LibWorm.com provides a librarian RSS filtering service. Data from over 1500 librarian RSS feeds is collected and output via different categories. This feed contains the latest headlines from the user generated query: +(ALA2007 "ALA 2007" ALA07 "ALA 07") Fri, 03 Sep 2010 06:35:04 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://thelonelibrarian.blogspot.com/2008/04/tip-for-conference-first-timers.html Attending a conference for the first time is exciting, but it can also lead to a lot of questions. Can I bring my laptop to the sessions? What should I wear? Is there food and drink at any of the events?If you don't feel comfortable asking these questions on a large message board or email discussion list, look for photos of past conferences at the major photo-sharing sites, such as Flickr. Good information professionals/photographers will tag their photos with the conference abbreviation and the year of the conference. For example, to see what the Special Libraries Association 2007 conference was like in Denver, look for photos tagged SLA2007. If you want to check out what goes on at an ALA conference, try ALA2007.Browsing through the images should give you a feel for the conference and let you know what others do when they're there. That being said, I'm preparing for AIIP2008. Just looking at last year's pics, I'm very excited to be a part of it. (Source: The Lone Librarian) Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:06:00 +0100 590720 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/270878856/ Liz, Chrystie, and Marilyn at ALA07 Originally uploaded by WebJunction It is with great sadness, but lots of well-wishes for a bright future ahead of her, that we bid farewell to Program Director Liz Kellison. Liz was our first Content Manager and the third WebJunction employee EVER. She’s been with the project since before it began – quite literally! – as she was one of the authors of our original grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with our Executive Director Marilyn Mason. Largely responsible for the initial vision of our service, Liz is famous around the office for promoting “read, learn and share” – i.e., bringing together courses, discussions, and articles all together on a single WebJunction page. Liz has been fun to work with, inspiring as a leader for us and for libraries, and a tireless advocate for our programs and the people we work with. We will miss her dearly, but hope you’ll join us in wishing her well in all her future endeavors. (sniff. sniff.) (Source: BlogJunction) Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:10:28 +0100 585417 http://dltj.org/2007/09/open-access-publishing-models/ DLTJ featured a discussion last month on what I saw as the outcomes of “clashing values” between the interest of businesses and that of not-for-profit higher education. The discussion started with “Educational Patents, Open Access Journals, and Clashing Values” and continued with a focus on open access publishing specifically with “What Is BioMed Central?.” Here is a update on the topic in the form of an e-mail from Ray English and a press release from Marquette Books. Ray English’s Perspective on Open Access Publisher Economics Ray English is the Director of Libraries at Oberlin College (also notably the chair of the SPARC Steering Committee and 2006 Recipient of ACRL’s Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award) sent an e-mail related to this topic to an internal OhioLINK mailing list. I’m grateful for his permission to reproduce it here: Here’s some background on open access journals that I hope is helpful. There are now three major open access journal publishers – BioMed Central, Hindawi, and PLOS. BioMed Central and Hindawi are both commercial publishers that follow an author fee model. BioMed Central also has an arrangement that allows institutional memberships to cover all or a portion the fees. I would characterize both publishers as having reasonable prices and being focused on access to the literature, rather than profit maximization. Hindawi charges relatively low author fees, in part because they’re based in Egypt and have a lower cost structure. BioMed Central author fees are higher, but below the per article author fees for various “open choice” plans that are place for most commercial publishers. Hindawi reported that they had become profitable last year and BioMed Central has projected that they will be profitable in the coming year. PLOS is a non-profit publisher. ... Tue, 04 Sep 2007 04:00:00 +0100 476024 http://plablog.org/2007/08/more-ala-conference-video-on-book-tv.html You can watch the video of Garrison Keillor’s (*overflowing*) session on the importance of public libraries on BookTV.com (requires RealPlayer installed to view). Just click on the Watch button above Garrison’s picture on the upper right to view the video, which is just under 1 hour. Unfortunately, I don’t see an online video of the aforementioned PLA program that was broadcast on July 28. However, you can watch another ALA 2007-related broadcast on Book TV on Sunday, August 12 at 9:40 am, when Craig O’Hara will discuss “the mission and publications of AK Press, a self-described ‘anarchist’ press.” You might also be interested in the Book TV After Words and Encore Booknotes video archives. (Source: PLA Blog) Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:30:34 +0100 462088 http://dltj.org/2007/08/npr-headquarters/ NPR’s Headquarters, looking east Side view of the triangular building, looking from Mt. Vernon Square. The DC Convention Center is just to the north of where this photograph was taken. 38.9023,-77.0216 NPR’s Headquarters main entrance The main entrance to NPR is along Massachusetts Avenue, and this banner in front of the construction scaffolding shows the address that I hear often on the radio: 635 Massachusetts Avenue, Northwest, Washington, DC, 20001. 38.9019,-77.0209 NPR’s Headquarters facing Massachusetts Avenue Three banners, “Think” - “Explore” - “Share,” hang from the front of the headquarters. 38.9019,-77.0209 NPR’s Headquarters viewed from 6th St and Massachusetts Ave NW VW car billboard, supplementing NPR’s membership dues and corporate sponsorships? 38.9019,-77.0203 This one is purely for fun. For those at the recent ALA annual conference in Washington, DC — did you know that the National Public Radio headquarters was just a block away from the convention site? My hotel was one block further east, so I walked behind this building most days to get to the convention center. It wasn’t until the third day that I read the markings on the loading dock of the building and the fourth day when I took my camera along to take these pictures. I regret that I didn’t have time to take a tour, but next time ALA is in DC I’ll definitely make plans to do so. (Anyone up for a group tour? Maybe we can meet Kee Malesky, NPR’s Librarian.) I don’t know how long the building has been there, but from the style I would guess the late 1970s. There was scaffolding set up around the perimeter to protect occupants from falling objects. The picture of the banner over the entrance shows the scaffolding the best. Perhaps they need some more fundraising to fix up their building. ... Sun, 05 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0100 461898 http://blogs.ala.org/aasl.php?title=set_those_vcrs&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 C-Span2 will be airing "The Best of the Best from the University Presses" this weekend on Book-TV! The AASL program held at the 2007 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., "2007 Best of the Best From the University Presses," will be airing this weekend on Book TV, Saturday, July 28, at 12:00 PM (EST). See program listing at: http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8423&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No Book TV schedule: http://www.booktv.org/schedule.aspx Book TV website: http://www.booktv.org (Source: ALA Weblog Service) Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:08:51 +0100 456264 http://litablog.org/podpress_trac/feed/502/0/LITAPresProgram07.mp3 Next up in the ongoing Podcast series from ALA Annual 2007 is the LITA President’s Program, Tag! You’re IT: Online Digital Audio collections meet PennTags This is the last of the fully-captured sessions from ALA 2007 from LITABlog, but there may still be a few pieces of audio here and there that are unearthed and posted. As well, we have plans for LITA Forum in October, as well as ALA Midwinter…more audio to come from LITABlog! Stay tuned, and as always if you have feedback or suggestions for us, please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog. Tags: podcast, LITA, ALA, ALA2007, Annual2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:30:15 +0100 453117 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mchabib/~3/132566409/ Help, I need somebody to tag This student needs help conducting research on his Master’s Thesis on “Collaborative Indexing Systems”, i.e. tagging. Please take his 15 minute tagging “survey” if you get a chance. “Tobias Kowatsch, Student of Computer Science in Media at Hochschule Fu (tags: folksonomy research tagging thesis survey experiment TobiasKowatsch Folksonomies) Pattern Recognition » Why ALA will never learn BIGWIG got in trouble with LITA for not using enough LITA branding. However, I am joining LITA because of BIGWIG. (tags: lita bigwig ala ala2007) Library Web Chic » Blog Archive » Exhausted but gratified Karen Coombs’ response to Jason’s post and the LITA Letter. “But the truth is that the only way the system changes is if people participate and try to change it.” (tags: ala lita bigwig ala2007) Free Range Librarian » Blog Archive » Educating LITA A deeper discussion of ALA committees resulting. (tags: ala lita bigwig) del.icio.us usability - a photoset on Flickr A peak at Del.icio.us usability testing. Posted on Flickr of course. (tags: del.icio.us delicious usability photos) Share This (Source: LIS :: Michael Habib) Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:05:09 +0100 449633 http://blogs.ala.org/aasl.php?title=ala_and_books&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 As Alice points out, part of our mission is to "prepare students for life-long learning, informed decision-making, a love of reading, and the use of information technologies." Most of us go to ALA (or AASL) for the book stuff, but we rarely talk about what we've seen/done. How many stood in line for an author signing? Grabbed posters and ARCs? I was one of them. YALSA had a great session, "Teens Read", with Laurie Halse Anderson, Alyson Noel, Cecily Von Ziegesar and Sherman Alexie. The common thread from them was the while technology has changed (from sitting by the phone and passing notes in class to cell phones and texting, for example), being a teen hasn't. It's still, as Ms. Noel said, about the Firsts: first love, first, kiss, first date, first steps into adulthood. In their own way, these authors all address that. Ms. Anderson pointed out that our task, as librarians, is to bring books to students; she mentioned that many students haven't read a book for "fun" since fourth grade (how many of us have had the experience of the student complaining about the assigned book because it's dark/serious/work/boring/meant to teach a lesson?) so she sees it as her job to remedy that. One area that needs exploring is the internet - where so many of our students feel anonymous and safe (they aren't really, as we well know). Ms. Noel's books show the darker side, the "culture of mean" that can pervade MySpace. Ms. Von Ziegesar's books are about the students she grew up with - the Upper East Side private school world she came from. Yet, somehow, many girls, from all over, read them and identify with the characters and dilemmas. If you can get Mr. Alexie to speak, do so. His tales of being an Indian immigrant to our white country and finding that he belongs to many different tribes, and what this experience means are both hysterical and poignant. ... Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:03:30 +0100 448449 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/132001715/ I am a bit tardy is posting about my adventures at ALA. I made it to some great sessions, attended a lot of meetings, and gave a presentation or two.  But it is the people and their stories that stick with me long after I have returned to my normal daily routine.  Here are three people whose stories moved and motivated me.  John Tull John Tull, from Wallens Ridge State Prison in Virginia, attended a Spanish Language Outreach Workshop in Virginia earlier this year. At our Follow-Up Session for SLO Workshop Participants, John described the outreach activities he is implementing to better meet the needs of the Spanish speakers at his prison library, including the translation of signs and procedural documents into Spanish. His outreach efforts have been well received by inmates and prison staff.  John explained that the special conditions faced by prison libraries make it critical to take small, incremental steps when implementing outreach.  Our curriculum developer, Emily Inlow, has been collaborating with prison libraries to customize our Spanish Outreach Workshop Curriculum.  Stay tuned for more info on the customized curriculum later this summer!  Toni Bissessar Carmen Toni Bissessar is the Branch Manager of the Columbia Pike and Glencarlyn Branches of the Arlington County Public Library.  She was awarded the 2007 Arnolfo D. Trejo Librarian of the Year Award, also known as the REFORMA LOTY Award. She was honored for her contributions to REFORMA, excellence in promoting and advocating services to the Spanish-speaking and Latino communities, and advocacy work on behalf of underrepresented diverse communities.  When she accepted the LOTY award, Toni talked about one of her early teachers.  The teacher sent her postcards from around the world that Toni would then take to her local library so she could learn about the city or country.  The postcards and her library visits sparked a love of information and libraries.  The story still chokes me up. ... Mon, 09 Jul 2007 18:10:21 +0100 449104 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/131002386/ Yes, it’s true; we’re passionate about rural libraries. And I can’t think of anything more invigorating than a gathering of fellow rural library fans. After every conference, I spend weeks reminiscing about the sessions, the conversations, and the inspiration. But this year really tops them all. WebJunction had the great honor of hosting a gathering of over 180 library staff who work in or for rural libraries across the country. I told you back in May about the folks selected to attend the Rural Forum @ ALA and am now excited to share news of the fantastic presentations, resources and rich discussion coming out of the gathering (and check out the great stuff from last year’s gathering in New Orleans!). We’ll be talking about this year’s highlights during July’s Rural In Focus webinar including the Rural Caf&#233 (imagine a caf&#233 filled with 180 librarians brainstorming) and Jana Ponce’s dynamic and inspirational keynote presentation (everyone’s talking about it!). Oh, and did I mention the pictures?? (Thank you Susan!) (Source: BlogJunction) Fri, 06 Jul 2007 06:01:32 +0100 446813 http://blogs.ala.org/aasl.php?title=affiliate_assembly_at_annual&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 The Affiliate Assembly met twice during Annual in DC. The meetings focused on an opportunity for state organizations to share concerns and commendations with the AASL Board. Friday night the group worked on editing the concerns, and they were voted on Sunday morning. Concerns topics ranged from Web 2.0 to Reading. The AASL Board will consider these concerns and report back to the Affiliate Assembly at Midwinter. The Affiliate Assembly provides a communicate route between state level organizations and the national level. The Affiliate Assembly also had a spotlight presentation by Julie Walker and some of the states involved in the 21st Century Skills endeavor. Congratulations to Irene Kwidzinski who was elected Chair-Elect. Leslie Foreman was elected Recording Secretary. Jay Bansbach will be the Chair. Last, but certainly not least, this was the 30th Anniversary of the Affiliate Assembly. Thanks to AASL for providing us cake on Friday night to celebrate! (Source: ALA Weblog Service) Fri, 06 Jul 2007 02:01:27 +0100 446600 http://plablog.org/2007/07/snips-and-snails-and-puppy-dog-tails-every-boy-ready-to-read-your-library.html On Sunday, June 24, I attended the program “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: Every BOY Ready to Read @ Your Library,” presented by Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. He explained the gender differences between boys and girls and how we could use this in our storytimes. A few highlights from his Powerpoint presentation: •Gender gap -Between 1980-2004, gender gap of leisure-time reading -1 in 10 boys now reads for fun -Gender gap has become a chasm (“…a marker of gender identity: girls read, boys don’t.” –Bauerlein & Stotsky 2005, Bauerlein 2007) •Sex differences in brain development (Harriet Hanlon, et al. 1999) -studied 224 girls, 284 boys, ages 2 months to 16 years -fine motor skills and language : girls develop faster -gross motor skills, spatial memory, visual targeting : boys develop faster •Learning styles -Boys listen better when they are standing (rather than sitting – “their brains shut off”) -Most young girls learn better when sitting -Does not mean there is a difference in rank (or abilities) -Boys are taught to sit still in school like the girls (so then school = girly … why they hate it) -Best temperature to learn: 60 degrees boys, 75 degrees girls (children and young adults for normal size) – 6 degrees of separation •Extraneous noise (Colin, Elliot and assoc.) -Bother girls and women at sound levels 10 to 40x lower than boys/,men -Girls are aware of what’s going on around them -90-92% of boys not bothered by noise •Storytime -Offer Noisy Time Story Time (and Quiet Time Story Time) -Noisy: -Turn the thermostat down -Seats are optional (bean bag chairs?) – boys love to crouch -Rule: No hitting, can’t disturb others -Choose stories boys enjoy (Watch out for “demand characteristics” – what’s the right choice?) -Allow buzzing/tapping/clicking For more information, visit Dr. Sax’s website: www.boysadrift. ... Tue, 03 Jul 2007 14:41:20 +0100 445441 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/07/03/ala-2007-wrapup/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, RamblingsI’m a bit late in doing this, but I wanted to jot down a few thoughts about ALA Annual overall. I noticed a few threads that kept popping up in both sessions and casual conversations: -The library as place. There’s a growing focus on making the library (especially public libraries) into a destination that people visit more like a community center. -Gaming. Gaming programs in libraries are growing by leaps and bounds. -Mashups. Web 2.0 services have finally gotten mature enough that truly useful services can be built with them. I’m blown away by how simple it is to do things online that just a few years ago were death to even attempt. Just look at how Youtube revolutionized streaming video, or how simple Meebo’s embedded IM service is. About halfway through the conference, part of me started wondering if big events like this won’t become extinct in our lifetimes. Presentations and workshops can now be conducted online almost as well as in person. And any worthwhile vendor should be able to get business done online. But then I thought about the wonderful people I met, the friends I re-met, and the brilliant ideas that flow back and forth in just a simple face to face conversation. I always come back from conferences feeling extremely energized and anxious to try out new things. I have yet to come away from an online presentation with the same reaction, no matter how well it’s put together. And a large scale event like ALA Annual always exposes me to a few ideas and viewpoints that I would never have found otherwise. Like anything else worthwhile in life, it’s about the people.  Here’s to Anaheim next year (Source: Hidden Peanuts) Tue, 03 Jul 2007 05:14:04 +0100 445453 http://plablog.org/2007/07/technical-services-20-using-social-software-for-collaboration.html ALA Session held Monday 1:30-3:30 OK, I’ll be honest and say that although I found the summary of this program enticing, I wasn’t sure if I’d spend the whole time at the session. It appeared to have an academic focus, and come on - it’s technical services and I am SO not a technical services kinda gal, so I staked out a seat close to the door so I could make a quick, unnoticed getaway if necessary. It wasn’t necessary. This session grabbed my interest, piqued my interest, and held my interest for the duration. This was due to some great presenters -all of whom approached the topic differently, but with equal levels of engaging style. I’ve located copies of all slides used, and you can access them here. The session began with Matt Barnes, a consultant with R2 consulting. He was throwing out ideas and applications left and right - and I was wishing I’d taken shorthand at some point in my life. Sure, he touched on the usual concepts like Wikis, tagging, and mashups - then followed these with more exotic (at least to me) things as the new “Geotagging” phenomenon, the Croquet Consortium, IBM’s Web Fountain and web outsourcing using the overwhelmingly amazing/cool/can’t really even get my head around how innovative Amazon Mechanical Turk Wow, wow, and wow. Other Matt nuggets: - (re: OCLC OpenWorldcat) “Don’t get stuck thinking the only devide is the PC. Think cell phone, PDA, iPod, etc. - 2.0 isn’t just about deploying new technology. Use Web 2.0 to solve problems based on your mission and goals - There isn’t a final solution or correct answer - only continuous change. (Preach it, brother!) Next up was Beth Picknally-Camden, who reported on the University of Pennsylvania’s successful “PennTags” program. ... Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:37:48 +0100 444845 http://www.blyberg.net/2007/07/02/ala-presentations/ I was literally getting up at 5am and getting to bed well past midnight during ALA. I suppose that means it was a success. Many thanks (and fond farewell) to Leslie Burger, who initiated and sponsored the Transformation Track sessions. I didn’t go to three of them so, alas, no T-shirt for me. I felt that the technology session (I co-chaired with Alan Gray) was very good, but how could it not be with speakers like Lori Ayer, Roy Tennant, and Casey Bisson? Incidentally, if your library is looking to retain the services of a first-class library consultant, consider getting in touch with Lori. She has made her presentation available online. Casey has also posted his presentation with commentary. Thanks to these three for a fine program. Also, Eli Neiburger was kind enough to join me and be the spokesperson for AADL at my “Building the Next Generation Public Library Websites with Drupal” talk. My slides are now available and can always be found on my files page. Sunday was a crazy day for me, I had about 15 minutes to grab a quick snack and head over the the Top Tech Trends panel. Kudos to LITA, who already has audio online. I really enjoyed participating in the discussion. OCLC hosted the Sunday night bloggers salon. A big thanks to them for putting on such a fun and raucous gathering of good people. It’s always nice to catch-up with folks and put faces to names. I had never met Jed Moffitt–King County’s head of technology. He’s a super guy who put together Monday’s “Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog: Social Software, Virtual Reality, and Authority Everywhere.” A session name that was sure to draw a crowd, and it did. I only wish we had more time. My slides for this presentation are online as well. ALA, ALA2007, Bloggers, Drupal, Leslie Burger, Library, LITA, OCLC, Washington D.C. (Source: blyberg.net) Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:00:00 +0100 445432 http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2007/06/30/bigwig-popularity/ In doing a bit of research tonight, I discovered that the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase is now the 10th result of over 700,000 for the single search term “Bigwig” on Google. Pretty amazing for something sprung from my, Michelle, and Karen’s brains just a few months ago. That, plus the mention in AL Direct today, David Free’s analysis of the attendance of the Showcase, and I think we might just have a winner on our hands. ala2007, annual2007, bigwigshowcase2007, Library Issues, Personal, showcaseShare This (Source: Pattern Recognition) Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:54:45 +0100 443751 http://plablog.org/2007/06/webjunction%e2%80%99s-spanish-language-outreach-program.html This Sunday afternoon program was intended as a follow-up for individuals who had participated in Webjunction’s Spanish Language Outreach workshops. Although I was not one of those lucky few, I decided to attend the session to learn more about it, and I am very glad I did, as the information provided could be useful to any librarian who hopes to work in a diverse community. Yolanda Cuesta presented the first segment of the program on marketing to Spanish speakers. Yolanda’s advice was practical and very useful: - Work with community leaders to start the needs assessment for the community; try to create a personal connection so that you will come to be trusted in the community. It is very important in this community to establish personal relationships and rely more on personal contact via phone or in person, since email or mass mailings may not be as relevant in this culture. - Develop the “library as a brand that is culturally relevant”; a place that provides services that the community needs and wants-a place for getting help, for entertainment and fun, for learning, and for family activities- vs. the traditional promotion of the library as a provider of books and information resources. - In the first marketing stage, translate the library card application and basic brochures into Spanish. Jump right into marketing, without over thinking it: send press releases to Spanish media outlets and start to participate in community events, where you can hand out information about the library and meet more of the leaders. - In the second stage, start to realize the differences within the community itself, including age, country of origin, degrees of acculturation, and marital status. These factors all have a great impact on the services you provide and how they should be marketed. ... Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:11:25 +0100 443765 http://plablog.org/2007/06/prime-time-family-reading-time.html (I came into this program a little bit late, so I missed the introduction and the first few stories) I had read an article about this program from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in my Literacy for Special Population course last Fall at Simmons College, so I was curious to hear more and decided to attend this Sunday morning program. Prime Time is a family literacy program comprised of 6 to 8 week sessions with reading, discussion and storytelling at public libraries and other locations. Each session involves the reading of a few books by a professional storyteller, followed by a discussion led by a “scholar” (usually a university professor). Librarians have the opportunity to market library resources to the program participants during each session. The books are selected for their multicultural representations and the opportunities they offer for discussions of humanities topics. The program was started in Louisiana in 1991, but has since spread across many other states thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and support from ALA. Librarians who plan to implement Prime Time at their library participate in an intense training session in New Orleans several times a year. During the conference session, we heard stories from a number of librarians who have planned Prime Time at their libraries. Sue Warner from Kalamzoo City Public Library and other librarians from across the U.S. shared their experiences, the ways they made the program work for their community, and their passion for this wonderful program. They all emphasized that this program requires a great deal of planning and is not cheap, but that the rewards are immeasurable. Prime Time has applied for more funding for 2008 and hopes to support more libraries in the upcoming year both through training and through funding the first series of programming. Check out the ALA site in late August/early September for more information about available grants for Prime Time. ... Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:40:18 +0100 443766 http://plablog.org/2007/06/serving-spanish-speakers-with-disabilities.html This very informative program  on Saturday morning was sponsored by Reforma, the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking. Carrie Banks, director of the Brooklyn Public Library’s Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs discussed staff training for working with Spanish speakers with disabilities. Issues to be aware of when working with Spanish speakers with disabilities include: - The importance of both language competency (i.e. speaking the language of the patron) and cultural competency (i.e. being familiar with the patron’s culture). - Problematic attitudes on the part of library staff are generally related to one of the following factors: fear (of contagion, the different, or the unknown), sympathy and pity, avoidance, repulsion, or over-protection. Some of these may be uncontrollable feelings, but you must never display them outwardly. - In the Spanish speaking communities there are additional factors that greatly affect individuals with disabilities: the idea of “aguante” (in Spanish “getting through”), the centrality and dependence on the family, and certain religious beliefs (which may view a disability as either a blessing or a curse). Also, some disabilities are culturally more acceptable than others, including physical (such as loss of limbs) or blindness, while others, such as mental or emotional disabilities, are viewed more negatively. - Many Spanish speaking adults have physical disabilities because of work accidents; unfortunately, Spanish-speaking adults with disabilities have the highest rate of unemployment and the least success with rehabilitation, mostly due to the lack of focus on the family as part of the rehabilitation process. - Few Spanish speaking individuals with disabilities belong to organizations or support groups because of language barriers. - Immigration status is another big issue, as many don’t ask for help or attend meetings because of fear of deportation. ... Fri, 29 Jun 2007 23:15:20 +0100 443767 http://plablog.org/2007/06/friday-night-ala-many-voices-one-nation.html For the second year in a row I attended this great program organized by ALA ’s Office for Diversity. - “a celebration of the written and spoken word, lyrics, and song.” The premise is basic: bring together authors, poets, musicians, and dancers to provide a sampler of local talent and a range of perspectives about the town where the conference is held and other cultures. I found it to be the perfect start to the conference last year, and I early-on decided that I would not miss this year’s program. This time around the program was less politically charged than post-Katrina New Orleans, but there were still many unique voices: -Program MC Jose Aponte, director of the San Diego County Library system, peppered the program with lively banter and library-related words of wisdom, emphasizing our duty as librarians to nurture and reconstruct our communities and make “our house”, the library, open to all ideas. He added that it is our role as librarians to support the next generation of writers, through “discipline, focus, legacy”. -Da Grewp, a Washington DC band, played “Go-Go” music, D.C.’s version of funk. - Nancy Garden read an abridged version of her contribution to the collection Hear Us Out! Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, which includes stories from different historical eras of the GLBT movement. - Patrice Gaines described words as “magic” in her story, “In the Beginning There was a Word”, meant to encourage young people to read and explore the world of libraries. -Anosh Irani brought a taste of India to the room with an excerpt from his new book The Song of Kahunsha. - Reginald Harris painted a portrait of the “magic city” with his poems about Baltimore. - C.M. ... Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:49:07 +0100 443768 http://litablog.org/podpress_trac/feed/485/0/02%20Top%20Tech%20Trends%20-%20John%20Blyberg.mp3 The second of our seven part Top Technology Trend podcasts is here! There were six Trendsters live at ALA Annual, and this second installment is by John Blyberg. The remainder will be spread out along this and next week. Stay tuned to listen to your favorite, or save them up and listen all together. Now up: John Blyberg Tags: toptechtrends, podcast, lita, ala2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:54:16 +0100 443309 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/28/ala-2007-time-odyssey-visions-of-reference-and-user-services/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, TechThis was the RUSA President’s Program. The panel was made up of: Genevieve Bell - Director of User Experience at Intel and an anthropologist Lee Rainie - Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project Allen Renear - Professor of Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Wendy Schultz - Director of Infinite Futures and Fellow of the World Futures Studies Federation Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University, was moderator and asked some questions of them at the end. The year is 2017. Each panelist was asked to speak about what they think libraries will look like then. More specifically, what reference service will look like. Genevieve Bell went first. She asserted that talking about the future of technology is often just a way to avoid discussing the present. She thinks we’re currently seeing a return to some aspects of the Victorian-era private libraries – people are accumulating more and more personal media. DVDs, CDs, digital movies or music, books, etc. Traditional library roles are being taken over a bit thanks to this. But, meanwhile paper is not going anywhere anytime soon – we seem to like it too much. While these roles are taken over, libraries are shifting to a new one: having a center of gravity, as a location. Physically visiting a library to get a card is often considered a rite of passage, and libraries more and more run activities for the community. In Australian, there are even popular sessions on how to organize your home collection with Dewey! I admit I probably wouldn’t sign up for that one, but to each his own :) Libraries are also becoming central information distribution points, as with tax forms. Another role as a place is to provide a place for people to be together. People want to be where others are when learning. ... Thu, 28 Jun 2007 21:51:59 +0100 443182 http://plablog.org/2007/06/programming-not-just-for-boomers-programming-and-services.html I attended the Programming Not Just for Boomers: Programming and Services program on Saturday, June 23. The program was aimed at adult programs for patrons 70+ years old. A few highlights: •Take an “old” idea and put a new spin on it, such as… oBasic computer training (introduction to internet) oHow to buy tickets online oHow to email kids and grandkids (and set up an email account) oTrain seniors in new technology (blogs, etc.) oHow to use digital photography oGaming – Wii festival and tournaments oSocial networking (Seniornet or Eons) (http://www.seniornet.org / http://www.eons.com/) •Other ideas: oFilm and book discussions oMovement: basic exercise, dance o2nd careers, resumes for 70+ group oFinancial security, recently retired oFilm program, e.g. A Miss Marple film theme oConsumer health oLocal history oGenealogy- create a genealogy club, teach online resources oNostalgia programming oOld basics: creating writing (could also use with blogs), poetry (open house program @ library) oBiggest draw: music! oGrandparents raising grandkids oPrograms on coping with loss oOther ideas: http://www.libraryolderadults.blogspot.com/ •Programs should be: oEngaging, interactive oAllow people to share, discuss, reminisce (they like what’s familiar) oGet people involved, use their mental capabilities (helps keep them young) oServe refreshments (this works with people of all ages!) •Programming needs a gender balance (not just for women) •Marketing otraditional (print, papers) oreceipt printers oflyers, calendars, newsletters in library ochurch bulletins othis is the last generation that is print-oriented (Source: PLA Blog) Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:18:30 +0100 443015 http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2007/06/speaking_techni.php My colleague Rob Styles and I are just back from our trip to North America. Whilst there, we dropped in to the ALA conference in Washington DC for a few days, and Rob participated in a panel session convened for ALA by NCSU's Andrew Pace [blog] and Vanderbilt's Marshall Breeding. The panel, “Speaking Technically: a conversation about cutting-edge library automation and technology with Andrew Pace and Marshall Breeding”, took place on the main exhibition floor at the Washington Convention Center and was over-attended with people spilling out of the allotted space into the surrounding exhibition proper. As well as Rob, panelists comprised Oren Beit-Arie of Ex Libris, Jabe Bloom of TLC, Taco Ekkel of Medialab, Betsy Graham of III, Robin Murray of OCLC and Berit Nelson of Sirsi Dynix, and our two moderators had made a point of keeping panellists in the dark as to the questions in the hope of eliciting fresh, honest, and personal rather than corporate responses. In checking my spelling of names and affiliations for that last sentence, I found it interesting that throwing the search “'name' blog” into Google only produced an authored blog in one instance; Rob's. I'm not sure whether that says anything or not... The first question, to all of the panellists, was (and I'm paraphrasing, as I'm out of practice at writing quickly and a founder member of the (large) population of individuals who struggle to read my handwriting...) “In the business of library automation, how do you balance business and technical considerations in reaching a decision?” Jabe took the first stab, stressing the importance of the total cost of ownership (rather than the up-front cost of purchase) in purchasing decisions. He highlighted the need to apply the most appropriate technology in order to manage costs over the lifetime of an application, before talking about the value of user-centred design in ensuring that the tool fits the job rather than the other way around. ... Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:54:44 +0100 443153 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/128712932/bigwig-audience.html Yesterday David King proposed that the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase was the most attended program at ALA 2007, counting both the in person groups of 30 or so and the online audience. Cuz you didn't have to be physically there. As I'm not really doing anything but mapping directions to Target and IKEA in Chicago, I decided to add up all of the presentation page views from the wiki, plus the number of folks who watched the Twitter screencasts. I don't have the numbers for any of the other interactive content.The unofficial audience for the showcase as of 12:30 EDT today is:6,714I haven't seen actual numbers of physical attendees for ALA, but let's assume that it is around 20,000. So that's about a THIRD of the people who came to DC. Of course people probably watched multiple presentations, but still. That's pretty awesome. And since the material is available online the number is only going to go up. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:35:30 +0100 442830 http://davidsrandomstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/bigwig-audience.html Yesterday David King proposed that the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase was the most attended program at ALA 2007, counting both the in person groups of 30 or so and the online audience. Cuz you didn't have to be physically there. As I'm not really doing anything but mapping directions to Target and IKEA in Chicago, I decided to add up all of the presentation page views from the wiki, plus the number of folks who watched the Twitter screencasts. I don't have the numbers for any of the other interactive content.The unofficial audience for the showcase as of 12:30 EDT today is:6,714I haven't seen actual numbers of physical attendees for ALA, but let's assume that it is around 20,000. So that's about a THIRD of the people who came to DC. Of course people probably watched multiple presentations, but still. That's pretty awesome. And since the material is available online the number is only going to go up. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:25:00 +0100 443305 http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2007/06/lita_top_tech_t.php Sitting in a large and historic ballroom in the mayflower hotel, Washington. John Blyberg is sat at the top table looking awfully dashing in a tie - apparently a rare occasion to see John in a tie. Roy Tennant thinks it's a world first. Also up with John and Roy are Joan Frye Williams, Walt Crawford, Marshall Breeding and Karen A. Coombs, chairing is Maurice York. The room is pretty full, maybe 500 people in all. Just a few more than the vendor panel I've just been on. The official account is scheduled to appear over on Litablog, but there's nothing up there yet, there's supposed to be a podcast going up too. Maurice York is chairing and introduces Marshall to start with his trends... Marshall starts by talking about the impact of consolidation in the marketplace, many libraries have been forced into migrations that they had not planned as a result of products being discontinued. Not all vendors can be tarred with this same brush. The consequences of these business decisions may produce more disruption than we've ever seen. Interest in Open Source is longstanding for stuff like Apache and Linux, but we're now considering o/s for the ILS. Interest and understanding has moved from technology evangelists up to decision makers. Georgia is a great example, British Columbia is following on Evergreen, other jumping on board with Koha. But, in perspective the numbers are 'miniscule' compares to those buying commercial ILS. Will this become an avalanche of people moving to open-source ILS? Companies are popping up to provide support, LibLime, Equinox et al. But we must ensure we play fair; how will these o/s ILS stand up to the 100mpage RFP's we've tortured ILS vendors with? The landscape has been well and truly re-defined. Jon Blyberg follows with something he describes as unsexy. It's great to talk about frontends, but the backends really need to be shored up, sorted out. Better frontends will stress the entire system. ... Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:43:19 +0100 443154 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/128530048/ Guess what ALA2007’s most attended program was? Was it Julie Andrews? Was it Peter Morville? No. This is only my guess, because I don’t have all the numbers… but my guess, based on one set of numbers alone, was … the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase UnConference! What? There were only 30 or so people who attended! How can that be, David? That’s just the physical attendees. But so far, my twitter presentation for the showcase has been viewed 953 times. That’s a bunch of attendees! How about some of you other BIGWIG presenters? How many people have viewed your screencasts (those of you whomade screencasts)? bigwigshowcase07, ala2007 (Source: David Lee King) Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:52:59 +0100 442818 http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2007/06/27/my-favorite-photo-from-showcase/ Here’s my very favorite photograph I took during the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase at ALA Annual 2007: That photo says so much. Here’s a few more that add to the conversation: People not listening to talking heads, and experts in certain areas not preaching to the masses, but groups talking and interacting and questioning. Was amazing to see, and I can’t express how happy I am with having pulled it off. Thanks to all the presenters that put themselves out there for us, and worked so hard to provide content. Also, thanks to the 30 or so people who showed up to a completely unproven program, with no ALA advertising, and no appropriate listing in the program. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll still be highlighting the presentations on LITABlog, and continuing as much an online conversation as people wish. I’m also very interested in what opinions people might have vis-a-vis Showcase 2008…yes? No? What gets changed? What makes it even better? ala2007, annual2007, bigwigshowcase2007, Library Issues, showcaseShare This (Source: Pattern Recognition) Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:21:48 +0100 442960 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/27/ala-2007-ambient-findability/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info SciMy writeups have been a bit delayed, mostly due to traveling complications. But, back to the grindstone: I missed the start of Peter Morville’s talk on “Ambient Findability: Librarians, Libraries, and the Internet of Things”, but here’s what I did get. His whole presentation is online here: Important questions to ask when designing a website: Can users find our website? Can users find their way around our website? Can users find information despite our website? Credibility and findability are interlinked as concepts – whatever links show up as the top Google results, users tend to trust as being authoritative. I’d never thought about this before, but it makes a lot of sense – I know that mindset is how I react when doing casual searches. Then, there are also long tail searches. Peter once worked on a redesign of Cancer.gov. Most of their traffic came from search engines linking in to their central page that directs users to info on different types of cancer. After the redesign, all of those individually linked pages show up more prominently in search results – getting the user to the page they want faster, even if that distributes the stats among lots of pages. Our goal is to make information accessible, not just make a website. Search engine optimization is absolutely crucial. The CSA search interface was greatly simplified in the recent past. This was done to ease choices for students and professors, and not intimidate them so much. But, what if the student or professor doesn’t know the database exists in the first place? Sites such as AccessMyLibrary.com have put the metadata for a number of journal articles online, in the hopes that they’ll show up in Google searches and then be able to link a user to the article via their local library. ... Wed, 27 Jun 2007 22:52:17 +0100 442099 http://litablog.org/2007/06/27/more-about-libraries-as-digital-publishers/ The Kirtas/BookSurge/Amazon book digitization program is getting press! Book Standard Chronicle of Higher Education Tags: ala2007, annual2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:59:46 +0100 441779 http://litablog.org/2007/06/27/libraries-as-digital-publishers-a-new-model-for-scholarly-access-to-information/ This panel featured six speakers who are involved in a new project to digitize books and make them available both online and print-on-demand via Amazon. Two of the speakers, Lotfi Belkhir and Robin Asbury, work for the companies that are behind the project—Kirtas Technologies and BookSurge, respectively—and the other four speakers are with institutions that are digitizing books: Martin Halbert and Lisa Macklin, from Emory University; Joyce Rumery, from the University of Maine, and Linda McKenzie from the Toronto Public Library. This project differentiates itself from Google’s scanning project by focusing on quality control. As Lotfi explained in his presentation, Google and their partner libraries are privileging quantity—digitizing the most books possible in the shortest period of time—over quality—creating the most complete, accurate, and usable digital copies of books possible. (To demonstrate the problems in the Google method, he showed a set of images of one book that Google scanned that contained a very intricately manicured set of fingernails, and, in some of the images, the entire hand, earning some chuckles from the audience.) In his view, there’s no point in doing a project with such low quality control. The cost of scanning books is only a tiny fraction of the total cost of a digitization process; most of the cost will come in the following years as storage costs. In Lotfi’s opinion, there is no point in scrimping on the scanning and then spending all of that money to store a low-quality product—especially since the institution is unlikely to be able to afford to scan books again any time in the near future. (more…) Tags: ala2007, annual2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:42:15 +0100 441780 http://plablog.org/2007/06/%e2%80%9cgrow-your-own-your-library%e2%80%9d-winners.html As promised! This year PLA awarded nine public libraries with grants of $8,000 each (originally announced in February 2007) - to be distributed to staff members working to obtain a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science: Dallas (Texas) Public Library Palm Beach County (Fla.)Library System Chesterfield County (Va.) Public Library Hall County (Ga.) Library System Daviess County (Ky.) Public Library Northwest Regional Library (N.D.) Dunham (N.Y.) Public library Decorah (Iowa) Public library Upper Skagit (Wash.) Library District Congratulations to all our winners! (Source: PLA Blog) Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:05:06 +0100 441932 http://plablog.org/2007/06/wiking-the-blog-and-walking-the-dog-social-software-virtual-reality-and-authority-everywhere.html Jed Moffitt of the King County LIbrary System began the PLA-sponsored Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog with family stories that somehow led to a disclosure that the topic of social software in libraries is not so cutting-edge as it was eighteen months ago when the topic was chosen for the American Library Association Summer 2007 conference. The topic has matured a bit. He thought it was still worth discussing. The overflow crowd agreed. At this “late date” in social software, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County has already reached its second generation in training programs. Matt Gullett, the Emerging Technologies Librarian for PLCMC, described the library’s online tutorial series Learning 2.0. He invited all libraries to use what his library has created. PLCMC generally gave staff nine weeks to complete the tutorial in a voluntary program, but other libraries can take as long as they want. Gullett said the key is to be flexible and let staff learn at their pace. The objectives behind the PLCMC effort are as follows, according to Gullett: expose staff to tools encourage them to play empower individuals expand their knowledge eliminate their fears PLCMC now has debuted its follow-up Learning 2.1, which is more self-directed learning. Gullett says that the results of staff training has resulted in a change in the work culture and the form of his library’s organization is changing. The new departments in the library are 1) community engagement, 2) library experiences, 3) organizational resources, and 4) research, innovation, and strategy. Librarians in virtual worlds was Alliance Library System’s Tom Peters‘ topic. Peters has been involved in Second Life for over a year. His avatar is based on his dog’s name (one of the references back to the title in this program). Peters said that there are now at least 500 virtual worlds online. ... Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:52:37 +0100 441933 http://litablog.org/2007/06/26/the-ultimate-debate-do-libraries-innovate/ Hello LITAblog readers! I’m Julia Bauder, a student in the MLIS program at Wayne State and one of the LITA conference bloggers. I’ll be blogging three sessions this weekend. First up is The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?, featuring Andrew Pace of North Carolina State University as the moderator, Joseph Janes of the University of Washington, Karen Schneider of Florida State University, and Stephen Abram of SirsiDynix. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of this panel. There are two Renaissance Hotels hosting ALA programs, I discovered today about five minutes before this discussion was due to start, and the Renaissance Hotel hosting this program was not the one right across the street from the convention center—it was the one two Metro stops away. (more…) Tags: ala2007, annual2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:49:02 +0100 441043 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Blogjunction/~3/128080817/ I spent my time at ALA finally meeting REFORMAistas, the fabulous librarians in prison library land, and attending as many IRRT events as I could.  Connections are being made between the Spanish Language Outreach program, which focuses on Spanish speakers in the US and folks in prisons and on the other side of the border.  It was an exciting time - thanks to all who have given the love to WJ!  We have lots of pictures from the SLO follow up session, the REFORMA fundraiser, and the IRRT reception (the best parties at ALA!).  We’ll be putting some of those on Flickr soon.  Meanwhile, I wanted to share a few quotes and stories from some of the sessions I attended that sum up the ideas that were flying at ALA. “Books plus tortillas equals life” - a quote from an Salvadoran poet shared in response to a presenter who has developed literacy and library programs in Haiti, and who shared that many in the development field say that she shouldn’t be focused on literacy, but instead should be concentrating on feeding people.  Librarians out there, can you name the poet? “I go to work every day, and I do the best I can, with what I have.”  The words of an archivist in South Africa to an archivist from University of Connecticut. A librarian in Hungary telling the Voices of Exchange about the “library scene” in her country.  I love new names for library land! 14% of adult Americans function at Below Basic literacy skill.  This figure is from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy and has not changed since 1992.  Is this a call to libraries? An example of a librarian using a blog to connect kids from two different countries, connecting teen library volunteers in Fort Lauderdale, high school teens in Philadelphia, and students from Pretoria, South Africa. I was excited to learn of how many of you have used WebJunction resources, and not all of you from the U.S. ... Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:34:12 +0100 441623 http://litablog.org/2007/06/25/j2kig-in-dc/ Minutes of the JPEG2000 Interest Group are posted to the IG’s page on j2kArcLib.info. Comments there require registration to j2kArcLib, so feel free to post comments here on the LITA Blog as well. Tags: jpeg2000, j2kig, j2karclib, ala2007, annual2007 (Source: LITA Blog) Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:19:24 +0100 440882 http://younglibrarian.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html#6516254125932844611 (Source: Young Librarian) Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:18:00 +0100 440548 http://plablog.org/2007/06/transforming-your-library-and-your-library%e2%80%99s-future-with-technology.html Held Saturday 1:30-3:30 This session was an interesting one, but from my viewpoint, it’s one that got better as it went along. The first speaker, Lori Ayre, focused on things that I didn’t think really fit with this topic. She even said that she was going to talk about technologies “with levers and buttons, not we applications”. She covered things like central sorting systems, automated check in, and remote physical library service points, like book dispensers at airports, and library kiosks. And in my opinion, though interesting, this would’ve been better suited to the session on transforming your library space. Anyway, next up was Casey Bisson who talked about the cool things he’s doing at Plymouth State University, and highlighted other library systems that have done innovative stuff in their OPAC. He began his talk with the statement “the library is more than about books – so should our library websites”. He said something I totally agree with: “the website is not a marketing tool; it’s a service point – as important as our physical library branches.” He highlighted small but innovative Tamworth Public Library, whose director utilizes a blog feature on their website to reflect questions received from customers. The example was regarding a particular gardening question received. Well instead of just answering the query (with book titles to try) for the one customer, this became a blog entry that all of their customers (and the rest of us!) can read and comment upon. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 23:28:49 +0100 440791 http://plablog.org/2007/06/press-release-pla-receives-gates-grant.html PLA receives Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to help public libraries build skills and experience needed to increase local support and funding $7.7 million grant will fund national training program for library staff and supporters (Washington, D.C.) – Susan Hildreth, president of the Public Library Association (PLA) announced during the 2007 American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded PLA a $7.7 million grant to develop and provide a national advocacy training program for public librarians over the next three years. Research shows that the public is often unaware of the contributions libraries and librarians make to the health and vitality of their communities. As a result, libraries—which receive more than 80 percent of their funding from local sources—are often overlooked when scarce state, and local financing are allocated among critical services in a community. To help library staff and supporters counter this trend, PLA’s training program will provide librarians with the skills and resources necessary to seek increased funding, create community partnerships, and build alliances with local and regional decision makers. The training will support libraries that are eligible to receive Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Opportunity Online hardware grants, which require grantees to match foundation funds with local dollars. It will also be available to non-grantees on a limited basis. “It is imperative that all librarians and library supporters learn to position their public library as an essential community resource in ways that resonate with local stakeholders and result in increased local funding,” said Jill Nishi, program manager of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Libraries initiative. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 22:24:49 +0100 440792 http://plablog.org/2007/06/pla-awards-presentation.html The award winners are being announced now by Susan Hildreth, PLA president. For details about each award, visit the PLA Awards and Honors page. ADVANCEMENT OF LITERACY AWARD sponsored by Library Journal Jacksonville Public Library Foundation (Fla.) ALLIE BETH MARTIN AWARD sponsored by Baker & Taylor Barry Trott, Williamsburg Regional Library (Va.) BAKER & TAYLOR ENTERTAINMENT AUDIO MUSIC / VIDEO PRODUCT AWARD L.D. Fargo Library (Wis.) CHARLIE ROBINSON AWARD sponsored by the Baker & Taylor Company Sandra Feinberg, Middle Country Public Library (N.Y.) DEMCO NEW LEADERS TRAVEL GRANT sponsored by DEMCO, Inc. Lisa Chlebanowski, Avondale Public Library (Ariz.) Janet Eldred, Hollidaysburg Area Public Library (Pa.) Susan Fisher, Bethesda Public Library (Tenn.) Terri Romberger, Pasco County Library System (Fla.) EBSCO EXCELLENCE IN SMALL AND/OR RURAL PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE AWARD Kenai Community Library (Alaska) GORDON M. CONABLE AWARD sponsored by LSSI Ken Verdoia, former trustee, Salt Lake County Library (Utah) Board of Directors HIGHSMITH LIBRARY INNOVATION AWARD Athens-Clarke County Library (Ga.) PUBLIC LIBRARIES FEATURE ARTICLE AWARD First Prize: Meagan Albright, Alvin Library (Fla.) Second Prize: Mary Cosper LeBoeuf, Terrebonne Parish Library System (La.) I’ll post the “Grow Your Own @ Your Library” Institutional Scholarship as a separate post, once I have the paper list (Susan Hildreth read them too fast for my fingers!). (Source: PLA Blog) Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:59:42 +0100 440793 http://www.libraryola.com/2007/06/25/biblioblog-fanboy/ I don’t have much to say about my last day at ALA. I had lunch with my friend Eliz, a friend of hers whose name I of course have already forgotten, and my wife Jennifer. Then I headed to the exhibit floor. It’s an exhibit floor. On the plus side, I did finally get to meet Rory Litwin, one of the librarians who had a big influence on me when I first got into blogging. He wasn’t blogging at that time, but Library Juice was the first library zine I had ever seen, and it was great to see. He had copies of the first four titles from his Library Juice Press publishing house. Of course, I still haven’t read all the other books I’ve bought recently, but I swear I’ll get to them sooner or later. The point is, I’m excited by the rise of independent library science publishing, which includes Walt Crawford’s Cites and Insights Books. (Someday, by the way, I will get to meet Crawford as well, since he’s obviously another hero of mine.) While I’m gushing about other people’s websites, I want to make a big deal about two biblioblogs that I’ve been really enjoying lately. The profile of Chronicles of Bean has gone up in the past few weeks, and especially during the ALA conference. Cindi is a whip-smart writer, and she has a clear and important voice. I find I keep linking to her work in the Featured Post widget in my right-side gutter, which is what gave me the idea to write this post anyway. The other blog I want to mention also has the word “Chronicle” in the title. Chronicles of The (almost) Bald Technology Trainer has a conversational and almost convivial tone. Maurice, the author of the blog, incorporates photography beautifully into his site. Take a look at his post “Technology Fair Part Deux” to see what I mean. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:10:29 +0100 440467 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/127838655/ Peter Morville - very fun to hear! Good stuff, too. Lead-off quote: Information that’s hard to find will remain information that’s hardly found. organize websites so people can find what they’re looking for - that’s how he explains his job to his mom provide multiple paths to the same information What does usable mean? His honeycomb… : useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, usable, valuable You can do a “credibility audit” instead of a full-scale redesign… desirability - takes us to brand and visual aspects findable: ask 3 questions 1. can our users find our website 2. can our users find their way around our website 3. can our users find info on our site despite our website perceived credibility - people trust nice-looking, well-designed sites users tend to trust the first hits of google - think they’re the experts Findability = credibility for people cancer.gov… came up first with cancer - but not first with specific types of cancer we’re designing the legacy systems of tomorrow ambient findability: the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime the degree to which a system or environment supports wayfinding, navigation, and retrieval… a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention… (quote from Herbert Simon) ambientdevices.com… designs stuff that changes when certain things happen… ex: ambient pen: changes color when user-defined associates voicemail the user… it’s an alternate interface to digital information mentioned the iPhone… we have the promise of having the real web in our pockets Cisco Wireless Location Appliance - using rfid, you can find things wirelessly - wheelchair example… you look at a map to find the exact location of a wheelchair instead of hunting them down. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 19:21:06 +0100 440568 http://litablog.org/2007/06/25/the-library-is-open/ The Boyfriend and I arrived in DC Thursday night. We’re staying at the Holiday Inn on Thomas Circle. It is posh by our standards: we have two bathrooms, a fridge, a microwave, iron, blowdryer, coffeemaker, etc. I have been sick most of the last week with a stomach bug. I can finally eat again, but it’s not exactly enjoyable. Last night, we got in too late for the hotel restaurant, so we wandered about until we found something called Logan’s Tavern. Turned out to be a wine bar–zero beer on tap. This morning we slept late–jet lag kept us awake until around 1:30 am, so we slept until 10:00. Then we hopped on one of the free shuttle buses (if anything from Gale is ever free) and went to the convention center, which seems like a particularly uninspired exmple of civic architecture. I had never received my all-important conference badge in the mail, so I had to go to “will call.” I was expecting it to take an hour. It took under ten minutes–a huge improvement over previous experiences! Kudos to ALA. Then we went to the Renaissance, one of the main conference hotels. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated OCLC Symposium was being held at the other main conference hotel, the Grand Hyatt. I can’t believe my ability to end up at the wrong hotel for something every single conference. These were of course several blocks apart. So we hoofed it. Fortunately, the weather was so nice it was impossible to believe we were in the mid-Atlantic region. Sunny, breezy–not even slightly humid. The subject of the OCLC Symposium was “Is the Library Open?” In part, it was a panel on some of the subjects in a forthcoming OCLC membership report on “Sharing, Privacy, and Trust in Our Networked World.” Cathy De Rosa, Vice President, OCLC, started us off with some of the same questions the survey had asked. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:54:39 +0100 440315 http://plablog.org/2007/06/sunday-at-ala.html Sunday was a very busy day full of programs. Nancy Pearl First I arrive bright and early to see Nancy Pearl speak. It was fascinating to hear how each of her books came into being, especially her lastest book, Book Crush. She gave some suggestions of books for children and teens such as : Sunshine by Robin McKinley Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz The Paperboy by Pete Dexter Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Lee Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken The Great Good Thing by Rod Townley Ragweed by Avi The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck Thirsty by MT Anderson Feed by MT Anderson Looking for Normal by Betty Monthei Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis Off the Chain: Reader’s Advisory for Exploding Genres I really enjoyed this program. I won’t go into too many details because one of my fellow bloggers have done a great job detailing the program. I know that RUSA/PLA CODES will be having the handouts from their program on their websites. I found the program very interesting and has given me more authors and books to add to my list of books to read. I liked the many ways of finding out about new literature online, such as lit blogs and email lists as well as MySpace. English Only: Censorship and its Impact on Latino Children and Young Adults in Schools and Public Libraries I came into this program about half way through but I am glad I did. This program was given by AFL REFORMA. I missed the presentation part, but I did come in just as they started the discussion groups for different types of libraries. The public library discussion group was led by Rose Trevino. This gave people from different library systems a chance to ask questions and talk about how their library systems have their foreign languages materials placed in the collection and any programming that they have in foreign languages. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:33:11 +0100 440794 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/24/ala-2007-lita-top-tech-trends/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, TechI am utterly exhausted tonight - somehow I forgot how much walking a big conference like this can involve. So, here’s my raw notes with very little elaboration. A very worthwhile session though! I know I missed writing down a lot of good points, but LITA should be posting the full session as a podcast somewhere soon.  The speakers were: John Blyberg Karen Coombs Roy Tennant Marshall Breeding Walt Crawford Joan Frye Williams I’ll label who said what with their initials whenever possible. MB: Library automation is an important area. Consolidation, investment by venture capital, etc. all bring major changes and heightened distrust by customers. Open Source is another trend - there are now legitimately considerable ILS options that are open source. Meanwhile, where do new companies that provide support for open source products fit in? There is a new focus on updating front end interfaces to match user expectations. JB: Back ends need to be shored up to support new front ends, due to a ripple effect of those changes causing more stress on the existing structure. RFID sorters and storage options’ privacy issues are illusory - they’re really just barcodes, nobody can resolve what book it refers to without direct back end database access. There’s a new desire to uncouple the OPAC from the ILS and make everything more modular WC: RFID can have privacy concerns if patrons’ cards are chipped too JFW: This is trying to use logic on a political issue. We’re the only institution with an application for RFID chips that won’t sue protestors, so we are their prime targets when they’re really fighting against Walmart and that sort. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 04:14:24 +0100 440208 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/24/ala-2007-harnessing-the-hive-social-networks-libraries/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, TechThis talk was broken up into three pieces - one each by Matthew Bejune (Assistant Professor of Library Science at Purdue University Libraries), Meredith Farkas (’Queen of Wikis’ and Distance learning librarian at Norwich University), and Tim Spalding (founder of LibraryThing). Matthew opened with a summary of his research into wiki use in libraries. The results will appear more formally in the 9/07 issue of ITAL. For his purposes, library wikis can be classified in one of four groups: 1. Collaboration between libraries 2. Collaboration between library staff (internal) 3. Collaboration between staff and patrons 4. Collaboration between patrons Groups one and two combined make up about 76% of all library wiki use. Some highlighted examples included the SJCPL subject guide wiki, the USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library’s site (using a wiki as a full CMS), OCLC’s Wikid, and The Biz Wiki from Ohio University. As we move forward with Wikis, Matthew highlighted some questions to keep in mind: Why aren’t we more in category 3 or 4? How might we enable patrons to build or modify a library’s information? How will libraries next use wikis? His own wiki (http://librarywikis.pbwiki.com/) has many more details. Meredith took the stage next. Her presentation is available online at meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com She stressed the need for knowledge management. All organizations need it to collect and maintain just how to do a task and share areas of expertise. Many libraries’ systems for this purpose are too informal right now. For example, scraps of paper with notes left at the reference desk can very easily disappear. A blog might work, but the reverse chronological listing makes it hard to locate an item in the long run. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:49:59 +0100 440209 http://litablog.org/2007/06/24/standards-ig/ Todd Carpenter, NISO’s new Managing Director (since September 2006) gave a talk about the new NISO organization that has evolved out of the recommendations from the 2005 “Blue Ribbon Panel” that reviewed the organization. He started by reiterating facts and perceptions about NISO — that it is the agency responsible for ANSI Z39 standards and the ANSI representative to the ISO TC46; that standards formation under NISO is a long, arduous process measured in years; that NISO has been reactive to situations within the community and has not been engaged in the incubation or early development of standardization efforts; and that it is focused on internal communities (libraries) rather than engagement with other groups and industries with similar needs to libraries. NISO status As a snapshot of what it is now, Todd said that NISO has 3 full-time professional staff, a dozen or so consultants and partners that make up a “virtual staff” and about 300 volunteers working on NISO standards activities. The organization is made up of 82 voting members, 27 Library Standards Alliance members, and 13 maintenance agencies. Revenue for 2006 was $714,000, up modestly from previous years; 80% of revenue is from membership dues while the remaining 20% is from seminars and publishing. Grants receipts are a new form of revenue with $196,000 received from the Mellon foundation and $24,000 from IMLS. NISO is taking a much broader focus on standards related activities that was previously conceived. NISO will certainly continue to maintain a portfolio of Z39. ... Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:21:48 +0100 440304 http://litablog.org/2007/06/24/some-thumbs-up/ ALA RUSA MARS–Hot Topics Libraries2Go: Library Services for Handhelds Sat., 6/23 10:30 am-12:00 pm J W Marriott Salon IV Moderator, Mark Dehmlow of Notre Dame University joined via Skype. Home (Indiana?) awaiting birth of child. GRE word for the day is ubiquity. 95% of students have cell phones. Libraries need to portal their services to where the users are (except when driving :D). Services for handhelds are user-centered. First panelist, Bradley Faust from Ball State University. http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/lits/mobileproject/project_summary.html The Mobile Computing Project at Ball State began in 2004 with LSTA/IMLS grant. Better, faster higher capacity networks & handheld devices, now integrating with course management systems. Users want: Audio, ebooks, podcasts Mobile search Quick facts Directional tours of facilities, services Video tutorials, instructional videos Texting Regular web sites are unfriendly to small screens. Need short pages, easy to navigate, minimal images, anywhere access. BSU developed a new gateway to their catalog using data from their Z39.50 server. Developed searchable index of journals Streaming instructional videos via Windows Media Using Google Co-op search Markus Wurst–MobiLIB at NCSU https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/mobilib/ Commercial content providers going to phones–Yahoo, Google, MSN, Flickr, MySpace. Eric Schmidt, Google, “Mobile, mobile, mobile.” Libraries need to think about what users are doing. Design considerations–variety of browsers, platforms, small screens, need precise language. NCSU offering: 1) cat search based on catalog web service using xml data 2) library computer availability 3) Library hours today and tomorrow 4) Campus directory 5) Contact us. 6) Links to external sources 7)University bus status Just started this spring. No stats. Only staff time being used so far. Markus does not own a cell phone. Michelle Jacobs–Univ. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:01:46 +0100 440306 http://litablog.org/2007/06/24/lita-happy-hour-stout-ale-chili-and-more/ A great crowd met on Saturday night at the Capital City Brewing Company for LITA’s Happy Hour. This was the place to be…to catch up with colleagues, sample the wide selection of cool ales and a bit of the hot cuisine! Those popular, glowing blue LITA necklaces, handed out by Mary Taylor, LITA Executive Director, identified members in the packed locale. Catherine Jannick from Georgia Tech in Atlanta and on the 2007 LITA Forum Planning Committee, reminded members that registration was now open for the Forum. Karen Schneider approved of the site stating it’s “crowded but wonderful.” John S. [I promised not to write his last name], a Cataloger and Systems Support Librarian, University of Maryland, agreed. He confessed to me that he really likes LITA people and loved coming to Happy Hour, adding shamelessly “even though my membership had expired.” Well, join again John! Kansas librarians Martin Courtois, Leslie Nord and Monique Sendeze chatted with this blogger. Martin is the D-Space Coordinator from Kansas State Unviersity and is in the midst of convincing Anthropology and Food Science faculty to submit their articles to be posted on the D-Space platform. Leslie, the Information Services Training Coordinator at Johnson County Library told me that patrons at her library love blogging about the library staff…and in turn the librarians enjoy reading the blogs. Monique, also from the Johnson County Library, said that they had just purchased a new content management system, Episerver, from a Swedish vendor. What attracted them to this system was easy of patron contribution, flexibility of the stylesheets and RSS feeds. The future generation of the catalog was on ExLibris’s Greg Gosselin’s mind though surrounded by the merriment of his University of Minnesota friends Betsy, Janet and Laura. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:00:58 +0100 440307 http://litablog.org/2007/06/24/distance-learning-interest-group/ The DLIG has had a few challenges leading up to our meeting this time. First, we weren’t assigned a room. Then, we were assigned a room, but it was too late to be printed in the program. Today, when we found it, someone else was meeting there and we were listed on the sign for a different day than we had arranged. So, by the time we were able to find a room, we were down to three people. Nevertheless, we had a lovely discussion and brainstormed ideas for what the interest group could do leading up to midwinter. We discussed how there is often only one distance learning librarian at an institution and the challenges associated with that when a new distance learning librarian is hired. We talked about how a designated DL librarian position can sometimes lead staff to assume all things DL are being taken care of, and maybe back-off in areas of their jobs that overlap. This becomes a problem as we discussed our next topic: what’s a distance learner anyway? Today, our students are accessing materials online and using the library website whether they’re studying in another country or in the building next door to the library. When everyone is using online resources, does it matter where the student does (or doesn’t) live? DLIG has started a blog, where we hope to provide a space for community discussion and a place where people can share success stories or tips. We decided that some good topics to begin with include copyright law and licensing, case studies, screen casts of things that work, and materials that distance learning librarians can share among themselves. We discussed programming opportunities around these ideas and talked about trying to put together an online distance learning interest group meeting so that we can get together the 25-30 people who typically would come to our discussion group. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:58:38 +0100 440308 http://plablog.org/podpress_trac/feed/782/0/PLABlog-20070623-Audiobooks_children-ya_JudyBlume.mp3 I’ve never recorded a session for podcast and *not* sat in on the same session (my post of the session I attended is forthcoming), so this is something new. Many thanks to Melissa Faubel Johnson for minding the digital recorder! The description for the session, which was presented Saturday, June 23, was as follows: Audiobooks are a growing portion of library collections. Here is an event to celebrate and learn about the creation of quality audiobook products from the perspective of authors, narrators and producers who build the blocks that create great listening experiences. This program will focus on audiobooks for young adults and children and is cosponsored by ALSC and YALSA. Many thanks to ALSC for working with us to record and podcast the session! Here’s the list of when each speaker begins in the recording, and a little tidbit about each speaker’s segment. It sounds like it was a very interesting and entertaining recording, and I’m sad I missed it (even though I wouldn’t have normally attended this session in the first place), so I’m glad we have the podcast to share with all of you. Intro: Mary Burkey, Moderator, Odyssey Award Committee Chair, introduces the session, and talks a little about the Odyssey Award, a collaboration between ALSC and YALSA. 5:37: Bruce Coville, Author, Full Cast Audio: 16:03: Judy Blume, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library - very humorous presentation with bits about reading her books to audio. Her advice to writers is to read aloud! 31:00: John Green, Author, Brilliance Audiobooks - Creator/contributor to the videoblog Brotherhood 2.0 who has worked for NPR, includes bits on the relationship between text and audio. 47:00: Jack Gantos, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library - Oh my word, he’s funny. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:16:26 +0100 440018 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~5/127569317/Davidleeking-TwitterPresentation288.flv Click To Play Yesterday, I participated in the LITA BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. It was very cool! The Showcase had more of an “unconference” feel, which was nice. So rather than doing a formal presentation with a brief Q and A at the end, I created a screencast of my presentation (linked above) about cool Twitter add-ons, and then at the Showcase David Free and I sat at a table and had good conversations with interested attendees. We talked about a range of things, from Twitter to Facebook to other techie topics. I think ALA could use some more of these… my guess is the interest groups and poster sessions are supposed to cover this type of ground, but I’m not sure they’re achieving that. The Showcase DID achieve it. So let’s definitely have more! ala2007 twitter bigwigshowcase07 (Source: David Lee King) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:59:45 +0100 439980 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/127550827/bigwig-social-software-showcase.html Twitter Table Originally uploaded by dwfree1967 Thanks to everyone who came to the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase roundtable on Saturday. The organizers went out on a huge limb to put together the program and I'm sure appreciate you too. We had a great conversation at the Twitter Table. The session went much longer than the scheduled hour and there was great conversation and debate at other tables too. And there was much live tweeting going on.The music before the session was by Jorge Ben Jor.Make sure to take a look at the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase wiki and check out all the great presentations. That's the great thing about an online conference. You don't have to be there to learn something. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:08:28 +0100 440570 http://davidsrandomstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/bigwig-social-software-showcase.html Twitter Table Originally uploaded by dwfree1967 Thanks to everyone who came to the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase roundtable on Saturday. The organizers went out on a huge limb to put together the program and I'm sure appreciate you too. We had a great conversation at the Twitter Table. The session went much longer than the scheduled hour and there was great conversation and debate at other tables too. And there was much live tweeting going on.The music before the session was by Jorge Ben Jor.Make sure to take a look at the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase wiki and check out all the great presentations. That's the great thing about an online conference. You don't have to be there to learn something. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:06:00 +0100 440194 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/127550828/rusa-preconference-stage-left.html RUSA Preconference Stage Left Originally uploaded by dwfree1967 Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA/ MARS Reinvented Reference Pre-Conference on Friday. I had a blast talking to you. And listening to all the other awesome speakers. It was a great day.The music I played before my talk was by Pink Floyd. You may have heard of them.Links to my slides, podcasts I talked about, info on how to create podcasts, and more are available on my presentation wiki.Let me know if you have any questions. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 18:01:03 +0100 440571 http://davidsrandomstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/rusa-preconference-stage-left.html RUSA Preconference Stage Left Originally uploaded by dwfree1967 Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA/ MARS Reinvented Reference Pre-Conference on Friday. I had a blast talking to you. And listening to all the other awesome speakers. It was a great day.The music I played before my talk was by Pink Floyd. You may have heard of them.Links to my slides, podcasts I talked about, info on how to create podcasts, and more are available on my presentation wiki.Let me know if you have any questions. (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:58:00 +0100 440195 http://dltj.org/2007/06/lita-standards-ig/ [Aside: I’m not quite sure what the procedure is for posting on LITAblog.org. This report was posted there last night to appear at something like http://www.litablog.org/2007/06/23/standards-ig/ but it seems to be stuck in a moderation queue of some sort. I’m reposting it here to get it out to the membership.] Todd Carpenter, NISO’s new Managing Director (since September 2006) gave a talk about the new NISO organization that has evolved out of the recommendations from the 2005 “Blue Ribbon Panel” that reviewed the organization. He started by reiterating facts and perceptions about NISO — that it is the agency responsible for ANSI Z39 standards and the ANSI representative to the ISO TC46; that standards formation under NISO is a long, arduous process measured in years; that NISO has been reactive to situations within the community and has not been engaged in the incubation or early development of standardization efforts; and that it is focused on internal communities (libraries) rather than engagement with other groups and industries with similar needs to libraries. NISO status As a snapshot of what it is now, Todd said that NISO has 3 full-time professional staff, a dozen or so consultants and partners that make up a “virtual staff” and about 300 volunteers working on NISO standards activities. The organization is made up of 82 voting members, 27 Library Standards Alliance members, and 13 maintenance agencies. Revenue for 2006 was $714,000, up modestly from previous years; 80% of revenue is from membership dues while the remaining 20% is from seminars and publishing. Grants receipts are a new form of revenue with $196,000 received from the Mellon foundation and $24,000 from IMLS. NISO is taking a much broader focus on standards related activities that was previously conceived. NISO will certainly continue to maintain a portfolio of Z39. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 17:17:32 +0100 440046 http://alreadygone.blogspot.com/2007/06/ala2007-transforming-your-staff.html The director of the Queens library talked about ways to transform a library's staff. Takeaways:. If library leadership don't know where they're headed, transformation is not possible and no one will follow.. It is important to establish and publish the values your library will adhere to.. Recruitment must be aligned to your vision and values. New hires must have competencies that you're looking for.Competencies are not skills but *how* an employee gets the job done. At Queens library, they have identified competencies and defined six "levels" for each. For example, someone who is expected to have "Level 2" Initiative seeks answers. A "Level 3" is expected to dig deeper, and a "Level 5" anticipates things coming over the next year and plans accordingly. Competencies are much more important than degrees or experience.Their values: providing quality services, the customers come first, use technology to *enable* services, value the importance of individuality in customers and staff, expect teamwork when getting the job done.Managing performance: people must be held accountable; it is vital for management to recognize good behavior, good and bad work alike and provide good opportunities for staff development. At Queens library, there is a message of the day, a biweekly newsletter, and staff members who get thank-yous from patrons are sent flowers!THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN YOUR ORGANIZATION IS YOUR STAFF.The last thing: it's important to know where you are, where you're going and how to get there! (Source: Chronicles of Bean) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 16:11:00 +0100 440526 http://blogs.ala.org/aasl.php?title=sizing_up_america_s_school_libraries_the&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 School Libraries Count! A national survey of school library Keith Curry Lance gave an impressive overview of the preliminary findings of the first AASL longitudinal survey, School Libraries Count! In a well-attended session, Lance described the preliminary findings with the modifying reminder that the complete results will be presented at Reno this October at the national conference. There were many questions from the audience about possible questions that weren’t asked or suggestions about how to get additional responses for the next survey. The information on the state of America’s school libraries will be collected each year and with each additional year the depth and validity of the information will be more solid. The point is that the only national information about school libraries is collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics and the problem is that their information is only collected every five years and it takes about five years to publish the data. AASL will be able to do better than that. Results from the survey are reported at the 50 percentile, 75 percentile and 95 percentile levels. This information will tell the reader what half the schools, twenty-five percent of the schools, and five percent are doing in these categories. Over 5,000 school library media specialists responded to the first-round survey that was an impressive number. Unfortunately, the percentage of schools that were selected specifically to ensure that there was an accurate representative sample came in significantly under the number needed to give a statistically accurate picture of the library situation, but the report is off to a great start. Also interesting was the number of school librarians who responded to the survey who were not AASL members – meaning perhaps that even thought SLMSs were not members of the national organization they perceived the work of this survey to be significant. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:25:08 +0100 439855 http://plablog.org/2007/06/more-shining-stars.html Award-Winning Programs from Small and Medium-sized Public Libraries A trio of libraries presented programs that highlight how innovative libraries can be. Some have won national awards for their efforts, and all librarians were encouraged to try. The Bloomingdale Public Library in Illinois talked about redesigning their YA space. They won a Demco award for their submission and received the assistance of design folks from Demco to recreate the space. It has pleased area teens and is quite popular. The Nappanee Public Library in Indiana talked about a number of projects, all collaborative in nature. They have a booth in conjunction with 5 other public libraries at the county 4-H fair, increasing visibility and the ability to tell the library story to folks they might not ordinarily reach. They’ve formed a computer consortium with 40 libraries for computer services, saving money and increasing efficiency. And they’re currently in the process of creating a community welcome center and museum in conjunction with the city, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Redevelopment Office. Impressive. Finally, the Linebaugh Public Library director from Murfreesboro, Tennessee spoke about their discussion series for teens, Cafe Symposium. The program brings teens together weekly for philosophical discussion, which I think is brilliant. The teens very much enjoy the program and have written glowing reviews of their experiences. Mary Beth (Source: PLA Blog) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 14:04:56 +0100 440019 http://plablog.org/2007/06/kidlit-drink-night.html Last night, among the crowds of librarians that had poured into the downtown Capital City Brewery, there were a couple of tables hosting KidLit Drink Night. The gathering was arranged by Mother Reader, and open to children’s literature bloggers, authors, and fans. (I’m steadily building my own blog, which sometimes focuses on children’s literature, over at 2ndgenlibrarian.) The party had begun to thin out a bit by the time I found my way there, but there were still about twenty people seated (and standing) around two tables. While drinks were not had by all, certainly fun was. It was a loud, raucous group, in the middle of a loud, raucous restaurant. I’ll paraphrase the oft-repeated refrain of the evening. “It’s just nice to be with people who care about children’s literature as much as you do.” And it really is. (Source: PLA Blog) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:45:49 +0100 440020 http://www.libraryola.com/2007/06/24/ala-2007-careers-in-federal-libraries-pt-2/ Amy Loughran of the U.S. Army Training & Doctrine Command (TRADOC) presented the “Finding a Federal Job” portion of “Careers in Federal Libraries.” She titled her presentation “So You Think You Can Be a Federal Librarian” [PPT]. She began with an overview of USAJOBS, pointing out that it has a resume builder and an alert system for registered users to track jobs they might be interested in. She said that 1410 is the main series code for librarian positions, although there are library jobs in other series codes as well. Nancy Faget later recommended truncating the series code when setting up alerts by using just the first two numbers; 14, 03, 17, and 22 will all have library-related job listings. Loughran stressed the importance of reading the job listings closely. The duties listed in the notice are the “nuts and bolts” of the job. She recommended printing up the listing and comparing the duties with your federal resume to make sure that they match up as closely as possible. She said that resumes need to use the exact same terminology that is used in the listing. If your resume contains library jargon may be synonymous with terms in the listing, an HR person or a Resumix program reviewing your application may not find you to be qualified for the position. Obviously, during any application review process, the initial stage HR undertakes involves sorting out the qualified applicants from the non-qualified applicants. Loughran pointed out that in government job listings, you will see how qualified you are expected to be. Some postings will even say “highly qualified,” and they mean it. The listings will also tell you who may apply. (In other words, if it’s for, say, State Department employees only, don’t waste your time applying for it. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 13:12:05 +0100 440468 http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2007/06/23/ala-mayhem-day-1-and-2/ I’ve been at ALA for two days now and only really managed to get 1 blog post up. I normally blog more at conferences but this ALA is a busy one for me. I think that there is only one program that I’m going to be able to go to of my own free will. Even so, the conference is still incredibly productive for me. Meeting and talking to people, learning about what they are doing at lunch, LITA Happy Hour, or over drinks is so helpful. Probably the most gratifying piece of the conference thus far has been the Social Software Showcase. Although we didn’t have a massive turnout, our numbers were relatively good and the quality of the conversations was incredible. Debating library issues with Michael Porter and Tim Spalding had to be the highlight of my day. I also got to meet Michael Habib in person for the first time. I’ve been using his graphic on Academic Library 2.0 for some time in talks and showing it to the people I work with. Tomorrow is a very full day, including Top Tech Trends. I’ve decided of the incubator trends 2 of the 3 I’m going to talk about at the panel. I’m still debating the third and will likely decide at the absolute last minute, which one to talk about. (Source: Library Web Chic) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:40:48 +0100 439582 http://www.librarywebchic.net/wordpress/2007/06/23/nuggets-from-rusa-preconf-on-changing-reference-services/ Friday I spoke as part the RUSA Preconf on Reinventing Reference with Michael Stephen, David Lee King, Dave Free, and David Ward. Although many of the different topics that the other folks are talking about I know a great deal about, being at the preconference is a great experience for two reasons. First, it is great to see the other folks present and interact with them. Second, there were a bunch of different nuggets that even I was able to take away. A few gems from Michael Stephens Building renovation, build it in Second Life first! See what people think. Get them to interact with the space. 200 reference questions per week in Second Life at Library Reference Desk! Facebook Applications are hot Some tidbits on chat from David Ward MySpace IM can be accessed via Trillian Facebook has chat applications Chatbots for library applications Dave Free and David Leek King make podcasting and video blogging super fun Ask Ninja video on Podcasting Fireant, MeFeedia - video aggregators I didn’t know existed What is Barbie had a book club Also here are my presentation slides and links to most of the blogs/tools I mentioned as part of my presentation. (Source: Library Web Chic) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:26:52 +0100 439583 http://plablog.org/2007/06/the-google-five-libraries-two-years-six-months-and-seven-days-in-the-life-of-google-library-project.html Is there no downside to being a library partner in the Google Library Project? Until pressed by members of the audience, the five-member panel only admitted it was a lot of work and the lawsuits were annoying. The panelists all seemed almost unconcerned that they really do not know what the ramifications of the project are. The meeting began with a bit of history. In December 2004, when Google was rolling out lots of products, it announced Google Print, a project to make full texts available for reading and printing from the web. Within weeks the company also announced that it had agreements with five large libraries to digitize their printed materials and make them searchable on the web. Many librarians thought the idea was great, but publishers and authors objected. The upset parties filed lawsuits against Google and the libraries. In Fall 2005 the project was renamed Google Books. Adam Smith, the Product Management Director of the Google Book Search summed up the status of the project. As of June 2007, there are 25 libraries providing are scheduled to join the project, whose goal is making searching books as easy as searching the web. He also said that around 10,000 publishers had signed on to provide content at differing levels. Some have full texts, some sample pages, and others snippets with keywords. He said that Google Book Search had been integrated with Google Universal Search, and showed that special “About This Book” pages combining metadata, reviews, book backgrounds, and library holdings are being added to Google Book Search. The five libraries are Harvard, University of Michigan, New York Public, Stanford, and Oxford University’s Bodleian. Their panelists indicated that libraries themselves had differing objectives, but all admitted they signed on because they were failing to digitize at fast enough rate before Google made its tempting offer. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 03:14:47 +0100 439750 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/23/ala-2007-google-book-project-update/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, TechI only caught a little of this session due to a conflict with other events I wanted to be at. Google’s Adam Smith opened with a walkthrough of the http://books.google.com/ website. He noted that Google has agreements with roughly 40,000 publishers to scan their books that are still under copyright. I hadn’t heard that anywhere before. Records with metadata have been added for non-scanned books too, like Harry Potter. Representatives of each of the first five schools to join the scanning project were also on hand. I didn’t get to hear them all, but most noted that their efforts started with off site collections that in storage to minimize impact on the main collection. Harvard is including all bound volumes, not just books. Michigan scans fragile items in house and lets the outside scanners handle the rest. Interestingly, they keep their own copies of the scan in addition to what they pass on to Google. They plan to build their own interface to search the local copies - I’d be really interested to see the final result and compare the functionality of each. (Source: Hidden Peanuts) Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:37:24 +0100 440210 http://www.hiddenpeanuts.com/archives/2007/06/23/ala-2007-the-ultimate-debate-do-libraries-innovate/ Filed Under: ALA2007, Libraries/Info Sci, TechModerated by Andrew Pace, this session was in the format of a Q&A/debate among the panelists: Stephen Abram, Joseph Janes, and Karen Schneider. Lots of fascinating things here - I don’t think I got it all down on paper, but I left with a lot of new thoughts on my mind. One major point that all three agreed on is that the profession should not be so afraid to take risks. If something fails, so what? We tried. Learn from it and apply that knowledge to something else. And innovation does not necessarily have to be on vast scales - something small can be just as important and ultimately build to something larger. The central question was the titular ‘Do Libraries Innovate?’ While each panelist phrased it a bit differently, all seemed to agree that while individuals in libraries are innovating, the institutional support is very often lacking. New ideas are squelched with negative criticism even before they have a chance to succeed or fail on their own. A prime example of this was Maricopa County Library’s experiment with ditching Dewey in one branch. Even before their doors opened, the criticism had reached thunderstorm levels. But, the patrons seem to love it. So what are the marks of an innovative library? Abram: Having a tough hide is necessary, the process should be shared so others can learn from it, and don’t be afraid to be a follower of a new idea. Janes: Don’t be afraid to fail. Example of why not: Even when Apple’s Lisa computer failed, that ultimately led to the Macintosh. Development is more important than Research (in tech areas at least) - get out there and experiment. Schneider: Be willing to re-evaluate the definition of success. Example: Flickr started as some sort of gaming site, then shifted to photography when it became apparent that users wanted that aspect of their functionality above all others. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 02:09:05 +0100 439520 http://plablog.org/2007/06/checking-in-to-ala-2007.html Hello. My name is Catherine Moffatt and I am a Public Services Librarian in the Reference Department at a public library in Southern Maryland. This is my first time blogging for PLA at an ALA event so here is goes. Friday I arrived at the ALA Annual Conference on Friday afternoon. After checking in, getting my badge holder, and bag of conference materials, I sat down and became acquainted with the materials and where all of my events were going to be located. As this was my first time going to events other than just visiting the exhibits, I decided that going to the Conference 101 sponsered by ALA NMRT at 4:00 pm that evening was a very good idea. I was glad I did. It was very informative and gave me much information that has been helpful as far as navigating not only the conference events, but also the materials given at check-in. From this I also noticed in my program guide that my alma mater, University of South Florida, had a booth at the exhibits and was going to be at the Library School Reunion Event on Sunday evening. One more fun activity to go to and to hopefully see some old professors and classmates. From there I went home, since I live locally, and got myself prepared for my exciting first full day. Saturday Saturday I arraived bright and early to the Convention Center at around 8:30 am. I had my rolling bag with me so I was all prepared for going through the exhibits. I moved my way over to the The Stacks area and waited for the exhibits to open up at 9 am. I wondered up and down each row looking through all the different booths of interesting products to buy, both personal and for libraries. Even after wandering around until 12:30 pm, I still hadn’t seen everything there was to see. So loaded down with my goodies, I went to my next program I wanted to attend during the conference. ... Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:16:53 +0100 439751 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Davidrothmannet/~3/127379883/ LibWorm can help with that. This query should show all blog posts about ALA 2007: +(ALA2007 “ALA 2007″ ALA07 “ALA 07″) Even easier, you can subscribe to a feed for this search and have new posts delivered to you as LibWorm indexes them. (Source: davidrothman.net) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:12:48 +0100 439464 http://www.libraryola.com/2007/06/23/ala-2007-careers-in-federal-libraries-pt-1/ “Careers In Federal Libraries” was a pre-conference session at ALA that was presented at the Library of Congress. The program was webcasted, and the video from the session will be posted on FLICC’s website shortly. Nancy Faget introduced the program before turning it over to the moderator (whose name will be inserted here later this evening). FLICC’s Roberta Shaffer phoned in her opening remarks to the session, because she’s in France. The majority of the session featured the following federal librarians providing an overview of the libraries they work at, with a brief Q&A at the end of each speech: Paul Ryan, Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Chris Black, U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) Mary Augusta Thomas, Smithsonian Libraries (SIL) Alicia Livinski, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Richard Huffine, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mari-Jana Oboroceanu, CRS Knowledge Services Group Ann Parham, Department of the Army (DA) George Franchois, Department of the Interior (DOI) Kathy Eighmey, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deborah Keller, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) JoAnna Berry, Government Accountability Office (GAO)!!! The idea of this portion of the session was to provide a general sense of the different types of jobs are available to librarians in the federal government, and to encourage the students and recent grads to apply for positions. I’m not going to recap each speech, because generally you can learn about the libraries by visiting the websites linked to above. (The DHS and GAO libraries don’t have a web presence.) However, I picked up some interesting bits of information during the morning session Ryan said that DTIC’s librarians designed the DOD website. (Big round of applause for that.) Black noted that USPTO is not a tax-funded agency. It’s funded by application fees. ... Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:29:47 +0100 439411 http://www.libraryola.com/2007/06/23/ala-2007-friday-saturday-recap/ I think I could have gone to this entire conference without setting foot in the Convention Center. In fact, I’d be pretty resentful about going there at all if it weren’t for the fact I happened to run into the friend my wife and I are having lunch with tomorrow when I got in line to get my conference materials. By the way, I know this post is going to contain the kind of chatty anecdotal style of writing that causes magazine editors to diss bloggers during conferences. I don’t care. Anyway, I kicked off my first day at my first ALA conference by flaking out hardcore. I left the house without my conference materials. Luckily, I hadn’t gone too far before I remembered them. Then, right before I got off the train at Gallery Place to transfer to the Green or Yellow lines to go to the Washington Convention Center, I checked my conference materials and discovered that the session I was going to, “Careers In Federal Libraries,” was at the Library of Congress. I knew I should have had coffee before I left the house. After all that, I got to LC at 7:45 and went through security. No one checked my credentials going through, so I guess I looked like I worked there. Today, I got to the Convention Center just in time to get my materials and to meet up with Karin Dalziel from nirak.net for lunch. We went to Dupont Circle to grab burgers, then headed back over the Convention Center for LITA’s “The Ultimate Debate - Do Libraries Innovate?” This of course was at the Mayflower Hotel, which was pretty much across the street from where we ate lunch. Oops. I’ve heard a lot of people say that the thing about ALA is it’s so big, but I never believed them until now. The “Ultimate Debate” session was fantastic, by the way. It was moderated by Andrew Pace and featured as debaters Stephen Abram, Joseph Janes, and Karen Schneider. ... Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:50:35 +0100 439412 http://dltj.org/2007/06/minutes-of-the-jpeg2000-interest-group-posted/ Minutes of the JPEG2000 Interest Group have been posted to the j2kArcLib.info website. Comments there are restricted to registered users of the site (although registration is freely available), so feel free to post comments here. Tags: ala2007, conference, j2karclib, jpeg2000, lita Share This (Source: Disruptive Library Technology Jester) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 18:56:16 +0100 440048 http://litablog.org/2007/06/23/bigwig-social-software-showcase-david-free-and-david-lee-king/ As the second piece of the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase, David Free and David Lee King have put together an incredible resource on Twitter on the Showcase wiki: start with David Free, and then move to David Lee King’s to get the full twitter treatment. More Showcase information coming throughout the day. If you are in DC for Annual, please join BIGWIG today Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room for discussion and conversation during the Social Software Showcase. Tags: bigwigshowcase07, ala2007, annual2007, socialsoftware (Source: LITA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:33:02 +0100 439748 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/127322618/ala2007-question-of-day.html Will I have to spend extra time in purgatory for buying a Starbucks while listening to Fugazi on my mp3 player? Leave a comment! (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:16:29 +0100 439842 http://davidsrandomstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/ala2007-question-of-day.html Will I have to spend extra time in purgatory for buying a Starbucks while listening to Fugazi on my mp3 player? Leave a comment! (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:14:00 +0100 439482 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/127322619/wide-world-of-podcasting.html Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA Reinvented Reference III preconference at ALA Annual 2007.Here are links to the library podcasts I featured in my talk. I'll post my slides and some other information a bit later today.Lansing (IL) Public Library Ohio University Alden Library Audio TourPierce County (WA) Library SystemOrange County (FL) Library SystemWadsworth (OH) Public LibraryWPI Audio To GoFairfield University LibraryUCOL LibraryLibrary Guide for Nursing (Cal State, Fullerton)Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for coming! (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:13:28 +0100 439843 http://davidsrandomstuff.blogspot.com/2007/06/wide-world-of-podcasting.html Thanks to everyone who came to the RUSA Reinvented Reference III preconference at ALA Annual 2007.Here are links to the library podcasts I featured in my talk. I'll post my slides and some other information a bit later today.Lansing (IL) Public Library Ohio University Alden Library Audio TourPierce County (WA) Library SystemOrange County (FL) Library SystemWadsworth (OH) Public LibraryWPI Audio To GoFairfield University LibraryUCOL LibraryLibrary Guide for Nursing (Cal State, Fullerton)Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks again for coming! (Source: David's Random Stuff) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:13:00 +0100 439483 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/127302224/ Eli Neiburger, aadl.org - Showed stats - gaming is a major part of the content industry - there are more adult women gamers than teenage boys - teens say “email is how you talk to old people” - Pokemon the game has more text than some school curriculums do - it requires significant text literacy - video gaming is like a gateway drug for libraries - gaming programs are creating lifelong library users - remember - Princess Leia had a bun! Libraries can be cool ala2007 (Source: David Lee King) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:23:06 +0100 439829 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/127299778/ John Lester (Pathfinder Linden!): - introduction to second life - fundamentally not a game - asked “is the web a game?” There are games on the web… SL is the same - online augments face-to-face just like the phone augments - doesn’t replace - median age 35 - goal - host your own SL grid (they went open source in January 2007) - emotional bandwidth - constantly want to connect with people (emoticons vs avatars with facial expressions) - over 200 universities represented - doing experiential learning - creating immersive experiences - imagine learning about ancient egypt, in a replica of ancient egypt - real vs virtual worlds… are people you talk to real? Cell phone? What’s the difference? - don’t get mired in past frameworks - ie., movies are not plays ala2007 (Source: David Lee King) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:09:15 +0100 439830 http://litablog.org/2007/06/23/bigwig-social-software-showcase-casey-bisson/ As the first piece of the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase, Casey Bisson has posted, as he describes it, “an almost-manifesto masquerading as a presentation.” In addition to being thought provoking, Casey has used the Showcase as a place to announce a new project: OpenLibrary. Read up, and feel free to discuss the project here, within the Showcase Forum, or on the Showcase Wiki Discussion pages. We have lots of venues for the virtual world to participate with us here at ALA Annual, so please, join in. More Showcase information coming throughout the day. If you are in DC for Annual, please join BIGWIG today Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room for discussion and conversation during the Social Software Showcase. Tags: bigwigshowcase07, ala2007, annual2007, socialsoftware (Source: LITA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:42:01 +0100 439271 http://plablog.org/2007/06/more-on-webjunction.html I am thrilled to be blogging this year’s ALA. My name is Nanette Bulebosh and I direct a small public library in Kiel, Wisconsin (population 3,700). This is my first PLA blogging experience.  I spent most of Friday at Webjunction’s Rural Libraries Sustainability Forum at the Embassy.  I am one of the lucky 185+ librarians from around the U.S. who won an all-expense paid trip to ALA 2007, compliments of Webjunction and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Not to put too fine a point on it, but there is no way I, or my small library, could afford to pay for this trip without Webjunction’s support. This is true of the four other Wisconsin librarians who joined me at yesterday’s forum.  I have long been impressed with and inspired by the whole Webjunction concept. Their website is full of resources on a large variety of topics, including fundraising, library advocacy, marketing, and technology. I’ve gone to download curriculum materials when designing computer instruction courses for my patrons. I’ve gone to the discussion boards for advice on solving a particular problem. And sometimes I go to rant about someone or something (stress on the job, tight purse strings on the part of public officials, etc.) with folks who, I know, are in similar situations and will understand my frustrations.  As was made clear when we all introduced ourselves at the forum, sometimes small-town librarians are working in very isolated situations. We are often the sole voice in our communities advocating for libraries in the wilderness of municipal politics and tightening belts. You couldn’t listen to all the stories about the creative and resourceful ways librarians are surviving, and even thriving, in these tough budgetary times and not be inspired. They are making a genuine difference in their communities.  I am always so darn proud of my profession when I attend things like this. ... Sat, 23 Jun 2007 13:22:05 +0100 439296 http://plablog.org/2007/06/free-wifi-at-ala-2007.html I must say, the wifi at the Washington Convention Center is *fabulous*. It’s free, strong, and available just about anywhere. If you’re here at the conference, look for “ALA2007″ in your list of available wireless networks. Free wifi is also available at all of the District of Columbia Public Library branches. (Source: PLA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 04:05:32 +0100 439298 http://plablog.org/2007/06/the-hollywood-librarian-world-premiere.html The world premiere screening of The Hollywood Librarian: A look at librarians through film, left me with very mixed feelings. The film does an excellent job of using clips from movies like Desk Set, The Music Man, Love Story, Party Girl, and others, to juxtapose the image of librarians in film against the realities of librarianship, including clips from an awesome black-and-white vocational film, as well as interviews with myriad librarians from all corners of librarianship, many of whom were brought on stage after the screening to be recognized. The movie obviously moved the audience and instilled a sense of vindication, with good reason, and I believe that the film does have the potential to give new and different perspective to “civilians” who don’t really understand the library world. After the screening, writer and director Ann Seidl explained her interesting distribution method for the film. The film has been moved into the finals for an independent film festival (if you know the name of the festival, please comment here and let me know, I can’t find it), so it will get some exposure. But, rather than sell the film to a distributor, Ann would like to grant rides to show the distribution DVD, as well as a package of comprehensive marketing and discussion materials, so that interested public libraries can show screenings themselves. What she asks in return is that libraries charge money for the screenings, with 1/3 of the fee going to her production company, 1/3 of the fee covering distribution costs, and 1/3 of the fee going to the library showing the movie. Her idea is to use the library, which, according to the movie, provides more points of service than McDonald’s, to get the word out about the movie and its message. Sign ups for this distribution program begin tomorrow at Booth #4207 in the Exhibit Hall, where you can ask questions and give your feedback about the film. ... Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:39:53 +0100 439299 http://plablog.org/2007/06/childrens-librarian-travels-to-ala.html Kristen, children’s librarian, here. This is my first time writing for the PLA Blog. I’ll be attending a number of sessions and events over the next four days and look forward to sharing them with you. Traveling, for me, always starts out with a shoe crisis, especially when I’m headed to a conference. I covered all my bases by over packing; confident I was prepared for everything. (I even remembered to pay the bill I had to before I left.) Of course, nothing ever is perfect so about halfway here I realized I’d forgotten a belt. And then I hit horrendous traffic in the middle of D.C. And then I missed my turn and spent about 45 more minutes driving around, trying to find my hotel. (One of the best things about my hotel: I didn’t even have to make an extra trip to the conference center to pick up my book and badge because there’s a handy desk just downstairs.) Now, here I sit in wonderful air conditioning, digesting my thoughts on the documentary The Hollywood Librarian. Interviews with librarians were interwoven with film clips to celebrate the profession. The film made me laugh, nearly cry and get angry. The best bits were, perhaps, the brief highlights of different specialties of librarianship, sending up cheers from the audience. It is the audience that made the movie special. There’s nothing else like being in a crowd of librarians, the inspiration and camaraderie more than make up for all the hassles of travel. (Source: PLA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:24:17 +0100 439300 http://plablog.org/2007/06/hello-from-dc.html Hi everyone! I’m Anne Robert, a children’s/teen librarian with the Jacksonville (FL) Public Library system. This is my 5th time writing for the PLA Blog, and I’ll try to cover as much as I can! I arrived in DC this afternoon and took in the sights. I went to the Library of Congress Open House, and the building is fantastic! We toured the Main Reading Room and went downstairs to the stacks. LoC is closed Sunday, but open the other days of the week… I recommend everyone go and check it out! Tonight I attended the NMRT Meet & Greet. I am the Leadership Director with NMRT, and it’s a great roundtable for all new librarians (besides PLA, of course!). The 3M/NMRT Social is Sunday night, and I invite any librarians (or library school students) to come and see what NMRT is all about! (Source: PLA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 03:03:59 +0100 439301 http://plablog.org/2007/06/checking-in-for-the-pla-blog.html Hi. I am Rick Roche, and I will be blogging for the PLA Blog for the next few days. I will be attending various programs of interest to staff from public libraries and reporting on for you. I will also be writing some on my own blog ricklibrarian and posting some photos on my Flickr site. I hope you enjoy the pieces. I will not tell you everything that was said, as some talented bloggers are able to do on the spot. I will instead reflect on the main points and highlight some important details. When possible I will link you to sources for further study. As we start this conference in our nation’s capitol, it is natural to think back to last year in New Orleans. The setting of that gathering was emotion charged, as the people of the Crescent City welcomed us. Librarians made a big statement by being the first group to return for a conference in the storm-damaged city. This year we are in the most media rich city in the world. Let’s make ourselves and our issues known. In a small way, I hope these pieces add to the effort. (Source: PLA Blog) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 01:21:13 +0100 439302 http://blogs.ala.org/aasl.php?title=i_m_spartacus_1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 You're having a Spartacus Moment when someone else advocates for you and your program. The question/challenge is: how do we get that to happen? What steps can we take to ensure that advocacy from outside takes root? The first step is strategic planning. In the Independent Schools Section's pre-conference, Maureen Sullivan gave us the basic tools to start our strategic planning process. "The process is as important as the plan" was her basic thread. So, what is strategic planning? It's making choices, careful choices, that lead to a better allocation of resources (including personnel). Essentially, the old (and current) work needs to go hand-in-hand with your new vision, and strategic planning can help you get there. Things to remember when embarking on a strategic plan: keep the group small (4-7 is optimal) make sure the group meshes well include the skeptics as well as the believers create a glossary so you all speak the same language The stages of strategic planning include: creating a mission; identifying the stakeholders (could include parents, administrators, faculty, students, local politicians); doing an environmental scan (what's going around our library in the Big World, and how does that affect us - OCLC's Future of the Library report is very useful); creating a vision; looking at the strategic directions; performing an internal assessment; identifying areas for change; defining the strategic goals and objectives and creating an action plan; determining how to assess progress and implementing the plan. Quick definitions: Mission = what we do (eg, We Try Harder); Vision = how we want to carry out the mission; Goals = broad thinking statements to enable Vision; Objectives = goal outcomes; Action Plan = concrete steps to reach Objectives, Goals, Vision Ms. ... Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:37:30 +0100 439072 http://ashkev.weblogs.us/archives/446 National Building Museum Originally uploaded by ashkev. Jennifer and I went on LAMA’s library building tour pre-conference today. We began the tour at the MLK Library. We were broken up into groups and given our metro passes. The first library we visited was the beautiful Rockville Library in Rockville, MD. I loved the double helix design that was carried throughout the library, from the mosaic on the first floor, to the engravings on the bookshelf end-caps. I loved the open spaces, high ceilings, natural light, and the cohesiveness of the design. I also thought that the building looked like it belonged just where it it. Next, we took the metro…then a taxi to the Shirlington Library. This building is interesting, in that it shares space with a black box theater. The decor was not my favorite, but I loved the front facade, and the fountain in the front. We then went to the National Building Museum for lunch. What a fantastic building! It was built to house the United States Pension Bureau in the 1880’s following the Civil War. It now houses several interesting exhibits, such as the “Green House ” exhibit and a David Macauley exhibit. The last stop on the tour was the Howard University Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library. The structure really helps make the campus feel like a cohesive whole. I especially like the domed cupola. (Source: Fiddling Librarian 3.0) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:26:16 +0100 439086 http://plablog.org/2007/06/how-to-enjoy-ala-2007.html One of the more useful presentations at today’s Rural Library Sustainability Forum was a talk by conference junkie John D. “Danny” Hales, who shared his handy tips for making the most of this year’s ALA. Hales, director of Suwannee River Regional Library in northern Florida - and a member of the WebJunction advisory committee - was speaking to the fortunate 180+ rural and small-town librarians (from 34 states) who are attending the conference as guests of WebJunction. But his advice is equally useful to any of the other 25,000 others - newbies and conference veterans alike - converging on the Capital city this weekend. Here are a few of Hales’ tips, some tongue-in-cheek: Tip the maid. You’ve got the funds to spare if you’re here on WebJunction’s dime, Hales said. But it’s also, simply, the right thing to do. As you go through the program planning out your weekend, always pick two workshops scheduled in the same time frame. That way you’ll have somewhere else to go in case the program you’re in is boring. Speaking of which, don’t hesitate to leave a session if it stinks. No one will care. Just get up and go somewhere else. Check the cog notes online or at conference headquarters for updates. There may be last-minute scheduling changes or cancellations. About the 223-page ALA Program Guide: Don’t think you have to cart it with you all over DC. Tear out the maps and bus schedules and leave the rest of the guide in your hotel room. Travel light (or try to). Get to all your sessions early and introduce yourself to the speaker. Offer to help pass out handouts or something. The speaker will be grateful, and you might learn something interesting and unusual. Drink lots of water. Carry a bottle of water with you all day to keep yourself hydrated and energized in this hot DC weather. ... Fri, 22 Jun 2007 23:07:26 +0100 439303 http://plablog.org/2007/06/the-conference-bloggers-are-landing.html …one by one. After many flight delays (apparently, this was a common occurrence yesterday), I finally got to my hotel at midnight last night. After a day which included a 7:30a breakfast meeting, registration, and crashing the Library Journal Movers & Shakers luncheon, I’m *finally* making my first post. On the docket for this evening is the world premiere of “The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film,” and pre-party before that. I’m still ironing out the rest of my conference schedule, but I promise whatever I cover, it’ll be interesting! Keep an eye on the blog over the next week or so for more conference blogging from our awesome crew. (Source: PLA Blog) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:13:43 +0100 439304 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~5/127101056/ala-video.pdf Here’s the presentation I just did at the ALA2007 RUSA Reinvented Reference pre-conference… Introduction to Videoblogging. Enjoy! ala2007 (Source: David Lee King) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:33:26 +0100 439124 http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2007/06/22/waste-not/ So that photo is of the top of a trashcan on Friday at ALA Annual 2007. Why did I take a picture, you may ask yourself (this is not my beautiful house!)? Because on top of the can are the contents of two of the bags that ALA distributes to every registered attendee. This was not an isolated incident…I have seen at least a dozen or so of these piles of paper, and I myself immediately tossed everything except the included map of DC. Probably 2 pounds of paper in every bag. There has got to be a better way of doing this, ALA. ALA, ala2007, con2007, conference, cons2007, Library IssuesShare This (Source: Pattern Recognition) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:21:48 +0100 439240 http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/2007/06/22/twitter/ Going to turn on Twitter2Blog for the extent of the ALA conference, to make it easier for me to post/keep up with things. If it falls apart and I don’t notice, someone let me know. ALA, ala2007, con2007, conference, cons2007, PersonalShare This (Source: Pattern Recognition) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 19:10:45 +0100 439241 http://plablog.org/2007/06/rural-libraries.html Hi all! I’m Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran, Community Information Librarian for SELCO - Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, the regional library consortium in Rochester, Minnesota. I’m also the author of the Impromptu Librarian blog, and am pleased to be blogging both there and for PLA here at the conference in Washington. I’m here today with the WebJunction folks and librarians from 34 states, talking about Rural Library Sustainability. It’s an amazing group of people, with interesting stories and a wonderful level of excitement. One of the announcements this morning was the launch of the WebJunction Rural Library Sustainability Workshop online, so if you weren’t able to attend one of the workshops, you can get all the terrific learning online, at your own pace. ALA-President Elect Loriene Roy stopped in to say hi this morning, and we’re proud to say she hails from my new home state of Minnesota! (Source: PLA Blog) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:12:22 +0100 439305 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/davidleeking/~3/127040056/ Michael Stephens, Keynote: The Hyperlinked Library: Reference Services in the 2.0 World David says: other people probably took better notes - honestly, I really enjoy just sitting and listening to Michael talk - he does a great job, and it’s fun! ******** introduced web and library 2.0, discussed the information revolution that’s taking place. three things to do: evolve - checking out laptops, camcorders, etc… welcoming buildings let go of control - no cell phone signs as examples be visible online plan with your users engage your users - catalog search box in facebook - comments in catalog adopt a 2.0 philosophy - throw out the culture of perfect - learn from the gamers (it’s ok to make mistakes) - discover, play and experience these new tools Second Life reference desk - 200 questions a week create a culture of trust - trust users - trust each other ala2007 (Source: David Lee King) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:26:36 +0100 439125 http://alreadygone.blogspot.com/2007/06/r-u-there-im-presentation-rusas.html Takeaways:.Librarian in Black post on talking about IM with IT.."IM Talking points" from walkingpaper..Offering IM service all the hours that you offer reference service makes advertising hours much easier, makes keeping statistics easier..With an IM contact, you have 12-15 minutes with a user: what can you do for your user in that time?.Get your IM into user spaces, whether they are user-created (flickr, twitter, browsers, buddy lists, Facebook, youtube, MySpace) or library-created (library website, catalog, wikipedia page).Consider: how is IM different from face to face reference interactions? What problem is IM a solution for? Does calling it "Ask a Librarian" make sense for the problems that people are having?New trends affecting IM:.1-to-many and many-to-many (meebo rooms etc).video, voice-over-IP.virtual worlds.gaming.bots (see IM's moviefone).SMS (text messaging).Twitter or Jaiku.location-based services: Radius IM shows you who is on IM in your area (Source: Chronicles of Bean) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 15:12:00 +0100 439449 http://alreadygone.blogspot.com/2007/06/reinventing-reference-3-keynote-by.html Michael Stephens was the first speaker in RUSA's Reinventing Reference 3 preconference. It was great to see him speak--he's very dynamic and engaging. He gave us an excellent basic introduction to web 2.0, how it is affecting libraries everywhere and why we should be involved.Takeaways:Libraries must evolve, let go of control and be visible. Evolve: your reference desk must not be a fortress. Let go of control: Don't ban technologies such as cell phones because they are technology; ban the "bad behavior" that can result. Ask your users to be courteous, respect the space. Be visible: set up shop with a laptop where your users are: in the dining halls, in the coffee shops. The librarian can be "In" wherever there is free wifi.the hyperlinked library has open & honest conversations, is transparent about planning services (and everything else), and speaks in a human voice.Adopt a 2.0 philosophy:Drop the culture of "perfect" and develop a culture of "experiment and play."...from top to bottomTrust your users. Trust each other.Learn from the gamers: if you make a mistake, back up and try againIdeas:Advocate having a "Laptop Librarian" in dining halls, the Technology Commons, the IT helpdesk and in dorms.Create a library podcast tour - done by students.Create a subject guide wiki.Teach liaisons how to use RSS tools in databases and journals and advocate adding these feeds to department websites.Look into text messaging for reference.Add the meebo widget to OUR CATALOG! labelled "Live Help! 8a - 11p"Look at McMaster U's Emerging Technology group blogBuild a reference portal on NetVibesStay away from "Death by Risk AversionHave our architects build the Studio space in SecondLife and have staff and users explore and give feedback.Coolness. Now, on to David Ward's IM presentation. I'll edit this later to add links. (Source: Chronicles of Bean) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:21:00 +0100 439450 http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DavidsRandomStuff/~3/127026514/ala2007-hyperlinked-library.html Michael Stephens - Dominican UniversityLibrarian 2.0 is a trendspotter.Have to market what the library can do. People don't know what we can do, esp online. Go to wikipedia instead of lib resources. (OCLC perceptions report)Libs should: Evolve/ let go of control/ be visible in person and online.Rethink physical reference space. Go beyond ref bunker.Don't ban technology because it is technology. Have sane policies.Have open/ honest conversations.Be transparent. Open human conversation.Speak in a human voice.CPL patron blogCatalog as blog - Plymouth State University: patron comments, let's patrons become engaged.{I can now cut my Ohio University audio tour slide! Thanks Michael. ha}Plan with your users. Listen to your users.UIUC Facebook apHennepin County hacked catalog to allow comments. Bookspace.Go where the users are.It looks like fun!Have presence in the lives of your users.Text/ SMS notifications in future. Good option for reference.Give staff a sandbox to play with new tools before launching. Make it fun! Post cool pics etc. Doesn't have to be work related to learn.Blog your library meetings. McMaster emerging technologies group.Thrown out the culture of perfect. {/blogging}{blogging}Learn from gamers. It's OK to make mistakes and back up if you need to and regroup.Second Life reference questions are growing. 200/ week!Build library renovation projects in Second Life first and let users take a look and comment.Create a culture of trust. Trust staff. Trust users.Library 2.0 Squidoo and Ning sites.1. Be a trendspotter2. Form emerging tech committee3. Try Learning 2.0 programs4. Create a "What's New" blog5. Explore presencelearn to learn/ adapt to change/ scan the horizon (Source: David's Random Stuff) Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:19:13 +0100 439128