Twitter now offers the option to sort Twitter-Accounts in thematical “lists”. A colleague from Augsburg, “Die Bibliothekarin”, offers some lists with tweets in English. If that’s interesting for you, check her twitter account for the lists “libraries” 1-4.

Di questo servizio abbiamo già parlato ma mi fa piacere riprenderlo attraverso il capitolo 11 di Library Mashups (come sapete, nell’esplorazione dei vari capitoli, non procederemo con ordine , intitolato Mashing Up Open Data with biblios.net Web Sevices e scritto da Joshua Ferraro di LibLime.

All’inizio del 2009 la società che vende servizi per software open source, LibLime, ha rilasciato un servizio di catalogazione gratuito, web based e che poggia su una base di milioni di record bibliografici liberamente adoperabili (openly licensed): biblios.net. In particolare, il capitolo si focalizza sui servizi web (web services) offerti da LibLime insieme al software di catalogazione e alla base dati di record.

I biblios.net Web Services (BWS) poggiano su una conquista fondamentale: gli Open (Bibliographic and not) Data, che a loro volta consentono la libertà e gratuità di intervenire sui record bibliografici, sui metadati prodotti dalle biblioteche e rilasciati/messi a disposizione di tutti attraverso licenze dedicate. Questo dei dati è sempre stato un grosso ostacolo nel mondo bibliotecario – e chi frequenta questo blog da un po’ lo sa bene. Spesso i molti e ricchi e riccamente strutturati metadati che i bibliotecari con grande fatica e sudore di fronte creano quando catalogano i libri, rimangono poi confinati entro ILS (software di automazione e catalogazione) proprietari o comunque chiusi alla possibilità del rilascio libero e del riutilizzo (al netto delle esperienze di catalogazione cooperativa, che però sono un’altra cosa).

Joshua Ferraro, invece, mette subito in rilievo lo slancio che la nascita di licenze come la PDDL (Open Data Commons Public Domain and Dedication Lincese) e di iniziative di apertura dei forzieri dei propri metadati prese da biblioteche come la Library of Congress o la Open Library di Brewster Kahle, ha dato all’impresa di LibLime, di rilasciare nel pubblico dominio così grandi quantità di record bibliografici a disposizione di tutti (di nuovo, se n’era parlato qualche tempo fa). Recod bibliografici che sono stati poi utilizzati dalla stessa LibLime per i suoi servizi e in particolare per la creazione di un livello di accesso e di interrogazione (le famose API, Application Programming Interface) concreto e usabile da tutti gli utenti.

I BWS sono infatti proprio un set di API create per consentire ai programmatori o geek librarian che dir si voglia, di scrivere applicazioni che interagiscano con il database di biblios.net e creare quindi mashup con i dati e i servizi ritornati da questo provider. I web services disponibili sono attualmente:

• Searching for bibliographic and authority records (OpenSearch, SRU/W and Z39.50)
• Retrieving single records (UnAPI)
• Harvesting with OAI-PMH
• Sending data to ‡biblios.net

Verranno invece presto attivati i seguenti:

• Download the ‡biblios.net Dataset (BitTorrent) (coming soon)
• Programming Guide (coming soon)
• API Reference (coming soon)

Uno degli interessanti esempi mostrati nel capitolo, è il mashup creato grazie al SRU target service, che restituisce i dati delle liste di autorità contenute nella base dati di biblios: il catalogatore che stia inserendo nella scheda catalografica di un volume una cosiddetta voce controllata (potrebbe essere quella del nome dell’autore oppure del soggetto/topic con cui si classifica il volume), può attingere on the fly alle voci controllate conservate e messe a disposizione da biblios, attraverso un semplice ed efficace menu ad auto-complete – in questo modo non solo potendo attingere a dati uniformi, controllati e di qualità, ma anche evitando di perdere tempo nell’andare a interrogare separatamente un altro database.

L’altro esempio che Ferraro propone è quello relativo agli strumenti per facilitare la catalogazione cooperativa delle biblioteche, sempre usufruendo dei web services messi a disposizione da biblios. In questo caso si sfrutta la potenza del protocollo OAI-PMH, dei feed RSS e del buon vecchio Z39.50, per costruire un mashup di notifica e aggiornamento delle modifiche avvenute su un record: le biblioteche in una rete cooperativa possono così venire a conoscenza dei cambiamenti intervenuti su una scheda che è stata già acquisita dal catalogo e, se del caso, anche decidere di accogliere quei cambiamenti, sovrapponendo la scheda catalografica modificata con quella del proprio OPAC, in maniera del tutto rapida e automatizzata.

Forse questo capitolo è il più interessante di tutti almeno sotto un profilo: mostra come il catalogo e la catalogazione non solo non sono esclusi, in quanto ambiti di attività tradizionali, dalla creazione di servizi innovativi e mashup, ma possono con la loro ineludibile centralità venire impattati pesantemente dalla creazione di servizi agili, in grado di eliminare le parti più ripetitive e meccaniche di certe attività e aprire la strada alla creatività nell’utilizzo delle informazioni e dei dati contenuti negli OPAC, frutto di anni e anni di lavoro delle migliori menti bibliotecarie…

I decided to change the title of my blog once more. It is important to acknowledge my librarian roots, yet nod to my divergent interests.

In the Learning Commons at Lake Washington Technical College we are piloting an embed project using Delicious to create, effectively, homemade LibGuides. Using existing collection resources we can create a link roll using specific tags associated with programs and class numbers. This permits us to obtain an javascript embed code, which can be given to the instructor who can then paste this same code into their Angel course shell. Any number of items can be gathered into this, including YouTube videos, PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and many more.
This method of bookmarking our existing resources (e.g., articles in journals that can be found in our electronic collection) permits compliance with copyright and helps faculty create a remotely accessible course reserve system. Primarily, I think it will be addressed in the following ways:

1. Create collection inventories by bookmarking periodical and ebook publications at the item level. If these materials are consistently tagged at the item-level, then collection inventories could be created on the fly. The only foreseeable issue would be items added after a first sweep through might not be included, but routine updates could address this issue.
2. Create course-specific reserves, incorporating material from our existing On-line subscription databases, as well as freely available web content (e.g., videos, audio content, documents).

In effect, this system would create embedded LibGuides, since the listings would be held within the course shell and students would access this information concurrent with their work in Angel.

The Delicious link roll project would look like this: https://lwtclearningcommons.pbworks.com/Delicious-Rolls-%28Library-Database-Mashup%29

I think the idea is to create back ups on the Learning Commons Wiki site, which will serve as a safety net in case Angel goes down.

In the initial phase of this project, I had lots of questions (see comments section, “New Tags for Embed Project”), many which will be answered over the life of the project. This is an interesting project, because it is an attempt at creating resource lists and an electronic reserve system for faculty and students from an existing On-line and freely available technology, Delicious.

I still do have lots of questions that need answers. Using this system of creating electronic reserves for courses are we in compliance with copyright? Are there any privacy and copyright issues involved in making course-level content discoverable? Where does this system intersect with the library catalog system? Is there a way to bookmark library records for items currently in our collection?

I think these are important questions to consider and resolve as this project moves forward and I am excited to participate in such a project.

Veldig gledelig å se at noen i bibliotek-sektoren engasjere seg i dette, selv om det burde vært MANGE flere!! Jeg håper virkelig at dere kan bidra til å spre informasjon til borgerne om fri programvare, og jeg menbr atvi bør fokusere på ett produkt: Ubuntu. Jeg fikk selv en utfordring om å oversette den der plakaten jeg viste. Den utfordringen tok jeg! Så da håper jeg at dere tar utfordringen jeg ga dere:)

Takk for laget, håper vi sees igjen!

Beste hilsner Bjørn Venn

(mon tro hvor dette innlegget havna….:-)

Support for school libraries in Far North Queensland is gr8!  The team at the Far North Queensland FNQ Learning Development Centre – ICT, have put together a fabulous brochure promoting change and essential development to ensure quality school libraries.  They have allowed me to embed the document here, so that you can download a copy for your own school district.  

There is also a gr8 lol::Great Libraries for Learning wiki to support the document – making it easy to cross-reference within your own online sites.

It’s pretty nice to be quoted in this brochure

Per far conoscere Library mashups: exploring new ways to deliver library data, ho pensato di inaugurare una serie di post dedicati ai vari capitoli. Affinché l’impostazione non sia troppo burocratica, non procederò proprio in sequenza. Comincerò la serie con una delle puntate più avvincenti: quella  sul capitolo 12,  SOPAC 2.0: The Trashable, Mashable Catalog, scritto da John Blyberg e dedicato a SOPAC (Social OPAC), l’interfaccia web per i cataloghi di biblioteca creata da Blyberg medesimo, bravissimo programmatore e appassionato di open source e biblioteche.

SOPAC nasce nel 2005 come un progetto open source della Ann Arbor District Library (NdR adesso Blyberg lavora presso la Darien Library), quando a Blyberg viene chiesto di riprogettare l’interfaccia web del catalogo della biblioteca. L’intento del nostro è subito chiaro: disegnare un OPAC che non sia percepito come qualcosa di estrinseco ma che si fonda perfettamente con l’interfaccia web del sito della biblioteca. Dunque SOPAC viene concepito come nativamente integrato nel CMS Drupal, e sviluppato a partire proprio da moduli del Content Management System. La prima interfaccia va online nel 2007 e si presenta molto bene, ricca di funzionalità sociali tipiche della Library 2.0.

Qualcosa però non funziona ancora bene e non permette quell’integrazione seamless tra OPAC e sito web che Blyberg si era proposto. L’interfaccia è da un lato troppo dipendente dalla configurazione del sistema di automazione della AADL e dunque non facilmente esportabile, e dall’altro l’architettura nel suo insieme è troppo poco ricettiva verso i contenuti generati dagli utenti (UGC), che infatti non sono inclusi nell’indice dell’OPAC che viene interrogato all’atto di ricerca di un libro da parte degli utenti.

Così prende il via il progetto SOPAC 2.0, che nasce da un’architettura molto più robusta e concepita in modo da rendere l’interfaccia perfettamente adottabile e adattabile da chiunque. La prima rivoluzione Blyberg la compie “esternalizzando” tutti gli elementi non strettamente inerenti l’interfaccia, in due librerie che accompagnano il prodotto: Locum e Insurge. La prima è un livello di astrazione che viene posto tra l’interfaccia e ciò che sta sotto di essa, ovvero l’ILS (sistema di automazione) specifico usato dalla biblioteca, e che quindi rende veramente l’OPAC agnostico rispetto al sistema sottostante adoperato, mentre la seconda gestisce il nuovo repository di informazioni sociali: ciò che prima era riservato ai soli utenti di una biblioteca (tag, commenti, recensioni, voti), adesso viene esteso a tutte le biblioteche che adottino SOPAC e soprattutto viene utilizzato in fase di ricerca dagli utenti dell’OPAC!

Nel capitolo sono presentati alcuni esempi di come sia facile istanziare le classi delle due librerie: in effetti uno dei driver di SOPAC2 è  proprio la semplicità d’uso anche per il medio IT staff di biblioteca. Il capitolo si conclude con ulteriori esempi di come, essendo SOPAC costruito sul CMS Drupal, sia modulabile e di come i suoi contenuti possano essere integrati davvero in maniera seamless nell’interfaccia web attraverso la composizione e la giustapposizione dei vari blocchi (contenuti del blog/sito della biblioteca con, per esempio, l’elenco dei 50 libri più prestati; contenuti del sito con altri contenuti del sito; contenuti dell’OPAC con altri contenuti dell’OPAC), il tutto con massimi livelli di personalizzazione, flessibilità e… mashabilità (il layout come anche il livello delle informazioni che vengono presentate, possono essere modificati con semplicità, grazie all’architettura di classi e librerie associate a SOPAC). Ugualmente, l’architettura adottata, fa sì che i blocchi di SOPAC possano essere non solo “amalgamati” con contenuti provenienti dall’esterno, ma possano essi stessi venire esportati e pubblicati, per esempio, in un blog o in una pagina web (classico l’esempio del box di ricerca).

Blyberg conclude augurandosi che il numero delle biblioteche che adottano SOPAC 2.0 cresca sempre di più, poiché il reale utilizzo da parte di un numero sempre più ampio di utenti finali è l’unica garanzia perché il progetto continui ad essere sviluppato e il repository di contenuti sociali aggregati ai record bibliografici si arricchisca e divenga sempre più funzionale e utile. Le ultime righe sono quindi un invito alla comunità dei bibliotecari e degli sviluppatori perché aiutino SOPAC a cresce e prosperare, e noi speriamo vivamente che studenti e colleghi interessati all’argomento raccolgano l’invito!

Potete leggere tutti i contenuti relativi al libro attraverso il tag library mashups.

Kudos are in order for everybody involved in the Keep the Light On Levy, one of 30 successful library levies in Ohio this election season.  Mahoning County residents obviously have their priorities straight when it comes to library funding, but the phenomenal effort exerted by the library’s supporters was, I’m sure, a key role in the levy’s passing.

What made this campaign so delightfully awesome? Let us count the ways:

1. The perfect slogan.  Keep the light on.  Could it be any clearer?  Mood, imperative.  Focuses on the positive.  Uses one of humankind’s most primal metaphors, light, implying warmth, growth, safety, knowledge.  Sheer genius.
2. Gorgeous web design.  Love the simple primary colors.  Love the inclusive photo on the front page that reflects the diverse makeup of the Mahoning Valley.   Love the simple box arrangement that makes the page easy to navigate.  Ditto on the tabs at the top.
3. Patrons are front and center.  Two of the first things you see there are “The People’s Blog” and “Real Quotes From Real Library Users.”  The scrolling list of library supporters is a nice touch, too, letting people see how much they’re appreciated.  The only thing that could make this even better is moving the library usage calculator up higher, so people could see and use it more easily.
4. Transparency.  As you navigate the site, you will see funding issues explained in a clear, concise fashion.  The FAQ, in particular, explains where library funding comes from at the state and local levels, what cost-saving measures the library has already tried, and how much money fundraisers and other revenue-generators actually raise.  Most importantly, the FAQ details what cost-saving measures the library has already taken, and what consequences would occur if the levy doesn’t pass.  Here, in my opinion, is the money quote:

Levy FAQ 6. What effect has the loss of 31% of State funding had on Your Library?  Thirty members of Your Library staff had to be laid off. Funding for books and other materials dropped dramatically. The entire staff, including the Director, took wage cuts. The library was forced to reduce hours at all locations.

Emphasis mine. Everybody. Took. Wage. Cuts.  Wow.  That is definitely one way to tell people that you are dead serious.  Would you take a wage cut for your library?  But I digress:

5. Good use of social media/web technologies.  Content on YouTube.  Strong Facebook and Twitter presences.   Including PayPal as a donation option.  An e-newsletter.  Clearly this group “gets it” when it comes to reaching out to tech-savvy patrons and including them in their advocacy efforts.

[Aside:  Yes, I'm biased.  You can take the girl out of Youngstown, but you can't take the Youngstown out of the girl.  And honestly, why would you want to?]

What insanely cool, awesome thing are you doing to rock the advocacy boat at your library?  Leave a comment telling me about your creative/unusual “save the library” endeavors, and you’ll be eligible to win a copy of Keri Smith’s This Is Not A Book – I just happen to have stumbled into an extra copy, and I can’t think of a better way to reward hands-on advocacy than with a hands-on, not-a-book destructo-journal.

Leave a comment by 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 to be in the running. And thanks in advance for everything you do to keep the light on in your libraries!

You know what’s almost as important as keeping the light on? Lightening up. Methinks my next post is going to be both fun and silly, because, quite frankly, there’s been a dearth of that around here lately. Stay tuned.

Are you going to get a Kindle? Have one already? I don’t get it because I prefer to hold the book in my hands. So what’s the future of libraries, stuffed full of wonderfully musty smelling tomes? Does the library have a future at all? Will it be full of Kindles that can be loaned out? If they eventually come in hot pink, I might be tempted

I came across this fantastic presentation and audio from R. David Lankes, School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, which provides insights into the future of libraries and librarianship. He starts off with a fairly confronting statement:

“(Librarians) have become so busy and adept at keeping the library efficient and well-managed that we have lacked the space to step back and observe it from a high level”.

And then goes on to say that: “The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities“.  So it’s not about books and collections. I remember when I first started my career in knowledge management there was a lot of angst over whether librarians were information managers whilst knowledge managers were some sort of more evolved species dealing with knowledge (and some dudes even call themselves “wisdom architects”, which if you believe the twaffle of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom pyramid, is the most evolved of all species).

But now I think we’ve reached the point in the debate where we can say that we are all doing the same thing, albeit concentrating on different aspects. So records managers, information managers, knowledge managers – we’re all attempting to facilitate knowledge creation, transfer and continuity. The fact that records managers concentrate on retention and compliance whilst knowledge managers may focus on collaboration and decision-making are simply different lenses looking at the same thing. In fact, my KM colleague, Baoman, has a well-crafted reflection piece on his blog in which he ponders this very subject, inspired by gentleman and scholar, Patrick Lambe.

So I very much liked Lankes’ vision for the mission of librarians (not libraries note) and that knowledge and learning is created through conversation and conversation theory. Conversation theory consisting of:

• language
• memory
• conversants – exchanging language
• agreements – between conversants (even if it’s agreeing not to agree)

So he’s suggesting that librarians are in the conversation business and need to be facilitators of conversations. Lankes uses the term “participatory librarianship” and says that participatory librarians “seek to enrich, capture, store and disseminate the conversations of their communities”. Further, he queries the rigidity of catalogues when users are now familiar with tagging and folksonomies and asks – how do we build systems that all users can use and he looks at social networking sites (where users build the system around themselves and their own language). Users now construct an open discovery space.

Lankes also emphasises that skills change eg cataloguing skills and that library education should equip a librarian for change. And this means librarians as activists, lobbying for change, innovating and proactively serving the community. He believes the best days of librarianship are ahead of us not behind us. To get maximum benefit out of the presentation, listen to the audio. Almost makes me want to go back into librarianship.

Also, check out Lankes’ website, which basically provides you with a Participatory Librarianship Starter Kit (articles, presentations and webcasts). Great stuff!

Are you interested in creating conversations in your library to facilitate student learning and teacher collaboration?   Do you see your library as more than just a place of information objects?  Do you want your library to be about experiences and not just “stuff” in the library?

If so, I would like to invite you to my session, Not Just Another Brick in the Wall: Engaging 21st Century Learning Through Participatory School Librarianship, that  will take place on 11/06/09 from 2:15PM to 3:30PM. It will be located in room 213BC of the Charlotte Convention Center.   We will be engaging in our conversations about how to create conversations for formal learning and the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners as well as creating conversations with your library community using traditional and Library 2.0 tools.

Right now, the final presentation materials are under wraps, but they will be posted by 10PM Tuesday evening, November 3, 2009 at http://theunquietlibrarian.wikispaces.com/aasl2009.  Once posted, you will be able to preview the slidedeck and presentation links as well as a Google Moderator session I have created as a medium for you to pose questions.

You are encouraged to bring a laptop to the session, but it is not required.  You may also want to bring your cellphone for a fun activity as well as your creative energy for some hands-on activities I hope to do with you as a guest in the session.

If you plan to Tweet my session, please use the #aasl2009 hashtag as well as this hashtag just for my session:  #plaasl2009.  I hope to see you there!

Buffy J. Hamilton
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com

E’ stato pubblicato Library mashups: exploring new ways to deliver library data, il libro sui mashups e le biblioteche atteso ormai da quasi un anno! Il capitolo con cui ho partecipato si intitola Behind the scenes, proprio perché intende fornire delle informazioni su ciò che accade dietro le quinte di servizi e prodotti di cui in genere vediamo solamente il front end – che sia un’interfaccia web o un client.

Il libro si compone sia di una parte teorico-tecnica sia sopratutto di esempi concreti progettati e realizzati presso biblioteche sparse per il mondo: è questo approccio molto orientato alla pratica e di respiro internazionale che me lo fa considerare – conflitto di interesse a parte – un ottimo libro su un argomento tecnico come il mashup, probabilmente finora poco sviluppato al livello di riflessione e di implementazione.

Nel libro potrete spaziare dagli esperimenti sui repository effettuati dal grande Stuart Lewis alle modalità con cui rendere un sito mashable all’immancabile hacking sugli OPAC. L’aspetto che trovo molto soddisfacente in quanto autrice è che il modello di pubblicazione proposto dalla curatrice e dall’editore è stato di stampo scientifico-accademico. La remunerazione per il capitolo è consistita in una copia omaggio del volume, ma ci è stata data per contratto la possibilità di pubblicare il contributo su archivi aperti e siti personali, e di farne uso per presentazioni o coursepack didattici.

Aiutandoci così come autori sia a far conoscere il libro e sia a far conoscere i nostri modesti contributi. Inutile dire che personalmente trovo questo modello vincente per le pubblicazioni scientifiche. Quindi… vi comunico con grande piacere che il mio capitolo è accessibile a testo pieno sul sito del Bicocca Open Archive all’indirizzo http://hdl.handle.net/10281/5117. Segnalo nuovamente il blog che fa da corredo e complemento (e che ha fatto da anticipazione) al libro, il contributo – anch’esso in open access – di Stuart Lewis e infine, come è giusto, le due case editrici: Information Today commercializza il libro in U.S.A., Facet Publishing in Europa. Potrete giudicare dai contenuti finora pubblicati in accesso aperto se il libro sia meritevole del vostro acquisto: nel caso lo fosse, commenti, osservazioni e suggerimenti sono i benvenuti!

 

Media 21: Immersion into Issues of Africa Through Literature Circles and Research (The Unquiet Library) via kwout

The process of creating monthly reports is a yearly evolution for me; each year, I try to find ways to include more meaningful and relevant data while presenting that information in more interesting ways. Last year’s reports were a major step forward as they were packaged in attractive Word document (and converted to PDF format) with statistical and anecdotal data about happenings in the library each month.

One of my professional goals this year is to do a better job of assessment and data collection.  After an insanely busy first three months of school, I am finally beginning my first steps toward adding more dimension to my monthly reports.  In August, I used Animoto to create a “video” report; the response has been positive to this format.  Now I want to supplement my reports with additional layers of evidence as I try to be even more transparent about what is happening in my library program.  I will now be creating a page for each month (example:  September 2009 in its infancy).  On the home page for the month, I will include the statistical data and a video.  I will then add subpages to that month to represent each lesson or unit I create with a classroom teacher.  As you can imagine, this will take time, but I think the investment in collecting more anecdotal data will be worthwhile in terms of getting better assessment and reflection for me in regards to library programs and practices as well as better educating our learning community about what we  do with students and teachers.

This page represents a very rough draft of what I hope to be the template for this new mode of reporting.  Essential elements for each teacher page will include:

• an attached PDF for a unit or lesson plan using the AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners template; having a copy of the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner is essential for identifying skills, benchmarks, dispositions, and responsibilities.
• a link to the research pathfinder
• a link to student learning artifacts and/or embedded student work on the actual page
• Written and/or videotaped reflections from students and the teacher
• Any other multimedia to support the collaborative lesson or unit

This example is my first effort, and it is rather rough, but hopefully, it will provide a model of what I hope to accomplish.  I will still need to refine my details on the template and do a better job of collecting formative assessment, but I think this page represents a decent start.  It is missing some of the additional assessment data I want to include (polls, surveys and the teacher video), but I feel this is a step in the right direction.  You can see additional videos featuring teachers and students that I will am collecting and preparing to incorporate into the collaborative lesson pages at our library’s YouTube Channel.

I love how Google Sites easily lets me embed this data; I also like the attachment option as well.  My goal is to go back and create pages for all the collaborative projects I have done since August 1; then I will be ready to move forward and document the projects as they are developed.  I hope to have all pages completed by December 1, so I will provide an update at that time on this project and hopefully be able to showcase a much broader range of data for you; I also hope to better show the “vision” of these pages that I have in mind to feature as many kinds of data as possible.

If you can think of additional data that would be helpful and meaningful to include, please share your thoughts here with me on the blog!

For those interested in learning strategies for practicing evidence-based medicine, check out the latest digital subscription from UCHC Library:

JAMA Evidence

Image Credit: http://www.jamaevidence.com/ - All rights reserved – Copyright 2009

.

Produced by American Medical Association editors and publisher McGraw Hill, content from the digital textbook is also available for mobile applications.

I particularly liked the JAMA Evidence glossary.

If off-campus, connect via your UCHC library proxy account.

Informe de Mary Meeker sobre las tendencias en Internet para el Web 2.0 Summit

Las bibliotecas tienen mucho que observar en estas tendencias. Fijense en esto:

Para crear un servicio eficiente definitivamente tenemos que movernos a la posibilidad que podamos comunicarnos mediante unidades móbiles.

[Vía ReadWriteWeb]

When I started to think about the librarians toolbox I first thought about all the cool tools I have at my disposal on my computers, WordPress,  Twitter, Facebook, Googlesuite etc., then I started to think back, to before these tools existed and how I managed then, with embryonic mail clients, Hotmail, coding websites in HTML, IRC or ICQ and Usenet. Then I thought even further back, to snailmail, telex printers, printed indexes and just meeting people face to face. And then it hit me, I had the really important tools with me the whole time. The fundamentals that made me capable of using and evaluating services no matter how advanced they are. I started out with two tools, and then added a third just lately (but I have been living by it way before I heard about it:-))

My number one tool is Ranganathans Five Laws of Librarianship.  Yes, I still use the oldfashioned word Librarianship rather than Library science.

1. Books are for use
2. Every reader his [or her] book
3. Every book its reader
4. Save the time of the User
5. The library is a growing organism

With these simple and fundamental laws in the back of my mind I usually find it easy to evaluate a possible service or new gizmo pretty quickly.

The second tool is Adams first law.  Don´t Panic! (preferrably in large friendly letters) Most of the time panic is a total waste of time. I have tried to live by this in that I try to handle things that come up on the assumption that most things are fixable and most people are approachable. This is not to say I don´t have my moments of panic, but I try to not let that slow me down or stop me from doing something I believe is right or good.

The third tool is the “Cult of Done Manifesto“.  By not obsessing with trying to get things perfect I get more things done and tried. With that experience I can move on and use what I have learned to make things better or different. It made me able to pursue the idea of the first Digital and Social conference back in 2004, which I still think is the best, coolest and most fun conference I have ever attended. Mostly because it connected so many wonderful people that have later emerged as leaders and inspiration to all who work with libraries in the interface between the digital  and the social dimension.

So, these are my tools, which will probably stay with me for the rest of my working life. What are your favorite tools?

  It’s that time of year again when all the ghosts and ghouls big and small get ready for Halloween. But as usual there are things you must adhere to like safety. But you also want fun and creativity to be apart of the holiday season. With all these things in mind, the “Tech Talk” on October 20, 2009 sought to share some fun sites that deal with all those things. Check out the sites below to find fun, useful and in some cases little known resources.

IVillage This site is a cool resource for moms and women in general to use for day to day life, as well as the holidays. Check out the halloween section.

eHow This site is just what it says –  a ” how to” site that can be used for many things, in this case halloween safety. Feel free to search it for others things though.

Parents.com  This site is a fun resource for arts-and-crafts, DIY projects health and information in general for parents. Covers infants to big kids with great variety. We used it this particular time to zero in on halloween fun. Click on the link and check it out.

Food Network Many people watch Food Network shows so are familiar with this channel. We used it to help find some fun recipes to help make your Halloween a tasty and unique one.

Hauntworld If its halloweenesque, creepy, spooky, or grotesque, you should be able to find it on Hauntworld. It seems to be one stop shopping for locating all things spooktastic. It even boasts its own magazine. Give it a look-see if you love a good scare.

For extras on the Tech Talk menu these two sites seemed fun as well.

Rouxbe If you ever wanted to wow your friends Rouxbe can help. Its a online cooking school site. You can view videos and get receipes without a premium membership but for different fees you can sign up for specific types of memberships and get cooking lessons that even cooks partake of. Who ever thought there would be an online cooking school!

Holiday On the Menu What a fun way to travel!  A vacation for the food connosieur out there. Book a trip that has lush landscapes,hands on sessions with you and a gourmet chef or local, and you learning to prepare a gorgeous meal based on the country you’re visiting. It’s a rarity to find a trip like this and should be taken advantage of. Like all things travel, do your homework on the company first and the customs of the place you’re visiting. Its always better to travel smart.

So, Ghosts and Ghouls have a Happy Halloween.

By LaShonda

October 19 through 23 is…

Photo credit – Courtesy of http://www.openaccessweek.org/ – All rights reserved – Copyright 2009

SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Research Consortium) is the organizer of Open Access Week.  Information about SPARC Europe is here.

The concept of open-access journals distributed on computer networks worldwide (at no cost to users) when I was earning a MLS degree (in 1991) would’ve seemed not only unlikely to ever happen in this world, but might have caused one’s graduate school peers and instructors to wonder if you needed to visit a psychiatrist – and soon!

But that world which might have seemed fantastical in the early-1990’s has indeed come to fruition through the determined efforts of many hundreds of librarians, scientists, researchers, administrators and volunteers worldwide. It is an exciting time to be an information professional.

A long-time advocate of open-access scholarly publications, Peter Suber has written an overview about the meaning and purpose of Open Access (OA), and has described this international project well.

Celebrate Open Access Week 2009 by visiting these wonderful sites:

• OIASter which provides 23,090,000 articles from 1,500 sources.

• BioMedCentral offers 202 journals on its website.

• Public Library of Science (PLoS) publishes seven peer-reviewed journals.

• PubMedCentral, an open access journal archive.

• JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee ), National Library of Medicine and the Wellcome Foundation are collaborating on the Medical Journals Backfile Digitisation Project.  A list of journals being planned for digitisation is here.
  

• OpenDOAR: Directory of Open Access Repositories (a digital directory of international archival sites).

• DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals

• Hindawi Publishing - See their list of Open Access journals in Medicine.

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Here are other links to Open Access sites from around the world:

• Open Archives Initiative
• OASIS: Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook
• Open Access Directory (hosted on the Simmons College server) provides a link to Periodicals which frequently publish about Open Access
• SPARC Open Access Newsletter
• DSpace
• Registry of  Open Access Repositories (ROAR) which currently lists 1,509 members.  See a list of the registered institutions at ROAR MAP.
• FAQ Sheet: What Librarians Can do to Promote Open Access
• Created for Open Access Week 2008, and sponsored by PLoS, watch a brief video of Dr. Ida Sim, faculty at UCSF, discussing the value of scientific research published in open access journals.
  

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Want to learn more about metadata? First, what is NISO? Here is an excerpt from their “About” page:

” NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes   technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. “

Text excerpted from: http://www.niso.org/about

NISO staff have published a group of freely available reports about metadata.  The following two reports are brief and useful: one, a  20-page report about metadata (2004), and “Metadata Demystified: A Guide for Publishers” (2003).  Because somebody has to organize all this stuff!

In an effort to briefly describe the process of indexing and organizing open-access documents from a myriad of global sources, I refer to the Dublin Metadata Initiative created by OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). The final NISO document, “Dublin Core of Elements” * was approved in 2007 by a consortium of library and technical folks assembled by OCLC.

(My librarian-colleague has assured me today that this is all anyone will want to know about this topic.  Be pithy for heaven sakes!)

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* Note: The Dublin Core refers to the city of Dublin, Ohio where OCLC corporate headquarters  are located (not Dublin, Ireland).  Development of core standards originated during a 1995 invitational workshop at OCLC; “core” because its descriptive elements are broad and generic, intended for use to describe a diverse range of actual or virtual resources.

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (NISO Standard Z39.98-007) is a vocabulary of fifteen properties used by indexers to describe individual items before adding these records to shared digital catalog files.  Standard elements to describe an individual work or item would include (for example) title of the resource, creator of the resource, subject or topic of the resource, format of the resource, etc.

Public Libraries in the 21st Century (C) Christine Rooney-Browne

Just thought I’d share a couple of presentations that I delivered at two different conferences last week.

First up is my keynote presentation from the SINTO lecture in Sheffield;  “A Look at the Role of Public Libraries in Times of Recession“

And secondly, a joint presentation between myself and Liz McGettigan from Edinburgh City Libraries at the annual Internet Librarian International Conference in London; “A Joined Up Approach to Social Media”.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

The October 2009 issue of School Library Journal features the article, “Things That Keep Us Up at Night” by Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza, two library professionals who are considered by many to be among our profession’s most thoughtful and forward thinking leaders. Some readers interpreted this article as a call to action and for us as school library professionals to step up our efforts to be cognizant of the shifts in the information landscape occurring in our profession.  Johnson and Valenza feel these approaches would create a proactive approach for providing students the information literacy skills they need to fully participate in today’s world.

However, others took offense to the article, particularly the sections, “The Challenge of Keeping Ahead” and “Failing to Embrace Networked Media.” For the last two weeks,  several librarians, including me, engaged in two lengthy conversations about this question with Beth Friese, a colleague,  via Twitter over Friese’s question and subsequent discussion, “Where Are the Others?” in her response to this article over at Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog.

These ideas and concerns shared in the SLJ article are not new—they were voiced as early as  September 2007 by Valenza and by Johnson in February 2008. Both Valenza and Johnson have blogged diligently to provide strategies and solutions to these challenges, yet it seems those efforts have fallen on many a deaf ear.  It is frankly a bit stunning and disturbing to me that so many in our profession are in a real state of denial the perilous state of school librarianship in the United States.

While I feel Friese presents an articulate response, I disagree with her and some of the individuals who responded on Doug’s blog  as well as Joyce’s blog on several points, so I would like to summarize Friese’s concerns and then share my responses to those statements.

Criticism: Finger Pointing and Exclusion

Beth addresses the authors, stating, “You point your finger right at them in this piece and tell them they are dragging us down. However, they never seem to enter the conversation. Many of us think we know some of these librarians. But they are absent from the debate.” Beth also shared she felt library leaders should be encouraging those who are “behind” rather than admonishing them.

I did not read the article as reflecting a “finger wagging” attitude, but instead, as an honest and constructive assessment of the state of our profession. If you asked any school librarian if he/she knows a colleague who is stagnant and taking no initiative to be a lifelong learner, they could identify not just one, but probably several, which I find disturbing.  For every principal who may not be savvy as to what he/she should expect from his/her school library media specialist, there is one who yearns for a school library media specialist who will be a catalyst for learning and change in the building.

In addition, leaders like Johnson, Valenza, and many others have done nothing but provide ongoing encouragement and idea sharing through both social media and print journal articles to the library community.  For those who are not in school districts that are adequately resourced, a personal learning network can accomplish the same goal, and in many ways, more effectively.   There are ample opportunities for school librarians to access and apply information about the latest tools, trends, and questions for debate, but they must be sought out.

Friese also takes issue over the statement that those who are failing to change are “dragging our profession down.”  In the section, “Failure to Embrace Networked Media”, Johnson and Valenza write:

“Librarians who don’t have PLNs, don’t attend conferences, don’t read cutting-edge professional literature—from both the library and the education worlds—are dragging our profession down. And good people are going with them. Professionals who lack an understanding of the power of professional networking disturb our slumbers.”

However, Chip R.  Bell and John R. Patterson remind us in The Hazards of Culture Change that “…without needed change the organization risks losing its competitive advantage. Losing its edge makes it harder to attract and retain the best talent and resources, and in today’s economy, the death knell begins.”  In his keynote speech, “Future Proofing Your Library” at the Georgia Council of Media Organizations (COMO) on October 8, 2009 , Steven J. Bell reminded us that our accomplishments of the past will not carry us into the future.  Look at the world we live in—I do not think it is possible or feasible to try and make a convincing argument that a school librarian should not be making an effort to be technologically savvy.

Before the advent of the read/write web, most educators engaged in professional growth through college coursework, local staff development, traditional conferences, or print professional publications; as email became more commonplace, many engaged with others through list servs. While those means still exist, there are now many exciting, dynamic, and FREE means for extending your professional learning and networking with others. While many may choose to enter these conversations about school librarianship through traditional mediums, more options than ever exist to do so at a time that is just right for you and your schedule: social media/networks such as Twitter or Facebook, blogs freely available to anyone for reading at a time that works for your schedule, print publications now available through your state/public virtual library or better yet, for free on the web, Google groups, virtual conferences (many of which are archived for viewing at a time that works for you), the social bookmarking networks of others as well as groups in social bookmarking services like Diigo and free webinars that are open to anyone who chooses to participate. No where did it state in the article you have to participate in all forms of communication; instead, find an entry point and grow your means of connecting with others at a pace and with the tools that are comfortable for you.

Friese feels those in disagreement with the ideas of the Johnson and Valenza’s article are absent from the debate, but I don’t see exclusion as a reason as to why the others aren’t “here.”  Unfortunately, many have adopted the mindset that learning stops once we complete graduate school and feel they do not need additional professional growth after graduation.   Beth calls for a “culture of curiosity”, but should that culture not already been well established in school librarianship?  We must leave behind the thinking that one’s MLS or SLM program can prepare you for everything you may encounter.   While it certainly should provide a solid foundation, graduate preparation is only the beginning of your journey as a library professional.   I see ongoing growth and learning as fun and challenging, not as a dreary chore that evokes a sense of being overwhelmed or overworked.

We also cannot limit our exploration of ideas to our comfort areas of interest—we must be willing to learn more about emerging trends and ideas that may not be our first love but may be the very thing that draws in our students. I cannot stress how much my PLN has influenced my practice; for nearly two years now, I have cultivated and continue to grow my personal learning network to include experts and knowledgeable others both within the field as well as those outside of it who have so many insights to offer that help me improve my practice .  If you aren’t willing to be organic, you exclude yourself from having a place at the table of school librarianship. How can you be effective if you are not making some effort to hone your talents and knowledge?

Can we really justify inaction and a failure to model lifelong learning, particularly when we know we have a significant perception problem about what we do and how we impact a school environment? Is there really any reason for not making an effort to keep your finger on the pulse of your profession and being proactive in your practice? Is there honestly any legitimate reason for any school librarian to NOT engage in ongoing reflection through some means?

I now ask you to look at our AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learners. The sampling of skills, dispositions, and responsibilities below reflect an emphasis on networked learning and social media:

• 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.
• 2.1.5 Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions, and solve problems.
• 3.1.2: Participate and collaborate as members of a social and intellectual network of learners.
• 3.1.4: Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use, and assess.
• 3.1.5 Connect learning to community issues.
• 3.3.1 Solicit and respect diverse perspectives while searching for information, collaborating with others, and participating as a member of the community.
• 3.3.3 Use knowledge and information skills and dispositions to engage in public conversation and debate around issues of common concern.
• 3.3.4 Create products that apply to authentic, real-world contexts.
• 3.3.5 Contribute to the exchange of ideas within and beyond the learning community.
• 4.1.2: Read widely and fluently to make connections with self, the world, and previous reading.
• 4.1.4: Seek information for personal learning in a variety of formats and genres.
• 4.1.6: Organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily.
• 4.1.7: Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information.
• 4.2.1: Display curiosity by pursuing interests through multiple resources.
• 4.3.1: Participate in the social exchange of ideas, both electronically and in person.
• 4.3.3: Seek opportunities for pursuing personal and aesthetic growth.

Look at the ideas and concepts in these standards related to networked and connected learning.   It sounds an awful lot like inquiry and using social media to accomplish these tasks to me.  How can you teach what you do not practice?

Last but not least, numerous groups continue to sound the warning bell for the importance of positing transliteracy as an essential literacy. You can read more about my thoughts and reactions to the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy at my blog post here, but in a nutshell, transliteracy is becoming the new cultural capital. While no one is saying to throw out the practices that work, the report does concur with Johnson and Valenza’s assertion that we must put the needs of today’s learners first. Recommendation 6 warns:

“It may be tempting for teachers and administrators who are themselves uncomfortable with new media to view digital and media competencies as “add-ons” to basic learning in “reading, writing and, arithmetic.” These competencies are, however, new forms of foundational learning. The consequences of neglecting this challenge can be dire. Students who are deeply immersed in the world of online communication outside of school may find classrooms [and hence, school libraries] that marginalize new technologies both tedious and irrelevant.”

Too many school librarians dismiss these kinds of literacies as fleeting and see them as irrelevant. They scoff at the conversations we attempt to have about networked learning, the emergence of social scholarship, and the need to teach our students ways to harness the power of social media. Are our schools providing our students the advantage through well-rounded information literacy instruction and learning activities that value digital and media literacy? Or do we privilege traditional literacies at the expense of this cultural capital our students need? As leaders in our school communities, a role we should be embracing, let us blaze the trail to create a culture of inquiry that encourages students to use these literacies as a lens for understanding more deeply how multiple kinds of texts function within our society. Who better to wave the banner for transliteracy than school librarians?

Criticism: Barriers

Beth identifies what she perceives to be a list of obstacles and roadblocks to change that she feels may explain why school librarians may not cultivate a personal learning network.

• basic internet access

• aging collections

• fixed scheduling

• no paraprofessional support

• outrageous student to library staff ratio

• test scores dictate instruction

• money to travel to conferences no longer exists

• filtering reigns

• they may face administrators who don’t support them

• teachers with no time to collaborate

• few obvious opportunities to develop whatever a PLN is

Some feel that these concerns are not shared by what Jim Randolph (Teacher Ninja) identifies as “first wave adopters”.   Are more progressive librarians immune from these challenges?  It is naïve to think that librarians who are considered ahead of the curve don’t worry about these challenges and/or face them in their library environment; the difference is that some of us choosing to not let these circumstances or barriers define who are or what we do as librarians.   We instead try to see these challenging situations and times as an opportunity to innovate,  not to dwell on the things we cannot do.

These are topics that should be of concern to every school library media specialist in the test driven culture and economically challenged times we work in.  They are not reasons, though, to fail to innovate and keep up.  I try to be very transparent about the challenges I face through my blog (many of which are on this list above); however, I also endeavor to demonstrate that there are obstacles and may also get discouraged at times, If I throw up my hands and give up, how can I hope to achieve the goals and vision I have for the library program if I don’t chip away at the problem?  I do believe that with continued and consistent efforts to educate and nurture decision and policy makers, I can slowly but surely eliminate barriers to change.  I also must be willing to challenge my thinking, seek out others who can help me analyze the obstacles from multiple perspectives, and also be willing to take risks to try and effect authentic change.  Our times call for “true grit” and our willingness to keep getting up even if we get knocked down more than once.

These concerns lead to the ideas of advocacy and leadership, which are addressed by Johnson and Valenza in the article. We have to remember that our efforts to tear down these barriers are about what is best for our students. At the end of the day, it’s really not about you, the school librarian.  Instead, we must keep our focus on what is best for students.  We cannot sit around and indulge in self-pity and endless complaining about the challenges we face.  Instead, we can choose to identify the problems and campaign for effective solutions that will provide the best possible learning environment for our students. We cannot sit and wait for someone to save us; we must save ourselves through grass-roots advocacy and effective marketing of our library programs.

School library advocate and “Washington Mom” Lisa Layera Brunkan reminded us at the School Library Journal Summit in October 2009 that our advocacy efforts should be focused on how these obstacles and cuts affect students; if we do not collect the appropriate data, demonstrate how we make a difference through transparent means (i.e. social media), cultivate our presence as one that is “indispensable” in our building, then we will continue to see the erosion and marginalization of our roles. Sara Kelley Johns, former AASL president and 2010 ALA presidential candidate outlined our roles as leaders at the SLJ Summit, asserting that “We have to be the leaders in the building whether they acknowledge us or not!”

Rather than seeing ourselves as victims who are helpless, we must work together to find creative solutions to the obstacles Beth has identified in her response. For those who feel powerless, engaging in creating a personal learning network can connect them others around the world who have faced similar challenges and found ways to overcome these seemingly insurmountable odds. Johns also reminds us that,

“Advocacy rests on solid programs—we may have good programs now, but we have to be learners ourselves. All of us need to be learners—whatever we can do to foster the most effective learning to students among our fellow librarians is one librarian’s mantra.”

The marvelous and brutally honest blog post, “Embracing Obstacles” from the Brand Builder Blog, offers many pearls of wisdom for dealing with barriers. I encourage you to read the blog post in its entirety, but Oliver Blanchard offers this perspective on how we should view and deal with obstacles:

Great project managers aren’t just natural multi-taskers. They’re also natural strategic masterminds. Improvisation kings (and queens). Crisis jugglers. Fearless creative acrobats. Their job (their nature) is to constantly find and implement solutions to problems, foreseen and not. Their job is to embrace hurdles and obstacles, because each one brings them one step closer to their goal. They thrive on making things happen. The more untraveled the road, the better. The more complex the gameboard, the better.
It takes a special kind of person to be able to a) do that kind of work well, and b) love every minute of it.  It isn’t for everybody. Excuses and blame don’t exist in this little world. There’s only what you did and what you didn’t do.  Sometimes, even the best laid plans just go awry.  For most people, that’s not a good thing…and for some of us, that’s when the real fun begins.

Are we not project managers? The AASL Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs has added leader to our list of roles we play in our learning communities. How can you lead if you are not making an active effort to keep up with what is happening in the field and taking proactive measures to adapt? I am a firm believer in leading by example, and we cannot lead for our students, teachers, administrators, or parents if we are allowing perceived obstacles to impede us from our mission. Are you that special kind of person who leads and advocates for your library program in the face of these challenges? Are you what Stephen Walker defines as an “A” librarian who innovates in spite of adversity?  Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson remind us in The Hazards of Leading Culture Change that “Planned change takes courage and tenacity.”

Criticism:  2.0 Is Not Our Brand

Friese writes, “ Our brand really can’t be social media. It can’t be databases. It can’t be 2.0. Not only will these things fade away, they exclude large parts of our profession from participation. I’d rather adopt our brand as “cultivating curiosity.” That will stand the test of time. And it’s something we can all gather around the table and talk about pushing toward.”

Based on our AASL Standards for 21st Century Learners, it seems to me that we should have already adopted and been cultivating a brand of inquiry and curiosity.   Are our library school programs instilling this value and mindset in students? Are there any legitimate reasons as to why every librarian would not already have this stance to some degree?

Secondly, I don’t think Joyce identifies any one of these “things” as our brand although I feel there is really no argument that they are indeed elements of our brand for now.   Go look at the manifesto linked in the article (and please note that every reader was invited to contribute) —does it look as though it is focused on single item to you? To me, that answer is no. Instead, the manifesto identifies critical issues that we must address and include as part of our library programs. And if you don’t agree with the brand, what would you add? Again, the invitation to engage and contribute is there, but if you aren’t participating, can you really complain?

You can be excluded only if you allow yourself to be by choice. If you choose to not join the conversations that are taking place in many spaces, then yes, you will be excluded.

Final Thoughts

Many of us interact with media specialists who are just in the process of cultivating their personal learning networks. I think we all make an effort to welcome the new voices and provide encouragement to those who want and ask for help—I won’t identify names for fear of omitting anyone, but I can identify several school librarians that I have helped through f2f interaction, Twitter, Gmail chat, and emails. The encouragement Beth prefers has been in place and continues to be there, but school librarians have to be willing to take those first steps to get started on the journey.  You cannot be helped if you are not willing to help yourself.

Jim Randolph mentioned my visit to his class (my alma mater, I might add, the University of Georgia) and stated that while he enjoyed the visit, some were overwhelmed by the information I was asked to deliver. While some may have reacted to the presentation in that manner, I can attest there were those who listened to my advice to start with one piece of the puzzle at the time and who have started sowing seeds of advocacy and leadership in their practice; never did I say that my practice was ideal or something that happened overnight. I can assure you any good I have done in my school is the result of hard work, persistence, and an unwavering belief that my library program does have relevance.   No one else is going to believe you and your work are relevant if you don’t believe yourself.

I don’t consider myself an exceptional librarian by any stretch of the imagination, but I do consider myself a learning and information professional who tries to embody the qualities of Librarian 2.0. I also try to convey I have miles to go in my growth and practice, but through ongoing reflection and assessment, I can feel confident that I am taking the right steps to be a lifelong learner. I think if we approach our “work” as play and joyful learning, then perhaps we might be better able to follow Seth Godin’s directive to “Stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable!”

Doug Johnson concludes the blog post by asking these questions, “Do we owe an apology to those who struggle in silence? How can we give a voice to those who choose not to network?”

If you believe that constructive criticism is part of ongoing self-assessment and a key to growth, then the answer is no. If anyone is owed an apology, it is the students who are not getting the instruction and library program they deserve because they happen to be in a school in which their school librarian who chooses, for whatever reasons, to not at least make the effort to implement a library program that is responsive and proactive.  No one disagrees that each person will adopt these practices in different ways—we can celebrate that, but there is nothing to celebrate about those who won’t even make the effort to move forward.

As for the question about giving a voice to those who choose not to network, only they can give themselves a voice by choosing to participate in the community discussion rather than standing on the sidelines.  In conclusion, it is my firm belief that no one can “give” you your voice. You must find it yourself and then be willing to share it with others so that we may all learn and work toward moving our profession forward.

“Where Are the Others” is not really a question I think is most important.   Instead, I think this question is what we each need to ask ourselves as school librarians:

What will you do with your voice?

As I began a short story project this week with Ms. Frost, 9th grade English teacher, some students gravitated to the print books available for finding their short stories, and others preferred e-copies on the web or through Google Books.

Some, though, turned to their iPods to access and read their texts.  Some students read e-copies through their Safari browser while others downloaded free or inexpensive apps from iTunes to get their stories.

A quick search for Poe and short stories in the iTunes store reveals a wonderful menu of inexpensive or free apps for iPods and iPhones as well as podcasts that can be played on a computer or any number of devices.

Some librarians and educators are in real denial about the reality of eBooks and Reading 2.0 as it exists now and what may be to come.   Others, understandably, are still making sense of this new reading landscape:  what counts as literacy and how that definition is rapidly evolving.  Some feel it is an “either/or” proposition and see the issue in black and white terms rather than realizing that different forms of reading, in whatever containers they may exist, CAN happily co-exist as depicted in the photo above.

The kids know this—what part of this don’t the adults get?  At the end of the day, our focus needs to be about meeting their needs, not ours.

First, let me say that I absolutely love the idea of libraries following a bookstore model so I’m already coming from a biased opinion. I think that, in general, libraries have a lot to learn from all retail businesses about getting our resources off our shelves and into the hands of our patrons. In fact, I would even go so far as to relate an item circulating in libraries making a sale in retail. It seems to me that having the objective of increasing the number our library materials coming off of our shelves in an efficient manner is the same thing that retail stores are attempting to do with their sales. If that’s true, and a library wants to increase its circulation or its “sales” maybe I should just start calling the circulation of library materials, library sales?

There are, of course, quite a few differences between library materials and retail products. For example, people have to return a library item and the item is owned by

Are we increasing Circulation or Sales?

the people of the community as whole through the government purchase and distribution of it. The item can be “re-sold” a multitude of times and people only pay for the item if it is lost, damaged, or returned late. We try not to let the market dictate too fully about which items are purchased. And I’m not suggesting that we are competing with bookstores or retail markets because I think we serve fundamentally different purposes. But really, I think that the actual process of getting the item off the shelf and into the hands of the patron is the same as making a sale and many of the techniques of making more successful sales can be applied to increasing circulation.

In the end, I don’t think that anything would really change about the actual circulation of library materials by simply calling it a new name except that we might begin to look at circulation in a new way and our “sales” would hopefully increase. By renaming the process we might look more closely at the vast number of more refined techniques that retail stores (not just bookstores) use to get their products into the hands of the people in their places of business. Perhaps by simply renaming the movement of the library materials we will get librarians to start thinking about using some of those techniques more often. So maybe from now I won’t “check out books,” instead I’ll “make sales.”

Of course, I could be wrong. What do you think?

We finish our interview with Tim Spalding of LibraryThing, talking about social networking and sharing, and different way of seeing the world.

Tim on Facebook and social networking book applications: “To some extent they’re competitiors, to some extent they’re gateway drugs to LibraryThing”.

Presentación de Michael Stephens en Townsville, Australia sobre tecnologías emergentes. Son mayormente imágenes y frases pero estas hablan por  sí solas.  Buen recurso para generar conversación entre profesionales de la información

Slides aquí: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/239835/QPLAChangeChallengeStephens.pdf

I’m loving the Library 101 Project!  Check out the video!