Dynamic Librarian

Audio formats tutorial from CNET

2009-05-08T00:31:00.002-05:00

For those who would like a refresher on the formats of several popular audio files, CNET offers this slideshow and/or video.

What would life be like without CNET?

Techno-buzz

2009-05-08T00:23:00.002-05:00

Two things I came across recently:

For the iPhone bandwagon folks, here are two apps that you may want to purchase for making your photos, well, worth looking at:

ToyCamera (simple photoshop-esque tools)

QuadCamera (the ability to take 4-8 frames in rapid succession)

Why do I share these apps? After all, I am an iPhone groupie and can't tell you from experience that these apps are worth your time. I'm waiting for Apple to give away an iPhone with the purchase of an iMac- if the economy gets bad enough it just might happen!

Investing in yourself

2009-04-09T22:24:00.004-05:00

A few months ago I was skimming the 2008 financial self-help book called Killing Sacred Cows, and I came upon a few pages about Investing in Yourself. My mind wandered to examples of successful people and how they have invested in themselves.

I began thinking about Warren Buffet, and how over the course of his lifetime he has armed himself with information about all the companies he has invested in. Somewhere along the way someone encouraged Mr. Buffet to invest in himself.

I began thinking about Barack Obama, and how he has been able to work his way through Ivy League schools, through the politics of Chicago, and now he sits in the Oval Office. Somewhere along the way someone encouraged Mr. Obama to invest in himself.

I began to think of TED.com, and how they give out prizes each year to people/organizations with great ideas. Dave Eggers won a few years back for his concept of 826 Valencia ("the trick to happy communities is getting kids to do their homework..."). Somewhere along the way someone encouraged Mr. Eggers to invest in himself.

It's comforting to know that even through inevitable future budget cuts, we will have public service entities that will continue to set the standard for communities investing in themselves.

Have you encouraged someone today?

The only constant is change

2009-03-02T11:56:00.002-06:00

I have been offered, and have accepted, a new position with the Tacoma Public Library (TPL) in Washington state. I will be ending my work here at Tulsa Community College (TCC) in a few weeks, and starting my new job in early April.

I will be the Manager for the Moore and Mottet branches of TPL.

Transitioning back to public library work from the community college setting will offer challenges and opportunities for me.

And regarding this blog, I endeavor to begin publishing at least twice a month when I get out to Tacoma and get settled.

.museum beat .library to the punch, by about eight years

2008-11-10T21:00:00.002-06:00

ICANN is opening up generic Top Level Domains, and no one really knows if there will an Oklahoma-style land rush on names. I'm going to guess, though, that the high price for an entry ticket ($185,000) will keep the list of competitors short.

What could .library do for the library community? Would it usher in an era of unprecedented online use of library resources? Would we suddenly be swamped with IM reference questions, and would our site counters register huge jumps in visits? If the .museum is any indication, we may want to save our money. Back in September 2002 .museum was put into existence thanks to funds of the International Council of Museums and the J. Paul Getty Trust (not sure of the price tag, but I doubt it was $185,000!). I think the only way we could make the .library work for us would be tight controls on who gets in (think user-friendly and content-rich) and by hosting ads on the sites. There, I said it. Ads. Historically, however, neither of these ideas has been embraced by the library community.

Ouch. We innovators, we techiest of techies, we guardians of the printed word. We have been defeated for so long and have not even realized it. That's right. The museum folks beat us in the domain name race by over eight years. Eight...years.

Here's an idea: we could do our best to persuade Mr. Bill Gates to foot the bill. We would need a big backer, and Mr. Gates has been a supporter of libraries in the past (at least for Microsoft-related items). Think about it: Carnegie was the brick-and-mortar library champion of his day; Gates could be the URL-domain-name champion of this century.

To be sure, the registrations for a .lib or .library would have to be only for proven library institutions (as they are currently with .museum). And then comes an important question: To sustain themselves, would the subscribing libraries have to run ads? Oh, horror of horror, those ads.

The always reliable Information Today covered this a few months ago.

What are your thoughts?

Oklahoma Global Education Conference (OGEC)

2008-10-08T14:11:00.005-05:00

I presented last week with Adam Brennan at the OGEC conference here in Tulsa.

We showcased free and proprietary online resources related to Global Education, and other than a very slow/prone-to-time-out network connection, we had a good session.

Some audience favorites that I had not included in my presentation were Merlot, China Daily, Al Jazeera, and procon.org.

Here are some of the highlights that I presented, in random order (links to these can be found at my delicious.com site):

Gutenberg- 25,000 free ebooks
BBC News In Pictures-daily and topical
Worldcat- 1.2 billion items in over 10,000 libraries worldwide (books, cds, etc)
Library of Congress and Flickr- two albums of 4,000 photos from 1910’s -1940’s
British Library Turning the Pages- high quality scans of historical and religious texts (not pdf’s!)
Skype- free online chat and audio/video calls
Social bookmarking on Delicious-save favorite websites, share, assign keywords/tags
Google Earth- 3-D views, sunrise function, navigate
Babelfish-translating text

Free software/online storage
· Ispring (turn ppt into flash)
· Adrive.com (50 gb free storage!!!)
· Audacity (free software to record audio mp3 files)
· Ning (create a social networking site)
· Airset (“your web computer”)

Cool Points
· Moodstream from Getty Images
· Pandora
· Worldle

"Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?"

2008-09-29T16:22:00.005-05:00

The segment below is from an Associated Press story about the recent financial crisis.

"Meanwhile, new details emerged of a remarkably tumultuous White House meeting on Thursday. With the session breaking up in disarray, according to two participants, President Bush issued an appeal, saying, "Can't we just all go out and say things are OK?" The group around the table, congressional leaders as well as McCain and Obama, spurned the presidential request for a publicly united front."

Someday I'd like to hear a recording, to know if that is indeed what President Bush said.

For now, I will simply say that I'd like to see more courage from our leaders.

22 miles in 15 minutes with homemade wings and a jet pack

2008-09-26T07:42:00.005-05:00

Today "Jet Man" was successful at flying across the English Channel with his homemade jet pack and wings. OK, so he had a little help by way of the plane that he jumped out of at 8,800 feet to get started, and he had a chase plane behind him just in case something went awry, but I give the man full credit for his adventure-seeking.

What does this have to do with Libraries? Discovery, adventure, cultural events, history in the making, "wow" factor (maybe he is an avid reader of flight theory and physics, and could give talks in libraries?), etc.

Perspective about the financial choices we are facing this week

2008-09-24T09:31:00.005-05:00

“Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply.

Primarily, this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money.

Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored conditions. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.

They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.”

Sound familiar? David Gregory (MSNBC anchor) picked this one out today, and I was thoroughly impressed. This is a passage from Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural in 1933.

(This entire post is from a personal email from Mark Gonzales.)

Colin Powell makes a stop in Tulsa

2008-09-23T10:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I attended the morning session of a "Get Motivated" seminar in our new 18,000 seat arena downtown, the BOK Center.

The ticket was free, and I would not have gone if Mr. Powell had not been slated to speak. I wanted to hear what he had to say, this man who is a career military leader and is fond of old Volvo's.

He spoke of America's Promise, and how "we have no greater responsibility now in America than to make sure that the next generation of youngsters is ready for positions of leadership." He divulged that he is a bit of a tech geek, and is involved in a few businesses in the area of information and technology.

In his talk he noted that leadership is "all about followers and followership." Leaders need to 1) "clearly set goals" and 2) "take care of the troops." He said that passion is infectious, and a leader's task is to motivate and inspire people. He also pointed out that today's leaders need to display moral and physical courage, as well as character and integrity.

He then went into stories about his experience in the military and as Secretary of State.

Mr. Powell quickly glossed over four e's that we need to be focusing on: economics, energy, environment, and education.

He ended by saying that we need to "get back to simply American values" and "build bonds of trust," but that the US still has a strong role in leading change in the world.

Overall I was impressed with the man. He used humor effectively in his oration, and at times seemed like just another guy. There was a female voice at one point yelling at him, and he turned to that part of the arena and said, "Hello. How are you? Thank you," and moved on. The voice from the stands was not heard again.

Had he taken questions, I would liked to have asked him about sitting in front of the UN during that fateful moment in February 2003, and if he indeed thought it was his lowest point in life, how did it fit into his previous words about leadership?

He spoke for 37 minutes, and after his speech I left, sensing that the rest of the day's "Get Motivated" events would not hold much for me.

One Espresso, please

2008-09-22T14:40:00.003-05:00

Machines are printing out-of-copyright books now, on demand and for a nominal fee (compared to buying an original copy, if you can find one).

In December I will be visiting family in Michigan, and I may just have to swing the car westbound to visit a university library in Ann Arbor. You see, I'm quite eager to buy a book from their new machine. I want to get it home and see how it looks on my bookshelf (before I start lending it out).

Why will the print-on-demand book be so unique to my bookcase? It won't really. But each book has a history of how it arrived in my world, and I find the autonomy that these machines provide rather interesting.

Speaking of the machines, apparently Canada beat the US to the punch on putting this machine in an educational institution; they decided to put their machine in a university bookstore instead of a library.

Competition will crop up for the US-made Espresso, however. An Australian company says they will enter the market at some point.

Why I will not use Google Chrome

2008-09-02T14:55:00.004-05:00

I'm not ready to help Google make money off of my creativity- not just yet. I'm sure I'll get there someday.

This is from the Google Chrome Terms of Service:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."

The full text is below.

********************************************

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

***************************************************

Two tools every college student needs to know about

2008-08-19T06:23:00.003-05:00

Worldcat.org

"1.2 billion items in over 10,000 libraries around the world"

Search for books, dvd's, cd's, and journal articles. The site "knows" where you are by zip code (it gets pretty close, and you can change it to your actual zip code if it misses), and will show you where the to find the closest copy of the item you are looking for. You can also create an account and make lists of the books that you want to read, have read, want to buy your kid for Christmas, are related to your hobbies, etc. And since this is OCLC (not Amazon, LibraryThing, or Shelfari) I am reasonably certain that the lists I create will be around for more than 10 years. :-)

campusi.com

This dandy of a site will compare prices at Amazon, half.com, Borders, abebooks.com, biblio.com, Barnes and Noble, and many more. Let it do the work for you!

Litigation without defendants?

2008-04-19T16:09:00.006-05:00

In the interest of quality journalism, I offer two interesting notes from Library Journal's recent post about Georgia State University being sued:

Is the issue over 6700 words or 6700 works? There is a slight difference between the two.

Who, exactly are the plaintiffs? The author of the article identifies 7 individuals/organizations, 3 on one side and 4 on the other. He also says that they are all plaintiffs.

There is also a minor error of punctuation in the first paragraph, but I will let the editors of Library Journal find it.

This will be an interesting case to watch, even after the errors in LJ's article are fixed.

Post script: The original date of the article was 4/16/08. On 4/21/08 "6700 words" was changed to "6700 works." The plaintiff issue still stands.

Second post script: The defendants were finally identified correctly late this morning (4/22/08).

Ebook readers wiki site

2008-03-13T12:18:00.004-05:00

For those of you interested in commenting on ebook readers, or learning more about the ebook reader workshop on April 1st, please visit the new wiki.

Please help us "continue the conversation" in higher education...

No Shelf Required blog has begun

2008-03-10T17:53:00.003-05:00

Sue Polanka, over in Ohio at Wright State University, has created a blog about ebooks.

This helps my status among coworkers, that other people are talking about ebooks and ebook readers. I was beginning to feel that folks around here thought I had gone off the deep end.

Check out the new blog if you have any interest, and let me know if you'd like to come get your hands on a Kindle, Reader, Iliad, or ebookwise on April 1st in Tulsa.

Extra, extra read all about it

2008-02-17T20:57:00.001-06:00

ebook reader unconference update

2008-01-31T14:53:00.001-06:00

Here is an update on the ebook reader unconference idea: (1) host an online conversation until April 30, (2) include at least one in-person workshop focusing on the ebook readers (see last post for the products), (3) provide surveys to gather data and opinions about ebook readers and their existing/potential use in the field of higher education, (4) write an article about the experience, inlcluding survey results and what librarians and educators would like to see in future ebook reader products.

Please provide feedback to this post if you'd like to help, want to attend the April 1 workshop, or have constructive feedback.

In summary:

Online conversation (via blog right now- wiki forthcoming) from now until April 30

In-person workshop:
Tuesday April 1 (no joke)
1 to 4 PM Central Standard Time
LRC Innovations Room 1144
NE campus of Tulsa Community College

Possible poster session:
Oklahoma Library Association annual conference
April 21-23
Tulsa, OK

Summarize results of survey and begin to write article- May 1

Future of reading unconference idea

2008-01-16T08:05:00.001-06:00

I'm considering planning an unconference (as much as an unconference can be planned).

The topic (as of now): E-book readers and their place in society in the year 2010

The idea is to put the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, the ebookwise and the Illiad side by side and compare/contrast, then talk about how they affect reading and writing. Newsweek has said, "Though Bezos is reluctant to make the comparison, Amazon believes it has created the iPod of reading." I suggest we get together, look at these products, and publish a report on what we like about them, what we don't, and what we want to see in a future product. Let's shape the future.

I think the Read/Write group on Facebook would be interested in this, and the idea is to invite regional information professionals to by physically present, and then have a rich online component to the unconference.

Addendum: With limited time and resources, the goal here is to make this as easy as possible to put together. I am thinking that Tuesday, April 8 could be the designated day to end the unconference, with the understanding that a lot will happen between now and then. On April 8 I would like to have a physical meeting of people interested in getting their hands on one of the above mentioned four ebook readers. I'd like it to be a small group, say about 30 people. But then again, this is to be an unconference, so all can be changed as need be. :-)

So I guess I am wanting to host an unconference from now (January 17) until April 8. Some people might say that doesn't sound like an unconference at all- it sounds more like a 3 month conversation.

Please share your thoughts.

Skinny on the Kindle, interview 3

2008-01-16T07:54:00.001-06:00

The third (and last) person I spoke with at the coffee shop was a man about my age, who I had seen using a laptop and reading the morning newspaper in print form.

I asked him if he had seen it- at first he thought it was a PDA of some sort. After talking about it for a minute, he asked to hold it.

He said the screen was easy on his eyes, and that he could see that it had potential. "There are people who like to carry books, and for them this would be great."

He went on to say, however, that people are trying to get away from carrying "extras," and the Kindle is an extra. I told him that it had newspapers available on it, and that was a positive in his view.

Score so far: Kindle Yeas-3, Kindle Neas-3

Note: this score only indicates interest, not that the respondents would be willing to pay $400 for the device.

Skinny on the Kindle, interview 2

2008-01-16T07:48:00.001-06:00

My wife had a few things to say about the Kindle when I showed it to her.

She liked the electronic paper technology- she was reading in low light and said that it was easy on her eyes.

She was browsing the Kindle store in no time, and remarked that several of the books looked interesting. "Interesting enough at $10 a pop?," I asked (we are avid public library users). "Well, maybe not all of them," came her reply. I told her that if she was interested in buying a book it would be delivered in about a minute over the cell phone technology that the Kindle uses. That was also a positive in her mind- no wireless hotspot needed.

She had nothing negative to say about the Kindle, though I did not tell her that it has a list price of nearly $400.

Score to date: Kindle Yeas-2 (I include myself), Kindle Neas-3

Skinny on the Kindle, interview 1

2008-01-16T07:45:00.001-06:00

I stopped by a local coffee shop this morning on my way to work, and imposed on a group of three high school students who were studying for an exam.

I took a minute of their time to ask them about their reading preferences and how the Kindle might affect their reading. I asked "How much do you read now and how might this (pointing to Kindle) affect your reading?"

The answers were not in the positive. One student said that he only reads what is required for school, and if there were a book that he wanted to read, he would simply go buy a copy. I answered, "Amazon is betting that you may want to buy an electronic copy (again pointing at the Kindle on the table)..."

He and his fellow students nodded their head in disagreement. "You have to turn that off on the plane during takeoff" remarked one young lady.

My 60 seconds were up at that point, and I excused myself. What did I learn from this encounter? First, we need to ask our users about their technology preferences before assuming anything. Second, none of the three high schoolers asked to pick up the Kindle and look at it (their exam was weighing heavily on their minds, true enough). Third, these students stood up for print format books. Print is not dead.

Concerned about your privacy when you Google?

2007-12-21T21:12:00.001-06:00

Check out these two videos from Google:

Dynamic Librarian to present at ODLA

2007-11-05T19:25:00.002-06:00

There's nothing like teaching something to really make sure that you know it.

Along those lines, I'll be putting my best foot forward tomorrow for my presentation of "Audio files in distance learning: what can podcasting do for students?" at Oklahoma Distance Learning Association's Web 2.0 in Education conference.

This morning, on day one of two, the keynote speaker spoke about the read/write society that we are moving toward, and one of the videos he showed had this zinger: "Text... is the Latin of our world." The idea is that text is supposed to be this quaint, going-out-of-style language, and interactive hypertext, audio, video, and who-knows-what-is-next will be the way to communicate in the future. Well, time will tell. One thing is for sure- it's a great time to be paying keen attention.

Only in Oklahoma

2007-10-30T22:10:00.001-05:00

We have a local stink going on here in Oklahoma that I feel that I need to share.

The Qur'an was given out to legislators as a centennial gift (Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!), and several have banded together to "just say no" to the book.

Here was one of the lead legislator's comments on why he would not accept the book: "Most Oklahomans do not endorse the idea of killing innocent women and children in the name of ideology." Last time I checked, the Muslims I know in Tulsa are not endorsing the idea, either.

Now, I have many thoughts on this, but I just want to share one. What happens when we sit idly by and let our legislators make a mockery out of our pluralistic society?

Listen to your colleagues and patrons!

2007-10-20T23:31:00.001-05:00

It has been a year now since I have been working in the world of the academic library, and I have to say I'm hooked. I have had steady challenges, along with the occasional Ah Ha! moment, and I have yet to experience the same day twice.

Two interesting things I have been able to do this last year have been a result of listening to staff. One staff member suggested Playaway audiobooks (think audiobook on an iPod, but the Playaway is a self contained audiobook). We ordered 60 titles, and at any given time about 10-15% of them are checked out (Ok, Ok, small sample size, but it still sounds good).

Another project we are embarking on is Podcasting, and the catalyst here was that a staff member suggested the $100 Podcast Studio kit. This set up includes a quality microphone and a set of headphones that any DJ would be proud of.

To reiterate, staff have suggested very timely and interesting products and services this year. My goal is to write a similar entry one year from now, with students being the group that has provided inspiration.

Top 50 Library Blogs, by traffic

2007-09-26T09:45:00.001-05:00

The Online Education Database (a privately held organization that provides "...reviews of 1,004 programs from 86 accredited online colleges.") has announced its top 25 Library Bloggers, and if you scroll down the page from the Top 25 you can see the Top 50. It is all based on numbers, though, so yours truly did not make the cut. :-)

Library Journal has picked up on it, as have many bloggers. Some authors out there seem to think the list is a little silly, but I say it's nice to have the attention.

Find the Dynamic Librarian on technorati...

2007-08-30T20:44:00.002-05:00

Technorati Profile

iCaucus begins

2007-08-30T20:03:00.001-05:00

Check out the August 21 Library Journal article about iCaucus, a new branding push for information schools. There was a press release that announced its formation, indicating that 19 schools (14 of which are currently ALA accredited) are on board.

The initiative was spearheaded, evidently, by the late Ray von Dran. Since the iCaucus announcement was so soon after von Dran's death, I can only think that the 19 iSchool deans decided that the time to act was upon them. I hope there is follow through; this sounds like it has potential.

Here is the press release of August 22 from the branding and marketing firm.

ALA accreditation has a new logo (if you consider January 2007 new)

2007-08-23T21:33:00.001-05:00

I am a bit late on the draw here, but if you haven't heard there is a new logo that schools with ALA accreditation can use. If you're curious, here is the US Patent and Trademark Office listing for it.

Here are the guidelines for using the ALA Office of Accreditation logo (interesting note- one of the rules is that "ALA accredited programss may not use the logo on merchandise intended for sale." I suppose they are not really thinking of their program as merchandise- I'll have to see what non-accredited programs such as Berkeley's School of Information, aka iSchool, has to say about the logo).

'Zero Based Library School' idea begins

2007-08-01T22:32:00.001-05:00

I had hoped to keep this 'under wraps' until I had a better grasp on it, but the gentleman over at Library Juice has posted about our Facebook group so I feel as though I need to give this idea of Zero Based Library School some clarification and direction.

I came up with this idea at the Peabody Professional Institute for Academic Library Leaders (see my earlier posts) in July 2007. We were discussing the future of higher education and the focus on outcomes and assessment, and the role of librarians as community builders and teachers of information literacy. One presenter brought up the fact that most things in higher education are based on the past (for instance, oh- here's podcasting. Let's offer a class on that). The person noted that at the current rate of information creation and technology development, what a student is learning today will be out of date 3 years from now.

So here is the question: What do we want our Library and Information Science students to learn in this day and age? What classes do our students need to take, and what competencies do they need to have in order to excel as librarians? How much of the traditionalist approach should we take, and where do we draw the line on new tools and technologies? Said another way, are we relevant to users when we rely too much on our tradition, and are we ignoring our core services when we bring in the latest technology only for the sake of looking hip?

We librarians have been 'keepers of the flame' for quite some time now. The Alexandria library faded into memory after several fires, the Iraqi National Library suffered tremendous losses in recent times, and there have been several travesties in between those events. Yet we librarians remain. We serve our constituents, be they government officials (who allegedly know how to read), corporate board members, clergy, students, public citizens of a local community, etc. That is what we do. That is what we have done for thousands of years, and will continue to do.

The Zero Based Library School (ZBLS) idea is relevant today because of the incredible rate of change that is taking place around us.

With the ZBLS idea, I plan to turn over many stones in the library profession, including:

Perform a study of accreditation of US library schools by ALA since its inception, focusing on the closings of programs in the 1990's and the current state of accreditation.
Reserach the training that librarians received in the US before 1876.
Examine library education practices in several countries around the world, to be determined.
Survey students, MLS degree holders at varying stages of their careers, non-MLS professionals, and the constituents of several different types of libraries.
Take into account what we need to know and why we need to know it (theory vs. practical).

This could easily be a life's work, and at this stage in my life (I'm quite young as the profession goes) I'm willing and eager to chart the course. I challenge you to come with me. Friend or foe, bring forth your voice. If you have constructive criticism, please share it. We are engaged in this profession because we enjoy helping people. Let's keep our users in mind.

A word about naming- we can spend lots of time trying to convince others (and ourselves) that we are 'information technologists' or 'information brokers' or 'information gurus,' but we know that at the base of it all we are librarians. We are blended librarians, embedded librarians, but above all, in order to survive, we must be proactive librarians.

Please comment on Zero Based Library School. We may not find any new answers, but there will be some excellent questions and discussions along the way. Help me refine the idea and make it something tangible and relevant so that we may better serve our end users, wherever and whoever they may be.

There will be a blog devoted entirely to this idea, and perhaps a wiki, soon.

Dynamic Librarian considering a move to wordpress

2007-08-01T22:25:00.002-05:00

After a few blissful months on blogspot, I'm thinking of moving over to wordpress. Feel free to visit the new site and comment (it is very much in 'beta' mode and won't be my official home for another month or so).

The features on it will be more relevant to my needs, I think. Also, I like to mix it up every now and again just to make sure I'm able to implement change.

The Onion meets YouTube

2007-07-25T14:45:00.001-05:00

This is a fake story from a week ago. The Onion is a satirical newspaper, for those who are not familiar with it. Enjoy.

Peabody Professional Institute

2007-07-20T12:47:00.001-05:00

I have been back to work a week now since participating in the Academic Library Leadership Institute at the Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee (whew- say that fast three times). The experience was incredible, and I'd highly recommend it.

I was wrong about a few things. There were 4 community colleges represented, not two, and I was not the youngest participant (the winner has me beat by six months).

The group size was 25, and the following schools/organizations were represented:

Capital Community College
Eastern Connecticut State University
Delaware State University
Texas Tech University
Howard University
Tulsa Community College
University of Houston Libraries
Hilbert College
George Washington University
Marion Military Institute
Creighton University
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Kent State University
Palmer Seminary
University of Wisconsin- Parkside
Elizabeth City State University
Tennessee State University
New Mexico State University
Georgia College and State University
York College
University of Colorado
Elmhurst College
Texas A&M
Westchester Community College
University of Texas at Dallas

The aim of the Institute was to:

“Explore role of the library in furthering the goals and priorities of the parent institution”
“Identify strategies for positioning the academic library as an agent for change within a higher education institution”
“Enhance participants’ abilities to articulate persuasively the need for strengthened support for academic library services and resources”

Those objectives were met, and then some. I walked away from Peabody with 24 professional contacts and friends, as well as copious notes from the speakers and myriad ways to get back to campus and put some great ideas into practice.

The co-chairs were Dr. Patricia Senn Breivik and Dr. Sharon Weiner. Dr. Breivik co-authored the book, Higher Education in the Internet Age: Libraries Creating a Strategic Edge, and the institution was mostly based on that book. Dr. Weiner is the immediate past Director of the Peabody Library, and the case study of that library's turn around was an important element in the institution.

Five modules made up the Institute, and the format included traditional lectures, panel discussions, small group breakout sessions, and a short amount of time for reflection. The modules were:

The Future of Higher Education (Dr. Alan Guskin, President Emeritus of Antioch University- he noted the current trend toward student assessment and learning outcomes, and encouraged us to challenge basic assumptions about how students learn. He also noted that libraries are in a prime position to help contribute to student success)
Institutional Strategic Planning for Campus-Wide Academic Services (Dr. James Hearn, professor at University of Georgia- focus was on contextual planning)
Perspectives on Assessment and Accreditation (Ralph Wolff, executive director of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WACS) in Alameda, CA- he drew attention to 4 and 6 year graduation rates in the US- the national average 6 year rate is 63%. As an aside, he mentioned that over 50% of students aged 21 or under have created content on the Internet)
Enhancing Resources: Fundraising and Public Relations (Dr. Tim Caboni, Vanderbilt University- spoke about fundraising being critical to many library resources in higher education)
Workforce Issues for Academic Libraries: Our Most Valuable Resource Goes Home Every Night (Brad Davis, San Jose State University- focus was on mentoring, professional development, and succession planning)

Here are some of the things I am going to do as a result of Peabody:

Take the iSkills test offered by the Educational Testing and see if I think it will be a good final assessment for our upcoming 'Information in the Digital Age' class

Show the article, "Return on Investment: Libraries and Student Retention," written by a certified public accountant named Elizabeth Mezick, to my campus administration when it comes out in September's Journal of Academic Librarianship.

Engage staff and student aides more, offer more professional development opportunities

Get a seat at 'the table' where important decisions are being made

Strengthen the Learning Resources Center advisory committee, and include students as well as faculty

Be proactive and visible on campus (physically and virtually)

Regroup with everyone at ACRL in Seattle, 2009!

Dynamic Librarian, Peabody Fellow

2007-07-06T21:04:00.001-05:00

I'm heading to Nashville, Tennessee on Sunday for a week long Academic Library Leadership Institute, hosted by Vanderbilt's Peabody College of Education and Human Development. I am one of 25 who will be participating- only about three of us are younger than 30 (this is my deduction based only on photos- I may be wrong), and there is only one other community college represented.

More on my Peabody experience as it develops.

Blog Law

2007-07-02T08:10:00.001-05:00

The Aviva Directory has posted "12 Important US Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know", and some of them are quite relevant to everyday postings.

Final thoughts on ALA Annual 2007 in DC

2007-07-01T22:19:00.001-05:00

Facebook library friends met at an establishment that night- no one had conference badges on so we did not know that for at least an hour we were sitting next to a table full of librarians. We can be quite a raucous crowd. Even our waitress was in library school. Only because of this night am I now on Facebook. SOOOO much better than MySpace.

Monday was my final day, and before I headed to the airport I attended OCLC’s President’s Luncheon. That got me fired up. OCLC is doing some wonderful things. Now I see why Michael Porter and others work there- seems like a great dynamic. I left the luncheon wanting to go fill out an application, or at least follow up on projects such as Identities, Fiction Finder, the WorldCat pilot project at the University of Washington, and the Delivery pilot project in Wyoming.

I made some excellent work contacts, and a few friends that I want to keep in touch with. So, overall, it was an epic conference (for the record, the categories are ‘epic’, ‘worthwhile’, and ‘should have saved the money’).

Thoughts on vendors at ALA

2007-07-01T22:18:00.001-05:00

Taylor Francis has yet to make contact to alert me that I won the iPhone- this is an oversight I am sure, and trust it will be remedied this week.

Several vendors schmoozed with their customer base (effectively, I might add):

Ebsco provided lunch for about 700 people, and told us about some of the new databases they would be offering soon (more on those databases later).

OCLC sponsored a Blog Salon where I met, among many others, OCLC CEO Jay Jordan

Proquest hosted a dinner for about 150 people at the National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is a very cool public space, rounded walkways and an ‘organic’ sort of feel to it.

3M hosted a dance party at the Grand Hyatt- where else could you have all ages of vendors and librarians sharing a dance floor to the sounds of Outkast and Sir Mix-A-Lot?

Sunday at ALA

2007-07-01T22:16:00.001-05:00

Stephen Abram spoke on Sunday morning and his topic was “What are you promoting?” His point was that we need to be welcoming in our physical and virtual spaces. We need to give the user a positive experience. We know that we have the content- now we need to provide that to the users in an enjoyable way.

I went to a session about recruiting Black Male Librarians, as did about a dozen other people, only to find out that it had been cancelled. I took the initiative to gather business cards and promised that I would follow up. I feel that this workshop is important and ought to be rescheduled. ALA-Midwinter?

LITA hosted a Hot Tech Trends panel discussion Sunday afternoon, with Joan Frye Williams, Marshall Breeding, Roy Tennant, Karen Coombs, John Blyberg, and one more person who I don’t recall. Argh. His name will come to me at some point.

Robert F Kennedy spoke, and I had never heard the man before but I would like to sign up for oration class if he is teaching. Now I know what brilliant public speaking is all about. He had some powerful messages and presented them so as to leave little doubt that action was needed on several fronts (environmental, political, etc.). He was going to sign books after his speech, so I ducked out 15 minutes early and was 5th in line for his signature. I mentioned the Mono Lake Committee, hoping that he had heard of it, but alas there was no recognition in his face as he handed my autographed copy.

Gaming and Information Literacy at ALA

2007-07-01T22:15:00.001-05:00

This was one of the top three workshops I attended; it was presented by CJCLS. The speakers were Dr. Gee and Dr. Needham, and they presented compelling arguments regarding the use of videogames (online as well as standalones such as Nintendo Wii) in education.

Essentially, they said, the education world has for decades been trying to get kids excited about doing long, hard, complex work at school. Private industry has somehow managed to get kids to do this type of work, and pay $60 for each game. What are we doing wrong and what are they doing right? For starters we educators make the kids read first, then play. The games encourage play, then reading. Let’s begin there…

They noted that librarians are no longer “information priests” now that users have a deluge of content coming at them from all angles. Instead, we need to be thinking about what the user can contribute. Indeed, Dr. Gee noted that for many of today’s ‘prosumers,’ information is useless they can modify it in some way.

New image of librarians

2007-06-26T08:09:00.001-05:00

Over at the Chronicle of the Bean we have an excellent example of a new read/write poster. I think it's one that all the men and women will like.

It's just the kind of rebranding that may take libraries into the mainstream...

Ask A Ninja explains Podcasting in simple terms

2007-06-26T08:05:00.001-05:00

As my organization looks into audiofiles, video capture of lectures, and podcasting, this video adds a little spice to the discussion.

Hollywood Librarian

2007-06-24T23:52:00.001-05:00

Friday night was the world premiere of the Hollywood Librarian here in Washington, D.C. They rolled out the red carpet for us librarians, and some of us entered with style (read: did everything we could to get our photo taken). I did OK- its not everyday that an Okie librarian gets his photo and quote in the Washington Post style section. I should have, however, made them agree to mention my blog URL. Next time.

Once I got beyond the flashbulbs of the red carpet, I settled in for the movie. It was all documentary, and its good that Ms. Seidl chose librarians as her inaugural audience. At 100 minutes long, it will be a hard sell to regular audiences. To be marketable to non-librarians, it would need to be cut in half (ie, take out everything but the old movie clips).

Saturday morning there was a discussion panel that noted the movie playing on the library 'victimization' model: "woe is us because look at how others perceive us and gosh we don't have nearly as much money spent on us as we do on military operations around the world." My theory is that until we assert ourselves we will not reach our full potential with regards to funding and respect. We need to practice proactive librarianship and have the ear of key community leaders well before any shutdown occurs. Along those lines, maybe library school needs to include more emphasis on negotiation and proactive marketing (case studies on successful bond measures could be a place to start).

The movie spent a solid 15 minutes on the story of the Salinas Library system quagmire. Ok, what did we learn? Be more proactive and get out the word that the library needs continued support. Next slide, please-let's move on and not dwell on it.

One cool thing that I learned about was the San Quinton State Prison/Marin Literacy program that provided prisoners with the chance to learn how to read.

Other than that, the most relevant parts of the movie were the library-related movie clips and citations:

City of Angels
Cleopatra (twice)
Twilight Zone
Plaza Suite
Big Bully
Goodbye, Columbus
It's a Wonderful Life
Party Girl (thrice)
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Matilda
Dangerous Minds
Pat and Mike
Desk Set (twice)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Goodbye Columbus
Librarian: Quest of the Spear
Music Man
Station Agent
No Man of Her Own
Threesome
Love Story
Storm Center (twice)
Time Machine
Battlefield Earth
Soylent Green
Zardoz
Cesar and Cleopatra
Fahrenheit 451

At the end of the film Ms. Seidl mentioned that we could all pick up a free copy of the film in the exhibit hall if we agreed to two things. First, we had to show it in our communities during Banned Books Week, September 29- Oct 6, 2007. Second, we have to charge admission- $8 for adults and I don't recall how much for children. The proceeds would be split among the hosting library, Ms. Seidl, and a third entity that I do not recall. Jury is still out on how many libraries will actually show the film in their town. I agree about charging money so people will respect what they see, though.

first day at ALA smashing success

2007-06-23T00:05:00.001-05:00

Today I attended a preconference called "Accepting an Electronic Resources Librarianship Position: the Best Professional Decision You Ever Made! Now What?" The presenter was Anjana Bhatt, E Resources Librarian at Florida Gulf Coast University. There were 45 people who each paid $200 (or their institution paid) for this 3.5 hour workshop. Overall it was worthwhile, although the price should have been about $115. There was a librarian from Amsterdam, Netherlands there. How worldly can you get? The workshop made me feel that my community college is doing well in the E Resources area, and we are poised to take the next step with an ERMS (excuse the shop talk...). I made good contacts and will be able to use some of the material as soon as I get back to Tulsa.

Oh, and the fellow from the Netherlands told me of a song I had never heard of, "Twenty four hours from Tulsa," the lyrics of which can be found here. Not a ballad I'll be singing anytime soon, but one more song reference for our fair city.

I took the Metro to the Library of Congress, Jefferson Building, and ohmygoodness I was impressed. The place is incredible. They stayed open from 5 to 7 PM on a Friday night for us fellow librarians. Very cool.

Here is my humble photo essay for today (photos are taken inside Convention Center and Library of Congress, Jefferson Building):

Getting ready for ALA in Anaheim 2008

Library of Congress, Jefferson Building

Words that will be applicable forever in our democracy

Inside the Reading Room

A friendly note from the librarians to the regular Reading Room crowd

This photo is for Gisele- those are Contemporary Authors!

A view from the 4th floor (where I was not supposed to be...)

Tennis, anyone?

A kayaking we shall go

Let the music go around

And I have yet to get to the Hollywood Librarian movie premiere- that will have to wait until tomorrow as it's 2 AM and I'm beat.

Dynamic Librarian in DC

2007-06-21T21:40:00.001-05:00

Karen Harris and I are representing Tulsa Community College here at ALA's massive annual conference. And I do mean massive. There will be about 30,000 of us librarians here.

Today was travel day, and the most interesting thing was the guy in handcuffs on our Tulsa-Memphis flight. I didn't ask questions- he was guarded by two burly men and I felt pretty safe.

The second most interesting thing was a comment about cabin pressure that prompted me to look up the demise of Payne Stewart. Worth a read if you are not familiar with the story.

So here I am at Hotel Washington. The only building that is between me and the White House is the US Treasury. I am about a mile from the Convention Center, but I don't mind the walk and all the hotels were booked when I made my reservations. This one fits me, though. It is 90 years old. :-)

I'm planning my day tomorrow while I watch soccer (Houston is embarrasing Chivas- the score is 4-0 and it's not over yet. This is big because Chivas has never lost by more than 3 goals). Let me know if you have any comments/vendors you want me to visit, if you haven't already.

-Nathan, F.I.G.
(Friendly Information Guru)

'Hollywood Librarian' to make its debut Friday night

2007-06-21T21:37:00.001-05:00

Roll out the red carpet, get the papparazzi out here- DC is the place that the feature-length movie called 'Hollywood Librarian' will be debuted on Friday night.

I will be there and I'll let you know about it tomorrow night. For now here is the trailer:

Heading to ALA

2007-06-07T22:38:00.001-05:00

I'm off to DC June 21 for the American Library Association conference, and it will be my first as well as possibly my last ALA conference. I get to see Stephen Abram, as well as the premeire of the Hollywood Librarian, some cool museums and a female Muslim refusenik named Irshad Manji. Some vendors will give me a free meal- the price I pay will only be my time as they introduce the latest product they have out. I am excited to go, though I may not sound like it. :-) We'll see if ALA can deliver- I'll be posting a few highlights here.

I have a theory about organizations: when they become too large (number of employees, number of people they are supposed to serve, etc) they become ineffective. There was a book written to this effect called Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, and maybe someday I'll take my friend Greg's advice and read it.

Back to ALA, it has become too large. It is ineffective. I send emails suggesting ideas for ad campaigns or requests for information, and I don't get a reply. None. Zip. My renewal confirmation comes 3 months after I send in my dues. How is that effective?

The Free Range Librarian says that the short answer to effect change "is to take over ALA governance." Awesome- let's do just that. I'll vote for you. There's a start. (Along those lines, if every 18-30 year old voted in 2008, we could put whoever we wanted in office. Pedro, anyone?)

New type of search engine

2007-05-24T09:36:00.001-05:00

Go check out Quintara, a search engine that is experimenting with information visualizaion.

You can hover over one of the topics on the left, and up will pop many keywords related to it. Try this with the default topics that come up and try a search of your own.

Also noteworty is Kosmix, for a different reason. You won't get the same visualization, but you will get more relevant connections. I tried a search for Kathy Taylor under politics, and it brought up a blog post about her winning the mayoral election. On the right, among other things, was a link for 'explore connections' and it took me to several sites that mention some of the work she has done with our Governor Brad Henry.

I like these- they won't replace Google anytime soon, but the ideas behind them are useful (especially information visualization).

ACRL's Top Ten Assumptions

2007-05-21T14:25:00.001-05:00

Read it as you would a Letterman Top 10 List- here are the 'Top ten assumptions for the future of academic libraries and librarians: A report from the ACRL research committee' - click here for the full report.

10. Privacy will continue to be an important issue in librarianship.

9. Free, public access to information stemming from publicly funded research will continue to grow.

8. Distance learning will be an increasingly common option in higher education and will co-existbut not threaten the traditional bricks-and-mortar model.

7. Students will increasingly view themselves as customers and consumers, expecting high quality facilities and services.

6. Higher education will increasingly view the institution as a business.

5. The demand for technology related services will grow and require additional funding.

4. Debates about intellectual property will become increasingly common in higher education.

3. Students and faculty will increasingly demand faster and greater access to services.

2. The skill set for librarians will continue to evolve in response to the needs and expectations of the changing populations (student and faculty) that they serve.

and the #1 assumption that will impact academic libraries and librarians:

1. There will be an increased emphasis on digitizing collections, preserving digital archives, and improving methods of data storage and retrieval.

If you have been paying attention, these should come as no surprise.

What's on your plate today?

2007-05-20T06:07:00.002-05:00

Are some of us who are interested in 2.0 librarianship missing the mark? Are we spending so much time learning about new technology and hypothesizing about the future that our eyes are not on the real prize- serving out users today? What is on your plate today?

There is a short essay on The Myth of the Universal Digital Library that is worth reading.

There are three arguments put forth in support of giving up our notion of a unverisal library.

1) Cyberspace does not exist

2) Your human knowledge sucks

3) Digitizing everything is impossible

The summary stands out (added emphasis is mine): "The myth of the universal library is not only widespread; it's also dangerous. Believing in the myth makes us forget that we need to be working hard right this second to preserve information in multiple formats and to make it available to the public any way that we can."

Some of the comments posted are pretty telling: "A case of lazy thinking." "No one's trying to do it all, but it will happen anyway. You're completely wrong on this."

I take this question and direct it to myself- What is on my plate? Am I keeping a balance of learning new tools/trends and serving today's users effectively?

Keep the discussion going...

Amazon to sell music, too

2007-05-17T13:59:00.001-05:00

Amazon.com will start to sell music that can be played on iPods.

Will competition be better for the consumer?

Reed Elsevier and the Arms Trade

2007-05-16T08:39:00.001-05:00

I was made aware of an interesting fact this week- Reed Elsevier, known in the library world for publishing medical, health, and other scientific journals, is also a dealer in arms.

For more on this, see the citation below. You can read one journal's request that the company stop its involvement in the arms trade, and also see the response. In short, Reed Elsevier sees nothing wrong with being involved in what it calls the 'defence industry' (we Americans use an s, the Europeans use a c).

Everybody has a right to do business, and dealing in arms is just one type of business. As Reed Elesevier notes, they are within the law to put on arms fairs. Will we ever be able to have a planet where there are no weapons? Doubtful. Will we ever get to the point where the pen is mightier than the sword? We librarians are working on that.

Source:

Reed Elsevier and the international arms trade - Reed Elsevier's reply. By: Cowden, Stephen J.. Lancet, 9/10/2005, Vol. 366 Issue 9489, p889-890, 2p; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67307-2; (AN 18170928)

Library Rebranding Survey

2007-05-11T08:52:00.001-05:00

The ALA Emerging Leaders program has a short survey out called the 'Library Rebranding Survey.' They ask some great questions such as:

Do librarians wear cardigans and glasses?

Are librarians technology experts, book experts, or research experts? (You can't answer all of the above- they want you to put these in order...)

The results will be presented at ALA next month and I'll bring back the results to share.

So please, spend about 4 minutes of your time filling out this one page online survey.

Are we listening to our users?

2007-05-10T08:13:00.001-05:00

With all the hype about Library 2.0 and our discussions about how we are going to proceed with updating our services, are we listening to the most important people- the users?

Do our users have a place at the table when we talk about federated search, adding interactive features to our website, and adding/deleting Electronic Resources?

Are the the users represented, or are we simply doing what we think is best for them?

I'm just in a questioning kind of mood.

Local police department using podcasts...

2007-05-09T21:18:00.001-05:00

It's official- we librarians have officially lost the battle of being the first to use podcasts to disseminate information to our users.

Who beat us to the punch? The police department. No, really.

Although the files are not available via RSS feeds, they are really only audio files, but they have the guns so I'm not going to argue. :-)

Get that kid some help

2007-04-17T22:14:00.001-05:00

Another one slips through the cracks and takes a lot of people with him.

Where is the outrage? Have we become so numb to this type of news?

My thoughts are with you, community of Virginia Tech.

Changing face of reference work

2007-04-16T09:20:00.001-05:00

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education talks about the changing face of reference work in libraries. The title of the article: Are Reference Desks Dying Out?

An example is made about a student asking about databases (and the answer being given) via instant messaging (IM).

No longer are we able to sit and wait at a desk- we have to be where the users are, and that means IM'ing for reference service. Some institutions are already there, some are very far behind.

Opponents of using IM for reference work say that face to face is very valuable in the question and answer process, and I agree. But there are many students who will never set foot in a physical library, and we'd do well to give them something more than 40 million hits on Google.

Research channel on PureVideo

2007-04-05T07:33:00.001-05:00

Check out this research channel on PureVideo- think of it as an education YouTube. The content is great. I just watched original video of US paratroopers jumping out of planes in droves; as someone who has been skydiving I can say that I'm glad the landings are much softer today than they were back then. :-)

OLA recap

2007-04-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

Oklahoma Library Association

1907-2007

100 Years and New Frontiers

I would have posted this from OLA yesterday, but I had a few issues with the wireless connection (only available in certain places, being 'timed out' and not being able to publish a post I had spent 10 minutes on, etc.)- such is life.

I'm back in Tulsa now, and am letting everything from yesterday soak in. The vendors, the workshops, the people I met, the state's 100th birthday.

Some of the awards and aknowledgements at OLA:

a Presbyterian group in Chickasha awarded for Food and Fun program
the marketing committee for the Read Y'All posters campaign
Jennifer Kidney for the "Let's Talk About It Oklahoma" program
Jennifer Paustenbaugh for the "Oklahoma Library Legends" program
Rosemary Moran for her dedicated service to the Sequoyah Book Awards
the endowment committee was recognized for raising $120,000 toward the goal of 0ne million dollars
Senator Mike Morgan was recognized as being a Library Champion

After the awards Stephen Abram spoke, and some of the things he said are here summarized (my thoughts are in italics):

Library 2.0 is here- are you ready? You've gotta be in it to learn it. Don't study to death- instead Pilot and Play

What can librarians do that Google can't? Have you ever seen a child enter the library, run across the floor and give Google a big hug? (Keep up those) childrens' story times

People are still reading quite a bit- stop trying to protect the book. Start protecting the library and the staff

We have been teaching Boolean for over 20 years and we failed. We need to integrate Boolean in the searches, behind the scenes

In 30 minutes of Google, the same amount of questions are answered that it would take 8 years of all librarians in the world to answer. Read that again and let it sink in

Google does WHO WHAT WHEN and WHERE, and they do it very well- let them. We need to be doing the HOW and WHY

Britannica and Wikipedia- both have errors, but Britannica has only 5% of the content of Wikipedia. (We are delusional if we think students are going to stop using this resource)

85% of the newspapers in the US are owned by 5 (Republican) families (I need to verify this...)

Google will be soon able to charge 4 times as much per ad because they will know your GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION when you type in a search

The OCLC perceptions report states that 95% of respondents value libraries, but they also value online search. The 'library' word is a brand. How will we differentiate ourselves?

Library Thing is the 4th largest library in the US- and it is all people at home cataloging their books!

The 'magic sauce' is the social web- let people talk to each other. Let them tag books and post comments on your site about their reading and research experiences.

Put your content where the users are- brand yourself

Karen Schneider says the User is Not Broken

Finally, if you want to know where you can start learning about some of these social networking tools, go to the page that tells you about the Learning 2.0 project at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. You can get 'up to speed' in 9 weeks, for only 15 minutes a day! (sounds like an excercise infomercial :-))

Oklahoma Library Association conference

2007-04-03T14:33:00.001-05:00

OK- here I am at OLA. I woke up this morning at 4:50 AM to drive from Tulsa to Oklahoma City (had I not been invited to EBSCO's invitation breakfast I could have slept a full hour long- the things we do for free food and networking!)

My first observation is that Stephen Abram is a rock star. He delivered the general session speech, and gave a rousing talk on "Technoschism: Library 2.0- Threats and Opportunities in a Googlemanic world." I can only hope that the 700+ attendees at the conference can take what he had to say and apply it to their daily situations. Later I had coffee and lunch with the man, and tried to pick his brain as much as possible about as much as I could.

My second observation is that there is no wireless connectivity in the presentation rooms or lobby of the Cox Convention Center- I have to sit at an alcove to get a signal. ARGH. And when I do get the signal there is a default tool that 'can't find' the websites I have for my home pages. Seriously, it says "Can't find http://www.cnet.com" and then when you scroll down the page there are links it has found and guess what- on is http://www.cnet.com! BUT, you have to scroll past the ads to find it. Does Cox communications think I am stupid?

Mr. Abram took up that issue- Google and its advertisers skewing the results of searches- and encouraged us to study up and tell people exactly how search engines work. They are bias. Of course, so are libraries. We are biased towards high quality, filtered information. :-)

More later about some of the special awards given by OLA, as well as tidbits from the presentations I attended.

Change the teaching methods, not the students

2007-04-02T09:00:00.001-05:00

In a recent article titled 'Teaching and Learning with the Net Generation,' authors Kassandra Barnes, Raymond C. Marateo, and S. Pixy Ferris argue that Net Geners (aka Generation X, Generation Next, Millenials, etc.) want to learn, but that traditional teaching methods are not sufficient to teach them.

From the article (emphasis is mine): "Educators should continue to find ways to exploit the skills students develop outside of class without accommodating the habits of instant gratification and shallow thinking."

"Meanwhile, classroom practices designed to accommodate emerging learning styles are gaining a foothold at all levels. Educators across the country are increasingly moving from the traditional lecture to discussion-based classes that allow for more individual expression. Use of teamwork and reliance on experiential learning have become the norm rather than the exception in classrooms today. Universities encourage faculty to combine the traditional lecture format with techniques that prompt active interaction with students."

Another gem: "The prominent place of the term "information literacy" in conversations about pedagogy is yet another example of this shift in focus (National Education Association 2005). Clearly, universities seek to attract students by accommodating their self-perception as learners who acquire information by developing their own questions, systematically evaluating sources, and selecting evidence to support their answers (Howard 2006)."

Full text of this article and others like it can be found (for free by setting up an account) at their website.

References:

Howard, K. C. 2006. Millennials spur teaching change. Las Vegas Review Journal, March 6.

National Education Association. 2005. National forum on information literacy. (this is a link to a Word document)

Harry Potter power

2007-03-30T21:15:00.001-05:00

Think people aren't reading? Think again. Think about Oprah's book club. She announced a book on Wednesday, today there were paperbacks of the title she chose in a local Target store (with the little round 'Oprah' sticker on it.

Or think about Harry Potter.

So far, the first six books in the series has earned Scholastic over $800 million dollars. The last book set a record for 10.8 million copies (first printing). It sold over 6.5 million copies in the first 24 hours of its release.

This next book will have 12 million copies printed, and I'd wager that over 8 million copies will be sold in the first 24 hours. Wow.

This next book will also likely push the total revenue earned for Scholastic, by the Harry Potter series, to over one billion dollars. Let me say that again. 7 books, over the course of 10 years, will have earned Scholastic over one billion dollars (we will find out later this year if my math is correct).

The information is correct, but I can't recall where I read it. I think it was a print copy of the recent Publisher's Weekly.

del.icio.us

2007-03-28T09:01:00.003-05:00

If you have not tried out this site yet, you owe it to yourself to do so.

I am using it for two reasons. First, I am not always at my computer when I want to pull up one of my bookmarked 'favorites' websites. This allows me to have them all in one place, and to provide my own subject tags (think user-created Library of Congress Subject Headings).

Second, I want to see how many other people have certain sites as their favorites, and how they are being tagged.

I have a little 'post to del.icio.us' button on my IE toolbar, so it is very easy to bookmark a site- just takes a mouse click and a few seconds to assign a tag or two per site.

There are more features of del.icio.us that I have not begun using, but will as I get more acquainted with it.

OLA is right around the corner

2007-03-27T13:27:00.002-05:00

The Oklahoma Library Association conference is right around the corner, and I look forward to meeting some of my fellow Okie librarians. I have been to two California Library Association conferences (2004-San Jose and 2005-Pasadena), and I look forward to doing a little compare/contrast.

:-)

Grades up, skills are down for students

2007-03-19T15:49:00.001-05:00

The LA Times reported on a disturbing trend that I have heard about recently- that more kids are getting better grades while learning less (is this possible?).

Students giving feedback

2007-02-26T10:48:00.001-06:00

How do you find out how students like to learn? Ask them. That is what the Chronicle of Higher Education did in Nevada recently.

A panel of students answered questions about their technology and reading habits, library use, and preferred way to learn.

Highlights

On Learning:

"When there is a teacher lecturing to you in the front of the room, it is really boring. You do not get involved, and you tend to kind of zone out the whole time. I need more bells and whistles to keep my attention."

On Reading:

"My dad is still into the whole book thing. He has not realized that the Internet kind of took the place of that. So we go to the library almost every Sunday. I actually have a library card, but I have not rented a book for a long time, but I go to our school's library a lot because they have most of the course books..."

On Distance Education:

"I do like it better because people say things in the online class that they would not normally say face to face. Yes, I think it is just more convenient instead of having to go to class every day ... like, they give you a week to do an exam as opposed to one day, or one hour."

"I'm taking communications right now. ... And I really like this class because it is hybrid, which means it is half online and half in person. ... And we go once a week, and all the tests are online. ... We do not have to sit there for an hour and a half, and he has all the PowerPoints online, so he does the lectures in class, and the Power Points are online so just in case you want to go back."

"The research methods, again, does have a tendency to be boring, but he breaks up the monotony in his lectures; he puts little clips from YouTube. ... And they were just comical; they were just funny, and he incorporated the comedy into the lecture itself, and it just made it interesting, and I want to go to class. ..."

Librarians' road to publicity

2007-02-23T09:54:00.001-06:00

How can we get the word out about what we do?

Read about the hidden influencers on the web these days, and then run with it. My goal is to get out the word to the users, where they are and on their devices.

Found at the ACRL blog

Future of Learning Manifesto

2007-02-14T22:05:00.001-06:00

I love blogs- someone has an idea, it gets written down and passed around, critiqued and made better.

Such is the case with the following Future of Learning Manifesto (read the original post here):

1. "Playing Small Does Not Serve the World."
2. What Would Socrates Do?
3. Nobody Cares if You Walked Up Hill Both Ways Barefoot in the Snow.
4. Got Passion? If Not, I'll Tell You What To Care About.
5. My Memory Is Only As Big As My Heart. Otherwise, I'll Stick with Google
6. Look it Up or Die.
7. Collaboration Ain't About Holding Hands. It’s about Going Cool Places Fast.
8. This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record.
9. It Ain't About the Technology. It's About Being Inside the Story.
10. Nobody Knows the Answer. Get Comfy with the Questions.

Audiobook files and the devices that will work with them

2007-02-13T16:22:00.001-06:00

Will audiobooks work with all personal music players? Well, there are questions of formatting. iPods are Apple based files (.aac) and other mp3 players are Windows based (.wmp, .wav, etc).

So, if I have an iPod and 'check out' a digital audiobook from the Tulsa City County Library, the files won't play on my iPod because they are Windows based.

The Librarian in Black posted about what devices can be used with audiobooks. If you are interested it is worth a few minutes of your time.

Boomer Sooners: OU nationally recognized for 'wiredness'

2007-02-12T15:29:00.001-06:00

OU has been recognized as number 10 of the top 20 wired campuses, according to a new PC Magazine article.

Each student gets free web space and an account that lets them have up to 1 GB of web space. Interestingly, they use Desire2Learn instead of Blackboard.

Go OU!

Campus Learning Spaces of the Future

2007-02-12T15:14:00.001-06:00

Mike forwarded me a great article on campus learning spaces of the future. It speaks to the generation of students who have grown up with technology and will need new types of learning spaces to be effective in their studies.

Some nice graphs, including the one that shows how most new ideas are generated via "brainstorming, meeting, and prototyping." How can our classrooms be changed to focus on this group dynamic?

Source: Educause

Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Music"

2007-02-12T10:29:00.001-06:00

Steve Jobs making a very non-binding statement related to digital rights management in the music industry.

This will start (or rather, continue) the conversation about iPod's vs. other mp3 players. The difference is in the file types. Apple and Microsoft.

Jobs is calling for a renewed look at Digital Rights Management, known to the world at large as copyright. When companies don't care about their profits, songs won't be copyrighted. I'm not going to hold my breath.

Video history lesson: from linear text to user created content

2007-02-08T16:12:00.001-06:00

This might be fun to share with professors:

Another great YouTube video, this one by a cultural anthropologist from Kansas State University: The Machine is Us/ing us

Can you give me one reason that Librarians Rule? I'll give you 33.

2007-02-07T21:00:00.001-06:00

A great post over at www.degreetutor.com about the future of librarians.

There are 33 reasons, in fact, why librarians are not totally obsolete (nor will we become so).

Spending 10 minutes reading this will give you ammo for your conversations with skeptical adversaries.

Found via LibrarianInBlack

Wikipedia use limited by history department

2007-02-04T22:39:00.002-06:00

The history department at Middlebury College is acknowledging the speed and convenience of using sites such as Wikipedia for background information, but are discouraging the use of the site as a primary source.

This move is great- finally some professors saying what we librarians have been saying all along. There is information on the internet and then there is qualitative information on the internet (credible, authoritative, etc). Nice to have some support in our cause.

The over- 50 crowd searching the web...

2007-02-04T22:29:00.001-06:00

An age-related search site called cRANKy gives insight into the search terms that the over-50 crowd uses on the internet.

found via LibrarianInBlack

Where are people spending time online?

2007-02-03T16:31:00.001-06:00

A recent study notes that the top 5 internet sites (in time visited) for December 2006 were MySpace, Yahoo, MSN, Ebay, and Google. MySpace and Yahoo have a commanding lead; of all time spent online these two sites account for over 20% of the use. Hmm- where are the librarians on these services?

Found via LibrarianInBlack

ALA resolution for minimum librarian salary

2007-02-02T16:33:00.001-06:00

Check out the ALA's recent resolution on a minimum librarian salary of $40,000. We know we are all worth it, what are we doing to make other people agree?

Library Thing and other related sites

2007-01-31T09:11:00.002-06:00

If you have not checked out Library Thing head over to the site and see it for yourself. Go ahead, I'll wait.

There are several other sites that are similar, one of which, Shelfari, offers more graphics and you can show off the books you have. Techcrunch suggest we keep an eye on Shelfari- could it be the next big thing?

The interesting thing about these sites is that they let the user tag their books. It is similar to how librarians use Library of Congress Subject Headings to catalog materials, except that the only authority involved is the user.

A prime example of Internet 2.0, and thus Library 2.0- the users are creating content at a staggering speed. Where does this leave librarians?

Dynamic Librarian back in blog business

2007-01-29T21:35:00.002-06:00

After an interlude wherein I had a few life events occur, I am back and motivated to provide you, dear reader with interesting and relevant stories about information literacy, all things library, and the community college environment (as well as a few random tidbits along the way).

Please provide feedback as you see fit!

'Pimp My Bookcart' Winners

2007-01-29T21:31:00.001-06:00

Check out the winners of Overdue Media's 'Pimp My Bookcart' contest. Which one is your favorite?

The contest spurred librarians down under (Australia) to start a 'Pimp My Book Trolley' contest...

Search the Library of Congress

2006-11-04T09:34:00.001-06:00

The Library of Congress has a new search option. It is in the testing (BETA) phase, but seems to work well. My first search was for 'roosevelt yosemite' and the first thing on the results list was the photograph I had in mind, Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir standing on top of Glacier Point in Yosemite in 1906.

They encourage feedback, so if you try out the search feature let them know what you think.