The Librarian's Lounge

Alumni blues

I received what looked like a bill the other day from my alma mater but turned out to be an uber-smart marketing ploy to lure me into believing I owed the UofA money to pay for my alumni membership. This reminded me- I had been meaning to sign up for the alumni membership so that I could get a discounted annual university library card and continue to use their electronic databases for all my informational needs. Lo and behold, the university library policy has changed and alumni cards no longer provide access to their subscription databases. Rats. Turns out my other alma mater has changed their policy in the same way. I can't think of any good reason to sign up for either now. I am so bummed.

A Vision of Students Today

Check out this video created by Michael Wesch's 2007 Cultural Anthropology class. It has some interesting info on how the young adults today learn and spend their time and has much to say on the state of education. These are things librarians might want to think about as well when trying to meet the needs of this segment of our community.

There is an excellent presentation given by Wesch at an Educause conference earlier this year about the "crisis of significance" that explains the above video in detail. Watching it really made me long for the good old days of being in my anthropology courses at ASU. I miss being surrounded by professors and students who engage in this kind of thinking, learning, and discussion.

This video, also by Wesch, is very relevant to libraries and how we have organized information. It takes us through the evolution of information on paper as a tangible object to the world of digitized information that we live in today. Quite thought-provoking!

virtual worlds

When it comes to the Sims, I'm an old hat "early adopter" who bought the first game the minute it hit the stores and proceeded to spend more time than I care to admit playing it. The Sims 2 also caught my fancy. I never got into The Sims Online, however, mostly because I couldn't see paying a monthly fee just to play the game. When Second Life came into being, however, I was quick to get an account. Here was the free virtual world I was waiting for. At the beginning, I couldn't get enough of it. Over time, my interest in it began to wane - I was tired of wandering the grid and never got caught up in creating my own content or getting a paid account.

I've been in SL this week again after a few months' absence after reading Peter Ludlow and Mark Wallace's The Second Life Herald: The virtual tabloid that witnessed the dawn of the metaverse. What a fascinating and strange book. Strange, in large part, because it's written in the third person limited view of the author's avatar, so that even when the author is writing about himself and what he felt, it's from an outsider's perspective. I wonder, if the reader wasn't familiar with what it's like to be in a virtual world, if the book would still be understandable. I think I enjoyed it so much because I knew exactly what the author was talking about from first-hand experience. And it covered what it was like to play the Sims Online which I was alway curious about. I would love to see him write more about the new EA-LAND and how EA has changed TSO to be more like SL.

Speaking of first-hand experience, I had this disturbing sense of deja-vu the other day when I read this story about a guy who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours and watched the accompanying video footage taken by the security camera during his plight. The video was sped up quite a bit. It came to me later why it was that watching the guy have a high-speed meltdown seemed so familiar: he looked exactly the way a Sims character looks when locked in a room with no doors on high speed for hours on end. Something about the similarity between what I've seen in a game and what I've now seen a real person go through - well, let's just say it was sobering to witness.

Lessons learned

Recently, I was involved in preparing a 2.0 technology training for staff. The model for the training was PLCMC's Learning 2.0 - 23 Things. These are my suggestions for anyone who wants to offer their library staff a similar training.

1. People want and expect feedback. For some reason, our tech group had not planned to actually read the blogs are staff were writing. Once it dawned on us that this was necessary, we realized that no one had the time to do it. Part of the planning for a training like this needs to be time to read and respond to what people write. And it needs to be ongoing so that questions and troubleshooting can be done along the way. If time is an issue, consider limiting the number of people who can do the training simultaneously to make it manageable. You can always offer another training later.

2. Syndic8 is more trouble than it's worth. When it comes to finding feeds, searching Google and using Technorati won hands down.

3. Modify the training to stay updated with new 2.0 trends. The original training is a few years old now and things change online very quickly. Aside from the obvious need to check links to make sure they work, it's important to highlight the sites and technologies that are relevant to your purpose.

4. State your purpose. When someone asks, "Why are we doing this?" make sure you have an answer. In our case, it  was to get staff familiar with social networking and the kinds of tools many of our patrons are already using or just now getting exposed to. It is a kind of cultural literacy.

5. Incentives are good. Our original plan was to give each person who finished an mp3 player as part of the learning process. Because we subscribe to Overdrive, the players would be used to learn how to download audiobooks. Having staff know how to do this would be a huge help in fielding questions from the public about how to use this technology.

6. Do the training yourself before launching it to staff. Just like in the point above, going through the steps yourself will enable you to answer whatever questions your staff has when they get started. It will also give them a blog to look at as an example of what to do if they get stuck.

7. Include a lesson on identity theft, privacy, and keeping yourself safe online. Some first-time bloggers have concerns about being exposed online. Some don't think about it at all and don't understand how visible they truly are. They may not realize, for example, that if they use someone else's full name in a post, that they are making information about that person searchable on the web. It's part of the learning curve of blogging to point out things like this to people so that they can protect themselves and others online.

8. Designate at least one person as an authority. Things happen, as in any learning process. Just as a teacher might ask a student to resubmit an assignment, so too there should be someone who can call the shots for quality control. If no one feels comfortable telling a peer what to do, give that responsibility to that person's supervisor.

9. Communicate expectations to learners. If your administration wants to set terms on how things are to be done, make sure you get that ironed out before the training starts.

10. Emphasize fun and be encouraging! Remember that you're in a teaching role when you create a project like this and that students/people make mistakes. It's no big deal. Do what you can to educate with positive reinforcement. Foster growth and trust with your colleagues.

11. Remind people to pace themselves. One "thing" a week is plenty. It is really hard to get it all done at the last minute - it's a lot of new stuff to try and learn at once.

12. Clarify for staff whether the learning should take place on work or personal time.

13. Leeway is good - to a point. Some learners are really thoughtful and enjoy writing about their experiences. Others aren't so much. You'll see a lot of stylistic differences in how people approach a training like this, particularly because this involves technology and people are all at different comfort levels with it. Consider the overall effort the person puts into the learning process. If it's seriously lacking compared to everyone else, say something.

14. Survey your learners at the end of the project. Find out what they struggled with and what can be done better should you decide to offer the training again.

This American Life - Live!

I'm going to this on May 1st and can't wait!

Take that, copyright restrictions!

Imagine what would happen if we all did this to a few documents held in proprietary databases. Talk about the freedom of information, or the freeing of information, as it were.

Her Name is Sabine

I showed this film in my library tonight as part of our monthly film night and found it very moving. Although I had some comments from patrons that they are hoping for a "happier" movie next time, I think most of us were somewhat speechless from the emotional power of this story about the bond between two sisters - one a famous actress and the other a woman with autism. It's devastating to see the changes that happen to Sabine after her five years of being institutionalized, as compared through film footage of what she was like before. This is the first film I've seen that's criticized medicine in France. But I think its message about the difficulty in finding good care for people who have autism and other disorders is pretty universal. I agreed very much with another of my patrons tonight who said in response to this film that it made her feel so grateful for what she has. This is truly a stunning film and is one of the best I've seen so far from Film Movement. Here's another review of it for you. And this clip with the producer of the film and a psychiatrist who comments on it brings to light the positive effects the filming process has had on Sabine's life afterwards.

What's new

I attended an online tutorial of NoveList Plus last week. I'm very excited about their new nonfiction coverage - 36,000 adult titles reviewed, and 24,000 aimed at curriculum support for kids. I'm mostly a nonfiction reader myself, and I'm looking forward to gleaning the system for books I've overlooked.

The Folger Shakespeare Library has received grant money to digitize their quartos archive.

I found an interesting-looking radio program at NPR called the Infinite Mind. Haven't had a chance to sit down and listen to it yet, though.

I was reminded the other day of my membership to Movielens, a really cool site for getting recommendations for films you might like based on your input. What I love about it is that it recommends lots of foreign films and films of all ages, leading to all kinds of new discoveries.

There's been some news that Popline had categorized the keyword "abortion" as a stop word, meaning that it would bring up no results when searched. But this article says it will be restored soon.

Did you participate in Earth Hour '08? I did. Sign up here to be notified of next year's event. There's some info here that gives statistics for participation this year in Australia, but I have yet to see any report of exactly how much energy was saved worldwide on March 29th. I suppose it's probably impossible to really figure it out.

Here's an article on an entirely different kind of library - clothing libraries.

According to this news item, the human brain did not evolve to read.

I was amazed to find out that 29% of all Vista crashes involved Nvidia drivers. This is most disappointing, considering that I went out of my way to get a laptop with an Nvidia graphics card in it.

You can now have your fill of Southpark online - legally. South Park Studios has put all the episodes online for easy viewing.

Being a bonafide candy freak, I was uber excited to find out that Good 'n Fruity was back on the market. I finally found some at my local dollar store. Unfortunately, they have changed the recipe. The candy no longer has that chewy licorice-like center in it and the flavors have changed. They're still pretty yummy, but not what I'd hoped for.

Here's another news story about a recorded sound from the past. Fascinating!

If ever you needed a reason to justify your coffee habit, here's a good one for you.

Automatic Book Machines

I think this is an excellent example of going where one's users are. Hmmm, perhaps an idea for the new Phoenix Light Rail?

What's new

There's an excellent article in the January 2008 issue of Library Journal by Michael Stephens and Michale Casey about transparency in libraries, particularly in relationship to blogging and listening to staff. This is a good one to read if you are in an administrative position and thinking about adding blogging to your workplace. I appreciated, in particular, this part of the article:

...organizations willing to accept some level of criticism in return for ideas, suggestions, and the opportunity to change may be able to turn around a difficult situation. Leaders with a thick skin may be able to discern the legitimate criticism beneath the vituperation.

Perhaps this spoke to me because I keep hearing in my head the discussion that came up in my own library about what to do if a staff member writes something "bad." Which, of course, goes right to the heart of censorship versus transparency.

This posting about embracing change is another one of late that spoke to me. There is certainly a lot of discussion about embracing change in a way that seems to forbid any analysis about the types of change that might be embraced. How is nondiscriminatory across-the-board acceptance of anything ever a good thing?

How's this for service?

This video cracks me up. This is serious lounging around:

Dell/Vista glitches and Kubler-Ross

Two nights ago, I received a message from my computer alerting me to the fact that some of the files associated with my user profile were corrupted. The result was that all my links on my desktop disappeared, as did my Quickstart toolbar. As this is a brand new Dell laptop and it sounded pretty serious, I decided to see what I could do to fix it.

First, I tried to do what Vista told me to, which was to run Chkdisk. It wouldn't let me do so. And although it offered to let me set up a schedule to run it, it wouldn't follow up on that promise either. So I used my Dell Support Center to scan my laptop. It found no problems. But upon restarting the machine, the problems still existed. I decided it was time to give Dell Support Chat a try, since I paid for a ton of customer support with my purchase.

I was connected to "Deepti," a technician to whom I wound up allowing remote access to my laptop. I sat back and watched as this person took control of my computer. Now, I don't confess to be a computer genius, but I know enough to be able to spot a person who doesn't have a clue when it comes to my technical issue. It was as if this person was reading a manual to try and fix my problem. She couldn't even locate the start button, which was prominently featured on the top left hand corner of my screen. My confidence that this problem was going to be easily fixed began to plummet. It was obvious that she didn't have any experience solving this type of problem. And after watching her fumble around on my laptop, I wondered exactly what skills she did have.

Then Deepti called me on the phone. She had a very thick Indian accent and was difficult to understand. I couldn't make out about half of what she said. She had me insert the OS disc that came with my Dell and restart my machine holding down the F12 key. I found myself looking at a screen that said "Install Vista." What?! Wait a minute, here. I said, "Are you telling me I need to reinstall Vista?" She affirmed this like it was no big deal. Disbelief and denial, the first of Kubler-Ross' stages of grief, set in. I asked further, "Are you saying I need to reformat my laptop because of this?" She put me on hold. In the silence, I thought, this can't be happening. I can't possibly need to reformat my entire computer over a few corrupted files. Deepti came back - yes, this is what I must do. Stage 2: Anger. I told her I didn't have anything backed up - was I really going to lose all my files, everything I'd installed since I started using my computer? She put me on hold. When she came back, she said I'd only lose a couple settings and that I'd only lose the documents that were listed in my start toolbar. Skeptical of this technician's understanding of the real issues at this point, I said, "So you're saying I won't lose the files off the computer, just the links to a few of them in the start menu?" She put me on hold. This time, she came back and said I'd lose everything, so I needed to save my data and reinstall Vista. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The mere thought of how long it was going to take me to backup and reinstall everything and make it work like it used to - let's just say I was less than pleased. I told her how frustrated I was with that solution and asked, "Isn't there anything else I can do?" The third stage, bargaining, set in when I asked her if I could continue to use my laptop in spite of the corrupted files. She said yes. And put me on hold again to see if there was another solution. Then she wanted remote access to my computer again, to "see the exact message" I was getting.

After sitting in dead space on the phone for another 15 minutes and watching her do nothing with the remote access, I decided that I'd call it a night. The process took 1.5 hours and nothing was solved. The woman never offered to transfer me to someone who understood the problem better. I felt like I was stuck with a rep who had only taken PC101 and had no way to reach anyone with any more knowledge. And I hadn't the foggiest idea how serious my problem really was. I approached grieving stage four, depression, and just gave up for the night.

I guess, today, I have reached the testing stage, in which I've been exploring the laptop from the distance of another administrative user account, to try and gauge the extent of the damage. It seems like I can get to most of my stuff from there, save for some things I had stored right on my desktop. I did some google searching on "Vista corrupt files" and see now that I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. And yes, a fresh install seems to be the way to go. I've teetered briefly into acceptance, but it's tending to take me straight back to denial - I just can't believe I have to reformat my entire computer over this problem. And that leads to stage 2 - I mean, wtf, Microsoft? Why are you releasing software this unstable?!

I should really switch to Linux. How's that for acceptance?

Name that tune

Got a tune stuck in your head but can't remember the song or the artist? Try humming a few bars of it at Midomi, a new search engine that'll try to identify it for you. I've tried it out with varying success - I'd say overall, it's right about 75% of the time. It only knew 1 out of 3 Neil Finn songs. It knew 1 out of 2 showtunes I tried. I had the most success with rock and pop music, less luck with folk and heavy metal songs. What's really cool is that it lets you listen to the snippets that other people recorded that sound similar to what you sang/hummed, and also links to the original song if you wish to buy the track. And, speaking from experience, it doesn't seem to care all that much what key you sing in or if your voice is one that leaves most people cringing. All you need is a microphone. Now go try it - it's fun!

Coupland on YouTube

Douglas Coupland has some book trailers on YouTube for his book, The Gum Thief. Here's one of my favorites in the series:

New from Morgan Spurlock

Here's the trailer for Spurlock's new documentary, "What Would Jesus Buy?"

Definitely looks like something interesting to see, just in time for the holidays.