ALA Midwinter 2009 Summary

Lucky me, I flew into the Denver area early and got to enjoy the 70 degree weather for hiking and visiting with Colorado friends. But when Friday arrived and ALA midwinter officially began, it was the usual cold, snowy January Colorado day, a good time to be inside attending sessions on various topics. Here is a summary of some sessions I attended:

RUSA/STARS ILL Hot Topic Discussion

Many libraries are having major budget crises in their library - from 50% budget cuts to full time staff layoffs. Several librarians from U of AZ, U of OR , Colorado State University, Baylor, LC, etc. discussed their issues and ideas for dealing with budget problems:

• Generate income streams/revues. (EX: rights and reproductions of special collections materials)
  
• Use RAPID.
  
• Use other people from various areas of the library (tech services folks esp good for searching) Put ILLiad software on computers in reference and spec collections and train others to use it. Night staff does ILL requests at night. Note: 30-40% of ILL work is NOT from ILL dept. (U of AZ)
• Everyone ILL dept is cross trained.
  
• Students are trained in all areas of ILL, more so than staff – they are easier to train, pick it up faster, esp technology. And they use ILLiad - not just pulling books or mail. (CSU)
  
• No physical reserves! (U of AZ) Video streaming is used esp for DVDs. Doc delivery for all physical books.
• Hired back retired staff to work part time, is very reliable, but costs less than fulltime staff.
• Only borrow from IFM libraries.
• Went through every possible procedure and cut back on any unnecessary task and paperwork to save time. (U of OR)
• Don’t worry about overdues - waste of time for staff for what $5.
  
• Stacks does the pulling for all lending (they are quick and know the stacks well) and this benefits both b/c the stacks folks then are needed more and less likely to have positions cut.
  
• Reserves Dept does the scanning and doc delivery - works well, since their busy time is not same as ILL busy time of semester. Also, ILL and reserves processes are similar and was a nature combo.
• Using technology to train staff such as a wiki of info everyone can post to (ex: how to fill a difficult request), youtube videos on how-to do a task, post resources and help on blackboard … staff can use this as a reference instead of always needing an actual staff person to go to - especially relevant at night for ILL work. (Baylor)
• Mobile scanning station - take it with you around stacks instead of gathering print, bringing down to ILL, scanning and taking back up again to stacks. (someone actually calculated this saved 40 hours a week )
• Supporting borrowing side with lending revenue; take revenue to fill staff/student positions; or some us it for UPS costs.

LITA Distance Learning Interest Group Session

• Check out their blog: http://dlig.wordpress.com/
  
• (regis) Library does a 2 week faculty orientation to library course via blackboard. Reach out to adjuncts and new faculty. Usually 15-20 people each time.
• Text from catalog to cell to find your book in library stacks (included call #, title, and location in library. (WFU)
  
• Screen capture tools/tutorials: Captivate (regis) - you can track stats via google analytics (shockwave flash embedded) including how far user has gone, buttons clicked, etc. Can do this in Viewlet Builder as well (VB is best for multiple buttons in tutorials) set resolutions at 800 x 600. Also using Jing and Wink for quick, on the spot chat references.
  
• Ants projects: ants.wetpaint.com - Canadian project, librarians can post tutorials that all can use and edit if needed. Also turn them into a tutorial on Bliptv (better resolution than youtube)
  
• Check out the Horizon report to see whats coming down the road in tech -- this time mobile and cloub computing
  
• Slideshare.net - see many presentations here from conferences or just someone sharing a presentations.
  
• LibX toolbar - recommended by many libraries.
  

ACRL Distance Learning Section Discussion Group

After running my committee meeting as co-chair of the Bibliography Committee, we all met as a large group and discussed two reports on scholarly communication - Current Models of Digital Scholarly Communication Nov 2008 by Marion and Smith; Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in Digital Transformation in Higher Education (PDF) August 18, 2008 by Housewirght and Schenfeld. Then discussion shifted to budget issues and paper vs electronic journals. Most libraries are getting rid of paper copies of ejournals (esp JSTOR) – some say they get initial complaints to hold on to them, but most faculty are okay after they are removed from the collection. Someone suggested that we have to push back to get more support and realization to faculty that of what we do and offer. Most libraries goal is to make things seamless as possible. What about an embargo and the currect copy is not available? Then go directly to ILLiad to request it. Someone mention if we all get rid of everything paper, then who can we borrow the embargoed copy from? As long as one library keeps it we'll be alright :>

Task Force on the Environment (SSRT)

I also attended a working group session of TFOE. We discussed a program for ALA Annual in Chicago with the hope to have some brief presentation but mainly focus on attendees forming into groups to discuss small, practical, things they are doing or could be doing in their libraries, offer this chance for networking with others, and to share and work collaboratively on greening your library ideas. Also discussed was next year 2010 will be 40th anniversary of Earth Day and 10th anniversary of ALA's Libraries Build Sustainable Communities, so some good green planning should be started now to make it an ALA wide event in 2010. Join the listserv and stay tuned!

Here's a really long post to go along with a brown bag presentation scheduled for Feb. 18. It's my report on Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends held August 3-5, 2008 in Denver. Almost all of the presentations have Power Points online and there are some podcasts as well.  

Some of the presentations that I found most illuminating were those of David W. Lewis, Dean of the University Library, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis “Reference in the Age of Wikipedia, Or Not... “ Lewis discussed the idea of disruptive innovation stemming from the works of Clayton Christensen. We have several of these at UNCG and currently all except a brand new one are checked out.

• Christensen, Clayton M. Disrupting class : how disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns / Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn and Curtis W. Johnson. New York : McGraw-Hill, c2008. Jackson Library In process, LB1027 .C4662 2008 (c.1)
  
• Christensen, Clayton M. Seeing what's next : using the theories of innovation to predict industry change / Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, Erik A. Roth.  Boston : Harvard Business School Press, c2004. HD30.28 .C54 2004 (c.1)
  
• Christensen, Clayton M. The innovator's solution : creating and sustaining successful growth / Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor. Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, c2003. HD53 .C495 2003 (c.1)
  
• Understanding consumer behavior / [contributors, Stephen Brown ... [et al.].  Boston, MA : Harvard Business School Pub., c2002. HF5415.32 .U5280 2002 (c.1)
  
• Christensen, Clayton M. The innovator's dilemma : when new technologies cause great firms to fail / Clayton M. Christensen. Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, c1997. HD53 .C49 1997 (c.1)

Here are some quotes from Lewis’s talk:

• “One bedrock finding from our research is that companies innovate faster than customer’s lives change. In other words, what people are looking to get done remains remarkably consistent, but products always improve. Thus, products eventually become too good.” 
• “Don’t ask you customers what they want, rather watch what they do.” 
• “When a profession has been created as a result of some scarcity, as with librarians or television programmers, the professionals are often the last ones to see it when that scarcity goes away. It is easier to understand that you face competition than obsolescence.”

It’s particularly interesting to find out what’s going on right down the road – so I attended a presentation by some fellow North Carolinians. Night time virtual reference (VR) collaboration between the libraries at Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This “Night Owl” chat collaboration began in 2003 and allows the libraries to offer their virtual reference services later in the night by sharing the task of staffing it. During the day, each library staffs its service separately, only answering questions from its own patrons. Librarians and a software developer have produced Library H3lp – to help them manage a chat service staffed at multiple points. 

• Josh Boyer, Associate Head, Distance Learning and Research & Information Services, D.H. Hill Library, North Carolina State University. 
  
• Jean Ferguson, Head of Research and Reference Services, Perkins Library, Duke University. 
  
• Eric Sessoms, co-developer of Libraryh3lp, is Executive Consultant for End-to-End Data Operations and for the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory. 
  
• Pam Sessoms, co-developer of Libraryh3lp, is Electronic Reference Services Librarian, Davis Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 
  
• Amy VanScoy, Ph.D. Student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,  Associate Head of Research & Information Services, D.H. Hill Library, North Carolina State University. 

This was another session I really liked: “Traditional" vs. "Hipster" Librarians: How can we alleviate tensions and reconcile the differences between old-fashioned, “traditional” librarians and tech-savvy “hipster” librarians? This presentation takes a look at the paradigm shift from “system-centered” to “user-centered” librarianship in order to understand how and why these differences have arisen, and anticipates the next paradigm shift to “knowledge-centered” librarianship. Presenter: Hannah Kwon, Ph.D. Student, Rutgers University, SCILS, NJ

Another presentation I enjoyed, reminding me that students see Facebook as their domain and don’t necessarily want to be was: 

“Okay, This is Just Too Weird: Identifying Outreach Opportunities in Facebook” (Panel) Elizabeth Edwards, and David Bietila, Gelman Library, The George Washington University, Washington, DC
Social networking sites like Facebook offer libraries unique opportunities for reaching students. We present the findings of our mixed-method study, which examined students' use of Facebook and library resources, and made recommendations for our library's Facebook initiatives.

One of the most interesting talks was the plenary panel including R. David Lankes of Syracuse U, Jamie LaRue of Douglas County Libraries, Marie Radford of Rutgers and Carla Stoffle of Univ. of AZ . It’s available on the site as a podcast, and I’ll have to say that Dr. Radford is one of the most dynamic speakers I’ve ever heard! There was universal agreement by panelists that reference staffing and service provision models are changing radically and that librarians should be ahead of the curve in anticipating what patrons will need for the future. One study quoted says that 85% of questions don’t require librarians – based on this, what staffing patterns should we follow? Shift in Reference to more and more paraprofessionals at the desk – in academic libraries, often more emphasis now on working with faculty and classes.

In the end, all of the different ways to provide service and reach our audience confirmed a strong desire to connect people with information in the most efficient and effective ways possible.

Mary Krautter

Exploring Web 2.0 Launches!

The Staff Development Committee is happy to announce that the "Exploring Web 2.0" program web site is now up!

This program will run for nine weeks starting February 2 and covers many online technologies that make the Internet more productive, easier to use and even more fun.

Each week features new technologies and web sites and will include a one hour presentation by tech-savvy volunteers from with Jackson Library. This is your chance to see where the online revolution is headed and see how it could affect how Libraries "do business" in the future.

Begin your tour here: http://uncglibweb20.blogspot.com/

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Library 2.0 Schedule:

• Week One - Introduction - February 2-6
  
• Class Session: February 3 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Two - Blogging - February 9-13
  
• Class Session: February 11 3-4pm, CITI Lab
• Week Three - Photos and Technology - February 16 -20
  
• Class Session: February 18 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Four - RSS and Newsreaders - February 23-27
  
• Class Session: February 24 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Five - Play Week! - March 2-6
  
• Class Session: March 5 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Six - Tagging, Folksonomies and Technorati - March 9-13
  
• Class Session: March 12 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Seven - Wikis - March 16-20
  
• Class Session: March 17 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Eight - Online Applications and Tools - March 23-27
  
• Class Session: March 25 3-4pm, Room 774
• Week Nine - Podcasts, Video and Downloadable Audio - March 30-April 3
• Class Session: April 1 3-4pm, Room 774

Library Instruction 2.0 Conference Teaser

Here is just a small teaser from the Library Instruction 2.0 Conference on November 17 & 18 in Chapel Hill, NC. It is the powerpoint for the presentation Amy and Lynda gave. More information will be coming soon!

OLAC-MOUG Conference Highlights

The OLAC-MOUG Joint Conference took place in Cleveland, Ohio, September 26-28, 2008. The OnLine Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC) association meets biennially in various cities. Because of the overlap between the two groups’ areas of focus, the Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) meets jointly with OLAC every six to eight years or so. This year’s event was well worth the trip, both personally and professionally. I had the privilege of staying with old friends who provided meals, chauffeur service, and good company as well as a bed.

And I enjoyed making new professional contacts, renewing old ones, and attending informative presentations in the beautiful, historic Renaissance Cleveland hotel.

from hotel’s website

Lynne Howarth’s opening keynote speech, Rocking the Metaverse, set the tone for the following discussions of exciting cataloging trends. The fields of audiovisual, music, and online resource cataloging, built on the hoary traditions of the card catalog, are rushing headlong into the digital future. I’ll spare you non-catalogers the details of fixed fields, delimiters, and so on – if you’re interested, you can find handouts for all the workshops and presentations at http://www.notsl.org/olac-moug/Handouts.html. I attended workshops titled Integrating Resources Cataloging, Metadata for Audiovisual Materials and its Role in Digital Projects, Electronic Resources Cataloging, and Advanced Sound Recordings. All of these workshops were excellent, informative and thorough. Although I learned plenty, I was also reassured to find that our practices for these types of resources are mostly up-to-date. Poster session topics included digital project metadata workflows, the use of Macro Express, cataloging for video game collections, RFID implementation, Web 2.0 tools for catalogers, and more. A particularly hot topic was FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) and its incorporation in the elusive RDA (Resource Description and Access), which is the controversial successor to AACR2 cataloging rules and which may (or may not) be coming soon to a library near you. A large group session on the final day offered two speakers with contrasting views on RDA. Glenn Patton, a 25-year veteran of OCLC and liaison to ALA’s ALCTS Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access, shared an insider’s official perspective. He confidently described the history and current status of RDA’s creation along with the timetable for its testing and implementation. Patton was followed by Heidi Hoerman of the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Hoerman, who claims to have “no horse in this race,” explained why she believes RDA is actually destined for a slow death.

Friday night, the conference held a reception at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

I missed the actual reception because I was happy to wander the museum, absorbing the beauty of the works in its collection.

I also missed the tour of the Ingalls Library and Archives, which support and document the museum's current and future collections, research, exhibitions, publications, lectures, programs and activities. Ingalls Library participates with Case Western Reserve University in a joint art history program and maintains collections that include over 100,000 volumes and 500,000 art slides.

I’ll end with an image of my friend Ruth’s gorgeous garden. A few more photos from the trip are available for your viewing pleasure on my Facebook page.

UNCG Safe Zone Training 2008

On Friday, November 7, 2008, Carolyn Shankle and Stacey Krim attended UNCG Safe Zone Training 2008 offered through the Wellness Center by Jeanne Irwin-Olson. The goal of Safe Zone training is to create a network of allies for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, or Questioning persons.

After a couple of “ice breakers” – an exercise playing on stereotypes as well as one of connecting a word to the correct definition – the program got underway. The first presentation was Issues Facing GLBT Youth given by Karen Favereau and Amanda Gerson. Both presenters are graduate students in the Department of Counseling and Educational Development. One of the mind-opening exercises they had the attendees complete is the Heterosexual Questionnaire. For those who are in the heterosexual, or dominant culture, this questionnaire works as a way to make one more sensitive to the obstacles faced on a daily basis by those in the GLBTQ community.

Jeanne Irwin-Olson led the next presentation, What It Means To Be An Ally. She offered examples of policy activism at UNCG, such as the inclusion of sexual orientation in our Policy on Discriminatory Conduct. As of this writing, sexual orientation is not protected under state or federal guidelines.

During lunch – yes there was a lunch presentation! – Rebecca Mann of Equality NC led a discussion on Equality NC’s legislative efforts on behalf of the GLBTQ community in NC and how federal legislation as well as legislation in other states affects their progress. [Proposition 8 in California, anyone?] She encouraged us to contact our legislators either by telephone, self-composed emails, hand-written correspondence, or in person to support pertinent legislation. You know those email petitions that get forwarded? Turns out they do little good since the legislator receiving such a petition does not know if the names are legitimate or even of actual constituents.

UNCG’s Dean of Students, Dr. Jen Day Shaw, gave a presentation titled Hate Crimes – UNCG’s Response. What is difficult is to distinguish between a “hate incident” and a “hate crime”. She provided many examples – some drawn from events at UNCG and others from educational institutions around the nation.

The last presentation of the day was Transgender 101 given by Stephen Wiseman and Rachel Wertheimer of UNC’s School of Social Work. This presentation marks the first time transgender was a presentation topic for Safe Zone at UNCG. Wertheimer provided a background on transgender issues and stages to put Wiseman’s story in a larger context. Wiseman shared his story of transgender discovery and the process. His courage was evident in his opening his life story to an unknown audience for questions.

All participants received their UNCG Safe Zone Training 2008 certificates, a Safe Zone UNCG pin, as well as permission to use the Safe Zone UNCG logo to identify themselves. The Safe Zone Information Manual is now published on CD to allow for hyperlinked documents.

I found this program to be well-planned and valuable to those who wish to be publicly demonstrative in their ally status. Having also participated in the UNCG Cares presentation, given by the Dean of Students, on an earlier occasion, Safe Zone was a continuation of becoming more sensitive and aware to issues facing not only our student population but the population at large.

You will find more information about the Safe Zone program on this website.

Internet Librarian 2008

-- Chad Therrien

In late October, I went to Monterey, CA for the Internet Librarian 2008 conference which focussed this year on Web 2.0 technologies and implementation ideas. The goals of the conference were to expose a wide variety of technologies from a diverse array of speakers and also to provide concrete implementation ideas through XML/HTML and code snippets in JavaScript and PHP.

The Saturday and Sunday sessions were four hour presentations for those with a developer interest. On Saturday, we looked at various ways to use XML (Ajax) to build rich interactive web sites similar to Google Maps, Flickr and NetVibes. The use of XML (Ajax) allows Web 2.0 concepts like mashups and customization possible so that we can bring next-generation library applications to our patrons. On Sunday, we looked closer at the various Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and examined how to bring library-relevant content from various sites together onto one page. Scripts using JavaScript and PHP were implemented during the course of the presentation to demonstrate the ease and power of using API's to bring research materials to our patrons.




After spending an intense four hours examining code and API implementations, we were a hungry group of library professionals! The conference center provided a lunch for the attendees which also gave us chance to meet and share our backgrounds while enjoying some local specialities.

Some of the major points I observed over the two pre-conference sessions were:

• Design sites that are still fully functional without JavaScript enabled. This may seem fairly obvious, but the important part here is that a higher reliance on XML and JavaScript (or PHP) for content makes it more difficult to develop non-scripted content.


• The goal is to bring desktop functionality to the Web. Using technologies like XML, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and cloud computing, web applications can leverage many technologies to quickly deploy responsive and interactive web elements.


• There are already many web services and script libraries that provide library-relevant content. The standard for most of these services is to provide API's so that pieces from multiple services can be pulled together to build a single, homogeneous and locally-branded application.

The main conference keynote speaker was Howard Rheingold who presented his unique perspective on social computing and libraries. Having been credited with creating the term 'virtual communities', Howard shared how the internet and ubiquitous computing are evolving and are defining the ways that information is shared and retrieved. Large domains of data are disseminated throughout the web and people who are looking for this data are want more convenient ways to not only find but also view this data. Ideas like tag clouds and micro-blogging (Twitter.com) provide information seekers with a more personalized and interactive search environment with previously unavailable accessibility through mobile computing devices like iPods and web-enabled cell phones.

The keynote speaker on Tuesday, Danny Sullivan (not spin-and-win Danny Sullivan), talked about how search engines are evolving and how Google.com became and remains the most popular search engine. Elizabeth Lawley was the final keynote speaker on Wednesday and closed the conference with a look at the cutting edge of social and interactive computing. She talked about devices such as the 'Ambient Orb' which displays different colors when a certain condition is met (i.e. glows blue when the weather is cold and red when it is hot), the 'Nazbaztag' wifi-enabled desktop rabbit (yes, a rabbit) that displays light patterns and moves it ears when a friend comes on line or an important email is received and the 'Home Joule' that provides a real-time way to see at a glance how much power a household is using.

Between the keynote speakers, the conference held between four and six sessions on three different tracks each day which provided a very wide range of topics. The sessions that I attended were primarily focussed on web design, Web/Library 2.0 technologies and web navigation and analysis. Some of the interesting statistics that I picked up which demonstrate the importance of being proactive rather than reactive are:

• 61.8% of typical library patrons own computers (so 38.2% don't!). At our Library, this number is probably lower than for a public library but the underlying point is that not all patrons have their own computer. Our Library public access stations and collaboratories have great value and we should always bring awareness to these services.


• Of the 'top rated' library web sites, more than half have already adopted Web 2.0 services.


• About 1/3 of library web sites currently have blogs.

As we move into the next generation of web applications and web site designs, it is important that we present our Library web site in the ways that patrons want and expect. They want to access our catalog and services in new ways and they have a higher expectation for the information they get. Patrons want to visit our site with remote devices, they want interactive content and a library 'experience' when they visit our web site.

Our patrons are a community and they bring a lot to our Library. If we provide a library web site experience that makes research enjoyable, we make our patrons both more effective and also more likely to recommend UNCG to their friends and family.