Library Road Trip

ALA Day 2 Continued

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:42:00 +0000

ALA President's Program--The Secrecy Hangover

ALA was fortunate to have Tom Blanton, Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University speak about freedom of government information past and president. Because of his actions and his 50 lawsuits against the U.S. government, thousands of pages of information have been declassified, and U.S. citizens have learned the good and the ugly actions of their government. According to Mr. Blanton, the government will almost always choose secrecy. Why? What is classified is an individual decision based on the feelings of that person at the time of the decision. Mr. Blanton showed the audience that much of this overclassification is due to embarrassment, turf control, and fear of criminal liability. Trying to hide the actions of a government official under the guise of national security is an all too common event. One of the incidences he discussed was the FBI Library Awareness program of the 1970's. I remember this one well. Librarians were supposed to turn in anyone with a foreign accent looking for information that could be considered sensitive. At the time I was working at Brooklyn College, and every week a nice Russian gentleman came to the federal depository library asking for armed services committee hearings. Needless to say he had as much right to this public information as anyone.

ALA Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Libraries and Mobile Devices:Public Policy Considerations

Well, this session was certainly not what I expected. But it was really interesting. The growth in mobile device use has been incredible. Can you think of any other consumer product that has penetrated 60% of the world's population and in such a short time? The prediction is that it will be 90% by 201o. So how do libraries stay relevant? One panelist believes that there is no point in having something in the library if there are 10,000 copies available. I don't necessarily agree with that, but he also said that it's up to us and our patrons to make the unique content that we keep. We need proactive reference and we need to insert ourselves in real time into what's happening around us. This guy is really out there, but I wonder if what he is saying may prove true. Another panelist said that the future of information is streaming media, not downloadables. As connections continue to improve, information will become experience, not something tangible. Then there are the privacy issues. We must be deligent in making sure we maintain our patrons privacy, and make sure personal information belongs to a library, not a vendor.

So where will all of this leave us? Do we need to create experiences and content for our patrons? Probably. Will people still want us to buy books? I think so. And will there really be a time when there is no digital divide? I hope so, but I'm not holding my breath.

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 23:50:00 +0000

Day 1 of ALA 2009

Today I spent some time with Library Friends groups and other advocates. Not only am I constantly on the lookout for good speakers, but I also have to learn more about library friends and what they do. The president of the foundation of the St. Paul Public Library said that the best way to advocate for libraries is by direct contact: talk to your community, your business leaders, your legislators. We all do that, I know. I think talking to legislators in New York must be different than elsewhere. First of all, they actually go into session. But I spoke to an Illinois legislator who really knows how to listen and really cares about his constituents' concerns. He agreed with me that having patrons come and tell a story is more effective than having librarians lobby. After all we have a vested interest in our jobs. But we can't expect people with jobs and kids and busy lives to hop on a bus to Albany for a day. Maybe there is a place for YouTube videos. Tell stories and make movies?

Cover it Live

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:20:00 +0000

SCLS At ALA

LibCamp NYC 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:38:00 +0000

LibCampNYC was an unconference sponsored by Brooklyn College and the Metropolitan New York Library Council on the 3 June. Unconferences are much more casual in nature and draw primarily on the participants to make the conference what they want. Think of networking and learning with a huge dose of anarchy.... the good kind.

The participants for this particular unconference seemed to want to focus on evolving reference services like IM, Roving Reference, Twitter & Text Reference services. Suggestions on how to do reference better ranged from implementing Roving Reference (even if you have to do it unofficially with your own smart phone) to changing the name of the desk from Reference to Information Desk.

Some of the libraries in our county are already utilizing these sorts of innovative services, just to name a few:

Text Reference, Mastics Moriches Library

Roving Reference, Sachem

Revitalizing the Reference desk by calling it the Information Desk, Cutchogue-New Suffolk

For more information about Library Terms check out the blog Library Terms That Users Understand

and now the Kindle 2 ...but wait what about those audio rights?

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:34:00 +0000

"The Kindle 2 is a portable, wireless, paperback-size device onto which people can download a virtual library of digitalized titles. Amazon sells these downloads, and where the books are under copyright, it pays royalties to the authors and publishers.... BUT there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights." So says Roy Blount Jr. President of the Authors Guild in a NY Times Op Ed piece today.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies..oh my

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:07:00 +0000

If you saw the article, I Was a Regency Zombie in the NY Times Week in Review you were either thrilled or not quite so.

What struck us was the idea of the mashup of the book and how web 2.0 just utilizes what we already do (like mashups) ... but in new ways....

So long live the mashup and long live Zombies....well maybe not...

P.S.
If you haven't gotten a chance to read the article take a few minutes... you may delight as if Mr. Darcy (or Ms. Bennet) has walked into the room ....or just scream as if Zombies were chasing you.

The Joy of Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:34:00 +0000

That iconic book the Joy of Cooking is making people fat? How can a book make someone fat? Well... A Cornell University study compared the same recipes printed in different editions of the Joy of Cooking, (among other things). One of the findings,

"Of the 18 recipes published in all seven editions, 17 increased in calories per serving. That can be attributed partly to a jump in total calories per recipe (about 567 calories), but also to larger portion sizes."

-Cornell University marketing professor Brian Wansink (who directed the study).

Just a little something to nosh on...

RSS

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:37:00 +0000

This is a quick simple explanation of what RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Some readers:

Bloglines - From ASK

Google Reader - Google's

NewsGator - RSS news aggregator that runs in Microsoft Outlook.

There are alot of readers out there so if you don't want to try one of the above check out Yahoo's Directory of RSS Readers and Aggregators.

Video Tools Igniting the Digtal World

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:49:00 +0000

At Il 2008 Connie Crosby ( who btw is present in the you tube video below) presented new tools in instant audio and video. One of them is ooVoo a video chat service. The free service allows up to three people to chat via video. The chats can be recorded. You can get more people involved at the pay levels. ooVoo works best with windows but there is a macbook beta version out. The video is a real cool & slick presentation of ooVoo's maiden voyage ...so to speak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cacYjY46Do

The Death Of Reference?

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:58:00 +0000

The Death of Reference?

Well not quite according to Kate Sheehan from the Darian Library, Joseph Murphy from Yale University and Ellen Petersen of Maui Community Library. But could it be the death of the Reference Desk? Maybe...

Both Kate and Joseph have implemented text messaging at their respective libraries. Could texting be the next logical step from IM reference?

On the other hand Kate at the Darian Public Library found herself and her staff without a reference desk during renovations...the solution...Roving Reference.

Each library is utilizing innovative ways to answer their users questions and maybe that what it's all about?

Cool Tools for Library Webmasters

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:41:00 +0000

Vischeck--Allows the user to see the world as color blind people see it.
Thumbalizr--Create a thumbnails of images.
Feng-Gui--Find out how people view your website or photo and which areas are getting most of the attention.
Color Palette Generator--Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image.
Link Bunch--Lets you put multiple links into one small link which you can share over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone SMS.
Truecrypt--Enables encryption of a memory stick.

Another tip: Create a fun 404 error page.

Back In Monterey

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:24:00 +0000

I'm so happy to be at my second Internet Librarian conference. I've been to so much already, it's hard to know where to begin. The beginning is one place. Yesterday I heard Nancy Dowd from the New Jersey State Library talk about a new kind of marketing. At least it was new to me. Her opening statement was "Our job is not to convice people they need libraries. It is to convince librarians they need people."
The message that jumped out at me was that we need authentic communication, and that we need to relate with stories. If we want to talk to legislators or the media, we need stories of how libraries change lives. This is a way to reach the influencers. She is going to begin an initiative in New Jersey whereby she will teach libraries how to collect stories, turn them into digital stories, categorize them by issue, and set up story banks. What an idea!! Then when a story is needed, it will be there (with the required permissions). Does anybody else think this is an idea worth pursuing? For more information go to themword.blogspot.com

Librarian writes tell-all book, gets fired

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:11:00 +0000

This was posted August 12, 2008 on WorldNetDaily
The Librarian, (she used the pen name Ann Miketa) who wrote "The Library Diaries", a fictional account of made up library charachters was fired from her position at the Ludington Library in Michigan.

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University Mike Wesh presented this to the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008.
It's about an hour but interesting!

And here's his "Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU

Fourth Annual Email Addiction Survey from AOL

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:31:00 +0000

AOL Survey

Some interesting numbers,
62% check work email on the weekend.
55% of mobile email users upgraded to a new phone just to get email .
59% check email from bathroom (up from 53% last year).

Are you addicted?

A Kinder Gentler Collection Agency?

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:04:00 +0000

No the Bucks County library system (PA) has not hired former President George H.W. Bush. They have hired the collection agency Unique Management Services Inc. instead. This agency in turn employs seminarian students from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, K.Y. to do the collecting. No matter how you feel about libraries using collection agencies you have to admit it's a "unique" idea.

And in case you were curious, the stuff that has disappeared in Bucks County, (according to the Inquirer article):

Test guides to help people get into the military, get onto a police force, or obtain a high school equivalency degree.
Baby-name books.
Travel books, which seem to never come back from vacation.
Anything by the guy who wrote Fight Club.

The full article can be found in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

There's always a but...

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 14:31:00 +0000

Nicholas Carr askes in this months Atlantic, Is Google Making us Stupid? Though first he says we're reading more...but there's a but..."Thanks to the ubiquity of text on the Internet, not to mention the popularity of text-messaging on cell phones, we may well be reading more today than we did in the 1970s or 1980s, when television was our medium of choice. But..."

Long Tail Meets Miss Universe

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:10:00 +0000

Last week my brother was in town and we were hanging out playing dueling laptops. He sat in one chair with his laptop and I sat in another with mine. I bring this up because at one point he called me over to watch this you tube clip...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STdNdQBd2CQ
I said to him afterwards "I didn't want to watch this the first time in 1987 ...when you made me"

and yes he "made me"

Anyway the point was that though I may not enjoy watching 80's clips of Miss Universe, there is someone out there who does. Who am I to stop them? But we can't archive everything...who gets to decide what to archive, especially the stuff that has been born digitally?

What restaurants can teach us

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:20:00 +0000

Last Wednesday I had the good fortune to dine at the Mesa Grill in New York City. For the non-foodies out there, this restaurant is owned and operated by the very famous Bobby Flay. The food was wonderful, but what really impressed me was the service. It was friendly but not over friendly. It was attentive, without being intrusive. The right questions were asked, and everybody received the correct meal. When I went looking for the Ladies Room, I was asked politely if I knew where to find it. Now I know that we in libraries can't say "Do you lovely ladies know where the Ladies Room is?" But it was nice to know that the restaurant employees were keeping an eye out for us, and that everyone we encountered wanted us to have a positive experience. It was, in a word, just so.....nice.

The Digital Divide

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:50:00 +0000

Parks Associates
(a market research and consulting firm focused on all product and service segments that are "digital" or provide connectivity within the home.) recently released a very interesting survey.

Here's the Engadget blog post

Survey Says that One-Fifth of Americans Have Never Used Email

"Does this surprise you?"

Yes and No....

What to call the VRC

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Aaron Schmidt wrote such an interesting post on his Walking Paper blog. When the Washington County library community was trying to decide what to call their databases, they asked their patrons. And the top choice was................“Online Resources." Yes, I know this doesn't mean paid resources, but apparently this is what patrons understand. Why didn't we think to ask them as we struggled with this issue?

As Aaron says in his posting "trying to come up with the right terminology for a library website isn’t easy, but it doesn’t have to be all guess work either. Asking even just a few people about a term is better than asking no one. This applies not only to labels on our websites, but also what to call our services. For more on usable library terms, see Library Terms That Users Understand."

Pro Quest Promo

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:24:00 +0000

Check out the neat ProQuest Video. ProQuest makes it easy for you to load this wherever you want. Originally a flash file we converted it to a Quicktime Movie played with the sharpness and it was ready to post.

“Have you been borrowed yet?”

noreply@blogger.com (Sam) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:02:00 +0000

This piece from the London Times was found by Sue at NBAB about the Living Library. The first Living Library was held at a music festival in Denmark in 2000 and a library in the UK recently held its first Living Library. So what exactly is a Living Library? A library allows readers to borrow people for a 30-minute chat. Some choices offered at the Uk Library: Gay Man, Muslim, Male Nanny, Police Officer, Social Worker, Immigrant and Disabled Person.

In total Living Library People were borrowed 47 times, almost 24 book hours.

Anne Kilroy an organizer says,
" To anyone who wants to organize a Living Library around the world, please feel free to contact me so I can share our experiences, as well as guiding you on how to stage a successful event. Thanks a lot to everybody who wants to participate. anne.kilroy@living-library.org "

Technovirginity

noreply@blogger.com (Diane) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:37:00 +0000

Feedback from the Handheld Libraries workshop last week has been 100% positive. Everyone had good things to say, including one librarian writing as what she terms a technovirgin. Before the workshop she didn't see how being connected via a wireless device could help her in her daily life. She saw it as more of a burden. And now, like me, this person can't wait to get an iPhone. Commenters said they want additional forward thinking workshops. We at SCLS can't wait to begin planning something new. Again, comments and suggestions are always welcome.