How do we add bite to our bark?

Photo credit: Surtr via Flickr

ALA President Molly Raphael issued the following statement in response to the announcement that Random House is raising prices of ebooks for libraries: 

“While I appreciate Random House’s engagement with libraries and its commitment to perpetual access, I am deeply disappointed in the severe escalation in ebook pricing reported today. Calling on our history together and our hope to satisfy mutual goals moving forward, the American Library Association strongly urges Random House to reconsider its decision. In a time of extreme financial constraint, a major price increase effectively curtails access for many libraries, and especially our communities that are hardest hit economically.

Also, ALA appreciates the data gaps that exist, and we commit to work quickly and collaboratively to address this concern. We must have better data to inform decisions that have such wide and deep implications.

Finally, we recognize and thank those publishers and aggregators that have worked with libraries on e-book lending models at a time of significant disruption and change. Libraries must have the ability to purchase a wide range of digital content at a fair price so that all readers have full access to our world’s creative and cultural resources, especially those who depend on libraries as their only source of reading material.

Libraries belong at the center of this digital revolution, not on the periphery. We continue to seek partners to further our shared goals of connecting readers and authors well into the 21st century.”

I am very glad that Raphael and the ALA are coming out with a statement, but.... I feel that this is all bark and no bite. I agree that libraries need to be at the center of the digital revolution - but what exactly are we doing to stay there? As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe that the ebook debate will not be solved by a technological solution but through a moral argument. How can we make the publishers agree that open access to information is an American virtue and they should be working with us instead of hindering us? 

I know that these are some big questions, but this is a big issue and I am not sure where the solution lies. I do know that we need to continue  to ask these questions, as well as work together to make sure our voice is heard. 

The Digital Shift has a great guide, Publishers in the Library Ebook Market, for anyone (like me) who needs some more back ground context to this debate. 

As always, Andy Woodworth is lending some valid observations/arguments/agitations/suggestions to this debate. Today he had a great post putting forth the notion that Overdrive should partner with Amazon, becoming a potential major player in providing ebook content for libraries libraries.

What do you think, dear readers? Are there any other writers out there who are putting forth valid arguments in this discussion?  What is our future going to look like? you have to admit, with these big questions and big issues, it's an exciting time to be a librarian...
  

Protecting the commons

Photo credit: _PaulS_ via flickr

Before becoming a librarian, I earned a BA degree in environmental sociology - studying the interaction of social and ecological systems. During that time I was influenced by the idea of the commons - specifically the tragedy of the commons. This is the theory that natural resources shared by a community need to be properly managed and protected.  The classic example is a communal pasture where herds of animals graze. If each herdsman decides to add more animals to their stock, soon the pasture will not be able to support any life form. While many writers and theorists have discussed the commons in regards to environmental thought, the concept was made famous in Garrett Hardin's '"The Tragedy of the Commons," published in the December 1968 edition of Science. Hardin open the article building off Wiesner and York's discussion of the nuclear arms race, quoting them as saying "It is our considered professional judgement that this dilemma has no technical solution." Hardin took the further and looks at the tragedy of the commons as having no technical solution but requiring a fundamental extension in morality.

An example of a successfully managed commons is the Maine lobster industry. Maine lobster-men know that they must follow loosely-regulated restrictions in order to secure the future of their industry. If they over harvest, there will be no more lobsters. That's why, in the face of technological innovations, they have been using the same harvesting methods for close to 125 years.

What does environmental theory, the nuclear arms race and Maine lobster have to do with libraries?  As open space and natural resources are the commons to environmental theory, access to information through libraries (both physical or digital) are the commons to library science. I believe that the management of ebooks will be the libraries industry "tragedy of the commons."

There is a battle being raged, between publishers and libraries over access of electronic content: dealing with the licensing, access and distribution of electronic information - and ebooks seem to be the latest vanguard of this fight.  I will admit, a lot of what is happening is over my head, having never had to deal directly with library acquisitions or collection development policy. But what it seems to boil down to is the publishing industry protecting its profit margins while librarians protect the right of their patrons to access information.

Hardin stated that "a technical solution may be defined as one that requires a change only in the techniques of the natural [or communication] sciences, demanding little or nothing in the way of change in human values of morality."  Digital rights management has been part of the publishing industry as a technological solution to control content - which is handy for fighting piracy, but when applied to libraries can limit access of information. It seems that the argument on side of the publishers is that they are trying to protect authors and copyright holders. But we need to remember that copyright was founded as a balancing act - to not only promote incentives for authors and creators to share their ideas, but also to allow for the general public access to their ideas to build upon them.

And just like Wiesner, York and Hardin concluded, I do not believe that there will be a technical solution, but we need to bring about a look at our morality in dealing with freedom to read. Do we value open and private access to information? As a democratic nation whose foundations include the creation of modern libraries, I would like the think that we do - we just might have to make others see that, too. 

As I still try and learn about the logistics and strategies of this fight - I do know that librarians need to stick together and raise their voices. It is through collected action that gains can be made. Look at the fight in academia over the controversies of scholarly communication and the rising costs of journal titles. The collected action of librarians and faculty to boycott these journals is starting to make an impact.

As we work to combine our voices, we should look to leaders in this fight. This is who I am currently following:

K.G. Schneider had an excellent recent post on her blog, Free Range Librarian. Keeping with the environmental theme, she describes this as a problem with "reading ecology."

Andy Woodworth has been a constant voice in the discussion of eBooks in the library setting through his blog, Agnostic, Maybe.

Sarah Houghton, the Librarian in Black, has also been very vocal in speaking up for readers rights - and even has a YouTube channel where she uploaded a video discussing her views of how Amazon treat library patrons.

This is an ongoing debate, and I would love for you to share your thoughts. How do you think libraries should handle the ebook situation? Who have you heard speak up to publishers in the name of freedom to read? What will the future look like? Let us know in the comments below and let's keep this conversation going...

References:
J. B. Wiesner and H. F. York, Sci. Amer. 1964; 211 (No. 4): 27
G. Hardin, Science 1968 Dec 13; 162 (5364):1243-8

Centennial Post: Keep Calm and Ranganathan On

One Hundred. 100. Centennial.

I find it appropriate that I made this milestone as I wrap up my MLS education. I am entering my final semester, and have just finished my Capstone requirements. For the Capstone course, I created an online portfolio highlighting my academic and professional requirements and presented the portfolio to my cohort members, professor, adviser and Dean. To celebrate my one hundredth post, I thought I would share my capstone presentation. I related my favorite assignments with Ranganathan's Five laws of Library Science. With each law, I have provided a link to the corresponding page on my portfolio. I hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together:

Keep calm and Ranganathan On

Ranganathan was one of the first theorists I learned about in library school. Throughout this journey he has very much been both an anchor and a trail blazer for me. As a student, whenever I could not wrap my mind around a situation or a concept, I would think “What would Ranganathan do?” And one of his five laws would provide me with an answer.

First law: Books are for Use

His first law is the basis of the foundation of our profession: use. As a librarian, Ranganathan saw that the majority of books were literally chained to the shelves to prevent theft. He recognized this as detrimental, and new that librarians needed to promote access and use of the materials in their library.

This is still true today.

Librarians have always been about connecting people with information, building relationships. As Brenda Dervin would say, we help individuals add meaning to their experiences. When Ranganthan was a librarian, the most common format for information was books. Today there is no common format, but we still help build relationships.

For the course Information Services for Academic Libraries, I created an annotated bibliography based on Megan Oakleaf’s report: The Value of Academic Libraries, focusing on how librarians can assist their institution;s efforts in building high levels of student retention. While this may not seem like a typical role of a librarian, it is actually the focus of what a librarian is.

Where Libraries have been going through a shift from systems to services, so have educational paradigms. Before, it was seen that if students were using library systems they were more likely to graduate. Now, it is sent that if a student has a meaningful relationship with a member of the university staff, they are more likely to graduate. Since Librarians are already in the role of connecting students to information, we are in a strategic place to help foster relationships between students, researchers, faculty and most importantly, librarians.

Second Law: Every reader his or her book

This law suggests that every member of the community should be able to obtain materials needed, which implies a thorough understanding of you community and communities needs. This law was most relevant to me, again, during the course Information Services for Academic Libraries.

An ongoing conversation of that class was the need to understand your users, but in the context of their discipline. We discussed the three different disciplines – Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and how their information needs and searches would be different.

This lesson culminated with an exercise in Academic Reference. We were given a list of typical reference questions and were asked to find 2 reference sources that contained the answer – both in print and electronically. We had to think about the user and what would be the best source for them.

Third Law: Every book its reader
This principle is closely related to the second law but it focuses on the item itself, suggesting that each item in a library has an individual or individuals who would find that item useful.

This law was constantly in the back of my mind as I was working on OHSU’s digital collection of campus photographs.

I was given the task to generate the Metadata for 160 images, mostly of the Portland Aerial Tram. At first I wondered: why do we need so many images? Looking at the collection, if search for pictures of the tram you will come up to close to 1000 images.

Working with our Metadata librarian and working with the collection, I realized to look at the collection as a whole, and I learned that you never know what a person’s need may be. There might be a day when a patron will need an image of the half constructed tram, or the tram's first run, or the tram at sunset or the tram at sunrise or looking up at the tram or looking down at the tram. We will have their needs covered as best as possible.

Fourth Law: Save the time of the reader

This law is the recognition that part of the excellence of library service is its ability to meet the needs of the library user efficiently.

While Ranganathan original wrote the law in relation to the ease of accessing materials, and thus collection and library management, with the shift from systems to services, I think that instruction of information literacy now plays a huge role in saving the time of the reader, teaching patrons how to efficiently search for and select the best sources for their needs.

For teaching in the Information setting, I developed a curriculum that would teach upper level college students how to incorporate 21st century technology into their research projects. Specifically I chose to teach efficient ways to incorporate RSS feeds into their research, selecting both news sources and blogs and appropriate database searches that would deliver potential sources to them, allowing them easy access to a spectrum of information specific to their topic.

By teaching them to make the internet work for them, they will be able to shift their focus from constant searching to analyzing and thinking critically about the information that is delivered to them.

Fifth Law: The library is a growing organism

This law focused more on the need for internal change than on changes in the environment itself. I think it is pretty apparent that librarianship is changing, as this is conversation we have all had since day one.

For the group project in the Management and Administration class, I worked with an amazing group in developing a strategic plan for a community college library. We wanted to confront these changes head on. We looked at the trends affecting this specific field of education – the massive growth in student populations and the popularity of distance education. We knew that students weren’t searching for information at the library, so we wanted to bring our services to them through embedded librarianship, which would not only meet students changing needs but also highlight that librarians can partner with administration and instructors to help overcome these challenges.

Tomorrows libraries are going to look much different than today’s libraries, which already look radically different than the libraries of Ranganathan. I am fairly certain that he would approve.



So now, here I am, looking back. And true enough, Ranganathan and his laws have been the way for me to sum up the lessons of the past two years: Building relationships, knowing your users, providing access to what individuals and communities need, providing efficient services and quality instruction, and being able to adapt and change.

But there is one lesson that I learned not through him, but through the members of my cohort: the importance of community. These lessons and ideas would be lost of me if it wasn’t for my classmates to bounce them off of and work on together. I can not thank them enough for such an amazing journey. I could not imagine where I would be today if I had to do this on my own.


Image Credit: AtliaTheHun on Flickr
Image Credit: Marta Murvosh

MLK, Osama and a global game of telephone

On May 2nd, the day after Osama was assassinated, I saw this quote on the Facebook wall of a good friend:

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. MLK Jr.

I liked it. It matched the sentiment I was feeling, so I shared it. A lot of other people did, too. A lot of other people.

Apparently, the first line of the quote went viral on twitter. The only problem was that the first line of the quote wasn't Martin Luther Kings words. The rest of the quote is from MLK's book Strength to Love but that first line seemed to have gotten picked up and passed along as part of the quote.

There is a lot to be said about this situation. About citing your sources, about inspiration, even about appropriate reactions to global events.

What I find most interesting about this (semi)fake quote is how social media highlights one of the most basic rules of information science: The most trusted source for information is someone you already know. Those of us who saw the quote on a friend's Facebook wall or in a twitter feed trusted that person. I know I didn't think to confirm the validity of the quote, and obviously neither did others. This is a prime example of how Facebook, and social media as a whole, has become such a major player in the past five years. In the digital age, it's a way of building networks with those we already know and trust.

I think that this is an important reminder for librarians, especially in terms of the customer service that we offer our library users. Not that we have to be on Facebook (which I feel anyways) but that it is important to be seen as active and prominent members of our community. Whether it be a college campus, a corporate office or even just a local community, the days of hiding in the library are over. Our patrons need to know who we are.

David Shumaker has been doing some great research into the concept on embedded librarianship - worth checking out.

To see the original Facebook post the caused the misquote to go viral, click here.

Photo Credit: Minnesota Historical Society

Librarianship, visually represented

The Wikiman created an amazing visual representation of some of the transitions that librarians are experiencing. Best in full screen (or on the Prezi website - Prezi and blogger don't always get along). You can also check out his original post.

Librarianship before, librarianship next on Prezi

Another eBook Option

In case you missed it, yesterday Amazon announced that they were partnering with OverDrive to start a kindle library lending program.

This is kind of a big deal.

First, because there are millions of kindle (or kindle app) owners who would like to borrow ebooks from the library. As of yet, libraries haven't been able to officially provide this service (emphasis on officially) because Amazon won't let them.

Second, librarians are still feeling the sting from the Harper Collins debacle- in that Harper Collins will only allow an ebook to circulate 26 times, after which the library has to repurchase the book. Which is stupid.

With this being a big deal, it is all over the internet. You can read the Amazon press release and the OverDrive press release. You can read the story, with excellent commentary, in the New York Times or in the LA Times. And then there are the librarian blogs. Thankfully, they seem to be asking very pertinent questions, trying to make sense of what is to come and ensuring that they can provide the best service to their patrons as possible. Because librarians are awesome like that. The top three blogs that have featured this story, in my humble opinion, are the Librarian in Black, the Librarian by Day and I Found Myself in the Library (written by a recent MLIS grad).

Since I don't have much responsibility (or experience) with collection management, I am following this story from the side lines. I find this story particularly fascinating in comparison with Harper Collins' recent policy announcement about the lending of their ebooks. I keep finding my self comparing the two companies. Harper Collins is one of the world's larget publishers. The are directly producing and disseminating content. It makes sense that they want to protect their assets and keep their authors happy. But, they need to be more realistic in their relations with libraries. Amazon is a retailer - and one of the world's largest. While they also want to have good relationships with authors, and publishers for that matter, they are not directly involved with the production of content as Harper Collins. However, they are both companies and therefore need to turn a profit. So now we wait and see what Amazon is going to do....

[Update: After going through my reader, I saw that Andy over at Agnostic, Maybe also has a great post on this issue, also looking at the retailer/publisher comparison]

...I would like to point out that this is not Amazon's first dealings with other learning organizations. As I blogged about back in January 2010, Amazon was working with Reed College and other universities in testing the practicality of students using kindles in the classroom. That study was stopped by the U.S. Justice Department, after complaints from blind students. In a way, I feel that this supports my theory that eReaders are going to be a much larger issue for public libraries than academic libraries. Academic libraries really jumped on the eContent bandwagon with electronic journals, which has been working out okay (there still is a whole bevy of issues of dealing with vendors and subscriptions), but I am not sure if academic patrons are going to be as interested in eReaders and consumers of popular fiction -with seems to be the kindle's largest audience. I guess we will just have to wait and see...

Scrappers and hustlers: just what the library needs

This is the fourth post in a series celebrating National Library Week

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of librarianship is looking towards the future. Certainly no small feat, but librarians accomplish it in a manner of ways.

The most concrete example is youth and young adult librarianship. Supporting literacy at an early age is an essential aspect of making sure that we have healthy and successful communities in the future. I tip my hats to young adult librarians - I think the work they do is phenomenal and I don't think they often receive the credit they deserve. There are certainly some great future children librarians in my MLIS cohort, you can check out their blogs here and here and here.

I think librarians also look to the future by being on the pulse of tomorrow's evolution of information technology, understanding the importance of knowing how future patrons are going to consume and disseminate knowledge. It is a messy task, and not always well implemented. In many ways librarians were at first slow to embrace technological changes - but the newest generation of librarians will be sure not to repeat the same mistake.

I think the biggest task librarians have in front of us is making sure there even are libraries in the future. The infographic over at archives.com sums up the situation nicely.

I could go off on how we need effective advocacy, marketing, campaigning, blah blah blah blah. But we talk about that enough. While we are in a dire situation in terms of funding and support, I think the industry is going to be just fine: we have a new generation of library student who are already starting things off on the right foot.

Those of us who are a bit younger have been raised with technology that laid the ground work for the changes we are seeing today (The first time I went online was the third grade). We are used to change to the point that we embrace it. I've been using my google reader for a few years now, and it is starting to feel outdated. I'm ready for whatever is next.

And we are enrolled in Library and Information Science programs now, when things seem pretty bleak. We are graduating as scrappers. Knowing that we have to fight for the services, resources and money we want in our libraries. We're even fighting pretty hard just for jobs. We know how to hustle and we'll put these skills to use as we take over the industry.

To give it a really bad and cheesy science fiction analogy - we are the Fremen of Library Science. Raised in the harsh conditions of the desert planet Arakkis, we will be the ultimate fighters. Instead of fighting for control of the spice and thus control of the universe, we'll be figthing for universal access to information. Which is kind of the same thing, now that I think about it....

...bringing this blog back to reality, here are some of the library student's blogs that have raised my hope for the future:

Reference to the Rescue

I found myself in the library

Cat Lady Librarian

Magpie Librarian

Hack Library School

...I know there are many more out there - what are the blogs/librarians you follow that are giving you hope for the future??

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1938, via The Commons

Outreach never ends...

This is the third post in a series celebrating National Library Week.

Today is National Bookmobile Day! While I have never had personal experience with bookmobiles - I grew up in a pretty compact town, with little need for one - I have always been in awe of them. I think they're amazing services, especially for rural libraries, with excellent outreach and marketing capabilities. And they don't even have to be motorized.

In the 21st century, there are two ways for users to interact with their libraries: physically and virtually. Bookmobiles are just one amazing example of physical outreach to our communities - but how do we outreach to our virtual communities? By utilizing the same technology that has made so many of our users deem libraries irrelevant: social media.

Murray Library (UT) has incorporated an amazing blog feature right on their homepage, creating virtual reader's advisory. Initiated by a senior librarian who wanted to really encourage all library workers to become involved with readers advisory, the feature is simple but well implemented. Each post includes a well written review, clicking on the image takes the user straight to the catalog record and if the user enjoys the staff member's review, they can click on the reviewer's name and see what else they recommend. And it's not just books that are reviewed - the blog offers music reviews with YouTube videos of the featured artist. Even if their users are never interacting with librarians in the library, this is a great way for them to interact with the organization when they log on to check out books.

And then there are the "traditional" social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, etc. While libraries are still figuring out the bast way to put them to use (with some having better results than others), individual librarians are certainly all over social media. I was having a conversation with a classmate this weekend (@overgeeked for those of you on twitter) about how twitter seemed pretty irrelevant before we were in library school. But now it seems necessary. We have these tools whose primary purpose is to share information - how can we, as information professionals, not be a part of that?

Bookmobiles have always seemed to be a part of libraries - reaching patrons outside of libraries certainly has. Now that librarianship and information services are becoming much more nebulous, its time to start adapting and start realizing that adaptations are going to be a regular part of the game.

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1938, via The Commons

National Library Week!

This is the first post in a series celebrating National Library Week

"New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life."

-Vannevar Bush, (Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development under President Franklin Roosevelt) 1945, Science—The endless frontier: A report to the President


Happy National Library Week! To celebrate I am going to try and post once a day for the next week - I have a bunch of ideas for posts sitting in my files, and I figure now is a good time to get them up here, especially while I have a lull in school work.

I wanted to open the week up with the above Vannevar Bush quote, because of its amazing relevancy. It was pulled from one of my course readings, and I was struck how appropriate it is for today's economic climate as it was in 1945. And today, as always, libraries and librarians can affect the evolution of tomorrow's knowledge and information.

More to come in the following days, including a guest post at the end of the week that has me pretty excited!

Stay tuned!

photo credit: New York Public Library, 1923, via The Commons

#libchat

Due to a cold that is making its way around the library and coworkers on spring break, I had the privilege of six uninterrupted hours at the circulation desk..

...It actually wasn't that bad. I was able to get a lot of school work done, and I had an hour and a half dedicated to the second weekly libchat on twitter, which helped the time fly by.

Started by Natalie Binder (@nataliebinder), wh0 offers an excellent explanation on her blog, Libchat is like a live mini-discussion with people who are interested in libraries and information management. But it is a discussion where location and geography doesn't matter.

It works like this like this: Folks tweet their questions to Natalie ahead of time. During the chat, every 20 minutes or so she shares a question. The rest is a pretty organic experience - like any other normal conversation -with people from all over sharing their answers, ideas and insights. And it's pretty fascinating to watch what happens.

However, it certainly isn't a perfect medium for having a conversation. What is most frustrating is the fact that it is twitter, and you only have 140 characters. So it is a little awkward and it can be hard to offer an answer when there are some pretty big questions raised. For Example:


Really? Where to begin...

Thankfully there were some great answers, such as @ValentineLuLu's:

And @overgeeked's:

Which leads us to the benefits of libchat. It was great to see all of the different topics raised in such a short amount of time. The quickness of the format got your mind churning about all of the different issues that libraries are having to deal with. It was also awesome having so many library students in attendance: we're already thinking about a multitude of issues from our different classes, libchat was an additional exercise to keep those ideas freshly flowing.

Along with the different ideas, it was great to see some themes emerge as well. Natalie asked:



Participants answer's revolved around user centered missions such as customer service and information access. Questions like this helped support my belief that no matter how much the industry evolves, our missions and core values will prevail. After all, Ranganathan developed the five laws of library science in the middle of the 20th century, and they are still relevant today.

I'm pretty excited about the potential libchat holds. It is an amazing way for the library community to connect, no matter where members are located. And it is going be to a great way for us to discuss the current issues and support each other as we weather the changes that keep us on our toes (was it a coincidence that the Harper Collins debate popped up in both this week and last week's chat? Of course not).

I really hope that these chats continue, they certainly seem to be picking up steam. Right now they are scheduled for Wednesday evenings at 8pm eastern time (5pm here on the west coast), and I hope to see you at the next one...

Feel the burn

While we may know well what personal fitness means, the concept of a fit library is ambiguous. Is it simply a matter of paying attention to the numbers, not unlike observing metrics such as the Body Mass Index? Does an increase in circulation or the delivery of more instruction sessions point to a fit library? Achieving library fitness is a combination of strategies that, like personal fitness, involve consistent behaviors, discipline, commitment to change, and having fun while shaping up.

-Steven Bell, Fit Libraries are Future-Proof, American Libraries Magazine October 2010

Photo credit: Nationaal Archief / Het Leven / Spaarnestad Photo (from The Commons)

The future creeps closer

Six months ago, Amazon announced that the Kindle outsold hardbacks on their website. Now, not only have Kindles surpassed HP7 as the most sold product, they have outsold paperbacks, too.

This is not surprising. eBooks and eReaders are a way better business model than paper-and-glue books. It costs way less to store digital content (you don't have to rent warehouses) and it is way cheaper to deliver (no pesky shipping costs).

While I think book-selling as a form commerce is certainly dwindling, I still stand by my assertion that books - and more importantly, libraries - aren't going anywhere. Varying forms forms of information formats will be needed for different information wants and needs. And information professionals are still going to be needed to help people search for appropriate and effective information resources.

Although libraries are still going to be relevant, they are going to look much different in the near future. I'll let Abbey tell you why:

sharing equals caring

Why is it that when I want to make an omelette, my eggs get scrambled and when I want to make a scramble, my eggs turn into an omelette? Not that this is either here nor there, but I am finding there are two things in my life that are turning me to Buddhism: Public transportation and cooking eggs.

Anyways, onto librarianship! Here are three articles I've read online in the past week that I thought were fascinating and wanted to share.

First up: Bookstore on the ropes. Here is a story about an independent bookstore that is going out of business. I know, I know: sad. But I think the owner has come up with a great analogy for the trifecta of threats (poor economy, eBooks and online shopping) that is bringing down independent booksellers: A perfect storm. I hate that bookstores are closing, but I like a good analogy.

Next up: Patrons clear the shelves. Here is a story of a British library that was on the chopping block (much like the bookstore in my first story), and the patrons were so concerned that the library is going to close that they checked out ALL the books in the library. I feel ambivalent about this story. On the one hand - I love the direct action that the patrons took to send a strong message to the library power holders and decision makers. On the other hand, part of me thinks that it sucks that there is nothing on the shelves. I know it is obviously a temporary action, but I feel if any patron walks into a library, they should be able to check out a book, even if it is not the book they are looking for. This action also makes me wonder what librarians (and myself) can do to make sure that an action this extreme is not needed, and the value of a library is always understood.

This last one is interesting, and got stuck in my mind after a recent conversation. I was having a drink with friends after class, and a recent acquaintance - who apparently is a devout devil's advocate just learned that we were library students - wanted us to defend our profession in the age of google. We did our best in dealing with a tired argument, but I wish that I had his email address to share this article with him: Humans vs. automated search: Why people power is cool again. This article discusses some issues that the infamous google algorithm has - mainly that spam and "content farms" can really effect the results of google searches - and how people influenced searches can really insure that good information can float to the top among a lot of the crap that is out there.

In closing - my quiver for the blog is currently empty, and school is really kicking in. I hope to continue with regularly scheduled postings - at least once a week or so. But please don't be surprised if posts are a bit more space out than that. Thanks again to all my readers!!

Random theory...

Photo credit: accessed through creative commons from the State Library of Queensland.

Today as I logged into my work computer, I got that pesky message reminding me that my password was about to expire and asking if I wanted to change my email. I did, and am now in that annoying time period of a week or so where I enter my old password (out of habit) and then scramble to remember what I made my new password. Which leads me to my theory:

Remember back in the days before cell phones, when a lot of memory space was devoted to random phone numbers?

As we store contact information in our phones, I'm convinced that the specific brain function once used for phone numbers is now consumed by remembering all of the various passwords we need to access personal email, work email, school email, social networking, online banking profiles, online shopping profiles, etc. etc. etc.

Not that there would be much point in proving this theory (I would imagine that brain scans and inferential statistical analysis would be needed) - it's just interesting to think about how our minds need to adapt as technology evolves, and how the future of online informational security might look like...

On trolling....

As the digital exchange of ideas becomes more common, information professionals need to be cognizant of trolling.

Here is an awesome article on the phenomenon: Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt. It is written by a Julie Zhuo, a product design manager for Facebook, and offers some really good ideas for redesigning comment moderation for blogs and websites.

The article is worth the read, but for those who don't have time at least consider the following snippet:

Trolling, define as the act of posting inflammatory, derogatory of provocative messages in public forums, is a problem as old as the Internet itself, although its roots go much farther back. Even in the fourth century, B.C., Plato touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality in his parable of the ring of Gyges.

That mythical ring gave its owner the power of invisibility, and Plato observed that even a habitually just man who possessed such a ring would become a thief, knowing that he couldn't be caught. Morality, Plato argues, comes from full disclosure; without accountability for our actions we would all behave unjustly.

Cupcakes and E-books (How NPR is rocking my world)

Some great content from NPR has not only caught my attention today, but has gotten my mind thinking about information and librarianship (which shouldn't be too surprising, it doesn't take a whole lot to get me thinking about either topic).

First there is this article: At Amazon, E-Book Sales Outpace Hardcover. As I read it, I imagined bibliophiles around the globe FLIPPING OUT. I think there are a lot of implications to the fact that e-books are selling more than hardbacks on Amazons website, and I think there is some reading-between-the-lines that also needs to be taken into consideration.

There are multiple reasons why E-books appear so popular. First are the apparent reasons:

Aside from the cost of the reading devise, they're cheaper than most real books ($10 for an e-book versus $12 for a quality paperback, or $25 for a hardback).

We're a society who loves toys. With the proliferation of Kindles, iPads, iPhones, Nooks and what ever sad attempt Borders has at breaking into the market, there are more and more opportunities to read E-Books.

But on the other hand:

Reading the article, we have to realize that this information is specific for Amazon's website. People who buy things online are going to be way more tech savvy (and have more money) than people who don't. As a perpetually broke grad student, I refuse to give up the pleasure of reading just because I don't have the dough (or time). I do utilize the library more often than not - but when I want a "new" book to put on my shelf I head to Goodwill, where paperbacks are $.99 and I have yet to find a hardcover for more that $4. So while it may seem that more people are utilizing e-books, it's just that more of Amazon's customer's are.

While e-books are more and more common, no one is taking away actually books. Well, yet.

And, while amused at this story, I'm not too freaked out about it. Living in a digital age, digital content is becoming more and more familiar to people. People who constantly look at a screen for information are going to find comfort and convenience at looking at a screen for entertainment as well. When I ride public transportation to work, instead or reading the New York Times over someone's shoulder, I'm reading the New York Times over someone's shoulder on their iPhone. This is just the way things are going and I think folks are starting to get used to it...

And the other bit that caught my eye was a post on the the Monkey See blog: Why The Next Big Pop-Culture Wave After Cupcakes Might Be Libraries.

There's not a whole lot of analysis that needs to happen here. Blogger Linda Holmes just does a phenomenal job at describing the awesomeness of libraries and librarians. Between Gaga dance videos and The Old Spice Dude (and his Mormon knockoff, which I think is better than the real thing), the cultural presence of libraries is building some serious momentum, and there will be a culmination of society remembering how important they are as a democratic institution. And I'm looking forward to riding that wave.

Special thanks to Flickr user weir thru a lens for use of the cupcake photo.

I think I have a problem

Dear Concerned readers,

Please call an interventionist - I think I am addicted to my Google reader.

For most folks out there who utilize their reader, this post may not be new, but I just can't contain myself any more. I love it, and I cannot remember what my life was like before I added my first subscription.

As someone who is entering an industry where information is a key commodity, it is such an ingenious tool, to have pertinent/relevant/entertaining information collected in one convenient location.

However, with any addiction, their seems to be dark side associated with the reader. First, the anxiety. I have so many subscriptions, that if I don't check them at least once every day they pile up fast. And I have this weird neurosis about leaving items unread in my reader. I feel like I have to at least scroll through all of them, so when I'm done with my reader, there are no unread items. Maybe I'm afraid of missing something, or maybe it's a way to leave things neat and tidy (which I have trouble enough with in real life).

Trying to stay on top of the reader leads to the second aspect of the dark side - time suckage. I'll sit down at my computer with the intention of being productive, and the next thing I know two hours have gone by and I haven't even stared on my homework. It's a procrastinator's dream: You feel like you are being productive, without having to really do anything.

Dark side aside, I still love my reader. I get my local, national and international news there, I know what is happening in and around Portland, I subscribe to some great library blogs and I have a few comic strips come my way.

I think it's a great tool to share with library patrons, too. I know some major databases out there have RSS options, so if you are involved in major research on a particular subject, instead of searching out the information, you can have the information come to you. Or, if a patron is interested in general information on a subject, you can help set up subscriptions with relevant blogs and websites for them.

Here is a list of some of my favorite subscriptions:

http://www.mcsweeneys.net
http://www.oregonlive.com/
http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/blogs/BlogtownPDX/
http://www.postsecret.com/
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/
http://blog.libraryjournal.com/annoyedlibrarian/
http://www.normfeuticartoons.com/retail/
http://willmanley.com/

So, dear readers, for those of you who indulge in a "Reader," what are some of your favorite subscriptions? And if you don't use Google Reader, what service do you use?

Facebook is a learning tool. No really, it is.

Haters love to hate Facebook.

I think it is one of those phenomenons where a cultural artifact (or a meme) circulates through certain thresholds of popularity: starting underground, moving onto edgy, then widespread, loathing, and finally ironic. Kind of like Dave Mathews Band.

I think Facebook is teetering between widespread and loathing. In one moment people will cry foul about privacy issues and parents creating face book pages, threatening to cancel their account, yet in another moment they will turn around and chronicle myopic details about their lives on their Facebook wall.

While I think there are serious concerns about Facebook's privacy policy (I would love to write a blog post about it someday, but that would take too much research and I have enough on my plate as it is), people have to realize that Facebook is the internet, and unless you want something to say completely private, DON"T PUT IT ON THE INTERNET. Now that she's has a Facebook profile, I fully realize that my Mom could find anything I post online.

While I think people are always going to rip on Facebook (as they should - it is a corporate entity whose only mission is to profit off of it's users), it is forever going to be a part of our lives. And now that I'm undertaking internet-based scholastic endeavors, Facebook is fast becoming part of my classroom.

Case-in-point: this semester an instructor assigned our class a take home exam. Having some foresight, the instructor explained that she believes that adult learners work best through collaboration, and highly encouraged us to work together on the exam. Being young adult learners, most of took to Facebook as our collaboration facilitation.

One member of the cohort sent our a message to the rest of us, initially to try and set up a time when we could all get together, but we all started posting questions we had about the exam, and soon our discussion grew. At this point there are almost 50 posts in the thread, occurring over the span of a week between fourteen students. It's been the most intense Facebook experience I have had in the half decade I have had an account.

Yet, it's not very surprising that it's been natural for us to discuss our exam through Facebook. Posting an electronic message, regardless of the venue (Facebook, a Blog comment, Black Board, etc.) is like school for us. Online posts and comments are fast becoming a ubiquitous form of communication. My friends and I joke that with the proliferation of social networking, email feels really formal now...

The sky is falling

Alright, after last week's post about keeping things brief, I'm going to eat my words and go off on a bit of a rant.

Sometimes I wonder if librarians are their own worst enemy. There, I said it.

The above image - from PostSecret, a collaborative art project where total strangers mail in post cards with their secrets on them - illustrates beautifully where I am coming from.

We get it - the economy sucks and the sucky economy is screwing over libraries left and right. We've talked about this for ages now. Can we please move on?

It's really frustrating as a library student to be hearing the same thing over and over again: libraries aren't hiring, librarians aren't retiring, budgets are getting cut, folks are getting laid off, branches are closing, rah rah rah rah rah....

It seems like most librarians, library workers and fellow students I come across - both in person and (mostly) online - are broken records, stuck in the "woe is us" mentality.

I - the naive library student - say enough is enough! We've gone through the cathartic bellyaching phase and now is the roll-up-our-sleeves and work harder phase. It doesn't sound like fun, but I think it's what we've got to do.

Personally, I am a little nervous about what my job prospects will be like when I graduate in a year, but I've been hustling, and I'm willing to hustle a little more when school is over. I'll do what it takes to get a personally satisfying job. I'm well aware that I am going to leave Portland - an amazing city that has been my home for four years now. There is a strong reality that I'll have to live in a much less glamorous part of the county. Maybe even Kansas.

Except for who we vote for and what we choose to do with our money, we have very little control over the state of the economy. So let's try and focus on what we do have control over: ourselves. What can we do to stop library closings? Advocate, advocate, advocate. One of the things that most attracted me to the idea of becoming a librarian/information professional was the activism that seemed to go hand in hand with the position. Librarians fight for the right of the patron, for the privacy of the patron, for the access of the patron. Well - now is the time to fight for ourselves!

Here is a great link to librarian.net, with a list of single-link library advocacy sites.

And here is link to contact your elected representatives to ensure that libraries get in on the Jobs for Main Street Act.

What else can we do? Accept change. I feel like a lot of the hand wringing that librarians are doing is not only over the state of the economy, but also the fact that libraries are quickly changing. Well - if we want to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our communities, we are going to have to change. The mission of a library - from my prospective - is to connect an individual with information. If the format of the information is changing, than the format of the library will change too.

I don't intend to sound insensitive to the very real fears people are experiencing out there - although I am sure that I am coming off that way. For those who have been laid off or lost jobs - I'm sorry. Bad things happen to really really good people. I wish you the best and hope you are quickly on your feet.

I know I am in a very lucky position - I'm a young student without a family, mortgage, car, pets. I'm highly mobile and I have grown up using the technology that libraries now employ. But these are my skills and attributes that I have to take advantage of. This is something that we all should do, especially in this day and age of volatility, look at what we bring to the table and how to use those skills to our advantage.

I write all of this after attending a quarterly staff meeting at the library where I work - and while it was pretty mundane, it was also pretty exciting as well. The library where I work - before I started working here nine months ago - has gone through a lot of the same troubles that most libraries have gonethrough. Between lay offs, retirements and hiring freezes the staff here is half to a third of what it was before this great recession.

Yet here we are today still working - albeit a bit harder. Not only are we surviving, but we are thriving. The amazing library staff is working on building the resources for a mobile library, we are opening up a 24 hour study space for the students, we are outreaching to the different academic departments and schools within the university and applying for competitive grants to secure our funding into the future. And with the wage/hire freeze lifted - there is hope for more job opportunities.

What I guess it all boils down to - for me (this is my blog so I'm allowed a bit of selfishness) - is that I am the future and this is my reality. In a way, I am glad to have entered library school in 2009 - it means that I am a blank slate. I don't know what it was like when budgets were flush and things were easier. I am cutting my teeth when the industry is facing some of it's worst challenges than ever before. And I'm going to be a better librarian for it.

Let me know what you think. Am I too harsh? Too idealistic? Too Unrealistic? I would love to read your thoughts...

back in school. sigh.

The rain is starting to let up. The farmer's markets are in full swing. It's warm late into the night. You know what that means? Yep - I'm up to my neck in homework!!

This is my first time ever taking classes during the summer (sometimes I'm amazed I never had to go to summer school in my younger years), and I think it's a going to be a love/hate relationship:

A. It does mean that I will graduate early. Attending summer term allows me to graduate in two years rather than three.

B. The small voice of reason and logic (which I try to ignore at all costs) tells me that summer vacation is for undergraduates, k-12 students and the poor fools who sold their souls and are working in public education. Most likely, from this point out I will always be working through the summer. Unless I get a pimp job as an tenured academic librarian and can take summer sabbaticals.

But.....It also means I'm forced to study and concentrate when the Pacific Northwest is in it's most glorious...

I guess I should just put my nose to the grindstone, whining about it certainly isn't going to make it any easier.

In terms of my blog, I'm still going to try and maintain weekly posts, but they're probably going to much briefer than usual, more along the lines of posting interesting tidbits I find through my internet dalliances. Don't worry - I'll still try to add my unsolicited opinions....

In that vein, here are two great morsels that I recently stumbled upon:

When I started this blog I had a post (Things are changing...) about Cushing Academy's library renovation - and the fact they discarded all of their books. I followed up with another post about how I thought that this was a dangerous move in Portrait of a book as a library item. Here is an update in the Cushing Academy saga: Headmaster says eliminating books in library is working fine. Of course he's going to say that. What else would he say? "Oops, my bad. Looks like we need to buy back all those books we just tossed." I hope Cushing Academy's Library still has an Inter Library Loan at the very least...

In a similar, yet radically different, vein here's another story about book-less libraries: InfoLadies of Bangladesh revolutionize rural life. It highlights the amazing power information holds and how access to information can be such a fundamental, yet essential, tool to increasing quality of life.

I hope you hang in there keep reading Dewey's Not Dead, and enjoy some summer for me!