KSU SLIS held a job fair today with a panel discussion and about thirty tables of libraries, and it was a little bit of an awakening. Not so much a rude awakening as much as a reality check, in two regards. First, library jobs might be a bit more sparse than I’d thought – I didn’t talk to a single library representative that had openings for anything more than a practicum. I’m willing to travel when I graduate so I’m holding out hope that there is a magical land of library jobs outside of Ohio.

And second, there is so much I still don’t know. I’m learning a lot in my year of library science school, but there’s worlds of information out there that I have only scratched the surface of. There’s definitely a lifetime of knowledge to be gained in this profession, and lucky for me when I got home the ALA Spring publication guide was waiting for me. Now I have a long list of books to read on systems librarianship, virtual reference, library publishing, and career searching. Yay.

This video’s been making the librarian circuit lately and reactions seem generally favorable. In case you can’t watch the video, the synopsis is Abbey, a 3-year-old patron, talking about what she wants out of her library:

The comments section for the video, as well as discussions elsewhere on the web, are mostly approving, commenting on how adorable Abbey is and how true the message is, but there are a few dissenting opinions, mine included. It’s very clear, listening to a 3-year-0ld talk about “augmented reality” and “geospatial tagging,” that the whole thing’s been scripted and rehearsed to the point where Abbey no longer knows what she’s talking about.

To beat a dead horse, it reminds me of the Will Ferrel Landlord video where a baby curses him out. People had a field day with that video when it came out, but it still stands as a cautionary tale to the kind of backlash you can expect when you exploit children for your advertising or entertainment purposes. Abbey didn’t curse, but she was made to recite words that were almost certainly outside her comprehension. If we could hear the story in Abbey’s own words, or maybe from a slightly older kid who really did understand what they were selling, the message would have been a lot more honest.

Agree? Or am I being too hard on this ad?

I’ve been working on the ALSSO website a lot lately, trying to get it updated and ready to go for when I have to pass it on at the end of the summer. The major challenges have been converting it from a table-based site to a more modern DIV-based one. I spent about three hours the other day changing all the back-end code and the result was a site that looks exactly the same in every way on the surface, but more technically correct underneath. It was a mixed victory – spending that much time without having something “to show for it” can be a test of willpower and internal motivation.

The site’s getting there though – I also spiffied-up the banner and background to make it more visually appealing, without changing it so much that it would be unrecognizable to its users. My next challenge will be making it easily updated by members other than the webmaster. I want to go with either forms on certain pages, for the secretaries to post minutes and the president to include news and upcoming events, or just host those individual pages on a place like WordPress (which I use for this site). I’ve never done forms before, or hosted only a few pages of a website on a blog platform, so I’m in for a lot of research and work.

That’s what I’ve been up to lately… I also just found Project Brand Yourself a Librarian which I think is hilarious. Librarians have been working on their image for decades, and the ‘alt librarian’ has been around for quite a while, but now it seems like that stereotype is going the way of goth kids and Hot Topic. We’re all going to prove how badass and alternative we are by getting tattoos at the 2010 ALA conference, and then that’ll of course make us unique snowflakes. Still, I like the librarian spectacles wrapped around a heart:

This made me crack up – my own downfall was “Is there anything else you’re qualified to do? Seriously. Anything.” I’m qualified to write or edit, but there’s not much demand for that these days.

-via LISNews.org

Like usual, I’ve made a long list of resolutions for myself, the majority of which I will probably give up on. I was checking out 43 Things as a means of keeping track of my list, and noticed they have popular trends in New Years resolutions. Some of them are really good ones that I’m planning to steal, and others are just hilarious. Here are some highlights (with my comments in parentheses):

• read the top 100 novels of all time voted by regular people (stolen)
• be well-rounded
• raise a daughter with healthy self-esteem (if I had a daughter I’d steal it)
• sell Michigan to Canada (hahahaha!)
• fall in love

And I just found this chart very interesting, showing the trends in resolutions over the last three years:

Rank	2007	2008	2009
1	lose weight	lose weight	save money
2	stop procrastinating	exercise regularly	stop biting my nails
3	fall in love	stop biting my nails	get organized
4	be happy	lose 10 pounds	grow my hair long
5	Get a tattoo	lose 30 pounds	lose 50 pounds
6	drink more water	exercise more	go to bed earlier
7	get married	bungee jump	get more tattoos
8	go on a road trip with no predetermined destination	read the bible	find at least one thing each day that makes me happy
9	see the northern lights	learn guitar	dress better
10	learn Spanish	be less shy	make a smaller ecological footprint

You know the economy’s bad when ’save money’ pushes out the perennial favorite ‘lose weight’ for top resolution. Conversely, we’re fatter (lose 50 pounds as opposed to 10 or 30), and the urge to better ourselves is the same but in different categories (productivity vs spiritual vs happiness). It doesn’t say over how many countries this chart spans, and that would be interesting to know.

What are your resolutions?

Sup? I’ve been rather lax on the posting now, haven’t I? Well it’s the time of year to make resolutions, and one of mine is to update here more often. When I created the blog I wanted to update once a week, and I think I will try to get back to that, although maybe I won’t do any more SLIS round-ups… I got rather bored of those, and they felt too much like an obligation. Instead I’m just going to post things I find cool/interesting/important/funny/whatever pertaining to library and/or information science. Sound good? Ok!

Last night TNT aired a mini marathon of ‘The Librarian’ movies and I watched the first one, Quest for the Spear. I absolutely adored it – hot Mr. Noah Wyle as the nerdy, wimpy guy who falls in with some really bad ass librarians and has to save the world with his librarian powers! I’m recording the other two movies, Return to King Solomon’s Mines, and Curse of the Judas Chalice, but here are some teaser quotes & photos:

“What is this, Slap the Librarian Day?”

*ominous air* “What makes you think you could be The Librarian?”

“It usually takes a new librarian four hours to fire up the jet pack.”

“You don’t understand. Being a librarian is actually a pretty cool job.”

Watch these movies ASAP!

Here’s the deal – it’s been a really long time since I updated my blog, and I feel bad about it, but I am creeping up on 24 hours awake and I don’t have the energy to come up with a SLIS Roundup. I did, however, write a really awesome paper last night that I would like to share with you instead. Next week I promise a regular post – I’ve got lots of good links piling up that I want to share with you.

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When thinking of the future of librarianship, we inevitably think also of the future of books and the ever-advancing information technologies. With the rising popularity of e-books and a trend toward information self-service, it seems that librarians are being forced by the wayside in favor of library automation. If the Internet could catalog our books and a machine could retrieve and deliver them, in the future will we need librarians? Here we will look at this grim possibility, as well as the librarian’s potential role in an automated library, and the re-evaluation of library service models which will no doubt be necessary in such a setting.

Libraries have been facing, and adapting to, automation since the 1890s brought typewriters on which to print catalog cards. These early attempts were quickly supplemented or replaced in many libraries starting in 1901 by the printed catalog cards made available in the United States from the Library of Congress. This model of efficiency and collaboration of resources continued all the way into the 1970s with the introduction of computers into libraries. They were used to create original catalog cards and to automate such tasks as circulation of materials (LISwiki.org).

When the Internet first came to libraries in the 1980s, it opened up a whole new world of automation and connection possibilities. Files could be shared among a network of computers, materials could be requested from distant libraries, and thanks to the Linked System Project the overall efficiency of the library system improved. With all of these new possibilities, it was necessary for librarians to reassess the library models and how they went about serving their community. They adopted search strategies like Boolean operators, taught patrons how to use them to find information, and even had to renovate and rewire libraries to accommodate the computers (Foundations of Library and Information Science, Rubin, 88). They also redefined their service to patrons along the ERI model, that is, providing a well-rounded balance of education, recreation, and information. This readiness to adapt to new technology and provide for the needs of the patrons is a cornerstone of modern library science and the reason libraries have been so successful in retaining value.

In libraries today we are seeing an elevated interest in automation, including some pretty amazing new technologies, some of which threaten to take books and information out of libraries for good. One such development is the book vending machine, created by Distec in Sweden and currently being used in select libraries in the United States. Contra Costa County Library, CA has four machines in the city surrounding its library, mostly in subway and commuter-heavy areas, and each machine holds four hundred paperbacks, all available to be checked in or out twenty four hours a day and renewed online. According to an article in the August 2009 edition of Library Journal, a remote patron “logs in to the system with a library card and uses the touch screen to make a selection, which is delivered by a robotic arm (“Self-Service to the People,” Susan Kantor-Horning, 16)”. The librarian is taken almost completely out of the equation except for every three months when new books are loaded into the machine.

This idea can be taken even further with use of printers like the Espresso Book Machine, which is a self-contained, automated book printer, binder and trimmer (OnDemandBooks.com). Notwithstanding copyright issues, if such a machine were built alongside (or within) the book vending machines from Distec, patrons could select any book in the world and have it printed while they wait, from any location large enough for a vending machine. This possibility could have serious implications for both libraries and the book retail industry.

On the opposite side of the automation argument it can be said that even though machines may one day automate circulation procedures, librarians will still be necessary for the successful operation of the library as a whole. One major issue is that both the book vending machine and the book printing machine require quite a bit of supervision, attention, and troubleshooting. Things may go wrong with the technology, patrons may need assistance using it, and routine maintenance and stocking of materials will need to be performed. Librarians will also be instrumental in performing the back end work that makes these machines functional and efficient, like classification, preservation of materials and the machines themselves, and most important, cataloging. The Google Books automated metadata disaster, called out by Geoff Nunberg of the University of California Berkley, is proof that trained professionals with the ability to make judgment calls are necessary for good cataloging (“Google Books: A Metadata Train Wreck”).

Furthermore, these machines have a wonderful capacity to work for librarians, rather than competing with us. The article, “What We Need,” by Chrystie Hill and Meredith Farkas shows that with reductions in budgets and staffing due to the recession, librarians are finding themselves with greatly increased responsibilities and not enough time in which to complete them (Library Journal, Oct 2008, 24). If some of a librarian’s traditional workload can be automated, there will be more time for the new tasks assigned.

One of the new tasks that’s becoming more important in libraries is finding ways to stay competitive with Google and the Internet. Thomas Mann says that “people will seek the most convenient source to meet their information need, even when they realize that this source may produce information of lower quality than other sources (Rubin, 45).” This is known as the Principle of Least Effort, and can be interpreted to mean that people would rather stay at home and find a quick answer to their questions than take the time to seek trusted, accurate information backed by a library. Another important thing to remember with the Principle of Least Effort is that many self-service information seekers do not realize the answers they find on the Internet may be subpar or incomplete; in exchange for fast answers they receive imperfect ones, and many do not even realize an omission has occurred.

People who fall into this category, and who favor online searches over the reference desk of a library (who are, incidentally, mostly in the younger demographic), have called Google Books ‘the last library’. Nunberg dubbed it such, and other Google fans have latched onto the phrase, purporting that the ten million books being scanned into Google’s database now will be the only remnants of analog knowledge once the world goes digital (“Google Book Search: Is it the Last Library? Uh, Yes”). Provided it is successful at sorting out its metadata problems, there is a definite possibility that this database could become a great and maybe even definitive resource for scholars, information seekers, and recreational readers alike.

Because there’s no getting around society’s preference for quick, easy searches performed regardless of location (anywhere from their home office to their mobile phone) libraries and librarians are beginning to adapt and offer services which cater to these new trends. Accessibility is one very important way that librarians can show patrons their ability to bridge the gap between fast and quality information. Many libraries already offer online reference of some sort, and some are even available at all hours of the day. Providing these services to patrons at their own convenience and comfort helps librarians establish themselves as a good resource in the community’s eyes, and it helps information seekers by providing better search strategies and higher quality results. Kathleen McEvoy, who works for EBSCO Publishing, predicts in Library Journal, “Reference 3.0 will be an environment where research is done via a combination of self-service and collaboration with librarians and other researchers… Librarians will be the “fosterers” of these information channels (“Future-Present,” November 2008, 4).”

This idea leads us to the final issue of a technologically driven library era, the necessary re-evaluation of our library service models. The tried and true ERI (education, recreation, information) model has thus far provided a well-balanced approach to user services and collection development. Wayne Wiegand states that adapting this model to technology-dominant times will require teaching patrons how to navigate the web and find appropriate web resources, organizing electronic sources and databases in effective ways to facilitate searching that originates from the library rather than Google, and establishing a digital archive to provide online resources accessible from anywhere (Rubin, 479).

Others argue that the emerging information era demands alterations in the library model, with a strong leaning toward information delivery. A. Debons argues that the 21^st century librarian must be an “information intermediary,” first diagnosing the information need of the patron, then organizing and presenting the solution, and finally evaluating the effectiveness and sufficiency of the services rendered (Rubin, 479). Still others go even further as to say that information seekers’ demands for fast, easy information means librarians must pursue an information delivery centered model because if we cannot provide the information patrons will simply stop using the library and go elsewhere. Richard Rubin finds a middle ground on the subject, saying in Foundations of Library and Information Science, “the librarian of the future will be an information needs assessor, information evaluator, information planner, information services manager, and information instructor (480),” while avoiding the idea that librarians should be the information seeker and deliverer as well.

I think it is clear that in this society which places such heavy importance on technology, the Internet, and self-service, library automation is not only unavoidable but valuable to both patron and librarian. With automation of everything from the circulation process to book delivery, librarians will have more time to devote to other aspects of librarianship and service to their patrons. They can use this time to develop strong, well-marketed search systems from within the library and hosted on the library website (or even on an external site), and build online reference services.

Librarians do not need to worry that automation will mean the end of libraries or another nail in the librarianship coffin, because we are still very much needed for our information expertise, from acquisition to cataloging to educating patrons about effective information retrieval. Librarians are important resources in the pursuit of information literacy across the country, as they often play a role in teaching effective searching, advanced strategies like Boolean operators, and scrutiny of sources to determine accuracy. They are also instrumental in behind-the-scenes procedures like cataloging and maintaining the web presence patrons will rely on.

The librarian’s role is becoming even more service-oriented with the advances in technology because we will need to educate our patrons, then step back and allow them to use what we teach, both in the library and online as part of a reference service, to seek information. To accomplish these goals libraries need to remain well-balanced within the ERI model, and also accommodating to information needs by staying current in the latest technology and resources available. In order to provide information services, it is imperative that librarians work on visibility. Studies have shown that the average information seeker does not even consider librarians to be a resource – libraries and the books within them are resources, but the librarian him or herself is not (Rubin, 45). We must work to correct this misconception now so that librarians can be effective information intermediaries in the future. Being visible, approachable, knowledgeable, and gaining trust are all important ways we need to grow in order to secure a place for librarianship in the information age.

Hello from library land, once again! I noticed that a) my blog isn’t really being exposed to the library world at all, mostly just my non-library friends, so I’m going to work on that, and b) my library friends don’t follow a lot of library blogs in general. I follow a ton and just glance at them all about once a week, so I decided to update the Blogroll with a longer list of my favorites. I get tons of good information outside of class with these and I think you can’t underestimate the value of a library blog network.

This week in the library world:

>Obama took a short break from his busy Nobel Prize-accepting to declare October 2009 “National Information Literacy Awareness Month”. I think it’s great that he’s trying to raise awareness for the information illiterate of our country. He said, “the people of the United States [need] to recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact,” and I just hope this isn’t a precursor to a drive toward self-education and elimination of information professionals. [ALA]

>Psychology Today put up an article called ‘The Psychology of Twitter’ which posits that Twitter’s really just a placeholder for real communication that has been falling by the wayside due to our busy lives. Ironically enough, the author concluded the article with a link to his own Twitter account. [Article: Psychology Today]

>Furthermore, if you don’t know what Twitter is or just want to laugh about it, check out this video:

>And one more note on Twitter… Botanicalls is a company that allows your houseplants to use Twitter to tell you when they need attention. If the kits didn’t cost $100 I would call it genius. Here’s an example of how your plants will get your attention:

>Reading about Botanicalls rather naturally lead to the discovery of a pretty cool tech video site, Ignite, similar to TEDTalks, but better because the videos are much shorter! In a world of instant gratification, little five-minute segments on cool new technologies and ideas are fabulous. [Ignite]

>A cool article this week on Thingology talks about how eBooks will affect libraries, and describes ways librarians can develop a library model for this new technology, rather than continuing to use the consumer model, which according to the author, Tim, will ultimately screw over libraries. His main argument is against the rising cost of making electronic books available, but the article as a whole is a good read. [Thingology]

>And finally, on a light note, Annoyed Librarian’s list of “Library Jobs That Suck”. One of these is simply the ability to apply for a spot in a ‘pool of librarians’ on standby to possibly take a part-time and temporary position which may or may not ever open up. Yay, sign me up! [Annoyed Librarian Archives]

The semester is just flying by! I can’t believe week 5 is over already… and I’ve been so incredibly busy but it’s fulfilling work so I’m glad to do it. Here’s the haps:

>On a somewhat off-topic note, if you haven’t heard Muse’s new album, The Resistance, I highly recommend it. It’s like nothing I’ve heard before and I’m absolutely in love with it… the instrumental orchestra pieces, the genre-challenging songs, Matthew Bellamy’s amazing voice… I want to put a ring on this album. Download it here or listen to songs here. My favorite is “Undisclosed Desires”.

Alright, back to the library stuff…

>Didja know… “wiki,” as in Wikipedia, is a Hawaiian term for quick, first coined for web use by Ward Cunningham in the mid 1990s. [Etymology of Wiki]

>The monks of the Monastic Scriptorium, to who we typically attribute the preservation of knowledge throughout the dark ages, weren’t in it for the educational ramifications. The reason they spent hours and hours a day bent at their task of transcription was because they strove to keep worldly thoughts at bay, and what better way than to bore oneself to tears in the practice of transcription? So we have them to thank for the enduring knowledge base we have today, but not for the reasons we like to think. [Foundations of Library and Information Science by Richard E. Rubin]

>The first codices (singular: codex), what we think of today as a book, were created by Christian missionaries who wanted a more compact and convenient method to carry the Word than bulky, heavy tablets or fragile, awkward scrolls. [Scroll and Codex]

>The Cleveland County Public Library (Ohio) has a virtual library on Second Life, and many other libraries and organizations are joining them on their own ‘island’ within the game. Gamers/patrons (the line begins to blur) can walk around the virtual space, talk to a reference librarian nearly 24/7, see virtual ‘exhibits’ with text, images, and video, and get involved in intellectual discourse. [More Information] My personal opinion is one of skepticism – why read poorly rendered text on a game when it’s much faster and more convenient to look at a website? Maybe one day the technology will be so good that we all have virtual businesses on Second Life… but let’s hope not too soon.

>Weekly TEDTalks! I love them, there’s always great new gadgets and ideas and it’s my favorite part of my Access to Information class. This week’s is about the awesome work Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry are doing with interactive, hollographic touch screens that perceive needs and output what you need without a whole lot of instruction. They call it Sixth Sense and they predict that it will literally become our sixth sense in the distant (or not?) future. [TEDTalks Sixth Sense]

This week I participated in a doctoral study for one of the IAKM (Information Architecture and Knowledge Management) program professors and it’s funny how things just fall into place around here. After the study we started talking about my interest in information delivery media and what IAKM does, and long story short I’m making an appointment with Professor Fast next week to talk about what I can do to pursue my interests. I’ve been lost on this subject, so I think it’ll be great!

Also if you haven’t checked out Unshelved, it’s usually a pretty funny strip. I think it appeals to bibliophiles and academics as well as librarians.

I had my wisdom teeth out on Monday, so I’ve spent most of the week relaxing and trying to avoid dry sockets, which sound like just the opposite of the bee’s knees, but I did manage to learn a few things too!

>#1, very important, it’s Banned Books Week! Well, technically, it’s from Sept. 28 – Oct. 3… celebrate by reading something off the 2009 list, here. If you scroll to the bottom of the PDF there’s some cool banned books merchandise, including some pretty awesome ‘banned book bracelets,’ shown below:

>Following up on the video-in-print Entertainment Weekly magazines, both of the ones for sale on eBay sold for over $200! It seems this technology is out of my reach for the time being, but I suspect it’s pretty rudimentary at this point, so I don’t mind waiting.

>Speaking of cool information delivery tech, the Research and Development team at the New York Times are doing some really cool things of their own.  Responding to the notion that print news is dead, they’re experimenting with new delivery methods on existing devices like the Kindle, netbooks and touch screens, as well as developing their own version of video-in-print, specifically for newspaper content. Check out their video for a visual of these ideas.

>One more totally awesome gadget that I wish existed right now is the Microsoft Courier. It’s just a concept right now, but from what I can tell, it combines the best of the tablet pc, netbook, iPhone, and Kindle. CHECK THIS OUT!

>Fun fact: there are cataloging standards for just about every situation, including works attributed to spirits and the dead! [AACR2r 21.26]

>The top ten search terms queried by kids are YouTube, Google, Facebook, sex, MySpace, porn, Yahoo, Michael Jackson, Fred, and eBay. It’s not surprising that sex and celebrity are on the list, but I did find it surprising that the majority are websites. It just goes to show how tech-illiterate kids are if they have to perform a search to find a popular website. Read the full list (top 100 terms) here. (Incase you were wondering, ‘boobs’ rates above ‘Twilight’ but only by one space.)