The Librarian's Lounge

More thoughts on the conference

My first day at IL2008 was my favorite in terms of speakers. My favorite presentations that day were the keynote speech by Howard Reingold, Mary Ellen Bates' on 20 tools in 40 minutes, and Steven Cohen's that showcased many of his favorite online tools. Reingold's spoke to me because he's approaching the topic of how web 2.0 technology is changing people's behavior as an anthropologist would. I was sucked into his presentation with his many examples of how people around the world have used things like text messaging to collaborate and create social change. Mary Ellen Bates' presentation was very practical in nature, as was Steven Cohen's - I still need to sit down and explore all that I learned from them. From Bates, I learned about Spokeo, Yahoo's Glue search engine, and Silobreaker. Cohen brought to my attention Watch That Page, ScreenGrab, Cooliris, and Invisible Auctions.

I am so glad that many of the presentation slides have been posted online. There were a lot I wished I could have seen live, like the Pecha Kucha program. 

I gained much from using Twitter both before and during this conference. Before I got there, I was able to find some of the people online who would be attending and do some networking. During the conference itself, I could see what they were doing and what was being discussed in other programs. I used it to meet up with people and as a way of introducing myself. It made the whole experience feel like I was surrounded by friends. In one instance, I was able to say hello in person to one of my tweeps' colleagues who wasn't even on twitter - although the 3 of us had never met physically, this small act was an instant bond. Other uses that came up unexpectedly were being able to ask my tweeps for information I couldn't hear right after it happened, and providing information to the conference's tech support team about the room's internet connectivity in the middle of a presentation without having to disturb anyone. I really didn't understand what the big deal was about Twitter before I started using it. I was convinced it would just be a big time sucker. By the time I left IL2008, I was wishing I had a cell phone plan that could keep me connected to my tweeps all the time. I met some great people with this social networking tool that I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

I also left wanting more gadgets, feeling that most of my own are somewhat outdated. I fell in love with the iPhone, although I fear I can't afford to buy one. I loved many of the things shown to us by Liz Lawley's closing keynote speech, particularly the Nabaztag bunny. I could definitely use a new less-obtrusive camera to snap pictures with during the conference. And I'd like to pick up a digital camera now too, and take a stab at producing some of my own videos.

I was extremely happy to have my ASUS eeepc while I was there. It's so lightweight - it was easy to take it with me everywhere to take notes and connect when the wifi was available and working. It attracted a lot of attention, too, and it was fun to show it to people.

This was my first time in Monterey and I totally loved it. I chose some of the recommended restaurants to try while I was there from the IL2008 wiki. N and I had the best pancake (wheatberry strawberry with whipped cream) and omelette ever at First Awakenings, near the aquarium. We also had a delicious dinner at Passionfish. 

The best part was being surrounded by people who have the same passion for technology as I do and getting to meet some of my virtual colleagues in person. It was exciting to hear about all the projects people are involved in and where they are headed. I even had a chance to meet Puglet Dancer from Second Life, which was great because I've taken an online class from her and learned a lot about SL with her guidance.

I hope very much to attend this conference in the years to come. Next time, though, I'm going to take a few extra days to explore Monterey- there's so much to see and enjoy there!

IL2008 Day One

My first day at Internet Librarian 2008 has been a great one. I'm afraid I may have to put off the bulk of my blogging  until I get home, due to internet connectivity problems here at the Monterey Marriott. Ironic, huh? If you followed the tweets using "#il2008" today, you likely saw a lot of people complaining about the lack of free wifi here in the hotel and the problems connecting at the conference center next door. I don't quite understand why they can't fix it at the CC, and it kills me to spend $10 a day at a very expensive hotel for an internet connection that is too slow to be usable. I finally called the front desk and asked them to reimburse me. Why is it that expensive hotels charge for internet when cheap hotels, cafes, libraries, and various other places give it away for free? There's something fundamentally wrong with that.

Anyway, it's been really interesting here so far. I've met a bunch of fellow tweeps whom I've become familiar with online, and sat through some very interesting presentations. I have a ton of resources I want to investigate further, and it's only the first day! I attended the opening reception for the exhibit hall, which was fun. I stopped by InMagic - they may be able to help my place of work with our intranet communication issues.

Here's hoping I can at least get this posted...

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.

Shushing cards and critical minds

It's funny that the brainchild behind these courtesy cards isn't a librarian. Librarians have this archetypal bad rap for being shush-ers. Yet the public generally thinks of the archetypal library as being a quiet place where one can study and read. Hmmm. We seem to be in one of those you-can't-please-everyone situations with this. When we tell people not to use their cell phones and to keep their voices down, we librarians are labeled unhip and unfriendly. But when we allow for noise, we get complaints from patrons about the cell phone use, the noise level, and the lack of quiet places for studying. This is not just an age-related phenomena and has nothing to do with not wanting to adopt new practices in my experience. It's just the way it is. What's a librarian to do?

I was speaking with one of my colleagues the other day about the importance of having a critical mind and how having one can often be misinterpreted as general negativity by others in the workplace. There's a huge difference between the two. A critical mind evaluates a given situation, looking at all angles, in an attempt to find workable solutions. Negativity, on the other hand, is purposeless - it is an end in itself. It's the difference between stating a fact such as, "Our current situation is keeping us from reaching our goals in this way" and "Our current situation sucks!" A critical mind  is a questioning mind, whereas a negative mind is a closed mind that has already reached its own damning conclusions. It is imperative to understand the difference between these two concepts if an organization wishes to have good relations between administrators and staff. Administrators need to appreciate the critical thinkers on their staff and view them as problem-solvers, not trouble-makers.  Dismissing them is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot - you lose the respect and buy-in of those who most want to see the organization succeed by writing them off as naysayers.

Here are some patterns to be aware of when evaluating your thoughts, as discussed in the above article:

• "It's true because I believe it."
• "It's true because we believe it."
• "It's true because I want to believe it."
• "It's true because I have always believed it."
• "It's true because it's in my vested interest to believe it."

The authors go on to present this list of questions we can ask ourselves:

• Is my thinking clear?
• Is my thinking accurate?
• Is my thinking as precise as it needs to be?
• Is my thinking relevant to the issue?
• Is my thinking dealing with the complexities of this issue or problem?
• Is my thinking too narrow or one-sided?
• Is my thinking logical?
• Is my thinking focused on what's most significant?

Critical thinking is a skill that librarians are often called upon to teach to our patrons. We're regarded as experts when it comes to evaluating information with our critical mind. Doesn't it just make sense that we should all be actively engaging with each other in our day-to-day operations with this skill set?

IL 2007

Oh, Internet Librarian 2007, I am sorry I missed you. Perhaps we will meet next year. In the meantime, I've heard some great things about the conference from several of my colleagues who came back bursting with enthusiasm and frustration - enthusiasm for all the great new technology out there and dreams of what our library could be doing with it; frustration from being unable to go forward with almost all of it due to IS constraints that are out of our library's control. One of those returning made what I thought was a very important point today during a meeting - 2.0 technology is already the norm. It's not new anymore. And our library in particular (although I'm sure there are many others with the same problem) is getting more behind the times every day because of some very unreasonable web filtering that keeps staff from becoming web 2.0 literate. Which, of course, keeps us from helping our community with it. What's the easiest way to make a librarian's life a living hell? Take away their freedom to access information.

Anyway, one of the neatest things I heard about from the conference is The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County's fine-payer for teens in Teen Second Life. Apparently, they have something like an ATM that the teens can use in-world to pay off their fines. What I love about this idea is that it's practical, it's located in a place where teens already are ("go where your users are"), and it has the potential to be used in some rather creative ways. Okay, they can pay off their fines in Lindens; now how about extending the service by making it possible for them to work off their fines in-world by reading, building, scripting, hosting events, etc.? It's great that this public library has taken initiative to reach their teen population in Teen Second Life. Here's hoping that more libraries will see the importance of creating a presence in virtual worlds in order to stay relevant to the part of the population who could become life-long library users.

Job Woes and the New York Times

In a follow-up to a recent post, I happened upon this website about the librarian shortage myth. The author is collecting stories written in other blogs about their difficulties finding librarian positions post-graduation despite being told repeatedly in library school about the urgent need for more librarians. The blog apparently hasn't been updated since July, however. Here's hoping that unemployed librarian has found a good position somewhere since then.

I found out yesterday that, whether it's a temporary situation or not, the New York Times currently has available free access to its archives, from 1851-1980. Wow, how cool is that?! Here's how one researcher used it to uncover interesting information.

    Update: Here's the lowdown article on the archives from its source.

Changes

Today was my first day at my new job - after 9 months of searching post-graduation with my MLS, I've finally secured a full-time position as an adult services librarian.

Library school did not realistically present to me as a student what the job search would be like - how competitive it would be and how scarce the jobs in my area are. I have over ten years of various library experience behind me, plus years of bookstore experience, and it still took me 3/4 of a year to find something. I count myself as lucky for working in a library while I went to school and that I graduated with much practical knowledge because of it. However, it didn't lead to an instant job.

A few things I've learned from the many interviews I've been on during the past few months: One- you never really know what's going to sway a hiring committee. You may think you know, but it's best to save yourself the insanity and stop guessing about it. Some people hire based on experience, others purely by their concept of "fit," some by ideas of fairness, some by personal bias, and some for no discernible reason at all. Don't try to figure it out in advance. Just come prepared for a variety of questions and do your best to answer them fully. Likewise, if you don't get the job offer, don't drive yourself crazy trying to figure out what you did "wrong." There are so many factors that go into hiring someone and it's truly outside of your ability to try and account for all of them. Most of them have little to do with you in the end and it's probably not personal. Another biggie: you never really know what your competition is bringing to the table. Therefore, it's best not to worry about it too much. Who you are competing with is out of your hands. Focus on your interview instead. Try to fit in all you possibly can about your qualifications, even if you think some of your experience isn't directly relevant or important. You can never be sure what key points they might be looking for that have gone unmentioned. Also - don't discount the fact that the decision on who to hire may have been already decided before the interviews take place. In-house politics can dictate the outcome in the hiring process of any business, including libraries. Finally, even if the first job you're offered isn't ideal, take it. It does seem that once you have the title of librarian, it becomes easier to find another position. I say this from experience, after having landed a part-time librarian position a few months after graduation. I probably wouldn't have been considered for my new job if I hadn't been willing to accept a lesser position earlier. Being a "known quantity" can go a long way.

And try not to get discouraged. Patience and persistence does pay off in time.

The Web's Ultimate Reference Desk

One of my favorite feeds to keep up with in my Google Reader is Ask Metafilter, a list in which people as the kinds of questions often asked of a librarian at a reference desk. But what is it about this particular resource that makes it so well used? Most libraries would kill to have the kind of usage this website gets. Why would someone use Ask Metafilter over their own local library?

Metafilter itself has been around longer than its Ask counterpart and has functioned as a sort of free-for-all source of interesting bits of news and things found on the web. It's like a sophisticated version of Fark - well, most of the time. Maybe it's because this site started out as a resource for all kinds of information that it naturally came to be a resource for asking for all kinds of information.  I know there are several librarians that answer questions on Ask Metafilter. The fact that there are information professionals that respond seriously to the questions, even if they are not the only ones answering questions, gives the site credibility, in my opinion, and may be why it's such a popular resource. It could also be argued that it's easier to access than a library, because you don't have to share identifying information in order to ask a question or receive an answer.

If you're involved in any sort of virtual reference, it'd be worth a few moments to check out Ask Metafilter and consider how libraries across the board could evoke such an enthusiastic response from a virtual patron population. Obviously, there are lots of questions being asked out there that we can be of service to answer - but how do we and can we bring those questioners to us?

Odds and Ends

Tankbooks' new design for public domain classics could give new life to old cigarette machines.

I'm afraid I haven't been around much lately to blog because an evil virus has lodged and spread throughout my laptop. Until I either find my startup discs or break down and buy a new laptop, my connection to the net is somewhat less than it used to be. This is probably a good thing, as I tend to spend way too much time engrossed in online matters. Being unable to use my laptop is encouraging me to read more books. Reading is a much simpler pleasure than being online, I find.

I am taking a class on virtual reference services in Second Life through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It just started last Friday. It meets once a week for 6 weeks. I managed to borrow a laptop that has a good graphics card in order to take it (my Toshiba, aside from being down and out, never did meet the technical requirements for SL). I'm really enjoying it so far. We meet on Info Island at the outdoor auditorium. My big feat for my first session was learning what timezone is Second Life (same as mine in Arizona) and how to sit on a bench at the auditorium facing in the correct direction. I'm happy and surprised to learn that Info Island gets about 5,000 avatars visiting per day. That's huge! I think there's great potential for providing library services in virtual worlds in the future. But in order to reach the general public in great numbers, these worlds need to be easier to access in terms of internet connection and speed, they need to have more intuitive interfaces, and mainstream computers need to be powerful enough to make them work well.

Here's a somewhat scary story about a guy being questioned by the FBI in regards to what he was seen reading in a coffee shop one weekend. Isn't this a bit much?

Tonight I am going to see Crowded House in concert. Crowded House's music has been such a huge part of my life that if you were to cut open my heart, it would bleed the lyrics of every song Neil Finn has ever written. To say I am excited to see them again doesn't do any justice to my real feelings about it. I only wish Paul was still around.

I have just found out about a training I am fortunate enough to be able to attend. It's on virtual reference in Second Life and is being taught by the Alliance Library System of Illinois, the creators of Info Island. I volunteered to work their virtual reference desk a while back, but haven't really felt comfortable enough with SL to dive in. I think this class will help me get up and running.