Thing 31. What is the future of Libraries and Librarians

David Lankes on libraries, librarians and the future of them both. I found his talk to be idealistic and inspiring but is it realistic?

One of the things that came out strong is the need for innovation in libraries and for librarians to be innovative. I agree but we still need to work out how to innovate. We need to be flexible and willing to change, and adapt. But how do we do this?

Lankes presents predictions and encourages us to think in innovative fashion but do we know how to do this? This seems to be something lacking in our professional. How do we think about the future? How do we predict the future? How to work with those predictions and change society?

Change society. That is a scary idea. And very idealistic. Can we really do this? Well, we already have done it in some respects -- the idea of libraries have changed society through history -- lending to the masses, learning for all, the people's universities. So how do we do this now?
How do we change our catalogs? How do we shift our focus from things, artifacts to knowledge, knowledge creation, and serving and changing society?

Lankes talks (in the questions session) about a need to talk to our members and use outcomes based asssessment to start changing library. This is structured and practical but hard to do, hard to put time, effort and money into. Can we make this a priority? It is hard to do that when we have lots of other pressing things to do.

Thing 30: Webby choice

We get to explore a website from Webby for this assignment. I chose the category of Cultural Institutions -- as I scanned the nominees I noticed the International Quilt Study Center's name. I know that is a Nebraska institution, one I am familiar with, so I chose the International Quilt Study Center's Explorer website to explore.



The first thing I notice is that it takes time to load. But there are so many pictures and interactive features the slow load time is understandable. I also found it crashed on me when I tried to do my own pattern. However, the quilters I know could really get lost in this website.

It is a beautiful website and makes excellent use of their content (quilts) in an innovative and fun way. I wonder if such sophisticated and flexible searching could be used on digital collections such as Nebraska Memories or the Western Trails projects. I really like the interaction that is available -- such as the Threads section -- where you can explore the quilts that someone has grouped together, or create you own group. You can also explore various stories -- recordings made by visitors to the museum.

Although this is a visual medium you could perhaps apply it in general to a catalog. In both the Collection and Threads section you can browse or search in a variety of ways. You view records which include photographs but could just as easily be bibliographic records. The main drawback would be the size of the database you might need. This database is only 800 some quilts -- most libraries are much larger than that and would have many more records. I wonder how scalable this would be. But I love this site and will visit it again, to play around and be inspired.

Thing 29, Book-based social networks

I am glad I started this weeks ago because if I was just trying to get this done at the last minute I would be having problems. I tried three different book-based social networks. 2 through FB -- Visual Bookshelf and WeRead and GoodReads as a stand alone website.

I used Visual Bookshelf to track the books I read aloud to my kids. It was kind of fun to look for the books and add them. I found it a bit annoying to rate them and comment so I didn't always do that. I was able to turn off the posting to FB which is good as that would be way annoying.

I used WeRead to track my book club's books. It seemed similar to Visual Bookshelf within FB.

With GoodReads I did my personal reading. I was not able to turn off all the FB notifications and ended up doing many postings without realizing it when I was filling out the what I had read questions. I did not like that aspect of GoodReads.

They were all fairly similar. If I was actually trying to track my books for each of these groups I would spend a little more time evaluating what kind of books I wanted to track in each program. They all have issues with multiple editions -- worse than a library catalog -- they need FRBR!!!

I have found it interesting to see what some of my FB friends read or have liked but I generally find it annoying to track my books -- I have only ever been able to remember to write things down for short periods of time. I can see keeping track of what I read aloud to my kids as useful to others -- what is good to read aloud and what is not so good. And it is useful to track my book club reads but I do that in other ways.

These programs offer interesting social interaction and doing through books is a good way. I love that so many people are interested in books and reading -- but I am not that interested in using them.

I am less certain about how to use these at the library. I can see having spaces in our catalogs to allow for comments and discussion would be a good thing. And I'd like to develop that more but I am not certain that these current networks are the way to do it.

Thing 28, Google Reader

Google Reader



I did not know that Google at an RSS reader. I like that as it means one less username/password to set up and memorize. I did set up a Bloglines account first in a RSS class and revisited it in the O What a Geek program. I don't check it regularly. I can't recall the username/password although I know where I can find that information.

So in that respect the Google Reader, as I already use Blogger and Gmail is easier to use. Which of course is one of the things that Google excels at -- making things easier for all of us. So we'll use it. I set up an account -- it was very easy. I added a bunch of cooking related blogs (NYT Bitman, Epicurious and the Bento Box one) and then went back and added NE Learns 2.0 and a few participants blogs.

I went and found my Bloglines account info and followed the instruction to upload those feeds. It was pretty straight forward. I didn't see straight away how to get rid of that account as I don't see the need for two such things.

I put in a widget on my blog to share a reader feed (for a Bento Box recipe).

What I like about Google Reader. Easy to remember password. Pretty easy to navigate/familiar layout and navigation.

What I don't like about Google Reader. Stalkerish aspects -- follow people?!? The Google wants you on all these things and then to connect them together. Not sure I want to do that -- and I don't have to but it seems a bit creepy. Bland layout. Still have to log in and check on things.

Overall what I have found best for keeping up with feeds is www.tabbloid.com Here I set up a bunch of cataloging blogs and I get a weekly pdf of the feeds sent to my email. I can scan through them and see what I want to read further. The convenience here outweighs anything else.

Generally I like Google Reader better than Bloglines but it is still another website to check -- better than checking each website individually but I prefer to use tabbloid for the professional blogs I really want to keep up with.

Thing 27, Facebook, networking and you

Facebook

It is so nice when these assignments are for things I already use! And I started using Facebook a few months in order to connect with Nebraskan librarians I know (one of them got me started as it happens). I enjoy doing that and I also enjoy connecting with my far-flung family and friends from high school and college (and a few from graduate school thrown in there too).

I find that I get to see another side of some people I know professionally -- oftentimes a little more personal but that also humanizes us. It also means that I can post things about work that others are likely to understand. Who else would understand when I bemoan something about RDA and FRBR but fellow catalogers on FB?

ALCTS of ALA has been trying to get more librarians active on FB. As a former member of the ALCTS membership committee I felt obliged to join -- although that group is not very active on FB (perhaps a little more so on ALA Connects).

I have found that the fan pages work best for organizations on FB -- OPL does a pretty good job with our FB page -- pushing out updates regularly that include a wide variety of things. I know that we have a good bunch of staff working on this (and it helps that it is not left to just one person). We have event notices, links to things in the media (and we've been getting a lot of press lately!) and sometimes just random questions. It is a great way to get people involved and thinking about the library. I does seem like a lot of the fans are staff but not all are and I love seeing how members of the community do care and do get involved.

Tasks for this assignment:
1. I already have a FB account and am active
2. I sent friend requests to Susan, Michael and Allana (Christa already is a friend)
3. I did an update already but I'll do another when I finish this referring to the fact that I finished it (which seems circular and perhaps a little post-modern).
4. Hmm, have written messages on walls but not today.
5. Already a member of NLA, joined Library 2.0 Interest Group.

One thing like about FB is that you use it on your terms. You can be as active or inactive as you like. I have taken to being fairly active -- I don't post something everyday but log in most days and check it regularly. I find it keeps me up to date on a whole variety of thing from family and work to some of my extra curricular passions.

The groups that have fan pages are the ones I pay most attention to -- the others I tend to forget about. FB, like many things, is what you make of it. You can put personal time into it -- and spend way too much time. You have to decide what is right for yourself and your organization. For OPL we have found it a good way to connect with young professionals, particularly with recent events like Board Silly at Benson on Saturday night.

My main criticism of FB is that encourages passive-aggressiveness. You can ignore others without their knowledge. You don't need to confront them at all. And unfortunately cyber-bullying takes place here a lot, particulary amongst teens. It is a social medium but we have to remember how to be interact socially. Perhaps that is an area libraries can play a role too. As we embrace this medium we can help others navigate it and use it in an appropriate and productive way.

NE Learns 2.0 Thing 26

WorldCat.org

Something for the catalogers! Hey! Actually I don't use WorldCat.org that much but I do know about it and its social networking abilities. As a cynic I wonder how much it is used. It seems to be trying to rival LibraryThing which I doubt will happen. But it will be interesting to explore.

I created my account -- it was easy (I was taken aback by the fact that you cannot ever change your User Name that seems inflexible). I identified more than one favorite library and then when I discovered I didn't want one as a favorite it took a while to work out how remove it.

Creating a list was easy although it is the usual WorldCat fashion and could have been easier. Susan's instructions in the blog were more helpful than anything else. I created a couple of lists and may use one the Great Children's Books one to share with my mother (it is an ongoing discussion).

I searched for lists to watch but this is much more of a hit and miss activity -- who knows what terms someone would use. Some would be so general such as Cookbooks or Mystery Novels that there be pages to wade through. I prefer looking at lists that users have created based on items I am searching. That way I can find other things that might be of interest. I also wonder how often anyone updates their lists.

I found out some interesting things about WorldCat.org. First when I looked at what our library had recently added I saw the records I had loaded on Friday afternoon -- this gives a very skewed picture of what was added. As these items are for a new library branch and not yet available to the public anyone trying to find them will be frustrated. But this is an unusual situation that only happens occasionally. Normally it is a way for people to find some new cataloged materials and might provide quite a variety of materials.

Our ILS allows us to create a variety of lists and maintain them so I do not see the utility of the WorldCat.org ones. I cannot see users just searching for lists. Perhaps putting on some of the things being read by library sponsored book clubs might be useful or things relating to library events but you can't control your audience for that. Which can be a good thing -- need to think of things that would appeal to a wider audience -- perhaps list of genelaogical material available at the library or historical maps or photos. But if you want to reach certain people WorldCat.org is not a good option. It allows you to reach the world so we need to think of what we want the world to know and how to draw them into our library. And lists of bestsellers does not seem the best way.

NE Learns 2.0 Thing 25

Google Maps

I have used this only briefly before but used it when I was traveling to Philadelphia for a conference -- I was able to see what the hotel looked like so I would feel more comfortable when I got there. Didn't help much with my terrible sense of direction though!

1445 K st, 68509 -- this is the Nebraska State Capital (I did not know it had a street address). There are appropriately, mainly red and white cars around the grounds --perhaps they just show up best in such views. I got directions from OPL's W. Dale Clark library to the State Capitol -- I prefer the map version for what I print out but I appreciate being able to look at and get some visual clues, particularly if I am going some where unfamiliar

I love the street view. I was able to see my parent's house, where I grew up, in Melbourne. I find it extremely difficult to navigate in this view however. I want to see how old the street view photo is and can't navigate down the side street. Okay, I got a little bit down the street but not too far, now all I can do is zoom in -- I am getting the impression that the main streets can be seen but the lesser ones not so much.

My high school does not have a street view but I can find some of the local libraries -- yup, they look like I remember them (from last year). At our local shopping center -- I could waste too much time here!

Back to Nebraska -- Carhenge, a favorite place. No street view. No fun. Oh, got to do some work -- Omaha Public Library, hmmm, quite a few listed. Downtown is accurate except for the main phone number. Edited now. I also fixed a few things with our Elkhorn and South branches. I am choosing not to Claim Business with these.

Seems like it would be a good idea to do a Google Maps -- My Map version of the Omaha Public Library locations but I feel like I don't have time to devote to this right now. Something to put on the to-do list and talk to others about doing so it could be put on our webpage. I liked the Nebraska Regional Library Systems map that Allana did -- it is great example as it shows people easily where things are located.

As I cataloger I wonder if there are ways you could incorporate Google Maps into catalog records? Particularly government documents. Hmm. We have done more to catalog website but are there other ways we can incorporate web features into the catalog? Can we go beyond the -- hey, this is cool (which is still my gut reaction to Google Maps and the street view) and find ways to make this a useful tool in other ways? One difficulty is that most bibliographic records are pretty divorced from their geographic information so I need to think about how to use these in a complete different way. This bears more consideration and further development.