Doctorow said, “Requiring everyone to use the same vocabulary to describe their material denudes the cognitive landscape, enforces homogeneity in ideas. And that’s just not right” (p. 72). Steele and Doctorow ultimately claim that because the LCSHs are governed by controlled vocabulary, it ultimately excludes those who do not fit the “cognitive landscape” and instead awards those who think like sheep and tow the company line. Steele posits that while tagging is no more perfect than a controlled system like LCSHs, at least with tagging there is the opportunity for more access points and search terms and an inclusion of the human element into the process of metadata.

A third assumption the LCSHs make is that they will continue to be relevant to librarianship. While I myself am a huge fan of the LCSHs and the red books, many other professionals in the field are writing about a changing of the guard. More and more, the talk of metadata is about social tagging and collaborative classification. In essence, a lot of social networky, touchy feely, “let’s all just do our best” cataloging. While Mann and his compatriots are urging everyone to keep with the old system of how things run, there are new ideas popping up and some really great innovations in subject classification. One that has been floating around a lot in the literature is LibraryThing. LibraryThing is a social cataloging and classification website. Users add their own materials to their “personal bookshelf” and that then links them to other users who own the same materials. But it doesn’t stop there. Just recently, there was a LibraryThing flashmob that cataloged the White House Library for the fun of it. It might also have been the added controversy regarding the Socialist reading materials one conservative blogger found on the shelves during his White House tour and the claim that Michelle Obama put it there, but journalists have determined that the collection was started back in the Roosevelt administration and was later overseen by Jacqueline Kennedy with the help of Yale Librarian James Babb. It was during the 1960’s over 1700 books were added to the collection (Lowman, 2010, Washingtonpost.com). The point is, when a group of individuals felt the need to classify an entire library, they took the project by the toes and ran with it until it was finished. LibraryThing not only allows users to create their own bookshelves or assist with the development of other, it also links people to ideas and to their notion of how those ideas are organized. If I tag my home library with a relevant classification scheme on LibraryThing, others can see it. They can copy my idea, modify my idea or tell me my classification system is the dumbest thing in the existence of man (after my Stretch Armstrong action figure). The point is that people are at the center of classification, not the Library of Congress. LCSHs assume that we’ll keep using the system because it’s the only thing that’s available. That was the case long ago when it was more cost effective to use what the Library of Congress put out instead of doing the original cataloging. Since the advent of the digital catalog, the need, or perhaps the reliance on the Library of Congress is not as strong. Librarians are now given the option of creating classifications and subject headings that are useful and good for the collection they manage and develop, not what some think tank of librarians say halfway across the country. I think the whole notion is best described by Guy and Tonkin in Mendes et al. (2009) that “despite these problems, some see the benefits of social tagging services as creating ‘the kinds of environments in which we can evolve metadata vocabularies in a natural way’” (p. 32). Is it a good thing? We’ll have to wait and see, but for now just think about how cool it is to be a librarian right now.

To wrap up, LCSHs are a great tool. Do they sometimes enforce a cultural hegemony onto society? Probably. Does the Library of Congress enforce a pretty large culture (over 308,000 subject headings and counting) onto society? Absolutely! The real question will soon become if this will even matter in five years? Tagging is a big part of Web 2.0, and library budgets are getting cut all over the place. Perhaps the LCSHs will go the way of the dinosaur not because of a cultural shift in librarianship, but because it became too costly to maintain. We shall see.

References

Olson, H. (2004). The Ubiquitous hierarchy: an army to overcome the threat of a mob. Library Trends, 52(3), 604-615.

Mann, T. (2001). Teaching library of congress subject headings. Catalog and classification quarterly, 29(1), 117-126.

Steele, T. (2009). The new cooperative cataloging. Library hi tech, 27(1), 68-77.

Mendes, L, Skinner, J, & Skaggs, D. (2009). Subjecting the catalog to tagging. Library hi tech, 27(1), 30-41.

This guys sucks at life!

2010-03-03T22:49:00.003-06:00

hello friends.

My sincerely apologies for not posting anything on here. I will tell you that I have been writing an awful lot though, so I'm going to put them up one at a time. I encourage you to read the one about the library of Congress Subject headings. It's good stuff.

Jake

New Year, new blogging

2010-01-02T10:56:00.002-06:00

Hello all!

Last semester was kind of a drag as far as classes went. Well, that's a lie. I hated Academic library. The class was really kinda....meh. Reference was a good time, but I just epic failed about telling you all what I learned in it for the most part. I will mention right now that the Nebraska Library Commission offers online reference help most of the day Monday through Friday. That means you can ask any question in the whole world and someone will be on the other end of the computer or telephone to answer it. Magical! And Libraries have this awesome ethics code that basically tells anyone who wants to pry into information to stick it! They even have contingency plans for shredding papers and cool stuff like that.

Watch this video and then think about how that impacts anything you do. Think globally and apply locally. I have to figure out what it means for my library collection. I'll let you know what I come up with when I'm finished.

Here's the deal

2009-12-09T21:13:00.002-06:00

I have a case study due on Friday and I'm having a hard time getting focused for it. I know it'll be a cinch once I get the juices going, but I just don't care enough about this class to do it. Let's be realistic about the Academic library people. It seems like a lot more work than it's worth. At least the GIGANTIC university library. I don't want to be a "publish or perish" professor. I want to help people find stuff. I want to be the hip reference desk guy at the liberal arts college. Truthfully, I'd love to be the guy who teaches research methods to undergrads. That would be awesome and I'd get to teach.

In other library news, I finished my reference class. That was nice. It was a good class because I got a lot of great interaction with librarians in the field. I especially loved Julie Pinnell, reference librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission. I want her job. She just gets to answer reference questions all day from all over the State. and some of the examples are really really funny.

Next semester I'm taking Public Library, Social Constructs of Information and Collections Management. It'll be a good semester. Hopefully better than the last one.

Student Spotlight

2009-11-16T17:37:00.002-06:00

I was chosen to be one of the students featured in the student spotlight for the NEMO library program. Here's what I said:

What is your education/library/professional background?
I am a graduate of Midland Lutheran college in Fremont, NE with a bachelors in English. I currently work part time at Midland Lutheran college's Luther library as a rereference librarian, part time at Keene Memorial Library in Fremont, NE as a children's librarian and grant coordinator, part time as a preschool aide for Trinity Early Childcare Center in Fremont, and as a movie clerk for Family Video.

What is on your reading list? What are your favorites/your recommended/your want to read lists?
Right now I'm getting ready to read Born Digital: The First Generation of Digital Natives by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. It's a study into the generation of students who were brought up with technology wired into the everyday life. I'm also reading Blackest Night comic book run from DC and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 from Dark Horse.These are the first two series of comic book that have gotten me to buy the new issue every month. I recommend them both.

What professional journal or article have you read and would recommend? Why?
I have been reading School Library Journal an awful lot lately, especially their article "When Harry [Potter] Met Bella [Swan]," talking about the legality of fanfiction and if it is plagiarism or not. Another article that I've read recently deals with self censorship in the library. It was a fascinating look at how librarians will censor their own collection because they do not want to invest the time into fighting a challenge later. I like them because both articles tackle issues that librarians are dealing with all the time. How does a librarian support his student patrons who want to become writers without breaking copyright? Stuff like that would never cross my mind until after the movie studio and J.K. Rowling's lawyers and Stephanie Meyer's lawyers all rolled into the library to put me through the ringer.

What do you do in your “down time”? Your hobbies/recreation, how do you relax?
I'm what I like to call a rainy day knitter. I have a hat and a scarf started on needles at my house, but I only do about twenty minutes of work on it at a time. My hobby coming up in January will be the final season of LOST. You cannot even fathom how excited I am for that to come out. I'm also a fan of well written TV shows, cooking with cheap ingredients, and not cleaing my dishes.

What deep dark secret would you like to share?
I'm a librarian who blogs. I'm blogging about my library school experience. And another blog is about my day to day life stuff. and another blog with a friend of mine about our Midwestern perspectives on pop culture. I'm also terribly addicted to Entertainment Weekly. They are so smart. They are the reason I want a Masters in Popular Culture once I'm done with my MLS.

Name one of your personal or professional qualities that make you, or will make you, a leader in 21st century library and information centers.
Personal Quality: I'm super cheerful most of the time. If you saw me at NLA, you'd know me as the guy playing the "try and greet everyone" game. Howdy was my greeting of choice. And I can organize a fantastic potluck party when needed
Professional Quality: I have a passion for collection development. I came from a library that was diligent about having materials for everyone and ensuring that the newest, best materials were available to patrons. I make it my goal to whip collections into shape whenever I can.

What advice do you have for current Graduate Students?
When you're sitting in class, it's easy to just focus in on what you're learning and then go home. Don't do that. Stay after class. Talk to your professors. Talk to the students sitting next to you. Make a study group or a book club or a "hey you've got homework due Friday" buddy. Librarians in the 21st century need to make more connections, not less. Start now, when you're all still learning the ins and outs of the profession. Friendships in Library school can make lasting partnerships in the real world that can benefit you as a professional and your community of patrons.

What do you see as key future trends and challenges in LIS?
I think the challenge right now for the field is coming up with ways of providing the same service as usual while administrations, city budgets and state funding are pulling your funding first and fastest in order to balance a budget. Libraries are trending toward a more open access approach to information as a means to curb this decline in funds. More libraries have a Facebook or Twitter presence and some libraries are leading the charge for digitization. It's a pretty great time to be in the library field. We're the ones playing with new technology and making it work for our profession. You kinda can't wait to see what someones going to come up with next.

What do you think will be your legacy in this profession?
I really want to be the librarian that people remember as being helpful and informed. I would love to say I plan to be the head librarian at some land grant institution or a City Library director with 15 branches serving a million people, but I'm content for now to be the guy that can find you the book or the article you're looking for and do it with a smile and a whistle in my step.

Any Last Words?
Get a Google account. Seriously. You'll need it more times than you think during the program. and it's awesome to have otherwise. Google Reader for RSSing all the library blogs. It's pretty much the coolest thing they do.

Blogging for class - a review -

2009-11-05T20:36:00.002-06:00

For reference class, we have been using Blogger to facilitate a conversation about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class ordering systems. What we come to realize as we finish the required reading that goes along with this assignment, is that everything can really go everywhere when looking through the lens of a digitized ordering system. Unlike 1st class ordering systems, digital information can be organized however you want.

But that's beside the point. What we're doing for class is discussing all of this on a blog. In the past, I have not been too keen on blogging for real life because the only other time I blog is when I bitch about people and life. However, this blogging has been real eye opening. What I think I like most about it is the blog is that it's quite like the message board through blackboard, but with the added benefit of adding flair and pizazz to your thoughts. If I find a photo that best represents my idea, I can post that. You can add off topic threads and not feel guilty. You can link to your own blog just by posting a response. Really great things. The best part is that Blogger allows you to invite real live people who might not have blackboard credentials to join your conversation. If you're blogging about YA fiction, perhaps you'll invite some best selling authors to comment if they see something interesting. they might not post a word, but the fact that it can be opened to anyone is a great way to lead discussion and focus into real world applications.

So I say HUZZAH! to you BLOGGER!

NLA/NEMA conference revisited

2009-11-01T19:47:00.002-06:00

After an exhausting two days at the NLA/NEMA conference, I can truthfully say that there are many many many more librarians than I ever thought. And that I want all the technology that the SMART board people brought with them. Here are the highlights of my first conference experience.

1. Early breakfast with MU proffessors started at 7:30 AM! I didn't make it there until 8 because of an accident on Dodge, but it was nice to eat those delicious cinnamon rolls, meet with Dr. Budd and Dr. Adkins, and see Micki and Dr. Pasco so very early in the morning.

2. Micki's Murder Van: There's a funny story about that van, I just can't find it anywhere. Dangerous piece of vehicle that thing is.

3. Ben Hotness...I mean, Ben Softness: Google search man and genius taught some great lessons about searching google. Best tip of the day would have to be the "control" + "tab" to cycle through open tabs on Firefox or Safari or IE.

4. YART roundtable: A small but mighty group of us came together to talk shop and get ready for our spring meeting in Blair. Information to come for those interested. Also check out the YART blog @ nlayart.blogspot.com

5. Gaming with Librarians: Apples to apples with children's librarians is dangerously funny. Watching adults play guitar hero was amusing too. No comment on DDR though. ugh!

6. Gaming presentation: Let me just summarize the entire thing with Gordon's awesome quote. "Contrary to popular belief, gaming does not make you a douche."

7. Embassy Suite's Coffee bar: Fucking amazing. I can't even begin to describe it.

8. Final sessions: I went to a speaker who talked about the suppression of student voices, one about screen capture videos, and the keynote speaker giving an hour long book talk about his dad's awesome life.

9. Tweeting @ NLA: I always thought that Twitter was much too much of an overshare, but I discovered the usability of this technology at NLA. It's helpful to see what other's thought of a session you might be in or something important you missed that you should check out later.

Over all, it was a great experience, and I met a whole bunch of librarians that I will now need to contact so that I begin schmoozing them for jobs or scholarships or recommendations.

Riddle me this Dilemma

2009-10-23T22:29:00.000-05:00

What do I take?

Digital Library or Public Library?

This is a lesson in time management

2009-10-22T21:28:00.002-05:00

I hate when friends ask me on Facebook if I have the assignment done and you respond with "what assignment?" I really need to get myself a day planner. I didn't know that today was the 22nd until halfway through the day.

God. I can't wait for December. I get a break in December. I'll be broke, but I won't have to work three of my jobs for two weeks. Free vacation.

I miss you Zebra CAKE!

2009-10-15T18:22:00.004-05:00

The snack box in the public library break room now stocks Zebra Cakes and Nutty Bars and Star Crunches. I haven't eaten those since 8th grade....maybe 9th. God love nostalgia! and food that's mostly plastic.

Kindle Won't Kill Libraries - The Daily Beast

2009-10-15T12:21:00.001-05:00

Don’t throw out that library card just yet. The age-old institutions are holding onto familiar users and gaining new ones by expanding digital collections, seizing readers' newfound appreciation for electronic readers. More than 5,000 public libraries acr

Posted using ShareThis

The explicit books teens read (and the ones we read when we were theirï¿½age)

2009-10-14T18:44:00.002-05:00

The explicit books teens read (and the ones we read when we were their age)

Shared via AddThis

I read this today, and I though about how I'm going to be the one with the purchasing power one of these days. I also recently read an article from School Library Journal about self censorship among librarians. That is, librarians who don't order materials on the basis that they do not want to have to fight it later if a parent complains. I understood why some librarians would not want to go through the work of defending their book choices (with principals being so wishy-washy these days) but I remember being able to access all sorts of material when I was WAY too young to be reading it. The most memorable at the moment is from Steven Gould's novel Jumper about a teenage boy. David, who can teleport. He and his girlfriend Millie hook up for the first time, and after the first bout of sex, she asks him "where did you learn that" and he responds "I told you, I read a lot."

Brilliant. Like Han Solo's "I know" to Princess Leia.

I was reading this in 6th grade. I barely knew what sex was (until the hidden porn stash was discovered in the basement).

I won't say I was too young to be reading it. That would cheapen what the book meant to me and how it helped me grow as a human being and an adolescent (did I mention the opening scene is David on the road about to get raped by a trucker.)

So really, if you think something isn't appropriate for a reader, tough shit, because if they can read it and understand it, then they are going to be able to find it on the internet. At least if it's a book, you know they aren't going to stumble into some site with a ladies tig ol bitties hanging out of her dress.

Academic library Exam II

2009-10-11T18:53:00.002-05:00

Background: We were given a prompt wherein we were supposed to make decisions about how an imaginary library worked. We could base it off of one already in existence if we wanted to. I chose to base my on Midlands library because that is the one with which I had had more experience.

For starters, I will first describe the library for the what-if question. It is the campus library for a small (about 1000 students) liberal arts college. The library is open 80 hours a week with reference services available 70 hours a week. The main focus of the library’s mission is to serve the campus community, with a secondary mission to help serve the community where the college resides. The library collection contains about 300,000 monographs and is current in over 60 periodicals. The library also subscribes to several online databases and has access to several thousand journals. The library has an annual budget (excluding salaries) of about $700,000. The library is staffed with a director, a reference librarian (both faculty members), a serials librarian, a collections librarian, a part time archivist, and part time reference librarian. Twenty federal work-study students also staff the library. The libraries mission statement is
The library exists to serve the needs of the total College mission. Specifically, the library supports the broadest goals of the College as a liberal arts institution in both resources and services. The library, moreover, assists in the College's mission of providing a nurturing environment for spiritual, intellectual, and personal growth.
What is difficult about the “accountability” of this library is that it already operates on a pretty responsible budget. The college saw decreasing enrollment well before the economy took a dive, so money is fairly tight campus wide. The first order of business if I were the library director would be to begin a cross-training bonanza. All salaried librarians would effectively know how to do most of the duties in the library. Reference would know how to run serials and collections would know some of the duties the director supervises over (mostly cataloging). The other step I would take to streamline the work output would be to begin “promoting” experienced work-study students to different positions within the library. Currently, most students man the circulation desk and shelve books when needed. I would take the more experienced students and begin training them in reference, archiving, basic cataloging, and processing. Another area of training would be to teach the faculty how to access and teach the relevant databases for their field of study. All business professors would know how to search relevant business journals through the online databases AND be able to teach that (with help from the library) to students in the classroom. These steps would help to always keep the library gears turning; even if/when positions or hours need to be cut. This would also fulfill the criteria of increasing library productivity. Since we are involving more people we already pay to alleviate some of the everyday workload, the library runs more efficiently.
This leads to the first cost-cutting move. I would remove the part time reference position, which is paid through the library budget, and replace it with the work-study students, who are paid through federal monies. Yes, someone loses a job, but as far as the structure of the library, little is upset. This frees up twenty paid hours a week that can be cut from the library expenditures. The only troubling thing about cutting positions is that they rarely come back. Traditionally, the part time reference desk position was filled with a local library school student who could work with students on reference questions and still be able to complete homework in the downtime. If the position goes away, it will probably never come back to the library which removes a paraprofessional from the library staff AND takes away easy paid study time for a library student. That being said, it’s still the most financially non-valuable position.
Another move, besides cutting staff, would be to begin charging for some services for community users. Currently, the library offers basic community membership for anyone with a valid drivers license. We do this as a community service and charge nothing. Community patrons are not allowed to check out certain materials, but are allowed access to the internet. One way we could increase library revenue would be to begin charging community patrons for those basic services. The cost would not be anything steep, but it would contribute to the overall revenue of the library. Perhaps a $15 charge for 12 months of access or maybe even break it up for those community patrons who only use the internet and those who want to access the stacks. This step brings in money for services we already render, and if we lose patrons, we aren’t losing any money because they weren’t paying for it in the first place.
These are just a few ways the library can make small steps to increase the productivity of the library and decrease some spending and streamlining the budget overall. These changes would also continue to allow the library to fulfill its stated mission of providing “resources and services” to the college community. These changes improve the visibility of the campus library through the staff and faculty training, increase the number of service employees at the library through the “promoted” work-study students, and increase revenue cutting hours or positions and through charging for community access. These steps also clearly clear all of the hurdles Cohen and March describe as well. 1. The library as a strict set of goals as seen in the mission statement and the library can continue to adhere to it despite the cuts to budget. The library understands its processes. 2. The library understands its processes. The library has been a sustainable, functioning resource on the campus for decades. Change has been gradual, but it has been clear change done with intent and not the kind called “trial-and-error.” 3. The library has a clear purpose. The mission sets the parameters and then operates on objectives based on that mission. The library even defines the ways in which it reaches the objectives. The objectives are also clearly measurable. If the president wanted to see our accomplishments toward the objectives, the library could conclusively prove success. 4. The library has a clear leader. There is no ambiguity about who is in charge of the library. Even with the cross training, the vision and the direction of the library will still be up to the library director. 5. The library judges success based upon the mission and the objectives. Since the library does not create profit for the college and cannot be sustainable if it allowed “promotion based opportunity” it can only be deemed successful if it fulfills the stated objectives tied to the mission. The library fulfills the goals, and therefore is successful.
To conclude, I believe it must be noted that a library cannot continue to function as the first line in the budget cut. The success of the institution often times falls heavy onto the libraries shoulders, especially in larger, research-based institutions. Even for the small liberal arts college, the library serves as the access point for student learning and faculty success. Without the library, the learning community of the college suffers because it loses access to information. With that being said, I also think that there are ways for a small college library to innovate in order to shift with the market and become a more sustainable line item on the college budget. As long as the library can clearly meet and exceed the goals set down in the mission statement, then it can continue to go with business as usual. However, at the moment that service and access begin to suffer as a result of belt tightening, the library will have to either find a way to encourage the college president to continue to support the library or begin to look for other means of sustaining itself.

Marvel Maring interview paper

2009-10-11T18:52:00.002-05:00

Reference Librarian Marvel Maring has been working at the UNO Criss Library for the past six years as the department liaison for Art, Theatre, English, the Humanities, and most recently, Communication programs. Let’s stop to process that before we even continue: Ms. Maring has as many seven departments that she interacts with on a weekly basis. Coming from a small liberal arts college, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, but after seeing just how much traffic comes through the Criss library in one day has made me a believer that Ms. Maring works miracles over and over and over again. I can see, however, that you are not going to take me at my word; and that’s fine by me. Allow me to share with you unequivocal proof that Ms. Marvel Maring is a reference librarian superhero.
To begin, a little background on our super librarian. Marvel Maring is a second career librarian. She originally received an MFA in Chicago and was teaching at Kansas State. She left KU to get masters in book arts from the University of Alabama. Coincidentally, the library science program runs the book art program at Alabama. Maring because a graduate assistant for a library science professor and began working some hours in the library, as well as sharing some classes with MLS students. Maring only had to take an extra semester of classes in order to graduate with a double masters in book art and library science. Of the career path, she had to say, “I didn’t have a guidance counselor telling me I had these skills and I’d like this. I just fell in love with it.”
During the hour-long interview, Ms. Maring was able to explain what she does at the Criss library and some of the challenges and joys of working at the library. One of her main roles at the library is to be a liaison to the English, Humanities, Art, Theatre and Communications departments. This job keeps her pretty busy. She does about 40 BI sessions a semester and usually about 7 face-to-face reference encounters a week. She explained that one of the perks about working with the English department is that there is an inherent relationship with the library early on. Librarian Melissa Caste-Brede helped create a collaboration piece with the freshman composition classes 7 years ago. That has lead to a buy-in by the English department to bring students to the library and to bring librarians to the classrooms. Ms. Maring says one of her favorite activities as a reference librarian is going into the classroom as students are just beginning the topic process for papers or projects. She says that she might not do any direct teaching, but she enjoys the time because it gives her a chance to connect with the students as well as get some baseline ideas for what types of resources the students are going to need.
Since the University of Nebraska-Omaha is a state institution, is has quite a lot of materials. More than this reporter could ever hope to maintain. Ms. Maring’s favorite electronic choice for her students and faculty was a three-way tie of sorts. Her first choice for electronic resources is the MLA International bibliography. It’s the core bibliography reference work for the humanities, her area of expertise. Her close second was a tie between Jstor and Project Muse because of their accessibility and the full text and user-friendly formats. For her communication students (a whole different animal than Art and Humanities students), Ms. Maring had three databases that she especially liked: Linguistics database, Sage full text, and Artstor. She mentions that Artstor is “a visual juggernaut” and “a really powerful and neat database” because it contains material gathered from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Ms. Maring’s favorite print resource is the contemporary authors cumulative index. Even though some of the information is digitized in Gale, she thinks the print “is much more accessible and user friendly. Once the students get to see what’s available, they get over the hurdle of working in print.”
Maring showed a deft knowledge of both print and electronic resources, but one of her challenges within the library is dealing with the professors and their hunger for format. She said, “The English department can get a little grumpy about the print versus the digital resource.” She went on the explain that as a bookmaker, she understands the need for the tactile book as object, but that even some of the more persnickety English professors love electronic databases like Jstor with its full text articles and super simple interface. Another challenge she has in the library is the ethical considerations she has toward the community users. As a public institution, the Criss library also serves basic library needs for the public, but Maring noted that she has to remember to prioritize the level of service with regard to the mission of the students and the community patrons. One instance she described was a community user taking an online course and it was his first experience with a computer. He did not know how to log on or open an internet browser or many of the other basic skills needed for an online course. Service is one thing, but holding hands and walking them through the entire process is time consuming, especially when the patron is not a university student or faculty member.
As per the assignment parameters, I found a website with information pertinent to the reference interview. What I found to be most helpful were the notes concerning the reference interview. It gives a breakdown of the steps you need for a reference interview. They are approachability, Responsiveness, Listening/inquiring, finding, and follow-up (http://web.utk.edu/~wrobinso/531_lec_interview.html). Maring had given us a rundown of her steps of a reference interview, and they matched up pretty well, but she ended her list saying, “Reference librarians enjoy the search. We have to remind ourselves that the patron just wants the answer. They might not be as thrilled with the process as we are. Sometimes we might just have to get their email address and start sending them stuff.” What she said made sense. We had been discussing some of her most favorite reference questions, like the changes in country music since 9/11 and comparing religious broadcasters today with those from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. She explained how all of the information was fascinating and complex and how she loved going down different avenues of discovery, but then would have to stop and remember that somebody was waiting for her to send them something with substance. The part of the reference service I love is looking for diverse sets of information on a daily basis. I think I too would have to remind myself that I couldn’t be caught up in the search, but instead have to keep the patron in mind.
We closed our discussion with how she deals with changes in the library. She told us that the biggest concern is that libraries are increasingly trying to do more with less money. Her liaison with the communications department is one such move. It was someone else’s responsibility, but when that position was vacated, the responsibilities were split up among the other librarians. While it turned out to be a great match for Maring, others might not have been so lucky.
So to conclude this summary of our conversation, I will again state for the record that Marvel Maring is a reference librarian superhero. She comes to the aid of faculty and students, she serves the community, she finds what cant’ be found and mines the databases for long lost information. She is the Professor Xavier/Reed Richards/Tony Stark of reference, and with a name like Marvel, you can’t really go wrong.