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Welcome to Liblog 1 - a weblog of current web sites and stories dealing with the interface between technology and libraries. Sometimes the connection to the sphere of the library is tenuous... but in today's world, everything has an impact on libraries, on librarians... and on library users. If you find this weblog of interest, you may enjoy these other library weblogs as well.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Liblog @ Internet Librarian - Day 2
Tuesday Keynote: Reference 2.0: Ain't What It Used To Be... And It Never Will Again
Joe Janes, University of Washington
Cited article by Samuel Greene (sp?), Personal Relations With Readers from 1876 as start of notion of Reference Services:
Primary motivation for helping people is there is too much information out there, so people can't find what they are looking for. Librarians need to step in to help people navigate through all this information so they can find what they need.The first librarians to do this worked in special libraries, followed shortly after by public libraries; it was rare before 1910 for an academic library to offer reference services (students were expected to learn how to do such research for themselves.)
Now that there's lots more stuff and people seem to be able to find it on their own and lots of ways to get help. That being the case, Greene's reasons for performing reference service no longer apply.
So... what does that mean for reference service? When rethinking reference, it is worth assuming that eventually, everything will be digitized. Asymptotically digital.
(Relates how someone from Google talking to one of his classes casually mentioned that Google's partnering with Libraries on digitization projects was because Google wants to digitize all the books. Not all the books in those libraries; not all the books in English. All the books. And Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive estimated that with currently developed storage technologies, a box maybe twice the size of the lectern that Janes was standing behind would be capable of storing that information.)
In the digital world we have different ways of searching:
- Horizontal Searching
- Vertical Searching (Federated Searching)
{I suspect these two terms were accidentally reversed while taking notes. One refers to search across many things, while the other seems to be about search deeply...)
Both of which are/will be done at every possible level (piece? fragment?) that one can imagine. Increasingly we'll be looking for parts of things, rather than the thing as a whole.Quoted James Wyer's article, Reference As Mind Reading(?) on customers of reference services (sp ?) from 1930: "They will choke and die in front of you before they will tell you what they want."
We need to recognize how we (librarians/libraries) best fit in this digital information environment. We need to explore our areas of strength - there are still large niches out there that we can exploit:
- Lee Rainey's "Deep Dive". For people who care - or who can be made to care about - quality of information. We can't compete with Google et al on the Ready reference front, but for in-depth, quality research where the customer is willing to wait for better results, librarians are still the best resource in many instances.
- People who do not want - or are unable - to help themselves.
For people who are diving deep, for those who care - that's when we do the full-blown, machete-in-the-teeth reference interview, and show off what we can do that search engines can't. And for the moment our print resources are our "secret weapon" - stuff that isn't available to the search engines. (But that's not available "yet"; as time goes on the role of print will steadily decrease, and this will no longer be a strategic advantage for us.)
Cites article by Budge: Method Over Material. (How you engage people and how you help them is more important that the material you give them.)
For non-depth users, our mantra should be to "move them forward". Quick, transitory encounters are not meant for full-blown reference. A quick tip, a pointer to another resource, that is all that these encounters require; if the user needs more later, you can give it to them later.
For Rainey's bottom level, the non-information users... we should leave them alone. There are more than enough people who have information needs, we don't need to chase after those who don't.
Janes is exploring the idea of "individually communal". Rainey's Omnivores at the High End seem to be examples of this - connecting digitally with lots of people, but controlling those connections as to when/where/how they occur.
In the digital information environment, there is no "finish" to the products produced. Wikipedia, LibraryThing - they may eventually stop if interest/funding runs out, but they are designed in such a way that there is no end state.
Content creators - and the desire to create - expressions of people wanting to be heard. "I was here, I mattered". Everything that happens in virtual worlds like Second Life is about creation - from the moment you enter, the first thing you need to do is to create your avatar.
If this is the information environment that many of our users are living in, we need to be there too - creating content, visible to others. And, we need to help make this new environment friendlier, easier to navigate and easier to use for our customers. And helping people make their creative works more visible.
Libraries came to exist because information was physically embodied - we needed a place to house that "stuff"! In the digital world, though, that "stuff" is no longer a physical object. Access issues change from the physical to the virtual. Whenever people interact with your "stuff", they are interacting with the Library. Hence the need to have much better tracking of digital usage - especially important as more-and-more of the interactions will be virtual, not physical.
We need to get out of the Library... while staying in it; we have to be both somewhere and everywhere! (Janes likes the image of the Library leaking out of the building.) Librarians need to be in the networked environment; we need to be role-models of how to make things better, more usable.
Library blogs are okay, but library's answering questions and participating on other people's blogs is better.
The service we provide in-person is extraordinary. But we need to do even better with the services we provide online. People who are in our buildings have already "committed" to using our services; online, they can leave in a heartbeat. To be relevant to people online, we need to be even better!
Looking to the future, we should be confident in our skills, but not complacent. We need to be telling the Library story, to let people know what we offer. And we need to be telling this story all the time.
More - and better - opportunities are ahead.
Promoting Play Through Online Discovery
Meredith Farkas, Norwich University and Helene Blowers, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County
Farkas' Five Weeks To A Social Library grew out of several factors:
- Lots of people without access to continuing education programs
- Hands-on learning is important, and often the most effective
- Online courses can be run inexpensively
The course had 40 participants from all kinds of libraries. The too,s that she used for the course included Drupal, blip.tv. and opal.
Some of the lessons from the course:
- Playing with technology is necessary for learning technology
- Learning from peers can be more effective than learning from a "sage on a stage"
- Online learning can be as effective as in-person learning, and often at less cost.
Blowers' Learning 2.0 addressed the problem of what can be done to keep abrest of changes, given that new changes are continually coming. Learning 2.0 answers that question by suggesting we need to think of ourselves as players. Some of the lessons learned from Learning 2.0:
- In only 15 minutes a day you can explore something new
- Removing the "classroom" removes some of the barriers to learning
- The first step towards learning is exposure
- The people learning have as much to contribute as the people instructing
- Focus on the FUN; the learning will follow
How to Lose Your New Tech Librarian & Tech Training
Michael Stephens, Dominican University and Sarah Houghton-Jan, San Jose Public Library
Presentation as acronym - as you'll see :-)
- Engage staff by using real world examples, highlighting tips that they can use. The more relevant things are to the team members, the better!
- Xenagogue is a rare (some might say obsolete... but maybe not now!) word that means, 'a person who guides strangers'. As a techie you may be comfortable in technology land, but likely some/all of the members of your team may be on terra incognita. By being available when they need help, by encouraging them along the way, you help make them comfortable in this strange place.
- PPlay should be encouraged. Exploration of new technologies and new services should be fun, not a chore. Exercises and discussions don't have to be deadly dull - you can be serious while having fun at the same time!
- Explain why you are doing things. Offer handouts and online materials that put the reason for why things are done in context.
- Reward your team at every opportunity - for participating in discussions, for completing projects, for giving good answers. The more they are appreciated, the better they will become.
- Imagination needs to be cultivated. Encourage people to dream up new ideas, to explore new pathways.
- Mentor your people whenever possible. Create an expectation of success.
- Empower people. Whenever looking a new technology tool, use that tool to show people how it works, encourage them to use it themselves so they can know its strengths and its limitations.
- New things are always coming up... and learning how to deal with the changes caused by these new things is important. Perhaps have entire meetings/classes on how to cope with the stress of change....
- Time is something which we never seem to have enough of, but setting aside time for practice, for answering questions, for exploring... is essential. As a rule of thumb, training time needs to be set up to precede technology launches by several weeks, at least.
Labels: Helene Blowers, IL2007, Joe Janes, Keynote, LEarning 2.0, Meredith Farkas, Michael Stephens, Reference 2.0, Sarah Houghton-Jan, Social Library, Teams, Technology
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Bay Area Council: Bay Area Residents Rapidly Switching To High-Speed DSL (.pdf)Among the findings of the the 2007 Bay Area Council Poll of 600 residents:
- The Bay Area is far ahead of the rest of the country in broadband access, with a 62% adoption rate (vs.42% for the total U.S.)
- Residents estimated they spent 16-hours online per week
- The number of residents who use a personal computer has stayed relatively flat: in 1999, 79 percent or respondents used a PC either at home, work or at school, and today 81 percent report that they do.
- The "Digital Divide" is still a reality: while 97 percent of those with an income greater than $80,000 regularly use a computer, only 62 percent of respondents with an income lower than $40,000 use a PC. Likewise, 95 percent of residents in the top income bracket access the Internet, but only 52 percent of those with an income less than $40,000 do so.
The full results of the Technology Trends in the Region poll, as well as look at Year-to-Year trends, can be found on the Bay Area Council Poll page.
Labels: Broadband, Digital Divide, San Francisco Bay Area, Technology
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Other web logs with links to library issues:
- Lori Bowen Ayre's Library Technology Musings provides "Hopes, dreams, wild ideas and practical solutions for libraries."
- Marylaine Block's Neat New Stuff I Found This Week (and her Ex Libris E-Zine for librarians.)
- Tara Calishain's Research Buzz, "news about search engines, databases, and other information collections."
- Blake Carver and Steve Galbraith's LISNews.com, focuses on (as the subtitle puts it), "news for information professionals."
- Steven M. Cohen's Library Stuff, provides readers with information on the wonderful and exciting world of librarianship.
- Gary Frost's Future of the Book, looks at "preservation and persistence of the changing book."
- Michael Gartenberg (an analyst with Jupiter Research, a market research and advisory firm focused on emerging technologies and the Internet) is one of several Jupiter researchers producing an Analyst Weblog.
- Brend Hough and Liz Rea's NEKLS Technology Weblog, "50 Feet From the Cutting Edge in the Northeast Kansas Library System."
- Sarah Houghton's Librarian In Black, has "resources and discussions for the 'tech-librarians-by-default' among us..."
- Jenny Levine, the original bloggin' librarian, is back with the Shifted Librarian, working to make libraries more "portable... to serve our remote patrons."
- Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (one of the Institute for the Future's research team) is producing Future Now, which looks at emerging technologies and their social implications.
- Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy's ResourceShelf has "resources and news for information professionals" (including the latest scoops on what's what with the invisible web).
- Michael Stephens' Tame the Web includes, "current technology uses in libraries, training tips and various other interests concerning library settings."
- Sandra Stewart at San Jose Public Library is producing a Library Tourguide to Blogs and Technology.
- Jessamyn West's librarian.net, keeping track of the nifty reference sites - and library references - she finds.
- Stephanie Wright's TechnoBiblio, where librarians and technogeeks speak the same language.
Not a weblog, but a very funny look at libraries:
- Unshelved - Bill Barnes' and Gene Ambaum's library comic strip (formerly known as Overdue.)
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