Are you an ALIA member? Are you interested in working on proposals that will benefit new graduates?
Positions on NGPAG, the New Generation Policy and Advisory Group of ALIA are now open. More information about what we do available in this month’s InCite and from our Committee page.
Sydney 12 October 2006
From Tom Goodfellow.
There were around 30 librarians crammed into a small room to hear from Stephen Abram, star of the biblioblogosphere and possessor of a highly impressive CV. The seminar covered a vast amount of ground – rather too much for our 3-hour timeslot, to be honest. I’ll try and cover the main points here, and Stephen promised the PowerPoint would be posted on his blog in a couple of weeks.
(Apologies for length – we covered a lot of ground!)
Google is Our Main Competitor
Most people are unaware of Google’s shortcomings, despite the fact that they define themselves as internet literate. 98% of users cannot identify ads on Google and 95% think Sponsored Links lead to better quality sites. Search Engine Optimisation techniques and sponsored links skew results. Most importantly, Google’s interests are purely driven by advertisers, not by end users – don’t trust them!
Librarians need to combat Google by:
1) Contextualising queries/improving the question i.e. ref interviews but also improving are current interfaces (especially the OPAC)
2) Concentrating on what we are good at – complex how/why questions
3) Advocating for the importance of libraries in as many places as possible
Our Patrons are Changing
Millennials are smarter and more demanding than previous generations. They have grown up with technology, and are completely comfortable with multi-tasking and problem mapping. They have high self-esteem and high expectations of our service. They expect instant information and are “format agnostic” – they don’t care whether their information comes from, and they only evaluate sources once the information has been located. They are less concerned about privacy than other generations.
Stephen has produced a fascinating piece of research on the 9 key characteristics of Millennials here.
Technology is Changing
The infrastructure is now ready for an explosion in internet activity. Storage and distribution costs are in a state of rapid perpetual decline (Toronto now has free wi-fi broadband access for everybody). eBooks will expand rapidly. The phone will be the medium of choice for most users.
Challenges for libraries include;
- providing format-friendly content
- organising objects such a podcasts, IM chats, phone conversations, YouTube clips
10 Key Questions
1) How do we address localisation of search?
Google/Yahoo/MSN can now detect our location by GIS tracking, providing services at a highly local level. MSN “Near me” function can locate the nearest Starbucks and direct you there with great precision. Kansas City now has an entirely localised Google service. Could Google impose a search interface on, say, a uni campus in order to optimise ad revenue?
2) How will libraries address scholarly searches?
Google could charge low prices for articles on Google Scholar in the iTunes model. Average cost of an ILL ($7) is higher than the average cost on the same used books on Amazon ($4)
3) How will we interoperate with blended learning initiatives?
Libraries need to enter learning at the lesson level, in the classroom, within WebCT/Blackboard modules, on FaceBook and YouTube. We must also ensure course designers are aware of the content and services that the institutional library offers.
4) How will libraries evolve to include next generation communications devices?
This was tackled as essentially a staffing issue – dedicated, tech-literate staff rather than covering, say, virtual reference as an add-on to other roles. We also need format-agnostic software – eBooks are set to explode.
5) When will libraries address the changes inherent in Millennials and post-Millennials?
See above. If you’re interested in this, you may also wish to check out this model (note powerpoint presentation).
6) When will libraries focus more on users and less on themselves?
On every project, ask “Whose pain is being assuaged?” Good user-centred initiatives include RSS, blogs, federated search, patron driven services, Amazon-like interactivity, virtual reference and OpenURL.
7) When will governance be properly addressed
I didn’t quite follow this one – we were all getting tired by now and time was running out. Stephen talked about relationships within an organisation (key links with HR, IT and then Web Team) and then the use of information-sharing tools such as wikis, del.icio.us, Fast, Meebo etc.
Where will we find the risk-takers?
Keep an eye out for what other libraries are doing online. Harvard and Yale are hooking up with YouTube, UT Austin has put it’s catalogue in MySpace and FaceBook, Eastern University is creating a library site that acts as a video game, Second Life now has a fully functioning library etc.
9) What are the benefits of Library 2.0?
Users can go where they like and do what they like, we need to be wherever they are offering services like ChaCha.com. We need to invest in productivity tolls such as RFID in order to free up staff time to deliver more effective services. Look at the Library 2.0 Matrix.
10) Where will we find the vision?
Librarian 2.0 plays with technology and thinks up uses for it. Libraries need to give all staff time to play, learn, discover and innovate.
Conclusion
The talk was interesting and I left with my brain in a bit of a whirl. I’m sure that a lot of these ideas will soon be mainstream in the internet as a whole, but the challenge will be to integrate them into current library services whilst retaining our core values.
There also seems to be a tension between excitement at the new technologies (“That’s cool!”) and fear of them (“Google are so powerful, they’ll kill libraries!”). Whatever happens, there are interesting times ahead…
(By the way, Stephen mentioned he hoped to visit Australia again next year and take in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth – keep an eye out.)
LIANZA, the NZ version of the recent ALIA conference, is now in full swing. A big focus on the next generation of library stuff, with a strong whiff of Libraries 2.0. Already there have been interesting talks from international bloggers including Stephen Abram and Michael Stephens. The conference has its own blog, which is not bad for an official blog. Finding hardy souls blogging the conference themselves has proven trickier. I know of one chap, who asks to remain nameless for now, who plans to write up some posts after the conference is over and he’s returned to Queensland. I discovered this morning that a chap from Christchurch, Timothy Greig, is photoblogging the conference. An awesome effort involving a digital camera and his PSP. I’ve been thinking about getting a PSP of my own for gaming, but had never considered the possibility for blogging as well. Timothy has updated regularly and responded to comments, all while in the throes of LIANZA itself. [update: Warren has also blogged LIANZA.]
I’d love to hear from anyone in library-land who has used/heard of/rejected/embraced/toyed with MODS (metadata object description schema) as the next evolutionary step from MARC.
I asked this question more locally about a year ago when I first started seriously to inform myself about metadata and got either blank or ‘don’t touch that’ looks back then. Since then the MODS question has hit me again and I am wondering what I don’t know about it for it not to be more broadly known and used. From my reading it appears to be a brilliant alternative to MARC in the new world of things like interoperability, repositories, electronic databases…. It looks damn easy to understand (no marc tags for the uninitiated to navigate) and maps well to anything from the simplest Dublin Core to the most complex ONIX.
One negative comment I did hear was that it cannot catch all MARC data but when I wrote up a table comparing all the fields one could want in a repository I could not see any problem that way at all: the only thing it loses is the excess MARC bits and pieces that are simply not relevant to repositories and the sharing and searching of collections in the new info world. Things like the 246 indicator that codes a varying title as being a “spine” title — what’s a spine in an electronic resource anyway?
Thoughts? Would love feedback since am planning on soon applying all I’ve read about it to the real test world and seeing what happens.
I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a systems librarian. I’ve been thinking for a while about continuing my education and I am determined to start postgraduate study next year. The big question is, what course should I choose? As I am currently employed in a library as a systems librarian (and I want a future in libraries), should I undertake an ALIA recognised course, or should I undertake something with more of an Information Architecture focus.
It is a particularly vexing problem for as Jennifer Macaulay asks “What does it mean to feel like a librarian?“. Jennifer says:
MLS graduate schools focus on several core tenets or principles of librarianship of which reference and research are a large part. I am not arguing that these aren’t important nor that everyone in an MLS program shouldn’t have some exposure to these principles. However, I don’t necessarily think that current MLS programs of study provide the best curriculum for systems librarians.
I must admit to feeling the same way. My main responsibility is to ensure that users of the Library can use the systems that the Library provides. The main system that people use in the Library is the catalogue, however increasingly people are using OpenURL resolvers, institutional repositories, gain access to resources via proxy servers, and interacting with other services. Not to mention the ever expanding world of Library 2.0.
I’m unsure if taking a course that focuses on reference, research, and collection development, is going to assist me in undertaking these sorts of tasks. On the other hand I don’t want to preclude myself from advancing in the Library sector simply because I don’t hold a librarian qualification. For as Dorothea Salo writes in a recent TechEssence.Info post:
The hard fact is that die-hard systems librarians are still a rare breed, hard to find and hard to hire. Moreover, a systems librarian may not be what you think a systems librarian should be.
The big question in my mind then is obviously what course would help me in becoming the systems librarian I ought to be.
Any, and all, thoughts from librariesinteract.info readers would be very welcome. You can either post a comment, or contact me directly via email. My email address is listed on my profile page.
I’ve grown up using ABC Radio National as an intellectual lifeline and social touchstone. It’s probably affected my personal politics. It was certainly good company during long hours of sitting on the couch breastfeeding.
Last week, my friend Radio National spoke to me of libraries. Library buildings and design on the By Design program, and on Australia Talks Back, the topic that is on every regular person’s mind - the place of referencing and plagarism.
I get very little time to listen at the moment, so I wonder how many other library related topics they broadcast. What else would one expect from an organisation who lists their librarians in the closing credits of their national current affairs flagship, Four Corners?
Enjoy the links below, but soon, as they usually are taken down after about a month.
Library Design
1. From By Design , broadcast Saturday 7th October 2006
Listen Now - 07102006 | Download Audio - 07102006
Close your eyes and conjure up an image of a library.Rows upon rows of dusty books. Presenting your order card to a matronly-looking librarian in a cardigan behind a counter and an assistant ready to disappear into what was commonly referred to as “the stack” - some vast basement space where the book you are seeking has sat unopened for half a century?Or perhaps this description from Germaine Greer’s is more in keeping with your image of the library: ” Libraries”, says Greer,” Are reservoirs of strength, grace of wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark.But the shape of libraries, and what their space, represents in the community is rapidly evolving.
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Intellectual Property, Plagiarism, and the Circulation of Ideas
From Australia Talks Back, broadcast Tuesday 3 October 2006
Listen Now - 03102006 | Download Audio - 03102006
Intellectual Property, plagiarism, and whether footnotes are just a way for researchers to show they went to the library one day. With the internet comes more allegations of plagiarism and the stealing of ideas . . . but do we have the balance right, of policing deception and letting ideas circulate freely?
Tango posted a link to the “naughty librarian” costume. I’m just waiting for someone to add a picture of the Nancy Pearl doll wearing a scale model of it in the Nancy Pearl doll Flickr photostream. Disturbing!
-(Photo by bibliona on Flickr)
Anyhow, if you’re feeling very creative, you could make a digital copy of the costume, clothe an avatar and dance the night away at a costume ball to celebrate the grand opening of Info Island in Second Life. Events are happening all next week, but with the time difference, the costume ball is probably the only thing Australians could comfortably attend.
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Second Life is a virtual world. It is a bit like the SIMS without the need to constantly attend to your avatar’s physical and self-fulfilment needs. Visiting Info Island has been on my “to do” list for a long time now, so I may just get there for this event. Having beaten a Sims2 addiction early in 2005, however, I’ve been very wary about entering somewhere with the potential to become a time sink.
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Within the Second Life Library on Info Island, they have a library building, conduct online seminars, staff the library 2 hours per day, set up vendor database trials (real ones, like EBSCO) and have email reference. The Second Life Library was recently awarded second prize in Talis’s competition, Mashing Up the Library.
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In Enjoying Your First Life? Why Not Add a Second? Developing Library Services in Second Life at Serious Games Source some members of the Alliance Library System who run Info Island outline who they are:
Alliance Library System started the Second Life Library project in April 2006 in response to a shift in people of all ages from media consumers to media creators. They are all spending more time on the Internet and they want to create and contribute, not just consume. Alliance Library System (ALS), located in East Peoria, Illinois, is one of nine regional library systems in Illinois. ALS has 259 member libraries of all types (academic, special, school and public). We provide a variety of services for our members including continuing education, consulting, grant writing, and new technology initiatives.
-(Photo by libraryman on Flickr)
The opening celebration timetable is below. All times are Pacific Standard Time, which I think converts to 10 hours behind Western Austrlia:
Thursday, October 12
Friday, October 13
Saturday October 14
Looking to make your online public access catalogue sexier? or build your own replacement?
The papers from Beyond the OPAC: future directions for web-based catalogues are now available online at the National Library of Australia’s website.
Actually, not just papers there are also audio and powerpoints available.
I particularly liked Lloyd Sokvitne’s (OPACs and the real information marketplace : why providing a mediocre product at a high price no longer works) PPT and Tony Boston’s (Seeding search engines with data from the Australian National Bibliographic Database (ANBD)) contained something I’ve been wanting for quite some time. The code for a Libraries Australia search box.
If you’d like to try it out you can find it one in the sidebar of my other blog.
Most people, even if they thought of dressing up as a librarian (hard to imagine I know), I am sure would be thinking the hair up in a bun (grey hair of course), the twin set, pearls and glasses.
Not this costume store, which is advertising for the forthcoming Halloween trick and treat season in the US. Check out their “Naughty Librarian” costume.
If we wore these sorts of clothes to work……., well you don’t need me to tell you what it would be like, or how much work would get done…… 
I’m sure many of you will have seen this: Five weeks to a social library, a great course that is the “first free, grassroots, completely online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries”.
The preliminary program looks great, so if you’d like to participate consider applying now - the participant application is now up.
Our very own Sirexkat (aka Librarian Kathryn) will be presenting in Week Five of the Programme, and I note that someone from the National Library of Australia will be talking about social software initiatives at the NLA, too.
My only question is what time will the live group activities happen? I note that participants will have to “take part in a weekly small group chat (either via VoIP or IM) with four other participants and a facilitator and will have the opportunity to chat with social software experts throughout the week. They will also attend at least one of two live Webcasts offered weekly”. I’m not sure what time zone these chats will happen in - it could be a bit difficult for those of us in Australia/New Zealand…
Update: the course is limited to forty participants only so maybe it’s not going to be a particular problem. I imagine the demand will be quite high?? (Note to self: read more carefully next time!)
Ooh! A new look Frappr map for LINT.
Blog central for Australian Libraries in Other Worlds. (VLINT)
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